Local Government in Ancient India c9.31

c9.31

Thus in *Vinaya*, I. 77 and IV. 128 we find parents discussing the best profession which their son might choose, such as writing,¹ accountantcy,² and money-changing³ without a reference being made to the father's trade. In *Cullavagga*, V. 28 the Bhikkhus are allowed ‘the use of a loom and of shuttles, strings, tickets, and all the apparatus belonging to a loom’. The Jātakas mention many instances of different degrees of intimacy between the Brāhmans, burghers, and princes, and even the lower classes, culminating even in intermarriages or sending sons to the same teacher for education (*Jāt.* I. 421. 422¹; III. 9–11.² 249–54.³ 340.⁴ 405.⁵ 406. 475⁶; IV. 38⁷; VI. 348.⁸ 421. 422⁹). The free love of the times expressed itself in the following strain: ‘Whomsoever the lover loves, be it a low Caṇḍālī, all are alike: in love there is no unlikeness’; and again, ‘The mother of the king of Sivi is named Jambāvatī (of the Caṇḍāla caste), and she was the beloved queen consort of Vāsudeva, one of the Kaṇhāyana clan' (*Jāt.* VI. 421). We also read of Brāhmans¹ as physicians (IV. 361), goat-herds (III. 401), merchants, hunters, snake-charmers (IV. 457), archers, and the servant of an archer who was formerly a weaver (III. 219; V. 127. 128; I. 356. 357), low-caste trappers (*nesādā*) (II. 200 : VI. 170); even cartwrights (IV. 207. 208). In *Jāt.* III. 49–51, a deer-trapper (*migaluddaka*) becomes the protégé and then the inseparable companion of a rich young Seṭṭhi. In *Jāt.* V. 290–3 a Kṣatriya, a king's son, named Kusa, in his infatuation for Pabhāvatī, apprentices himself incognito in succession to the court potter, basket-maker, florist, and cook to his father-in-law without a word being said as to his social degradation when these vagaries became known. In *Jāt.* IV. 84 a prince takes to trade, while in IV. 169 another resigning his kingdom goes to the frontier where he dwells 'with a rich merchant's family, working with his own hands'.