Studies in the Origins of Buddhism c13.56

c13.56

Fuller information about these Muni-Śramaṇas is to be had from early Jaina and Buddhist literature. Here they are placed by the side of the Brāhmaṇas but distinguished from them. The Brāhmaṇas are here depicted as treating the Śramaṇas with scant courtesy, calling them ‘muṇḍakas’ and ‘vasalas’. As late as the 4th cent. B.C. the Greeks noted the distinction between Brāhmaṇa and Śramaṇa, whom, still later, Patañjali described as eternal opponents.⁴⁷ The independence of the Śramaṇas from the Vedic tradition comes out also from a consideration of the early history of the Jaina faith. The analysis of the origins of Sāṅkhya and Yoga also shows that these were doctrines of the tawny-clad ascetics—the Kapilas, who were not indebted to the strictly Vedic tradition.⁴⁸