1. The argument by the RSS person is not a newsmaker to the academic world as the continuities between Vedic culture and thought and Buddhism have been under discussion alongside the discontinuities between the two.

 

2. There were/are descriptions of Buddhism as 'protestant Hinduism' , as a 'subset of Hinduism' etc. by a certain strand of western scholarship too.

 

3. One of the main issues here is the use of the word 'Hindu'. Richard King problematized this in his 'Orientalism and Religion' . But uncritical use of the problematic term even in academic debates continues perpetuating ambiguities.

 

4. Alexander Wynne's 'the origin of Buddhist meditation' and other such works do trace at least certain aspects of Buddhism to Vedic culture or texts .

 

 

Regards,

 

 

Nagaraj  

--

Prof.Nagaraj Paturi

Hyderabad-500044