40
ATTACHMENT IS THE
ROOT OF SUFFERING
SIDDARTHA GAUTAMA
PREACHES BUDDHISM (
c
.500
bce
)
S
iddartha Gautama, better
known as the Buddha, was
born
at the end of the Vedic
Age (1800–600
bce
) into a South
Asia in transition. In the country’s
caste system, the priestly Brahmins
and the warrior-elite Kshatriyas
ranked highest, and it was into
this
latter group that Siddartha
Gautama was born.
India was then a ferment of sects
and new ideologies, some of which
espoused a philosophy renouncing
the material world. Siddartha
developed a similar philosophy
based
on mystical Hinduism, but
he also rejected the increasingly
rigid strictures of Vedic ritual and
the inherited piety of the Brahmins.
Renouncing
material possessions,
he sought and eventually found
enlightenment, and became the
Buddha. He preached in northeast
India and founded the Sangha—the
monastic order of Buddhism—to
continue his ministry.
IN CONTEXT
FOCUS
The spread of Buddhism
BEFORE
1200
bce
Vedic (aka Aryan)
culture extends across
northern and central India.
1200–800
bce
Oral Vedic
traditions are written down
in Sanskrit as the Vedas.
c.600
bce
The
Mahajanapadas, the 16
competing kingdoms of Vedic
India, emerge.
AFTER
322
bce
Chandragupta Maurya
founds the Mauryan Empire.
3rd century
bce
Sri
Lanka
converts to Buddhism.
185
bce
The Mauryan Empire
collapses.
