The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c14.180

c14.180

He, however, who does not think the *argumentum ex silentio* sufficient as a proof of this proposition, should be reminded of the relation in which, according to the Pâli canon, the worldly Brâhmaṇas stand to the Buddhist monks. Of an opposition, no trace is to be found; the Brâhmaṇas stand in friendly relationship with the monks: they give them shelter, invite them and entertain them.² Even in the Jâtakas the intercourse between the Brâhmaṇas and Buddha—of such a thing mention is of course made only in the commentary—is throughout represented as friendly; the Brâhmaṇa agriculturist occurring in the introduction to the Kâma Jâtaka (IV. 167) exchanges friendly words with Buddha when he comes to his field; at the sowing season he even promises that when the corn will be ripe he will give handsome alms to his order. Such a relationship is only conceivable if we suppose that these Brâhmaṇas are distinguished from the Buddhistic laity by nothing except their Brâhmaṇa birth, that they further did not care much either for their Veda study or their sacrifice—these special duties of a “correct” Brâhmaṇa—the performance of which would certainly have erected a barrier between them and the Buddhist monks.