The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c4.7

c4.7

Out of the rich historical material which the Jâtakas contain, I have put together in the present work first that which refers to the social organisation and specially to the caste-relationship; from this, the inquiry has no doubt at times drifted to other matters. A thorough-going account of the political and economical relations, as they ruled in Buddha's time in North-East India, I hope to be able to give at a later time on a broader basis by drawing upon the whole Pali canon, but I do not think of dealing with this problem before I have made myself clear on a question without a solution of which a complete understanding of the life of ancient India is unthinkable.