State and Government in Ancient India c10.s3.7

c10.s3.7

The Vedāntic doctrine that soul is identical with or similar to God should have led to the spread of the doctrine of social, economic and legal equality. Strangely enough this did not happen. The theory that every thing here is Brahman was effectively counterpoised by the gospel of the caste system, which permitted social and economic inequalities. Buddhism is sometimes assumed (though quite wrongly) to be opposed to the caste system; but in the Lichchhavi republic which was under marked Buddhist influence, there were sharp economic and political inequalities.