Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c22.6

c22.6

**Pravrajyā.** The first step in Buddhist initiation is called *Pabbajjā* of "going forth". It means that a person presents himself for admission into the Order by "going out" of his previous state, whether it be that of a layman and householder or of a wandering ascetic or monk belonging to a different sect. The admission to the Order was thrown open to all the castes. The candidate for admission must take leave of all the visible marks of the life he has left, the marks of caste as of clothes. He casts himself out into the Order which has made a short work of all distinctions of caste on the principle which is deliberately and diametrically its very opposite, the principle of equality and fraternity. In the words of the Buddha himself: "As the great streams, O disciples, however many they may be, the Gaṅgā, Yamunā, Achiravatī, Sarabhū, Mahī, when they reach the great ocean, lose their old name and their old descent, and bear only one name, 'the great ocean,' so also, my disciples, these four castes, Nobles, Brahmans, Vaiśya, and Śūdra, when they, in accordance with the law and doctrine which the Perfect One has preached, forsake their home and go into homelessness, lose their old name and old paternity, and bear only the one designation, 'Ascetics, who follow the son of the Śākya house'". [*Chullav.*, ix, 1, 4]. As instances of persons of low castes being admitted as monks, we may mention Upāli the barber and 'a vulture-tormentor' [*Chullav.*, i, 32].