History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c96.s1.58.3

v7.c96.s1.58.3

Brāhmaṇas could follow other occupations in distress, but even then there were great restrictions imposed on them by śāstras even when they took to other means of livelihood (vide H. of Dh. Vol II pp 118-132).²⁶²⁰ The ideal set before brāhmaṇas was one of poverty, of plain living and high thinking, of forsaking a very active pursuit of wealth, of insisting on the necessity and high value to themselves and the Aryan society of studying, preserving, propagating and augmenting the ancient literature and culture. Kings, rich persons and even ordinary men made gifts of lands and houses to learned brāhmaṇas (which were deemed the most meritorious gifts).²⁶²¹ The present author saw in his boyhood very learned Vaidika brāhmaṇas themselves ploughing their own lands, while repeating inaudibly the Veda (i e revising it, as otherwise it might slip from their memory) and knew a middle class Vaidika brāhmaṇa family that for seven generations had taught Veda to a number of pupils and provided them with free board and lodging; (out of these seven the present author personally knew three generations, the last of whom stopped a few years ago the Vaidika school owing to present high prices of food, decrease in gifts due to the increasing poverty of the people round about and their unconcern for Vedic studies). Even in the times of the early Upaniṣads, the brāhmaṇa's first duty was to learn and teach the Veda and to take all knowledge for his province.