Thinkers beliefs and buildings Notes: Class 12 history chapter 4 notes
| Textbook | NCERT |
| Class | Class 12 |
| Subject | History |
| Chapter | Chapter 4 |
| Chapter Name | Thinkers beliefs and buildings |
| Category | History Notes |
| Medium | English |
Class 12 history chapter 4 notes, Thinkers beliefs and buildings notes In this chapter we will learn in detail about Jainism and Buddhism and stupas etc.
The mid-first millennium BCE ( an important period reason ) : –
🔸 The mid-first millennium BCE is often regarded as a turning point in world history because, reason :
🔹 In the 1st millennium BCE, there was an emergence of a thinkers such as Zarathustra in Iran, Kong Zi in China, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle in Greece, and Mahavira and Gautama Buddha to understand the mysteries of existence and the relationship between human beings and the cosmic order.
🔹 In India this was also the time when cities and kingdoms were developing and social and economic life was changing in a variety of ways in Ganga valley.
Sources of information ( 600 ВСЕ to 600 CE ) : –
🔹 In the reconstruction of the history of India from 600 ВСЕ to 600 CE, the historians took the invaluable information from Buddhist, Jain and Brahmanical texts. Besides. these texts, temples, stupas, monuments, etc also provide authentic information.
The sacrificial tradition : –
🔹 Early Vedic traditions, information about which comes from the Rigveda, compiled between 1500 and 1000 BC. the Rigveda consists of hymns in praise of variety of deities specially Agni, Indra and Soma.
🔹 These hymns were chanted when the sacrifices were performed and people prayed for cattle, sons, good health, long life and other things.
🔹 At first, sacrifices were performed collectively but later (c 1000 BCE-500 BCE onwards), these were performed by the heads of households for the well-being of the domestic unit.
🔹 The sacrifices like rajasuya and ashvamedha, were performed by chiefs and kings who depended on Brahmans priests to conduct the rituals.
New Questions : –
🔹 Upanishads from c sixth century BCE onwards show that people were curious about the meaning of life, the possibility of life after death and re-birth. Such issues were mostly debated.
🔹 People outside the Vedic tradition asked whether there was even a single ultimate reality. People also began speculating on the significance of the sacrificial tradition.
Debates and discussions : –
🔹 We get a glimpse of lively discussions and debates from Buddhist texts, which mention as many as 64 sects or schools of thought.
🔹 Teachers travelled from place to place, Kutagarashala were the places where the debates of teachers, who tried to convince one another and laypersons about the validity of their philosophyor the way they understood the world, took place.
🔹 Mahavira and Buddha, questioned the authority of the Vedas. They also emphasised individual agency – suggesting that men and women could strive to attain liberation from the trials and tribulations of worldly existence.
🔹 This was different from the Brahmanical position, wherein an individual’s existence was thought to be determine by his or her birth in a specific caste or gender.
kutagarashala : –
🔹 Kutagarashala literally means hut with a pointed roof or in groves where travelling mendicants halted.
Tipitaka : –
🔹 None of the Buddha’s speeches were written down during his lifetime. After his death (c. fifth-fourth century BCE) his teachings were compiled by his disciples at a council of “elders” or senior monks at Vesali (Pali for Vaishali in present-day Bihar). These compilations were known as Tipitaka.
Meaning of Tripitaka : –
🔹 Tipitaka literally means, three baskets to hold different types of texts.
🔸 Vinaya Pitaka :- Vinaya Pitaka contained a collection of rules and regulations for those who joined the sangha or monastic order.
🔸 Sutta Pitaka : – the Buddha’s teachings were kept in Sun Pitaka.
🔸 Abhidhamma Pitaka : – Topics related to philosophical matters came in Abhidhamma Pitaka.
Dipavamsa and Mahavamsa : –
- Dipavamsa (literally, the chronicle of the island)
- Mahavamsa (literally, the great chronicle)
🔹 As Buddhism travelled to new regions such as Sri Lanka, other texts such as the Dipavamsa and Mahavamsa were written, containing regional histories of Buddhism. Many of these works contained biographies of the Buddha. Some of the oldest texts are in Pali, while later compositions are in Sanskrit.
Tirthankaras : –
🔹 According to Jain tradition, there were 23 teachers before Mahavir Swami who were called Tirthankaras. It means those who guide men and women across the river of existence.
Jainism : –
🔹 The basic philosophy of the Jainas was already in existence in north India before the birth of Vardhamana, who came to be known as Mahavira, in the sixth century BCE. The first Tirthankar was Rishabhadeva and the 23rd was Parshvanatha. The 24th and last tirthankara of the present half-cycle was Mahavira (599 BC–527 BC).
The central teachings of Jainism : –
🔹 The main ideology of Jainism is that they consider the entire world is animated: even stones, rocks and water have life.
🔹 The Jain philosophy promotes the idea of non-injury to living beings especially human beings, animals, plants, insects, etc.
🔹 They also propagate the idea of ahimsa i.e. non violence. They are completely against acts of violence.
🔹 They believe that the cycle of the birth and rebirth of an individual is based on his karma.
🔹 They emphasised practising Asceticism and penance are required to free oneself from the cycle of karma..
🔹 They also believed that to achieve salvation it is important to adopt monastic traditions.
🔹 Jaina monks and nuns took five vows: to abstain from killing, stealing and lying; to observe celibacy; and to abstain from possessing property.
Five vows in Jainism : –
🔹 Jaina monks and nuns took five vows:
- To abstain from killing
- To abstain from stealing
- To abstain from lying
- To observe celibacy
- To abstain from possessing property.
The Spread of Jainism : –
🔹 Jainism gradually spread to many parts of India. Jaina scholars produced a wealth of literature in a variety of languages like Prakrit, Sanskrit and Tamil. For centuries, manuscripts of these texts were carefully preserved in libraries attached to temples.
🔹 The stone sculptures associated with religious traditions were produced by devotees of the Jaina tirthankaras, found in many parts of the Indian subcontinent are proof that Jainism was spread in many parts of India.
Hagiography : –
🔹 Hagiography is a biography of a saint or religious leader. Hagiographies often praise the saint’s achievements, and may not always be literally accurate. They are important because they tell us about the beliefs of the followers of that particular tradition.
Buddhism : –
🔹 Buddhism, religion and philosophy that developed from the teachings of the Buddha a teacher who lived in northern India between the mid-6th and mid-4th centuries BCE (before the Common Era).
🔹 Spreading from Central Asia to China, Korea and Japan, and through Sri Lanka, across the seas to Myanmar, Thailand and Indonesia, Buddhism has played a central role in the spiritual, cultural, and social life of Asia, and, beginning in the 20th century, it spread to the West.
Mahatma Buddha :-
- Founder of Buddhism = Mahatma Buddha
- Full name = Gautam Buddha
- Childhood name = Siddharth
- Birth = 563 BC
- Place of Birth = Lumbini, Nepal
- Father’s name = Śuddhodana
- Mother’s name = Mayadevi (she died 7 days after the birth of Buddha)
- Step mother = Mahaprajapati Gautami (who brought him up)
- Dynasty = Shakya dynasty
- Wife = Yashodhara
- Son’s name = Rāhula
- Gotra = Gautam
- Name of the state = Shakya Republic
- Capital = Kapilvastu
- Attainment of knowledge = the Buddha attained enlightenment and liberation while meditating under the Bodhi Tree by the Nerañjarā river in Bodh Gaya.
- first sermon = Lord Buddha gave his first sermon at a deer park in Sarnath, near Varanasi (Benares), India. This event is known as the “First Turning of the Dharma Wheel” or Dharmacakra Pravartana Sutra.” In this sermon, known as the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path to his first five disciples, setting in motion the wheel of Dharma.
- Language of sermon = Pali
- Last sermon = Kushinagar
- Death = in Kushinagar in 483 AD
- Buddha’s favorite disciple = Anand
Early life of Buddha : –
🔹 The childhood name of Buddha was Siddhartha. He was the son of a chief of the Sakya clan. He grew up inside the palace far from the harsh realities of life. One day, Buddha convinced his charioteer to take him into the city. Buddha was deeply suffered when he saw an old man, sick man and a corpse.
🔹 Then, he realised that the decay and destruction of the human body was inevitable. He also saw a homeless mendicant, who found peace overcoming sufferings of old age, disease and death. Buddha was influenced by the mendicant and left the palace to adopt the same path in search of his own truth.
The central teachings of Buddhism : –
- The Buddhist teachings have been reconstructed from stories found mainly in Sutta Pitaka. The teachings of Buddha were:
🔹 According to Buddhist Philosophy the world is transient (anicca) and constantly changing.
🔹 It is also soulless (anatta), as there is nothing permanent or eternal in it.
🔹 Within this transient world, sorrow (dukkha) is intrinsic (natural) to human existence.
🔹 It is by following the middle path between severe penance and self- indulgence that human beings can rise above these worldly troubles.
🔹 In the early forms of Buddhism whether or not God existed was irrelevant.
🔹 Buddha regarded the social world as a creation of humans rather than divine origin and thus advised kings and gahapatis to be humane and ethical.
🔹 Buddhism emphasizes literally the extinguishing of the ego and desires and thus ends the suffering of those who renounced the world.
Nirvana : –
🔹 The term Nirvana literally means “blowing out” or “extinguishing,” and it conveys the idea of liberation from the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth (samsara). It is a state of perfect peace, freedom, and liberation from suffering for those who renounced the world.
Sangha : –
🔹 An organisation of monks established by Buddha for monk.
Bhikkhus and Bhikkhuni : –
🔹 Those who take up sannyasa for the propagation of Buddhism are called bhikkhus or bhikkhuni.
Bhikkhus ( Monks ) : –
🔹 The term “bhikkhus” specifically refers to male Buddhist monks who have renounced worldly life to follow the monastic path in Buddhism.
🔹 These monks lived simply, possessing only the essential requisites for survival, such as a bowl to receive food once a day from the laity. As they lived on alms, they were known as bhikkhus.
Bhikkhuni ( nuns ) : –
🔹 Women who took monastic vows to spread Buddhism were called Bhikkhuni. The Buddha’s foster mother, Mahapajapati Gotami was the first woman to be ordained as a bhikkhuni. Many women who entered the sangha became teachers of dhamma and went on to become theris, or respected women who had attained liberation.