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INTRODUCTION
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to exist as an independent movement, a phenomenon which is often repeated in the later history of Indian thought; for example Sankara completely assimilated Buddhism which led to its extinction. This conjecture is further supported by the nature and development of the Upanisadic thought itself. On account of reconvertion of Janaka to the old orthodox ritualism which evidently implies an effected compromise between two rival schools, radical reformers of the extreme left had to secede entirely from the orthodox centre. They persisted in their protestantism and emphasised their opposition to sacrificial ritualism as a result of which we have birth of Buddhism. Reading facts in this light would agree well with the theory suggested by some oriental scholars on the evidence of the Upanisadic passages themselves that the Upanisadic doctrine of Atma Vidya first started in the Upanisads as a protest against the sacrificial rites of the Vedas and there afterwards assimilated and recognised by the priestly class as well.
The latter
The Fundamental Doctrine of Upanisads-We have already noticed the Vedic concept of Atman or Brahman. We have to touch upon two other doctrines,-Transmigration or metempsychosis and Karma. is in a way the corollary of the former. The doctrine of metempsychosis is peculiar to the age of the Upanisads. There is no trace of it in the Vedic period. So much so scholars are of opinion that the Aryans must have borrowed this from the non-Aryans. We know the Egyptians believed in the doctrine. It is certainly a difficult question to settle whether the Upanisadic thinkers borrowed this doctrine from non-Aryans or the Egyptians. Probably the truth is that they borrowed from non-Aryans who were living in the land at the time of Aryan invasion. They were evidently having a higher form of culture and thus they were champions of a more satisfactory doctrine of Self. The value of any theory depends upon its offering satisfaction to intellectual curiosity. Any theory of creation, any philosophy that retain the importance of human personality and maintains it to be an eternal principle will be forced not only to look forward to an infinite future but also to trace back to an infinite past. The human personality that is associated with the short span of the present, must somehow be related to a hoary past as well as a glorious future, making the present but a step in this spiritual evolution. It is this process of spiritual development that is the inner meaning of the doctrine of transmigration. It is because of the Truth of this principle of spiritual progress that the Indian mind persists in tenaciously clinging to that doctrine. If this is remembered then we can very well understand that the attitude of Gough and others is more guided by inborn prejudice than by an endeavour to intellectual appreciation. Upanisadic thought is not the babbling of a primitive race but it marks an important stage in the philosophic development of Indian
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