The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c10.7

c10.7

We have already mentioned a significant instance to which further examples from the Jātakas can be joined. It is never heard that a Khattiya is addressed by his name or in the second person by any person belonging to the lower classes.¹ The mother of King Udaya whom the barber Gaṅgamāla calls by his family name (kulanamena, i.e., by the name of his father Brahmadatta) cries angrily. "This filthy son of a barber, of low origin (hīnajacca, III. 452), forgets himself so much that he calls my son, lord of earth, who is a Khattiya by caste, Brahmadatta." Even with regard to a Brāhmaṇa the Khattiya feels his superiority so much that king Arindama calls Sonaka, the son of a purohita, a man of low birth (hīnajacca V. 257). Himself he calls asambhinnakhattiyavamse jāta, born in a family with an uninterrupted succession of princes, i.e., in a family the members of which both on their father and their mother's side were recognised as khattiyas The khattiyas attached great importance to purity of blood and did not consider any person who through his mother or through his father belonged to another caste, of pure blood, even if they looked upon him as of the same status as themselves. Hence also the repeatedly occurring expression used of a king (I. 177; IV. 42; V. 123): *mahārāja mātā-pitusu khattiya*, “O great king, by father and mother, a khattiya.”