dvija varNa

[Swaminathan Madhuresan]

N. Chandran wrote:
>> So it is next to impossible for Gautama to have had brahmin teachers
>> if he wasn't a dvija.

S. Hodge wrote:
>Pardon my ignorance, but I though "dvija" meant one was a brahmin.
>You were saying (probably correctly) that the Buddha was a k.satriya
>earlier so when did this transmutation occur ?

For all the three var.nas, except the Shudras, "dvija" (twice-born) is
applied. A good study of how this works in N. India:
The twice-born, a study of a community of high-caste Hindus,
Carstairs, G. M. (G. Morris), Indiana University Press, 1961.

Application of varNa schemes onto anything like fauna or flora:
Smith, Brian K., Classifying the universe : the ancient Indian varna system
and the origins of caste, OUP, 1994

Regards,
SM


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