The Religious, Social, Economic and Political Conditions at the Time of the Buddha

The Religious, Social, Economic and Political Conditions at the Time of the Buddha

It was around the 6th Century BC, when the historical figure known as

'the Buddha' started a complete new way of life. Buddhism. Rejecting

his luxurious upbringing, he set out as a nomadic ascetic, eventually

refusing this extreme also, choosing what he named the 'middle path'

to enlightenment and freedom from life's pains. In order to completely

understand these teachings of the Buddha, we need to appreciate the

world of immense change, upheaval and innovation that he lived and

taught in.

During the 6th century, there were many changes and developments in

the world of religion. In the Far East, the Taoist and Confucianist

social philosophies were forming sets of values and political

structures while in the West and Middle East, Judaism, Greek

Philosophies and the Persian civilizations were all growing. Focusing

in on India, religion at the time was divided into three groups - the

Vedic religion, ancient folk beliefs and the Sharamana movement. The

Vedic religion migrated into India from the West during the Aryan

invasion bringing with them many different beliefs. The priests of the

religion were known as the Brahmins and since they were the only ones

who knew the rituals and structures of the religion, they claimed

place in Aryan society. This interestingly has remained the case in

present day Hinduism and was the beginning of the caste system, which

will be discussed later on. Very briefly, the Vedics were primarily

concerned with the forces of the natural world and the powers on which

humans were dependent - this included the sun, sky and moon. Thi...

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...cants were dependent on alms and basically the

structure of society proved beneficial for the economy. Upper classes

appear to have lived in leisure and this leisure time was spent

transforming old institutions and ways of life into new forms, and old

philosophies into new teachings. The older form of society was

breaking down in the progression of new monarchies and tribal republic

groups were being overthrown and brought into domination of newly

formed aristocracies. 'The old, familiar structure of society was

being replaced by a the more mechanical structure of government.'

As we can see from looking at the incredibly complex and constantly

developing environment of 6th century India, I think we can begin to

realize how the Buddha's teachings were embraced by a society in the

middle this great transitional period.