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Historical Evaluation of the Ancient Jaina Texts
borders of the present day Punjab and North-West Frontier regiona-started the process of an all-round colonization' of the country, they - at least, a good number of them - felt the need for having a hereditory warrior class and a hereditory working class - the working class being again subdivided into an upper grade and a lower grade It was the hereditory warrior class which was designated K salriya', the hereditory upper-grade working class which was designated 'Varsya' and the hereditory lower-grade working class which was designated 'Sūdra' Besides there stood the hereditory priest class des gnated Brahmin' Much of all this information concerning the social conditions then prevalent we glean from the texts called Brahmanas' which the Brahmins thought fit to compose 10 order to serve their priestly purposes However, Brahmanism was not merely - not even primarily- & social phenomenon For essentially and primarily it was a religious phenomenon Cert. ainly, in the subsequent course of listory perhaps nowhere and never were the provisions of Varna system followed in all strictness But the theological twists and turns which the Brabm108 took care to introduce now and then profoundly inquenced the religious scene of the country Thus the Vedic Aryans were accustomed to offer collective worship by means of simplo ceremonies to their numerous gods - mostly the personfications of natural powers But the Brahmana texts recommend the performance of highly complicated rituals at which the Brahmin officiates and which the client pays for Later on these rituals were treated in a rather summary but systematic fashion in the texts called "Srautasültas' but it was at the same time realised that the period of these rituals was well-nigh over And so were composed the texts called 'Ghyasitras' which recommend numerous but simple rituals
ostly needing the assistance of a Brahmin priest and to be performed by a householder on all sorts of occasions arising in his everyday life,
All this multifarlous striving in the fields social and reilgtous was in the air when Buddha appeared on the scene Buddha was born and he had his movements in the midst of Aryan colonizers Of course, the Aryan colonies always included some amount of abonglnal population and may be 10 Buddha's time and in his part of the country this amount was comparatively larger Again, the Aryan colonizers were more or less lax in following the precepts of Brahmanism and may be in Buddha's time and lo his part of the country they were particularly so lax. In any case, Buddha thought it possible to substitute for the Brahmapical social ideal one of his own conception and to lay the foundation of a community that subscribed to the latter Thus in the eyes of Buddha the ideal man wag not one who led the regular life of an Ideal Brahmin, Ksatriya, Varsya or Sudra but one who took leave of the regular society and led the austere life of an ideal monk It is difficult to fathom Buddha's motive in its entirety but he seems to have been overwh
