Editing The Buddha (section)

==== Critique of Brahmanism ====
[[File:Indian Museum Sculpture - Buddha meets a Brahmin (9218121775).jpg|thumb|upright|Buddha meets a Brahmin, at the Indian Museum, [[Kolkata]].]]

According to Bronkhorst, "the bearers of [the Brahmanical] tradition, the Brahmins, did not occupy a dominant position in the area in which the Buddha preached his message."{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2011|p=1}} Nevertheless, the Buddha was acquainted with Brahmanism, and in the early Buddhist Texts, the Buddha references Brahmanical devices. For example, in [[Samyutta Nikaya]] 111, [[Majjhima Nikaya]] 92 and Vinaya i 246 of the [[Pali Canon]], the Buddha praises the [[Agnihotra]] as the foremost sacrifice and the [[Sāvitrī meter]] as the foremost meter.{{efn|''aggihuttamukhā yaññā sāvittī chandaso mukham.'' Sacrifices have the Agnihotra as foremost; of meter, the foremost is the Sāvitrī.{{sfnp|Shults|2014|p=119}}}} In general, the Buddha critiques the animal sacrifices and social system on certain key points.

The [[Brahmin]] caste held that the [[Vedas]] were eternal revealed (''[[Śruti|sruti]]'') texts. The Buddha, on the other hand, did not accept that these texts had any divine authority or value.<ref name=Tola&Dragonetti>Tola, Fernando. Dragonetti, Carmen (2009). ''"Brahamanism and Buddhism: Two Antithetic Conceptions of Society in Ancient India"''. p. 26: "This also implied the denial of the Shruti provided with characteristics which grant it the status of a substance. All this carried with itself also the negation of the authority of all the sacred texts of Brahmanism. Buddhism does not acknowledge to them any value as ultimate criterion of truth, as depository of the norms which regulate man's conduct as a member of society and in his relations with the Gods. Buddhism ignores the Shruti, the very foundation of Brahmanism."</ref>

The Buddha also did not see the Brahmanical rites and practices as useful for spiritual advancement. For example, in the [[Udāna]], the Buddha points out that [[Ritual purification|ritual bathing]] does not lead to purity: only "truth and morality" lead to purity.{{efn|"Not by water man becomes pure; people here bathe too much; in whom there is truth and morality, he is pure, he is (really) a brahman"<ref name=Tola&Dragonetti />}} He especially critiqued [[animal sacrifice]] as taught in Vedas.<ref name=Tola&Dragonetti /> The Buddha contrasted his teachings, which were taught openly to all people, with that of the Brahmins', who kept their [[mantra]]s secret.{{efn|"These three things, monks, are conducted in secret, not openly. What three? Affairs with women, the mantras of the brahmins, and wrong view.
But these three things, monks, shine openly, not in secret. What three? The moon, the sun, and the Dhamma and Discipline proclaimed by the Tathagata." AN 3.129{{sfnp|Bodhi|2005|pp=33–34}}}}

The Buddha also critiqued the Brahmins' claims of superior birth and the idea that different castes and bloodlines were inherently pure or impure, noble or ignoble.<ref name=Tola&Dragonetti />

In the ''Vasettha sutta ''the Buddha argues that the main difference among humans is not birth but their actions and occupations.{{sfnp|Omvedt|2003|p=76}} According to the Buddha, one is a "Brahmin" (i.e., divine, like [[Brahma]]) only to the extent that one has cultivated virtue.{{efn|"In a favourite stanza quoted several times in the Pali Canon: "The Kshatriya is the best among those people who believe in lineage; but he, who is endowed with knowledge and good conduct, is the best among Gods and men".<ref name=Tola&Dragonetti />}} Because of this the early texts report that he proclaimed: "Not by birth one is a Brahman, not by birth one is a non-Brahman; – by moral action one is a Brahman"<ref name=Tola&Dragonetti />

The ''[[Aggañña Sutta]]'' explains all classes or [[Varna (Hinduism)|varnas]] can be good or bad and gives a sociological explanation for how they arose, against the Brahmanical idea that they are divinely ordained.{{sfnp|Omvedt|2003|p=72}} According to [[Kancha Ilaiah]], the Buddha posed the first [[contract theory]] of society.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Omvedt |first=Gail |title=Review: The Buddha as a Political Philosopher |magazine= Economic and Political Weekly |volume=36 |issue=21 |date=1 June 2001 |pages=1801–1804 |jstor=4410659}}</ref> The Buddha's teaching then is a single universal moral law, one [[Dharma]] valid for everybody, which is opposed to the Brahmanic ethic founded on "one's own duty" (''svadharma'') which depends on caste.<ref name=Tola&Dragonetti /> Because of this, all castes including untouchables were welcome in the Buddhist order and when someone joined, they renounced all caste affiliation.<ref>Mrozik, Susanne. "Upali" in MacMillan Encyclopedia of Buddhism, pg. 870.</ref><ref>Kancha Ilaiah, ''"God as Political Philosopher: Buddha's Challenge to Brahminism"'' p. 169</ref>