Indian Society and Thought Before the Time of Buddha

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Every civilization had it origin, but most likely, this origin is either covered by dust or was ruined by the proliferates of internal wars or exterior conquest. Fortunately, with the help of modern science, we can go back even further into history than we once before had. New technology had allowed archeologist to unearth many mystery’s artifacts that could change the world history or at least make a contribution to the history of the world. Adding more evidential facts with scientific means to provide information’s that were left out for thousands of years. With this open up the way to historical phenomenological, let us turn our attention to look at the Indian civilization, the civilization before the Buddha by primarily exploring the Indus Civilization, the Aryans, and Brahmanism.

According to archeological evidence, the Indus Civilization appears in India about 3000 BCE. That is about 2500 years before the Buddha. This civilization begins with the Bronze Age, and appeared to be roughly about the same time as the civilization that appeared in Mesopotamia. The Indus civilization otherwise known as the Harappa-Mohenjodaro civilization took place, name, and form from the Indus River (Sanskrit Sindhu) North West of India. The Harappa-Mohenjodaro civilization is believed to have a well-developed social and economic structure. Evidences from excavations sites suggested that this civilization flourished in the Indus River valley during the third to second millennia B.C.E and spreading eastward into the Ganges valley and southeast at least to Gujarat. It is believed that this civilization also had commercial contact with the pre-Babylonian Sumerians of the Mesopotamian area in modern-day Iraq as archeologist discovered similar arti...

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...John. Mohenjo-Daro and the Indus Civilization: Being an Official Account of Archaeological Excavations at Mohenjo-Daro Carried Out by the Government of India Between the Years 1922 and 1927. Asian Educational Services, 1996.

Olivelle, Patrick. Upaniṣads. Oxford University Press, 1998.

Porter, J. H. “Caste in India.” American Anthropologist 8, no. 1 (January 1, 1895): 23–30.

Possehl, Gregory L. The Indus Civilization: a Contemporary Perspective. Rowman Altamira, 2002.

Upadhyaya, K. N. Early Buddhism and the Bhagavadgita. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1971.

Walters, J. Donald. The Hindu Way of Awakening: Its Revelation, Its Symbol, an Essential View of Religion. Crystal Clarity Publishers, 1998.

Warder, A. K. Indian Buddhism. Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 2004.

Woodburne, A. S. “The Idea of God in Hinduism.” The Journal of Religion 5, no. 1 (January 1, 1925): 52–66.

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