[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India)](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930) › v2.c19.9.5 # History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c19.9.5 History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c19.9.5 - **Language:** English ### [v2.c19.9.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c19.9.5) But the verse begins by saying that 'you sing a Sāma like the Udgātṛ priest' and so 'brahmaputra' must mean a ṛtvij whose duty it was to recite śastras (the Brāhmaṇācchaṁsin as Sāyaṇa explains). It is generally conceded that the Puruṣasūkta is a much later hymn than most of the hymns of the Ṛgveda. In the whole of the Ṛgveda the words vaiśya and śūdra do not occur except in the Puruṣasūkta, though both of them occur in the Atharvaveda (V. 17·9 for vaiśya and IV. 20. 4 and 8 for śūdra and ārya) and very frequently in the Tai. S. Besides we cannot forget that the final redaction of the Ṛgveda must be held to have been separated from the composition of the individual hymns by several hundred years (if not more) and that even if it be conceded that at the time when the Puruṣasūkta was composed, the four varṇas had been constituted and had become castes, yet the same cannot be affirmed for the time of the original composition of the other hymns. The word brāhmaṇa occurs several times in the Ṛgveda: ⁵⁸ 'Oh brāhmaṇas, Oh pitṛs fond of soma! May the sinless Dyāvāpṛthivī (Heaven and Earth) tend to our welfare'; 'Like brāhmaṇas in the Atirātra where soma is to be drunk, utterring (words) round a lake full of water you have, Oh frogs, gathered together on that day of the year on which the rains begin' (Ṛg. VII. 103. 7); ⁵⁹ 'The brāhmaṇas, who drink soma, reciting prayers of the yearly sacrifice, have sent forth their speech' (Ṛg. VII. 103. 8). - [Previous: v2.c19.9.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c19.9.4) - [Next: v2.c19.9.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c19.9.6) - [Up: v2.c19.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c19.9) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c19.9.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.kane-1930.v2.c19.9.5) · Pramāṇa