... the Middle East, Greco-Roman civilization,
Western cultures:

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India
The Indus Civilization
Character and Significance
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=121168&tocid=46815#46815.toc
Excerpt: "While the Indus (or Harappan) Civilization
may be considered the culmination of a long process
indigenous to the Indus Valley, a number of parallels
exist between developments on the Indus and the rise
of civilization in Mesopotamia.

It is striking to compare the Indus with this better-
known and more fully documented region and to
see how closely the two coincide with respect to the
emergence of cities and of such major concomitants
of civilization as writing, standardized weights and
measures, and monumental architecture.

Yet, nearly all the earlier writers have sensed the Indian-
ness of the civilization, even when they were largely
unable to articulate it.

Thus, V. Gordon Childe wrote that:

India confronts Egypt and Babylonia by the 3rd
millennium with a thoroughly individual and inde-
pendent civilization of her own, technically the peer
of the rest. And plainly it is deeply rooted in Indian
soil.

The Indus civilization represents a very perfect
adjustment of human life to a specific environment.
And it has endured; it is already specifically Indian
and forms the basis of modern Indian culture. ..."

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India
Religion and burial customs
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=121168&tocid=46833#46833.toc
Excerpt: "... Some seals suggest influence from or
at least traits held in common with Mesopotamia;
among these are the Gilgamesh (Mesopotamian epic)
motif of a man grappling with a pair of tigers and the
bull-man Enkidu (a human with horns, tail, and rear
hooves of a bull). ..."

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India
circa 1500-500 BC
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=121169&tocid=46842
Excerpt: "... In addition to the archaeological legacy
discussed above, there remains from this period the
earliest literary record of Indian culture, the Vedas.

Composed in archaic, or Vedic, Sanskrit, generally
dated between 1500 and 800 BC, and transmitted
orally, the Vedas comprise four major texts--the Rig-
(Rg-), Sama-, Yajur-, and Atharvavedas. Of these,
the Rigveda is believed to be the earliest. The texts
consist of hymns, charms, spells, and ritual observa-
tions current among the Indo-European-speaking
people known as Aryans (from the Sanskrit arya,
'noble'), who entered India from the Iranian regions. ...

That there was a migration of Indo-European speakers,
possibly in waves, dating from the 2nd millennium BC,
is clear from archaeological and epigraphic evidence
in western Asia. Mesopotamia witnessed the arrival,
in about 1760 BC, of the Kassites, who introduced the
horse and the chariot and bore Indo-European names.

A treaty from about 1400 BC between the Hittites,
who had arrived in Anatolia at about the beginning of
the 2nd millennium BC, and the Mitanni empire invoked
four deities--Indara, Uruvna, Mitira, and the Nasatyas
(names that occur in the Rigveda as Indra, Varuna,
Mitra, and the Asvins).

An inscription at BoYazköy in Anatolia of about the
same date contains Indo-European technical terms
pertaining to the training of horses, which suggests
cultural origins in Central Asia or the southern Russian
steppes. Clay tablets dating to about 1400 BC, written
at Tell El-Amarna in Akkadian cuneiform, mention names
of princes that are also Indo-European.

Nearer India, the Iranian Plateau was subject to a similar
migration. Comparison of Iranian Aryan literature with
the Vedas reveals striking correspondences. Possibly
a branch of the Iranian Aryans migrated to northern
India and settled in the Sapta Sindhu region, extending
from the Kabul River in the north to the Sarasvati and
Upper Ganges-Yamuna Doab in the south. ..."

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India
Contacts with the West
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=121169&tocid=46871#46871.toc
Excerpt: "Sources from the 1st millennium BC often
mention trade between western Asia and the western
coast of India. Hebrew texts refer to the port of Ophir,
sometimes identified with Sopara, on the west coast.
Babylonian builders used Indian teak and cedar in the
7th and 6th centuries BC.

The Buddhist Jataka literature mentions trade with
Baveru (Babylon). After the decline of Babylon, Arab
merchants from southern Arabia apparently continued
the trade, probably supplying goods to Egypt and the
eastern Mediterranean.

The discovery of the regular seasonal monsoon winds,
enabling ships to drive a straight course across the
Arabian Sea, made a considerable difference to shipping
and navigation on the route from western Asia to India.

Unification of the Mediterranean and western Asian
world at the turn of the Christian era under the Roman
Empire brought Roman trade into close contact with
India--overland with northern India and by sea with
peninsular India. ...

Large hoards of Roman coins substantiate other
evidence. The coins are mainly of the emperors
Augustus (ruled 27 BC-AD 14), Tiberius (ruled 14-37),
and Nero (ruled 54-68).

Their frequency suggests that the Romans paid for the
trade in gold coins. Many are overstruck with a bar,
which may indicate that they were used as bullion in
India; certainly, Pliny complained that the Indian luxury
trade was depleting the Roman treasury. ..."

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India
Religious patronage
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=121169&tocid=46876#46876.toc
Excerpt: "... The practice of Buddhism was itself under-
going change. Affluent patronage endowed the large
monasteries with land and slaves. Association with
royalty gave Buddhism access to power.

Under the proselytizing consciousness that had gradually
evolved, Buddhist monks traveled as missionaries to
Central Asia and China, western Asia, and Southeast
Asia. New situations inevitably led to the need for new
ideas, as is most clearly seen in the contact of Buddhism
with Christianity and Zoroastrianism in Central Asia. ..."

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Sources of Hinduism
Indo-European Sources
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=108344&tocid=8972#8972.toc
Excerpt: "... The earliest literary source for the history
of Hinduism is the Rigveda (Rgveda), the hymns of
which were chiefly composed during the last two or
three centuries of the 2nd millennium BC.

The religious life reflected in this text is not that of
Hinduism but of an earlier sacrificial religious system,
generally known as Brahmanism or Vedism, which
developed in India among Aryan invaders. This branch
of a related group of nomadic and seminomadic tribal
peoples originally inhabiting the steppe country of
southern Russia and Central Asia brought with them
the horse and chariot and the Sanskrit language.

Other branches of these peoples penetrated into
Europe, bringing with them Indo-European languages
that developed into the chief language groups now
spoken there.

Before they entered the Indian subcontinent (c. 1500 BC),
the Aryans were in close contact with the ancestors of
the Iranians, as evidenced by similarities between Sanskrit
and the earliest surviving Iranian languages.

Thus, the religion of the Rigveda contains elements from
three evolutionary strata: an early element common to
most of the Indo-European tribes; a later element held
in common with the early Iranians; and an element acquired
in the Indian subcontinent itself, after the main Aryan
migrations.

Hinduism arose from the continued accretion of further
elements derived from the original non-Aryan inhabitants,
from outside sources, and from the geniuses of individual
reformers at all periods.

Hinduism has a few direct survivals from its Indo-Euro-
pean heritage. Some of the rituals of the Hindu wedding
ceremony, notably the circumambulation of the sacred
fire and the cult of the domestic fire itself, have their roots
in the remote Indo-European past.

The same is probably true of the custom of cremation
and some aspects of the ancestor cult. The Rigveda
contains many other Indo-European elements, such as
the worship of male sky gods with sacrifices and the
existence of the old sky god Dyaus, whose name is
cognate with those of the classical Zeus of Greece and
Jupiter of Rome ('Father Jove').

The Vedic heaven, the 'world of the fathers,' resembled
the Germanic Valhalla and seems also to be an Indo-
European inheritance. ..."

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Hinduism
Indo-Iranian Sources
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=108344&tocid=8973#8973.toc
Excerpt: "The Indo-Iranian element in later Hinduism
is chiefly found in the initiatory ceremony (upanayana)
performed by boys of the three upper classes, a rite
both in Hinduism and in Zoroastrianism that involves
the tying of a sacred cord.

The Vedic god Varuna, now an unimportant sea god,
appears in the Rigveda as sharing many features of the
Zoroastrian Ahura Mazda ('Wise Lord'); the hallucin-
ogenic sacred drink soma corresponds to the sacred
haoma of Zoroastrianism."

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Hinduism
Early Hinduism (2nd century BC-4th century AD)
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=108344&tocid=8986
Excerpt: "... The period between the fall of the Mauryan
empire (c. 185 BC) and the rise of the Gupta (c. AD 320)
was one of great change, with most of the area of Pakistan
and parts of western India being conquered by a succes-
sion of invaders.

India was opened to influence from the West as never
before, not only by its invaders but by way of the sea
through the flourishing trade with the Roman Empire.

The effects of the new contacts were most obvious in art
and architecture. The oldest freestanding stone temple in
the subcontinent has been excavated at Taxila, near Rawal-
pindi, Pak.

During the 1st century BC the Gandhara school of
sculpture arose in the same region and made use of
Hellenistic and Roman prototypes, mainly in the service
of Buddhism. ..."

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Indian Religious Influence
in the Mediterranean World
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=108344&tocid=8989#8989.toc
Excerpt: "Nearly as dubious as the question of Hindu
influence on the religious life of the Far East is its
influence on that of the ancient Mediterranean world.

The Greek philosopher Pythagoras may have obtained
his doctrine of metempsychosis (transmigration, or
passage of the soul from one body to another) from
India, mediated by Achaemenian (6th-4th century BC)
Persia, but similar ideas were known in Egypt and were
certainly present in Greece before the time of Pythagoras.

The Pythagorean doctrine of a cyclic universe may also
be derived from India, but the Indian theory of cosmic
cycles is not attested in the 6th century BC. Nevertheless,
it is known that Hindu ascetics occasionally visited
Greece.

The most striking similarity of Greek and Indian thought
is the resemblance between the system of mystical
gnosis (esoteric knowledge) described in the Enneads
of the Neoplatonic philosopher Plotinus (3rd century AD)
and that of the Yoga-sutras attributed to Patañjali, an
Indian religious teacher sometimes dated in the 2nd
century AD.

The Patañjali text is the older, and influence must be
suspected, though the problem of mediation remains
difficult because Plotinus gives no direct evidence of
having known anything about Indian mysticism.

Several Greek (e.g., Clement of Alexandria) and Latin
writers show considerable knowledge of the externals
of Indian religions, but none gives any intimation of
understanding their more recondite aspects.

Certain Vaishnava legends, especially those referring
to the infant Krishna, bearsome resemblance to those
of Christianity, and claims have been made by both
Hinduism and Christianity that the one influenced the
other. There is, however, no definitive evidence for
the priority of either one."

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Indian Philosophy
Forms of Argument and Presentation
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=109262&tocid=12303#12303.toc
Excerpt: "... The issue of theism vis-à-vis atheism, in
the ordinary senses of the English words, played an
important role in Indian thought.

The ancient Indian tradition, however, classified the
classical systems (darsanas) into orthodox (astika)
and unorthodox (nastika).

Astika does not mean 'theistic,' nor does nastika mean
'atheistic.' Panini, a 5th-century-BC grammarian, stated
that the former is one who believes in a transcendent
world (asti paralokah) and the latter is one who does
not believe in it (nasti paralokah).

Astika may also mean one who accepts the authority
of the Vedas; nastika then means one who does not
accept that authority.

Not all among the astika philosophers, however, were
theists, and even if they were, they did not all accord
the same importance to the concept of God in their
systems.

The Samkhya system did not involve belief in the
existence of God, without ceasing to be astika, and
Yoga (a mental-psychological-physical meditation sys-
tem) made room for God not on theoretical grounds
but only on practical considerations.

The Purva-Mimamsa of Jaimini, the greatest philoso-
pher of the Mimamsa school, posits various deities
to account for the significance of Vedic rituals but
ignores, without denying, the question of the existence
of God. ..."

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The Buddha
http://prohuman.net/philosophy_general/the_buddha.htm
Excerpt: "... The version of the story presented here
is based on the Pali Tipitaka, which is recognized by
scholars as the earliest extant record of the Buddha's
discourses, and on the later Pali commentaries.

The style and technique of these ancient texts, followed
in this biography, provide a record--sometimes symbolic,
sometimes legendary, and always graphic--of the life of
the revered Teacher.

Just as there has been a vigorous search for the 'historical
Jesus' by Christian and other Western-oriented scholars,
so also among some Western Orientalists there has been
a scholarly search for the 'historical Buddha,' the history
of whom the Buddhists themselves never questioned
and which had never interested them as a historical
problem. ...

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The Founding of the Sangha (Buddhist monastic order,
traditionally composed of four groups: monks, nuns,
laymen, and laywomen)

The Buddha spent about three months in the Varanasi/
Benares region. During this period an important and
influential wealthy young man named Yasa became his
disciple and entered the order.

His father and mother, along with his former wife, also
were converted. They were the first lay disciples to take
refuge in the "Triple Jewel": the Buddha, the dhamma (the
interrelated elements which make up the empirical world),
and the sangha (see above).

Later, four of Yasa's close friends followed his example
and entered the order. Enthusiasm for this new movement
became so impelling that 50 of their friends also joined
them in the sangha. All these became arhats in due course,
and the Buddha soon had 60 disciples who were perfected
ones.

The Buddha addressed this group in the following words
and sent them out into the world to spread his message
of peace, compassion, and wisdom:

Bhikkhus, I am freed from all fetters, both divine and
human. You, too, are freed from all fetters, both divine
and human. Wander forth, bhikkhus, for the good of
the many, for the happiness of the many, out of com-
passion for the world. . . . Let not two of you go by
one road [i.e., go in different directions]. Teach the
Dhamma which is good at the beginning, good in the
middle, and good at the end. . . . There are people who
will understand the Dhamma. I, too, will go to Uruvela
to teach the Dhamma.

The 60 disciples went in various directions to spread
the teaching of the Buddha. The Buddha himself set
out for Uruvela. On the way he converted 30 young
men, who then entered the order. ...

- - -

Assessment of the Personality
and Character of the Buddha

... The Buddha, affectionate and devoted to his
disciples, was always inquiring after their well-being
and progress. When he was staying in a monastery,
he paid daily visits to the sick ward. Once, he himself
attended a sick monk neglected by others and made
the comment that 'he who attends on the sick attends
on me.'

The Buddha refused to recognize the religious signifi-
cance of the caste system that was a long-established
and respected institution in India and recognized the
religious potential of men and women of all social
ranks.

He also recognized the connection between economic
welfare and moral development. Trying to suppress
crime through punishment, he said, was futile. Poverty,
according to the Buddha, was a cause of immorality
and crime; therefore, the economic condition of people
should be improved.

He appreciated both natural and physical beauty. On
several occasions he was moved aesthetically, as he
told Ananda how delightful certain places were to him.
At Vesali he told the monks that, if they had not seen
the devas (gods) of Tavatimsa (Heaven), they should
look at the handsome Licchavis, beautifully and
elegantly dressed in different colours.

King Pasenadi could not understand how the Buddha
maintained such order and discipline in the community
of monks, when he, a king, with the power to inflict
punishment, could not maintain it as well in his court.
The Buddha, however, kept order and discipline on
the basis of a mutual love, affection, and respect that
exists between teacher and pupil.

Many miraculous powers were attributed to the Buddha,
and he performed a number of miracles during his min-
istry. At the same time, however, he did not consider
magical powers to be of primary importance. Once,
when one of his disciples performed a miracle in public,
the Buddha reproached him and laid down a rule that
his disciples should not perform miracles before the
laity. In his view, the greatest miracle was to explain
the truth and to make people recognize its importance.

Behind his philosophy and strict ethics, the Buddha had
a quiet sense of humour. A conceited Brahman, who
was in the habit of denigrating others, questioned him
as to the qualities of a true Brahman. In a list of such
high qualities as freedom from evil and purity of heart,
the Buddha gently included 'not denigrating others.'

The portrait of the Buddha, as can be inferred from the
lines of the ancient texts, is thus one of a man of great
wisdom and great compassion, one who was moved
by the spectacle of human suffering and was determined
to teach his fellow human beings how that suffering
could be confronted and overcome. ..."

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