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HINDUS, JAINS and the BUDDHA (7 of 7)

The Gupta Empire

The increase in prosperity during the Gupta Empire was accompanied by a greater liberality. The cruel punishments of Mauryan times had been abolished. Punishments such as having one's hand cut off were applied only against obstinate, professional criminals. Among civilians, the avoidance of killing that had been a part of Buddhism and Jainism was widely observed as a cultural diffusion that impacted Hindus. Across India most people had become vegetarians, except for fish which was widely consumed in Bengal and places to its south. And unlike parts of the Roman Empire, a traveler in India had little reason to fear robbery. A visitor from China, Fa-hien (Faxian), traveled about in India for eleven years and recorded that he was never molested or robbed.

Hinduism benefited from royal support and subsidies, and it retained the supremacy it had lost to Buddhism. Hinduism's Ramayana and Mahabarata stories were popular. And writers increased Hinduism's appeal by describing the contents of Vedic literature with concise statements of principle.

Hinduism remained without a founder to argue about as Christians did about the nature of Jesus Christ. And while Christianity was focusing on sin and seeing rival belief as the work of the devil, Hinduism was tolerant and happy. It had acquired more rituals. It drew more from astronomy. It appealed to common people by offering them a program of reactions to various conditions in life. Rather than see suffering as endemic to life on earth, many Hindus had come to believe suffering could be avoided by guarding against foolishness and the misdeeds of others.

The good Hindu tried to live by good deeds, which was thought to help the believer achieve higher reincarnations, with nirvana as the ultimate goal. Hindus believed that the best way to advance one's soul up the ladder of higher status was to accept and not complain about one's caste status. What mattered for a good Hindu was to eat and drink correctly, marry the right person and otherwise act in accordance with the law of one's position in life. A good father was seen as obliged to keep himself and his wife happy, to have as many children as possible and to accumulate what wealth he could. He was seen as obliged to give an appropriate fraction of his wealth to the priests during each of the many rituals and religious holidays that he was to celebrate.

Hinduism absorbed some aspects of Buddhism and Jainism. In Hinduism, the Buddha became one of the ten incarnations of Vishnu. And Buddhism and Jainism, born of concern for human suffering, were losing their previous fervor. Hinduism was more suited to living well, without the restraints demanded from Buddhism and Jainism. Hinduism offered colorful deities, rites and sacred formulas for birth, death, marriage and illness that Buddhism did not, and Buddhist holy places began to suffer from neglect.

Hindus bathed happily in their sacred rivers and made joyful pilgrimages to sacred places they believed were the sanctuaries of their gods. They sought out ascetics who performed feats that demonstrated inordinate spiritual accomplishments. And many fasted to help unite their soul with the supreme soul of the god Brahma.

Amid Hinduism's diversity, some gods of the Vedas continued to fade. The gods Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva remained dominant, each with its own devotees. Brahma was seen as The Creator. He was regarded by some as superior to the others, but worship of Brahma was declining relative to the more personal gods that Vishnu and Shiva were.