dvija varNa

[L.S.Cousins]

Raveen,

Responding to my remark:

>And subsequently
>in Ceylon and South-East Asia.

you comment:

>As far as Sri Lanka (Ceylon) is concerned there is not a Single "true"
>Brahmin Sinhala Buddhist except caste members such as the Salagama
>(formerly Cinnamon Peelers) claiming to be Namboothiri Brahmins from
>Kerala.

Quite true. It is in South-East Asia where they remain.

>Historically too, Brahmins as a noticeable community amongst Sinhala Sri
>Lankans (as opposed Tamil Sri Lankans who are mostly Hindus and still have
>a sizeable number of Brahmins amongst them) as a caste seem to have
>withered away at least 1,500 years ago.  Although there are few epigraphic
>and literary evidence of one or two Brahmin notables most probably recent
>arrivals from some parts of India serving the Kings as sooth Sayers and as
>advisors.

I doubt this. It seems much more likely that brahmins played some 
role in the capital cities and courts, at least down until the 
arrival of the Portuguese. Exactly as they do subsequently in 
South-East Asia. I agree that there is no evidence that their numbers 
were ever very large.

>The “evil Brahmana” is a topic of interest to the ‘conservative’ Buddhist
>clergy in their daily discourses to the lay people. Somehow the anti
>Tamilism of the clergy has also intertwined with the anti-Hinduism and anti-
>  Brahmanism. Hence a story about a “evil Brahmana” is in effect a story
>about the “bad Tamils” .

There is some truth in this. But are you not doing the very same 
thing when you refer to 'conservative, Buddhist clergy' and their 
daily discourses to the lay people ? Have they started to have daily 
discourses to the lay people. by the way ? What about the radical 
Buddhsit clergy ?

I would have thought that the problem is the human tendency to 
classify into 'them and us' and generate anger against the other. 
Just the sort of thing that the Buddha and many other Indian teachers 
opposed.
-- 
HEADINGTON, UK

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