The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c8.103

c8.103

Have we to see in this pronouncement which is put into the mouth of Buddha, an expression of a view which was current among the people of his time, or does the prevailing conception exhibit itself in the spontaneous, unreflecting action of the king who does not look upon the son of a *dâsî* as of equal rank with him but classes him as well as his mother, as soon as he is aware of her descent from a slave, with the slaves ? The question can hardly be answered definitely ; many things seem to me to point to the prevalence of the law stated by Buddha. We meet with a tendency similar to that noticed in Buddha's pronouncement in Brahmanical law-books ;