Saturday, August 20, 2016

Religions of India: How one after the other dominated India?

Ancient Indians led a Vedic way of life. But how did it loose prominence to other religions over time? What made the transforming societies living an urban life ignore the Vedic way of life? Was Charvaka’s philosophy which made fun of Vedic philosophy an outcome of changing generation of India? What place Jainism had in those changing times? How Buddhism gained traction for over a thousand years after Gautama Buddha to become the mainstream religion or the soul of India? Some of my questions are discussed in this documentary – Discovery of India.

In the 8th century things got reversed again, Hinduism pushed back Buddhism to become the mainstream religion. A person with the same caliber of Gautama Buddha helped make that change. He was Adi Shankara. He traveled all over India and his convincing arguments made people restore the study of Vedas. His reviews and commentary of ancient texts laid a strong foundation to Advaita Philosophy. Along with that, Bhakti movement led by numerous poets, writers and musicians shaped the religions of modern India. That is documented in this video.



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