Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c14.23

c14.23

The position of the *Rigveda* as the archetype within this series has already been pointed out, and internal evidence makes it clear that the *Sūtras* are later than the *Brāhmaṇas* and the *Upanishads*, so that a rough relationship of the various works seems established. But when we come to find a chronological framework against which this sequence can be set, we have very little to go on. The one certain fact seems to be that the doctrine preached by Buddha is essentially based on and develops out of the philosophical concepts contained in the Upanishads, and there is a reasonable consensus of evidence to place the date of Buddha’s death as within a decade or so of 500 B.C. The Upanishads, therefore, must have been in existence in the sixth century B.C.