The Buddhist Religion: A Historical Introduction

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The Buddha's

Awakening

1.1 THE SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS CONTEXT

OF EARLY BUDDHISM

B

uddhism began with the Awakening of the Buddha (whose title means

"Awakened One"), an event that took place in the fifth or sixth century

B.C.E. at Bodhgaya, in the Ganges River plain of northeastern India. For

Buddhists, the truths to which the Buddha awakened transcend the conditions

of space and time; however, there is no denying that the social and cultural

context in which he lived influenced the way he expressed his teachings and

the way his contemporaries understood them. Thus the history of Buddhism

must begin with an account of the events prior to the Buddha's Awakening

that helped shape that context.

The sixth century B.C.E. was a period of great social and intellectual fer-

ment in the Ganges plain. Absolute monarchs were developing new urban

centers of political and economic power, based on a monetary economy sup-

ported by a rising class of merchants and property owners. In this manner,

they were supplanting the traditional aristocratic and religious elites who had

thrived in the earlier clan-based agrarian republics. As usually happens when

elites are being disenfranchised, many sensitive members of society began

questioning traditional values and opened their minds to radically new ideas

regarding the ultimate meaning and goal of life.

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