History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c91.299.2

v7.c91.299.2

1-2, where the five parts of the Sāman employed in a sacrifice are symbolically identified with earth, fire, sky, sun and heaven. Then they proceed to belittle the Veda as mere name and as much inferior to *brahmavidyā* (e. g. Br. Up. IV. 4. 21, I. 4.10, Chān. Up. VII. 1-4, Mundaka I. 1. 4-5. It is generally held by all Sanskrit scholars that at least the oldest Upanisads like the Bṛhadāraṇyaka and the Chāndogya are earlier than Buddha, that they do not refer to Buddha or to his teachings or to the *piṭakas*. On the other hand, though in dozens of *Suttas* meetings of brāhmaṇas and Buddha or his disciples and missionaries are reported they almost always seem to be marked by courtesy on both sides. No meetings are recorded in the early Pali Texts or brahmanical Texts about Śakyans condemning the tenets of ancient brahmanism or about brāhmaṇas censuring the Bauddha heterodoxy. Besides, in all these meetings and talks, the central Upanisad conception of the immanence of *brahma* is never attacked by Buddha or by the early propagators of Buddhism. What Buddha says may be briefly rendered as follows. "Even so have I, O Bhikkhus, seen an ancient path, an ancient road followed by rightly enlightened persons of former times. And what, O Bhikkhus, is that ancient path, that ancient road, followed by the rightly enlightened ones of former times? Just this very Noble Eightfold Path, viz. right views ..&c.