Jainism And Buddhism In Pre Mauryan Period

Pre Mauryan Period – We now stand on the threshold of actual history, leaving behind us the period of the Upanishads and the Sutras which was ‘at once an age of keen speculation and rapid crystallization almost unequalled in the history of any nation’. Most European writers in their attempt to characterize Oriental Culture in the face of the Greek culture conclude that Oriental thought is ‘mythopoeic’, that is, myth-making, and that it is not until the age of the Greeks that reason establishes its independence. 

But the contrast is misleading and as Whewell admits, the Hindus, like the Greeks, ‘felt the importunate curiosity with regard to the definite application of the idea of cause and effect to visible phenomena’, ‘drew a strong line between a fabulous legend and a reason rendered’ and ‘attempted to ascend to a natural cause by classing together phenomena of the same kind’. 

Buddhist and Jaina books from the primary source of our knowledge of the internal history of India from the seventh century B.C. to 322 B.C. the probable date of the Maurya Chandragupta’s accession. 
Like the Vedic literature, these books also devote themselves more to religious ideas and movements than to historical events. 
But they contain references to States and their mutual relations which, if shifted, give us a fairly clear picture of the politics of the time. 
Besides these, the notice of India by Hecataeus of Miletus (about 520 B.c.) and some inscriptions of the Persian King Darius (about 486 B.C.) contain references to historical events in India. 
But the chronology of this period is still on shifting sands. For example, the date of the Buddha’s death is differently fixed some time between the years 486 and 475 B.C. However, scholars generally accept 563 B.C. for his birth, and 483 B.C. for his death. But according to Sinhalese Buddhists the Buddha was born in 624 B.C. Again there is much disagreement among competent authorities on some important political events of the period. 

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