History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c91.86.2

v7.c91.86.2

In these days every body talks of the high culture and literary traditions of ancient India. But who cultivated the vast Vedic and other Sanskrit literature, preserved it and propagated it for several millenia? The answer would have to be that it was mostly due to some of the brāhmaṇas who stuck to the ancient ideal for thousands of years. If the Ṛgveda can be put forward in these days as the most ancient of the literary monuments in any Aryan language, who preserved its more than ten thousand verses with unparallolled care by oral transmission without hardly any variant readings. The reply will again have to be that the brāhmaṇas did it by a self-denying ordinance. The Brāhmaṇas had to study the Veda with auxiliary lores without¹⁵⁰⁵ an eye to any ulterior motive, but simply as a duty and to understand the meaning thereof, they were to teach the Veda and other lores without demanding beforehand a fee, they had to bring up their own families, perform sacrifices and make gifts themselves. The only substantial sources of income were officiating at sacrifices and religious rites and receiving gifts. These sources must always have been variable, fitful and precarious The brāhmaṇas had no power to tax people as in the case of tithes in the West.