Buddhism and caste

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Brahmanism, a predecessor of modern-day Hinduism. Brahmanism supported a religiously and socially motivated caste system, which continues to play a significant role in the society of Hindu India today. Due to differing metaphysical and ethical doctrines, Buddhist attitudes towards caste have historically diverged from and rejected those of Hinduism in several ways.[1]
: 128 

Buddhism is integrated into the Newar caste system among the Newar people of Nepal, just north of India.

There has been much debate about the extent to which Buddhism has been ideologically opposed to the caste system in India. The teachings of the Buddha have been described as fundamentally anti-caste.[1]: 128  However, there is also evidence of complacency towards caste discrimination in early Buddhist literature,[1]: 129  and it is unclear whether members of "untouchable" castes were treated as having the same potential for enlightenment as others.[1]: 137 

The Buddha himself was a prince born into the Kshatriya warrior caste of the Shakya clan.[2]

Background

The Hindu catse system is structered around two key concepts through which members of society are categorized,

Brahmins (the priestly class).[3]

As with jati, varnas are linked to occupation, endogamy, and inherited status. However, varna is also related to Hindu religion and myth, and concepts of relative spiritual purity. The myth of Manu describes the four varnas originating from different parts of the body of the original man. Unlike the European system of the estates of the realm, varna was also defined by ritual purity. It was believed that ritual impurity could be transmitted to a member of a higher varna by direct or indirect contact with a member of a lower one.[3] According to some traditions, all varnas but shudra could claim dvija status, admitting the study of religious texts. It was also thought that the soul could move between varnas between rebirths, but that a person was stuck within their birth caste for life. Those who were not counted as members of any varna (avarṇa) were either so-called "tribal" or adivasi people, or untochables dalits given the most stigmatized work in the community. Though negative caste-based discrimination has been illegal in India since 1948,[4] it still has serious effects in parts of the country.[5]

Discussion of caste in Buddhist sources

Buddhist sources contain discussion of the origins and nature of the Indian caste system, as well as some arguments against caste discrimination in both religious and everyday contexts. Hindu and Buddhist scriptures are both preoccupied by the four-varna system, while the distinctions between jati have held more importance in recent history. Further, the caste system was scarcely as pervasive or consistent in the Indian subcontinent as it is idealised to be in scriptural sources, due to varied geography, cultural differences between regions, and changing conditions throughout history.[3] In as much as Buddhist sources have less ideological investment in the caste system than Brahmanical sources, they may provide historians with a less exaggerated account of the role of caste in the economy and society of ancient India.[6]: 356  Many Buddhist texts suggest that ancient Indian society was effectively operating on much vauger distinction between "high" (ukkaṭṭha) and "low" (hīna) occupations, as opposed to an idealised varna system.[6]: 357 

Social as opposed to intrinsic determination of caste

A key difference from the Brahmanical understanding of caste has been observed in early Buddhist literature relating to the Buddhist distinction between the real and the nominal. Two early Buddhist texts, the Kalpadrumāvadānamālā and the Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna refer to enforced social distinctions such as the four varnas as sañjñā(māntra), lit. '(mere) nominal designations'. In general, early Buddhist philosophical sources conclude that caste distinctions are mainly imperceptible, and only the result of social conventions, determining nothing about the inner essence of the people they refer to.[7]: 1–3 [1]: 129  The Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna illustrates the nominality of the four varnas using the following allegory:[7]: 4 [8]

Just as sand does not become food simply because a child says so when young children playing on a main road build sand pies and give them names, saying “This one is milk, this one is meat, and this one is curd,” so it is with the four classes [varṇās], as you, the Brahmin, describe them.

While Buddhist philosophy tends to deny the four varnas any inherent reality, the social processes behind their development are considered in some texts. For example, the Aggañña Sutta describes the first Kshatriya arising from a primordial, unstratified society due to the need for the community to enact punishment (daṇḍa) against the original crime of theft. It describes the origin of the other three varnas through similar myths focussed on human drama.[7]: 6–8 

In the Vasala Sutta of the

Sutta Nipāta, the Buddha is on his alms round and encounters a Brahmin, who calls him an outcaste (vasalaka) and demands that he does not enter his home. The Buddha responds by reprimanding the Brahmin's understanding of caste and redefining vasala and brāhmaṇa respectively in terms of bad and good Buddhist conduct. He concludes that "not by birth is one an outcast; not by birth is one a brahman. By deed one becomes an outcast, by deed one becomes an brahman."[9] The idea that Brahminhood is determined by actions rather than birth appears frequently in Buddhist literature. Though this position rejects the typical birth-based caste hierarchy in favour of a deed-based view of social status, it does not strictly deny the validity of caste distinctions. Its purpose may simply be to defend the central role of action (karma) in determining one's status, in line with Buddhist doctrine, rather than to advocate for a radical egalitarian restructuring of caste society.[1]
: 140 

Caste and Buddhist practice

Varna in the saṅgha

In the

Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa.[1]: 147  In practice, the majority of the early Sangha came from the upper Brahmin and Kshyatriya castes.[10]

The Buddha's own caste

Prince Siddhārtha leaving the palace on a horse during the Great Renunciation.

The Buddha was born as Prince Siddhārtha into the Khattiya warrior caste of the Sakaya clan.[2] However, the Sakaya clan existed on the northern periphery of India, and they did not uphold the four-varna system common elsewhere in India, instead dividing society into and aristocratic caste of khattiya, and a slave caste of suddas.

Buddhism and untouchability outside of India

Example of a talisman used in Sōtō Zen on the corpse and home of a deceased Buraku for "negating relations to parents, family, and other humans in all directions," as part of rites meant to sever karmic links to the community, who might otherwise be haunted for mistreating them.[11]

Far beyond the range of Hindu practice and the caste system of India, Buddhism eventually spread into east Asian regions including China, Korea, and Japan. Each of these regions has its own indigenous religions with which Buddhism iteracted. Some of these interactions relate to non-Indian forms of untouchability.[12]

Japan

In Japan, the predominant religion of

Tokugawa period, discrimination relating to Buraku status continues to be an issue in present-day Japan.[13][11]

Newar caste system

A Newar Buddhist priest of the Vajracharya caste
Main article: Newar caste system

Among the Newar people of Nepal, Newar Buddhists are a minority, representing 10.74% of the Newar population in 2011, compared to majority of Newar Hindus, representing 87.38%.[14] Despite this, the Newar caste system inteleves separate castes for Hindus and Buddhists, spanning all levels of the social hierarchy.

The existence and influence of

Brahmins and Buddhist Vajracharyas occupy the highest position in Newar society.[16] This is followed by the Hindu Kshatriya nobility (Chatharīya Srēṣṭha) and the Vaishya merchant and traders castes. The Newar varna logic as stratified from the Hindu Brahmanic perspective place Shakya-Baré, Urāy among the Buddhists, and Pāncthariya Srēṣṭha, and other groups above the Jyapus among the Hindus among the dwija twice-born status as the core Vaishya castes of Newars who are highly specialized in trade and commerce.[17]

References

  1. ^
    S2CID 225688259
    .
  2. ^
    hdl:10125/23030. Archived from the original on 2021-03-08. Retrieved 2023-10-01.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link
    )
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-0-85728-805-9
    . Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  4. ^ "'I would tell the other girls at school that I was Brahmin': The struggle to challenge India's caste system". ABC News. 27 June 2022.
  5. ^ "What is India's caste system?". BBC News. 25 February 2016.
  6. ^ a b Chakravarti, Uma (1984). "Towards a Historical Sociology of Stratification in Ancient India: Evidence From Buddhist Sources". Economic and Political Weekly.
  7. ^ a b c Eltschinger, Vincent (2012). Caste and Buddhist Philosophy.
  8. ^ "śārdūlakarṇāvadānam". Divyāvadānam (in Sanskrit).
  9. ^ "Vasala Sutta: Discourse on Outcasts". Sutta Nipāta.
  10. ^ Weber, Edmund (2001). "Buddhism: An Atheistic and Anti-Caste Religion?" (PDF). Journal of Religious Culture.
  11. ^
    doi:10.18874/jjrs.23.1-2.1996.1-27
    .
  12. ^
    JSTOR 2382914
    .
  13. ^ Alldritt, Leslie (2000). "The Burakumin: The Complicity of Japanese Buddhism in Oppression and an Opportunity for Liberation". Journal of Buddhist Ethics. Archived from the original on May 26, 2023.
  14. ISBN 978-9937-2-8972-6. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 2017-09-18. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
  15. ISBN 9780521804707
    .
  16. ^ People of Nepal - Dor Bahadur Bista
  17. ^ Levy, Robert I. (1990). Mesocosm: Hinduism and the Organization of a Traditional Newar City in Nepal. UC Press E-Books Collection, 1982-2004. Archived from the original on Jan 22, 2022.
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