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Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin No. 6
strictly take to their traditional means of livelihood. On the other hand, however, a Brāhmaṇa having good character and the prescribed quality is mentioned to have been positively recommended to be given his due respect. This leads to a conclusion that though the inefficiency and weaknesses of the Varna system made the Buddha disgusted with this institution, he himself does not seem to have been free from social conditioning. Thi is why Buddha in spite of his great contribution to the field of philosophical speculation, could not get rid of the social stigma and had therefore, forbidden entrance of the untouchables in the Buddhist Samgha. The Sākyaś low opinion about the slave may be seen in the literary sources. Thus, it can be said that Kapilavastu's social condition greatly influenced the mental make up of Gautama Buddha and unconsciously he tried to maintain that Kapilavastu witnessed slavery as an established institution at the time of the emergence of the Buddha. The slaves were really regarded as the degraded and low people with no independent status of their own. They were supposed to be completely at the mercy of their masters. A male or female slave might be given to any one at the sweet will of the master. It was really a matter of deep concern if any one was born in the womb of a female slave. The slaves were thus so tired of the system that they used to flee from their master's work. Professor R. S. Sharma says that they showed their resentment by fleeing from thir master's work.4 This act of a slave might have actually hurt the ego of the members of the landed aristocracy. Since Buddha was one of them, it was thus natural that he could not relish such anti-aristocratic acts. In these circumstances, therefore, Gautama Buddha did not allow a slave to enter the Samgha) unless he produced a no objection or no dues type certificate. It seems that he was very much conscious of the fact that the slaves in general
1. Jatala, IV, p. 263. See Mighanikaya I, pp. 88- 100; Majjhim
Nikaya, II, pp. 133-34; Anguitara Nikiya, III, p. 223, Suttani
pata, III, 7. 2. Krech, Crutchfield and Livson, Elements of Psychology (A Brief
Course), pp. 193-203. Vinaya pitaka, ix, 1, 4; Bhaddasalu Jäluka, IV, 1144 Cf. Kannakathalsutta Majjhim Nikaya, p. 12. See Richard Fick, The Social Organization in North-East India in Buddha's Time, Indological
Book House, 1972 (Reprint). 4. Sidras in Ancient India, Motilal Banarsidass, 1958, p. 143. 5. SBE, XIII, pp. 199, 230.
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