Not Just Buddha, Even Mahavir's Parents Practised Vedic Faith!

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 13 October 2023 "There is no proof that Buddha's parents practised Vedic faith. Buddhist literature does not mention anything like this. There is no material evidence that Vedas existed before Buddha was born. Sanskrit did not exist then. Please elaborate." By Ashok Sharma 11/10/2023 10:54:04 Acharya Dharmanand Damodar Kosambi (refer to 'Dharmanand Kosambi: The Essential Writings' edited by Meera Kosambi, Orient Blackswan, 2013) and Rahul Sankriyayan (Kedar Nath Pandey-refer to 'Tibbat Mein Sava Varsha', 1933 ) 'believed' that Buddha's parents practised Vedic Faith because it was prevalent at that time. Virendra Kumar Jain speculated that even the royal parents of Vardhman (later, Mahavir) practised Vedic faith (refer to 'Anuttar Yogi: Teerthankar Mahavir,' Volume 3). It must be stated that Buddha and Mahavir were coevals and born approximately 2600 years ago. In fact, there're schools both in Jainism and Buddhism that still believe they were not different individuals but one! In fact, Buddha's allegiance to Vedic tradition was challenged by Dr B R Ambedkar who propounded an alternative narrative which eliminates all Vedic contributions to Buddhist literature and Pitakas. By the way, Sanskrit has a recorded history that dates back over 3,500 years, with the earliest written records of Sanskrit found in the Vedas, ancient Hindu texts that were composed between 1500 and 1200 BCE. Buddhist sutras record the Buddha’s teachings, in which some concepts are common with those appearing in the Vedas, such as Dharma and Karma. The Buddha himself says so and called the Vedic sages ancient. So, they predated him by quite a bit. I find the demand for “historical evidence” for such matters unsubstantiated, unnecessary and leading nowhere. How can we excavate historical evidence about texts dating back for thousands of years? And after dwelling on such a formidable task to analyse and “prove” - a point of view, the question is: what is the benefit of this spent energy and time? Both the Vedas and Sutras are about the problem of existence and suffering, and now also - people are truly suffering. I think we can help people in a better way than speculating about historical evidence, which will always be a subject of dispute or a question of what is the benefit to humanity if the answer was this or that! I'm sure, the erudite reader, contributor and bureaucrat Mr Ashok Sharma nods his head in agreement. ------ A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/buddha-mahavir-vedic-faith/d/130890 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism