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▲ 285 r/bahujan+3 crossposts

Video of a sweeper, she is mistreating a mentally challenged patient at the District Hospital Raebareli.

u/Any_Significance8314 — 11 hours ago
▲ 11 r/bahujan

Dr B.R. Ambedkar works and speeches at one place

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was a prolific author and orator whose works laid the intellectual foundation for modern India's social and legal framework. His complete collection is published on Ambedkar org website managed by the Teltumbde family, the, BAWS center, drambedkarbookswordpress.

Unfortunately Velivada website is down. Hope we support and share the other sources voluntarily so that we can spread the message of Babasaheb to the whole world.

Please follow Bahujan sources of website only.

Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches" (BAWS) series, which consists of 17 main volumes (often split into multiple parts) in English and up to 40 volumes in Hindi.

Volume 1: Includes Annihilation of Caste and Castes in India.

Volume 7: Focuses on the Who Were the Shudras? and The Untouchables.

Volume 11: Contains The Buddha and His Dhamma.

Volumes 13 & 15: Document his speeches and role as the Principal Architect of the Constitution.

Periodicals and Journals

Dr. Ambedkar founded several newspapers to mobilize the marginalized and provide a platform for anti-caste discourse:

Mooknayak (The Leader of the Voiceless, 1920).

Bahishkrit Bharat (Excluded India, 1927)

Samata (June 29, 1928)

Janata (The People, 1930).

Prabuddha Bharat (Enlightened India, 1956).

Key Speeches

Constituent Assembly Speeches: His final speech on November 25, 1949, warned about the "Grammar of Anarchy" and the need for social democracy.

Mahad Satyagraha Speech (1927): Delivered during the movement to secure water rights for untouchables.

Conversion Speech (1956): His address at Nagpur upon converting to Buddhism.

You can access the digital versions of these volumes for free on the links attached to this post.

Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings And Speeches, BAWS Center https://share.google/zyDxdaxL10m4mqcZM

Dr B R Ambedkar Books and Various others Bahujan |

http://www.ambedkar.org

Books & Writings of Ambedkar |

https://drambedkarbooks.wordpress.com/dr-b-r-ambedkar-books/

u/Any_Significance8314 — 21 hours ago
▲ 10 r/ScheduledCaste+1 crossposts

The Caste Rooting into the Psyche and its Solution

I. The Clinical Distinction: Bias as Social Software, Not Pathology

Mental illnesses involve structural or chemical impairments that disrupt an individual’s grip on reality. In contrast, caste prejudice is a learned behavioral and affective framework, a form of “social software” installed through repeated cultural practice, ritual reinforcement, and institutional incentives. The brain’s hardware remains intact; neuroplasticity simply adapts it to an environment saturated with hierarchical cues.

This software is not generic prejudice. It draws specific content from a long-developed ideological architecture: the explicit codification of varna and jati in key Brahmanical texts (Purusha Sukta, later Dharmashastras such as Manu and Apastamba, Shatapatha Brahmana and Aitareya Brahmana, and narrative reinforcement in the epics and Puranas). These sources do not merely describe social difference; they sacralize it as cosmic order, prescribe endogamy, assign graded purity/pollution, and legitimize differential rights and punishments. The result is a system that is ritual, occupational, endogamous, political, and economic, multi-dimensional by design, not reducible to any single axis.

Individual therapy (e.g., CBT) therefore confronts not a personal cognitive distortion, but a culturally transmitted operating system backed by sacred authority and material reward structures. When family, marriage markets, temples, and local power networks continue to reinforce the old program, the brain treats the bias as adaptive rather than pathological.

II. The Neurology of Caste: Disgust, Hierarchy, and Textually Anchored Content

Standard out-group prejudice is often framed as amygdala-mediated threat detection. Caste prejudice, however, appears to recruit a broader and more specific set of circuits because the ideology supplies unusually potent, culturally elaborated content sustained across centuries of ritual, textual, and institutional reinforcement. As Amodio and Cikara (2021) argue, intergroup bias is not encoded in a single semantic network but emerges from multiple interacting learning and memory systems, semantic association, instrumental learning, and aversive/Pavlovian conditioning, each with distinct neural substrates and channels of behavioral expression. This multi-system architecture helps explain why a prejudice backed by sacred textual authority and everyday material incentives can become deeply installed and resistant to single-channel interventions such as individual cognitive therapy.

Although early models linked implicit prejudice primarily to amygdala activation, more recent fMRI work suggests that amygdala responses in intergroup contexts more often reflect attention to motivationally relevant group cues or anxiety about appearing prejudiced, rather than a direct substrate of bias itself (Amodio & Cikara, 2021). The following mappings are therefore offered as a hypothesis-generating extension of well-established general mechanisms in the social neuroscience of prejudice, rather than as settled, caste-specific findings. They require targeted empirical testing in Indian and diaspora populations.

Neural substrates and learning systems through which intergroup bias is acquired (semantic association, instrumental learning, aversive conditioning, and habit). Adapted from Amodio & Cikara (2021), Figure 4

  • Insula (disgust/purity-pollution): The shastric framework repeatedly frames certain groups as sources of ritual contamination. This maps onto the insula’s established role in processing both physical disgust and moral/social disgust. Cross-cultural studies on racial prejudice show heightened insula–amygdala coupling when processing out-group disgust expressions (Liu et al., 2015); the Indian textual tradition supplies an especially elaborated, religiously sanctioned version of the same mechanism, repeatedly pairing particular bodies and occupations with contamination.

  • Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and status/hierarchy valuation: This region, along with adjacent medial prefrontal and orbitofrontal areas, tracks social value and modulates empathy and moral consideration according to perceived rank (Amodio & Cikara, 2021). When texts and norms present hierarchy as divinely ordained and immutable, these circuits learn to assign systematically lower moral consideration and reduced empathy to those placed lower in the graded order. The result is not generic status sensitivity but a culturally specific calibration that feels “natural” because it is repeatedly practiced in ritual, marriage markets, temple access, and daily interaction.

Stereotypes and group-based conceptual evaluations are themselves supported by semantic memory systems involving the anterior temporal lobe and medial prefrontal cortex, which encode culturally transmitted attributes and valuations (Amodio & Cikara, 2021). The Brahmanical textual tradition, through the Purusha Sukta, Dharmashastras, Brahmanas, and narrative reinforcement in the epics and Puranas, supplies precisely the kind of rich, repeated semantic content that these systems are organized to learn, store, and retrieve. What makes caste distinctive, therefore, is not that it activates entirely unique neural hardware, but that it trains general-purpose circuits with an unusually dense, multi-dimensional ideological payload that has endured for millennia and travels with migrants.

Neural substrates of stereotypes and group-based conceptual evaluations. Semantic memory systems involving the anterior temporal lobe (ATL) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) encode culturally transmitted attributes and valuations. Adapted from Amodio & Cikara (2021)

In diaspora communities (US, UK, Canada), the same endogamous preferences, purity practices, and hierarchical networks frequently reappear, sometimes intersecting with local racial or class dynamics. This portability illustrates how the “software” persists when the original textual and ritual environment is only partially reproduced. Rigorous empirical studies, particularly neuroimaging, behavioral, and longitudinal research in Indian and diaspora populations, are needed to test, refine, and strengthen these proposed mappings and to clarify how the multi-system architecture interacts with caste’s specific ideological and material structures.

III. The Failure of Individual Therapy and Constitutional Facades

Individual therapeutic models fail when the surrounding environment continues to reward the old program. Power structures that benefit from the status quo control the scaling of counter-experiences: education budgets remain inadequate relative to need, public schooling is often deprioritized in favor of privatized options accessible mainly to the already advantaged, and curricula frequently emphasize rote learning or faith-based framing over sustained critical inquiry. In such conditions, even high individual achievement does not erase ascriptive status, a reality Ambedkar articulated in 1956 when he noted that personal educational success did not prevent a Brahmin from still regarding him as untouchable and wondered what that implied for the crores who lacked such advantages. Contemporary examples (such as the intense public and media scrutiny faced by high-achieving Dalit officers) confirm that ritual and social attitudes frequently override formal accomplishment.

Constitutional provisions (Article 17 abolishing untouchability, reservations, protective legislation) are not empty facades; they have produced measurable gains in representation, education enrollment, and political voice. Yet they operate inside a society whose dominant ideological resources and everyday incentive structures (marriage, temple access, social capital, bureaucratic networks) still draw legitimacy from the older textual architecture. Without deep changes in material control and cultural authority, progressive laws remain vulnerable to loopholes, uneven enforcement, and social boycott. The constitutional layer sits atop, rather than fully displaces, the older graded system.

IV. The Pitfalls of Historical Revolutions, and Why Internal Reform Was Contained

Pure class-based models (Marxist or Maoist) repeatedly underestimated graded inequality and the divine-sanction layer supplied by the shastras. Treating caste as derivative of economic class ignores how every stratum acquires an interest in defending its small ritual and social privileges over those below it. State terror approaches, moreover, tend to activate threat and scapegoating circuits rather than dissolve them.

Classical Buddhist and later Bhakti movements offered powerful internal critiques. Early Buddhism created radical equality inside the Sangha. Bhakti saints, including Kabir, explicitly attacked birth-based pollution, ritual monopoly, and caste pride, emphasizing direct devotion and inner worth. These movements generated genuine dignity, alternative devotional communities, and poetic challenges to orthodoxy.

Yet most were ultimately contained or partially absorbed. Many Bhakti traditions created emotional egalitarianism in worship while leaving endogamy, land relations, and political power structures largely intact. Some devotional currents were reincorporated into temple economies or developed their own internal hierarchies. The Devadasi system and patterns of lower-caste subordination within certain temple priesthoods illustrate how devotional energy could be channeled back into existing structures rather than used to dismantle them. Because these movements largely remained within a theistic and devotional framework rather than mounting a full rationalist and institutional break, they could not prevent the dominant textual and power architecture from reasserting itself.

Babasaheb's 1956 Buddhist movement represented a decisive innovation: not another internal reform, but a deliberate cognitive secession that rejected the shastric authority structure itself and paired it with modern organizational and educational institutions.

V. The Synthesis: Material Decoupling + Cognitive Secession

Real transformation requires simultaneous work on both the external incentive structure and the internalized ideological software.

1. Material Decoupling (The Body): Aggressive, accountable structural reforms - breaking concentrated control over land and productive assets, credible legal deterrence against discrimination and social boycott, and expansion of genuine economic autonomy. Historical land reforms produced mixed results precisely because implementation was often captured by existing power holders; future efforts must therefore combine redistribution with strong, impersonal institutions that prevent elite recapture. Economic growth, urbanization, and quality public education can amplify these changes, but only when deliberately channeled toward reducing dependence on caste-based networks.

2. Cognitive Secession (The Mind): A sustained cultural and psychological exit from the validating religious and social ideology. Buddhism supplies this by rejecting the cosmic justification for graded inequality, reframing dignity on rational and ethical grounds, and building parallel institutions (educational, political, religious) that do not derive authority from the older texts. Precedents such as Kabir demonstrate that explicit critique existed inside the broader cultural sphere; however, the historical pattern shows that such critiques were repeatedly contained when they remained within the dominant framework. Full secession - combining ideological rejection with new institutional forms - closes that historical loophole.

The same neural circuits that entrench bias are responsive to sustained counter-practice. When incentives, institutions, repeated ritual, and authoritative norms all point in the old direction, plasticity stabilizes the existing software. When material conditions change and a coherent alternative framework supplies new repeated practice and moral authority, those circuits can be retrained at scale.

Ultimate liberation therefore demands the dual track: structural teeth that alter the material environment and reward structures, paired with cognitive tools that systematically dismantle the generational architecture of the mind. Partial approaches - whether purely constitutional, purely therapeutic, purely class-based, or purely devotional reform from within - have historically left exploitable gaps. The integrated strategy addresses the multi-dimensional character of the system (ritual-textual, neurological, economic, and political) without reducing it to any single dimension or assuming that internal contestation alone has proven sufficient to overcome entrenched power and sacred legitimation.

This synthesis is not a copy-pasted dogma. It is a precise response to the empirical reality of how caste became rooted in both psyche and structure - and how it can be uprooted.

Key References  

Amodio, D. M., & Cikara, M. (2021). The social neuroscience of prejudice. Annual Review of Psychology, 72, 439-469.  

Liu, Y., et al. (2015). Neural basis of disgust perception in racial prejudice. Human Brain Mapping, 36(12), 5275-5286.  

Ambedkar, B. R., Buddha or Karl Marx (in *Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches, various volumes).

reddit.com
u/Any_Significance8314 — 2 days ago
▲ 26 r/BuddhismIndia+1 crossposts

Kamma Is Not Destiny: The Buddhist Middle Path Between Fatalism and Free Will

The fatalists believe that everything, even the present active kammas, are predetermined or predestined.

In contradiction, free-will underlines liberty of choice, therefore the power of self-determination. It implies independence from subservience to fatalism.

Fatalism and Free-will are diametrically opposite and mutually negatory propositions. Yet these two antipodean concepts are invariably bound up with the fatalistic belief of Kamma, with all one’s experiences the whole conduct of one’s existence, with all one’s experiences, joys or miseries, good or ill-luck, success or failure.

Some people treat Kamma like fatalism: “Whatever happens is already written because of your past lives.” Others swing to the opposite extreme and claim “everything is pure free will, your present choices alone decide everything, and the past doesn’t matter.” Both views miss what the Buddha actually taught.

Explanations on the Buddhist understanding of Kamma and Vipāka, drawn from traditional explanations of the Dhamma.

1. Fatalism confuses Kamma with Vipāka

Fatalists believe everything - including your present actions — is already predetermined by past kamma. This is a fundamental misunderstanding.

  • Kamma = volition (cetanā). It is the intentional mental factor behind an action — in body, speech, or mind. The Buddha explicitly said:

    > “Volition, monks, do I call kamma. Through volition one acts in deed, word and thought.”

  • Vipāka = the result or fruit of that volition. It is the passive aspect of life - the conditions you inherit.

Present kammas are new and independent actions. They are not mechanically caused by past kamma. If they were, spiritual effort would be pointless and a poor person or animal would be doomed forever. Buddhism rejects this completely.

There is a relationship between past kamma and present conditions (vipāka-kamma relation), but it is not total determinism. Present volition can counteract and even modify the effects of past actions.

2. Buddhism rejects both extreme Fatalism and extreme Free-will

Fatalism says everything is predestined by some supernatural power or occult arrangement. It leads to helplessness and justifies exploitation (“the poor/outcaste/coloured person is fated to suffer”).

Extreme free-will claims the present moment is completely disconnected from the past and that inborn conditions (mental retardation, blindness, social inequalities, etc.) are just “coincidence” or can be fully overcome by sheer willpower. This is equally unrealistic.

The Buddha’s teaching takes a Middle Path between these two extremes.

3. The beautiful forest metaphor

The Buddha gave a powerful image for this:

Vanam chindatha mā rukkhaṃ,
Vanato jāyati bhayaṃ;
Chetvā vanaṃ ca vanathañ ca
Nibbanā hotha bhikkhavo.

> Cut down the forest;
> But not the tree!
> From forest springs fear.
> Having cut down the forest
> And the underwood,
> Be passionless, O monks!

- Maggavagga (Dhammapada v. 283)

Is there a forest without a tree?

Yet while preserving the tree one is advised to cut down the forest!

What does it mean? The forest is at best a concept, a mental creation, so are the concepts of pre-determinism or self-determinism. They are at best formulations of the mind which, if wisely utilized, can produce positive results.

The tree, however, is real and not merely conceptual. And, like an equipment, it is useful, if not harmless. The tree, here, stands for the ‘body and mind’ (nāma-rūpa); it is life itself which, as an instrument, should be wisely utilized in order to achieve the best result viz., spiritual emancipation.

While a forest can be ever perilous, because one gets lost in it, a tree need not. The allusion is that if one, by following the Golden Mean, cuts down the subjective forest of lust and egotism, hate and delusions, and therewith the wrong approach and the perverted views and ideology, then one can yet preserve the tree of life.

The forest = the mental tangle of views, extreme fatalism on one side and rigid free-will ideology on the other. Getting lost in these conceptual forests creates fear, confusion, and wrong practice.

The tree = your actual body and mind (nāma-rūpa), your real life as it is right now. This is what must be wisely used and preserved.

The Buddhist approach is:

  • Use the positive elements of both ideas where helpful.

  • But transcend both concepts mentally.

  • Don’t get attached to either extreme view.

This is the Golden Mean (yoniso manasikāra - wise reflection).

4. Why Buddhism is genuinely optimistic

Because Kamma is ultimately volition, and volition is autonomous in the present moment:

  • You are not helplessly bound by past kamma.

  • You can generate new kamma right now that weakens or transforms old results.

  • There is no supernatural judge or external arbitrator. Cause and effect works by itself through natural conditions (paccayas).

  • Man is “the captain of his destiny”- not because of some inflated ego, but because conscious volition has real power.

Even when certain conditions (vipāka from past actions) cannot be changed, your attitude toward them is still your own free choice. That choice can completely change the quality of your life.

5. Key takeaway

Buddhism does not teach:

  • “Everything is predestined, so just accept your fate.”

  • “You can manifest anything you want through pure positive thinking.”

It teaches something far more radical and empowering:

Your present volition is real and creative. Past results condition the present, but they do not dictate your response. Through wise, repeated, counter-active kamma in the present, you can attenuate old negative results and shape a different future - including liberation itself.

That is why Buddhists devote themselves to the active present rather than the passive past, in accordance with the teaching of the Buddha:

“Cetanāhaṃ, bhikkhave, kammaṃ vadāmi; cetayitvā kammaṃ karoti, kāyena, vācāya, manasā.”

“Volition, monks, do I call kamma (action). Through volition one acts - by body, speech, or mind.”

Aṅguttara Nikāya 6.63 - Nibbedhika Sutta

This is why the Buddha’s teaching is called the Middle Path, it avoids both the despair of fatalism and the delusion of total self-creation.

May all beings be free from confusion and suffering.

Jai Bhim! Namo Buddhay!☸️🪷

u/Any_Significance8314 — 3 days ago
▲ 610 r/bahujan+2 crossposts

Dalit woman says she doesn't consider herself a Hindu (translation in body)

>Reporter: You don't consider yourself a Hindu?

>Woman: I am a Dalit, but I don't consider myself a Hindu. Why should we consider? A Hindu can go to a temple, but a Dalit can't go to a temple. If they go...If our nation's President, who is a Dalit, goes to a temple, then the whole temple is cleaned. Then how are you saying that Dalit is a Hindu? If they want to instigate us against Muslims, only then is a Dalit a Hindu.

>Reporter: It is circulating that you want to break up the Hindus.

>Woman: You have broken them up, your people have broken them up. Your people don't let them enter temples. Look, let me speak...

>Reporter: Maulana Sajjad Nomani also recently stated that the SC community does not consider itself Hindu. His statement is being portrayed as anti-Hindu and as breaking up the Hindus. Now you are making similar statements.

>Woman: I am not making a statement. I am saying that the Dalits of this nation are not Hindus. They also should not consider themselves to be Hindus. Because the atrocities committed against Dalits by the BJP, by the so-called upper castes, that has never been done against anyone. Look at Babasaheb's pic...

>Reporter: Muslims didn't commit atrocities against you?

>Woman: They didn't.

>Reporter: Mughals didn't commit atrocities against you?

>Woman: They didn't.

Source

u/Any_Significance8314 — 6 days ago
▲ 69 r/BuddhismIndia+2 crossposts

What the Early Suttas Actually Teach: Investigation Over Blind Faith, Gender Equality, Social Ethics & How to Check Authentic Dhamma

Investigation is the Path of Dhamma

Buddhism encourages critical inquiry, reflection, and personal verification - unlike systems that demand blind obedience.

Key points from the suttas:

  • The Buddha told Upāli to “act after careful consideration” before following him (MN 56).
  • One should personally scrutinize even the teacher: “An inquirer should scrutinize the Realized One” (MN 47 || MA 186).
  • Dhamma-vicaya (investigation of principles) is one of the seven factors of awakening (DN 33 || DA 9).
  • Teachings are like a raft — useful for crossing over (liberation), not for clinging to (MN 22 || EA 43.5).

Do not accept anything by tradition, scripture, logic, or authority alone. Test whether it leads to harm or suffering; if it does, give it up (AN 3.65 || MA 16 — the Kālāma Sutta).

Core message: Investigation and discernment are central to the path.

Rejection of Wrong Views

Early Buddhism explicitly rejected several harmful ideas:

  • Caste system — All who join the monastic life (regardless of former class) are equal and simply called “ascetics who follow the Sakyan” (AN 8.19 || MA 135).

  • Animal sacrifices — Violent slaughter of animals is not to be praised.

  • Extreme penance / self-mortification — Painful, ignoble, and pointless. The Middle Way leads to peace and liberation.

  • Creator God — There is no creator. Phenomena arise through conditions (dependent origination).

  • Eternal soul / self — The five aggregates are repeatedly declared: “This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self” (SN 22.59 || SA 33).

Peace & Tolerance in Buddhism

  • The Buddha did not seek to make people abandon their teachers or traditions, but to help them overcome suffering (DN 25 || MA 108).

Key principles:

  • Practice non-violence and compassion toward all beings.

  • Stay calm and mindful when others are angry — this benefits both parties.

  • Do not become upset if the Buddha, Dhamma, or Sangha is criticized; anger only harms yourself.

  • Even after conversion (e.g., Upāli from Jainism), the Buddha supported people continuing beneficial previous practices (MN 56 || MA 133).

  • The Buddha’s Teachings on Gender Equality

  • Nirvana is open to both women and men.

  • Educated and competent nuns and laywomen were praised as ornaments of the Sangha.

  • Monks were instructed to regard women respectfully as mothers, sisters, or daughters.

A husband should serve his wife as the western quarter in five ways (DN 31 — Sigālovāda Sutta):

  • Treating her with honor
  • Not looking down on her
  • Not being unfaithful
  • Handing over authority to her (in household matters)
  • Presenting her with adornments

Notable nuns praised by the Buddha (AN 1.235 || EA 5.1):

  • Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī,
  • Khemā,
  • Uppalavaṇṇā,
  • Paṭācārā,
  • Dhammadinnā,
  • Nandă
  • Sonā
  • Sakulā
  • Bhaddā Kundalakesā
  • Bhaddā Kāpilāni
  • Bhaddakaccanā and others known for wisdom, psychic powers, teaching, meditation, discipline, etc.

Notable laywomen praised (AN 1.258 || EA 7.1):

  • Sujātā,
  • Visākhā,
  • Khujjuttarā,
  • Sāmāvatī,
  • Uttarā Nandamātā
  • Suppaväsă
  • Suppiyă and others known for generosity, learning, loving-kindness, meditation, and care for the sick.

Correct Way to Meditate (as taught by the Buddha)

From the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta (MN 10 || MA 98) — the four foundations of mindfulness:

  1. Aware of Breath As you breathe in, know: “I am breathing in.” As you breathe out, know: “I am breathing out.” Simply observe long or short, deep or light. Gradually calm the body and mind.
  2. Aware of Body “I am sitting.” “I am walking.” “I am standing.” Whatever posture you are in, know it clearly.
  3. Aware of Feelings “This is a pleasant feeling.” “This is an unpleasant feeling.” “This is a neutral feeling.” Just notice them arising and passing.
  4. Aware of Mind “The mind is restless.” “The mind is calm.” “There is desire.” “There is anger.” “There is clarity.” Do not judge — simply know its condition.

Handle distractions (desire, irritation, sleepiness, worry, doubt) gently. Observe how they arise and fade when not fed.

All things change — breath, feelings, thoughts, body. Remain mindful and relaxed, without clinging.

Social Ethics in Dhamma

For Householders (DN 31 — Sigālovāda Sutta)

4 Corrupt Deeds: Killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying.

6 Drains on Wealth: Intoxicants, nightlife, gambling, bad friends, laziness.

Four kinds of false friends:

  • One who only takes from you
  • One who gives only empty words
  • One who only flatters
  • One who encourages harmful behavior

True friends keep secrets, help in hardship, prevent evil, support good, and teach wisdom.

Toward workers: Fair wages, care in sickness, give leave, share treats.

Toward parents: Support them, fulfill duties, preserve lineage, protect inheritance, make offerings after death.

Four inclusive qualities (AN 4.32): Generosity, kind speech, helpful conduct, equal treatment.

For Monastics (examples from DN 2)

  • Avoid high luxurious beds, shows of dancing/singing/music, gold and currency, raw/uncooked meat, thievery, fraud, cheating, duplicity, accepting bribes, other corrupt conduct and many more.

How to Determine Authentic Dhamma-Vinaya

The Buddha himself gave clear criteria

Mahāpadesa Sutta (AN 4.180):

When someone claims “This was spoken by the Blessed One,” check it against the Suttas and the Vinaya. If consistent with both, it may be accepted. If inconsistent, reject it.

Gotamī Sutta (AN 8.53):

The Buddha gave eight principles to his aunt Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī for recognizing what is truly Dhamma (teachings that lead to dispassion, unyoking, shedding, fewer desires, contentment, seclusion, energy, and being easy to support — versus the opposites).

Note on textual history:

The Pali Nikāyas and Chinese Āgamas represent two major independent lines of transmission. Comparative study is a valuable modern tool, but the traditional criteria remain consistency with the core Suttas and Vinaya.

In Conclusion:

Ground your understanding in the Buddha’s own instructions for testing authenticity (AN 4.180 & AN 8.53). The early texts consistently emphasize investigation, compassion, ethical living, and personal verification over blind belief.

Compiled from the early suttas for educational purposes. Sources primarily MN, AN, DN, SN and their Chinese Āgama parallels (MA, EA, SA, DA).

u/Any_Significance8314 — 6 days ago
▲ 7 r/BuddhismIndia

Bhadant Anand Kausalyayan - The Prolific Monk Who Helped Carry Forward Babasaheb's Buddhist Revolution

Bhadant Anand Kausalyayan (1905–1988) was a Punjabi-born Buddhist monk, scholar, traveller, and writer who played a huge role in India's 20th-century Buddhist revival, especially among Ambedkarite communities.

Born Harnam Das in Sohana village (Punjab), he earned a BA from Lahore, briefly explored Arya Samaj, then ordained as a bhikkhu in Sri Lanka in 1928–29. Deeply influenced by Rahul Sankrityayan and Babasaheb Ambedkar, he joined the Quit India Movement and became a tireless propagator of rational, egalitarian Buddhism.

After 1956, he guided lakhs of new converts in Maharashtra and beyond through travels, teachings, and ordinations. He translated The Buddha and His Dhamma into Hindi (adding Pali references), produced 20+ books including Jataka tales, Dhammapada, travelogues like Kahan Kya Dekha, and sharp critiques like Manusmriti Kyon Jalai Gai? and a rational analysis of the Gita.

He also compiled Pali learning tools for Hindi readers.

A true bridge between scholarship, activism, and accessibility - he made Buddhism practical and empowering for the masses.

Jai Bhim! Namo Buddhay ☸️🪷

u/Any_Significance8314 — 9 days ago
▲ 15 r/ScheduledCaste+1 crossposts

A Critical Deconstruction of Ancient Indian Medical History, Oral Traditions, and Political Fabrication

On the recent installation of the statue of Sushruta, widely regarded as one of the earliest surgeons in history, which has been unveiled at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in Scotland, i've been since diving deep into the historical evidence around Sushruta, the claimed "Father of Surgery," and how ancient Indian medical and Vedic traditions hold up under scrutiny.

What started as a question about textual evidence in my mind turned into a full-blown debate on linguistics, archaeology, dating methods, Buddhist connections, and how power politics (ancient and colonial) shape what we call "history."

This is a systematic summary of that discussion. I'm approaching it with skepticism, not dismissing achievements, but questioning the layers of myth, oral transmission gaps, and retrospective editing.

Let's break it down.

The Case for Sushruta

Impressive Claims, Late Physical Evidence

Sushruta Samhita is a monumental text detailing advanced surgery (rhinoplasty via forehead flap, cataract procedures, 101 blunt + 20 sharp instruments, even using ants as "staples" for wounds). It is traditionally dated to ~600–1000 BCE, with Sushruta practicing in Kashi under Divodasa (Dhanvantari).

Supporting points

  1. Manuscripts: Oldest surviving is the Kathmandu KL 699 palm-leaf (878 CE). The Bower Manuscript (4th–5th CE, from Turkestan) cites related surgical traditions.

  2. Global transmission: Arabic translations (8th CE) influenced Avicenna; later Western adoption via the 1794 Cowasjee rhinoplasty case in The Gentleman's Magazine, which matched Sushruta's technique exactly and inspired modern plastic surgery in Europe.

  3. Institutional recognition: Statues at Royal College of Surgeons (Edinburgh, 2026) and Royal Australasian College.

Major red flags:

  1. No direct mention of Sushruta by name in pre-1 BCE Buddhist texts (which are rich in medical stories).

  2. Jivaka (Buddha's physician, ~5th BCE) studied under Atreya in Taxila, not linked directly to Sushruta's Shalya (surgery) lineage in Varanasi.

  3. Early Buddhist texts mention Divodasa but credit medical knowledge to the Buddha/monasteries, stripping Vedic/Brahmanical lineages.

  4. Physical copies appear centuries (or a millennium) later. The text has clear layers: ancient core + later redactions (e.g., Nagarjuna adding Uttara-tantra ~2nd CE).

Dating Challenges

Oral "Onion" vs. Hard Evidence

How do we date an oral tradition on perishable materials in a humid climate?

Linguistic arguments (philology)

  1. Archaic pre-Paninian grammar in core sections (before ~400 BCE).

  2. Cross-references (e.g., anatomy matching Shatapatha Brahmana ~700–600 BCE; mentioned in Mahabharata).

  3. Absence of post-Alexander Greek terms or heavy Buddhist vocabulary in oldest layers.

Skeptical counters (materialist view)

  1. Physical evidence for Vedas/Panini/Brahmanas is late (medieval manuscripts). No contemporary stone/artifact proof from 1000 BCE.

  2. Texts could be faked/edited under Gupta patronage or later to legitimize against Buddhist rulers.

  3. Sociopolitical details and "absence of later concepts" can be retroactively constructed by reading history.

  4. Mitanni Treaty (1380 BCE, Syria): Shows Proto-Indo-Aryan elements (gods like Mitra, numbers like "satta" closer to Prakrit than classical Sanskrit). Proves an ancestral dialect existed but not rigid "Vedic Sanskrit" as we know it.

Archaeology

  1. Painted Grey Ware (PGW) culture (~1200–500 BCE) matches some descriptions (iron, horses), but pots/bones don't equal "Vedic Brahmins." Could be diverse groups (including those later erased like Ajivikas).

  2. Ganges ecology destroys wood/mud structures—unlike Egypt/Mesopotamia.

  3. Ashoka's edicts (260 BCE): Prakrits (simplified, vernacular), not Sanskrit. Proves linguistic drift, vedic forms had already "died out" in common use.

Linguistics is interpretive (Wittgensteinian: language games create illusions).

Phonetics, meters (Anustubh/Tristubh), and "lost sounds" rely on assumptions. Oral mnemonics (Ghana-patha etc.) preserved texts impressively across regions, but not flawlessly evolved (Rigveda Mandalas show internal changes). Claims of perfect "computer-like" preservation are overstated pseudoscience.

  1. Buddhist Connections and Omissions

Buddhist texts pre-1 BCE don't name Sushruta. They overlap in medical sophistication (Jivaka's craniotomies, laparotomies) but emphasize different lineages and credit the sangha/Buddha. This fits a pattern of de-Brahmanizing knowledge. Later Bower Manuscript (Buddhist-linked) does reference Sushruta.

  1. The Brahmanical Tricks and Political Fabrication

Texts aren't neutral, they're products of power

  1. Layers added for legitimacy (avatar myths, guru-discipline claims).

  2. Allopanishad: Fabricated under Akbar to portray him as Vishnu avatar.

  3. Manusmriti: Not everyday law but elevated by pandits + Warren Hastings (1774) into colonial legal code for rigid caste governance and divide-and-rule.

  4. Colonial orientalists amplified Brahmanical narratives, linking to Aryan race myths, while glorifying elites.

Deconstruction Methodology (used in the debate)

  1. Stratigraphic ("Onion") analysis: Peel core linguistic/tech layers from later paint.

  2. Materialism: Prioritize carbon-dated stone/clay over palm-leaf copies.

  3. Cui bono?: Who benefits from edits? Kings, elites, colonizers.

  4. Separate artifacts from identity projections, track linguistic drift scientifically (Ashoka as baseline).

TLDR and some Key questions

Sushruta's surgical knowledge was influential, surviving via practice. But the historical person and texts as presented involve heavy later mythologizing, redactions, and gaps.

Vedic/Brahmanical traditions rely on oral claims with sparse early physical corroboration due to ecology + materials. Linguistics helps but is subjective, archaeology is patchy and prone to bias.

Political fabrication (ancient patronage, colonial codification) is undeniable, texts served power, not pure preservation.

This isn't "debunking" innovation but urging critical history, distinguishing practical medical legacy from constructed narratives.

Buddhist sources provide a counter-tradition emphasizing compassion and monastic empiricism over Vedic ritualism.

Q. How do manuscript transmission, linguistic archaism, institutional power, and material survival shape what later generations come to regard as ancient knowledge?

Q. How do we distinguish real ancient knowledge from the origin myths present societies build around it? And how do manuscripts, linguistics, power, and survival biases shape what we call "ancient tradition"?

References & Further Reading

Meulenbeld, G. J. A History of Indian Medical Literature (Groningen, 1999–2002) – Standard scholarly reference on the composite, multi-layered nature of the Suśrutasaṃhitā and its redactions (incl. Nagarjuna’s role).

Bower Manuscript (4th–5th century CE) – Early Central Asian witness mentioning Sushruta traditions; edited by A. F. R. Hoernle.

Zysk, Kenneth G. Medicine in the Veda and Asceticism and Healing in South Asia – On overlaps between Buddhist (Pali Canon/Jivaka traditions) and Ayurvedic medical knowledge.

Primary texts: Suśrutasaṃhitā (trans. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna, 1907–1916); Ashokan edicts (Prakrit); Mitanni Treaty (c. 1380 BCE) for Indo-Aryan linguistic context.

On colonial codification: Studies on Warren Hastings and the elevation of Manusmṛti (e.g., works by J. D. M. Derrett or Nicholas Dirks on colonial knowledge systems).

Archaeological/linguistic context: Discussions of Painted Grey Ware culture and Indo-Aryan linguistics (e.g., standard references on Panini and post-Ashokan Sanskrit revival).

u/Any_Significance8314 — 9 days ago