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Rise Of Buddhism Research Paper

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The fifth and fourth centuries B.C. were times of a worldwide intellectual renaissance. It was an age of great thinkers, thinkers like Socrates and Plato, Confucius and Lao Tzu. In India, it was the age of the Buddha Shakyamuni, or simply the Buddha, after whose death a religion emerged that eventually spread far beyond the reaches of its homeland. In order to understand Buddhism and its art we must first know who the Buddha was.

Siddhartha Gautama, who later became known as the Buddha, was born as a prince to the royal family of Kapilavastu, whose kingdom was located in the Himalayan foothills. At the time of his birth, sages predicted that he would become a universal conqueror, a conqueror of either the physical world or of men 's minds. It was the latter conquest that came to pass. Giving up the pleasures of the palace Siddhartha went on to seek the true purpose of life, Siddhartha first attempted the path of severe asceticism, only to abandon his efforts after six years, as it was a futile exercise. He then sat down in yogic meditation beneath a banyan tree until he achieved enlightenment. He was known henceforth as the Buddha, or "Enlightened One."

Upon his death the Buddha requested that he be cremated and a memorial be built at a place where people can gather. These memorials, which are known as Stupas, are the first example of Buddhist art. At first these stupas were simple structures shaped like rounded mounds meant to represent the curving form of the universe.

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