z:\ ambedkar\vol 011\vol11 03.indd MK SJ+YS 5 10 2013/YS 18 11 2013 188
188 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
§ 4. Conversion of Sumangala and other Low Castes
II
Sumangala was a peasant of Shravasti. He earned his living by work in the fields, working with a little sickle, plough and spade.
Channa was a native of Kapilavatsu and was a slave in the house of Suddhodana.
Dhanniya was a resident of Rajagraha. He was a potter.
Kappata-Kuxa was a native of Shravasti. The only way he knew of, to support himself, was to go about, clad in rags, pan in hand, seeking for rice-grains. Hence he became known as Kappata-Kura—“Rags and-rice.” When grown up, he maintained himself by selling grass.
All of them sought from the Buddha permission to become Bhikkus and enter the Order. The Buddha without hesitation and without caring for their low birth or their previous condition, admitted them into the Order.
§5. Conversion of Supprabuddha, the Leper
Once the Exalted One was staying near Rajagraha, in the bamboo grove, at the squirrels’ feeding-ground.
Now there lived in Rajagraha at that time a certain man, who was a leper, named Supprabuddha, a poor, wretched, miserable creature.
And it happened at that time that the Exalted One was sitting there in the midst of a great multitude, teaching the Dhamma.
And Supprabuddha, the leper, saw from afar the multitude gathered together, and at the sight he thought, “Without a doubt an alms-giving of food, both hard and soft, is toward yonder. Suppose I draw near to yonder crowd, I might get there something to eat, food soft or hard.”
So Supprabuddha, the leper, drew near that crowd, and he beheld the Exalted One sitting there amid