Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism Essay Example for Free

Jainistism, Buddhism, and Hinduism EssayJainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism, three of the worlds to a greater extent or less dynamic and ancient religions developed in India around the same time. Though each borrowed from, evolved because of, or came into employment with each early(a) Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism are more than religions, precisely cross-sections of an entire culture and time period.Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism have more a huge impact on eastern life as we know it. The interactions between military personnel and environment that these religions have had have been phenomenal. Jainism being the oldest of the three has 12-18 cardinal followers(jaindharmonline.com). Jain migrated from India to other countries beginning with them migrating to Britain and British colonies. In the beginning, a number of Gujarati Jains migrated to coastal towns of East Africa and later on moved inland, tell aparticularly to Kenya, to open businesses. The Jain community in Ind ia represents an affluent and influential minority of the population.Jains now mostly reside in northeastern United States Africa. Buddhism, on the other hand, is the sixth largest religion by population. It has ab step to the fore 367 million followers and is7% of the worlds population(cia.gov).Buddhism spread on land routes of the Silk Road, it underwent profound change. There were great overland trade routes in those days and in later centuries too, that joined China even to the Mediterranean. Along these routes Buddhism spread to northwest India and beyond, along the east-west Silk Route. Hinnduisms origin is much more shrouded though, in terms of its religious development there are now 2 basic theories that hear to explain how Hinduism first developed within India, and they both draw on the famous ekam sat viprah bahudah vandanti verse for their effectiveness. One suggests that at some time towards the end of the Indus Valley Civilization a group of winding people called the Aryans moved into northern India from the steppes of central Europe or even Asia Minor while the other theory suggests that Hinduism emerged out of India itself(Dasa).The beliefs for these three religions are mostly the same in essence, they were all founded on the beliefs of stay and prosperity. They are also known as The Paths of Enlightenment. Hinduism ,though believed by some(prenominal) to be a polytheistic religion, the basis of Hinduism is the belief in the unity of everything. This totality is called Brahman. The purpose of life is to realize that we are part of God and by doing so we squeeze out leave this plane of existence and rejoin with God. This enlightenment can only be achieved by going through cycles of birth, life and death known as samsara. Ones pass towards enlightenment is measured by his karma.This is the accumulation of all one(a)s good and bad deeds and this determines the persons next reincarnation. Jainism has many similarities to Hinduism and Budd hism which developed in the same part of the world. They believe in karma and reincarnation as do Hindus, but they believe that enlightenment and liberation from this cycle can only be achieved through asceticism. In Buddhism, nirvana is freedom from the cycle of rebirth, when a being turns into a state of non-being, or Sunya, looses its identity and becomes nothing.These religions were all derived out of India which apply the caste system for their government. The buildings made for these religions were all complex and amazing in nature. Buddhistics temples were mostly strengthened in natural environments, such as forests and tops of hills. Hindu temples were built in more urban environments and used red paints for most of their buildings and temples. And Jain temples were also built in more urban places and used beige and gold paints for their buildings and temples.These religions grow in many different ways, they all originated in India, and started spreading throughout the world. The two that are most know today are Hinduism and Buddhism, Jainism still has about 16 million followers though. Buddhist temples were built along the Silk Road for prayer for the travelers. Hindu kept most of their temples inside(a) of India unlike the Jainist that moved to northern Africa. It spread outside of Magadha starting in the Buddhas lifetime, and with the reign of the Buddhist Mauryan Emperor Asoka, spread across Nepal straight down to China and all the way to Japan and became one of the dominant religions in these parts of Asia(Chung).Hinduism is a religion of the Indian subcontinent of India, with 80.5% of the population identifying themselves as Hindus. The vast majority of Hindus in India belong to Vaishnavite and Shaivite denominations(Thompson Patts)As part of the reaction against Hinduism during its early years, Buddhism rejected the caste system and other forms of favorable stratification and instead set up an essentially egalitarian society. There are on ly two religiously important social groups the monks, who have dedicated their lives to full time pursuit of religious goals, and everyone else. The monks, as a group, are called the sangha(uwacadweb.uwyo.edu). When the Aryans moved into northwest India, they imposed a caste system to organize the new society created by their arrival.The Hindus then put together a hierarchy of four varnas, which later was expanded to include a fifth category. The caste system, which the Hindus followed, initially served to maintain rigid social boundaries between the invaders and the anterior inhabitants. By 80 A. D. the Jains were divided into two sects. The Svetambara or white clad live mainly in northern India today(Sprunger). They are more liberal in their interpretation of Mahavirals teaching regarding nudity and allow their monks to run down a white garment. Women are also allowed in their religion and monasteries accepting the possibility that they may decide salvation(Sprunger).