Shudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order down to circa A.D. 600 c11.15

c11.15

It is further maintained that the *Arthaśāstra* policy of avoiding extremes and following a middle path is found in the philosophical work *Madhyānta-vibhaṅga*,⁸ which can be ascribed to the third century A.D. But the enunciation of the doctrine of the middle path known as the *majjhimā paṭipadā* is as old as the text of the *Vinaya Piṭaka*,⁹ where in his very first sermon the Buddha is represented as teaching his followers to abandon the two extremes of asceticism and luxury.