Buddhism in India

The Background to Buddhism 47

time, the consistent criticism of Buddhists, Jains and others against

the slaughter of animals was having an impact. The response of

‘Brahmanism’ was not to reject the primacy of the Vedic sacrifice

but to reinterpret it. Sacrifice became the ritualisation of the entire

round of life, day by day and through it of all the major events

in the life-history of the individual. Brahmanism, drawing on the

Vedic religion and claiming the authority of its texts, but using

them in radically different ways, ritualised the world.

This was accompanied by much philosophical and mystic

speculation. However, in contrast to the samana tradition, this was

not carried on openly as a matter of debate before nobles and

commoners, in fields and forests, in city squares or audience halls.

Rather, as the Upanishads show, a tradition of secret teaching,

given from teacher to disciple as part of a firmly established social

relationship of patronage and service, was emphasised. The

Upanishads often end with a section showing the ‘lines’ by which

the teaching came to be passed on—rather a parallel to the Biblical

‘begats’!

Upanishadic speculation, ranging from perhaps 700 BCE to the first

centuries of the Common Era (Roebuck, introduction to Upanishads

2000: xii–xvi), revolved to a large degree on hypothesising on the

individual self or atmanas the subject of all the round of rebirths in

the framework of karma and rebirth. This involved a transformation

of the felt, subjective self into a universal, primordial entity that

was abstract and eternal. An early, famous example of this is seen

in the teaching of the sage Yajnavalkya to his wife Maitreyi,

described in the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad(4.5.6)

It is not for the love of a husband that a husband is dear: it is for the

love of the self that a husband is dear. It is not for the love of a wife

that a wife is dear: it is for the love of the self that a wife is dear. It is

not for the love of children that children are dear: it is for the love of

the self that children are dear...It is not for the love of the Vedas that

the Vedas are dear: it is for the love of the self that the Vedas are

dear...It is the self that must be seen, heard, thought of and meditated

upon, Maitreyi; when the self has been seen, heard, thought of and

meditated upon, all this is known.

This self, the Atman, was then identified as formless, changeless,

identical in all beings; it was the same as Brahman. ‘Soul’ is an

inadequate translation for this. Upreti has analysed Buddhism as

classified as degraded. Magadha can also be linked along with the
Vaidehika to the two early kingdoms of Magadha and Videhi and
by this time, apparently an increasingly aggressive Brahmanism
saw the entire Mauryan empire as a realm of anti-Brahman religions
and therefore degraded.
Most of the excluded or degraded groups seem to have represented
tribal communities in the bordering areas. Many of them are listed
in the Mahabharata and Ramayana epics; and differing lists and
stories at different times show a declining status. For instance, the
Nisadas were earlier viewed as independent and equal to ‘Aryan’
warrior groups but in later references are seen as despised and
degraded (Brockington 1997: 101–105). The changing references
to specific groups reveal not only something of their history, but
also the growth of hierarchical conceptualisation in the Brahmanic
tradition. It is a development in which the practice of agriculture,
of most artisan occupations and originally important scientific
occupations like medicine became degraded.
In the process of defining the varna system, the Brahmans instituted
for themselves a tradition of rigorous training and discipline, which
included studying and acquiring the knowledge of the Vedas and
priestly rituals, abstention from many kinds of food and elaborate
ritualised behaviour intended to maintain their own purity. This
required the avoidance of contact with all the material and presum-
ably degrading aspects of earthly life. Vegetarianism came to be a
crucial part of this, in contrast to the Vedic love for the intoxicat-
ing drink soma, and beef. All this Brahmanic concern for ‘purity–
pollution’(sovala-ovala) became a crucial part of their identity; it
rested on the labour and service of other sections of society, but
aided in the creation of a unique mystique.

The Philosophy and

Religion of Brahmanism

The necessity of transforming the old Vedic religion was clear by the
middle of the first millennium BCE. Where sacrifice was appropriate
to a pastoral society, unconcerned with productive use of the surplus
and constantly on the move, it was inappropriate to an agricultural
and urban society which needed its surplus for productive purposes
(building and trading) as well as individual enjoyment. At the same

46 Buddhism in India