Caste in India: The Facts and the System c7.s5.12

c7.s5.12

Whatever care the sacerdotal class may have taken to reserve for itself the privilege of ritual acts and sacred studies, this privilege suffered many exceptions, especially in the early period. The chiefs, admitted to receive religious teaching, must, in more than one case and in spite of opposing claims, have set themselves up in their turn as teachers. A number of Vedic songs are attributed to Kshatriyas, even to Vaiśyas.¹ If the hymns themselves so insistently exhort the chiefs to have near their person a professional priest (purohita), this is perhaps because they often dispensed with this duty. In several cases the sons of nobles fulfilled this function.² The sacerdotal literature bears witness to the great learning of certain kings, who outdo even the Brahmans themselves. The books which exhibit the Brahmanic theory in its complete development provide also for the case, certainly exceptional, where a Brahman may take as master a Kshatriya or a Vaiśya.³