The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c19.s9.218

v1.c19.s9.218

Again, among the middle classes, we find not a few instances revealing anything but caste-bound heredity and groove, to wit, parents discussing the best profession for their son:—writing, reckoning, or money-changing (*rūpa*?), no reference being made to the father's trade¹; a (low-class) deer-trapper becoming the *protégé* and then the 'inseparable friend' of a rich young Seṭṭhi, without a hint of social barriers²; a weaver looking on his handicraft as a mere make-shift, and changing it off-hand for that of an archer³; a pious farmer and his son, with equally little ado, turning to the low trade of rush weaving⁴; a young man of good family but penniless, starting on his career by selling a dead mouse for cat's meat at a 'farthing,' turning his capital and his hands to every variety of job, and finally buying up a ship's cargo, with his signet-ring pledged as security, and winning both a profit of 200 per cent. and the hand of the Seṭṭhi's daughter⁵.