re are different strands of observance. Ellwood cites the renunciant, which "interiorizes" spiritual experience, and the devotionalist, or bhakta observance, which engages in elaborate temple ritual and piety toward such gods as Krishna, Shiva, Shakti, and Kali (87-8). Although there are core Hindu texts, ranging from the Vedas to the Mahabarata, Hindu spiritual teaching was more usually conducted not by text (India was largely illiterate) but by itinerant priests. That is in the background of the emergence of Buddhism, which occurred in about the sixth century BCE.
Undoubtedly, Buddhism was a response to Hinduism. Its original conception appears to have been more along the lines of reforming features of Hinduism that were perceived as problematic in some way. However, the effect of Buddhism as it developed and multiplied into a variety of sectarian modalities was that it achieved a distinct identity. Further, as it became a world
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