essential thing,
and participation in the common eating of the sacrifice constituted
the bond of union. In early times a sacrifice was the occasion for
every important gathering or festivity, as is shown both in Indian
history and legend. And the caste feasts above described seem to be
the continuation and modern form of the ancient sacrifice.

91. Development of the occupational caste from the tribe.

The Roman population, as already seen, consisted of a set of clans
or _gentes_. The clans were collected in tribal groups such as the
_curia_, but it does not appear that these latter were endogamous. The
rite which constituted a Roman citizen was participation in the
Suovetaurilia, the communal sacrifice of the domestic animals, the pig,
the ram, and the bull. Since all the Roman citizens at first lived
in a comparatively small area, they were all able to be present at
the sacrifice. The other states of Greece and Italy had an analogous
constitution, as stated by M. Fustel de Coulanges. It may be supposed
that the Aryans were similarly divided into clans and tribes. The
word _visha,_ the substantive root of Vaishya, originally meant
a clan. [233] But as pointed out by M. Senart, they did not form
city-states in India, but settled in villages over a large area of
country. Their method of government was by small states under kings,
and probably they had a kind of national constitution, of which the
king was the centre and embodiment. But these states gradually lost
their individuality, and were merged in large empires, where the king
could no longer be the centre of the state or of the common life
of his people, nor perform a sacrifice at which they could all be
present, as the Roman kings did. This religious idea of nationality,
based on participation in a common sacrifice, was the only one which
existed in early times. Thus apparently the Aryans retained their
tribal constitution instead of expanding it into a national one,
and the members of clans within a certain local area gathered for a
communal sacrifice. But there was a great class, that of the Sudras
or indigenous inhabitants, who could not join in the sacrifices at
all. And between the Sudras and the Vaishyas or main body of the
Aryans there gradually grew up another mixed class, which also could
not properly participate in them. The priests and rulers, Brahmans
and Kshatriyas, tended to form exclusive bodies, and in this manner a
classification by occupa