Buddhism and early Indian religion

In this chapter I shall do two things: first, I shall indicate, in outline, what I conceive to be the place in the general history of early Indian religion of the Buddha and his teaching. In doing this, I shall emphasise, within the general spectrum which seems to have existed, the particular tradition of Brahmanical thought and practice, arguing that it was this tradition which had the decisive intellectual influence on Buddhism, as indeed on all subsequent Indian thought. Secondly, I shall trace in some detail the evolution, within the Brahmanical tradition, of those fundamental categories of thinking in which Buddhism, and all other major Indian religions, have elaborated their ontology, eschatology and psychology. These categories are:

1. samsāra – ‘the round of rebirth’. The idea that each person (however that is conceived) lives through a series of lives, which can occur in various forms both in this world and elsewhere.

2. karma – ‘action’, ‘moral retribution’. The belief that it is action which causes this process of rebirth, and experience within it; the moral quality of actions performed previously – usually but not necessarily in past lives – determines the happiness or suffering experienced thereafter. This gives both one type of explanation of suffering and evil, and a possible rubric for religious and moral behaviour which tries to improve one's lot in the future.