Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c10.518

c10.518

But the rules of the Buddhist and Jain churches did not favour the release of considerable sections of the labouring masses from their worldly obligations. There was no permission either for a slave or a debtor to join the Buddhist church,³ unless the former had been manumitted by his master and the latter had cleared his debts. But the Buddhist position with regard to the admission of the slave to the church seems to be contradictory. In the course of a discourse the Buddha pointedly asks Ajātaśatru if he would claim back the ex-slave, who is a member of the Order, and compel him to work again as slave. To this the king replies in a clear negative.⁴ This may suggest the possibility of a dāsa-kammakara joining the Buddhist church without the permission of his master, but such cases were probably rare. In the Jain church also, among those who were excluded from entering the monastic order, were robbers, king’s enemies, debtors, attendants, servants, and forcibly converted people.⁵ Almost all these categories were barred from entering the Buddhist church also.