Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c12.4

c12.4

**Conditions created by Buddhism.** Apart, however, from pedagogic considerations and educational requirements, there seems to have been in operation another factor connected with the political history of the period, which was contributing towards the growth of this new literature. That factor was connected with the rise of a new school of thought, viz. Buddhism, whereby Brahmanism was called upon to meet a novel situation to which it had never been accustomed before. It is, however, to be borne in mind that Buddhism, as Weber rightly points out, originally proceeded purely from theoretical heterodoxy regarding the relation of matter to spirit and similar questions. The early Buddhism was but one out of many sects then existing. There was as yet no schism but mere controversy such as we find in the *Brāhmaṇas* themselves between different schools of thought. Buddha himself, according to his own canonical biographer, learned the Rigveda and was well versed in the various branches of Brahmanic lore. Many of his pupils were Brahmins and no hostile feeling against the Brahmins finds utterance in the Buddhist canon, nor any slur cast on the gods and songs of the Veda. Matters, however, gradually became different in course of time when Buddhism addressed itself to practical points of religion, worship, and life, and ceased to concern itself with the settlement of mere theological or speculative issues. Then there began a real conflict between the two systems, a struggle for self-preservation and supremacy. At first the position of Brahmanism was seriously imperilled by certain disadvantageous circumstances of its own creation. For Buddhism developed into a system of easy devotion which was naturally resorted to with considerable eagerness and a sense of relief by that vast majority of people whom Brahmanism alienated and frightened away by the inaccessibility of the literature in which it was embodied, by its difficulty and complexity. At the same time that Buddhism attracted the ignorant among the Brahmins, it received with open arms the poor and the miserable of all classes. Thus Brahmanism was forced to forge a suitable weapon of defence against the onslaught which a new religion directed against its weak points. It was forced to find an easier and more popular medium for the imparting of its instruction and thereby remove the difficulties in the way of its propagation. Changes in the sacred literature of a people never take place except under the pressure of a grave necessity such as that of its self-preservation, and the object which the *Sūtras* were created to serve could be no other than to offer practical manuals to those who were discouraged by the too elaborate treatises of the *Brāhmaṇas* and yielded themselves as willing recruits to a rival faith that opened out to them easier means of religious instruction and ways to salvation.