History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c19.9.8

v2.c19.9.8

nor is there anything to show that there were restrictions as regards partaking of food from persons other than brāhmaṇas or as to marriage. That brāhmaṇas in the Ṛgveda were a class by themselves may be conceded, but whether they had become a caste by birth is a matter of opinion dependent on the connotation given to the word caste. Dr. Ghurye ('Caste and race in India' p. 42) thinks, probably following the Vedic Index (vol. I on Kṣatriya), that the reference in Ṛg. X. 71. 9 to a false claim for being regarded as a brāhmaṇa points to the conclusion that brāhmaṇas had become a caste. The verse literally translated means 'these (persons) who do not move below nor beyond, who are neither brāhmaṇas, nor engaged in pressing soma—they being ignorant and having resorted to speech in sinful (or coarse) language take to ploughshares and engage in (agricultural) operations’. It is difficult to see how there is here any false claim to be regarded as a brāhmaṇa. This verse means apparently that those who are not composers of prayers or drinkers of soma (because they are ignorant) are men of low speech and have to turn to agriculture. Even in the days of the dharma-sūtras restrictions as to food and marriage for brāhmaṇas were not at all as rigid as they became in medieval and modern times; but even when these restrictions were not rigid it was clearly laid down that a brāhmaṇa is so by birth alone. The word ‘brahma’ generally means in the Ṛgveda ‘prayer’ or ‘hymn’. *Vide*⁶² Ṛg IV.