The development of Hinduism from the Vedas to the Upanishads was the period one of conflict between priests and seers. Although the sacrificial system had been challenged by the Upanishadic seers, nothing which can be called a revolt had yet appeared. With the 6th century, however, there arose upon the Hindu scene the first period of challenge. The Upanishads, despite their obvious brilliance of conception and expression, had failed to appeal to the masses. The average man could not hope to attain the lofty liberating knowledge set forth as the ideal in the Upanishads. The sacrificial system had been taken from him and he had received in return that which was beyond his intellectual powers and which did not satisfy his emotional needs. Furthermore, some of the intellectuals had not found the new religions fully acceptable, for the Upanishadic rishis rather than giving convincing arguments for their doctrines merely recorded their own intuitions and asked their hearers to accept on faith the truth and value of the insights.
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The eastern end of the Ganges Valley was an area of intellectual ferment in the 6th century B.C. It was the scene of a ravaging and wide-spreading heterodoxy called “Charvaka and Lokayata” based on hedonic ethic. The intellectual, religious and social leaders of this geographic regions (which also later nurtured the Jains and the Buddhists) rejected the Vedas and all teachings. The so-called knowledge offered in the vedic literature was described by them (the materialists as they came to be known) as “The vomit of Brahmin”.
The Charvaka philosophers operated in two directions: negatively they sought to destroy confidence in Shruti, and positively they sought to offer an alternative to brahminic teachings. Their favourite weapon of destruction was ridicule. If the sacrificial animals ascend to heaven as the brahmins say, they asked, then why do not sacrificers offer their own parents and children? The Vedas themselves were authored by “buffoons, knaves, and domons,” and they are trained with “un-truths, self-contradictions, and tautologies”. The Vedas, those “incoherent rhapsodies” are but cheats, and the priests who perform the sacrifices, read the Vedas, conduct penances, and rub their bodies with ashes are ignorant men with no manliness nor sense who have discovered that the value of the ceremonies is a means of self-support the ceremonies have no other fruit1.
According to the Charvakas the only realities are physical objects, i.e., objects which can be sensed. Whereas other philosophers recognised five primary elements – earth, air, fire, water and ether – the Charvakas held that only the first four exist; the later is unperceivable, therefore unreal they claimed that at death the human being without remainder is dissolved back into the primary elements. According to them, the only “god” is “The earthly monarch whose existence is proved by all the world’s eyesight”. There is no after-life and no reincarnation. “Soul” and “God” are words – and only words. Sacrifices and good works confer no merit; sins and evil works bring no punishment. Hell is physical pain, e.g. stepping on a thorn, and heaven is eating delicious food, keeping company of young women, using fine clothes, perfumes, gralands, sandal poste, etc.,”. Religion in all its forms is foolishness. Only the fool wears himself out in penances and fasts.
Decline of Budhisim and Jainaism in India
When king Ashoka embraced Buddhism and ruled the country between 274 and 232 B.C., he became a great Propagator of Buddhism. Ashoka made all out efforts to turn Buddhism into a world wide religion by sending missionaries of Buddhism outside the Indian mainland. At a time Buddhism flourished in India under the patronage of monarchs like Ashoka and Kushan King Kanishka, who lived in the second century A.D and patronised the missionary activities of Buddhism in his vast empire, which stretched beyond the borders of India to central Asia. But by the th Century Buddhism had begun to decay in India. Kind Harsha (606-648) who was a zealous Buddhist was finally assassinated by Brahmins. The introduction of Tantric practices, often of debased sexual forms was one of the factors in its growing unpopularity. Also by coming under the spell of Hindu Saktism and Tantrism, Buddhism lost its own religious identity. Another factor responsible for the decay and decline of Buddhism in India was that by taking a receptive attitude towards other religions, Buddhism became assimilated into Hinduism; e.g the Vaishnavites made Buddha an avatar of Vishnu. A third factor was the revived and resurgent Hinduism under the Guptas (332 B.C to 185 B.C) when Hinduism experienced its golden age. The militant Hindus destroyed many monasteries and murdered the monks. Enemies of Buddhism also burned the Bodhi-tree at Gaya, the tree under which according to legend Gautama received his enlightment. Today Buddhism flourishes in eastern Asia, but in India it is largely a legacy of the past.
However, Buddhism did leave an impact on Hinduism. Both Jains and Buddhists arose as reforming sects retaining the ethical ideas of Hinduism but repudiating the authority of the Vedas and belief in a personal God, and rejecting the caste system as well as priestly religion and sacrifies. The brahmin monopoly has been broken considerably since then.
This religion of “Bhagavata” (meaning relating to the god) which arose to challenge the religion of the Upanishads in the west was a monotheistic religion of devotional love for god. The god was called Krishna. Unlike Mahavira and Buddha, there is so much uncertainty and conjecture about Krishna that at times one is lost in myths and legends; but the matters which concerns us, is that there was a Krishna-worshipping cult in the West. This cult was inclined to monotheistic worship of a god who was benevolent and who was anxious to bestow gracious gifts upon his devotees. All the adherents of this cult were unanimous in condemning both the Vedic fire and blood sacrifices with their accompanying austerities and penances and the Upanishadic approach to man’s liberation from Samsara. Thus this new religion could offer a viable alternative to the Upanishadic speculations and the Vedic Sacrifices. But more than this is could offer a new doctrinal theology. Jainism and Buddhism offered the Jiriki (self-power) tradition. Bhagavata offered the way of bhakti which unlike Jainism and Buddhaism (both of which rejected the authority of the vedas, and as such they are regarded as “heretical” schools by orthodox Hindus) could be assimilated easily within Hinduism.
