Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c10.485

c10.485

We may finally consider how far the religious reforming movements of this period affected the position of the śūdras. So far as religious emancipation is concerned, Buddhism opened its door not only to the members of the four varṇas, who could be admitted to the Saṃgha and become ascetics,¹ but even to the caṇḍālas and the pukkusas, who could attain the bliss of the nirvāṇa.² When the robber Aṅgulimāla is admitted to the Buddhist Order, he exclaims : "Verily I have obtained an āryan birth".³ This would show that the Buddhist admission of the śūdras to their church was as good as restoring to them the old tribal right of initiation, of which they were dispossessed by brāhmaṇical society. But while the tribal initiation prepared the people for the practical life of this world, this prepared them for the spiritual emancipation from the miseries of life.⁴