What made people turn to Buddhism and Jainism and later bhakti Sufi movements????
Answers
Hey frnd
Let us quickly analyze the facts that led to the rise of orthodox sects ie Jainism and Buddhism and what were the necessary conditions for their popularity and growth. In the the light of above facts we can easily assess the factors that led to their decline (Vanish) and also how Bhakti movement fits into the above picture.
6th century BC was a time when Vedic religion became Brahmanical. The priestly class dominated the state of affairs. Sacrifices had become the norm of the day and society was seeing a rigid caste hierarchy. This phenomenon was prominent in the “holy” Arayavarta.
Meanwhile a new Magadhan state was emerging which was resource rich, trade was prospering here and the business class ( 3rd tier of caste in vedic pantheon) was rapidly growing here. Much of the Vedic ideas didn’t found favour here for eg Vedic thought was antithetical to the idea of urban eating houses and this was a detterent to trade interests. Similarly animals which were an important economic asset were sacrficed to please the Gods. Thus an environment was created which was conducive to the rise of any rational thought if preached properly.
Mahavir and Siddhartha were two iconic individuals who understood this and their charismatic personalities made their simple preachings take form of major religious thoughts(of course later) by their followers.
Ok so the genuine question is if everything was going so well for these heterodox sects then why couldn’t they establish their roots in the subcontinent and Brahaminism which was by and large resonsible for their growth continued to flourish. Here are some of the things that happened next -
Buddhism had a high level of organization and dependence on donations both state sponsored and private. In the centuries to follow many rulers embraced these religious thoughts like Ashoka, Kanishka etc but after the fall of mighty Guptas Buddhism started to loose financial support.
Disintegration of central power led to regionalisation of relogiosity and religious rivalry. Several sects of Hinduism and other religions were competing for a share of same pie (ie state patronage) meanwhile Brahmans developed a new relationship with the state and Buddhism lost the same and this further exacerbated the decline of orthodox sects.
Devotional cults of Buddhism were quite similar to Hinduism and thus these ideas were absorbed in hinduism and negated the need for any separate or distinct religious thought.
Buddhism and Jainism lacked any missionary zeal to convet the people to their own religious thoughts thus people were more attracted to the refined form of Hinduism.
There was an internal degeneration in the orthodox sects , they were more or less becoming like the Vedic Brahmanism thereby loosing their connect with the massses. Common everyday language like Pali was abandoned for refined sanskrit.
To revitalise any religion host of charismatic leaders are needed. Bhakti movement produced philosophers like Shankaracharya, Ramanuja , Madhav etc who propounded their thoughts and gave a new dimension to Hindu thought in the form of Advaita, Vishitadvaia and Dvaita philosophies respectively. Orthodox sects lagged behind in this parameter also.
To summarise Orthodox sects which rose as a response and reaction to Vedic system couldn’t sustain because they lost their innate dynamism. In the absence of any better alternative people were content with what they had in a somewhat revitalised form.
Hope this helps u frnd