World History I

Chapter 8: Empires and Visionaries in India
600 BCE-600 CE

39: Wed, Jan 28, 2026

Please post in the forum for the day a short essay in response to this question:

Indian religion represents a crossroads of theistic and non-theistic (not to say atheistic) religious currents. Hinduism in its earliest forms is polytheistic; some modern Hindus would identify themselves as monotheistic, viewing the various gods as aspects of one divine entity. Buddhism really eschews gods as such altogether, understanding the world itself in terms of a collective consciousness of which all living things are a part. Some strands of both Hinduism and Buddhism hold to the notion that the visible world is maya — that is, illusory. How do these fundamental distinctions in how the world is understood affect the way people holding those beliefs interact and live their lives?

Consider:

• What view of the afterlife (if any) exists in each tradition [Brahmanism, Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism]?
• What does each religion consider "transcendent" — enduring, eternal, beyond physical experience? How do these views compare with the idea of the transcendent in Greek philosophy, or in the Hebrew, Christian, and Zoroastrian religions that you've already studied?
• Do models for how one should treat others differ between Hinduism and Buddhism? If so, how and why?
• What is the goal of the present life in each tradition (i.e., virtue? service? pleasure? or something else?)

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