The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c6.23

c6.23

In the first-half of the same Maṇḍala reference is made to Varuṇa’s Kṣatra rule or dominion.⁷ In the eighth Maṇḍala divine blessings are invoked successively on the men of prayers, the warriors and the people.¹ In several hymns one detects priests receiving Dakṣiṇā or priestly fee.² All through the Rigveda the distinction between Āryans and non-Āryans, Dāsas or Dasyus, is clear and fundamental. Thus, even in Books I—VII, and yet more clearly in Books I—VIII as a whole, the elements of caste are present. Caste has not yet acquired the rigidity which characterised it in later times. In the ninth Maṇḍala, for instance, a Ṛiṣi remarks that he is a composer of hymns, his father a physician, and his mother a grinder of corn; they are all engaged in different occupations.³ But whatever its laxity or fluidity, the institution of caste is there, probably in its initial stages.