The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c15.29

c15.29

The wealth and respectability of the seṭṭhi families brought it about naturally that the sons of such a family received a careful education; it even appears from our source that they, partly at any rate, fulfilled the universal duty, according to the law-books, of the three higher castes, namely, that of studying the Vedas. The two sons of the seṭṭhi mentioned in the Nigrodha Jātaka were sent to Takkasilâ to a teacher by the Seṭṭhi of Râjagaha and he paid the teacher 2,000 as honorarium (IV. 38); the already-mentioned young seṭṭhi, occurring in the Aṭṭhâna Jātaka, is instructed along with the prince by the same teacher (III. 475). It is true in both these cases it is only said that the youths "learnt the science" (sippam uggaṇhimsu); still I think it probable that even in this passage by sippa, religious study is to be understood, because, as already said, among the disciples of Buddha the sons of rich and respectable families were in large measure represented—a fact which in my opinion is to be attributed principally to the participation of these circles in the spiritual activities of that age.