The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c17.154

v1.c17.154

Even more striking is the great development of industrial life and the sub-division of occupations. The list of victims at the symbolical human sacrifice of the later texts of the Yajurveda provides us with a large variety of such occupations; and, after making all allowances, it is impossible to doubt that the lists represent a good deal of fact. We hear of hunters, of several classes of fishermen, of attendants on cattle, of fire-rangers, of ploughers, of charioteers, of several classes of attendants, of makers of jewels, basket-makers, washermen, rope-makers, dyers, chariot-makers, barbers, weavers, slaughterers, workers in gold, cooks, sellers of dried fish, makers of bows, gatherers of wood, doorkeepers, smelters, footmen, messengers, carvers and seasoners of food, potters, smiths and so forth. Professional acrobats are recorded, and players on drums and flutes. Beside the boatman appears the oarsman, and the poleman; but there is still no hint of sea-borne commerce or of more than river navigation, though we need not suppose that the sea was unknown, at least by hearsay, to the end of the period. There is a trace of police officials in the Ugras who occur in one passage of the Bṛihadāraṇyaka Upanishad; and a Grāmyavādin or village judge appears to have held a court for petty cases in the village. Among the priests themselves, we find the sub-division of Chhandogas, the singers of Sāmans, while the Charakas were wandering students, a special branch of whom are said to have founded the schools of the Black Yajurveda. Moreover, in accordance with the tendency to sub-divide and formulate, the life of the priest is now more rigidly regulated: he must pass as a preliminary through the apprenticeship of being a Brahmachārin. In this stage he is taught by a master, for whom in return he does all the necessary work of the day and for whom he begs or otherwise provides food. Two important features of later village life in India appear in the forms of the astrologer and the barber. Of women's work we learn of the dyer, the embroiderer, the worker in thorns, and the basket-maker. The merchant is often mentioned, and the usurer has a special name: it is of interest that the term Çreshṭhin several times occurs, denoting at least a wealthy merchant, and possibly already the word has its later technical sense of the head of a merchant gild.