By the birth of the Buddha, believed to be between 490 and 450 BCE, the social and religious context of Northern India, much as it remains today, was a vast variety of cultural differences.
The Buddha was born into the Hindu culture; initially identified as those who dwelt in the Indus Valley, northwest India and Pakistan.
There remain ongoing challenges to the consistency and clarity of ancient Hindu origins, due to the changing development of Indian history, culture, philosophy and religion. The Aryans are believed to have invaded the civilisation of the Indus Valley, which influenced the development of Hindu history, philosophy and culture.
Julius Lipner has described it ‘Hinduism is a way of life, a collection of religions, a complex culture, one yet many’. By a modern stance, under Article 25 of the Indian Constitution, Hinduism incorporates Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists’.
The Buddha was believed to have lived and wandered in the north-east of India, around the region of the Ganges Basin. Major archaeological discoveries during the 20th century uncovered evidence of a civilisation located in the Indus Valley, around the Ganges basin, which existed approximately 2000 years before the emergence of Buddhism. This civilisation in the Indus Valley was centred around the two ancient cities of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa.
The measure of ‘technical development’ in this civilisation is evidenced by remains of a primitive water system- suggesting a form of sewage and drainage, alongside bathing facility- with stone buildings and religious artefacts: suggesting to archaeologists of the potential rise of temple worship and religious meditation as traced to this particular civilisation in the Indus Valley.
The Aryan invasion from the west into the Indus Valley is suggested to have arrived upon the decline of this civilisation, who brought themselves a civilisation structured around strict social strata’s and religious practices. The infusion of these invaders with the civilisation of the Indus Valley resulted in the earliest Hindu scriptures known as the Vedas, believed to have been composed to instil, or outline, the Varna (Hindu system of social grouping). From the Varna developed with increasingly complexity, the sub-division of Jati (a social grouping of birth). It must be stated that this system of organisation is officially illegal, for its discrimination.
Historically, however, it served as a key distinction in the social structure of Hindu religion and culture.
Further religious developments, such as Dharma (the eternal, natural law, social duty and teaching) provided Hindus the social duty, through ethical doctrine, to follow and practice the Dharma, as the family code, determined by the Jati, to which they belonged.
At the core of Ancient Hinduism, which in many features remain to this day, are the doctrines which structure society and uphold the vital religious values: such as Ashrama (the stages of life). It distinguishes the particular social roles and expectations of Hindu culture: such as the priestly class, Sadhus, or Sannyasins (holy men), who guide those towards Moksha and Mukti (the release, escape, or liberation, from the cycle of birth, death and reincarnation).
The four Jatis, or social strata, was comprised of: Brahmin (priestly scholars), Kshatriya (warriors), Vaisya (skilled workers, as merchants or professionals): Sudra (unskilled labourers).
Brahmins were the elites of the class, responsible for maintaining social order through guiding citizens through the rites of traditional worship, often through sacrifice and rituals: whilst Kshatriya were responsible for maintaining societal order, by force and fight for justice, to protect the people.
Both of these Jati, were believed to be twice-born, since they underwent a second, spiritual
rebirth, after the Hindu rite of passage initiations, known the sacred thread ceremony. The Vaisya and Sudra, however, born only once, consequently, were not permitted to read the Vedas.
‘By ideology, of course, the Kshatriya ranks second, beneath the Brahmin. Yet he is the man wit the real physical power, on whom even the Brahmin depends for his safety and physical welfare. The relations between Brahmin and Kshatriya have always been somewhat ambiguous’. (Ernest Grombrich)
As generations developed, in times of crisis such as poverty, disease, war and famine, tensions and conflicts would arise between the Brahmin and Kshatryia class.
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