The period of
the 6th century B.C. saw a heightened level of intellectual stirs across the
world. All four great civilizations experienced a transition in their thought
process brought by Socrates and his pupils in Greece, Zoroaster in Iran, Lao
Tse and Confucius in China and Buddha and Mahavira in India. In the Indian
subcontinent, the society had numbers of factors on various fronts for this
philosophical stir. The permanent settlements were already made in the form of
villages due to high dependence on agriculture. The same resulted in the
formation of societies in which the members became mutually dependent on each
other for various services. The exchange of services finally resulted in
formation of service specific groups who formed majority part of labor class
(the Shudra). Increases in trade and commerce resulted in formation of trading
communities (the Vaishya). On the spiritual front, cultural fusion within
different human races along with the curiosity of understanding the hymns of
the Vedas in the deeper sense by then priestly populations resulted in creation
of Brahmnas. The Brahmnas transformed the simple Vedic religion of nature
worship into a complex combination of elaborate rituals with superstition
devoted to multiple gods. The direct beneficiary of the increased rituals was
priestly populations as they received daans (alms) in the form of land, gold
and other gifts. These received gifts could have become the main driving force
for the creation of more and more rituals, named as sanskaras, which were
performed on various occasions from birth to death of a person. Some of these
rituals even lasted for a few days to weeks to months and the cost of those was
enough to make a rich person poor. The complexity of the rituals in the form of
Brahmnas made the path difficult for others to move into this profession.
Slowly certain population and their generations within Indo-Aryan society, who
had a good command over Brahmnas and its various sacrificial rituals, got their
position fixed as a priest or Brahmin. As per Sruti literatures, in RigVedic
period people moved from one class to another depending on the occupation they
selected, for e.g. knowledge of Vedic texts and ceremonies were enough for a
person to be classified as a priest. But slowly it was made hereditary evident
from the Samhitas that were created later, for e.g. Vajasaneya Samhita prefers
a Brahmin for priestly service who is descended from three generations of
sages. In case of warrior class too, the descendants of early warrior
populations were considered best for the position of a king or other
administrative positions and therefore forming a Kshatriya class in the
society. However till that time or even in later period also, it was naturally
not possible for a King to be only of Kshatriya origin. The position of King
was highly dynamic in nature as more powerful person of the society always
replaced the weaker King of that state. The same phenomena were however not
applicable to the position of priest as there is no end to intellectual /
spiritual debate. This made the position of priests and their successors nearly
static in the society and thus natural support from them to this very system
which was birth based. In all occupational classes, the social position of
labor class / service groups was deteriorating day by day economically as well
as morally due to lesser control over natural resources such as land and
increased feeling of being religiously impure. The position of woman too was
slowly deteriorating and it is well recorded that how Buddha himself first
rejected the proposal for including women in the Buddhist Sanghas. Later
Megasthenes also records that the Brahmins do not communicate knowledge of
philosophy to their wives. The period saw clan superiority or blood purity
concept coming in certain tribes even though they had primarily same
occupation. Thus before the birth of Buddha and Mahavira, the Indo-Aryan
dominated society witnessed the formation of castes and then numerous
sub-castes, deterioration in social, economical and religious position of women
and Shudras and monopolization of the path of liberation by few human groups
through their mastery on endless rituals. However the period also witnessed
stir in certain intellectuals who saw some of these developments harmful to
society. According to the Buddhist and Jain sources, there were minimum sixty
three philosophical thoughts that were against Brahmanism and its rituals [1]. These
traditions that appeared in the Gangetic planes against aastika (orthodox
Brahmanism) were referred as nastika or Sramana (heterodox) traditions by the
orthodox Brahmins of Kuru-Panchala. Overall it can be said that the Indo-Aryan
dominated society was under transition phase in this period with increased
orthodoxy on one side and revolt from it on other side.
In nastika traditions, one of the most respected teachers was Purana Kassapa
who proposed the theory of akriyavada (non-action). He had believed that since
the soul is passive, no action can affect it and therefore there is no merit in
offering sacrifices, speaking truth and no guilt in killing, robbing etc. He
claimed that only an infinite mind could comprehend a finite world. It was said
that Kassapa could perceive anything. Buddha credited him and other heretical
teachers with ability to know where a particular dead person was reborn. In the
tradition, Pakudha Katyayana was another well known teacher who classified
everything into seven categories namely earth, water, fire, air, pleasure, pain
and soul with all being eternal. He too denied the reality of action asserting
that the soul is superior to good and evil and untouched by any change. King
Ajatshatru of Magadha was one of his followers. Both Buddha and Mahavira
considered his philosophy as another version of the non-action theory.
Ajita Keshakambalin was another renowned philosopher who propagated the theory
of bhautikvada (materialism). According to him, there is no merit in
sacrificing or offering or doing good either, because nothing exists except the
material world. There is no afterlife, no benefit from service and no ascetics
who have attained enlightenment or perfection. According to him, when a person
dies, the body returns to earth, fluids to water, heat to fire, and breath to
air, the senses into space, and no individuality remains. He was against the
view of Katyayana and others that the soul exists independent of body. He saw
the individual as a whole, which the apprehending mind can conceive. He taught
people to respect life and honor the living while they are alive, rather than
death and those who are dead. Ajita was criticized by Mahavira for being
materialistic and hence possibility of creating chaos in society in the absence
of any fear.
Sanjaya Belatthiputta was another well known teacher of that time who floated
the concept of ajnanavada (agnostics). He had many contradictory views
regarding the body and soul. He believed that one should be ignorant of these
things than to adopt one folly or another. However, in disregarding speculative
questions he did attempt to focus the attention of his many followers on the
‘attainment and preservation of mental equanimity’. He, too, was criticized by
Mahavira as the one who walks around in ignorance. It is believed that Sanjaya
has prepared the way for Mahavira's doctrine of syadvada (antinomies) and the
Buddha's method of vibhajyavada (critical investigation) as both found that
there could be no final answers to some of the difficult questions related to
cosmology, ontology, theology and eschatology.
After Buddhism and Jainism, the third important sect from nastika tradition was
of ajivaka floated by Mankhali Gosala. Initially he was closely associated with
Mahavira and traveled with him for six years, but then left because of
doctrinal differences. He led ajivaka sect for sixteen years by living in
Sravasti. He taught a theory of transformation and believed that humans are
purified through transmigration. According to him, the complete cycle of
reincarnation is 84 lakh (8.4 million), a well known theory still believed in
India about birth cycle. He believed that everything is pre-destined and
nothing could change fate. Everything acts according to its own nature, and
nature is a self-evolving activity making things come to pass and cease to be.
He also believed that karma is independent of individual will and follows its
own logic. He taught that although it is predetermined, it is still one's duty
to be lawful, not trespass on other's rights, make full use of one's liberties,
be considerate, pure, abstain from killing, be free from earthly possessions,
reduce the necessities of life and strive for the best and highest of human
potential. Both Buddha and Mahavira criticized Gosala for his teaching that
karma is independent of one’s will and everything is pre-destined. The
followers of Gosala and wandering ascetics practiced the fourfold discipline of
asceticism, austerity, comfort-loathing and solitude. It is said that when
Chanakya was captured by the Nanda kings of Magdha who were great patrons of
this faith, he escaped as nude ajivika ascetic but still in Arthshastra he
levied a fine on anyone inviting them. The second Mauryan emperor Bindusara was
follower of this faith. Several rocks cut caves belonging to this sect, built
at the time of the Mauryan Empire, is found in Barabar caves in Jehanabad
district of Bihar. Some south Indian scriptures show that this faith was very
much alive till 13th century AD.
Other than these nastika cults, the one propagated by Mahavira and the one
floated by Buddha had a lasting impact on the Indian society. Both rejected the
very concept of the supremacy of Vedas and its ritual of animal sacrifices to
please gods. They further rejected the monopoly of Brahmins over religious
activities and gaining concept of superiority of Brahmins over Kshatriyas and
others. Both preached non-violence and attainment of salvation (moksha) to
masses irrespective of their class.
3.1 Mahavir
Jaina
Mahavira, also known as Vardhamana, was born in the
village Kundagrama of Videha republic in 599 BC in the family of King
Siddhartha and queen Trishala. The family of King Siddhartha belonged to the
Kashyapa gotriya Jnatrika Kshatriya and that of queen Trishala belonged to the
Vasettha gotriya Lichchhavi Kshtriya. Both mother and father of Mahavira were
followers of 23rd Jain Tirthankar Parshvanath who was born in the family of
Kshatriya King in Varanasi around 8th century BC. Regarding the birth of
Mahavira, the mythical story says that he was transferred from the womb of
Brahmani Devananda, another wife of King Siddhartha, into the womb of
Kshatrayani Trishala since Tirthankaras can be only of Kshatriya origin. As a
young, Vardhamana gave high regards to all living things and avoided harming
them. In later years, he married to Yasoda and had a daughter named Anojja
(Anuja). At the age of 30 years, he left worldly life and spent first twelve
years as an ascetic. In this period, he gave up all the worldly possessions
including his clothes and lived an extremely austere life. At the end of twelve
years, he achieved the arihant status. Mahavira devoted the rest of his life
preaching the eternal truth of spiritual freedom. He traveled barefoot and
without clothes, enduring harshest of climates, meeting people from all spheres
of life who came to listen to his message. Ahimsa remained one of the most
important teachings of Mahavira. He taught people to avoid physical as well as
emotional injuries to all living beings. He urged people to observe strict
vegetarianism. He preached against the Brahmanical sacrifices and denied the
supremacy of Vedas. He rejected the caste system and taught that all humans are
equal. He taught the necessity of right faith (samyak darshana), right
knowledge (samyak gyana) and right conduct (samyak charita). He instituted
sangha for the people who wanted to leave the worldly life and live like monks
or nuns. Mahavira has been referred as a Jina, means the person who has control
over all his senses and therefore people who followed him were known as Jaina.
Unlike Buddha, who is the originator of Buddhism, Mahavira just put great
efforts to propagate the ancient religion of Jainism in masses.
3.2 Gautam Buddha
Nearly after 36 years of Mahavira’s birth, Siddhartha Gautama was born in
563 BC in the family of King Suddhodana and Mahamaya of Kapilvastu republic.
Both parents belonged to Gautam gotriya Kshatriya tribes of the Shakyas.
Siddhartha lost his mother when he was just seven days old. Thereafter he was
brought up by Mahaprajapati, another wife of Suddhodana and the younger sister
of Mahamaya. When Prince Siddhartha was 16 years old, he got married to his
cousin princess Yashodhara of village Devdah. When he was 29 years old, she
gave birth to a boy, named as Rahul. Soon after that one night, Siddhartha
renounced the world and sought to gain insight into life’s meaning. He crossed
the River Anoma and entered into the Anupiya town of Malla republic. He cut off
his long hair with his own sword and removed the royal cloth and sent them at
home with his charioteer Channa. During his travel, he first met a well known
Brahmin Alara Kalma in the Uruvela forest of Magadha. From him, he learned the
Vedas and sadhanas. Unsatisfied, he moved to Aacharya Uddaka and there he
developed many clairvoyant, psychic visions and powers but again the same
dissatisfaction. Next he met sage Kaudinya with whom he practiced extreme self
mortification and privations. He continued the practice for six long years.
Looking at his extreme meditation, five people became his disciples.
Towards the end of the period, his health deteriorated rapidly and one day he
fell down becoming unconscious. It was this time when Sujata, a village girl,
gave him rice and milk which finally restored his health. Gautama eating food
upset his five disciples and they left him. One day, he sat down under a pipal
tree of Uruvela forest and decided that he will not leave the seat until he has
obtained the supreme enlightenment. Nearly after 49 days, it was the month of
May and the full moon day (Vaisakh Poornima). In early watch of the night when
he was still in meditation, Mara, the evil, attacked him. Troubled by this, he
thought for a moment of his royal palace, father, kingdom, wife and the young
son. Soon he overcame over this thought and Mara was defeated. A deep peace
settled over Gautama and he went into deep meditation. Just before the dawn, he
had the visions of his former births and his consciousness rose to the highest
plane of awareness. He attained the perfect knowledge and enlightenment and
became ‘Buddha – the awakened one’. After 2 months, on full moon day of Ashad
month (celebrated as Guru Poornima), he went to Sarnath in Varanasi and gave
his first sermon on ‘Four Noble Truths and Middle Way’ to his earlier five
disciples. At first the disciples tried to avoid him but when they saw him
approaching, they could not resist themselves and welcomed him. This way, by
giving the first sermon, Buddha sets the ‘Wheel of Dharma’ in motion. Till the
age of 80 years, he travelled from Magadha to Kosala and preached the society
about Dharma. He formed Buddhist Sanghas for people who wanted to leave the
worldly life and live as ascetics.
Buddha and Elephant cult in India: According to myths related to
the Buddha’s birth, his mother Mahamaya in her dream saw a six tusked young
white elephant entering into her body and then after 10 months giving birth to
Siddhartha. One myth correlated the white elephant with Airavata – the elephant
of Indra and the other myth from Tibet believed the elephant to be of Buddha
Kashyapa. In many Buddhist tales, Buddha has been referred as a white elephant.
Many a times, the elephants are shown as vahanas (vehicles) of Buddha
and all Bodhisattavas. Some Buddhist Jataka tales give references of elephant
festival and one of them refers about the worshiping of the stone image of an
elephant. Though the ancient text Rig Veda composed by invading Aryans never
shown them encountering any elephant worshiping aboriginal population nor any
of early Vedic literature talk about any elephant God, however the same is
frequently mentioned in Buddhist literature. Mahayana Buddhism mentions
Buddhist god in the elephant form with Vinayaka name, a very famous name of the
elephant headed God in southern India including Maharashtra. Till today in
northern India, specifically in the land of ancient republics i.e. Gorakhpur
and surrounding regions, the stone images of elephants having the appearance of
“vahana” are widely worshiped by the masses. Historians based on all evidences
see the relation of Buddha with the elephant cult as an indication of Buddha
and Buddhism getting inculcated by the elephant worshiping aboriginal or
non-Aryan tribes of ancient India when the religion started flourishing in and
after the period of Ashoka. Just like the association of monkey cult people
with legendary King Rama helped in deep penetration of monkey cult in Gangetic
planes or cow cult after association of cow with famous King Krishna, very
similarly when Buddha was seen as an incarnation of the elephant God by some of
its aboriginal followers practicing animism and when the same started appearing
in Buddhist literature, the cult slowly penetrated in other Buddhist too. In
later period, rapid spread of Buddhism in and outside the Indian territory
helped in flourishing of the sacred elephant cult within Aryans and far away in
Srilanka, China and Japan also. Clearly in the tradition of totemism or animism
(zoolatry), Buddha has nothing to do with the origin of the elephant cult in
India but his association with the same made significant contributions to its
spread in and outside India and thus bringing elephant in the list of most
worshipped animals across the subcontinent.
3.3 Jain and Buddhist philosophy
Nonviolence constituted one of the important philosophy out of many
propagated by both sages. Mahavira stressed heavily on ahimsa. It resulted in
nonviolence and vegetarianism becoming the first principle of his followers. He
revived the Jain sanghas and added one more truth of Brahmacharya to the list
of four truths taught by Parsavanatha. The five truths thus became – ahimsa
(non violence), satya (truth), asteya (non-stealing), aparigarha (non
possession or limited possession) and brahmacharya (chastity). On the other
side, taking middle path on nonviolence, Buddha condemned the animal sacrifices
during yajnas saying that ‘it is not easy to find a living being who has not at
one time been our mother, father, brother or sister.’ He taught that when we
save any animal, we are not just saving a fish or a rabbit, but the life of one
of our mothers in the past. According to Nipata Sutta, when Buddha was
wandering in Sahet-Mahet (Sravasti, Uttar Pradesh), some Brahmins inquired
whether the Brahmin religion is now same as that in ancient days. To this,
Buddha replied that in olden days, it was completely different. He said that it
is the same dharma whose purity he wish to restore. He listed some points where
the old Vedic religion and new differed –
- The ancient Brahmins were simple ascetic (isayo) who abandoned the ‘objects
of the five senses’.
- They ate contentedly the food that was placed at their door. They had no
cattle, gold or corn.
- They made sacrifices of rice, butter etc and never killed the cows, the best
friend of man, the givers of medicines.
- However when Kshatriyas gained power, chariots and jeweled women, Brahmins
too tried to gain all these things and invented costly sacrifices including the
killing of animals like Ashwamedha and went up to man sacrifice Purushmedha.
During these sacrifices, thousands of animals including cows are killed who do
not harm anybody. Through these sacrifices, they gained costly gifts in form of
gold, cows, chariots, grains etc
The Brahmins were moved by the Buddha's words and refrained from future animal
sacrifices. Similar incident is also recorded in Samyutta Nikaya whereby King
Pasenadi of Kosala wanted to sacrifice 500 oxen, 500 male calves and 400 sheep
in a ceremony. When Buddha came to know this, he convinced him that Asvamedha,
Purusmedha and Vajpeya etc did not produce good results. He convinced him that
sages of good conduct never prescribe those sacrifices in which various beings
such as goat, sheep and cattle are killed. After the advice, King abandoned the
sacrifice and animals were released. Following the same principle, Cakkavatti
Sihanada Sutta of the Digha Nikaya states that the duty of a king is to provide
protection not only for his subjects but also for the beasts of the forest and
birds of the air. The same principle was implemented across the Indian
subcontinent in the reign of Ashoka Maurya (around 250 BC) who prohibited animal
killing (including that done during Vedic ceremonies but excluding when killed
for eating purpose), planted trees, dug wells and provided medical care for the
benefit of both man and the beast. He repeatedly implored his subjects to treat
animals with respect and kindness. The same principle was also followed by King
Harshavardhana around 7th century AD who abolished the slaughter of animals
across northern-India.
Points of similarities: Both philosophies originated and developed as
distinct religions in Bihar and adjoining states of India by two Kshatriya
sages. Both favor ahimsa and non-injury to animals. They reject the supremacy
of Vedas and condemned the caste system which was making its route in society.
Both philosophies believe in the concept of karma and its effect on an
individual’s life including rebirth. Both believe that the soul can liberate
from the cycle of life and death which they termed as nirvana.
Points of difference: Mahavira denied the existence of God while Buddha
remained silent on that. Jainism advocates extreme form of penance to get
nirvana so much so that it admits death by starvation whereas Buddhism
advocates a middle path that lies between the excessive luxuries and the
extreme austerity of Jainism. While Buddhist regarded rituals simply as
irrelevant and ignored Brahmin ceremonials, Jainism represented a much more
ardent critique of the Brahmanical sacrifices. Jainism preserved the
metaphysical discussions of Brahmins while Buddhism avoided them. Buddha talked
against the caste system without disturbing the social fabric while Jaina fully
discarded it. Buddhism got royal patronage while Jainism didn’t. Buddhism
flourished in the period of King Ashoka and crossed the boundaries of India
while Jainism remained within India only. These all factors led to Jainism
having fewer followers than Buddhism.
3.4 Buddhist and Jain Sanghas - click here to read
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References:
[1] Rapson,
E. J. (1955). The Cambridge History of India, p. 150. India: Cambridge
University Press.
[2] Lillie,
A. (2003). Buddhism in Christendom or Jesus the Essence, p. 57. London: K.
Paul. Trench.
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Index Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10
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