The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c9.s9.4

c9.s9.4

Śākya the Buddha may be taken to be a professor of one of the *Upaniṣads*, so to say, and thus to be one of the last of the Vedic *Ṛiṣis*. By harping on the doctrine of *sila* (right conduct) he served virtually to restore the Rigvedic concept of *rita* (right way) and inaugurate a Renaissance in Vedic culture. What the *Vrātyaṣṭoma* of the *Atharva Veda* did in the matter of raising the Vrātyas to a higher status that the Śākyan doctrine of *sila* did in regard to thousands of other kinds of Vrātyas, so to say, inhabiting as they did the Eastern regions. The “Aryanizing,” “Brahmanizing” and assimilative work of the older Vedic Ṛiṣis was thus continued by Śākya in a novel guise. From Madhuchchhandā, Brihaspati, Vaśiṣṭha and Viśvāmitra to Śākyasimha we have but one tradition, namely, that of the “*charaiveti*” (march on) of the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* (VII, 15), “conquering and to conquer.”³² In Śākya’s tactics we encounter but another item in the pluralistic make-up of the Vedic complex.