Buddhism: embracing vegetarianism

[Raveen Satkurunathan]

On Tue, 24 Oct 2000 23:05:28 +0100, Yashwant Malaiya
<malaiya at CS.COLOSTATE.EDU> wrote:

>nanda chandran wrote:
>
>>Maybe the lack of brahmins in Lanka?
>
>There have been some Simhal Buddhist brahmins. There still are some,
>although their number must be very small.

None what so ever, we have epigraphic evidence of people calling them
selves as Brahmins settling among others during the initial IA settlement
period, but ever since Buddhism prevailed Brahmins as a caste have ceased
to exist as a separate (effective) entity among the Sinhalaese. Those very
few who claim Brahmin and Sinhala ancestry today are recent immigrants from
India mostly from Tamil Nadu/Kerala who have converted to Buddhism.

There are Hindu Brahmins in Sri Lanka but they are ethinically Sri Lankan
Tamil and it is a sizeable group.

About the contribution of Sinhala (of all castes) authors to Theraveda
Buddhism, I am sure that it is not miniscule as Nanada alludes, I would
prefer that someone who knows more about it, should write about it, if it
warrants a reply.


Raveen