Jainism and Buddhism were said to be reform movements of the sixth century b.c. in this regard discuss the political background against which both these arose
Answers
The sixth century B.C. is regarded as an important epoch of world history. The time before that century is described as the pre-historic age.
From sixth century B.C., however historical evidences came to exist.
Thus that there began the historical period in sixth century B.C. This adds significance to that time.
It was in the sixth century B.C. that there lived in India the founders of two great religions of mankind. They were Mahavira Jina and Gautama Buddha, the founders of Jainism and Buddhism. Enough of literature came to be written about Jina and Buddha and about their religions. Though the Jaina and the Buddhist literature were religious in character, yet they contained much information about political and social conditions of that time. History could be written from those literary sources. It was the rise of Jainism and Buddhism which made the sixth century B.C. great and glorious.
It was from that century that the political condition of ancient India began to take a clear shape. Several kingdoms came to exist at that time. Attempts were also made to build bigger kingdoms by uniting larger areas of the country. That added importance to sixth century B.C.