Rise And Spread Of Buddhism Essay

The rise and spread of Buddhism within Asia during the 600–400 b.c.e is a perfect example of how faith/religion was used to impact political, economical and cultural factors that eventually lead to conquest. An initial example of this can be seen within the social ranking of the late Vedic Indian society - ranked in order of purity, not wealth or power. “Brahmin priests at the top, then warriors, then farmers and merchants (“the People”), and finally dependent laborers. Brahmins were the purest because they conducted Vedic rituals; the warrior category included the kings who sponsored the rituals. The farmers and merchants were supposed to farm the land and tend the herds. The fourth varna of dependent laborers, many of whom were the region’s

This teaching marked a major departure from the pre-existing Vedic religion, the Buddhists took a radically different view: a merchant, a farmer, or even
a laborer who made a donation to the Buddhist order could enhance his or her standing. In the 268-232 b.c.e, the third king of the Mauryan dynasty named Ashoka became the first Indian ruler to support Buddism – and with this a lot of changes were made. The concept of dharma occurs repeatedly in Ashoka rule. The word dharma here means the “teachings of the Buddha, but more broadly it means correct conduct according to law or custom, which is how many people in South Asia would have understood it.” (..). Unlike previous leaders, leaders like Ashoka ruled by example, often patronizing religion to show what good monarchs they were. Religion provided one of the major unifying forces in the often- disunited South Asia. Every measure Ashoka took had the same goal: to encourage his subjects to follow dharma. According to the reading, “historians call this type of rule a “ceremonial state” to contrast it with empires in which rulers exercised more direct