History · Ch 4 — Thinkers, Beliefs and Buildings — Cultural Developments
The Background: Sacrifices and Debates
The Background: Sacrifices and Debates
The mid-first millennium BCE was a turning point in world history. Thinkers like Zarathustra in Iran, Kong Zi (Confucius) in China, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle in Greece, and Mahavira and Gautama Buddha in India all emerged during this period. They tried to understand the mysteries of existence and the relationship between human beings and the cosmic order. At the same time, new kingdoms and cities were developing in the Ganga valley, and social and economic life was changing rapidly. These thinkers were also trying to make sense of these developments.
The sacrificial tradition
Before these new thinkers, there were already well-established traditions of religious belief and practice. The early Vedic tradition, known from the Rigveda (compiled between c. 1500 and 1000 BCE), consisted of hymns in praise of deities like Agni (the god of fire), Indra, and Soma. These hymns were chanted during sacrifices, where people prayed for cattle, sons, good health, and a long life.
Sacrifices were initially performed collectively. Later (from c. 1000 BCE–500 BCE onwards), some were performed by heads of households for the well-being of their families. More elaborate sacrifices, such as the rajasuya (consecration of a king) and the ashvamedha (horse sacrifice), were performed by chiefs and kings. These rulers depended on Brahmana priests to conduct the rituals correctly.
New questions
By the sixth century BCE, the Upanishads reveal that people were asking new and deeper questions. They were curious about the meaning of life, the possibility of life after death, and the nature of rebirth. Was rebirth caused by past actions? These issues were hotly debated. Thinkers were concerned with understanding the nature of ultimate reality. Some, outside the Vedic tradition, even questioned whether a single ultimate reality existed at all. People also began to speculate on the very significance of the sacrificial tradition itself.
The Upanishads describe the self (atman) as being both smaller than a grain of millet and greater than the earth, the sky, and all the worlds. They also reinterpreted sacrifice itself — suggesting that the wind, as it moves and sanctifies everything, is itself a true sacrifice.
Debates and discussions
Buddhist texts give us a glimpse of the lively debates of this time. They mention as many as 64 different sects or schools of thought. Teachers travelled from place to place, trying to convince one another and ordinary people about the validity of their philosophy. Debates took place in the kutagarashala (a hut with a pointed roof) or in groves where travelling mendicants halted.
If a philosopher succeeded in convincing a rival, the rival's followers would become his disciples. This meant that support for any particular sect could grow or shrink over time. Many of these teachers, including Mahavira and the Buddha, questioned the authority of the Vedas. They also emphasised individual agency — the idea that men and women could strive to attain liberation from the trials of worldly existence. This was a marked contrast to the Brahmanical position, where an individual's existence was thought to be determined by birth in a specific caste or gender.
How Buddhist texts were prepared and preserved
The Buddha taught orally, through discussion and debate. None of his speeches were written down during his lifetime. After his death (c. fifth–fourth century BCE), his disciples compiled his teachings at a council of senior monks in Vesali (Vaishali in present-day Bihar). These compilations were known as the Tipitaka (three baskets), which held different types of texts:
| Pitaka | Content |
|---|---|
| Vinaya Pitaka | Rules and regulations for those who joined the sangha (monastic order) |
| Sutta Pitaka | The Buddha's teachings |
| Abhidhamma Pitaka | Philosophical matters |
These texts were first transmitted orally and later written down. Commentaries were written on them by Buddhist scholars. As Buddhism spread to new regions like Sri Lanka, other texts such as the Dipavamsa (chronicle of the island) and Mahavamsa (the great chronicle) were written, containing regional histories of Buddhism. Some of the oldest texts are in Pali, while later compositions are in Sanskrit. When Buddhism spread to East Asia, pilgrims like Fa Xian and Xuan Zang travelled from China to India in search of texts, which they took back to be translated. Buddhist texts were preserved in manuscripts for centuries in monasteries across Asia.
Fatalists and materialists
Not all teachers agreed with the Buddha. The Sutta Pitaka records a conversation between King Ajatasattu of Magadha and the Buddha, describing the views of two other teachers: …