ascription, in setting its face against all notions of purity–pollution,
gave positive encouragement to the developing society of openness,
equality and mobility.
A recent study arguing in favour of a similar view is that of
G. Upreti, who has emphasised the role of early Buddhism in
creating an ethics appropriate to an individualistic (market-oriented)
society, including the nuclear family and private property-oriented
commercialism:
The early Buddhist world outlook...firmly fastened the individual
to ‘well-earned private property’ at the economic level, to a ‘caring
patriarchal family’ at the social level, and to an ‘orderly state’ at the
political level. If the individual moulded his behavior and thinking at
the anvil of non-egotism not only he himself became a rightful holder
of private property, an ideal householder and a good citizen, but also
enormously contributed to the formation of a viable economy, a
strong and solid social structure, and a healthy and durable state’
(Upreti 1997: 143, 168).The main problem with Upreti’s argument, however, is that in
stressing the movement towards a rationalist individualism, he sees
Buddhism as the culmination of a trend beginning with the
Upanishads and Jainism, and thus he ignores some radical differ-
ences. Buddhism’s ‘anti-self’ position was linked to a much more
‘other-’ oriented ethics than either of its two major competitors. Its
individualism was very much an individualism-within-society, an
other-oriented individualism. The Buddhist concept of the individual
personality was very concrete and specific; while denying the ‘self’
in the doctrine of anatta, it continued to emphasise the subjective,
emotional, acting agent—and the necessity of respect for one another.
There was no reference to divinity, no urge to worship or devotion,
no rites and rituals in the life prescribed for the individual, but rather
dispassionate and compassionate behaviour. This ethicisation of
life extended into the simple rules that were prescribed for social
relations as well as the more difficult disciplines for the bhikkhu or
bhikkhuni seeking liberation.
In the end, Buddhism, for all its concern for individual renunciation
and freedom from passionlessness, helped in the creation of a
vibrant, open, commercially developing society exchanging ideas
and goods with the rest of the world. Its decline was correlated
with the decline of the open society.
148 Buddhism in India