The Caste System In Hinduism And Buddhism

Buddha was a Hindu prince. He had many difficulties with the Hindu culture. One of them was the caste system. Hindus believe that everyone has a standing different for others. They believed that there are people who are better than others and live in higher caste levels. In Siddhartha's case, when he was born in the Hindu culture, he was born in the Kshatriya caste. He was a part of the Sahkya clan and he was born in the Gautama family. However, after Buddha was enlightened, he stopped believing in that because he believes that everyone and everything is equally important to make a whole. This means that everything in reality and everyone is a part of something important and we should all treat each other equally. He fought for the same ethical

Things that stayed the same in India from 300 CE to 600 CE were the Gupta rule, the social structure, the most popular religion, and the wealth generated by trade. Hinduism will continue to be the popular religion in India. The caste system was the main social structure. The Brahmins were the highest class in India. Because they were priests, who showed their support for the caste system, they

The Caste system has aroused much controversy than any other feature of India’s society. Every day, Dalits are butchered, assaulted, abused, raped, lynched, shot or openly mutilated without considering any consequences of the offenders. The deaths of pregnant women who are not able to pay the bribes at government hospitals, some boys with eyes raised completely out for falling in love with a girl of a superior caste, and horrid stories of employees boiled to death because of spewing out arguments with the boss are continuously reported in mainstream newspapers. After years of democracy, the social structure stands to practice the caste system disregarding abolishment laws. Every international or national effort to abolish caste differentiation and segregation has been proven ineffective. The caste system of India is a deeply inculcated social problem requiring immense commitment domestically and internationally in understanding what has stopped the measures to get rid of this ancient system and what measures are needed to complete elimination of the system.

In India, during the late Vedic Period which lasted from 1000 to 500 B.C, an ancient form of Hinduism flourished. As it possessed no official superior work of literature, such as the Bible or the Koran, Hinduism became one of the most tolerant religions due to its lack of binding documentation. A life committed to Hinduism was spent constantly maintaining the socio-economic order in an attempt to achieve universal stability, which was something highly valued in this tolerant religion. “Thus Indian society has always been concerned with stability rather than with progress...” (Early India).Hinduism’s central requirement was to fulfill the duties of a person’s caste, or class, which largely affected the daily life of anyone living in ancient India. At the top of the social pyramid

The second highest caste was the Kshatriyas. These were the warriors, rulers, and those concerned with the defense and administration of the village or state. Third came the Vaishyas, who were traders, merchants, and people involved in agricultural production. The lowest caste was the Shudras -- the laborers and servants for the other castes. Each caste included many sub castes divided by occupation. Below even the Shudras were the Untouchables. These people had no caste at all. They performed the most menial of jobs, such as dealing with dead bodies and cleaning toilets. Higher-caste people believed that if they touched one of the caste-less, they would be contaminated and would need to go through cleansing rituals. the caste system is not explicitly religious, although the Hindu religion has played a large part in maintaining its structure. Hinduism preaches a cycle of birth and reincarnation, in which a person's soul is reborn into a new form after death. Your actions in this life determine your fate when you are born again. If you are faithful and dutiful in this life, next time, you'll get a better lot. The caste system fits well with this belief. Lower-caste people believed that if they lived a good life, they could be reborn in a higher caste in the next. Buddhism is a path of practice and spiritual development leading to Insight into the true nature of life. Buddhist practices such as meditation

Hinduism is a very popular religion in India, being that it could possibly be the oldest religion of all time and originated in India, the Hindu population in India is 80%. With Hinduism being such a popular religion, it competes with Christianity and Islam at 900 million followers of Hinduism worldwide (Miksic, 10). As for the popularity of Buddhism, it is not nearly as prevalent as Hinduism is, even in India. A very important attribute to Hinduism is the caste system. The caste system is comprised of five levels that each Hindu is born into and cannot switch out of or marry into another. These levels include the Brahmans, who are the highest caste and include priests, scholars and other professionals, Kshatriyas, who are typically known

Hindus were divided by their social status, called the caste system. This made Hindus fall under one of the varnas such as Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra and the Untouchables (Strayer, 150-168). Priests and teachers were classified as Brahmins, warriors and kings were Kshatriya, merchants and landowners were known as Vaishya, peasants and serfs were classified as Shudras, and those that didn’t have a place on the caste system were defined as the untouchables because they had no social status. Hindus were unable to change their position in the caste system, until after reincarnation (Strayer, 150-168). There are scriptures such as the sacred text, The Vedas, and it leads to the fact that Brahmins empowered and dominated the top of the caste system and played specific roles in the religious lives of the people even from the start of India’s influence. Hindus became adjusted with these scared texts and grew used to it. They learned to follow religious values and traditions to have a better after life.

Throughout our experience, we have encountered so many challenges when it comes to gender in the society. Gender is being used as a basis for stratifying people in the society. In this article, the racial caste system that used to exist in the United State is depicted. In that the black women were denied the access to justice because of their status. They were perceived to be people who do not have any right within the society and no one could believed them when they were raped by the white men because all the court judges were white men according to this article. The women were classified to be from poor background and they should remain at a low class in the society.

Hinduism, Confucianism and Buddhism are three of the world’s most distinguished belief systems of the past and for some, still in the present. The guidelines they provided influenced the social, political and religious lives of people within the societies that followed them. Hinduism emerged when the Aryans arrived in ancient India and began to combine their ideas with those of the Dravidians, the native population. One major Hindu idea was the caste system, which influenced the social lives of its followers and provided the state with political stability. Confucianism first saw an emergence of numerous followers during the Warring States period, when many philosophers were developing ideas for how to return order to China in this era of chaos. It provided political stability to the state by promoting an ethical system with several virtues and the idea that education could allow for social mobility. Buddhism originated from classical India when many people started looking for a new belief system, as they began to reject the caste system imposed by Hinduism. Buddhism had a minimal political or social impact on its followers, but instead influenced their religious lives. There is no doubt that these three belief systems significantly impacted the lives of their followers, but the manner in which they did this varied for each. Socially, Hinduism had the greatest impact with their caste system. Politically, Confucianism had the greatest impact by promoting virtues and

Hinduism reinforces the caste system, which is a "division of society into social classes that are created by birth or occupation" and it is a "prevalent social system of Hinduism" (Molloy 90). Thus, class and race are both elements affected by the caste system. There are different castes, or social classes, and there are also subcastes. Despite the caste being permanent for one's life, it's not to say that those in lower castes cannot move up to a higher caste. This is where the concept of rebirth comes into Hinduism, which is the idea that an individual can make certain choices in their lives, good or bad, and this can affect what caste they will be reborn into.

The caste system gave more power to priest and aristocrats and slowly developed sub castes, “jati”, which was determined by a person's occupation and was passed onto their children. Also, the caste system served as the foundation for social organization in India. 20. What are the similarities and differences between Buddhism and Hinduism?

Our text book tells us that Aryans became dominant in north India. In Sanskrit text the Indo-Aryan developed the caste and the Brahman religion. The Brahman religion developed into Hinduism. (Beck et al.) India’s caste system there is 4 caste or social levels of people. At the top there is the Bhramin which are the priests and teachers. Second is the Kshatryia which are the leaders and warriors. Third is the Vaishya which are the merchants and landowners. Fourth is the Sundra which are commoners, peasants, and servants. Not considered in the caste system is the untouchables which are the outcasts. They held the lowest valued jobs such as street sweepers, latrine cleaners, and slaughter house workers. The caste system in India forbids people from mingling with other levels of castes. What caste level you were born into you were required to stay at that level. There was no

Its biggest influence on the social structure is the caste system, which separates followers of the religion into 4 main castes, which helped to keep peace and prosperity in much of India. Within the political system of the Gupta Empire, the leaders retained popularity and control by claiming they were appointed by the Gods to rule. These leading factors showed that Hinduism continued as the dominating religion and center of life for most people in India in the classical era. A second continuation within India’s classical period can be seen in substantial trade around the world; trade thrived through 300-600 CE. Another notable continuation from classical India is the familial structure, which was similar in many ways to the social structure; it revolved around Hinduism.

Brahmin was treated to be the top of social scale. The second class was Kshatriya, the warriors. They were often listed below Brahmins in social status. In religious terms, they were ranked lower. The third ranked class in Indian society was vaisya (commoner). The vaisya were usually viewed in economic terms as the merchant class. The sudras were not considered fully Aryan. Most sudras were peasants or artisans or worked at other forms of manual labor. They had only limited right in society. At the lowest level of Indian society were untouchable also known as outcastes or pariahs. They were originated as a slave class consisting of prisoners of war, criminals, ethnic minorities, and other groups considered

The Hindu caste system comprised of thousands of different castes. The castes original consisted of the four varnas or colors that are talked about in ancient Hindu literature. The Bhagavad Gita teaches individuals have obligations and duties of their caste that must be followed to avoid karma. These obligations along with acceptance of the caste system would be an insurmountable barrier to the establishment, and wide acceptance of the Hindu religion in the United States. The United States is built on the principle that pursuit of a higher standard of living or social status. This idea or American dream is embedded in the culture of America, and supported by its laws. Only by establishing itself within a closed society inside the united