The Foundations of Buddhism

I2 The Buddha

century BCE, the Aryas had been in India perhaps a thousand

years and their cultural influence extended down the Ganges

valley as far as Pataliputra (modern Patna). The coming of the

Aryas into India did not bring political unity to northern India,

but it did bring a certain ideology that constitutes one of the prin-

cipal components of Indian culture. This Aryan vision of society

was principally developed and articulated by a hereditary group

within Aryan society known as briihmafJas or, in the Anglo-Indian

spelling, brahmins. The original literature of the brahrnins is known

as the Vedas, the oldest portions of which, found in the l_?.g Veda,

date from about rsoo BCE. By the time of the Buddha, Vedic

literature probably already comprised several different classes:

the four collections (saf!lhitii) of verses attributed to the ancient

seers (r#), the ritual manuals (also known as briihmaiJas) giving

instruction in the carrying out of the elaborate Vedic sacrificial

ritual, and 'the forest books' (iiraiJyaka) explaining the esoteric

meaning of this sacrificial ritual. The final class of Vedic liter-

ature, the Upani~ads, containing further esoteric explanations

of the sacrificial ritual, was still in the process of formation.

Two aspects of the brahmanical vision are of particular im-

portance, namely an understanding of society as reflecting a

hierarchy of ritual 'purity', and a complex system of ritual and

sacrifice. From the brahmanical perspective society comprises two

groups: the Aryas and the non-Aryas. The former consists of the

three hereditary classes (variJa) in descending order of purity:

briihmaiJaS (whose prerogative and duty it is to teach and main-

tain the Vedic tradition), k~atriyas or rulers (whose prerogat-

ive and duty is to maintain order and where necessary inflict

appropriate punishment), and the vaisyas (whose prerogative and

duty is to generate wealth through farming and trade). These three

classes are termed 'twice born' (dvija) by virtue of the fact that

traditionally male members undergo an initiation ( upanayana)

into a period of study of the Vedic tradition under the super-

vision of a brahmin teacher; at the end of this period of study it

is their duty to maintain the household sacrificial fires and, with
the help ofbrahmins, carry out various sacrificial rituals in accord-
ance with the prescriptions of Vedic tradition. The non-Aryas