The Context of the Buddha, Written for Sixth Graders

Before exploring the Buddhas story and his teachings, I wanted to establish the basic historical context of his life.  I wrote this piece for that purpose, as always, loving the challenge of compressing a rich and complex history into a hopefully thought-provoking half a page.  Students had just finished studying the Aryans and Brahmanism, and this reading begins with and extends their newly acquired knowledge of that subject. It was accompanied by a PowerPoint with maps which I used to show the location and movements of the Aryans and "Siddhartha's people", a term I used just because Siddhartha was born into an extremely diverse society with no single name.  

For those interested in knowing more about the context described here, I highly recommend Geoffrey Samuel's "The Origins of Yoga and Tantra", and Greg Bailey's "The Sociology of Early Buddhism".  "Origins" has incredible up-to-date references for those interested in Indian religion and culture. 

What was happening during the Buddhas time?  

The Aryans settled in northwest India.  Siddhartha, who became the Buddha, was born in the northeast.  The two lands were very different, and the Aryan way of life was very different from the lives of Siddhartha's people.  The Aryans lived in a land of great plains, where they constantly moved around grazing cattle.  Because they moved so often, they did not build cities.  The Aryans were made up of many tribes, who often fought with one another.  Because of this, they worshiped many gods of war.  The people the Aryans conquered became part of the lowest caste.  

Siddhartha's people were very diverse. Because they lived close to large rivers, people from far away came to trade and to live.  Merchants from many cultures came to the land Siddhartha was born in, and they later took the Buddhas teachings back to their homelands, which is one reason why the religion was so successful.  Instead of moving around like the Aryans, the people living in Siddhartha's land had farmed for many generations.  Their population had grown, and by the time Siddhartha was born, they had built large cities.   Because they were farmers, they worshiped goddesses of fertility – the ability to create and nurture life.  This busy, diverse society did not have a caste system.

Shortly before the Buddha was born, the Aryans started trading more with the people of northeast India.  Believing that the priests of the Aryans, called the Brahmans, were experts in communicating with the gods, people began to hire them to conduct religious rituals, and even to pray for them.  Because of this, Aryan ideas started to spread throughout Sidhartha's society.  Many people were upset.  A spiritual movement started that was critical of Brahmanism and of the caste system.  The movement taught that people should not rely on Brahman priests to pray for them, but should develop their own spiritual practice.  The Buddha became a great leader of this movement.   

In the boxes below, list the differences between the Aryans in the northwest and Siddhartha's people in the northeast. 

Aryans	Siddhartha's People

Which of these differences do you think are the most important, and why?  

Which differences might lead to tensions between the Aryans and Siddhartha's people?  Please explain why tensions might arise.