Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c11.20

c11.20

| No privileges conferred on Brāhmaṇas. | It denies sanctity to those who commonly passed as Brāhmaṇas. Referring obviously to Brahmanic practices, the northern Dhammapada, an anthology of verses taken chiefly from five Nikāyas, remarks that nakedness, long hair, dirt, fasting, sleeping on the ground or sitting motionless does not bring purity and does not resolve doubts. One does not become a Brāhmaṇa by his family, by his long looks, by his lineage. Real Brāhmaṇas are those who are endowed with virtue and purity and who know the law.² The Majjhima Nikāya admits the primacy of the Brāhmaṇas and Kṣatriyas in social etiquette,³ but later in the dialogue of the Madhura Sūtta, it expressly denies the utility of caste in securing happiness in this life or in the next. It denies caste privilege before the law and more than anything else insists that caste is wholly immaterial in ascetic life.⁴ In the Digha Nikāya, a Brāhmaṇa, Ambaṭṭha, repeats the current Brahmanical