Vol. 11 · pages 321–325

302 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES III inequality. This social inequality is not the result of historical growth. Inequality is the official doctrine of Brahminism. 11. The Buddha opposed it root and branch. 12. He was the strongest opponent of caste and the earliest and staunchest upholder of equality. 13. There is no argument in favour of caste and inequality which he did not refute. 14. There were many Brahmins who challenged Buddha on this issue. But he silenced them completely. 15. The story is told in the Assalayana-Sutta that once the Brahmins persuaded one of them, by name Assalayana, to go to the Buddha and controvert his views against caste and inequality. 16. Assalayana went to the Buddha and placed before him the case in favour of the superiority of the Brahmins. 17. He said, “Brahmins maintain, Gotama, that only Brahmins form the superior class, all other classes being inferior ; that only Brahmins form the white class, all other classes being black fellows ; that purity resides in Brahmins alone and not in non-Brahmins ; and that only Brahmins are Brahma’s legitimate sons, born from his mouth, offspring of his, creations of his, and his heirs. What does Gotama say hereon ?” 18. The Buddha’s answer simply pulverized Assalayana. 19. The Buddha said : “Assalayana, are not the Brahmin wives of Brahmins known to have their periods, and to conceive, and to lie and give birth? Notwithstanding this do Brahmins really maintain all what you have said though they are themselves born of women like everybody else ?” 20. Assalayana gave no answer. 21. The Buddha went further and asked Assalayana another question. 22. “Suppose, Assalayana, a young noble consorts with a Brahmin maiden, what would be the issue ? Will it be an animal or human being ?”

303 WHAT IS SADDHAMMA ? III 23. Again Assalayana gave no answer. 24. “As to the possibility of moral development, is it only a Brahmin and not a man of the other three classes, who in this country, can develop in his heart the love that knows no hate or ill-will ?” 25. “No. All four classes can do it,” replied Assalayana. 26. “Assalayana ! Have you ever heard,” asked the Buddha, “that in the Yona and Kamboja countries and in other adjacent countries, there are only two classes, namely, masters and slaves, and that a master can become a slave and vice versa ?” 27. “Yes, I have heard so,” replied Assalayana. 28. “If your Chaturvarna is an ideal society, why is it not universal ?” 29. On none of these points was Assalayana able to defend his theory of caste and inequality. He was completely silenced. He ended by becoming a disciple of the Buddha. 30. A Brahmin by name Vasettha had embraced the religion of the Blessed Lord. The Brahmins used to abuse him for his conversion. 31. One day he went to Buddha and disclosed to him what the Brahmins said of him. 32. Then Vasettha said : “The Brahmins, Lord, say thus : ‘Only a Brahmin is of the best social grade ; other grades are low. Only a Brahmin is of a clear complexion ; other complexions are swarthy. Only Brahmins are of pure breed ; not they that are not of the Brahmins. Only Brahmins are genuine children of Brahma, born of his mouth, offspring of Brahma, created by Brahma, heirs of Brahma. 33. “ ‘As for you, you have renounced the best rank and have gone over to that low class, to the shaven recluses, to vulgar rich, to them of swarthy skins, to the foot-born descendants. Such a course is not good, such a course is not proper, even this, that you, having forsaken that upper class, should associate with an inferior class, to wit, with shavelings, fair folks, menials, swarthy of skin, the offspring of our kinsmen’s heels.’

304 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES III 34. “In these terms, Lord, do the Brahmins blame and revile me with characteristic abuse, copious, not at all stinted.” 35. “Surely, Vasettha,” said the Buddha, “the Brahmins have quite forgotton the ancient lore when they say so. On the contrary, the wives of Brahmins, like all women of other classes, are seen to be with child, bringing forth and nursing children. And yet it is these very womb-born Brahmins who say that Brahmins are genuine children of Brahma, born from his mouth ; his offspring ; his creation ; and his heirs ! By this they make a travesty of the nature of Brahma.” 36. Once the Brahmin Esukari went to the Buddha to argue with him three questions. 37. The first question he raised related to the permanent division of occupations. In defence of the system he began by saying : “I have come to ask you a question. The Brahmins say they shall serve nobody because they stand above all. Everyone else is born to serve them. 38. “Service, Gotama, is divided into four— service of Brahmin, service of noble, service of a middle-class man, or by a peasant ; while a peasant may be served only by a peasant,—for who else could ? ” What does the reverend Gotama say hereon ? ” 39. The Buddha answered him by asking a question : “Is the whole world in accord with Brahmins in their fourfold division of service ?” asked the Lord. 40. “For myself, I neither assert that all service is to be rendered nor that all service is to be refused. If the service makes a man bad and not good, it should not be rendered; but if it makes him better and not bad, then it should be rendered. 41. “This is the guiding consideration which should decide the conduct alike of nobles, of Brahmins, of middle-class men and of peasants ; each individual should refuse service which makes him bad and should accept only the service which makes him a better man.” 42. The next question raised was by Esukari.

305 WHAT IS SADDHAMMA ? III “Why should ancestry and lineage not have a place in determining the status of a man ?” 43. To this question the Buddha replied thus : “As against pride of ancestry, the station into which a man happens to be born determines only his designation be it noble or Brahmin or middle-class or peasant. Even as a fire is called after the material out of which it is kindled, and may thus be called either a wood-fire, or a chip-fire, or a bracken-fire, or a cowdung fire, just in the same way the noble, transcendant doctrine; I aver, is the source of true wealth for every man, birth merely determining his designation in one of the four classes. 44. “Lineage does not enter into a man’s being either good or bad : nor do good looks or wealth. For, you will find a man of noble birth who is a murderer, a thief, a fornicator, a liar, a slanderer, a man of bitter tongue, a tattler, a covetous person, a man of rancour or of wrong views, and therefore I assert that noble birth does not make a good man. Or again you will find a man of noble birth who is innocent of all these vices ; and, therefore, I assert that it is not lineage which makes a man bad.” 45. The third question which Esukari raised was with regard to the ways of earning a living assigned to each class. 46. The Brahmin Esukari said to the Lord : “Brahmins give a fourfold assignment of income, from alms, for Brahmins ; from his bow and arrows, for the noble ; from ploughing and tending cattle, for the middle class man ; and for the peasant, by the carriage of crops on the pole slung over his shoulder. If anyone of these deserts his vocation for something else, he does what he should not do, not less than a guardian who appropriates what is not his. What does the reverend Gotama say on this ?” 47. “Is the whole world in accord with this Brahmin classification ?” asked the Lord. 48. “No,” replied Esukari. 49. To Vasettha he said : “What is important is high ideals and not noble birth.

306 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES III 50. “No caste ; no inequality ; no superiority ; no inferiority ; all are equal. This is what he stood for. 51. “Identify yourself with others. As they, so I. As I, so they,” so said the Buddha. § 2. Dhamma to be Saddhamma must Teach that Worth and not Birth is the Measure of Man 1. The theory of Chaturvarna, preached by the Brahmins, was based on birth. 2. One is a Brahmin because he is born of Brahmin parents. One is a Kshatriya because he is born of Kshatriya parents. One is a Vaishya because one is born of Vaishya parents. And one is a Shudra because one is born of Shudra parents. 3. The worth of a man according to the Brahmins was based on birth and on nothing else. 4. This theory was as repulsive to the Buddha as was the theory of Chaturvarna. 5. His doctrine was just the opposite of the doctrine of the Brahmins. It was his doctrine that worth and not birth was the measure of man. 6. The occasion on which the Buddha propounded his doctrine has its own peculiar interest. 7. Once the Blessed One was staying in Anathpindika’s Asram. One day in the forenoon he took his begging bowl and entered Shravasti for alms. 8. At that time a sacrificial fire was burning and an offering was prepared. Then the Blessed One, going for alms from house to house in Shravasti, approached the house of the Brahmin Aggika. 9. The Brahmin, seeing the Blessed One coming at a distance, became angry and said : “Stay there, O Shaveling ! There, stay, ye wretched monk ! Stay there, ye miserable outcast.” 10. When he spoke thus, the Blessed One addressed him as follows: “Do you know, O Brahmin, who an outcast is, or the things that make a person an outcast ?”