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Real name: Siddhartha Gautama.
Born about 2500 years ago in a small gana (tribal republic) called the Sakya gana.
Born at Lumbini (now in Nepal).
He was a kshatriya (warrior class).

Life is full of suffering and unhappiness.
Suffering is caused by desires and cravings.
Sometimes, even if we get what we want, we are not satisfied, and want even more.
The Buddha described this as thirst or tanha.
He taught that this constant craving could be removed by following moderation in everything.
He also taught people to be kind, and to respect the lives of others, including animals.
Believed in karma: Our actions affect our future.
He used Prakrit language, so everybody could understand his message.
He also encouraged people to think for themselves rather than to simply accept what he said.

Upanishad literally means ‘approaching and sitting near’ and the texts contains conservations between teachers and students.
Upanishads are a collection of philosophical ideas and teachings.
They are part of the later Vedic literature.

Discussed difficult questions: What is the meaning of life? What happens after death?
Believed in one universal soul called Brahman.
Each individual has an inner soul called atman.
Goal: To realize that atman and Brahman are the same.

Mostly teachers and students who discussed ideas.
Most Upanishadic thinkers were men, especially brahmins and rajas.
Some thinkers were women like Gargi.
Poor people rarely took part in these discussions.
One famous exception was Satyakama Jabala, who was named after his mother, the slave woman Jabali.
- He had a deep desire to learn about reality, was accepted as a student by a brahmin teacher named Gautama, and became one of the best-known thinkers of the time.
Many of the ideas of the Upanishads were later developed by the famous thinker Shankaracharya.

Panini, who prepared a grammar for Sanskrit.
He arranged the vowels and the consonants in a special order, and then used these to create formulae like those found in Algebra.
He used these to write down the rules of the language in short formulae (around 3000 of them).

The word Jaina comes from the term Jina, meaning conqueror.
Born around 2500 years ago in a kshatriya family of the Vajji gana (republic).
At the age of thirty, he left home and went to live in a forest.
For twelve years he led a hard and lonely life, at the end of which he attained enlightenment.

Jain monks and nuns travelled and spread teachings.
Jainism was strict; ordinary people found it difficult to follow.
Jainism was supported mainly by traders.
Jainism spread to different parts of north India, and to Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
The teachings of Mahavira and his followers were transmitted orally for several centuries.
They were written down in the form in which they are presently available at a place called Valabhi, in Gujarat, about 1500 years ago

Monks and nuns lived in special buildings called viharas.
Supported by donations from kings, merchants, and ordinary people.
Later, viharas became important centres of learning.
They meditated for most of the time, and went to cities and villages to beg for food during fixed hours.
That is why they were known as bhikkhus and bhikkhunis.

Around the time when Jainism and Buddhism were becoming popular, brahmins developed the system of
the word ashrama does not mean a place where people live and meditate.
It is used instead for a stage of life.
Four ashramas were recognised
- Brahmacharaya– study the vedas
- Grihastha- marry and lives as householders
- Vanaprastha– live in the forest and mediate
- Samnyasins– give up everything
women were not allowed to study the Vedas, and they had to follow the ashramas chosen by their husbands.

Zoroaster was an Iranian prophet.
His teachings are contained in a book called the Avesta (similar to Vedas).
The basic teachings of Zoroaster are contained in the maxim “Good thoughts, Good Words and Good Deeds.”
Zoroastrianism was a major religion in Iran.
Later, some Zoroastrians migrated from Iran and settled down in the coastal towns of Gujarat and Maharashtra.
They were the ancestors of today’s Parsis