SECULAR AND REGULAR BRAHMIN 145 



Brahmin was called in." And no doubt he did 

 excellent service, being diligent, astute, and withal 

 pliant and diplomatic. If to these qualities he 

 added ambition, he might, and often did, become a 

 Cardinal Wolsey in the state. In Poona, for example, 

 the Brahmin Prime Minister gradually overshadowed 

 the Mahratta king, and the descendant of Shivajee 

 was put on a back shelf as Rajah of Sattara, while 

 the Peishwa ruled at the capital. 



Of course this carnal advancement was not gained 

 without some sacrifice of his spiritual character, 

 and the "secular" Brahmin had to bow, quoad 

 sacra, to the penniless Bhut, or " regular " Brahmin, 

 who, refusing to contaminate his sanctity by doing 

 any kind of work, ate of the temple, or lived by royal 

 bounty or private charity, and by the free breakfasts • 

 without which a marriage, "thread ceremony" or 

 funeral in a gentleman's house could not be respect- 

 ably celebrated. Idleness and sanctity are a 

 powerful combination, and it is written in the 

 shastras that every day in which a holy man does 

 no work for his bread, but lives by begging, is equal 

 in the eyes of the gods to a day spent in fasting ; 

 so, though the prospect of power and wealth might 

 tempt a few restless and wayward spirits, the great 

 mass of the Brahmin caste clung to the sacred calling. 



All this time the Purbhoo was in the land, but 

 insignificant. He had no sacred calling. Tradition 

 assigned him a hybrid origin. He could not presume 

 to be a warrior, because bis mother was a shoodra, 



