INDIAN PHILOSOPHY

COMPLETE WORKS OF DR K.C.VARADACHARI – VOL10
figure and an avatar of Dharma – the true dharma of
liberation and peace.
Moving southward Buddhism got adherents in
the south and even occupied the whole of Lanka or
Ceylon. The teachers of this message were purely
wedded to the original writings of the Buddha and were
in a sense fundamentalists. They were called men of
the smaller vehicle – Hinayana. Buddhism spread in
Ceylon. Here is pure Buddhism and it is this Buddhism
that was the target of criticism from the vedantins and
other systems. That Buddhism did provide a rethinking
of values on the part of the darsanas is a fact of capital
importance: ethical life based on the basic concepts of
satya, aparigraha, brahmacarya and ahimsa was more
important and will lead to the emancipation from
samsaric cycle than the worship of the gods and
sacrifices. This was a truth that held sway in the minds
of the people of south India. Great thinkers were
supplied to Buddhism from the south such as Dinnaga
(of kanci), Dharmakirti (of Tirumalai) and Nagarjuna,
and these thinkers could hardly have influenced the
Hinayana. Indeed we find that these thinkers were most
influential in the Mahayana or the greater vehicle.
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