Hinduism and Buddhism

Ananda Coomaraswamy s Hinduism and Buddhism, like all his writings, is a masterpiece. In this work he sets forth his ideas with his usual depth and insight to discard the wrong notions about the divergence in the basic philosophies of these two major religions that have been propounded by European scholars and by Indians trained in our modern skeptical and evolutionary modes of thought . In Hindustan and Buddhism Coomaraswamy has tried to show that the essentials of these religions are the same and form what may be called as the Philosophia Perennis or the Eternal Philosophy. His contention is that Hinduism and Buddhism are not contradictory but the one is a development out of the massive foundation of the other. It is only to those who have made a superficial study that Buddhism seems different from Brahmanism; the more profound is the study, the more difficult it becomes to distinguish Buddhism from Brahmanism. Hinduism and Buddhism is divided into two parts with copious notes added to each part. In the first part, dealing with Hinduism, Coomaraswamy has examined in detail the fundamental concepts like karma, maya, reincarnation, the darsanas, the sacrifice, social order, etc., and in the second part, dealing with Buddhism, he shows that in essentials it was the same as Hinduism and that Buddha did not strive to establish a new order to restore an older form. In sum, the basic philosophy of great religions is drawn from a common thought manifested under different forms.

Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy, the greatest among the Indian Art historians, was born in Colombo on August 22, 1877. After graduating from the University of London with Honours in Geology in 1900, he became the Director of the Mineralogical Survey of Ceylon. During his three-year's stay in Ceylon, he formed the Ceylon Social Reformation Society and led the University Movement in which he initiated the national education, teaching of vernaculars in all schools and revival of Indian culture. Between 1906 and 1917, when he joined as the Curator of Indian Art at the Boston Museum he was busy lecturing on Indian Art and formed societies for the study of Indian art. In 1938, he became the Chairman of National Committee for India's Freedom. His contributions on Indian philosophy, religion, art and iconography, painting, and literature are of the greatest importance as were his contribution on music, science and Islamic art. He died on September 9, 1947.

Brahmanism or Hinduism is not only the oldest of the mystery religions, or rather metaphysical disciplines, of which we have a full and precise knowledge from literary sources, and as regards the last two thousand years also from iconographic documents, but also perhaps the only one of these that has survived with an unbroken tradition and that is lived and understood at the present day by many millions of men, of whom some are peasants and others learned men well able to explain their faith in European as well as in their own languages. Nevertheless, and although the ancient and modern scriptures and practises of Hinduism have been examined by European scholars for more than a century, it would be hardly an exaggeration to say that a faithful account of Hinduism might well be given in the form of a categorical denial of most of the statements that have been made about it, alike by European scholars and by Indians trained in our modern sceptical and evolutionary modes of thought.

**Contents and Sample Pages**