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CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT
as reminds one more frequently of the phraseology in use among certain small groups of initiated than the poetic language of a large community.
The main industry of the people representing that cult was agriculture, as nearly all the hymns are generally prayers to gods, allusions to trade and commerce being very rare. However there are numerous passages which indicate the existence of current money for the purposes of buying and seiling. There are distinct references to voyage by sea and shipwrecks. So far as the food is concerned it appears from the Vedas tat these pious worshippers of nature-gods did use animal food. We have frequent allusions in the Vedas to the cooking of cows, buffaloes and bulls. There is mention of slaughter-houses wliere cows were killed, there are references to the sacrifices of horses, bulls and rams. The fermented juice of the Soma plant was the intoxicating drink of these people and they go into ecstacy over the virtues and the exhilarating powers of Soma.
There is no ground for supposing that the Veda has taught us everything on the ancient social and religious condition of even Aryan India, or everything there can be accounted for by reference to it. The fact is that in past as in present other religions have existed alongside of the Veda, and some claim to have existed even before the Vedas. So in order to understand the exact condition of India, you have to depend not only on the Vedas but on the religious literature of the Jainas and the Buddhists also. Social Status of Early Hindus
With regard to the social status of the people, they led a very simple life. There were no castes in the modern sense in those times. There were indeed Brahmins, Ksatriyas, Vaisyas and Sūdras, but there were no iron-bound rules prohibiting one caste from all intercourse with the other. Truly speaking, with Hinduism as based on the Vedas there was no time when there was no such distinction as Brahmins, Kșatriyas, Vaiśyas and Sūdras. The theory of these four castes who were brought forth
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