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truth (also called ‘Mahabhinishkramana’ or the Causes for the Growth of Buddhism ) and wandered for 6 years. and Jainism • He fi rst meditated with Alara Kaiama. But he was • The Vedic rituals were expensive and the sacrifi ces not convinced that man could obtain liberation prescribed were very complicated and had lost from sorrow by mental discipline and knowledge. their meaning. His next teacher was Udraka Ramputra. He then • The caste system had become rigid. joined forces with fi ve ascetics – Kondana, Vappa, • Supremacy of the created unrest. Bhadiya, Mahanama and Assagi, who were • All the religious texts were in , which was practicing the most rigorous self-mortification not understandable to the masses. Y in the hope of wearing away their karma and Buddhism obtaining fi nal bliss. • For six years he tortured himself until he was Buddhism is the of wisdom and compassion. nothing but a walking skeleton. But after six years It stands for three pillars: he felt that his fasts and penance had been useless • Buddha – its founder so he abandoned these things and the fi ve disciples • Dhamma – his teachings also left him. • – order of Buddhist monks and nuns. • Attained or Enlightenment at 35 at Five Great Events of Buddha’s Life and Uruvela, Gaya in Magadha (Bihar) under the Pipal their Symbols tree. • Birth – Lotus and bull • Delivered the fi rst sermon at at Deer Park • Great renunciation – Horse where his fi ve disciples had settled. His fi rst sermon • Nirvana – Bodhi tree is called ‘Dharmachakrapravartan’ or ‘Turning of the Wheel of Law’. • First Sermon – or wheel • Attained Mahaparinirvana at (identical • or death – with village Kasia in Deoria district of U.P.) in The Buddha 483 B.C. at the age of 80 in the Malla republic. His • Also known as Sakyamuni (the Sage of the Sakyas), death is said to have been caused by a meal of pork Jina (the Victorious) or Tathagata (one who has (sukramad-dava), which he had taken with his lay reached the truth). HRONICLEdisciple Chunda at Pavapuri. • Born in 563 B.C. on the Vaishakha Poornima Day • His last words were: “All composite things decay. at (near Kapilavastu) in . Strive diligently!” This was his “fi nal blowing out” C (Parinirvana). His body was cremated and his ashes • His father Suddhodana was the Saka ruler. were divided among the representatives of various • His mother (Mahamaya, of Kosala dynasty) died tribal societies and King Ajatshatru of Magadha. after 7 days of his birth and he was brought up by his stepmother Gautami. The Dhamma • Buddha was married at 16 to Yashodhara and The Four Great Truths enjoyed married life for 13 years and had a son named Rahula. IAS ACADEM• Dukkha – The world is full of sorrow and misery. • After seeing an old man, a sick man, a corpse and • The cause of all pain and misery is desire and an ascetic, he decided to become a wanderer. attachment. • Left his palace at 29 (with , the charioteer • Pain and misery can be ended by killing or and his favourite horse, Kanthaka) in search of controlling desire.

© Chronicle IAS Academy ANCIENT 19 • Desire can be controlled by following the Eight Fold • Fourth Council – At Kashmir (Kundalvan) in Path. 72 A.D. under Vasumitra (king was ). Vice Chairman was Ashwagosha. Divided into The Eight Fold Path and sects. The central theme of Buddha’s teachings is the • In Mahayana, idol worship is there. It became eight-fold path (Astangamarga) prescribed by him popular in China, Japan, Korea, Afghanistan, which consist of: Turkey and other South East countries. • Wisdom – Right Faith, Right Thought, • Hinayana became popular in Magadha and Sri • Moral Discipline – Right Action, Right Livelihood, Lanka. It believed in individual salvation and not Right Speech, in idol worship. • Mental Discipline – Right Effort, Right • Apart from these two there is third vehicle called Remembrance and Right Concentration. , which appeared in the 8th century and grew rapidly in Bihar and Bengal. They did not Belief in Nirvana treat meat, fi sh, wine, etc. as a taboo in the dietary • When desire ceases, ceases and nirvana is habits and freely consumed them. attained i.e. freedom from the cycle of birth and • Fifth Council – In Mandalay, Burma (now death by following the eight-fold path. Myanmar) in 1871 and was presided over by • According to Buddha the soul is a myth. monks in the reign of KingY Mindon. • Sixth Council – In Kaba Aye in Yangoon in 1954, Belief in Ahimsa was sponsored by the Burmese Government. One should not cause injury to any living being, animal Buddhism after Buddha or man. • Of all the religious remains of between 200 B.C. Law of Karma and 200 A.D. so far discovered in India, those Man reaps the fruits of his past deeds. of Buddhism far outnumber those of any other viz., Hinduism, Jainism etc together. The Sangha • Hieun Tsang (the Chinese traveler), in the 7th • Consists of monks (Bhikshus and Shramanas) and century A.D. found that the Lesser Vehicle or nuns. Hinayanism is almost extinct in most of India, and • Bhikshus acted as torch bearer of the Dhamma. only fl ourishing in a few parts of the west. • Apart from Sangha, the worshippers were called • From Nalanda, the missionary monk Upasakas. went forth to convert Tibet to Buddhism in the 8th century A.D. • In the 6th century AD, the Huna King Mihirkula The monks gathered four times after the death of destroyed monasteries and killed monks. the Buddha and the effect of these events had their • A fanatical Shaivite king of Bengal, Sashanka, in the effect on Buddhism. course of an attack on Kannauj in the beginning of the 7th century A.D., almost destroyed the Tree of • First Council – At Rajgriha, in 483 B.C. under HRONICLEWisdom at Gaya. the Chairmanship of Mehakassaapa (king was • As late as the 5th century A.D., written scriptures Ajatshatru). Divided the teachings of Buddha into were rare and the pilgrim Fa-hien was hard put to two Pitakas – Pitaka and Sutta Pitaka. Upali C fi nd a copy of the Vinay Pitaka. recited the Vinaya Pitaka and Ananda recited the Sutta Pitaka. Buddhist Literature • Second Council – At Vaishali, in 383 B.C. under Buddhist literature in language is commonly Sabakami (king was Kalasoka of Shishunaga referred to as Tripitakas i.e. ‘Threefold Basket’. Dynasty). Followers were divided into • Vinaya Pitaka are the rules of discipline in Buddhist Sthavirmadins and Mahasanghikas. monasteries. • Third Council – At ,IAS in 250 B.C. underACADEM • Sutta Pitaka is the largest and contains collection Mogaliputta Tissa (king was ). In this the of Buddha’s sermons. third part of the Tripitaka was coded in the Pali • Abhinandan Pitaka is the explanation of the language. philosophical principles of the Buddhist religion.

© Chronicle IAS Academy ANCIENT 20 • Mahayana and Deepvamsa are other Buddhist • His father Siddhartha was the head of Jnatrika clan. texts. They provide information about the then His mother was Trishla, sister of Lichchhavi Prince Sri Lanka. Chetak of Vaishali. • Jatakas are the fables about the different births of • was related to Bimbisara. Buddha. • Married to Yashoda and had a daughter named • The fundamentals of Buddhist teachings are Priyadarsena, whose husband Jamali became his contained in the “Dhammacakka-Pavattana Sutta fi rst discipline. (Sermon of the Turning of the Wheel of Law). • At 30, after the death of his parents he became an Buddha fi rst taught this to his fi rst disciples at ascetic. Benaras. This contains the and • In the 13th year of his , outside the town the Noble eight-fold path, which are accepted as of Jrimbhikgrama, he attained supreme knowledge basic categories by all Buddhist sects. (Kaivalya). • Among the chief Mahayana texts is the Lalitvistara, • From now on he was called Jaina or Jitendriya and a fl owery narrative of the life of Buddha. This test Mahavira and his followers were named Jains. He was utilized by Sir Edwin Arnold for The Light also got the title of i.e. worthy. of Asia, a lengthy poem on the life of Buddha, • At the age of 72, he attained death at Pava, near which enjoyed much popularity at the end of the in 527 B.C. Mahavira survivedY the death of last century. his chief rival Gosala and probably also that of the Causes of Decline of Buddhism Buddha, and died of self-starvation at the age of 72 in the little town of Pava, near the Magadhan capital • It succumbed to the Brahmannical rituals and Rajagriha. It is said that at the time of Mahavir’s ceremonies such as idol worship, etc. which death at Pavapuri, the kings of the two clans viz., Buddhism had earlier denounced. the Mallas and the Lichchhavis, celebrated the lamp • Revival of reformed Hinduism with the preaching festival in his honour. of Shankaracharya from ninth century onwards. • After the death of Mahavira, during the reign of • Use of Sanskrit, the language of intellectuals in place King Chandragupta, a severe famine led to the great of Pali, the language of the common people. exodus of Jain monks from the Ganga valley to the • Deterioration in the moral standards among the Deccan, where they established important centres monks living in the Buddhist monasteries. of their faith. This migration led to a great schism • Attacks of Huna king Mihirkula in the sixth century in Jainism. who led the emigrants and the Turkish invaders in the 12th century A.D. insisted on the retention of the rule of nudity which which continued till the 13th century A.D. Mahavira had established. , the leader of the monks who remained in the north allowed Jainism his followers to wear white garments, owing to the • Founded by Rishabhanath, the fi rst . hardships and confusion of the famine. Hence arose • There were 24 Tirthankara (Prophets or Gurus) two sects of the Jains: the (sky-clad i.e. and all of them wereHRONICLE Kshatriyas. Rishabhanath’s naked) and the Svetanbaras (white-clad). reference is also there in the Rigveda. But there is • Our knowledge of Jainism after Mahavira is no historical basis for the fi rst 22 . Only meager. There were eleven ‘’ but only the last two areC historical personalities. one of them named Sudharman survived the • The 23rd Tirthankara Parshwanath (symbol: snake) master and became the fi rst pontiff. He died 20 was the son of King Ashvasena of Benaras. His years after Mahavira. main teachings were: Non-injury, Non-lying, Non- Teachings of Mahavira stealing, Non-possession. • Rejected the authority of the Vedas and do not • The 24th and the last Tirthankara was Vardhman attach any importance to the performance of the Mahavira (symbol: lion). He added celibacy to his sacrifi ces. main teachings. IAS ACADEM • He believed that every object even the smallest Vardhman Mahavira particle possesses a soul and is endowed with • He was born in Kundagram (district Muzaffarpur, consciousness. That is why they observe strict non- Bihar) in 599 B.C. violence. © Chronicle IAS Academy ANCIENT 21 • The Jains reject the concept of the Universal soul • The Second Council was held at Vallabhi () or a Supreme power as the creator or sustainer of in the 5th century A.D. under the leadership of the Universe. Devridhigani. It resulted in fi nal compilation of 12 • Jainism does not deny the existence of Gods but Angas and 12 Upangas. refuses to give Gods any important part in the universal scheme. Gods are placed lower than the Other Important Facts Jina. • Jainism reached the highest point in Chandragupta • Universal brotherhood (non-belief in the caste Maurya’s time. In Kalinga it was greatly patronized system). by Kharavela in the fi rst century A.D. • In Jainism, three Ratnas (Triratnas) are given and • Various factors were responsible for the decline of they are called the way to Nirvana. They are Right . They took the concept of Ahimsa Faith, Right Knowledge and Right Conduct. too far. They advised that one should not take medicine when one fell sick because the medicine killed germs. They believed that there was life in • According to a Jain tradition, an oral sacred trees and vegetables and so refrained from harming literature had been passed down from the them. Such practices could not become popular days of Mahavira, but Bhadrabahu was the last with the common man. person to know it perfectly. On Bhadrabahu’s Y • Lack of patronage from the later kings. death, Sthulabhadra called a Great Council at • is in Ardh-Magadhi and Prakrit Pataliputra which was the First Jain Council held dialects. in the beginning of third century B.C. It resulted in • Due to the infl uence of Jainism, many regional the compilation of 12 Angas to replace the former languages emerged out, like Sauraseni, out of 14 . The Digambaras rejected this canon and which grew the Marathi, Gujarati, Rajasthani and declared that the original one was lost. Thus, there Kannada languages. was a great urgency to devise new scriptures.

HRONICLE C IAS ACADEM

© Chronicle IAS Academy ANCIENT 22