Hinduism and Buddhism/Jainism

[Anshuman Pandey]

On Fri, 6 Oct 1995, Sadhunathan Nadesan wrote:

> | There seems to be a widely held perception that Buddhism and Jainism are 
> | "off-shoots" of Hinduism and developed their own metaphyisics in reaction 
> | to the Vedic tradition.  A colleague of mine holds this view very 
> | strongly.  I tend to think that it is an erroneous way of reading the 
> | history of Indian thought.  Both the Buddhist and the Jain traditions, 
> | like other systems of Indian Philosophy seem to have their independent 
> | sources of origin and have reacted to the Braahmana tradition.  They have 
> | perhaps more in common with the Sramana and Vraatya traditions.  I hope 
> | others would comment on this and clear some of the misreadings of the 
> | history of Indian thought.
> | 
> 
> sorry, disagree.  both these sprang up in the context of a hindu
> culture.  they all share many facets in common.  differences, true,
> but, there are just as many differences between various sects that are
> considered part of hinduism.  remember, gautama was a hindu prince.
> in our town, the jains come to our hindu temple and worship beside us.
> the spiritual men amongst all these traditions see more similarity
> than difference.


Don't the philosophies of jainism and buddhism fall into the category of 
"shramanic" philosophies, whereas as vedic hinduism falls into the 
category of "brahmanic"?

Did not the vedic vipras/brahmanas have trouble with the shramanic 
ascetics in their refusal to honor the brahmanic yajnas, etc?

It seems that strains of jainism and buddhism were prevalent, including 
mentions of tirthankars and boddhisatvas, during the early vedic age.

Anshuman Pandey