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EARLY HISTORY. rivals a tendency to dissent and even to opposition. Thus the Buddhists and the Jains were not only led to discard the performance of religious ceremonies which was also done by the Brahminic mendicants, but to go further and even discontinue the reading of the Vedas. It was this larter practice which really forced them outside the pale of Brahminism. The still very prevalent notion that Buddhism and Jainism were reformatory movements and that more especially they represented a revolt against the tyranny of caste is quite erroneous. They were only a protest against the caste exclusiveness of the Brahminic ascetics. But, caste: as such, and as existing outside their orders was fully acknowledged by them. Even inside their orders, admission, though professedly open to all, was practically limited to the higher castes. It is also significant for the attitude of these orders to the Brahminic institutions of the country, that though in spiritual matters their so-called lay adherents were bound to their guidance, yet with regard to ceremonies such as those of birth, marriage and death they had to look for service to their old Brahminic -priests. The Buddhist or Jain monk functionated as the spiritual director to their respective lay communities but the Brahmins were their priests.”
This theory has also received considerable criticised by support at the hands of Prof. · Maxmuller.'
Prof. Bühler'in the Bödhāyana Sūtra and Prof.
Views di M. Barth
Jacobi.
· Hiblert Lectures, p. 351.
