Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c10.22

c10.22

Of the Buddhist sources the four collections of the *suttas* (dialogues), i.e., the *Digha*, the *Majjhima*, the *Samyutta* and the *Aṅguttara*⁷ together with the *Vinaya Piṭaka*,⁸ may be roughly ascribed to the pre-Mauryan period, though much of the *Vinaya* is considered to be Mauryan. It is more difficult to fix the date of the Jātakas,⁹ in which the *gāthās* (verses), being the canonical texts, constitute the oldest stratum. The stories of the past, which are in the form of commentary in prose, are put in the pre-Mauryan period; nevertheless the present stories occasionally seem to reflect conditions in the Mauryan period, and are clearly later additions.¹⁰ Curiously the scene of the stories of the past lies in the western or central part of India, but the scene of the majority of the stories of the present is in Sāvatthi or Rājagaha.¹ Further, the third, fourth and fifth volumes of the Jātakas can be generally considered as parts that have assumed their present shape in a period posterior to the majority of the simple stories of the first and second volumes.²