Born in 563 BC, Prince Siddharth was the only son of King Shuddhodhana, a Kshatriya ruler of Lumbini, Kapilavastu in the ancient Indo-Nepal.
As an adored prince of a powerful kingdom, he had all the luxuries of life at his disposal.
He married a beautiful princess Yashodhara and later had a son with her named Rahul.
But on one night he suddenly left the palace and went into the wilderness allegedly in the search of some supreme knowledge.
When he got the knowledge or enlightenment he was looking for, he came to be known as ‘Buddha’ or the enlightened one.
As an enlightened Buddha, Prince Siddharth thus discovered the causes of human suffering, propounded the four noble truths of life, prescribed the eight-fold paths for nirvana (liberation), allegedly revealed the secrets of life & self, and so on.
However, some historians argue that Buddha neither abandoned the caste system nor did he practice egalitarianism to such a level as is often claimed.
Buddha on Caste System
According to RS Sharma, “Buddha was not a radical opponent of the caste system. On the contrary, he tolerated the caste system and rarely spoke against it.”
“Whereas he frequently visited the caste councils of Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and merchants, he rarely paid visits to tribal and lower caste assemblies” (Sharma).
Furthermore, Buddha never told the Kshatriyas visiting him to distribute tax burden on everyone on an equitable and progressive basis.
In those times, Brahmins and Kshatriyas regardless of their affluent status were exempt from paying taxes and all these burdens fell disproportionately on the Vaishyas and Shudras.
Buddha came from an influential Kshatriya background and had good relations & connections with powerful kings and rulers of the time. But he never put pressure on them to remove the sorts of socio-economic disabilities imposed on the Shudras.
They were “deprived of religious and legal rights and relegated to the lowest position in the society” (Sharma).
In this regard, eminent historian RS Sharma writes that both Buddhism and Jainism did not attempt to alter the material and social position of Shudras.
According to a question asked in UP Judiciary Prelims Examination 2016, “Buddhism eventually succumbed to rituals and religious ceremonies it originally denounced. It became a victim to the evils of Brahmanism”.
Moreover, rather than mitigating the evils of Brahmanism, Buddhist doctrines strengthened the institutions of caste by “forbidding the entry of debtors & slaves into the Sanghas which in turn benefited the moneylenders and slave-owners” (RS Sharma).
Now contrast this with the authoritative Islamic injunctions which clearly forbid usury and put great emphasis on the manumission of slaves & captives (Bukhari).
Inclination towards Kshatriyas
Buddha did include Shudras in his order but their position continued to be low and inferior.
Several original Buddhist texts in Pali proudly distinguish between pure and profane works (occupations).
While Shudras, Chandalas, etc are put under the profane & impure category, Brahmans and Kshatriyas have been declared to be the purest and superior castes. Buddhists according to RS Sharma “gave Kshatriyas the top place in the [Varna] system”.
Note, that Buddha himself came from the noble Shakya clan-a Kshatriya caste/category.
So it’s no surprise that some of the Buddhist texts later misappropriated Emperor Chandragupta Maurya as a ‘Kshatriya’ even though he was born to a Shudra woman in the Nanda Empire.
Ultimately, the castes and classes who benefited the most from Buddhism were Kshatriyas and Merchants.
They were already jealous of the Brahmanical monopoly over religion and knowledge and thus found an easy escape in Jainism and Buddhism to challenge to status and monopoly of Brahmins in different fields (Sharma).
In this chain, we have several Kshatriya kings of various dynasties and several merchant guilds who began patronizing and funding these religions whose proponents came from the Kshatriya castes.
Note, that the founders of Buddhism and Jainism i.e. Buddha, as well as all 24 Tirthankars of Jainism, came from Kshatriya backgrounds.
Opinion on Women in Sangha
The Buddhist tradition suggests that the Buddha was not initially keen to establish a Bhikkhuni Sangha, but ultimately gave in to the persistent pressure of his disciple Ananda and his aunt and foster-mother Mahapajapati Gotami.
The Sangha was not open to pregnant women, mothers of unweaned children, rebellious women, who associated with young men, and those who did not have their parents’ or husbands’ permission to join.
The Buddha is also described as having laid down eight special rules subordinating the order of the nuns to that of the monks.
While women could attain salvation, their capability for attaining Buddhahood directly (without first being born as a man) was not accepted.
Four Noble Truths Propounded by Buddha
In his first noble truth, Buddha said that this world is full of ‘Dukha’ i.e. suffering.
In the second noble truth, he explained the causes of those sufferings which broadly revolve around the idea of ‘cravings or desires to hang onto things that give temporary pleasures’ that do not last forever.
In this manner, Buddha diagnosed human suffering and explained its causes (Wright).
Now, if we take these noble truths in a broad sense, caste or varna system can also be said to have been designed & devised by the Brahmins to increase their pleasure by designating a vast majority of Indians as Shudras and forcing them to all sorts of discrimination, disabilities, exploitative & unpaid labor.
In this sense, the caste system and the disabilities it imposed were a source of suffering both for the perpetrator and the victim.
But it is disappointing that neither Buddha nor other prominent Buddhists spoke against the caste system explicitly in their doctrines & sermons and continued to preach in an abstract and vague sense that mostly attracted the nobles, princes, and other exquisitely elite classes who came running to Buddha in hordes.
Furthermore, within a few decades of Buddha’s death, Buddhist monks did not only start idol worship but also began living luxurious lives in monasteries built and funded by handsome royal grants & village revenues, and thus Buddhism quickly absorbed the same Brahmanical evils against which it had initially fought (Sharma).
Eightfold Path Propounded by Buddha
In the next two noble truths i.e. the third & fourth ones, Buddha prescribed the world-famous ‘eightfold paths’ to abate & mitigate human sufferings.
The eightfold path consists of right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.
According to Buddha, by diligently living a life according to these eightfold paths, one can control and abate their ‘desires & cravings’ i.e. the desires for perishable worldly pleasures which are a major cause of suffering in this impermanent world.
These noble truths and paths are supplemented by the ‘right mindfulness & right concentration’ which are part of the meditative and therapeutic exercises of Buddhism.
They help in contemplating over the impermanence of this world and the things he is attached to and thus lead to non-attachment or detachment from the idea of self.
Now, there is nothing wrong per se with these ideas and they were, in fact, a great development when compared to the Brahmanical beliefs of those times.
But it would have been better and more impactful had Buddha explicitly pointed out the injustices and exploitations prevalent in those times and openly challenged the caste system, Brahmins, and their discriminatory religious dogmas.
Certain factions of Buddhism over a period of time also became exploitative, aggressive, and militant so much so that some modern Buddhists like Wirathu of Burma (Myanmar) do not hesitate in advocating genocide of Muslims and complete annihilation of their adversaries and of those whom they perceive as a threat (Ketchell).
Their Islamophobic and hate-preaching sermons have led to the massacre of thousands of Burmese Rohingya Muslims.
Notwithstanding the above criticisms, Buddha should be credited for enunciating or reiterating and propagating certain valuable doctrines on life in a simple & straightforward manner in those turbulent times when Brahmanism had deep control over religion and philosophy.
To highlight some of the positive contributions of Buddha in this arena, he rightly diagnosed the causes of human suffering in desires & cravings for worldly pleasures & perishable things that don’t last long.
As long as one is occupied with desires or craving for worldly things, one wastes a considerable amount of time and effort in thinking about ways to fulfill those desires.
And experience shows that there is no end to desires. After one desire or craving gets fulfilled, another pops up and this chain continues.
In this way, one keeps running after desires & cravings and thus making them a source of his pain & suffering in this world which itself is not real but impermanent.
Holy Quran says that “The life of this world is nothing but the enjoyment of delusion & deception” (Holy Quran 3:185).
Only when one realizes this, one can have real and lasting peace and contentment. Satisfaction raising out of the fulfillment of desires is impermanent and illusionary.
Similarities between Buddhist and Islamic Teachings
Finally, Buddha’s prescription of the ‘eightfold path’ to end human suffering corresponds to many of the Islamic teachings.
They include the importance and utility of truthfulness & righteousness as a step towards becoming a better person and towards liberation.
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said that “Truthfulness leads to righteousness, and righteousness leads to paradise” (Sahih Bukhari).
The value and utility of righteousness of thoughts and actions is something that is self-evident.
Imagine, if we and a large number of people around us were to incorporate the notions of the righteousness of thoughts, actions, speech, livelihood, efforts, mindfulness, concentration, etc, and live their lives accordingly, the world would certainly be a better place to live in.
Most of the ongoing troubles and violence in the world are also a result of the competing desires of the different stakeholders involved therein.
Competition amongst primates for limited and non-renewable resources has been held to be a major cause behind the violence.
Evolutionary psychology explains this phenomenon to have been evolved out of the process of natural selection that stresses the aspect of survival to be the primary goal of a creature.
However, when one molds their life according to the eightfold path, one gradually comes to reflect and contemplate on such issues and thus overcome his ‘default mode network’ tendencies of ruthless competition (Wright).
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are certain positive sides to Buddhist teachings as well as certain drawbacks.
The positive highlights include Buddha’s diagnosis of human suffering in the incessant cravings and desires for the material world and for the things contained therein.
The other is his stress on the cultivation of rightful thoughts & conduct through the right mindfulness & concentration that one can hone through certain meditative practices.
The criticism is that despite these great teachings, Buddha neither abandoned the caste system nor openly spoke against it.
Whereas he often visited the caste councils of Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and merchants, he rarely paid visits to tribal and lower caste assemblies.
Many of his actions, therefore, aided in internalizing and institutionalizing the structure of the caste system in Buddhism, according to Historians and Sociologists.
In the opinion of RS Sharma, though Buddhism did include Shudras in its order, their position continued to be low and inferior.
On this front, Islam was far more vocal and explicit in questioning certain social inequities.
Even on his deathbed, Prophet Muhammad PBUH kept reminding his followers about the noble principles of egalitarianism, fairness, and justice.
Oh people, verily your Lord is one and your father is one. Verily, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over black nor a black has any superiority over white except by piety and good action.
Sahih at-Tirmidhi 3270; Ahmad 22978
It has been narrated by ibn Masood (r) that Prophet (s) said- “Don’t indulge in feudal practices on earth and if you do so, you shall be engrossed in this world only.”
Miskat-ul Masabeeh 5178
Narrated Abu Musa al-Ashari: Allah’s Apostle said, “If a person teaches his slave girl good manners properly, educates her properly, and then manumits and marries her, he will get a double reward. And if a man believes in Jesus and then believes in me, he will get a double reward. And if a slave fears Allah and obeys his masters, he too will get a double reward.”
Sahih-al-Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 55, Number 655
Narrated Anas ibn Malik: Allah’s Messenger said, “You should listen to and obey your ruler even if he is an Ethiopian (black) slave whose head looks like a raisin.”
Sahih al-Bukhari, Vol. 9, Book 89, Hadith 256
It has been narrated by Umm Hussein (r) that Prophet (s) said, “If any slave is appointed as your Imam (leader/ruler) and he rules & leads you according to the book of Allah then listen to him obediently and act on it.”
Miskat-ul Masabeeh 3662
Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah’s Apostle said, “The most awful name in Allah’s sight on the Day of Resurrection, will be (that of) a man calling himself Malik-al-Amlak (Shahanshah i.e. the king of kings).”
Sahih al-Bukhari, Vol 8, Book 73, No. 224
Narrated Abu Musa: The Prophet (s) said, “Set free the captives and accept invitations.”
Sahih al-Bukhari, Vol. 9, Book 89, Hadith 285
Narrated Abu Musa al-Ashari: The Prophet said, “Give food to the hungry, pay a visit to the sick and release (set free) the one in captivity (by paying his/her ransom).”
Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 7, Book 65, Number 286
Works Cited
- Sharma, R. S. India’s Ancient Past. Oxford University Press, 2008.
- Farid, Malik Ghulam. The Holy Quran. Islam International, 1988.
- Bukhari, Muhammad ibn Ismail, and Muhammad Muhsin. Khan. Sahih Al-Bukhari: the Translation of the Meanings of Sahih Al-Bukhari: Arabic-English. Darussalam Pub. & Distr., 1997.
- Baghawi, Al-Husayn ibn Masud, and James Robson. Mishkat Al-Masabih. Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, 1981.
- Tirmidhi, Muhammad ibn Isa, et al. English Translation of Jāmiʻ at-Tirmidhī = Jāmiʻ Al-Tirmidhī. Darussalam, 2007.
- Wright, Robert. Why Buddhism Is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment. Simon & Schuster, 2018.
- Lehr, Peter. “Militant Buddhism Is on the March in South-East Asia – Where Did It Come from?” The Conversation, 18 May 2019.