Indian Society for Buddhist Studies

Author(s): Prachya Vidyapeeth
Publisher: Prachya Vidyapeeth

Page 67

(52)
Vedic times religious authorities have inculcated a hierarchy of caste. Hindu society is not yet free from such high and low distinctions. Even now, in some places, a man of a lower caste is not allowed to ride a horse or elephant or to enter the precincts of high caste people or a temple. The high caste Hindus consider a well or tank to be polluted if even the shadow of a low caste person falls on it. This belief has religious sanction from the Vedas to the Purans. The caste system has been the greatest curse of India, against which reformers and teachers have strongly raised their voices. It is gratifying to note that the postIndependence Government of India passed a Bill to eliminate all shades of caste and untouchability. But how a system backed by scriptural authority can be nullified by legislative measures is a matter which we can only conjecture now and the posterity determines. Over twenty five centuries ago the Buddha had raised the first and most effective voice of protest against this demoralising practice. He said: “Not by birth is one an outcaste, not by birth is one a Brahmin.”
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The Influence of Buddhism on Chinese Society
in the Past and its Relevance Today
Poonam Surie, Delhi
To understand the present one has to understand the past. History is not a set of watertight compartments, separated by periods and eras. It is a continuous movement of ideas, thoughts and events, which flow into the present and subsequently the future. What was the role of Buddhism in Chinese society in the past?
Some of the most valuable records pertaining to Buddhism have been recovered from the Library cave in Dunhuang in Gansu province in China. In 'Buddhism in Chinese Society', Jacques Garnet writes, “The documents on paper recovered in