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TULSI-PRAJNA
transformation. Whatever food was there, was for all to consume without distinction. The Satra law enjoined it. There was no question of a private householder cooking his own food' on his own Agni, for himself separately, since he and his own' did not exit. When property and households came, the Yajna law persisted to claim a share, but now only by the propertyless and houseless, who hounded the private householders. Thus arose the moral code that those who cooked only for themselves without a thought of other beings around in need of food were denounced as 'eaters of sin' (अघं स केवलं भुंक्ते य पचति आत्मकारणात् । --मनुस्मृति)
Thus the production relations of the community produced their own ideology and forms, but when the community and the natural constitutional forms, of its property broke down, the remnants of the old ideology and moral values, which still continued to struggle for existence, were seized and wielded by the new classes in their own way.
In the later part of the Rigvedic period, the purohit was installed as the skilled social worker remunerated by his fee, the 'dakshiana' when he performed his supervisory duties for his client 'the Hotā' or the 'Yaiman' who was the common house holder (grihastha) who previded the financing for the ceremony. It may be noted that as every body contributed his mite to the organization of the Yajna and everybody received, the benefits thereof, the real client is the whole community represented by an individual at a time. The Yajmän probably provided an occasion for collective labour now at one place after another and for one man after another so as to the encompass the whole community. People worked together in the field for agricultural operations on the basis of mutual help, and when they got together for this purpose, they stayed together as members of the host family for days and weeks. This hospitality was considered a right of the guests and a duty of the host. Many colour collective feasts are the degenerate forms of this system of collective labour for mutual help. In this context it may also be noted that people in need of land used to get from others plots of land for cultivation and continued to enjoy this privilege till the need persisted.
But in course of time, this system of social security in the small community became inconsistent with the growing needs of the people and deteriorated into excessive formalism around holy fires when conditions of life no longer responded to its content. The excessive ritualism of the Brahmanas produced a natural reaction. The Aranyakas (Forest-texts) which form the concluding portions of the Brahmanas and are meant for the daily study of the forest-hermits,
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