The Rashtrakutas and their Times c21.35

c21.35

The Brahmana community of our period followed a number of professions, besides those that were theoretically permitted to it. A section of course followed the scriptural duties; Al Idrisi describes Brahmanas as dressed in the skins of tigers and other animals and addressing crowds around them about God and His nature.²⁰ Our epigraphical records also make it clear that some of them were maintaining the sacred fires and performing the various Smārta sacrifices prescribed for them. According to Alberuni,²¹ these Brahmanas were called iṣṭins. Many others were discharging, as will be shown in chapter XVI, their scriptural duty of teaching and conducting schools and colleges, where they used to impart education without stipulating for any fees. Jurists, astrologers, mathematicians, poets and philosophers were, as Abu Zaid informs us, mostly members of this class.²² Administrative civil posts seem to have been largely filled from among the Brahmanas; the Chachanāmā informs us that Kassim appointed Brahmins to hereditary administrative posts following the practice of his predecessors; it is also shown already how many of the ministers and officers of the Rāṣṭrakūṭas were Brahmins by caste. From I-tsing²³ also we learn that towards the end of the 7th century A.D. the scholars of the Valabhi university used to proceed to the royal courts after their education was over in order to show their abilities and talents with a view to be appointed to practical government. These scholars, we are told by I-tsing, used to receive grants of land or government service. We may presume that the scholars trained at the famous centres of education in the Deccan like Kalas, Mangoli, Salotgi etc., may have received similar treatment from the Rāṣṭrakūṭa emperors and their feudatories. Government service was largely manned from among the Brahmanas even during the Mauryan period, as the testimony of Megasthenes shows.²⁴ Smriti writers no doubt say that Brahmanas should not take up service, but they had probably non-government service in view when they made this statement; for, they themselves lay down that Brahmanas alone should be appointed as a rule to the ministry and the judicial posts.²⁵