Vada in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c9.s2.2

c9.s2.2

After giving reasons for the rejection of these views, Aśvaghoṣa presents his own thesis about what-makes one a brāhmaṇa. Accordingly, it is the spiritual attainment of a person that endows him with brāhmaṇahood. He also describes the process of observing rigorous vows and austerities, etc. that leads to this attainment. He then rejects *cāturvarṇya* — the fourfold division of society into castes — acknowledging that a man is born with only one *varṇa*.