Thinkers, Beliefs and buildings Test - 1

When Buddhism spread to East Asia, pilgrims like Fa Xian and Xuan Zang travelled from China to India in search of Buddhist texts. These were then taken back to their own country, where they were translated by scholars.

Amaravati was the site of a great Buddhist Stupa, built in pre-Mauryan times.

Buddha was born in 563 B.C, on the Vaishakha Purnima day, at Lumbini.

The basic philosophy of Jainism already existed in North India before Vardhamana, known as Mahavira, in the sixth century BCE. According to Jaina tradition, he was preceded by 23 other  tirthankaras   –i.e. those who guide people across the river of existence.

The Indo-Greek kingdom (sometimes called as Graeco-Indian kingdom) covered various parts of the northwest and northern Indian subcontinent from 180 BC to around 10 AD, and was ruled by a succession of more than thirty Greek kings, often in conflict with each other. The kingdom was founded when the Greco-Bactrian king Demetrius invaded India in 180 BC.

Hagiographies often praise the saint ’s achievements, and may not always be literally accurate. They are important because they depict the beliefs of the followers of that particular tradition.

The cult of Vaishnavism developed around the various avatars or incarnations of the deity Vishnu. Ten avatars of Vishnu were recognised within the Hindu tradition.

An important feature of Vaishnavism was the theory of incarnations of Vishnu that  were known as the avatars of Vishnu. According to Vaishnavism, there are ten avatars of Vishnu.

According to Jaina tradition, Mahavira was preceeded by 23 other teachers or tirthankaras.

The mid-first millennium BCE saw the emergence of thinkers like Zarathustra in Iran, Kong Zi in China; Socrates, Plato and Aristotle in Greece; and Mahavira, Gautama Buddha, etc. in India. All of them tried to understand the mysteries of existence and the relationship between humans and the cosmic order.