Question

What were the major factors that led to the rise of a large number of heterodox sects in ancient time?

Answer 1

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.