Political Science · Indian Political Thought
UGC NET December 2019 Political Science
The Agganna Sutta deals with which of the following? Select the correct answer from the codes given below.
- 1. Origin of life
- 2. Origin of social order and castes
- 3. Origin of secularism
- 4. Origin of the six-fold policy
A1 only
B2 only
C1 & 2 ✓ Correct
D1, 2 & 4
Correct answer: (C) 1 & 2 — The Agganna Sutta deals with the origin of life (1) and the origin of social order and castes (2), so the answer is 1 and 2.
Explanation
★The Agganna Sutta deals with the origin of life (1) and the origin of social order and castes (2), so the answer is 1 and 2.
★The Buddha presents the origin of life as a cosmic process of contraction and expansion (samvatta and vivatta kappa), with beings first existing as luminous forms before the earth takes shape.
★As beings consume material food, physical and moral differences appear, and from these emerge property, family and finally social classes.
★The account is less about literal creation and more about a critique of caste, showing varna as a human, historical product rather than a divine decree.
★It describes the election of Mahasammata, the 'great chosen one', to punish wrongdoing, an early theory of the origin of kingship.
★Statement 3 is wrong: the Sutta is a religious-ethical text and does not theorise secularism, an idea anachronistic to its age.
★Statement 4 is wrong: the six-fold policy (shadgunya) belongs to Kautilya's Arthashastra, not to this Buddhist discourse.
★In the Sutta the contract is symbolised by taxation, a payment for keeping order, and the obligation is mutual, so a breach by one side frees the other.
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