The Buddhists put forth an alternative perspective on social inequalities and mechanisms to address conflicts within society. According to a myth found in the Sutta Pitaka, they proposed that in the beginning, humans did not possess fully developed physical bodies, and the plant world was also not fully mature. During this idyllic period, all beings lived in harmony, peacefully gathering only the necessary resources from nature for their sustenance.

Assertion: The Buddhists criticized the varna order, the Brahmanical view of society.

Reason: They disregarded the differences in society to be natural, inflexible or to be based on birth.

Both the Assertion and the Reason are correct and the Reason is the correct explanation of the Assertion.

At another level, even as the Brahmanical view of society was codified in the Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras, other traditions developed critiques of the varna order. Some of the best-known of these were developed within early Buddhism. The Buddhists recognised that there were differences in society, but did not regard these as natural or inflexible. They also rejected the idea of claims to status on the basis of birth.