DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

5.1] MODE OF LIVING 111
only in the polygamy of a few and perhaps in a rudimentary levitate.
The caste tension between priest and king (expressed by the Tvastra
legend) also belongs to this period. Unfortunately, none of these fasts can
be elicited without tedious discussion of badly analysed sources. The
reader who is dissatisfied with my treatment has only to compare it to
any other standard discussion based upon documentation rather than
pure conjecture. The most that could be expected here is a sketch of the
possibilities for further work.
An excellent description of Aryans in the Rgvedic stage is to be found
in the Germania of Tacitus, apart from the Aryan language and perhaps
some common deities such as Nerthus (vedic Nirrti), whom the Germani
equated with Mother Earth. Human and animal sacrifices were common,
war the main tribal business. Lands were allotted to groups in rotation,
and within the groups by rank ; but ploughing them was a tribulation that
few of the men cared to undergo. Agriculture was so crude in any case
that plough-lands had to be changed every year. The chiefs received their
taxes in the form of voluntary but regular gifts. The companions of the
chief (an elective office), selected for valour, were prodigal in their demands,
which were always generously met by the tribal leader. Hospitality was an
obligation satisfied to the last scrap of food, after which both host and
guest went off to find someone else with surplus to share. Drinking and
dicing were astoundingly prevalent, yet without the systematic debauch
and licence fashionable in high |Roman society. By contrast, the
Yajurvedic stage seems nearer to that of Caesar’s Gauls who were
Aryans too, softened from a recent martial past. They had developed
settled agriculture, some trade and a strong class-structure within the
tribe. “ The common people are treated almost as slaves, never venture to
act on their own initiative, and are not consulted on any subject. Most of
them, crushed by debt or heavy taxation or the oppression of ‘more powerful
persons, bind themselves to serve men of rank...” This describes the
Yajurvedic vti settlers, except that the existence of the still lower Sudra
made the position of the vaiiya easier. The two privileged classes of
Druids and knights correspond exactly to brahmin and ksatriya.
The former had their groves for instruction in ritual, and refused to