Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c12.s9.1

c12.s9.1

The ascetics were known under the general name of Śramaṇa. Although the Buddhists alone appropriated this title to themselves in later times, the order of the Śramaṇas originated in the Brahmanical fold. It assumed a distinct shape in the Nanda-Maurya period. Already in the Upanishads there are references to the Brahmacārins and the Yatis besides the sacrificers and the hermits. For the first time in the law books there is mention of a full-fledged order called either Vaikhānasa or Vānaprastha (Gautama, III, 2 ; Āpastamba, III, 9, 21, 1 ; Vasiṣṭha, VII, 2). This is the third among the four orders (āśrama) in which a householder in his ripe old age is required to retire to the forest after leaving the family duties to his son. In this stage he lives like an anchorite, wears the bark of trees, eats fruits and passes his days in higher thoughts. The origin of the Śramaṇas goes back to this order of the Vaikhānasas.