for secular morality, as well as a motivation for monastic life. Buddhism
became successful by filling the moral vacuum in the new social world of
commerce and city life with a universalistic social morality which was lacking
in both the Brahmanical and the shramana religions.
Buddhism laid down a basic cultural framework for lay society which
eventually became Hinduism. Buddhism cannot be understood as a reaction
against the caste system, any more than it is simply an effort to escape from
karma. Just as karma and reincarnation were not considered a major problem
before the Buddha, it is likely that the caste system was only very loosely
adumbrated at the time (Eliot, 1988: 1:xxii). It is apparent from the Upan-
ishads that the prestige of the Brahmans was breaking down and their distinct-
ness from the political-military kshatriya caste was crumbling. Buddhism gave
the caste system renewed significance by making it part of one’s religious duties
to carry out the activities proper to one’s station in life (Chakravarti, 1987:
94–121, 180). Certainly, Buddhism was a challenge to the traditional Brahman
practices, attacking its rituals and especially its sacrifices by the doctrine of
ahimsa, non-harming. But Buddhism should be seen as more of a reform within
the milieu of the educated religious people—who were mainly Brahmans—
rather than a rival movement from outside. Thus, although the Buddha himself
was a kshatriya, the largest number of monks in the early movement were of
Brahman origin.^24 In principle, the sangha was open to any caste; and since it
was outside the ordinary world, caste had no place in it. Nevertheless, virtually
all monks were recruited from the two upper classes. The biggest source of lay
support, however, the ordinary donors of alms, were the landowning farmers.
Chakravarti (1987) points out that this gahapati group also constituted the
main tax base for the emerging states of the period, whose kings were allied
with the Buddha. For this group the Buddhists preached a secular morality,
encouraging them to stay in the world, to respect their superiors, and, not
incidentally, to provide the alms which the sangha needed to survive.
The early Buddhists’ support of the caste system, like their dependence on
the concepts of karma and reincarnation, was another example of tying a
prominent new doctrine to its apparent opposite. Buddhism gives the appear-
ance of being a protest against the caste system because it offers a solution
from reincarnation in the world where one has no control over one’s caste.
But the solution and the problem are all part of the same intellectual situation.
A successful philosophy—and a successful religion—formulates an entire prob-
lem space, not just a solution.
- The turn toward meditation set Indian culture in the direction of Yoga
techniques as a means of transcending the world. The Upanishadic sages did
not draw their insights from meditation, nor apparently did they practice it
much. The tapas ascetics sought a kind of magical charisma. The Buddhists
External and Internal Politics: India • 205