ABSTRACT
SO far little has been said of the brahmins. Among the ^ six schools brought forward by Ajā tasattu there is no mention of one representing the brahmins, and among the sixty-two doctrines in the Brahmajāla-Sutta it is difficult to recognize any as being held in the form stated by one of the orthodox schools. Yet the brahmins play a large part in Buddhist polemics, though it is as priests, not as mystics or philosophers. Their claim to be the highest caste, and to be the only caste able to perform the sacrifices and ceremonies necessary for men even to exist as a member of society, had led to protests. Buddhism was only one of these movements, which, as we have seen, were led by ascetics seeking, not a reformed state of worldly society, but an explanation of the ills of life and an escape from them.
