Origin and evolution of the society with reference to Aggannasutta

Buddhism appeared in India in the 6

th
century B.C. Prior Buddhism, Brahmanism was the
main religious.
According to Brahmanism, the world and human beings were created by Mahabrahma.
They also believed that he divided the society into our castes such as Brahamin came
rom his mouth o Mahabrahama, !satriya rom his hands, "aisya rom his cloth and
#udra rom his eet.
#ome religious believes that the world and everything came into being by aith. There is
no need to do merit or demerit and there is no cause and condition. According to $ainism,
everything happens due to %arma. It will e&ist last long until the world disappears.
According to modern world, they remar% that the world and everything in the world e&ist
due to the gradual evolution. They do not believe in 'od and !arma
According to the AggaGGasutta the society evolves rom wholesome condition to
unwholesome status. The world evolves in a circle all the time in the history. At the
earliest stage in its evolution the beings e&ist in a wholesome condition. 'radually as a
result o ad(usting to the environment and ta%ing dierent %in%s o ood their physical
bodies become more and more gross and hard. Their bodies to travel through the air and
radiance that emanate rom bodies disappear and they cannot depend on happiness unless
ta%ing some gross ood.
)ventually they began to eat rice and as a result there appears sings o males and emales
in their physical bodies. They began to loo% at each other because o these dierences
and there arises in their mind the concept o desire. This ma%es ground or the amily lie
as husband and wie. They were named as "essas. This was the irst group which
separated rom the other groups o the society.
At the beginning lands were the common property o all. They gathered ood only when
they were needed. *ne person because o his idleness, gathered ood or several days and
others ollowed that e&ample. Thus the habit o accumulation o grain or wealth came
into being. This caused a scarcity o ood. The people, due to scarcity o ood, tried to set
up boundaries to the common o land. Thus the concept o ownership came into being.
There were some people who while protecting their own properties stole rom those
others. It was the origin o stealing. +ow the society wanted a leader to punish those who
commit unwholesome acts such as stealing and lying. ,or this purpose they approached a
suitable person and appointed him as the leader, the great elect MahAsaMmata. They
gave some portion o their grain to him as remuneration or his services.
This #utta says that the people divided themselves according to their occupation and they
were %nown by name denoting that occupation.
Ta%ing the above statement we can assume that the origin and evolution o society are
based on the characteristics and occupation o that individual.