Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 3

Author(s): R P Poddar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 77

VAISHALİ RESEARCH BULLETİN NÒ, Samana' by equanimity, a ‘Brāhmaṇa' by continence, a ‘Muni' by knowledge and a "Tāpasa' by austerities.20
He further postulates that by karma alone one becomes a Brāhmana, a Ksatriya, a Vaisya or a Sūdra.21 Here the main contention is about the Brāhmana and the rest Viz. Ksatriya, Vaisya and Sūdra have been added just to universalize the proposition.22 It is not meant here that caste is to be determined by occupation and not by birth. Not only in the Uttarajjhayana but perhaps in the whole range of the Agama literature there is no example of inter-change of occupations or inter-marriages which would have evinced the urgency of breaking the barriers of castes and forming a casteless society. On the contrary a Gotrakarma has been conceived which is responsible for determining high or low origin in subsequent births. It is by virtue of one's conduct in the previous life that one is born as a Kşatriya or a Cāndāla or a Bukkasa.28
Since one's caste-status depended on one's own conduct in the previous life, and could be further improved by good conduct and austerities, one need not bemoan one's low origin. It should be accepted as a reality of life a reality for which the subject himself is responsible and no one else. Any envious tendency may swerve him from his highest goal viz. emancipation. Sambhūta as a Sopāka ascetic, had coveted the grandeur of a king. He became a king no doubt, but the track of spiritual well-being was lost in the wilderness of physical gratifications.
From the Gotrakarma theory it accrues that the caste hierarchy was headed by the Ksatriyas with the Cāņādālas and the Bukkasas at the bottom. True Brāhmaṇas were the abandoners and conversely all true abandoners were Brāhmanas whatever their origin—the most detached soul,
20. 7 fa fuego a tardor CFHUTTI
न मुणी रणवासेणं कुसचीरेण तावसो । समयाए समणो होइ बम्भचेरेण बम्भणो। नाणेण य मुणी होइ तवेणं होइ तावसो।।
****JAT. XXV, 31, 32. 21. FUTT GFHUT ET FUT Els afTit बइस्सो कम्मुणा होइ सुद्दो हवइ कम्मुणा ॥
3775. XXV, 33. 22. AEITTÀST HET afacriatell i
सर्वार्थ सिद्धि टीका. 23. Jurat af to get 61691471 ___ तओ कीइपयंगो य तओ कुन्थुपिवी लिया ।।
उत्तर. III, 4.