History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c91.91

v7.c91.91

As Buddhism grew in popularity and secured also royal support, the brāhmaṇas had to tackle several tasks. They had to keep the number of brāhmaṇas at a high level, they had to find maintenance for those devoted to the deep study of the Veda and they had to make accommodation with prevalent Buddhist thoughts by assimilating as many of them as possible in their own writings. Every brāhmaṇa could not possess the memory, the intelligence and the persistent endeavour for long years required for memorizing and mastering even his own Veda and its subsidiary literature. If one hundred brāhmaṇa families were patronized, hardly ten percent of them could have been masters of their own Veda, but there was always the possibility that those who were not themselves good Vedic scholars might have sons, some of whom might turn out to be profound students of the Veda. Therefore, the number of brāhmaṇas was to be increased and they had to be fed and not to be allowed to fritter away energy and time in working for their bread It is mainly due to these factors that some of the Purāṇas contain incessant and frantic appeals for gifts to brāhmaṇas.