Religion & Philosophy

Sramana was a non-Vedic Indian religious movement, co-existing parallelly with the Vedic religion of ancient India. It emerged as a new philosophy breaking the tradition and rejecting the authority of the Vedas. The dominant Vedic ritualism contrasted with the Sramanas, who renounced married and domestic life and adopted an ascetic path to achieve liberation.

The Sramana tradition influenced the Vedic religion through its literature and philosophy and in various other ways:

• Sramana tradition disregards the system of castes and ashramas; its heroes are not Gods, but kings or merchants or even Sudras. The subjects of poetry taken up by it are not Brahmanic myths and legends.
• Shramanas simplified the meaning of truth as in Vedic literature the concept of truth was metaphysical and complex for common people to understand.
• It brought various social changes which challenged the Vedic philosophy. It increased the power of social groups of Vaishyas and Khsatriyas and thus attracted more common men away from the Vedic region as it became very hard for people to follow complex rituals of the Vedic religion.

Eventually, the Shramana tradition gave rise to Jainism, Buddhism, and Ajivika sects which are continuations of Sramana custom and tradition in different forms in the following ways: Emergence of Jainism The Sramana tradition of the Jaina religion is considered an independent pre-Buddhist religion. The distinguishing features of Jain philosophy are its belief in the independent existence of soul and matter, the predominance of karma, the denial of a creative and omnipotent god, morality and ethics, etc. are the same as that of the sramana tradition. Some scholars claim Jainism has its roots in the Indus Valley Civilization, reflected in many cultural symbols. However, other scholars believe that the Sramana traditions were separate and contemporaneous with Indo-Aryan religious practices of the historical Vedic religion. In any case, Jainism is regarded as the earliest example of the Sramana tradition. Emergence of Buddhism

• It was as a Sramaņa that Buddha left his father’s palace and practiced austerities. Gautama, after fasting nearly to death by starvation, regarded extreme austerities and self-mortification as useless in attaining enlightenment, recommending instead a ‘Middle Path’ between the extremes of hedonism and self-mortification.
• The Buddhist Sramanic movement chose a moderate ascetic lifestyle in contrast to the Jainas who continued the tradition of extreme austerity. The Buddhist Sramanic movement also developed a code for the interaction of world-pursuing lay people and world-denying Buddhist monastic communities, which encouraged a continued relationship between the two.
• Buddhism was more a reform movement within the educated religious classes, composed mostly of Brahmins, rather than a rival movement from outside these classes. In the early Buddhist Sramanic movement, the largest number of monks were of Brahmin origin, and virtually all the monks were recruited from the two upper classes of society, Brahmins and Kshatriyas.
• The Sramana idea of wandering began to change early in Buddhism. The renunciates started living in viharas, at first during varsity, the rainy season, but eventually permanently.

Emergence of Ajivika

• Ajivika meaning “following the ascetic way of life” was founded in the 5th century BCE by Gosala, as a Sramana movement. Ajivikas were organized renunciates who formed discrete communities. The cult was founded on the basis of strict determinism with a belief in the all-embracing rule of Niyati (principle of order).

From the above illustrations, it could be aptly said that the Sramana tradition has a huge influence on the socio-cultural life of the people as well as it impacted the early Upanishadic movement.