Did Gautama Buddha endorse the caste system? Did Gautama Buddha endorse the caste system?


  Buddhism: An Atheistic and Anti-Caste Religion?
  Modern Ideology and Historical Reality of the Ancient Indian Bauddha Dharma
  by Edmun Weber
  
  Hans Wolfgang Schumann has statistically proven that almost all of Buddha's disciples were high caste people and that the Brahmans comprised the majority of the Sangha.
  
  Buddha tells about the earlier Buddhas in the so-called Mahapadana Suttanta- Great Sermon on the Legends.21 He refers to their membership of (high) caste as the first characteristic of their full enlightenment. According to this report the Buddhas belonged all to the high castes, to the Kshatriyas and Brahmans. Buddha says proudly about himself "And now I, the venerable and fully enlightened one, was born a warrior and have come from the caste of the warriors, O monks.
  
  21  Buddha - Die Lehre des Erhabenen. Aus dem Pali Kanon ausgewählt und übertragen von Paul Dahlke, München 1960. 


Also:


  The Bodhisattvas appear only in two kinds of lineage, the one of the Brahmanas and of the warriors (Kshatriya). 


So my question is, did the Buddha endorse or uphold the Vedic caste system?
Did Gautama Buddha endorse the caste system?


Of course not. There's a whole chapter in the Dhammapada where it shows what qualifies one as a brahman. None of them use high birth or high caste as the criteria:


  Whoever does no wrong
      in body,
      speech,
      heart,
  is restrained in these three ways:
      he's what I call
      a brahman. ~~ Dhp 391 ~~


About the Buddha being born in the high caste, we shouldn't blame Him for that. If any, the blame should be on the way folks treated one another in ancient India. It's simply a skillful mean to be born in whatever condition that is most conducive and effective in propagating the Dhamma. The Buddha was a Kshatriya and He already got all kinds of attacks from all kinds of religious sects. Now imagine being born an Untouchable in ancient India and trying to propagate a whole brand new religion, well, good luck with that!