Buddhism, Jainism and Shramanic Cults

Lesson 8 of 17 • 14 upvotes • 14:55mins

Abhyudaya Kelkar

When Brahmanism became too oppressive, the common man felt the heat and they started to look for the alternatives. So during these two centuries viz. 6th and 5th centuries BC, many parallel philosophical, spiritual and religious movements came up. This whole is known as ‘The Shramanic Movement’. Buddhism and Jainism were among those popular movements. Apart from these most quoted movements, several others also came into being and continued for a fairly long time. Among these movements, the highlighted ones were Ajivika, Charvaka, Agyan (Ajnan), teachings of Purana Kassapa, Pakudha Kachchayana. We will discuss them in considerable depth in this lesson.