The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c14.5

c14.5

he may change his profession, he may follow the most humble callings, still he remains a Brâhmaṇa, a member of his caste. What lends exclusiveness to this Brâhmaṇa society, what unites the Brâhmaṇas closely with one another and separates them from members of other castes is, firstly, the consciousness of being the premier caste, the only one which enjoys the privilege of offering sacrifice, as the only medium of communicating with the gods, and secondly, the contempt arising from this, of all people who are low by birth, whose contact is strictly prohibited, and finally, the observance of certain universal customs relating especially to connubium and the eating of impure food, the violation of which leads ipse jure to excommunication from the caste. Of course, the exclusiveness of the Brâhmaṇa caste exists only in idea. The great mass of Brâhmaṇas, spread over the whole of Northern India in Buddha’s time, does not constitute a well-organised body with a chief and a council; such an external organisation, as we find in the modern castes, seems wholly wanting in that age.¹ Also the jurisdiction to which the members of the Brâhmaṇa caste were subject is not to be looked upon as a formal court in which cases of violation of the caste rules were decided; it rather seems to consist in the pressure of public opinion which was strong enough to enforce the observance of the rules. If, for example, as in the cases cited above (pp. 31 and 33 of the original, pp. 42 and 44 of the translation), a Brâhmaṇa had partaken of the table leavings of a Caṇḍāla, he ceased to be a Brâhmaṇa; in order to avoid the contempt of his former caste people, he gave up his residence or committed suicide (II. 84).