What anomosity? (On Mr. Malaiya's comments)

[Guest guest]

Ravindra Viswanath wrote:

 

> Agreed, but Buddha in place of Hindu gods? Buddha as an avatar?

>That sounds far-fetched given the animosity between the buddhist

>monks and their brahmana counterparts.

 

It is very widely believed that there was animosity between Buddhist

monks and brahmins.

 

It would be interesting to investigate the origin of this view.

 

A look at original sources suggests almost the contrary. There were

so manybrahmins who were present in the leadership role in the

Buddhist sangha, that we have to say that their contribution was

quite substantial.

 

- Quite a large number of Buddha's direct disciples were brahmin,

including the agra-shravakas Sariputta and Mogglayana. It has been

estimated that a very large fraction of specific Buddhists

in Buddha's were brahmin.

- The Buddha commonly referred to his disciples using their gotras

which are the name of ancient brahmanical rishis.

- That Buddha had a high regard for brahmins is apparent from

Brahman-vaggo of dhamma-pada.

- Majority of the past Buddhas were Brahmin, the future Buddha

Maitreya too, will be a brahmin.

- The terms shramana-brahman occur as a common pair of words in

Buddhist texts and in Ashokas inscriptions.

- Jatakamala of Arya Shura presents brahmins as highly regarded

persons. In Shibi Jataka, Vishvantara Jataka etc, the bodhisattva

is shown to be exceedingly generous towards brahmins.

- The last patron of the Nalanda university was a wealth brahmin

of Nalanda.

- The present Mahabodhi temple was probably built by two

brahmin brothers.

- Most of the famous Buddhist authors are regarded to be Brahmin:

Ashvaghosh, Nagarjuna, Vasubandhu, Asanga etc.

- Buddhist kings often has brahmin advisors. King of Thailand is still

anointed by brahmins.

 

It is my guess that a large fraction of all students in Buddhist

institutions were brahmin. Also it is my guess that buddhist libraries

must have contained many brahmanical texts, if they were like the

Jain libraries of Jaisalmer and Patan, which still exist.

 

> In some tales, atleast, the sculptors are said to

> have been hesitant to carve the Buddha where they were used to

> carving Vishnu, Shiva or Ganesha.

 

It will be interesting to know the tale and its source.

 

Yashwant