The Rashtrakutas and their Times c21.42

c21.42

The observation of S'ankarāchārya,²⁶ a contemporary writer, that the castes were no longer following their prescribed duties and functions is supported by historic evidence. It has been already shown how some of the Brahmanas of our period were enlisting in the army both as privates and captains.²⁷ From Alberuni²⁸ we learn that some of the Brahmanas in the 11th century were trying their fortunes in the trades of clothes and betel nuts, while others preferred to trade indirectly by employing a Vaishya to do the actual business for them. These last mentioned Brahmanas were following the advice of Gautama-Dharma-Sūtra which lays down that Brahmanas may live upon agriculture, trade etc., if they apppoint agents to carry on the business.²⁹ According to Manu, a doctor was never to be invited for a dinner in celebration of a havya or kavya ritual; but from Arabian travellers we learn that the physicians were honoured equally with learned men, and we find a Brahmana physician among the donees of an agrahāra village given by a Pallava king in the 8th century.³⁰ This would show that the medical profession was not treated with contempt by the society, as the Smriti writers would make us believe. Its disparagement by Manu and others is probably due to their theory that medicine was the profession of a mixed caste called Ambashṭha, a view which does not seem to have been founded on the actual state of affairs in the society. Puritanical notions of purity may also have been partly responsible for the ban placed on the doctor at the Śrāddha dinner.