9.5 The indian subcontinent: 600 to 501 b.c.

The indian subcontinent

The Vedic Culture began to decay or at least to stagnate, so that Darius I of Persia had little trouble in seizing Gandhara from the disunited Aryans, and the entire area soon became divided into many small states. Darius' advance into the Indus Valley marked the introduction of coinage, iron working

Gautama Buddha, scion of the aristocratic Gautama clan living at the foot of the Himalayas, was born in 563 B.C. He left his family and after an initial withdrawal period with self mortification, he returned to the active world to teach his ideas of ethics. He did not write, but talked, a man of strong will, authoritative and proud, but of gentle manner and speech and of infinite benevolence. His idea of Nirvana was complete annihilation. Later, a legend of divine birth appeared among Buddha's followers, but he, himself, claimed no divine origin and in fact was in essence an atheist, worshiping no god, having no ritual and interested only in ethics.

In the middle of this century there also appeared another religion founded by Mahavira and called "Jains". Mahavira taught that the road to release from the tragedy of life was to be found through ascetic penances and complete "ahimsa". The latter means abstinence from injury to any living thing. Gandhi was later strongly influenced by this sect. Neither Buddhism nor Jainism accepted the caste system, which was Hindu in origin, and both were opposed to violence and to any animal slaughter. The Jains even had to be careful in eating any fruit or vegetable, as it might contain an insect which might be a human soul in re-in- carnation. Finally, the only animal protein food in India was an occasional chicken or, on the coast, fish and seafood.

Aryan invaders from north India arrived in Sri Lanka in this or the preceding century and the present day majority Sinhalese ( seven out of ten Sri Lankans) claim descent from them. They are Buddhists and theirs is the official language of the island. (Ref. 136 , 211 )

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