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The Sramanic Vision : Buddha
and Mahavira
Digvijai Nath Pandey
Not much is known about the definte contours of what happened between the war of the Mahabharata and the rise of Buddhism and Jainism. There in no doubt that it must have been a period of turbulence with kingdoms at war with each other. In politics, while the general pattern was that of monarchies, there were certain regions in the Eastern sector, specially near the hills where the republican form of government flourished.
The individualistic mode of thinking had already appeared in Jaina thought which dated back to the Vedic period in the form of Sramana parampara. In the origin story repeated in the Puranas there is a reference to Sanat Kumars. They were the offsprings of Brahma. But when Brahma asked them to become householders and help him in the process and the expansion of the world, they refused because they thought that they would thereby incur sin and fall from their state of perfect plies by so participating in this process. In a 'Sense' they were the paragons of libretti. Brahma was distressed at their reply and then came Rudra who agreed to oblige him. In a sense, the Sramana parampara symbolised the revulsions of Sanat Kumars at the ways of the world and their yearning for nothing less than perfection.
The first tirthanker Rishabhdeva was the sixth avatar of the Smriti tradition. Both Buddhism and Jainism were
