DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

120 BRAHMIN-KSATRIYA TENSION [5.3
impossible, hence must indicate the head of a clan or large household
of some sort which might include a dozen or more families in the
modern sense. Thus TS. 22.1 : “ He should make an offering to Indra
and Agni on eleven potsherds who has a dispute about a field or
with his neighbours”, has to be interpreted; in the context not as
evidence for the private ownership of land, but for disputes beginning
to arise between neighbouring groups which could not be settled within
the framework of a single ibribe, by meeting in assembly, hence must
have been between {Efferent tribal units on adjacent territory. The ‘
he’ would mean chief of the unit, whatever its size may have been.
Thereafter, large households remained the norm among the upper
classes, down to feudal times and later. The word gotra, which denoted
“ clan” also came to mean “ family”, a parallel development.
Some of the TS makes strange reading after RV. For example TS.
7.4.7 refers to the slaying of Vasistha’s son by the sons of that very Sudas
of RV. 7.18 who won the ten-king battle with the help of Vasistha’s
prayers. AV. 5.18., 5.19 are ‘imprecations against the wretched ksatriya
who would eat the cow of the brahmin, interpersed with cajolery :
“ Do not, O prince, (eat the cow) of the brahmin; sapless, unfit to be
eaten is that cow” (AV. 5.18.3). In the same tone is the Parasurama
legend, of a Bhrguid champion who wiped the ksatriyas off the earth
no less than twenty-one times. The excessive and self-contradictory
annihilation is dearly psychological overcompensation for brahmin
helplessness in the face of ksatriya dominance. Paragurama is promoted
in the Bhrgu-ihflated Mbh. to the status of a Visnu incarnation. The
tension between priest and chief is an undercurrent in vedic literature
thereafter, though both combined against the other two castes. The
four-caste class structure continued. It is 4 remarkable feature that
there is nothing whatever in these rituals about fighting against non-
Aryan enemies such as the Panis, Dasyus, or the like. That is, new
non-Aryan groups of enemies did not immediately appear in this settlement
period. However, new popular rites and beliefs are showi in passing.
According to TS. 7.5.10, slave (dasi) girls were to dance about the Marjaliya
sacrificial fire with water-pots on their heads, singing. This cannot