[Assam] Buddhism: An Atheistic and Anti-Caste Religion? - EdmundWeber

[Ram Sarangapani]

Dear Barua,

I sent in the article because it seems Weber has almost contradictory views
on Buddhism than those often discussed here. In fact, I was surprised too at
some of Weber's analyses and views.

In certain places, the article also claims that Buddha and Buddism was very
much caste conscious.  That kind of surprised me. I thought Buddhism at
least was devoid of it. We know, Islam and Christianity (in India) do
practice some form of casteism (and maybe not as rigidly as Hindus - but
they do so.

For Instance:
"According to this Buddhist tradition, it is thanks to the gods and in a
broader sense to the brahmanas"
or
"It seems to me that it is important to the present discussion that the
early Buddhism did not worship the gods of the lower castes or the dalits
but the gods of the higher castes. The gods of the lower caste people, like
for example Shiva, were always a thorn in their flesh to them and to the
non-Buddhist high castes."
or
According to Buddha, and he proclaimed the point of view of his fellow class
men, the Sakiyas, belonged to the mundane society of the brahmanas on the
grounds of caste purity and mixing among the kshatriyas

According to this report the Buddhas belonged all to the high castes, to the
kshatriyas and brahmanas. Buddha says proudly about himself "And now I, the
venerable and fully enlightened one, was born a warrior and have come from
the caste of warriors, o
monks."[22]<http://web.uni-frankfurt.de/irenik/relkultur50.htm#_ftn22>

However, to Siddharta and the monks that listened to him, not only the
varna, the hierarchical class but also the jati, the clan respectively the
family were of substantial importance.
I very little knowledge of Buddhism to start with and hopefully you or
others could clarify this dichotomy.

--Ram



On 3/28/06, Rajen Barua <barua25 at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>  It is very difficult to summarize what exactly is his point.
> It is one of those articles which makes lot of noise but does not make any
> sound.
> RB
>
>  ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* Ram Sarangapani <assamrs at gmail.com>
> *To:* ASSAMNET <assam at assamnet.org>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, March 28, 2006 3:39 PM
> *Subject:* [Assam] Buddhism: An Atheistic and Anti-Caste Religion? -
> EdmundWeber
>
>
> As we are discussing religions, I thought netters may be interested in
> what Weber has to say about Caste and atheism in Budhhhism. He has an
> interesting take.
>
> http://web.uni-frankfurt.de/irenik/relkultur50.htm
>
> --Ram
>
> ------------------------------
>
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