Origin of Hinduism and Buddhism

Kenneth Ch'en, in his book Buddhism: The fall down of Asia states that this Vedic literature is a body of lyric poetry, hymns, and verses that provides a considerable amount of information about the life and beliefs of the primaeval Aryans before and after they arrived and settled in India (Ch'en 1).

However, in a move uncommon in the literature about Hinduism, A.L. Herman argues in his book A Brief Introduction to Hinduism that during their very archeozoic invasions, the Aryans in all likelihood encountered the remnants of a once-flourishing and magnificent civilisation along the banks of the Indus River, unity of the five major rivers of the Punjab and northwestern India (37). This river culture is called the Harappan or the Indus civilization and it existed from about 2500 to 1800 B.C. (Herman 37). Herman argues that many elements in Hinduism may be traceable, non to the Aryans, but to the Harappans instead. Among such elements he lists phallic religion, worship of the big Mother, the cult of trees, water, and animals, beliefs in transmigration and judgement of dismissal, and a host of indigenous village deities, demons, ghosts and spirits (Herman 49).

Generally, four Sanskrit terms express the different aspects of Hinduism: mata, dharma, bhakti, and marga. Mata federal agency teachings or doctrines. Basically, the mata of a sect is its collection of opinions about god, the world, criminality and man (Organ 4). Dharma means the duties, obl

The wee of the Hindu Absolute that is best-known in the West is brahmin (Biardeau 17). The earliest Upanisads teach that brahman is pure Being, pure Consciousness, the Unlimited. harmonise to Indian usage, the Upanisads, which speak of the Brahman as Absolute, are the climax of the Veda (Biardeau 17). Generally, when used in neutral terms, brahman refers to the ritual mandate described in the Upanisads (Biardeau 19). However, when the word is used in the masculine, Brahman becomes the name of one of the priests of the solemn Vedic consecrate.

This priest occupies a distinctive place among the group of priests required by the sacrifice because although he says nothing, handles nothing and does nothing, he bears within him perfect acquaintance of the rite and sacrificial science (Biardeau 19).

Philosophy and Ways of Liberation. bowlder: Westview Press, 1991.

Thus, rituals played a significant role in the tradition of Hinduism and in the life of the Indians during the Vedic period. Ch'en argues that the sacrificial ritual probably began as a simple ceremony in bet of an altar consisting of a single fire in the home(prenominal) hearth. It was likely performed in the morning and in the evening, and to commemorate births, marriages, deaths, and worship of ancestors (3). But basically, the purpose of the ritual was to invoke the gods to grant their favors to the inhabitants of the theater (Ch'en 3).

Buddhism holds that through a realization of the four noble truths the respective(prenominal) attains "highest complete enlightenment," the following being the fruits of his realization: "Thus I knew. Knowledge arose in me; insight arose that the release of my mind is fuddled; this is my last existence; now there is no renascence" (Padhi 100). A person's ethical disposition is their means to achieve salvation--nirvana--or liberation (Padhi 101). Buddha rejected the Brahmanic ideal of the soul's absorption in the universal soul, permutation it with the idea of a pure min
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