Ancient Indian Education: An Inquiry into its Origin, Development, and Ideals c6.2

c6.2

AT the time when Gautama the Buddha lived and taught his doctrines, those philosophical ideas which were afterwards organized into the Vedānta, Yoga, and other systems recognized as permissible to those within the fold of Brāhmanism were already being discussed, though they had not assumed the final form as enshrined in the recognized Sūtras. The doctrine of *karma* and transmigration was generally accepted by thinking persons, and the question which earnest inquirers after truth sought to answer was how release could be obtained from the endless round of births and rebirths. Buddhism was one among many answers to the question, and it has its roots deep in Hindu philosophic thought. It differed from the recognized Brāhmanic philosophy, however, in several important details, and the teaching of Buddha was characterized by great earnestness and by a broad spirit of philanthropy. It might easily, however, have been assimilated as a part of the Brāhmanic system, as many other beliefs and practices were, but for the fact that it contained certain elements which were destined to bring it into hostility with that system. These included the non-recognition of the Vedas, and of the Brāhman hierarchy, as well as of the religious aspect of the caste system. Buddha carried on no crusade against any of these, but the opposition was implicit in his system, and in course of time the hostility worked itself out into a struggle for existence which ended in Buddhism ceasing to exist in India as a separate faith, though several of its ideas were incorporated into Hinduism. For over fifteen hundred years, however, it was in vogue, and developed a system of education which was a rival of the Brāhmanic system, though in many ways similar to it.