was not suited to the Aryan priest and warrior. Hence they were in the habit of making it over to the autochthonous peoples, and many Rājputs and Brāhmans at the present day will not handle the plough. Buddhists adopted the same rule on account of the danger likely to be caused to animal or vegetable life by ploughing: but they were forced to make an ingenious compromise, to wit, that a man should not till land for his own advantage, but that to do so for the benefit of the Buddhist Sanga, or community, was not opposed to the teaching of the master.[1] In the same way, the Jains are particularly careful not to destroy all animal and some vegetable life. They object to build a house, to till a field, to eat earth-grown vegetables, like potatoes, beet, or onions, but they will eat oranges or mangoes, which, being in the air, do not form a refuge for life (jiva): a pious member of the sect must never sell artificial manure, as it is sometimes made from the bones of dead animals, or take a contract for building houses or digging wells, because an insect may be destroyed in the course of the work: for the same reason the trade of a blacksmith is tabu among them.[2] Hence also arose the custom of having the first ploughing done by one of the menial tribes, like the Kurumbas of southern India, who risked the danger which his masters were afraid to face.[3] The King, being sacrosanct, was also required to do the sacred ploughing.[4]
- ↑ I-tsing, A Record of the Buddhist Religion as practised in India and the Malay Archipelago, trans. J. Takakusu, 61.
- ↑ Mrs. M. Stevenson, The Heart of Jainism, 115, 138, 141, 214, 223. “The Bhātias, traders in Cutch, will not deal in vegetables or root crops” (Bombay Gazetteer, v. 54).
- ↑ Thurston, op. cit. iv. 168; F. Metz, The Tribes inhabiting the Neilgherry Hills, 116; Folk-Lore, iv. 215.
- ↑ Sir J. Bowring, The Kingdom and People of Siam, i. 158; H. C. Warren, Buddhism in Translations, 54; The Jātaka, Cambridge trans, iv. 104; [Sir] J. G. Scott, J. P. Hardiman, Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States, part 1, vol. i. 52, vol. ii. 101; Sir J. G. Frazer, Pausanias, ii. 172, 4S9, 514; The Golden Bough, 3rd ed. The Dying God, 149 et seq.
