On the Relationships Between Early Buddism and Other Contemporary Systems

Abstract

In investigating the nature of original Buddhism a consideration of its position as one among a number of contemporary historical systems, and of the way in which it may have arisen in opposition to the others, may be more illuminating than attempts to trace back the original doctrine through the history of the schools of Buddhism itself. The most important among these systems appear to have been those of the Ājīvakas, the Nirgranthas or Jainas, and the Lokayatas. Many other systems existed, and are occasionally discussed in the extant literature, but the majority failed to attract a substantial following and to persist as organized schools. We may mention the doctrines attributed to the Buddha's teachers, and perhaps the Iśvaravāda, if this was not simply a part of the older Brahmanical tradition (Iśvara = Prajapāti or Brahmā). The cults of Baladeva and Vāsudeva, which with the Kṛṣṇa and other legends were later integrated into Vaisnavism, and which probably were non-Brahmanical in origin, seem from Jaina references to have existed already in eastern India. A heterodox proto- may date back to the period of the origin of Buddhism.

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