The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c10.s8.1

c10.s8.1

The doctrine adumbrated in the different *Nikāyas* of the *Sutta Piṭaka* must not be considered to be all psychological, metaphysical, theological, theocratic, eschatological or the like. A good deal of these dialogues of the *Dīgha Nikāya*¹⁵ division, for instance, deals with socio-economic and socio-political questions. Among other topics, *Khattavijjā* (the science of Kṣatriya), polity, treaties, wars, etc., are discussed in the *Brahmajāla-sutta*, which, as a work on the *sīlas* or moral precepts, thus approaches in the miscellaneous character of its contents almost a *Śukranīti* or a *Yuktikalpataru* of "Hindu" (Brāhmaṇic) literature, or, say, any of the *Dharmaśāstras*. Caste problems, the position of the Brāhmaṇa, as well as sacrifices both in their orthodox, Brāhmaṇic (Vedic) presentations as well as in the "rational" interpretations of Śākya the Buddha constitute, among other things, the subject matter of the *Ambaṭṭha*, the *Soṇadaṇḍa*, the *Kūṭadaṇḍa* and the *Tevijja Suttas*. In many of these rationalizings Śākya continues, be it remarked *en passant*, but the corresponding strands of old Vedic and contemporary Upaniṣadic thought (*e.g.*, the *Chhāndogya Upaniṣad*).