Under British rule, the indian legal profession was alone in offering to the talented an opportunity of gaining both wealth and prestige, and its lure to the young was equalled only by the Indian Civil Service. But the foundations upon which the profession's preeminence was based have now eroded. Rent suits, the principal source of its rural income, have all but disappeared. In 1935, of the 224,709 civil suits instituted in the courts of what is now the state of Bihar, 80% were rent suits, by 1962 the number of civil suits instituted in the courts had dropped to 43,978, and only 5% of these were rent suits. The departure of the British opened new, competing, career alternatives, and a widening net of education undercut the advantages of wealth, family and caste. New social conditions have not only required the advocate to rely upon different sources for his legal income—they have begun to transform the nature of the profession itself. There has been a steep decline in the relative prestige it once enjoyed.