History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c96.s1.58.1

v7.c96.s1.58.1

A very high ideal was placed before brāhmaṇas (vide above pp 936-938) They were to study the Veda and its subsidiary lores as a duty (to be discharged), were to perform sacrifices and make gifts also and their proper means of livelihood were only three viz. teaching the Veda and Śāstras, officiating as priests in sacrifices and receiving religious and other gifts. How arduous learning the Veda was will be clear when it is remembered that a brāhmaṇa who was to be regarded as a very learned one had to memorize one Veda at least Supposing he was a student of the Ṛgveda he had to commit to memory the ten thousand and odd verses of the Ṛgveda, also its *pada-pāṭha*, its krama-pāṭha, the Brāhmaṇa text (generally the Aitareya), the six Vedāṅgas (auxiliary works) viz the Kalpasūtra (of Āśvalāyana generally), Vyākaraṇa (the Grammar of Pāṇini in about four thousand *sūtras*), the Nirukta (in at least 12 chapters), metrics, Śikṣā (Phonetics) and Jyotiṣa. The first three of these six Vedāṅgas are rather longish treatises and abstruse. These extensive texts were generally committed to memory without understanding the meaning and so entailed very great strain on the mind and memory. There were thousands of such brāhmaṇas in India up to the beginning of this century, and even now there are still hundreds of such men. They were to teach the Veda without demanding any fee (demanding a fee to teach Veda was and is regarded as sinful even to this day).