i82 FOOTFALLS OF INDIAN HISTORY
reads, is the curious position held by the Brahman. It is very evident that this is as yet by no means fixed. No duty with which an audience was already familiar would be so harped upon as is that of gifts to and respect for the Brahmans here. We notice too that the caste is not yet even fixed, for Draupadi is represented at her swayamvara as following the five brothers, when she and everyone else imagine them to be Brahmans. Nor is this a detail which requires explanation or apology, as does the marriage of one woman to five men. No, at the date of the last recension of the Mahabharata, a marriage between Brahman and Kshatriya is well within the understanding and sympathy of an audience. It is however fairly clear that the promulgation of the work is bound up with the success of the Brahmans in impressing themselves and it on the public mind. It was entrusted to them, perhaps by royal warrant—even as in the story of Damayanti another story is given to them to carry forth of her father's capital—to spread far and wide, depending on the alms of the faithful for payment. And we are constrained at this point to ask. What up to this moment had been the characteristic work of the Brahmans as a caste?
But there are notable exceptions to this constant commendation of the Brahmans to the consideration and charity of their hearers. On looking closer, we find that there are many passages of no inconsiderable size in which the Brahmans are never
