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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

Though some of the ideas of Buddhism may have had their origin in Vedic-Upanishadic traditions but it was an altogether new religion with its own specific principles and institutions. Discuss.

  • UPSC 2022
  • Period of Mahajanapadas

When the Buddha began teaching in the sixth century BCE, he did not speak into a vacuum — he spoke into a world already saturated with Upanishadic speculation on the self, action, and rebirth, and much of his vocabulary was borrowed from that world. Yet the question of continuity versus innovation cannot be settled merely…

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What the full answer covers

  • Continuities with the Vedic-Upanishadic Tradition
  • Karma Reworked, Not Invented
  • Samsara and the Shared Diagnosis of Bondage
  • Shared Techniques: Dhyana and Renunciation
  • Ahimsa as a Common Ethical Thread
  • Buddhism's Departures: A New Religion
  • …and 6 more sections, with a conclusion

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