Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c11.s6.19

c11.s6.19

The Vaiśya plays singularly little part in Vedic literature, which has so much to say of Kshatriya and Brāhmaṇa. Accordingly, there is hardly any evidence to show how he was educated. And yet the definite and important part he played in the economic life of the community implies that he must have received the required training for it. Agriculture was his chief pursuit. The goad of the plougher was the mark of a Vaiśya in life [*Kāṭh. Saṁ.*, xxxvii, 1] and in death [*Kauśīika Sūtra*, lxxx]. Probably the trade of the country was in his hands, for the *Vaṇij* is known to the Rigveda [i, 112, 11; v, 45, 6] and later [*Av.*, iii, 15, 1; *Śat. Br.*, i, 6, 4, 21; *Pañch. Br.*, xvii, 1. 2 (vāṇijya)]. He also took part in wars under Kshatriya leaders, for in several passages of the Rigveda there is a reference to the people (*viś*) fighting [i, 69, 3; 126, 5; iv, 24, 4; vi, 26, 1; vii, 79, 2; viii, 18, 18; 96, 15; vii, 33, 6 (*Tṛitsūnām viśaḥ*, the subject-peoples of the Tṛitsu princes); cf. also *Av.*, ix, 7, 9, where the people are designated as *balam* which in later literature is the term for armed force]. But his chief ambition in life was to attain to the position of a *Grāmaṇī*, or village headman, which he regarded as the summit of his prosperity [*Taitt. Saṁ.*, ii, 5, 4, 4 (*gataśrī*); *Maitr. Saṁ.*, i, 6, 5]. There is no evidence to show that he played any part in the intellectual life of the times, as did the Kshatriya king.