The Mauryan Polity c11.s2.t1: Buddhism, a child of Hinduism
The Mauryan Polity c11.s2.t1
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Buddhism, a child of Hinduism
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"Buddhism began as a child of Hinduism."¹ So long as it continued to be so pursuing its own philosophic speculation without encroaching upon the region of other sects, and other faiths, it secured the patronage of the state to whatever faith the king at its helm might have personally belonged. Hence it flourished for some centuries in the land of its birth. But it disappeared from the country because it became by slow but sure degrees a misguided child of Hinduism. In other words, when it assumed later on the garb of a serious rival and made an onslaught on its parentage by disowning its vital principles and tenets, the energy of its youth became extinguished. The old parent however was too strong to be supplanted. The result was Buddhism found shelter in countries outside India, though it left behind remnants of it, here and there, in its native home.
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¹ Gour, *Spirit of Buddhism*, p. 413.
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*Jainism, a doctrine, not a religion*
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The same observation is true of another child of Hinduism, namely, Jainism. The influence and range of Jainism were much less than those of Buddhism. The followers of this sect did not seem to have spread beyond the confines of Bihar and Ujjain at the commencement of the Mauryan epoch, though there is testimony to show that towards the end of the reign of Candragupta there was a Jaina migration to South India. In spite of the seeming influence of this movement Jainism was still a sect not in conflict with the settled religion of the land. Jainism was a doctrine, but not a religion. Perhaps it is the correct estimate of the writer who, speaking of the time of Khāravela,¹ remarks "Jainism was yet more of a philosophy than a religion of dissenting Hindus".²
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¹ 173-160 (B.C.).
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² J.B.O.R.S., Vol. III, p. 447.