Around the 15th century BC, India was inhabited by the Aryan people (Indo-European speakers), who developed a caste system that over time became known as Varnashrama Dharma. It consisted of the Brahmin (priests, scholars, teachers) at top, followed by Kshatriya (royalty and warriors), Vaisya (farmers and commoners) and Sudra (lower classes, including artisans). Another separate class, the “untouchables,” consisted of people who were shunned by society, such as those who handled the disposal of dead bodies. The Historical Buddha was born into the Kshatriya (royal) class around 500 BC.
The Aryans also developed a polytheistic folk religion known as Hinduism, and the people of India at the time lived according to the Brahman rites, for Brahma was one of the chief deities of that Hindu age. This early period of Hinduism is referred to as Brahmanism. The written language of the Aryans was Sanskrit -- considered a sacred language for the transmission of the Brahman scriptures and rites.
KARMIC REBIRTH. The Aryans also brought with them a belief in "transmigration" -- more commonly known in the West asreincarnation. It holds that all living things die and are reborn again into a separate existence. Your rebirth into the next life will be based on your behavior in your past life (your Karma). This rebirth occurs again and again. When Buddhism emerged many centuries later, it too stressed this belief in transmigration, one that still plays a major role in modern Buddhist philosophy -- known as the Six Realms of Existence (Skt. = Samsara, the cycle of life and death and rebirth). The modern Buddhist concept of Karma & Karmic Retribution is also a byproduct of ancient Hindu beliefs in transmigration and reincarnation. Buddhism, however, brought the promise of breaking free from the cycle of rebirth -- if one can eliminate desire and attain enlightenment, one is no longer doomed to death and rebirth over countless ages, but attains a state known as Nirvana, the ultimate state for pratitioners of Buddhism.
Followers of the Historical Buddha (died about 480 BC), embroidering the Hindu notions, found their own ways of calculating the ethical karmic balance sheet. They distinquished “deed karman” from “mental karman” (thoughts and motivations), and distinguished deeds from their results. They also attached karma to families and nations. But they kept inviolate their belief in the inevitable balancing of the karmic books.
In the early centuries following the Historical Buddha's death, the sacred Buddhist teachings were transmitted in Pali, the language of the masses, and it was from the Pali that many of the Buddhist teachings were first transmitted to Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. It took about 1,000 years for the Buddhist teachings to arrive in Japan (6th century AD), but by then Buddhism had spread throughout mainland Asia, China in particular, where the teachings were translated into Chinese. In large part, the Japanese relied on these Chinese translations. In summation, three languages form the bedrock of the modern Buddhist cannon -- Sanskrit, Pali, and Chinese.
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