48 THE B U D D H I S T T R A D I T I O N

Notice especially the third condition. No early Indian sect took kindly to innovation, and according to orthodox Hindu thought the purpose of government was not to legislate, but only to administer the eternal law (SanStanadhaima). Though the Buddhists had a somewhat different conception of dharma they shared the conserva­tism of the Hindus in this respect. Nevertheless new legislation was enacted from time to time, as will be seen later in the edicts of Ashoka.

Once the Lord was staying at Rajagaha on the hill called V ulture’s Peak . . . and the Venerable Ananda was stand­ing behind him and fanning him. And the Lord said: “Have you heard, Ananda, that the Vajjis call frequent public as­semblies of the tribe?” “Yes, Lord,” he replied.

“As long as they do so,” said the Lord, “they may be expected not to decline, bu t to flourish.”

“As long as they meet in concord, conclude their meetings in concord, and carry out their policies in concord; . . . as long as they make no laws not already promulgated, and set aside nothing enacted in the past, acting in accordance with the ancient institutions of the Vajjis established in olden days; . . . as long as they respect, esteem, reverence, and support the elders of the Vajjis, and look on it as a duty to heed their words; . . . as long as no women or girls of their tribes are held by force or abducted; . . . as long as they respect, esteem, reverence, and support the shrines of the Vajjis, whether in town or country, and do not neglect the proper offerings and rites laid down and practiced in the past; ̂ . . . as long as they give due protection, deference, and support to the perfected beings among them so that such perfected beings may come to the land from afar and live comfortably among them, so long may they be expected not to decline, biit to flourish.”

[From Digha NikJya, 2.72 ff.]

Class and Caste in Buddhism

Though in practice it would seem that Indian Buddhists maintained the system of class and caste, the theoretical attitude of Buddhism

‘ Note the respect paid to popular religion, which Buddhism adapted in the cults of the sacred tree and the stupa, and later in that of the image.