Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 171

FOURTH CHAPTER-SOCIAL CONDITIONS,
FIRST SECTION
Varņa (Social Order)
It appears from the Bhs that during the time of Lord Mahāvīra the society was based on the traditional VarnāśramaDharma', the chief distinguishing feature of the community life in ancient India. But the social order does not seem to be very rigid, as it is evidenced by the racial synthesis of different tribes and races of the period of this canoncial work in the evolution of Indian civilization.
The term 'Cāuvvanna'! Skt. Caturvarna' (four colours or orders) as mentioned in the Bhs, other Jaina texts, Buddhist and Brāhmanical works denotes that the society was divided into four orders on the basis of distinction of social relationship grown out of various factors, such as, birth, family heterogeneous cultures, customs and manners, restrictions as to connubium (the right of inter-marriage) and commensality (the right of eating together), religious, political, economic and geographical factors and other circumstances.
Though the reference to the term "Cāuvvanna' in the BhS does not specifically mean the four social orders by their names, yet it is apparently clear from the context that it signifies the four orders (castes), viz. the Brāhmana, the Ksatriya, the Vaisya and the Súdra of ancient India.
1 Bhs, 15, 1. 557 ; Cf, Uttaradhyayana Sutra, 25, 31 ; Vivāga
Soya 5, p. 33; Ācārānga-Niryukti 19-27; Rg-Veda, PuruşaSukta, X.90 ; Manu 1, 31 ; Gitā, 4, 13; Mahābhārata Santi. parvan, 12, 60,2; See Buddhist India by Rhys Davids, p.
33 ; Dailogues of the Buddha 1, 148; Vinayapițaka 11, 4, 160. 2 Bhs, 15, 1, 557. (Once Lord Mahāvīra suffered from bilious
fever (pittajara) and passed the motion of red coloured blood excrement. The four varņas (Cauvanna) talked about it and predicted to one another in the town of Mendhiyagama (Nagar) thus, “Surely Sramana.............bilious fever, etc." (Pittajara).