Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s1.4.1

c48.s1.4.1

The secular pursuits affected by the Brāhman vary considerably according to whether the caste is settled in the locality in large numbers, whether the tract is prospering, or whether the Brāhman first came into it as a pioneer and colonist or as a propagandist or an exile from another centre. Political employment has been congenial to the Brāhman from the time when the Purohita, or family sacrificer, was treated by the Rājan as his confidential adviser in the Sūkta period, and the caste has continued to throw up from time to time men who have been distinguished for their administration of Native States. The great chance of the Brāhman came, of course, under the Pēśvā rule, when the whole of the military organisation built up by the Marāṭhās fell to the disposal of the Citpāvan Brāhman of the Konkan; and for seventy years or more, the Dekkan was dominated from Poona, and the whole of the administration was conducted by the local and the coast Brāhman. Even in the present day, the Marāṭhā Brāhman has almost a monopoly of clerical employment throughout the Dekkan, Konkan and Karnatic, and with the traditions of former supremacy to encourage him, he stands quite in the van of his order in intelligence and general ability. In some other parts of the country the Brāhman is the only class besides the trader who can read and write to any practical purpose, and he thus becomes, of course, the scribe, if not the official accountant, of the village community.