Buddhism And Equality Of Four Castes

Author(s): J W De Jong
Publisher: J W De Jong
Catalog link: https://jainqq.org/explore/269513/1

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J. W. DE JONG BUDDHISM AND THE EQUALITY OF THE FOUR CASTES In his History of the Dharmasastra P.V. Kane devotes a long chapter to the caste system'. He explains that the system of the four varnas had taken deep root in the period when the Brahmana works were composed. According to Kane, "by the time of the Brahmana Literature, brahmanas (men supposed to be devoted to learning and priesthood), ksatriyas (kings, noblemen and some warriors) and vaisyas (the artisans and common people) had become separated into groups more or less dependent on birth and ... the brahmana had come to be regarded as superior to the ksatriya by the fact of birth"2. As to the fourth varna; the sudras, Kane remarks that a clear line of demarcation was kept between the aryas (the first three varnas) and the sudras in the period of the Brahmana works. The four varnas are often mentioned in early Buddhist texts. In his introduction to the Ambattha suttanta (the third of the 34 suttantas of the Dighanikaya), T. W. Rhys Davids states that the four varnas were not castes because there was neither connubium nor commensality between all the members of one varna, nor was there a governing council for each. The fourth was distinguished from the others by race. The remaining three were distinguished from each other by social position. According to Rhys Davids, in the Buddha's time caste was in the making. The great mass of the people were distinguished quite roughly into four classes -- social strata -- the boundary lines of which were vague and uncertain. If one restricts the meaning caste to the word jati, then, of course, it is not possible to define the varnas as castes, but Rhys Davids is certainly wrong in stating that the varnas were nothing more than social classes. Already in the time of the Brahmana works the brahmans considered themselves superior by birth to the other varnas. Undoubtedly, the idea of an exclusive class of people entitled to special rights was already in existence long before the time of the Buddha. The later caste system developed in the course of * History of Dharmasasira, 'Varna', Vol. II, Part I, Poona 1941, 19-164. 2 Op. cit., 48. 3 Op. cit., 35. * Dialogues of the Buddha, Part I, London 1899, 99 and 101.

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424 J. W. DE JONG centuries, and gradually the word jati acquired the meaning of caste' as it is used nowadays. In many Dharmasastras the words varna and jati are still confounded. The canonical Pali texts use both the words kula and vanna to indicate the four varnas. According to Richard Fick, the word jati is used more often than vanna to indicate the four varnas?. However, his work is based mainly upon the jatakas, which date from a much later period than the canonical suttas. A detailed study of the use and meaning of the word jati in Pali texts is yet to be undertaken. The claims of the brahmans to superiority are put forward in a passage which is found repeatedly in the Pali canon and which Miss Horner translated as follows: "Only brahmans form the best caste, all other castes are low; only brahmans form the fair caste, all other castes are dark; only brahmans are pure, not non-brahmans; brahman's are own sons of Brahma, born of his mouth, born of Brahma, formed by Brahma, heirs to Brahma"8. In another often quoted passage, a brahman claims to be "well-born on both the mother's and father's side, ... of pure descent for seven generations, uncriticised and irreproachable with reference to birth"). In the Dhammapada and the Suttanipata, texts which comprise some of the oldest parts of the Pali canon, many verses deal with the claims of the brahmans. In the Vasetthasutta 10 the Buddha explains that the distinguishing mark (linga) of grasses, trees, beetles, moths, quadrupeds, etc. arises from their species (jati) and manifold indeed are their species, but that among men there is no distinguishing mark: "Not by hair, nor head, nor ears, nor eyes, nor mouth, etc., is there a distinguishing mark arising from their species, as in other species. This (difference) is not found individually among men in respect of their own bodies, but among men difference is spoken of as a matter of designation s Cf. Kane, op. cit., 55; N. Ju. Lubockaja, "Nekotorye osobennosti upotreblenija terminov varna i jati v Dxarmasastrax (Some peculiarities in the use of the terms varna and jati in the Dharmasastras)", in: Kasty v Indii Moskva 1965, 97-108. 6 Four kulas, Vinayapitaka, led. H. Oldenberg, vol. III, 184-185; vol. IV, 272. Four vannas, Vinayapitaka,/vol. II, 239, MN, ed. R. Chalmers, vol. II, 128-129. 7 Die soziale Gliederung im nordostlichen Indien zu Buddha's Zeit. Mit besonderer Berucksichtigung der Kastenfrage, vornehmlich auf Grund der Jataka dargestellt, Kiel 1897, 22, cf. Lubockaja, op. cit., 108 n. 34. 8 The Middle Length Sayings, vol. II, London 1957, 273. Miss Horner translated vanna by 'caste'. T. W. Rhys Davids renders it with 'social grade' (cf. Dialogues of the Buddha, Part III, 78). Most scholars use the word 'caste', cf. Ulrich Schneider, Zur Textgeschichte des Agganna-suttanta, IIJ 1, 1957, 255, n. 11. 9 Translation K. R. Norman, The Group of Discourses, London 1984, 103. 10 The following quotations are all taken from Norman's translation, 104-108.

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BUDDHISM AND THE EQUALITY OF THE FOUR CASTES 425 (samanna)". The Buddha explains that differences among men are due to their occupations: "Whoever among men makes his living by keeping cows, thus know, Vasettha, he is a farmer, not a brahman. Whoever among men lives by means of various crafts, thus know, Vasettha, he is a craftsman, not a brahman". In the following twenty-seven verses the Buddha explains that a man is a brahman on the strength of his qualities and spiritual achievements: "Him I call a brahman if he has nothing and is without grasping ... Whoever in this very world understands the end of his own misery, with burden laid aside, unfettered, him I call a brahman ... In whom no attachments are found, who is without doubt because of knowledge, him, arrived at the plunge into the undying, I call a brahman". Name and clan (gotta) are mere names (samanna): "For what has been designated name and clan in this world. is indeed a (mere) name ... Not by birth does one become a brahman; not by birth does one become a non-brahman. By action one becomes a brahman; by action one becomes a non-brahman. By action one becomes a farmer; by action one becomes a craftsman, etc. By austerity, by the holy life, by self-restraint, and self-taming, by this one becomes a brahman. This is the supreme state of being a brahman". T. W. Rhys Davids remarks that "it is sufficiently evident from the comparative frequency of the discussions on the matter of Brahman pretensions that this was a burning question at the time when the Dialogues [i.e. DN and MN] were composed"11. This is also proven by the fact that the canonical Jain texts contain verses very similar to the ones found in the Suttanipata. For instance, Lecture XXV of the Uttarajjhaya explains in a series of verses the nature of the true brahman: "He who is exempt from love, hatred, and fear, (and who shines forth) like burnished gold, purified in fire, him we call a brahman ... He who is not defiled by pleasures as a lotus growing in the water is not wetted by it, him we call a brahman" 12. P. V. Kane quotes similar passages even from the Mahabharata. He writes: "Though in the Mahabharata it is often said that a brahmana is so by birth alone and that he deserves respect from all, still we meet several times with passages wherein there is a revolt against the caste system dependent on birth alone and where it is severely condemned and great emphasis is laid on the moral worth of a man. In the Vanaparva (181,42-43) we are told: 'Truthfulness, restraint, tapas, generosity, non-injury to sentient 11 Dialogues of the Buddha, Part 1, 96. 12 Jaina Sutras, Part II. Translated by Hermann Jacobi, Oxford 1895, 138-139.

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426 J. W. DE JONG beings, constant adherence to dharma - these always lead men to the fruition (of their goal) and not caste nor family""13. Even a sudra can become a brahman: "Vanaparva (216,14-15) 'that sudra who is always. struggling for self-restraint, truthfulness and dharma is a brahmana in my opinion, for a brahmana is so by his character"" (ibid.). It is, however, without doubt in the canonical Pali texts that the theory of the four varpas is discussed most frequently. It is said repeatedly that the four varnas are only designations (samanna) and that, for instance, if a noble acts like a thief, he is reckoned simply as 'thief 14. The constant refrain is that the four varnas are exactly the same (ime cattaro vanna samasama honti) 15. Most of the Pali texts dealing with the four varnas have been quoted in several articles in which other references are to be found 16. A detailed study of the attitude towards the four varnas in the Upanisads and in early Buddhism has been made by Hajime Nakamura 17. It is interesting to see that in later times only a few Buddhist texts pay attention to the problem of caste. One of the most famous ones is the Vajrasuci, which B. H. Hodgson published in translation in 1829, and with text and translation in 1839 18. The text begins with a verse in which Asvaghosa is mentioned as the author of the work, but Burnouf had already questioned the authorship: "Acvaghocha est-il le celebre Religieux dont le nom est traduit en chinois par Ma ming (voix de cheval), et qui, suivant la liste de l'Encyclopedie japonaise, fut le douzieme patriarche buddhiste depuis la mort de Cakyamuni?19" In 1908 Sylvain Levi pointed out that the Chinese translation is ascribed to Dharmakirti, and suggested that perhaps Dharmakirti had composed a 13 Op. cit., 100-101. 14 The Middle Length Sayings, vol. II, 276. 15 Ibid. 16 B. C. Law, Concepts of Buddhism, Amsterdam 1937, 11-26; P. L. Barua, "The Doctrine of Caste in Early Buddhism", in: Journal of Asiatic Society of Pakistan 4, 1959, 134-156; Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, "Caste", Vol. III, Fasc. 4, Colombo 1977, 691-694. 17 Genshi bukkyo no seikatsu rinri, Tokyo 1972, Chapter VII: Ningen no hyodo [The equality of man], 408-447. 18 "Disputation respecting Caste by a Buddhist", in: Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society 3, 160-169; The Wujra Soochi, or Refutation of the Argument upon which the Brahmanical Institution of Caste is founded, by the learned Boodhist Ashwa Ghoshu, n.p. 1839. Also edited and translated by A. Weber and S. Mukhopadhyaya: A. Weber, "Die Vajrasuci des Acvaghosha", in: Abh., d. Konigl. Ak. d. Wiss. zu Berlin, 1859, 205-264; Sujitkumar Mukhopadhyaya, The Vajrasuci of Asvaghosa, Santiniketan 1950, Revised edition 1960. 19 Histoire du buddhisme indien I, Paris 1844, 215.

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BUDDHISM AND THE EQUALITY OF THE FOUR CASTES 427 new revised edition of the work originally written by Asvaghosa 20. This hypothesis is defended to this day by Japanese scholars11. Most scholars, however, believe that the Vajrasuci was not written by Asvaghosa. By 1918 Sylvain Levi was less inclined to attribute the Vajrasuci to him 22. In the introduction to his translation of the Buddhacarita, Johnston excluded the Vajrasuci from the corpus of Asvaghosa's works but saw no reason for doubting the correctness of the ascription of a work to Dharmakirti 23. However, just as in India Asvaghosa's name was so famous that many texts were attributed to him, in the same way in a much later period the name Dharmakirti became famous in China, and not only the Vajrasuci but also the Siksasamuccaya were attributed to him. Biswanath Bhattacharya is quite right in stating that "it is therefore nothing beyond a mere idle conjecture to say that the Vajra-suci was originally composed by Asvaghosa and its later redaction was made by Dharmakirti" 24. Much has been written on this opuscule in which the author proves by means of quotations from Hindu texts that the claims of the brahmans are spurious 25. He refers several times to the Manavadharma, but only two verses are identical with verses from the extant Manusmrti: X,92 and III, 1926, The Vajrasuci must have enjoyed a great degree of popularity in Buddhist circles because many of its verses have been quoted in the tenth story of the Kalpadrumavadanamala, i.e. verses 18, 19, 4, 5, 21-26, 29, 17, 14-16, 20, 10, 11, 30-5127. This does not seem to have been noticed by Sujitkumar Mukhopadhyaya 28. However, the fact that the Kalpadrumavadanamala is later than the Vajrasuci does not help us much in fixing a terminus ante quem for the Vajrasuci. The Kalpadrumavadanamala is certainly a late text and cannot have been composed in the third century A.D. as 20 "Acvaghosa, le Sutralamkara et ses sources", in: JA 1908, II, 70-71 note 1. 21 Cf. Hajime Nakamura, Indian Buddhism. A Survey with bibliographical notes, Ogura 1980, 291 note 10. 22 "Pour l'histoire du Ramayana", in: JA 1918, I, 11: "la Vajrasuci, attribuee plus ou moins legitimement a Asvaghosa". 23 The Buddhacarita, Part II, Calcutta 1936, XXII. 24 Asvaghosa: a critical study, Santiniketan 1976, 132, note 1. 25 For bibliographical information see Nakamura, Indian Buddhism, 291, notes 8-10; Naoshiro Tsuji, Sansukuritto bungakushi, Tokyo 1973, 12 and 192-193, notes 40-45; Minoru Hara, "Vajrasuci 3-4", in: Nakagawa Zenkyo sensei shotoku kinenronshu: Bukkyo to bunka, Kyoto 1983, 221-241. 26 P. V. Kane, History of Dharmasastra, Vol. I, Part 1, Poona 1968, 330. 27 Cf. J. S. Speyer, ed., Avadanacataka, St.-Petersbourg 1902-1909, Preface, XLIXLXVII. 28 I have not been able to examine the second revised edition of his edition of the Vajrasuci published in Santiniketan in 1960.

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428 J. W. DE JONG has been assumed by Yutaka Iwamoto 29. The Vajrasuci was translated into Chinese in 986-987 A.D. 30. Quotations from Vedic texts, the Mahabharata and the Harivamsa are the only indications for a terminus a quo. Also difficult to date is another text in which the claims of the brahmans are attacked, namely the Sardulakarnavadana, the thirty-third story of the Divyavadana, which was first studied by Burnouf 30. Cowell and Neil published a part of this avadana: the full text was published only in 1954, by Sujitkumar Mukhopadhyaya 32. It is interesting to see that one finds almost the same arguments used in this text as in the Vasetthasutta of the Suttanipata: cf. Suttanipata 608-610: na kesehi na sisena na kannehi na akkhihi na mukhena na nasaya na otthehi bhamuhi va 608 na givaya na amsehi na udarena na pitthiya na soniya na urasa na sambadhe na methune 609 na hatthehi na padehi na angulihi nakhehi va na jamghahi na uruhi na vannena sarena va lingam jatimayam n'eva, yatha annasu jatisu. 610 Divyavadana p. 626.18-23: na kesena na karnabhyam na sirsena na caksusa / na mukhena na nasaya na grivaya na bahuna || norasa 'py atha parkvabhyam na prsthenodarena va norubhyam atha janghabhyam panipadanakhena ca || na svarena na varnena na sarvamsair na maithunaih / nanavisesah sarvesu manusyesu na vidyate || The Chinese Tripitaka contains two translations (T, nos 1300, 1301) which correspond rather closely with the Sanskrit text. In his study on the Chinese translations of the Sardulakarnavadana, W. Zinkgraf tried to show that they cannot have been translated before the sixth century 33. However, a detailed study of the terminology of these two Chinese 29 Cf. IIJ 12, 1969-1970, 58-59. 30 Cf. Nakamura, op. cit., 291, n. 9. 31 Op. cit., 205-210. 32 The Divyavadana., ed. E. B. Cowell and R. A. Neil, Cambridge 1886, 611-659; The Sardulakarnavadana, edited by Sujitkumar Mukhopadhyaya, Santiniketan 1954. 33 W. Zinkgraf, Vom Divyavadana zur Avadana-Kalpalata, Heidelberg 1940. Important is F. Weller's review, OLZ 45, 1942, Sp. 67-79. According to Tomojiro Hayashiya, T. no. 1301 was translated by Chu Fa-hu who translated texts in the period 265-313, and T. no. 1300 was translated after the Sung and Ch'i dynasties (420-502) by an unknown translator, cf. Iyaku kyorui no kenkyu, Tokyo 1945, 524-541.

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BUDDHISM AND THE EQUALITY OF THE FOUR CASTES 429 translations will be necessary in order to determine their dates, and, in the absence of such a study, it is not possible to venture an opinion about the probable date of the Sanskrit original. Easier to date is another text in which the brahmanical institutions are condemned 34. Sanskrit fragments discovered in Central Asia show that the author of this version was Kumaralata and the title of the work Kalpanamanditikas. According to Kato, Kumaralata lived in the period immediately preceding that of Harivarman, Srilata, Vasubandhu and Samghabhadra 36. Probably one is not very wrong in stating that Kumaralata lived in the first half of the fourth century. The seventyseventh story deals with the refutation of the Hindu caste system, and in his translation Huber refers to the Vajrasuci and Manusmrti". The Buddhist texts which deal with the caste system can be divided into two groups. First the canonical Pali texts in which no reference is made to Hindu texts at all, and secondly the Vajrasuci, the Sardulakarnavadana and the Kalpanamanditika, the authors of which seem to have been well versed in the Hindu scriptures. In all these texts, however, the opposition to the caste system is absolute. It is therefore a great surprise to discover that in another Buddhist text, the Manusmrti, is quoted not with a polemical intention but with approval. In the first chapter of Bhavaviveka's commentary on Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarikas, the Prajnapradipa, one finds the following passage: "Er [i.c. Bhagavat] hat... den Nektar der Wahrheit uber alle Gegebenheiten gewonnen, der vom Netz der Vielfalt vollkommen frei, durch fremde Hilfe nicht zu erkennen und dem begrifflichen Denken nicht zuganglich ist, und hat auf die beschrankte und hochste Wahrheit (samvrti-, paramarthasatyam) gestutzt mit Worten wie Entstehen und Nichtentstehen denen, welche im vorzuglichsten Fahrzeug (des Mahayana) fahren, den herrlichen Edelstein des abhangigen Entstehens (pratityasamutpadah) mitgeteilt, welcher (des Horers) Geburt, Alter, Geschlecht, Ort und Zeit nicht unberucksichtigt lasst, und den alle fremden Lehrer (tirthikah), Junger 34 Translated by Edouard Huber: Acvaghosa, Sutralamkara, traduit en francais sur la version chinoise de Kumarajiva, Paris 1908. 35 Heinrich Luders, Bruchstucke der Kalpanamanditika des Kumaralata, Leipzig 1926. See further Yamada Ryujo, Bongo butten no shobunken, Kyoto 1959, 72 and IIJ 12, 19691970, 270. 36 J. Kato, "Notes sur les deux maitres bouddhiques Kumaralata et Srilata", in: Indianisme et Bouddhisme. Melanges offerts a Mgr Etienne Lamotte, Louvain-la-Neuve 1980, 213. 37 Cf. Huber, op. cit., 437-441.

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430 J. W. DE JONG (sravakah) und Einzelbuddhas (pratyekabuddhah) nicht besitzen"38. In a note Kajiyama refers to Avalokitavrata's commentary on Bhavaviveka's work and remarks: "Was die Kaste betrifft, so ist es z. B. einem Brahmanah oder Ksatriyah zu verkundigen, aber nicht einem Vaisyah oder Sudrah"39. In this connection Avalokitavrata quotes a verse from a work of the heretics: phyi-rol-pa rnams-kyi gzun-las / dmars-rigs la ni blo-gros dan // Ihag-ma bsreg-bya sbyin mi-bya // de-la chos-bstan mi bya-zin || de-la brtul-zugs Ostan mi-bya // This verse is a literal translation of Manusmrti IV.80: na sudraya matim dadyan nocchistam na haviskrtam/ na casyopadised dharmam na casya vratam adiset // . Buhler translated this verse as follows: "Let him not give to a Sudra advice, nor the remnants (of his meal), nor food offered to the gods; nor let him explain the sacred law (to such a man), nor impose (upon him), a penance" 40. It is difficult to find a verse more contrary to the spirit of Buddhism than the one quoted above. Kajiyama points out that according to the Chinese tradition, Bhavaviveka lived in the middle of the sixth century. With regard to Avalokitavrata, Kajiyama remarks that he is unable to say anything about his date apart from the fact that Avalokitavrata knew both Dharmakirti and Candrakirti. Avalokitavrata's Prajnapradipatika was translated by Jnanagarbha and Cog-ro Klu'i rgyal-mtshan who translated texts in the beginning of the ninth century41, and Avalokitavrata must therefore have lived between 625 and 800. In his review of Luders's Philologica Indica, Renou uses the term "brahmanisation bouddhique"42. However, that Buddhist brahmanisation would go to such lengths as to approve of the Hindu caste system is something one would not have expected. It would be too hazardous to build a theory on the strength of a single quotation, but one wonders whether we do not have here an indication of a tendency among Buddhist scholars, authors of learned philosophical sastras, to assimilate tenets found in brahmanical learning. 38 Y. Kajiyama, "Bhavaviveka's Prajnapradipah (1. Kapitel)", in: WZKS 7, 1963, 40-41. The word translated by Kajiyama as 'Geschlecht' is Tibetan rigs which here probably renders Sanskrit varna. 39 Op. cit., 41 n. 3. 40 G. Buhler, The Laws of Manu, Oxford 1886, 141. 41 Cf. "Notes a propos des colophons du Kanjur", in: ZAS 6, 1972, 524. 42 Cf. OLZ 45, 1942, Sp. 191.

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BUDDHISM AND THE EQUALITY OF THE FOUR CASTES 431 ABBREVIATIONS DN Dighanikaya IIJ Indo-Iranian Journal JA Journal asiatique MN Majjhimanikaya OLZ Orientalistische Literaturzeitung WZKS Wiener Zeitschrift fur die Kunde Sud- und Ostasiens ZAS Zentralasiatische Studien