Indian Buddhist Attitudes toward Outcastes: Rhetoric around caṇḍālas

Author(s):
Silk, J.A.
Published
2020
Publication type
Article / Letter to editor

Abstract

Indian Buddhist literary sources contain both systematic and casual rejections of, broadly speaking, the caste system and caste discrimination. However, they also provide ample evidence for, possibly subconscious, discriminatory attitudes toward outcastes, prototypically caṇḍālas. The rhetoric found in Indian Buddhist literature regarding caṇḍālas is examined in this paper.

casteBuddhismprejudiceancient Indiadiscrimination
Date issued
2020-06-22
Language
English
Is part of
Indo-Iranian Journal (2020), Vol. 63, no. 2, p. 128-187
hdl
1887/138378
doi
10.1163/15728536-06302003

Funding

Sponsorship
Horizon 2020(H2020)
Grant number
741884