Buddhism is a religion built upon works and moral behavior. Buddhists
believe that man does not need the help of the gods or membership in a
higher caste in order to obtain freedom from suffering. Once a man has
absolutely freed himself from his selfish craving, he will no longer be
reborn but will enter into Nirvana – the state of absolute peace and
happiness, where he loses himself in the world soul.
Lack of Political Unity
While many aspects of Indian Society have remained the same for
centuries, the political history of India has been one of constant change.
Through much of her history India has been little more than a patchwork of
small rival kingdoms. Successive waves of foreign invaders have streamed
into the Indian Subcontinent. The powerful empires established by these
invaders have provided brief periods of Unity and stability for the Indian
peoples.
Mauryan Empire
In 326 B.C. Alexander the Great threatened India. His armies crossed
the Indus River and conquered many small kingdoms in India’s northwestern
region. Alexander intended to advance further into India, but when his army
refused to continue, he had to turn back. According to traditional
accounts, he met a young man named Chandragupta Maurya while in India. As
Alexander’s empire began to disintegrate after his death, Chandragupta
conquered the disorganized and weak kingdoms in the north and created the
first strong empire of India – The Mauryan Empire.
The most famous of the Mauryan rulers was Chandragupta’s grandson
Asoka. He extended the Mauryan Empire to include all but the southern tip
of India. Sickened by the results of his own bloody conquests, Asoka
renounced war and became a convert to Buddhism. He spent much of his reign
promoting the Buddhist religion.
Asoca is created with building thousands of Buddhist shrines called
steepas. He also had Buddhist teaching inscribed on stone pillars still
stand, providing valuable information concerning Asoca’s reign.
One of his most far-reaching acts was the sending of Buddhist
missionaries abroad. Buddhism soon spread across much of Southeast Asia,
where it became a powerful force in other Asian cultures. It did not gain a
wide following in India, however.
Hindu priests viewed Buddhist teaching as dangerous to the caste
system. Fearing that they might lose their prestige and rank in society,
they worked against the acceptance of Buddhist beliefs.
Gupta Empire
The first great period of Indian unity was short-lived. Not long after
Asoka’s death (232 B.C.), the Mauryan Empire collapsed. The years between
the second century B.C. and the third century A.D. Witnessed new invasions
and the rise of small competing kingdoms. However, during this time of
turmoil, India did enjoy a profitable trade with Rome and China.
Even so, it was not until the fourth century A.D. with the rise of the
Gupta Empire, that India entered a new, and perhaps her greatest, era of
prosperity and achievement.
One historian has stated that “at the time India was perhaps the
happiest and most civilized region of the world”. The rulers of the Gupta
dynasty reunited northern India under a strong and effective government.
Trade flourished and the people prospered materially. India’s culture
spread throughout Southeast Asia. Her universities attracted students from
all over the continent, and she made great strides in the fields of
textiles and finest periods of Indian art, architecture, literature and
science.
Gupta literature became renowned for its adventurous and imaginative
fables and fairy tales.
The foremost Indian poet and dramatist of this period was Kalidasa,
whose plays have earned him the title “the Indian Shakespeare”. The
popularity of various Indian Stories soon spread outside India, where many
of them found their way into the literature of other lands.
But Indian literature is represented by Mahabharata and Ramayana.
Mahabharata is one of the two great Sanscrit epics. It’s the story of
the Great Bharata War, a fratricidal war of succession between the Kaurava
and Pandava cousins (descendants of Bharata) in which nearly all the kings
of India joined on one side or the other. The Kauravas were destroyed and
the Pandavas attained sovereign power but in the end the eldest.
(Yo) Yudhishthira, renounced the throne and with his four brothers
(heroes of the war) and Daraypadi (the joint wife of all 5) parted for
Mount Meru, India’s heaven. Mahabharta is the longest poem in the World
(2.20.000 lines). It is perhaps 15 centuries old and is written in
classical Sanscrit. It consists of 18 books with a supplement, the
Harivamsa – a poem of 16.375 verses written by different people in
different times, and of a much later date, which has nothing to do with the
main theme.
Book III Ch.313
“The Mahabharata”
The following represents a selection of the questions and answers that
passed between the Spirit and Youdhishthira:
1) “What is greater than Earth? What is higher than heaven?” “Mother is
greater than Earth; father is higher than heaven.”
2) “In what one thing is all dharma summed up? What single thing
constitutes all fame? What sole means takes one to heaven?” “Skill in the
discharge of one’s duties sums up all dharma; giving sums up all fame;
truthfulness is the sole road to heaven and good conduct is the one means
to happiness”.
3) “What is the foremost wealth?” “Learning”.
4) “What is the best gain?” “Health”.
5) “What is the supreme happiness?” “Contentment”.
6) “What is superior to all other dharmas in the world?” “Benevolence”
7) “Whose control leads to absence of sorrow?” “The control of mind”.
8) “Which friendship ages not?” “That with good souls”.
9) “By abandoning what thing does man become rich?” “Desire”.
10) “By giving up what, does one become happy?” “Avarice”.
11) “What is penance?” “Penance is the observance of one’s own obtained
duty.”
12) “What is self –control?” “Control of the mind”.
13) “What is forbearance?” “Putting up with opposites”. (pleasure and
pain, profit and loss)
14) “What is shame?” “Aversion to do reprehensible act is shame”.
15) “What is straight forwardness?” “Equanimity”.
16) “Who is the enemy hard to be won?” “Anger”.
17) “What is the endless disease?” “Avarice”.
18) “Who is said to be a good man?” “He who is benevolent to all things”.
19) “Who is a bad man?” “He who is barren of sympathy”.
20) “What is the best path?” “To cast away all mental dirt”.
21) “What is gift?” “Protection of life”.
22) “What is the wonder of the world?” “Every day live beings enter the
abode of death; those who remain think that they will survive; what
greater wonder is there than this?”
23) “What is the news of the world?” “With Earth as the pot, the firmament
as the covering lid, the sun as the fire, day and nights as faggots and
the seasons and months as the stirring ladle. Time cooks all beings; this
is the great news”.
Extract from Mahabharata
Romayana (adventures of Rama) is the earliest of the two great
Sanscrit epics, the incidents of which precede the Mahabharata by about
150 years. Rama was a king before he became translated into a deity. In
course of time, his story and epic became sacred and the belief became
established that spiritual and other blessings would be conferred on its
knowers ramayana became popular in India in every Hindy home. The story is
told in 7 books (96 000 lines).
At instigation of his second queen Dasaratha sends Rama, his eldest
son, into exile for 14 years. He is accompanied by Sita, his young Wife and
Lakshmana, his younger brother, when they are living happily in the forest,
Sita is abduced by Ravana (King of Lanka) Rama and Lakshmana go through
many adventures, battles, etc in their pursuit of Ravana, in which they’re
assisted by Sugriva, the monkey king and his general, Hanuman. Eventually,
Lanka is stormed and set fire to by Hanuman; Ravana is killed; Sita is
rescued and victorious party returns to Ayodhya, their capital city. Later
because her chastity is suspected (because she stayed in Ravana’s house),
Sita proves her innocence voluntarily undergoing an ordeal by fire.
Rama accepts her but for the same reason banishes her (again) the next
time. She goes away to Valmiki’s ashram, where her twin sons are born and
brought up. She prays to the earth goddess to take her away if she is
innocent who seated on her throne appears out of the earth and seating Sita
on her lap takes her away for good.
The epics Ramayana and Mahabharrata arose to supplement and reinforce
the teaching of the Vedas, particularly in respect of the moral, religious
and spiritual ideas of men and women. Since remote times, the two epics
have been the two eyes of the nation guiding it and holding up before it
the ideas of the truth and righteousness of Rama and Yudhishthira and of
chastity and wifely devotion of Sita, as also of the negative example of
Ravana and other characters who came to grief because of their lust,
avarice and wickedness.
These epics were expected to fulfil the mission of placing before the
people examples of how virtue triumphed and vicefell.
This was also an age of advance in mathematics, science, and medicine.
Our so called Arabic numerals originally came from India. Indian
