The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c15.3

c15.3

Much less sharply pronounced, there appears to us another line which, according to the theory of the Brâhmaṇas, divided in Indian society the Aryan Indians from the mass of dark-coloured aborigines.¹ We can suppose that at a very early age a mixture between the Aryan and non-Aryan elements of the population took place—a supposition which will only be improbable when we look upon the Aryan Indians, belonging neither to the Kshatriya nor to the Brâhmaṇa caste, as enclosed within fixed bounds and united to form a caste. The Indian caste-theory comprised them under the third caste, the caste of the Vaiśyas; as their occupations and duties, there are mentioned in Manu (I. 90), “cattle-breeding, distribution of alms, sacrifice, study, trade, lending money at interest and agriculture.”