• Nagappa Gowda K.

Buddhism was one of the major non-theistic religious movements that took place in ancient India. It was a faith that was founded by Siddhartha Gautama or the Buddha (enlightened), undoubtedly one of the greatest religious teachers of the world history, more than 2,500 years ago. He was familiar with the social structure, religious practices and metaphysical-spiritual speculations of his time and accepted those which appeared to him reasonable and human. Avoiding theological speculations, he raised his voice against the caste-varna practices, and superstitions associated to them, the dominant-exploitative nature of the priestcraft, religious sacrifices and other absurd practices. He declined the divinity of the gods and did not accept the authority of the Vedas. Buddha taught the principles of life and the universe through conversations, and for a long time, his teachings were handed down orally from generation to generation. Buddha’s philosophy is sometimes called as Madhyama-marga, ‘the middle path’ it takes into consideration the capacity of each human being and the importance of external objects as well as the body and the mind in attaining the goal of life. His teachings on society and caste structure could be gathered mainly from three major scriptures called tripitakas, which means the ‘three baskets of knowledge’. They are in Pali language, consisting of the collection of discourses of Buddha and his sayings, messages, etc. They are considered to be the earliest collection of Buddhist writings. This article probes into the theory of caste as portrayed and analysed in the canonical Buddhists texts such as Majjhima Nikaya, Digh Nikaya, Anguttara Nikaya, Sutta Nipata etc.

Buddha, caste, tripitakas, sutta, chandala, pitaka, Bhiku, sanghas, parivrajaka, brahmana, kshatriya, vaishya, shudra, Veda, Asvaghosa, dharma, varna, anuloma, pratiloma, karma, buddhahood, Majjhima Nikaya, Digha Nikaya, kosala.

"Social Settings in Buddhist Literature: Theory of Caste", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.2, Issue 9, page no.512-518, September-2015, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1701D27.pdf

"Social Settings in Buddhist Literature: Theory of Caste", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.2, Issue 9, page no. pp512-518, September-2015, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1701D27.pdf