The seventh sutta of the Uragavagga of the Sutta Nipáta. It was preached at Sávatthi to the brahmin Aggikabháradvája (it is thus also called the Aggikabháradvája Sutta, SNA.174), who reviled the Buddha, calling him outcaste (vasala) when the Buddha went to his house for alms.
The Buddha replied that the brahmin knew neither the meaning of vasala, nor what makes a man such. At the request of the brahmin he preached this sutta, the burden of which is that it is not by birth that one is an outcaste or a brahmana, but by one's deeds (SN., pp. 21f). The Sutta is also included in the Parittas (q.v.).