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

[Guest guest]

>INDOLOGY

>Wed, 8 May 1996 08:30:05 -0400 (EDT)

>Madhav Deshpande <mmdesh@u...>

>Early Buddhist rejection of the Vedas

 

 

>The clearest evidence from the early Buddhist texts for the

>rejection of the Vedas, not just of the caste of the Brahmans

>or their sacrifices, is found in the TevijjaSutta of the

>Diighanikaaya among other sources.

 

The rejection of the varNa system and the hierarchy by Buddha

is explained by Ambedkar.

http://www.ahrchk.net/pub/mainfile.php/demo_and_hope/100/

 

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Ambedkar gives the following as a summary of Buddha's teachings on

caste:

 

"The Buddha opposed it root and branch. He was strongest opponent of

caste and the earliest and staunchest upholder of

equality. There is no argument in favour of caste and inequality which

he did not refute. There were many Brahmins who

challenged Buddha on this issue. But he silenced them completely. The

story is told in the Assalayana-Sutta that once the

Brahmins persuaded one of them, by name Assalayana, to go to the

Buddha and controvert his views against caste and

inequality. Assalayana went to the Buddha and placed before him the

case in favour of the superiority of the Brahmins. He

said, "Brahmins maintain, Gautama, that only Brahmins form the

superior class, all other classes being inferior; that only

Brahmins form the white class, all other classes being black fellows;

that purity resides in Brahmins alone and not in non

Brahmins; and that only Brahmins are Brahma's legitimate sons, born

from his mouth, offspring of his, creations of his, and his

heirs. What does Gautama say hereon?" The Buddha's answer simply

pulverised Assalayana. The Buddha said: "Assalayana,

are not the Brahmin wives of Brahmins known to have their periods, and

to conceive, and to lie and give birth?

Notwithstanding this do Brahmins really maintain all what you have

said though they are themselves born of women like

everybody else?" Assalayangave no answer. The Buddha went further and

asked Assalayana another question. "Suppose,

Assalayana, a young noble consorts with a Brahmin maiden, what would

be the issue? Will it be an animal or human being?"

Again Assalayana gave no answer. "As to the possibility of moral

development, is it only a Brahmin and not a man of the other

three classes, who in this country, can develop in his heart the love

that knows no hate or ill-will?No. All four classes can do

it," replied Assalayana. "Assalayana! Have you ever heard," asked the

Buddha, "that in the Yona and Kamboja countries and

in other adjacent countries, there are only two classes, namely,

masters and slaves, and that a master can become a slave

and vice versa?Yes, I have heard so," replied Assalayana. "If your

Chaturvarna is an ideal society, why is it not universal?"

On none of these points was Assalayana able to defend his theory of

caste and inequality. He was completely silenced. He

ended by becoming a disciple of the Buddha. A Brahmin by name Vasettha

had embraced the religion of the Blessed Lord. The

Brahmins used to abuse him for his conversion. One day he went to

Buddha and disclosed to him what the Brahmins said of

him. Then Vasettha said: "The Brahmins, Lord, say thus: 'Only a

Brahmin is of the best social grade; other grades are low.

Only a Brahmin is of a clear complexion; other complexions are

swarthy. Only Brahmins are of pure breed; not they that are

not of the Brahmins. Only Brahmins are genuine children of Brahma,

born of his mouth, offspring of Brahma, created by

Brahma, heirs of Brahma. As for you, you have renounced the best rank

and have gone over to that low class, to the shaven

recluses, to vulgar rich, to them of swarthy skins, to the foot-born

descendants. Such a course is not good, such a course is

not proper, even this, that you, having forsaken that upper class,

should associate with an inferior class, to wit, with

shaveling, fair folks, menials, swarthy of skin, the offspring of our

kinsmen's heels. In these terms, Lord, do the Brahmins

blame and revile me with characteristic abuse, copious, not at all

stinted.Surely, Vasettha," said the Buddha, "the Brahmins

have quite forgotten the ancient lore when they say so. On the

contrary, the wives of Brahmins, like all women of other

classes, are seen to be with child, bringing forth and nursing

children. And yet it is these very womb-born Brahmins who say

that Brahmins are genuine children of Brahma, born from his mouth; his

offspring; his creation; and his heirs! By this they

make a travesty of the nature of Brahma." Once the Brahmin Esukari

went to the Buddha to argue with him three questions.

The first question he raised related to the permanent division of

occupations. In defense of the system he began by saying: "I

have come to ask you a question. The Brahmins say they shall serve

nobody because they stand above all. Everyone else is

born to serve them. "Service, Gautama, is divided into four - service

of Brahmin, service of noble, service of a middle-class man,

or by a peasant; while a peasant may be served only by a peasant, -

for who else could?" What does the reverend Gautama

say hereon?" The Buddha answered him by asking a question: "Is the

whole world in accord with Brahmins in their fourfold

division of service?" asked the Lord. "For myself, I neither assert

that all service is to be rendered nor that all service is to be

refused. If the service makes a man bad and not good, it should not be

rendered; but if it makes him better and not bad, then

it should be rendered. This is the guiding consideration which should

decide the conduct alike of nobles, of Brahmins, of

middle-class men and of peasants; each individual should refuse

service which makes him bad and should accept only the

service which makes him a better man." The next question raised was by

Esukari. "Why should ancestry and lineage not have

a place in determining the status of a man?" To this question the

Buddha replied thus: "As against pride of ancestry, the

station into which a man happens to be born determines only his

designation be it noble or Brahmin or middle-class or

peasant. Even as a fire is called after the material out of which it

is kindled, and may thus be called either a wood-fire, or a

chip-fire, or a bracken-fire, or a cow dung fire, just in the same way

the noble, transcendent doctrine, I aver, is the source of

true wealth for every man, birth merely determining his designation in

one of the four classes. Lineage does not enter into a

man's being either good or bad: nor do good looks or wealth. For, you

will find a man of noble birth who is a murderer, a thief,

a fornicator, a liar, a slanderer, a man of bitter tongue, a tattler,

a covetous person, a man of rancour or of wrong views, and

therefore I assert that noble birth does not make a good man. Or again

you will find a man of noble birth who is innocent of all

these vices; and, therefore, I assert that it is not lineage which

makes a man bad." The third question which Esukari raised

was with regard to the ways of earning a living assigned to each

class. The Brahmin Esukari said to the Lord: "Brahmins give a

fourfold assignment of income, from alms, for Brahmins; from his bow

and arrows, for the noble; from ploughing and tending

cattle, for the middle-class man; and for the peasant, by the carriage

of crops on the pole slung over his shoulder. If anyone of

these deserts his vocation for something else, he does what he should

not do, not less than a guardian who appropriates

what is not his. What does the reverend Gautama say on this?Is the

whole world in accord with this Brahmin classification?"

asked the Lord. "No," replied Esukari. To Vasettha he said: "What is

important is high ideals and not noble birth. "No caste; no

inequality; no superiority; no inferiority; all are equal. This is

what he stood for. "Identify yourself with others. As they, so I. As

I, so they," so said the Buddha." [ 46]

 

[46] Buddha and His Dhamma

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