scholarly journals Evolution of Civil Society and Caste System in India

1958 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. N. Bose
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Golden Age ◽  
Caste System ◽  
Far North ◽  
Pali Canon ◽  
Pāli Canon

In some passages of the Ṛgveda, the Upaniṣads, the Mahābhārata and the Pali canon there are references to a casteless millennium of equality, plenty and piety which was supposed to have existed in some remote unrecorded antiquity. It was the golden age of kṛta or satyayuga when there was only one caste of deva (gods) or Brāhmaṇa, when people called no goods their own nor women their chattels, when crops were produced without toil and all were pious and happy. The legendary Uttarakurus of the far north were a model of this Arcadian society of godly men who lived in their natural virtue, rich in physical and moral wealth without any disabilities of sex and distinctions of property and, consequently, who received the blessings of God in the form of timely rain and juicy harvest (Mbh. VI. 6. 13; Dīghanikāya, xxxii. 7).

A Curious Case of Contingency: the Buddha and Buddhists on Caste

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 314-335
Author(s):  
Paul van der Velde
Keyword(s):  
Field Observation ◽  
South India ◽  
Caste System ◽  
Everyday Practice ◽  
Pali Canon ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
Pāli Canon

Abstract A meeting in South India (Bylakuppe) with a group of Buddhists, followers of the low-caste politician Ambedkar led to a closer investigation of the often found idea that the Buddha opposed the caste system. In this contribution we focus on the tension between the generally held ideas if it comes to the Buddha’s attitude of the caste system (rejection) and everyday practice of a modern group of followers. For this, apart from the exposure in Bylakuppe several episodes from the Pali canon were investigated. It was the unexpected course and the end of the meeting in Byalakuppe that brought the researcher to this reflection, surprised as he was by the course of events. This lead to a renewed reading of several of the ancient sources that are usually brought forward if it comes to the Buddha and caste distinctions. In his own words, a case of ‘creative contingency’ ensuing in a reflection that things were yet more complicated than they seemed to be at first sight. Methodologically speaking one could say this is a field observation that led to a further reflection and a closer investigation of ancient textual sources.

Why Did Brahm? Ask the Buddha to Teach?

2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dhivan Thomas Jones
Keyword(s):  
Close Reading ◽  
Pali Canon ◽  
Actual Experience ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
Pāli Canon

The episode of Brahm?’s request to the Buddha to teach has been regarded as problematic from early times, since it suggests that the Buddha was initially lacking in compassion. Comparison of versions of the story shows it to be possibly pre-A?okan in origin. A close reading of themes in the episode in relation to other incidents in the Buddha’s life described in the Pali canon show that it need not be taken as portraying an actual experience of the Buddha. The original purpose of the episode was not to describe the Buddha’s inner conflict but to show that Brahm?, representative of Brahmanical religion, was a follower of the Buddha. The episode was originally religious propaganda.

scholarly journals The problem of Millenarism

1975 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 31-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Af Edholm
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Golden Age ◽  
Caste System ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
Mass Movements ◽  
Hindu Tradition ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Near Future

The myth of the recurrence of the golden age after a period of accelerating miseries ("messianic woes") in the near future is of course not peculiar to the chiliasm of the European later middle ages. On the contrary, it belongs to the basic eschatological themes of millenarism in general. These themes are found also in Hindu tradition. To determine those general characteristics of traditional Hindu society which can contribute to an explanation of the relative unimportance of peasant rebellions and the lack of chiliastic mass movements, is not a problem to be solved within the field of the history of religions.  For example, the egalitarian message of the bhakti saints, disputing the hierarchy, did not preclude that the salvationist sects did adapt to the caste system. The religious movements contributed to and gave ideological form to adjustments within the existing social structure. Obviously there was little need for millenarism in this process.  

scholarly journals Az aszkézis módjai az Udumbarika-sutta három kínai fordításában

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2019/1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gábor Kósa
Keyword(s):  
Pali Canon ◽  
Pāli Canon

The Udumbarika-sutta is the 25th text of the Dīghanikāya in the Pāli Canon, and has three Chinese translations: 1. Youtanpoluo jing 優曇婆邏經 [T01n0026] (4th c.); 2. Santuona jing 散陀那經 [T01n0001p0047a17–49b25] (5th c.); 3. Nijutuo fanzhi jing 尼拘陀梵志經 [T01n0011p0223a09–p0223b28] (10th c.). In this paper I compare the three versions to show that they offer surprisingly different descriptions of ascetic practices; these differences may be traced back to the school affiliations of the translators.

Ethics, Meditation, and Wisdom

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin S. Whitaker ◽  
Douglass Smith
Keyword(s):  
Hand Washing ◽  
The Other ◽  
Pali Canon ◽  
Early Buddhism ◽  
Pāli Canon

The Pāli Canon presents a number of summaries of the Buddha’s teaching, one of the most concise being that of the Three Trainings (or Three Disciplines): ethics, meditation, and wisdom. The purpose of this chapter is to explicate the various formulations of these Three Trainings as well as to discuss their relationship to one another and other Pāli Buddhist teachings. Its focus is on the Pāli material of early Buddhism and Theravāda in particular. It discusses the Three Disciplines and their interrelations, along with analyses of what comes before the discipline, namely the ordinary worldling or person, and what comes after, namely the awakened person. The Three Trainings can be analytically divided, but the development of each reciprocates the development of the others. An illustration from the Pāli Canon, leaving out meditation, suggests that ethics and wisdom act ‘like one hand washing the other’.

REVIEW OF: YE. G. VYRSHCHIKOV “CITY — VILLAGE — FOREST: THE WORLD OF THE CREATORS OF THE PALI CANON AND THEIR CONTEMPORARIES”

2020 ◽  
pp. 313-317
Author(s):  
Elena V. Tyulina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Intermediate Area ◽  
Robin Hood ◽  
Pali Canon ◽  
The World ◽  
Oriental Studies ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
The City ◽  
City Village ◽  
Pāli Canon

Following is a review оf the monograph published in 2019 by Yevgeniy G. Vyrshchikov ‘City — Village — Forest: The World of the Creators of the Pali Canon and Their Contemporaries’, which was published in 2019 by the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow (editors: V. V. Vertogradova and V. P. Androsov). This work is a cultural study of the so called Pali Canon, or Tipitaka — the early Buddhist Canon of the Theravada school. It is mainly devoted to ideas about space and related views on the structure of the world and society. To understand the cultural context of the existence of early Buddhist ideas about the world, other sources are also involved — Buddhist, Brahmanic and Hindu texts: Ceylon’s mahavamsa, Arthashastra, Ramayana, Chitrasutra, other Sanskrit texts and Ashoka’s epigraphic inscriptions. In addition, ancient sources are used, such as Strabo’s “Geography”, as well as medieval English ballads about Robin Hood. According to the author, the world of the Pali Canon is divided into three main units of space: The most sacred and pure is the forest — the place where shramans and other ascetics live. Its opposite is the city, which embodies all that is worldly, contrary to asceticism and opposed to it. They are separated by an intermediate area — the countryside (janapada). The monograph explores all three components of this world, analyzes the necessary terminology and conceptual apparatus. The review provides an overview of the main provisions of the monograph and makes some critical comments on its text.

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