The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c14.175

c14.175

If agriculture, cattle-breeding and trade were looked upon by orthodox Brâhmaṇas as respectable professions and even as permissible occupations for a member of their own caste, other callings, the adoption of which by the Brâhmaṇas is likewise mentioned in the Jâtakas, belonged undoubtedly to the class of despised professions, which were practised as a rule by the lower classes of the population. It is true we don't find any more in our text Brâhmaṇas of whom Vidhûra says in the Dasabrâhmaṇa Jâtaka that they drive the caravans of tradesmen through dangerous places. On the other hand, the Brâhmaṇa hunter mentioned by him is represented in the Cûlanandiya Jâtaka by a young Brâhmaṇa who lives in a frontier village, hunts in the forest with his bow and earns his livelihood by selling the hunted beasts (II. 200). Still it is expressly added in this case that the Brâhmaṇa youth who has studied in Takkasilâ takes up this profession which is followed, as we shall see, by especially despised people, for example, the Nishâda, because he cannot earn a livelihood by any other means. In the Phananda Jâtaka, a Brâhmaṇa carpenter (brâhmaṇavaḍḍhaki, IV. 207) is mentioned who brings wood from the forest and earns his livelihood by making wagons and lives in a carpenter's village (vaḍḍhakîgâma) outside the city. The proximity of the forest from which they obtained the wood—a purely economical reason—may have been the cause of the carpenters living apart, outside the city; perhaps also this isolation had a social meaning and had its ground in the meanness of the profession which exposed it to the contempt of fellowmen and necessitated isolated residence in a village outside the city.¹ It is doubtful, however, whether this contempt spread even to the Brâhmaṇa carpenter in whom his high caste served as a counterpoise to the meanness of his profession.