Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c9.s1.9

c9.s1.9

This hymn gives a graphic picture of the realities of life in the Rigvedic Age which was not exclusively an Age of Saints and Seers. Even the Rishi-head of a family could not secure that all the members of his family should tend towards rishi-hood. The mother of a Rishi happens to be an illiterate lady who behaves like a good housewife, grinding corn, while his father goes about curing persons not of their spiritual but physical ills, and that for the sake of earning his family's livelihood. Each is after material gain (*vasūyavaḥ*), an 'economic man', even in the Rigvedic Age resounding so much with the utterance of Mantras. Society thus ridden by economic motives opened up various avenues of employment outside the religious sphere. We come across the woodwright, the metal-worker, the capitalist, wealth in cattle, draught horses, and youths given to gay life and not behaving like severe ascetics.