- The Pre-Buddhist Background
- Dr. Peter Della Santina
Although studies of Buddhism usually begin with the life of the Buddha,
the historical founder of the faith, I would like first to examine the situation that
prevailed in India before the time of the Buddha, that is to say, the pre-Buddhist
background of Buddhism. I personally believe such an examination to be particularly
helpful because it enables us to understand the life and teaching of the Buddha in a
broader historical and cultural context. This sort of retrospective examination can help
us better understand the nature of Buddhism in particular, and perhaps, too, the nature of
Indian philosophy and religion in general.
I would like to begin our examination of the origin and development of
Indian philosophy and religion with a geographical analogy. In the north of the Indian
subcontinent are two great rivers, the Ganges and the Yamuna. These two great rivers have
separate sources in the high Himalayas, and their courses remain quite separate for the
better part of their great length. Gradually they draw nearer to each other and eventually
unite in the plains of northern India, near the city now known as Allahabad. From their
point of confluence they flow on together until they empty into the Bay of Bengal.
The geography of these two great rivers exemplifies the origin and
development of Indian philosophy and religion because in Indian culture, as in Indian
geography, there are two great currents of thought that were originally quite different
and distinct in character. For many centuries the course of these two remained separate
and distinct, but eventually they drew closer together, merged, and continued to flow on
together, almost indistinguishable from each other, right up to the present day. Perhaps
as we proceed with our examination of the pre-Buddhist culture of India, we can bear in
mind the image of these rivers whose origins were separate, but which at a certain point
merged and continued together to the sea.
When we look into the very early history of India, we find that, in the
third millennium B.C.E., there was a very highly developed civilization on the
subcontinent. This civilization was easily as old as those which are called the cradles of
human culture, such as the civilizations of Egypt and Babylon. It flourished from about
2800 to 1800 B.C.E. and was known as the Indus Valley, or the Harappan, civilization. It
extended from what is now western Pakistan south to a point near present-day Bombay and
east to a point near Shimla, in the foothills of the Himalayas.
If you look at a map of Asia, you will at once realize that the
geographical extent of the Indus Valley civilization was immense. And not only was this
civilization stable for a thousand years, it was also very advanced, both materially and
spiritually. Materially, the Indus Valley civilization was agrarian and exhibited a great
degree of skill in irrigation and urban planning. There is evidence that the people of
this civilization had evolved a system of mathematics based on a binary model--the same
model employed in modern computing. The Indus Valley civilization was literate and
developed a script that remains largely undeciphered to date. (The meaning of the Indus
Valley script is one of the great unsolved mysteries of linguistic archaeology.) In
addition, there is ample evidence that the civilization enjoyed a very highly developed
spiritual culture. Archaeological discoveries at two major sites, Mohenjo-daro and
Harappa, bear witness to this.
The peaceful unfolding of the life of this great ancient civilization
was rather abruptly interrupted sometime between 1800 and 1500 B.C.E., either by some
natural disaster or by an invasion. What is certain is that, simultaneous with or very
soon after the demise of the Indus Valley civilization, the subcontinent was invaded from
the northwest--just as, centuries later, Muslim invaders were to come from that direction.
The invading people were known as Aryans. This term designated a people who originally
belonged to a region somewhere in Eastern Europe, perhaps the steppes of modern Poland and
the Ukraine. The Aryans were very different from the people of the Indus Valley
civilization. Whereas the latter had been agrarian and sedentary, the Aryans were nomadic
and pastoral. They were unused to urban life. A warlike and expansionist people, they
lived in large part on the spoils of conquest won from the peoples they subjugated in the
course of their migrations. When the Aryans arrived in India, they very soon became the
dominant civilization, and after the middle of the second millennium B.C.E., Indian
society was largely dominated by Aryan values.
Let us now look at the religious attitudes of the people of the Indus
Valley civilization and of the Aryan civilization. This is of particular interest to us.
As I have said, the Indus Valley civilization had a written language which we have thus
far been unable to decipher. Nonetheless, our knowledge of the civilization is derived
from two reliable sources: the archaeological discoveries at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, and
the written records of the Aryans, who described the religious behavior and beliefs of the
people they came to dominate.
Archaeological excavations have revealed a number of symbols important
to the people of the Indus Valley civilization. These symbols have religious significance
and are also sacred to Buddhism. They include the pipal tree (later known as the bodhi
tree, or ficus religiosa), and animals such as the elephant and deer. Perhaps most
significant, the image of a human figure has been found that is seated in a cross-legged
posture, hands resting on the knees and eyes narrowed--clearly suggestive of the attitude
of meditation. With the help of these archaeological discoveries and other evidence,
eminent scholars have concluded that the origins of the practices of yoga and meditation
can be traced to the Indus Valley civilization. Moreover, when we study the descriptions
of the religious practices of the people of the Indus Valley civilization found in the
written records of the early Aryans, the Vedas, we find the figure of the wandering
ascetic frequently mentioned. These ascetics are said to have practiced methods of mind
training, to have been celibate, naked or clothed in the most meager of garments, to have
had no fixed abode, and to have taught the way beyond birth and death. Putting together
the evidence gathered from the archaeological findings at the major sites of the Indus
Valley civilization and that found in the early records of the Aryans, the picture that
emerges of the religious attitudes and practices of the people of the Indus Valley
civilization, while sketchy, is clear enough in its essentials.
The religion of the Indus Valley civilization evidently contained
several important elements. First of all, meditation, or the practice of training the
mind, was clearly present. Second, the practice of renunciation--that is to say,
abandoning household life and living the life of a homeless ascetic, or mendicant--was
also common. Third, it is clear that there was some conception of rebirth or reincarnation
occurring over the course of a countless number of lives, and, fourth, a sense of moral
responsibility extending beyond this life--that is to say, some form of the conception of
karma. Last, there was a paramount goal of religious life--namely, the goal of liberation,
of freedom from the endless cycle of birth and death. These were the outstanding features
of the religion of the earliest civilization of India.
Next, let us look at the religion of the early Aryan people, which
contrasted sharply with that of the Indus Valley civilization. Indeed, it would be
difficult to find two religious cultures more radically different. Constructing a complete
picture of the religious attitudes and practices of the early Aryans is much simpler than
doing so for the Indus Valley people. When the Aryans arrived in India, they brought with
them a religion that was completely secular in nature. As I have said, they were an
expansionist society--a pioneer society, if you like. Their origins lay in Eastern Europe,
and their religion in many ways resembled that of the ancient Greeks. If you look at
descriptions of the gods who composed the Greek pantheon, you will not fail to notice
striking parallels between the two. The Aryans revered a number of gods who were
personifications of natural phenomena, including Indra (not unlike Zeus), the god of
thunder and lightning; Agni, the god of fire, and Varuna, the god of water--to name just a
few.
Whereas in the religion of the Indus Valley civilization the ascetic
was the preeminent religious figure, in the Aryan religious establishment the priest was
by far the most important. Whereas in the religious value system of the Indus Valley
civilization renunciation was paramount, in the value system of the early Aryans the most
worthy state was that of the family man, or householder. Whereas in the religious culture
of the Indus Valley civilization the value of progeny was not emphasized, for the early
Aryans progeny, particularly sons, was the highest priority. The religion of the Indus
Valley civilization emphasized the practice of meditation, while the Aryan faith relied on
the practice of sacrifice, which was its primary means of communicating with the gods,
securing victory in war, obtaining sons and wealth, and finally reaching heaven. While the
religion of the Indus Valley civilization included the conceptions of rebirth and karma,
the early Aryans had no such conceptions. The notion of moral responsibility extending
beyond the present life appears to have been unknown to the Aryans, for whom the highest
social value was loyalty to the group, a virtue calculated to contribute to the power and
cohesion of the tribe. Finally, the ultimate goal of religious life for the people of the
Indus Valley civilization was liberation, a state that transcended birth and death,
whereas for the early Aryans the goal was simply heaven--and a heaven that looked very
much like a perfected version of this world, in fact.
In brief, while the religion of the Indus Valley civilization stressed
renunciation, meditation, rebirth, karma, and the final goal of liberation, the Aryan
religion stressed this life, ritual sacrifice, loyalty, wealth, progeny, power, and
heaven. Thus it is clear that the sets of religious attitudes, practices, and values
professed by these two ancient civilizations of India were almost diametrically opposed to
each other. And yet, over the course of centuries of cohabitation, these two religious
traditions did manage to merge and become, in many instances, practically
indistinguishable.
Before concluding our review of the salient features of the Indus
Valley and early Aryan religions, it should be mentioned that the religious culture of the
Aryans was characterized by two further elements unknown and foreign to the religion of
the Indus Valley people. The two elements I have in mind are caste--that is to say, the
division of society into social strata--and belief in the authority and infallibility of
revelation, in this case the ancient scriptures known as the Vedas. The religious culture
of the Indus Valley civilization did not accept these conceptions, and they remained
constant points of contention dividing the two major religious traditions of India.The
history of Indian religion from 1500 B.C.E. to the sixth century B.C.E. (i.e., the time of
the Buddha) is the history of the interaction between these two originally opposed
traditions. As the Aryan people gradually moved eastward and southward, settling and
spreading their influence over most of the Indian subcontinent, they adopted a more
sedentary pattern of life. Little by little, the opposing religious cultures of the two
peoples began to interact, influence, and even merge with each other. This is precisely
the phenomenon I had in mind earlier when I referred to the merging of the two great
rivers of India, the Ganges and the Yamuna.
By the time of the Buddha, a very heterogeneous religious culture
flourished in India. This is clear even from a superficial look at some of the prominent
facts about the Buddha's life. For example, after his birth, two distinct types of people
made predictions about his future greatness. The first prophesy was pronounced by Asita,
who was a hermit and ascetic living in the mountains, although the biographies of the
Buddha insist that Asita was a Brahmin, a member of the priestly caste of Aryan society.
This in itself is clear evidence of the interaction of the two ancient religious
traditions, for it indicates that, by the sixth century B.C.E., even Brahmins had begun to
abandon household life and adopt the life of homeless ascetics, something unheard of a
thousand years before. A little later, we are told that 108 Brahmins were invited to the
ceremony for bestowing a name on the young Buddha. There, they also prophesied the future
greatness of the child. These men were evidently priests who had not renounced household
life and who thus represented the original, orthodox practice accepted in the Aryan fold.
How is it that two traditions initially so different were able to merge? I think the
answer may be found in the dramatic changes that occurred in the life of the Indian people
between the middle of the second millennium B.C.E. and the time of the Buddha. Aryan
expansion came to an end when the Aryans had spread across the plains of India. The end of
this expansion brought about many social, economic, and political changes. First of all,
the tribal, nomadic, and pastoral way of life of the early Aryans gradually changed into a
more sedentary, agrarian, and eventually urban pattern of existence. Before long, the
majority of the population was living in urban settlements where the people were somewhat
removed from the natural forces which had been personified in the gods of the early
Aryans.
Second, commerce became increasingly important. Whereas priests and
warriors had been the dominant figures in early Aryan society--priests because they
communicated with the gods, and warriors because they waged war against the enemies of the
tribe and brought home the spoils of battle--now merchants became ascendant. In the time
of the Buddha, this trend is evident in the famous disciples who belonged to the merchant
class--Anathapindika, to name just one example.Last, the organization of society along
tribal lines gradually became obsolete, and the territorial state began to evolve. No
longer was society organized into tribes within which there were very close sets of
personal loyalties. The tribal pattern of social organization was replaced by the
territorial state, in which many people of different tribes existed together. The kingdom
of Magadha, ruled by King Bimbisara, the famous patron and disciple of the Buddha, is an
example of such an emerging territorial state.
These social, economic, and political changes contributed to a growing
willingness on the part of the Aryan people to accept and adopt the religious ideas of the
Indus Valley civilization. Although the Aryans had materially dominated the earlier,
indigenous civilization of the subcontinent, the next thousand to two thousand years saw
them come increasingly under the influence of religious attitudes, practices, and values
adopted from the religion of the Indus Valley civilization. Consequently, by the beginning
of the common era, the distinction between the Aryan tradition and that of the Indus
Valley civilization was more and more difficult to draw. In fact, this historical reality
is responsible for the misconception expressed in the claim that Buddhism was a protest
against, or an offshoot of, Hinduism.
Buddhism is a religion that draws most of its inspiration from the
religious culture of the Indus Valley civilization. The elements of renunciation,
meditation, rebirth, karma, and liberation, which were important components of the
religious culture of the Indus Valley people, are also important in Buddhism. The Buddha
himself very probably meant to indicate that the origins of the religion he proclaimed lay
in the Indus Valley civilization when he said that the path he taught was an ancient path,
and that the goal to which he pointed was an ancient goal. Buddhism also maintains a
tradition of six prehistoric Buddhas who are believed to have flourished before the Buddha
Shakyamuni. All this, I believe, points to a certain continuity between the religious
culture and traditions of the Indus Valley civilization and the teaching of the Buddha.
When we examine the two religious phenomena we call Buddhism and
Hinduism, we find a greater or smaller proportion or preponderance of elements inherited
from each of the two great religious traditions of ancient India. In Buddhism the greater
proportion of significant elements is clearly inherited from the religion of the Indus
Valley civilization, while a far smaller proportion may be traced to the religion of the
early Aryans. There are undoubtedly elements in Buddhism inherited from the religion of
the Aryans, such as the presence of the gods of the Vedas, but their role is peripheral.
Conversely, many schools of Hinduism retain a greater proportion of
elements of religious culture inherited from the Aryan tradition and a much smaller
proportion that can be traced back to the religion of the Indus Valley. Many schools of
Hinduism still emphasize caste, the authority of revelation in the shape of the Vedas, and
the efficacy of the practice of sacrifice. Notwithstanding these clearly Aryan elements, a
place is also made in Hinduism for important elements of the culture of the Indus Valley
civilization, such as renunciation, meditation, rebirth, karma, and liberation.
-oOo-
[Taken from Peter Della Santina., The Tree of Enlightenment. (Taiwan:
The Corporate Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation, 1997), pp. 13-21].
-oOo-
Sincere thanks to Ti.nh Tue^. for typing
this article.