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SOCIAL LIFÐ AND EQONOMIC CONDITIONS 149
triyas were openly claimed to have been entitled. to a superior position.' Throughout the early Jaina and Buddhist texts, a sharp distinction was sought to be drawn between the Brāhmaṇas as they ought to have been and the Brāhmaṇas as they actually were, that is to say, between the ideal and the fact. In drawing a correct picture of the social life in India as revealed in the ancient Jain and Buddhist texts, we are concerned with the Brāhmaṇas as they actually were. As for the other view, even on the frank admission on the part of the Jainas and Brāhmaṇas, there were ideally perfect Brāhmaṇas in the past. Their criterion was applied to the Brāhmaṇas of the time who became degenerated on account of their graduar deviations from the ancient path of purity or morals, absence of greed, contentment and magnanimity. What they themselves aspired to be was the ideally perfect Brāhmaṇa. When the Brāhmaṇa stood theoretically for the ideal, the nature of the claim was not that all those who passed in society as Brāhmaṇas lived or were capable of living up to that ideal. Simi. Jarly, when the Khattiyas contended for the ideal of Jinahood or Buddhahood, the nature of the claim was not that all those who passed in society under the name of Khattiyas became or were capable of becoming Jinas or Buddhas. The claim indeed was that it was among the
