Buddhism and Hinduism

Harsha's court was a place of great artistic refinement, and he was himself a poet and playwright. A vivid account of his reign lives in the writ-

A map of the present-day Indian sub-continent, including the nations of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Illustration by XNR Productions. Reproduced by permission of the Gale Croup.

Ings of the Chinese traveler Hsuan-tsang (shooy-AHND ZAHNG; 602664). Hsuan-tsang had come as a pilgrim to visit the many holy sites associated with the founder of Buddhism,

An Indian prince named Siddhartha Gautama (si-DAR-tuh GOW-tuh-muh ; c. 563-c. 483 b. c.), whose followers called him the Buddha or "Enlightened One." Yet Buddhism never

A statue of Buddha, or Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism. Reproduced by permission of Archive Photos, Inc.

Gained a lasting hold on the nation of its birth, even though it shared many common roots with Hinduism.

Both religions accepted reincarnation, the idea that human beings are reborn many times as a way of working out their karma, or the results of their actions. To Hindus, this meant that a person would be reincarnated as a member of a higher or lower caste (KAST; social group), depending on their actions in a past life. People of the higher castes enjoyed great wealth and privilege while the bottom rungs of society were condemned as "Untouchables." Whereas most modern Americans would consider this situation as unjust, Hindus considered this a completely fair result of karmic forces.

Buddhism, by contrast, offered the possibility that one could escape the endless cycles of reincarnation by achieving enlightenment. This gave it great appeal among the lower castes and with descendants of the land's original inhabitants, many of whom had spread southward into southern India and the island of Ceylon (seh-LAHN; now Sri Lanka) after the Indo-European invasion. Buddhism also rejected the Hindu gods and the rituals associated with them.