Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

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

Page 191

STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SUTRA
[Ch. IV The location of different castes in three distinct quarters, viz. Brāhmaṇakundagrāma, Ksatriyakunḍagrāma and Vanijyagrama of the city of greater Vaisalz according to the caste basis furnished an additional incentive and gave an impetus to functional organizations of the society and self-government which were natural to all economic occupations, especially industry and commerce.
166
In conclusion it may be said that the society was something like a federation of castes and sub-castes, the members of which retained their individual identities.
So the social organization consisted of a large number of groups which had partially been blended together and brought into the same spiritual and cultural system in the evolution of caste, as is made obvious by the fact of absorption of foreign elements in the Indian population of that age culminating in racial synthesis.
SECOND SECTION. Asrama (Stage of Life)
Of the Varnaśramadharma organization of the society, 'Varna' has already been dealt with in the first section of this chapter. Here a discussion will be made on the Asrama' (Stage of life) as revealed in the text.
It is known that Varnasrama-Dharma' was based on the capacity of an individual and it was attached to build up the social life.
It appears from the BhS that the life of an individual member of the first three orders, namely, the Brahmana, the Ksatriya and the Vaisya (gähävais and Vaniya) was regulated by the Indian traditional four stages of the Vedic texts, viz. Brahmacarya, Garhasthya, Vanaprastha, and Sannyasa (Parivrājaka stage), according to the evolving capacity of human life. These four stages were the guiding principles, each of which provided