dvija varNa

[L.S.Cousins]

Lynken Ghose comments:

>In addition, where are getting the information that the immediate disciples
>and leaders of the early Buddhist communities were Brahmin?
>According to R. Gombrich's "Theravada Buddhism" (pp. 55-56), there were
>people of all castes in the community.
>
>Gombrich quotes a study done on a 5th cent. commentary to the Theragatha and
>Therigatha hymns, in which it is clear that the majority of the disciples
>were Brahmin, but certainly far from all. Are you concluding, from this
>study, that the most of the leaders were Brahmin? This connection is not
>made, as far as I know, in Gombrich.

The most numerous single var.na of those whose var.na identified is
the brahmin, but we are not told the origins of many disciples.
Obviously, those of whom nothing is said are more likely to be of a
lower class.

More to the point, this is all data from eight or nine hundred years
later. To analyse it as 'scientific' information is absurd. Probably
some of the information about well-known figures is correct, but as a
whole it is likely to be part of the natural evolution of traditions.
It cannot be used to reconstruct the social composition of early
Buddhism.

As regards Buddhas, of course, the claim that some were brahmins and
some khattiyas is derived from the Mahaapadaana-suttanta (D II 2f.).

Lance Cousins

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