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Home , Buddhism, Jati (Buddhism), Kalpa (aeon), Tapas (Indian religions), Yama

Chapter 1

historical overview The Context out of which Emerged

The Brahmanical took the partic­lar shape that it did. In order to understand the ’s teachings, we The founder of Buddhism, must, in a , acquaint ourselves with the Gautama, was by birth what we would now basic religious and philosophical vocabulary call a “Hindu,” and although Siddhartha was of the . highly critical of the into which he The dominant religious system in the north- was born, and although the movement that he ern Indian world into which the Buddha was founded broke with this dominant religious born is often called Brahmanism—the word in significant ways, Buddhism did “” is a foreign label describing the not emerge from a religious vacuum. Indeed, diverse religious culture of , first used by it is important to recognize that Buddhism Arab traders in the eighteenth century—a reli- was at the start very much a reform move- gion based on a body of texts called the ment from within Hinduism. It is thus essen- that had developed orally beginning around tial to understand something of the social 1500 b.c.e.; this religious tradition is thus and religious world of sixth-century-b.c.e. sometimes also called the Vedic tradition. The India in order to understand the Buddha’s Vedic religious world was one inhabited by own religious and why Buddhism numerous , or devas—a word related to

  v The Emergence of Buddhism

the English word “”—many of whom themselves as a subset of this general group of ­were personified forces of nature. , itinerant religious seekers. Also among these although very much at the and whim groups was , the founder of another of these powerful beings, could nonethe- new religious tradition, . less interact with and influence the devas by At about the same time, important social praising them and them . changes were also in process along the In return, humans received boons from the Gangetic plains in northern India. Kingdoms ­gods—abundant crops, healthy sons, protec- began to emerge out of the traditional kinship tion, and long lives. structures that had governed social and politi­ A new genre of religious discourse began to cal life for centuries, and with these kingdoms emerge out of the Vedic religious world some- emerged cities and highly structured systems of time between the seventh and the fifth centu- government. Furthermore, trade routes began ries b.c.e., a body of known as the to develop between these cities, and with trade . Although they would eventually came both economic growth and the emer- become part of Hinduism, these texts—orally gence of a merchant class. This latter group transmitted, like the Vedas—questioned the is particularly important in the emergence of efficacy of the formal and introduced Buddhism, for although they had economic new, essential religious ideas, many of which status, the merchants and traders did not have would eventually be adopted by the Buddha: religious status; the Buddha would offer them the cyclical idea of (samsara), the ethi- a new religious path that would allow them to cal law of cause and effect (), the con- develop that status in part through their mate- cept of liberation () from the world of rial support of him and his followers. samsara through the path of , and the importance of calming the through (). The Vedic Worldview and As the ideas of the Upanishads began to the Centrality of Sacrifice spread in India, some , mostly men of the educated class, took them to heart, and The word Veda literally means out to experience the liberation that these “knowledge,” specifically, the specialized, ideas described. To do so, they renounced divinely inspired knowledge contained within their ties to the material world—in order to the verses of these massive texts. It is a knowl- be able to focus on their spiritual pursuits— edge that unlocks the power of the , a and undertook spreading these new ideas knowledge that is, furthermore, the spe- even further, and debating philosophical and cial province of the Vedic , known as meditational points. These various religious . seekers were called shramanas—literally, There are several important aspects of “wanderers”—and the earliest Buddhists saw the Vedas that should be noted at the outset Chapter 1: Historical Overview v 

­here. First, these were said to be revealed texts, from one person to another, and only spe- called shruti—which means “heard”—by the cial persons— priests—could learn, Hindu tradition. They were said to have not speak, and hear them. been composed, but rather orally revealed The texts that make up the Vedas are a mix- to humans by the gods. The Vedas were ture of hymns of praise, myths, and ritual for- thus authorless, not written but “heard” and mulas. The ritual texts, particularly the group remembered and passed down by the brah- of liturgical texts called , mins to other brahmins. As such, they were highly elaborate, often intricately detailed considered authority, infallible . directions for how to properly perform sacri- Furthermore, they were, and continue to be, fices to the various gods, how many bricks to considered by the Hindu tradition to be eter- use in the , what offerings to make and nal, having always existed and forever exist- when and by whom, and so on. Other Vedic ing, and thus were held not only to be perfect, texts, however, are directed to the many gods but also to be, essentially, religious and social who control the cosmos. This, then, is a world imperatives, rules to be followed absolutely. in which the different gods are active forces The Vedas, then, and the brahmins who pro- in life and, furthermore, in which tected and perpetuated them—and who the actions of these gods can be influenced ­were the only people who could speak and by proper—or improper, as the case may hear the Vedic verses and perform the Vedic ­be—ritual performance. The basic goal of the ­—were the hallmark of Indian religious Vedic rituals was to maintain order—cosmic , and it was precisely this exclusive order among the realm of the devas, and, in and restricted sense of religious practice that a parallel sense, human order. The concept of would be challenged by the Buddha. order is indeed at the very core of the entire Perhaps because the Vedas were exclusively Hindu tradition. oral texts, sound (or vac) was considered to be The religious path expressed by the Vedas the primary creative force in the world, a is one of “action,” the literal meaning of the (or sometimes ) in its own right—it is word karma, and it is most fundamentally a sound that unleashes the power of the sacrifice path concerned with ritual. As such, this is a and also that which reproduces the structure religious worldview concerned not primarily of the world. Hence the Vedas contain verbal with , with what comes after this life, formulas called , which, when recited, but with this world—, health, and ­were thought to bring about creation. These wealth. Religion, in fact, was understood in formulas were in a language called “Sanskrit” early India to be a kind of work, which when (literally, “well formed”), which was the special properly performed produced worldly bene- language of the sacrifice and which embodied fits. Thus, there is in theVedas an emphasis on the properly constructed cosmos. These verbal sacrificial action, or work, and on the correct formulas were memorized and passed down performance of that action.  v The Emergence of Buddhism

The hymns of the Vedas were chiefly com- of sacrifice and making the purification pro­ posed for chanting at sacrifices, where animals, cess an entirely internal one. grains, milk, and clarified butter ( ) were The sacrificial world of the Vedas was offered to the gods. On the most basic level, extremely complex, involving elaborate prep- sacrifice was conceived of as a meal offered arations to ensure the purity of the ritual to the devas by the humans. The medium of priests, the sacred space, and the sacrificial these offerings was fire, or —both in an offerings. The construction of the sacrificial earthly sense (the word “agni” is related to the fire , likewise, involved days of careful English word “ignite”) and in a divine sense and exacting preparations. In fact, large por- (Agni was considered the god of fire). Fire was tions of the Vedas consist of highly technical essential to the Vedic religious world because instructions as to how to perform these com- it had tremendous power: It (a) transforms plex rituals. Finally, the sacrifices themselves the physical, material offered into would often go on for many days, involving “food” for the gods; (b) purifies the offerings dozens of priests and multiple offerings to made to the gods; (c) represents both creative multiple gods. and destructive energy; and (d) is the very In the early , probably begin- basis of human domestic life (without heat ning sometime around 1500 b.c.e., the gods and cooking, there can be no life). Thus Agni ­were considered to be the creators and pre- was one of the most prominent gods in all of servers of the cosmos, and these devas were the Vedas, the messenger between the human the dominant focus of the religion. Gradually, and the divine realm, the transporter of the as the Vedic worldview developed over several dead, and, in some verses, the embodiment hundred years, the religious emphasis shifted, of all gods. As one Vedic verse puts it, “That and the centrality of the sacrifice and the which is (the whole universe, the sacrificial priests was emphasized more and prime mover), the priests speak of in vari- more. Thus, in later texts such as the Atharva ous forms; they call it Agni” (Rig Veda 1.164). Veda, the sacrifice itself was understood to be Furthermore, Agni was sometimes conceived the re-creation, on a human level, of the cos- of as heat, or , which was also the - mos. Indeed, in , sacrifice is fying ascetic energy necessary for the proper what creates the world. Thus, the priests who performance of the ritual; the priests would held the special and secret knowledge of the prepare themselves for the ritual by generating sacrifice were seen as having the fundamental tapas—created through various purification knowledge of the universe, and thus the ability rituals and intense meditation—that burned to control it. They were the focus of the reli- off their spiritual impurities. As will be exam- gious world and the sole religious actors on ined later, the Buddha took this basic idea, the religious stage. It was they and they alone the purifying quality of heat, and directed it who knew the sacred texts and performed the inward, rejecting the external understanding sacred rituals. Significantly, it was precisely Chapter 1: Historical Overview v  this restricted, essentially elitist religious called , described as the art of the gods, ­world—in which religious power and status a projection of the gods’ imaginations. The was confined to a small group who inherited idea is that the gods give form to the powers their positions—that the Buddha rejected and that are already present in the cosmos, eter- reformulated. nally, as part of the natural order of things; In addition to the ritual specialists who they do not, in this sense, create the powers, made up the brahmin caste, there was a sub- but rather make them manifest in the world. group of brahmins called , or seers. Hence, the gods are often described as crafts- On the most basic level, these were religious men, “measurers,” using their “rulers” to form specialists who, through what we might call the world. Thus, a prominent early Vedic god “mystical vision,” were able to see into the true is called Vishvakarman (“maker of every- nature of things, into the divine realm, and thing”), and he is described as the divine thus communicate with the gods. They gained architect or carpenter who fashions the world this visionary in part through ingest- out of nothing. ing a substance called , which gave them (“father of life”) is another Vedic a purified vision. What wassoma ? The answer creator god, described as at once the uni- to this question is not known, although schol- verse, time, sacrifice, and sacrificer. This is at ars do know that it was some sort of a hallu- quite confusing: Prajapati emits all liv- cinogenic plant—it has been conjectured that ing beings via the sacrifice, and then he has to it was perhaps the fly agaric mushroom. At be put back together by the sacrifice because any rate, soma was ritually prepared—there he himself has been sacrificed in creating the are long portions of the Vedas devoted to the world; indeed, when the Vedic priests build the preparation and praise of soma—and then fire altar, with its 720 bricks, they are building ingested by the special priests as part of the Prajapati, who is the year (360 for the days, larger sacrificial rituals. Soma is also por- 360 for the nights). In this ritual, the priests trayed and praised in the Vedas as a god, much are said to “reassemble” him, and the word to like the Greek god ­ermes—an intermediary describe this process, not incidentally, is “san- between the world of the humans and the skrit”—properly constructed, well fit. ­Here world of the gods. we can see the early articulation of a signifi- cant idea, a metaphoric rebuilding or reform- ing of the ’s that gets developed The Vedic Gods in later Indian religion. The sacrifice thus not only makes the cosmos come into being, but In many respects, the early Vedic gods are it also, on a human level, makes the person personifications of natural forces—wind, fire, “complete.” rain, or sun. The gods are responsible for cre- Another prominent Vedic god is , to ation, which they effect through something whom about one quarter of the verses of the  v The Emergence of Buddhism

Rig Veda are devoted. He is described as the The Dynamics of Caste tireless consumer of soma, and as the arche- type of generative forces. Furthermore, it is In this examination of the religious and he who creates hurricanes, who pours down social context out of which the Buddha and rain, and who commands all forms of wet- Buddhism emerged, it is important to finally ness. He is thus associated with life and, at consider one of the most significant aspects times, destruction. Most significantly, though, of Brahmanical and Vedic religious and social he is the benevolent leader of the —the life against which the Buddha reacted—what nomadic tribes who settled in northern India is most typically called “the caste system.” The and who are thought to have been the human Vedic religious world was hierarchical: the authors of the Vedas—their great warrior and devas were at the top of this hierarchy (within protector. Some of his epithets in the Vedic the realm of the devas there were hierarchi- texts are the “destroyer of and cities,” cal divisions as well), and below them was the “bestower of ” on humanity, and human realm, formally defined by the divi- the “ of .” In significant ways, the sion of society into four classes, or varnas, image of Indra as model king will be adopted membership in which was determined solely and reformulated by the Buddhists, who will by birth. Although the caste system took conceive of the model king not as a god but, many hundreds of years to develop, and was, ultimately, as the Buddha himself. at least initially, not so much a system—and A discussion of the Vedic gods could go on certainly not the oppressive system that it has for many pages, but what is important to note, often been seen to be—as a means of under- in the context of the rise of Buddhism, is that standing and prescribing social and religious the world was conceived of in these hymns roles, caste eventually developed into one of and myths as being formed and ruled by pow- the defining aspects of the Hindu religious erful gods, who often, through their whimsy tradition. or divine play, reeked havoc on the human At the top of this hierarchical social struc- realm. Humans could certainly—via hymns ture were the sacrificial priests, the brahmins. of praise and sacrifice—influence the gods, It was their role and duty to perform the reli- but ultimately they were, in this worldview, gious rituals and to preserve and recite the at the mercy of these often-capricious . Vedas—to memorize the thousands of verses The Buddha would reject this cosmological in the texts, to them at the sacrificial worldview outright, particularly this reliance rituals, and to pass these texts on to succes- on the whim of the gods, and instead would sive generations of brahmins orally. In so forcefully posit that humans and humans doing, the brahmins maintained the order, alone are responsible for their birth, their or , of the divine world, assuring that , and, ultimately, their salvation. the gods were appeased through sacrifice and ritual praise. Directly below the brahmins in Chapter 1: Historical Overview v  the hierarchy were the , the warriors otic division of labor and life—the Buddha and sociopolitical rulers. Just as it was the himself was highly critical of this division duty of the brahmins to maintain the order of society. He saw the jati, or birth, model of of the divine world, so was it the dharma of dividing society, which was the basis of the the kshatriyas to preserve order in the human caste system, as fundamentally oppressive, realm. Below the kshatriyas were the , and rejected it outright. Rather, the Buddha the cultivators and keepers of domestic ani- posited that one’s own effort in each life deter- mals. It was their dharma, accordingly, to pro- mined one’s previous and rebirths, and vide food and material goods. Below them he also insisted that even the lowest members ­were the , the laborers and servants, of the social structure could attain salvation whose dharma it was to ensure the cleanliness by cultivating selfless and by of the other three classes of humans. striving for self-awareness. Salvation, there- Accordingly, this was a system not only of fore, was not from a Buddhist perspective mutual dependence, but also of restriction. the special privilege of the brahmins, but was There was no upward mobility in this system. open to everyone. One Vedic text (the Purusha Shukta of the Rig Veda) that describes the creation of the universe envisions this social system as a human being Time, Death, and Speculation who is sacrificed to create the world: the brah- in the Later Vedas mins are the mouth of the human (because of their oral preservation and performance of the When the Buddha set out to find the path to sacred verses of the Vedas); the kshatriyas are enlightenment, he did so in order to conquer the arms (because they are the “strong arms” suffering and, ultimately, death, because he of the social world); the vaishyas are the thighs saw that it was continued rebirth—and thus (the support of the body); and, significantly, also redeath—through time that was the very the shudras are the feet (the lowest, but also basis of suffering. But what was the prevailing in many ways the most fundamental). Thus, understanding of these complex ideas at the social and cosmic order, dharma, can only be time of the Buddha’s birth? maintained if each part of the body is present Time was considered in the early Vedic and “healthy.” Certainly, the feet are lower than period to be eternal; the gods and the cosmos the head, but without the feet the body cannot had always existed in one form or another, stand. and would always continue to exist. The issue Although it seems that the Vedic under- of what happens to humans at death was not standing of caste bears little resemblance to a prominent topic. Rather, as we have seen, it the restrictive and oppressive system that later was life that was emphasized, and the sacrifice came to dominate Indian social and religious was intended to provide for in this ­life—it was originally envisioned as a symbi- world by appeasing the gods. By the late Vedic  v The Emergence of Buddhism

period, however, a certain note of anxiety can the concept of a “realm of the Fathers”— be detected in the Vedic discourse. The tone somewhat mysterious figures who are, like the of the Vedic texts seems to shift, moving from gods, to be praised and worshipped—where the confident and remarkably unspeculative one goes after earthly death. In other words, discussion of sacrifice to a troubling note the seeds of the concept of rebirth were sown of existential . Questions begin to be in the later Vedic period, and by the time the raised about the nature of creation, about the Upanishads were introduced (about which relationship between the gods and the indi- more will be said in the following section) vidual, and the very nature of death. In the the fate of the individual after earthly death tenth book of the Rig Veda, for instance, we became a primary concern of Indian religious find the question raised as to what there was thought. in the beginning, before the world was cre- This marks a profound moment in the ated. Was there something, or was there noth- development of Indian religion, recorded in ing? What came before there was something? the later Vedic texts—particularly evident in Does anyone know? Who created the creator? the Brahmanas, a genre of commentarial lit- These are weighty questions, to be sure, ques- erature that provides a kind of running inter- tions that, in one form or another, are fun- pretation of the Vedas. It is this development damental to virtually all religious . that would eventually lead to the emergence Significantly, though, these questions remain of Buddhism: a shift in focus is evident, away unanswered in the Vedas, as if their human from the quid pro quo world of the sacrifice, authors recognized the ultimate mysteries of in which offerings are made to the gods in the cosmos, and as if these authors wished, in order to get earthly results, and toward a new the end, to invite further philosophical and search for the nature of the self, the nature of existential speculation. ­life—indeed, a search for the very nature of More specifically, the sages in the Vedas existence. began to wonder whether or not there was some sort of . A kind of -like realm of prolonged suffering after death for those The Challenge of the Upanishads who lived poorly, who did not properly per- form their religious and social duties, is some- This shift in focus is recorded in the times discussed in the earlier texts, a realm Upanishads, a group of orally transmitted that is overseen by the god (“death”), texts that began to be composed in the last although the nature of these , and how part of the Vedic period, from about the one ends up there, is generally laid out in rather eighth through the sixth centuries b.c.e. The vague terms. Essentially, death in the earlier tone of these texts is very different from that Vedas seems to have been viewed as an inevi- of the majority of the Vedas. It is existentially table end. The later texts, however, introduce speculative and profoundly philosophical. It Chapter 1: Historical Overview v  is in the Upanishads that what became the that literally means “action,” but comes in the central tenets of Indian religious thought— Upanishads—and in Buddhism as well—to ideas that formed the basis of Buddhist refer to any intentional action that creates thought as well—are most clearly articulated: consequences or is performed with the antici- the concept of samsara, or the continuous pation of results, including, therefore, sacrifi- cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth; the idea cial action (which is, after all, fundamentally of atman, a permanent self that transmigrates intended to create, to bear fruit). In order to through samsara (the Buddha, however, will break free from the binds of samsara—and it reject this idea of a permanent self); the doc- is essential to recognize that the Upanishadic trine of karma, moral and ethical causality; sages saw rebirth as a negative phenomenon— and the possibility of moksha (in Buddhist one must find a way to stop generatingkarma , terms, ) or release from this world of the actions that lead to rebirth, in the first rebirth. place. In the Upanishads we no longer see a model, On its face, this may seem to be a rela- as articulated in the Vedas, of a cosmos pop- tively simple : if it is actions that cre- ulated by a multiplicity of gods who must ate karma, then the solution to the existential be influenced via the sacrifice, but rather the state of human beings, to being stuck in the Upanishads focus on the abstract divine prin- world of rebirth, must be the elimination of ciple underlying all of existence, which is called all actions. However, the Upanishadic sages Brahman (not to be confused with the caste recognized that it is extremely difficult to stop brahmin). And what is this power? “It is the all actions. First, one must separate from the unseen seer, the unheard hearer, the unthought world of action—from sacrifice, from domes- thinker, the ununderstood understander. Other tic life, from the ties of family. The Upanishads than It, there is no seer. Other than It, there is are thus sometimes called Forest Books, in no hearer. Other than It, there is no thinker. that they advocate a simple life, removed from Other than It, there is no understander. It is the hustle and bustle of the world, a life away, your atman, the inner controller, the immor- in the forest. Second, the Upanishads advo- tal” (Brihad Upanishad 3.7.23). cate a life of focused meditation (yoga) and The Upanishads are fundamentally ascetic philosophical introspection. Yoga, a word that in their orientation, advocating a religious life literally derives from a Sanskrit verb meaning outside of society, a renunciation of worldy “to yoke”—as in to yoke an ox to a plow—is attachments. The sages who wrote them, who understood as means to the end here. It is a recorded the dialogues about the nature of the mental and physical technique of concentrat- self, existence, Brahman, death, and release, ing on a single , that of Brahman, which rejected the Vedic involvement in things of this is sometimes described in the Upanishads as world. These texts locate the basic existential The One, and of cultivating the realization problem as the generation of karma, a word that one’s own self, one’s atman, is no different 10 v The Emergence of Buddhism

than the divine whole of Brahman. According by a transformation of the concept of sacri- to the Upanishads, Brahman is not only the fice, in which the external, formal sacrifice of energizing force of the cosmos, but it is also the Vedic world is internalized. The outward the very self of the human being. action of the sacrifice,karma , is rethought and Thus, the Upanishads advocate a path of given an ethical and moral emphasis. Proper ­self-knowledge, a knowledge that results in sacrifice is not in the Upanishads understood the removal of a fundamental ignorance that to be the offering up of material, into the fire creates the illusion that there is a difference of Agni, to be transported to the gods; rather, between the individual atman and the abso- true sacrifice is the generation of an internal lute Brahman. This ignorance—which is heat, or tapas, that burns off one’s and sometimes called maya, or illusion—leads to allows for the elimination of ignorance and, grasping, to the generation of karma, and it is ultimately, karma. Furthermore, the prime this karma that causes rebirth. Thus, release religious actors of the Upanishads are no lon- from the bonds of samsara, called moksha, ger the ritual priests with their specialized is achieved through the elimination of igno- knowledge of the construction of the sacrifi- rance about the nature of the self. One par- cial altar and the ritual formulas to be chanted ticularly illustrative dialogue, recorded in the during the sacrifice. Now the religious actors , takes place between the are ascetics, renouncers who cultivate the god of death, Yama, and a brahman named knowledge of the self and, ultimately, of Naciketas. Naciketas had won a boon from Brahman. the gods, the ability to ask Yama any question he likes, so he asks the god about what hap- pens after death: “When a man is dead, there Conclusion is this doubt: Some say, ‘He exists,’ and some say, ‘He does not exist.’ I want you to instruct The period during which the Upanishads were me in this matter.” Yama, though, begs him being formulated and eventually recorded, to ask something else, saying, “Even the gods roughly from about 800 to 600 b.c.e., was a had doubt as this.” But finally, after Naciketas period of tremendous religious fermenta- repeatedly asks the same question, Yama tion. Indeed, the sixth century b.c.e. in India instructs him, telling him that the only way was one in which change was happening at to escape death, the only way to end the cycle an extraordinarily fast rate, historically. In of rebirth and attain salvation, is to “study response to the ideas that eventually were what pertains to the self,” and in the process recorded in the Upanishads, a diffuse group of “leave both joy and sorrow behind” (Katha religious seekers calling themselves shramanas Upanishad 1.20). began to reject the structured Vedic social and To summarize, then, the transition from the ritual world, and instead seek insight outside Vedic to the Upanishadic worldview is marked of society. The shramanas, then, like their Chapter 1: Historical Overview v 11

­Upanishadic counterparts—who, remember, out, and then grasp a molten piece of metal. ­were themselves brahmins—sought out the Their basic doctrinal stance was that there is quiet of the forest and the jungle, where they no human causality, really no karma, in the could debate philosophical and religious mat- sense that it is generally known. Instead, they ters among themselves, and where they could proposed that there was an impersonal force gain knowledge of their own nature, and, ulti- called niyati, or fate; everything in an indi- mately, of Brahman. Once they gained this vidual’s life was predestined (not by any god, understanding, they would be released from just by the impersonal force of the cosmos). the world of samsara and believed they would Humans must go through 8,400,000 kalpas— attain eternal oneness with Brahman or some a consists of 4,320,000,000 years—being other form of salvation. born and reborn over and over again, at the The techniques and ideas of the shramana end of which we become ascetics in the final movements varied considerably. Some advo- birth: According to one Buddhist text, the cated a harsh, extreme form of asceticism, Ajivakas held that “Samsara is measured as denying themselves any pleasure at all, some- with a bushel, with its joy and sorrow and its times to the point of rejecting all nourish- appointed end. It can be neither lessened nor ment; others advocated an extreme course of increased, nor is there any excess or deficiency meditation, in which the renouncer would, of it. Just as a ball of thread will, when thrown, essentially, meditate at all times; and still oth- unwind to its full length, so fool and wise alike ers took the opposite extreme, and advocated take their course, and make an end of sorrow” a form of renunciation that looked very much ( 1.47). This was, to be sure, like hedonism. They engaged in whatever they not a terribly attractive worldview. We are, pleased, free of any rules or constraints. Most according to the Ajivakas, simply marching of these movements we know very little about, through one miserable life after another until since they are only mentioned in Buddhist we finally cease to exist.” Not much is pre- and Hindu sources, and only mentioned as cisely known about the Ajivakas, and schol- misguided. Two, however, stand out—the ars do not know why the Ajivaka movement Ajivakas and the Jains. did not catch on and survive, but one thing For the most part, we know of the Ajivakas is clear: there was no place for the , mak- only through Buddhist and Jain sources, in ing it very hard for them to gain either follow- which they are portrayed as the archenemies of ers or patrons (needed to provide shelter and true religious seekers, misguided and extreme. food, especially), and without either of these, It is clear that they must have been very seri- it seems that this was a self-defeating religious ous ascetics, practicing a much harsher ascetic tradition. course than either the Hindu renouncers or In contrast to the Ajivakas, the Jains did the Buddhists. To enter the Ajivaka order, for survive and, to a degree, continue to this day instance, one had to have all one’s hair pulled to flourish in India. Jainism was founded by 12 v The Emergence of Buddhism

Vardhamana Mahavira (“the great hero”), unlike in the Upanishadic ). Violence to sometimes called a Jina (“victor”), or other beings creates the most negative karma. (a “ford maker,” who makes a Hence there is a real emphasis on , crossing point out of this world), who lived at or nonharm. Thus, Jains in India tend to be almost exactly the same time as the Buddha. merchants, because it is one of the few trades Not surprisingly, Buddhists and Jains share that does not directly involve injuring other many religious ideas, although the two tradi- beings. tions also differ on many key points. Some of What is most important for the pres- the basic Jain tenets include the idea that all ent context is to recognize that the Buddha things, including inanimate objects, contain a and Buddhism arose out of this atmosphere living force, or jiva, and each carries a certain of great religious flux, a sustained period of karmic load. Higher forms, which have less questioning the old religious and ritual values karmic burden, also have volition, and ani- and practices. The Buddha certainly adopted mals and humans can affect their own karma. the basic Indian religious vocabulary of his Austerity burns off karma. When the indi- day, but he also crafted it into his own partic­ vidual finally burns off all karma, he or she ular message, changing some basic ideas and ascends to the realm of pure light for rejecting others. (and the jiva, once there, remains individual,

S tudy Questions 1 What was the Vedic understanding of sacrifice?

2 Describe the basic characteristics of the Vedic gods.

3 Why did the Upanishads critique the Vedic world?