ABSTRACT
The resistance to the caste systems goes back to the birth of Brahmanism. It can certainly be noted in the ideological realm in the form of Shramans versus Brahmans. The Shramans had a radical view of life and society, nearly opposite to that of Brahmans, which they propagated among people wandering across the land. There existed several strands of the Shramana movement, 1 which did not cohere into a single ideological stream. However, they all generally rejected a supreme God, such as Brahma, or any other form of a creator and stood for equality of all humans. 2 While not much is known about the Shramana streams, two of them, namely Jainism and Buddhism, came to prominence as institutionalised religions through royal patronages.
