India: Mythology & Religion Religion & Mythology (inc. Concepts, Notable Gods / Goddesses, Stories, Figures, Groups, etc.)

Rig-Veda (All Facts)

• Earliest account that summarized Indo-Aryan religious beliefs around 1500 BCE

• Was unwritten, but was the most sacred text of the Indo-Aryans and other peoples of northern India around 800 BCE

• Gave rise to a great deal of religious discussion since its hymns were first collected

• Work which references the fourfold division of Indo-Aryan society into castes and the caste system

Upanishads (All Facts)

• Collection of 250 devotional hymns, saying, and reflections; which was the work of holy men and philosopher-kings contemporary of the Indo-Aryan peoples around 800 BCE

  • Are composed as dialogues, with questions and answers as if the reader was in a class

  • They are essentially aimed at finding deeper religious truth in the traditional framework of belief centered on the concept of life and existence known as “brahma”

• This word meant “a session in which religious teachers pass on their wisdom to their pupils,” which was also what the work was clearly purported to do

• Were more spiritual in nature compared to earlier texts

• It posed questions such as “what is the origin of the universe?” and “what is the nature of the soul?”

Sacrificial Offering (All Facts)

• Duty in Ancient Indian society that was carried out by the Brahmans or priests

• Consisted of food given to gods who could not sustain themselves in any other way

• Practice that was considered essential to the smooth running of the cosmos

563 BCE - 478 BCE - Siddhartha Gautama Buddha (All Facts)

• Founder of Buddhism, the beliefs he learned and preached became its basis (described below)

  • Was one of the great spiritual masters of all of Asia

  • He spent over 40 years reaching and gained many disciples

• Was born in Kapilavastu (at the foot of the mountains of Nepal)

• His father was wise and illustrious ruler

  • However, he feared his son would renounce the throne for a contemplative life and thus tried to isolate him from all human suffering but failed to do so

• His mother, Maya Devi, died a week after his birth

  • According to legend, she died in order that she might not have her heart broken by seeing her son leave home and take to the life of a beggar

• He grew up as a prince

  • He was quiet and reflective

  • While a prince, In 3 separate instances, while he was driving his chariot through the eastern, southern, and western gates of Kapilavastu, respectively; he was confronted by the sufferings of an old man, a diseased man, and a dead man

  • In a 4th instance in which he drove his chariot through the northern gate, he passed a monk with a begging bowl

  • As a result of having concentrated his mind on these four instances, he renounced his princely inheritance and became a mendicant monk

    • He abandoned all earthly ambitions by the age of 30, for the life of an ascetic instead

• As a monk,

  • He rejected the teachings of the Brahman caste at the time, who taught that birth and rebirth were eternal cycles from which there was no escape

  • He withdrew to the village of Urevela, on the banks of the Nairanjana, where he stayed for 6 years

    • There, under a fig tree, he achieved enlightenment, becoming “the” namesake figure meaning the “Enlightened One”

    • From there, he entered the state of “Nirvana” or “Nothingness”

  • He then travelled the roads of India preaching a new path to enlightenment

  • He preached that enlightenment and salvation are not exclusive to the Brahmans but open to all

• He argued that there were four essential holy truths:

  • everything is suffering

  • the cause of suffering is desire

  • the suppression of desire brings about the suppression of suffering

  • to suppress desire, and thus suppress suffering; one needs to follow the noble “Eightfold Path”

• He articulated the “Eightfold Path” one needed to follow to suppress desire and suffering which was of right

  • Opinion

  • Intention

  • Speech

  • Action

  • Livelihood

  • Mindfulness

  • Effort

  • Concentration

• Died in Oudh

Buddhism (All Facts)

• Religion founded by the Buddha

599 BCE - 527 BCE - Mahavira / Vardhamana (All Facts)

• Founder of Jainism

  • His followers were called Jainas

• His life parallels that of the Buddha

  • He was born at Bihar into the warrior caste

  • At the age of 30, he abandoned his life of ease and as a warrior and retired for a year of meditation

  • Then, he devoted himself to asceticism and experiencing enlightenment

• He taught that

  • the sacred Rig-Veda texts could not have been divine revelation

  • the Brahmans (the priests in India at the time) be the only mediators between gods and men

  • the ways to enlightenment are

    • right faith

    • right knowledge

    • right conduct

    • Ahimsa - doctrine of non-injury to all living creatures

Jainism (All Facts)

• Religion founded by Vardhamana or Mahavira

• One of its key tenets is the “theory of approach”

• Religion that initially attracted the wealthy merchants of the growing towns of India at the time of its emergence due to it freeing them from their crushing obligations of supporting the Brahman priests and their costly services

Theory of Approach (All Facts)

• Jain doctrine which states that the appearance of a thing depends not on its essence but on the individual’s approach to it

  • It follows thus that what the individual perceives is not necessarily reality

Ahimsa (All Facts)

• Jain doctrine which requires non-injury to all living creatures

Shrine of Sanchi (All Facts)

• Founded by Ashoka of the Mauryan Dynasty

• Located in the state of Madhya Pradesh

• Became one of the great religious centers of Indian Buddhism

• Buried within it were the relics of the Buddha, kept in a casket

• Was admired without reservation by the thousands of pilgrims who flocked to it from all over India

• Its original monument or stupa still dominated over the lesser shrines built surrounding it

• It was first built of brick and topped by a stone umbrella-canopy, but was extended and embellished over time

  • It became a solid construction of bricks and rubble, faced in concrete, 54 feet high, shaped like a dome and still shaded by a stone umbrella

  • A stone railing ten feet high encircled the shrine

  • It was broken by four exquisite gateways of stone; their pillars and crossbars carved with lions, elephants, demi-gods, caryatids, and various forms of erotica