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In the Pali Canon a paragraph appears many times recording the Buddha describing how he began his quest for enlightenment, saying: [8] So, at a later time, while still young, a black-haired young man endowed with the blessings of youth in the first stage of life—and while my parents, unwilling, were crying with tears streaming down their faces—I shaved off my hair & beard, put on the ochre ...
According to the Buddhist tradition, Shakyamuni Buddha was a Shakya, a sub-Himalayan ethnicity and clan of north-eastern region of the Indian subcontinent. [ b ] [ p ] The Shakya community was on the periphery, both geographically and culturally, of the eastern Indian subcontinent in the 5th century BCE. [ 86 ]
In India, Buddhism emerged during a somewhat tumultuous time for the long-standing practices of Brahmanical Hinduism laid out in the Vedas and Upanishads. Shortly before the emergence of Buddhism a group of philosophical thinkers and holy men decided that they no longer bought into the often class based practices of the Vedas, and abandoned the old teachings and practices of the Brahmins.
Historically, the roots of Buddhism lie in the religious thought of Iron Age India around the middle of the first millennium BCE. [5] This was a period of great intellectual ferment and socio-cultural change known as the Second Urbanisation, marked by the growth of towns and trade, the composition of the Upanishads and the historical emergence of the Śramaṇa traditions.
[6] [34] B. R. Ambedkar, an Indian scholar and the Dalit leader who in 1935 declared his intention to convert from Hinduism to Buddhism and converted about 20 years later, rejected the belief that Buddha was an incarnation of Vishnu.
The birthday of the historical Buddha or Shakyamuni Buddha, known as Vesak in several countries, celebrates the birth of the child who became Prince Siddhartha around the end of the 4th century B.C.
The Indian government and the states have continued to promote the development of Buddhist pilgrimage sites ("the Buddhist Circuit"), both as a source of tourism and as a promotion of India's Buddhist heritage which is an important cultural resource for India's foreign diplomatic ties. [94]
Buddha as Vishnu at Chennakesava Temple (Somanathapura). Buddhism's distinctiveness also diminished with the rise of Hindu sects. Though Mahayana writers were quite critical of Hinduism, the devotional cults of Mahayana Buddhism and Hinduism likely seemed quite similar to laity, and the developing Tantrism of both religions were also similar. [44]