The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

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THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA 53
ment of superstitions through insistence on the
efficacy of magical powers of invocation, exploitation
of the priestly rite to administer sacrifices,
and the emphasis on self-torture as a means of
gaining supernatural power, were factors that
invited revolt against the Brahmins who had
fallen from the original ideal of Aryan priesthood.
Although probably at this early date the
caste system had not yet grown into the rigidly
compartmented divisions of modern Hinduism,
nor the Brahmins assumed the position of infallibility
that they came to enjoy in later Hinduism,
this priestly caste had come to regard itself
as the sole interpreter of the Vedas, enjoying a
tyrannical monopoly in its ministrations to the
religious needs of the community. At this moment
of Asiatic history there arose a number of
heretical movements that challenged the authority
of the Brahmins and offered the opportunity
of personal salvation to the individual. Such
heretical movements were nothing new in Indian
religious history, nor is it at all surprising
that these reform movements should have been
led by members of the Kshatnya or warrior
caste, who in some parts of India, at least, regarded
themselves not only as the rivals but the
superiors of the Brahmins.
Among the many sects which disputed the
authority of Hinduism in the sixth century B.C.
was the religion of Jainism, the foundation of
which is traditionally ascribed to the sage Mahavira
(599-527 B.C.). The goal of Jainism was the
attainment of salvation through rebirth, as escape
from the retribution of conduct, or karma,
whereby, according to the sins committed in
earthly incarnations, men are destined to atone
for these wrongs by being reborn into the world
in the shape of an animal or a slave. Mahavira
and his followers taught that salvation could be
achieved through the practice of asceticism and
through the scrupulous avoidance of injuring
or killing a living creature. Mahavira, who as a
Brahmin knew the various systems for the attainment
of salvation offered by the Hindu Church,
was, like the Buddha, a leader of a revolt against
the orthodox cult of Brahmanism. He denied
the authority of the Vedas and the efficacy of
sacrifice, offering the attainment of perfection
and release from karma to all who, by the practice
of abstinence and asceticism, could eradicate
earthly passions. Mahavira is worshipped
together with twenty-four other jinas or tirthamkaras
who had attained this goal of perfection
in earlier cycles of time. In Jain literature and
art their lives are embellished with miraculous
events that are allegories or direct borrowings of
age-old Indian metaphysical concepts.
Of far vaster import for the later history of
not only Indian but all Asiatic civilization was
the greatest leader in this humanistic revolution
the personage known to history as the Buddha. 7
Born about 563 B.C. into the princely clan of
Sakyas on the border of Nepal, the mortal Buddha
is known by his personal name, Siddhartha,
by his surname of Gautama, or as Sakyamuni
(the Sage of the Sakyas). Only the briefest possible
survey can be given of the life of the historical
Buddha, the events of which formed the subject
for the art of Buddhism in India and all
eastern Asia. During his youth as the prince of a
royal house, Sakyamuni, through visions vouchsafed
by the Devas, was made aware of the
miseries of humanity, and determined to renounce
the world in order to effect the salvation
of his fellow men from the inexorable cycle of
reincarnation. After his flight from his father's
capital, known as the Great Renunciation,
Sakyamuni studied under a number of Brahmin
sages, who advocated extremes of penance and
self-mortification as a means of acquiring the
spiritual power or tapas to escape the retribution
of karma or rebirth. After renouncing the way of
asceticism, Sakyamuni found the goal of
Enlightenment through the practice of yoga.
This final Enlightenment took place as the
result of his meditations under the Bodhi Tree,
or Tree of Wisdom, at Gaya. The culmination
of this trance was the attainment ofBuddhahood