Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c10.490

c10.490

Buddhism made no distinction in the imparting of knowledge. The Buddha argues that just as the king or the owner of the royal domain should not appropriate all revenues to himself, so also a brāhmaṇa or a śramaṇa should not monopolise all knowledge to himself.¹ In the Buddhist view anybody could be a teacher irrespective of his caste. It is said that a teacher is always to be respected, be he a sudda, a caṇḍāla or a pukkusa.² It is typical of the Buddhist attitude that in a Jātaka story a brāhmaṇa loses the charm learnt from a caṇḍāla because of denying his teacher out of shame.³ In another case the caṇḍāla, who is the Buddhisatta, kicks a fellow brāhmaṇa pupil, who is defeated in an academic dispute, but the action is condemned by the teacher.⁴