Indian culture is one of the most original and unique. Its identity lies primarily in richness and diversity of religious and philosophical teachings. The well-known Swiss writer G. Hesse remarks on this: "India is a country of a thousand religions, the Indian spirit is marked among other peoples by a specifically religious genius." In this Indian culture is unparalleled. That is why, already in ancient times, India was called the "country of the sages."

The second feature of Indian culture is connected with her attitude towards the universe, its immersion in the mysteries of the universe. The Indian writer R. Tagore emphasized: "India has always had one unchanging ideal - merging with the Universe."

The third important feature of Indian culture, outwardly, as it were, contradicting the previous one, is her inwardness human world, self-immersion into the depths of the human soul. A striking example of this is the famous philosophy and practice of yoga.

The unique originality of Indian culture is also its amazing musicality and dance.

Another important feature is in special reverence by the Indians of love - sensual and physical, which they do not consider sinful.

The originality of Indian culture is largely due to the peculiarities of the Indian ethnic group. Numerous multilingual tribes and nationalities participated in its formation - from local Dravidians to alien Aryans. Basically, the Indian people are superethnos, which includes several independent peoples.

The culture of Ancient India existed from about the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. and up to the VI century. AD The modern name "India" appeared only in the 19th century. In the past, it was known as the "country of the Aryans", "the country of the Brahmins", "the country of the sages".

The history of ancient India is divided into two large periods. The first is time harappan civilization, established in the Indus River Valley (2500-1800 BC). Second period - Aryan - covers all subsequent Indian history and is associated with the arrival and settlement of the Aryan tribes in the valleys of the Indus and Ganges rivers.

harappan civilization, which had its main centers in the cities of Harappa (modern Pakistan) and Mohenjo-Daro (“Hill of the Dead”), reached a high level of development. This is evidenced by those few large cities that were distinguished by a slender layout and had an excellent drainage system. The Harappan civilization had its own script and language, the origins of which remain a mystery. In artistic culture, small plastic arts developed especially successfully: small figurines, reliefs on seals. Vivid examples of this sculpture are the bust of a priest (18 cm) from Mohenjo-Daro and the torso dancing man(10 cm) from Harapia. Having experienced a high rise and prosperity, the Harappan culture and civilization gradually fell into decline, caused by climate change, river floods and especially epidemics.

After the decline of the Harappan civilization, Aryan tribes came to the valleys of the Indus and Ganges rivers. The Aryans were nomads, but. having settled on Indian soil, become farmers and cattle breeders. They mixed with the local population and at the same time, together with new blood, breathed new life into the Indian ethnos.

With the advent of the Aryans, a new one begins in Indian history and culture, Indo-Aryan period. About the main part of this period, the main source of information is created by the Aryans Veda(from the verb "know", "know"). They are a collection of religious texts - hymns, chants and magic formulas. The main content of the Vedas is a story about the complex and painful process of self-affirmation of the Aryans in a new place of life, about their struggle with local tribes.

They are written in the Vedic language - ancient form Sanskrit. The Vedas are divided into four parts:

• Rig Veda(religious hymns);
• Samaveda(chants);
• Yajurveda(sacrificial formulas):
• Ltharvaveda(magic spells and formulas).

Vedic literature also includes comments The Vedas are the Brahmins and the Upanishads.

The Vedas form the basis of all subsequent spiritual culture of India: theology, philosophy and science. They contain information about all aspects of the life of the ancient Indians. In particular, they report the division of Indian society into four varnas:

• brahmins (priests);
• kshatriyas (warriors);
• vaishyas (farmers, artisans, merchants);
• Sudras (slaves and prisoners of war).

These four varnas were later supplemented by numerous castes (more than two thousand), which have survived to this day.

Beginning with the Vedas, a kind of mosaic of religions is taking shape in India. The first of these was Vedism the religion of the Vedas themselves. It is characterized by polytheism and anthropomorphism. The main among all the deities was Indra - the god of the Thunderstorm, a powerful warrior, the patron of the Aryans in their struggle with the local tribes. In the Rig Veda, most of the hymns are dedicated to him. He is followed by: Varuna - the god of the sky and space: Surya - the god of the sun; Vishnu - personifying the rotation of the Sun; Agni is the god of fire, etc.

At a new - epic - stage (I millennium BC), Vedism is transformed into brahmanism. It represents a more harmonious doctrine of the world, in which the former multitude of gods is reduced to trinity. The absolute and indefinite essence - Brahman - manifests itself in the trimurga, or in the triune deity: Brahma - the creator of the world; Vishnu is the protector of the world; Shiva is the destroyer of the world.

In the second half I thousand BC brahmanism goes into Hinduism, which assimilates many Indian beliefs - from pagan to Buddhism. Hinduism is the most widespread religion in India, covering more than 80% of believers. It exists in two main directions: Vaishnavism And Shaivism. However, today an independent branch of Hinduism is Krishnaism. Inclusion in Hinduism of various cults is carried out through the concept of an avatar (incarnation) of Vishnu. According to this concept, Vishnu descends into the world. transforming into various forms. There are ten such avatars, of which the seventh, eighth and ninth are the main ones. In them, Vishnu assumes the forms of Rama, Krishna and Buddha.

Hindu scripture is "Bhagavad Gita"(God's Song) is one of the parts of the Mahabharata. The basis of Hinduism is the doctrine of the eternal migration of souls ( samsara) occurring in accordance with law of retribution (karma) for everything you've done in life.

In VI V. BC. appears in India Buddhism- one of the sins of world religions. Its creator was Siddhartha Gautama, who at the age of forty reached the state of enlightenment and received the name Buddha(enlightened).

In the III century. BC. Buddhism reached its greatest influence and spread, displacing Brahmanism. But from the middle of the 1st millennium AD. his influence gradually falls, and at the beginning of the I millennium AD. he merges into Hinduism. Its further life as an independent religion takes place outside of India - in China, Japan and other countries.

Foundation of Buddhism makes the doctrine of the "four noble truths": there is suffering; its source is desire: salvation from suffering is possible; there is a way to salvation, to liberation from suffering. The path to salvation lies through the rejection of worldly temptations, through self-improvement, through non-resistance to evil. The highest state - nirvana - means salvation. Nirvana(extinction) is a borderline state between life and death, meaning complete detachment from the outside world, the absence of any desires, perfect satisfaction, inner enlightenment. Buddhism promises salvation to all believers, regardless of belonging to a particular varna or caste.

In there are two directions. The first, the Hinayana (small vehicle), presupposes full entry into nirvana. The second - Mahayana (big cart) - means the maximum approach to nirvana, but the refusal to enter it for the sake of helping and saving others.

Simultaneous Buddhism in India arises Jainism, which is close to Buddhism, but survived the fight against Hinduism, because it accepted the division into varnas and castes. It also contains the concept of nirvana, but the main thing is principle of ahimsa non-causing evil to all living things.

In the XVI century. emerged from Hinduism as an independent religion Sikhism, who opposed the hierarchy of varnas and castes, for the equality of all believers before God.

The religious life of the Indians is characterized by the preservation of the earliest forms of religion - fetishism and totemism, as evidenced by worship of many animals. Sacred include cows and bulls from the zebu breed (which, unlike cows, are used in farm work). Indians pay special attention to monkeys. They live in thousands of temples, receiving food and care from people. Cobras enjoy even greater worship.

In India there is a real cult of snakes. Magnificent temples are erected to them, legends are formed about them and legends are written. The snake embodies perpetual motion. The sign of the snake is applied by the Indians on both sides front door your dwelling. Every year, at the end of July, the festival of snakes is solemnly celebrated. They are treated with milk and honey, showered with pollen, jasmine and red lotus flowers are placed in their holes. In gratitude for such attention, snakes do not bite on this day. Some animals are traditionally associated with certain gods, which they personify: the cow - with Krishna, the cobra - with Shiva, the goose - with Brahma.

play an important role in Indian life castes of which there are more than two thousand. They are based on four varnes and have existed since the early Middle Ages. The lowest among them is the caste of the untouchables. Its members perform the most dirty and humiliating work. They are forbidden to enter not only the temples for the higher castes, but even the kitchen. They also cannot use the things of the higher castes.

Currently, the role of castes in political life is legally limited. However, in everyday life this role remains significant, especially in family and marriage relations. As a rule, marriages are concluded within castes and, most often, without taking into account the opinions of future spouses. Among the upper and middle castes, weddings take place in the bride's house and are distinguished by pomp and luxury. In the lower castes, a bride price is due.

In addition, in ancient India, other areas of culture reached a high level. First of all, this applies to philosophy. Among the so-called orthodox, i.e. Recognizing the authority of the Vedas, there are six philosophical schools: Vaisheshika, Vedanta, Yoga, Mimamsa, Nyaya and Sankhya. Some of them are close to each other. In particular, the content Vedanta And mimams are reflections on the ways of human liberation, the problems of social life. Atomistic doctrine vaisheshiki had much in common with logic and theory of knowledge nyai. which eventually led to their merger. At the heart of dualistic philosophy sanyahya there is a problem of two opposite principles of the world - matter and spirit. The school gives preference to the spirit, exploring the possibilities and ways of its release.

All affected philosophical concepts are closely connected and intertwined with any religion. To one degree or another, these currents have a place in the philosophical thought of modern India and retain their influence. However, the most famous and famous is philosophical school of yoga founded by Patanjali. Yoga is based on the idea of ​​a deep connection between human psychophysiology and the cosmos. Its goal is to achieve the state of nirvana, liberation from the law of karma.

The means to achieve this goal is a system of special efforts and exercises - both physical and spiritual-intellectual. The former are intended for the body, they include certain exercises for mastering special postures - asanas, as well as exercises for breathing. The second are aimed at bringing into a state of self-immersion and concentration. Meditation plays an important role in this.

Along with philosophy, ancient India successfully developed the science. The Indians achieved the most significant success in mathematics, astronomy, medicine and linguistics. Indian mathematicians Since the value of pi was known, they created a decimal system using zero. The well-known Arabic numerals were most likely invented by the Indians. The mathematical terms "digit", "sine", "root" are also of Indian origin. Indian astronomers speculated about the rotation of the earth on its axis. The Indian medicine, who created the science of longevity (Ayurveda). Indian surgeons performed 300 types of operations using about 120 surgical instruments. Linguistics owes its birth primarily to Indian scientists.

Artistic culture of ancient India

No less high level has reached artistic culture, where a special place is occupied by literature. The most ancient literary monument is the Vedas. The beginning of their creation dates back to the 2nd millennium BC. Somewhat later, in the 1st millennium BC, two more great literary monuments appeared - the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. The main content of the first is a dispute about power between the Kaurava brothers and the Pandavas, which ended in a many-day battle between them, in which the Pandavas won. The main characters of the events are Arjuna and his charioteer and mentor Krishna, whose teachings form a separate part of the monument - the Bhagavad Gita.

Of the later literary monuments, the Panchatantra (Pentateuch, III-IV centuries AD) deserves special mention - a collection of fairy tales, fables, parables and moralizing stories. The work of the poet and playwright Kalidasa also deserves special mention. World fame brought him the drama "I Pakuntala", as well as the poem "Cloud Messenger" and "The Birth of Kumara".

As for the ancient Indian architecture, then its development has some peculiarities. The fact is that no monuments of the material culture of Ancient India, including architectural ones, that existed before the 3rd century. BC, have not survived and have not survived to this day. This is explained by. that at that time the main building material was wood, which did not stand the test of time. Only in the III century. BC. in construction, the use of stone begins, and since that time many architectural structures have already been preserved. Since the dominant religion in this period was Buddhism, the main monuments are Buddhist structures: stupas, stambhas, cave temples.

Buddhist stupas are round brick structures with a diameter of 36 m and a height of 16 m. According to legend, relics of the Buddha were kept in the stupas. The most famous of them was the "Big Stupa No. 1", surrounded by a fence with a gate. Stambhas are monolithic columns about 15 m high, on top of which there is a figure of a sacred animal, and the surface is covered with Buddhist inscriptions.

Cave temples were usually included in the complex of buildings along with monasteries. The most famous temple is the Ajanta complex with 29 caves. This temple is also interesting because it has preserved beautiful examples of ancient Indian painting. The murals of Ajanta depict siennas from the life of the Buddha, mythological subjects as well as scenes from secular life: dance, royal hunting etc.

Indian culture cannot be imagined without music, dance and theater, which are organically merged with each other. vocal music Indians understand it as the beginning and end of all arts. The ancient treatise "Natyashastra" is devoted to the peculiarities of music, canons and dance technique. It says: "Music is the tree of nature itself, its flowering is dance." origins dance and theater are found in the cult rites and games of the ancient Indian tribes. The creator of the dance is Shiva, who is called Nataraja (the king of dance). As a dancer, although to a lesser extent, Krishna is also known. Nevertheless most of classical and folk dances is dedicated specifically to Krishna and Rama.

The culture of ancient India occupies an exceptional place in world culture. Being eastern, it had a huge impact on Western culture. Many of its monuments and achievements are an organic part of other cultures.

The excavations also unearthed jewelry in the form of stone beads, made in the earliest stages of the settlement of the Indus Valley. The first samples of stone beads had small holes with a diameter of 1.5-3 mm. Some of the early examples were made from steatite (a soft talc known as soapstone). Craftsmen knew how to drill holes in them with copper drills for hanging with a diameter of about half a millimeter. After that, the beads were given the desired shape using grinding wheels. Finally, craftsmen fired beads in special ovens at a temperature of 850 ° C. Harappan artisans used agate and jasper as materials for beads. Around 2600 BC, Indus Valley craftsmen learned to make harder drills, the secret of which remained unsolved.

One of the most complex technologies was used for the production of faience beads. The quality of the faience of the masters of the Indus Valley was higher than in Egypt or in Mesopotamia, since it was made from crushed quartz. The elite classes of the Indus Valley used faience not only for decoration but also for ritual purposes. Faience products with images of various subjects were also used in special ceremonies, during which they were presented as gifts to people who brought gifts or made sacrifices.

Harappa is a great monument of Indian culture, of interest to explorers and tourists of all nationalities. The material culture of Harappa has been studied quite well, however, the death of Harappa still remains a mystery.

Buddhism, spreading over the centuries to colossal neighboring territories, did not come into conflict with the primordial religions and culture that already existed there. There was much in common with local deities, customs and rituals. Buddhism assimilated with them, absorbing many aspects of local cults, modified under the pressure of other religions, but basically remained unchanged.

The spread of Buddhism was facilitated by architecture, sculpture, and painting. Initially, the art of Buddhism was a set of "reinforcements" or "reminders" that helped the believer in the perception of the dogma, which is often too difficult for him. As religion spread, it was filled with new meanings and cast in completely new forms.

The contemplative Buddhist "art of life" required the fusion of artistic forms with natural ones. Therefore, Buddhist architecture is different from European: it is not a shelter from nature, but dissolution in it. main idea Buddhist buildings - the creation of a visible semblance of artificial and natural forms, harmony with nature, conditions for finding peace of mind. The architecture is based on the classical sense of an organic, free-growing volume from the ground. Tibetan temples and Chinese pagodas seem to be natural formations, they echo the shapes of mountains, hills or weathered rocks, blooming on their slopes like outlandish flowers.

There are two main types of Buddhist buildings. The first type is services designed to support the life of the monastery: temples, sometimes reaching enormous sizes, rooms for monks - vihara, a hall for believers - chaitya, libraries, towers for gongs and bells. The second type is structures that are in themselves an object of worship: a stupa or a pagoda. They are usually the center of the monastery, in keeping with their role as guardians of sacred relics.

Stupas are not buildings, but solid monolithic monuments with small chambers - reliquaries and niches for sculptures. According to legend, the first stupas were erected after the burning of the body of the Buddha according to the Indian custom - to store his ashes, divided into eight parts according to the number of regions of India that claimed their rights to his relics. Stupas are hemispherical, tower-shaped or bell-shaped. In the system of Buddhist symbolism, the stupa is seen as a vertical model of the universe. It symbolizes the "creativity of the Universe", the "impulse of life", nirvana. The architectural features of stupas in each country are determined by local traditions, but they must be round or square in plan.

The entire group of buildings of the monastery complex is organized according to a single plan. In East Asia, the monastery is surrounded by a wall and is usually oriented along the central axis with the main gate to the south, behind which there was a pagoda, behind it a temple. The sermon hall and the back gate completed this line. The location of the buildings could change due to the terrain, especially in the mountains, but Buddhist culture always involves a ritual walk around in a clockwise direction. In temples carved into the rocks, a special path was used for this. Over time, the temple replaced the pagoda from the central place, so it acquired a less sacred and more decorative look, and often a second pagoda was attached to one - for symmetry.

In Buddhist temples, on a dais - a kind of altar in the back of the hall there are statues of Buddhas or bodhisattvas (saints who have decided to leave the circle of reincarnations and achieve Buddhahood). The altar consists of several steps: a square step is a symbol of the earth, a round one is a symbol of heaven. In the wall niches there are statues of deities, on the walls there are paintings reminiscent of the previous deeds of the Buddha, pictures of paradise, figures of bodhisattvas, countless decorative motifs.

The heyday of Buddhist sculpture dates back to the 4th-5th centuries. During these years, a huge number of images of the Buddha and bodhisats were made from gold, bronze, painted wood, ivory, stone from small (2-3 cm) to huge figures 54 m high.

Often Buddhist structures turn into giant pyramids of sculptures, completely covering the main volume. The reliefs and sculptures of temples and monasteries also include images that are not related to the philosophy of Buddhism, reflecting more ancient cults and beliefs, and sometimes just the imagination of the artist.

Buddhism did not announce prohibitions on the images of living beings, encouraged independent thinking, and declared the principle of great complexity and continuous variability of the world to be the most important. The Buddha taught that the road to salvation lies through getting rid of illusions, so Buddhist characters have a clear and enlightened expression, they are beyond moral weaknesses and selfish passions.

Picturesque images of the Buddha, bodhisats, Buddhist symbols (a vase, a scepter, a begging bowl, a bow and arrows, a rosary, the wheel of Samsara or the wheel of the Law, etc.) can be seen in almost every Buddhist temple.

Here is how the European traveler, who studied Buddhism in the East for many years, A. David-Neel, describes the interior decoration of one of the Buddhist monasteries in Tibet in the book “Mystics and Magicians of Tibet” (M., 1991): “A mass of banners suspended from the ceiling in galleries and attached to high pillars, present to the assembled a great number of images of Buddha and gods, and on the frescoes covering the walls, among the cohorts of other heroes, saints and demons flaunt in threatening or complacent poses. In the depths of the vast chamber, behind several rows of altar lamps, statues of great, long-departed lamas and jeweled arks of silver and gold holding their mummies or cremation ashes softly glimmer. Turning their demanding or imperious eyes on people, overwhelming them with their numbers, all these creatures ... seem to mix with the crowd of monks. The mystical atmosphere envelops people and objects, hazes trivial details, idealizes faces and poses. "")

In Tibetan Buddhist art, a significant place is occupied by tanka - images of the Buddha, church hierarchs, characters of the Buddhist pantheon, hagiographic cycles, etc. They are made with paints on silk or printed on cotton fabric, intended for meditation, religious processions, in temple interiors, in home altars.

Characteristic of Buddhist art is the desire for a contrasting combination of bright, colorful materials: gold and silver, red and black lacquer, inlaid with colored glass, porcelain, foil, mother-of-pearl, precious stones. Buddhism has become a school for several generations of masters from India, Persia, Burma, Thailand, and Indonesia. Many classical works of art from China and Japan and other countries are associated with Buddhism.

Buddhism flourished in India in the 5th-7th centuries. Mahayana promoted a return to hierarchical ideas, and Tantrism promoted the rehabilitation of the sensory world. From the 4th century under the Gupta dynasty, secular culture flourished. Along with the temples in the treatise on architecture of the 5th-6th centuries. described public buildings, palaces. Contributed to the transition to a hierarchical organization of society and the invasion of the Huns. As in Europe, the collapse of the Hunnic state led to the formation of principalities and relations, which in Europe were called feudal. In the V-VII centuries. There were about 50 states in India.

The Gupta kings patronized various religions, but called themselves worshipers of Vishnu. Hindu names are five times more common in inscriptions from this time than Buddhist and Jain names. KV c. compendiums of Hindu myths and legends are drawn up. These codes were not intended for the elite, but for the entire population, to whom they were close and understandable. The main idea of ​​Hinduism, the idea of ​​personal service to God and boundless devotion to him, fully corresponded to the spirit of a hierarchical society. The most popular gods were Vishnu and Shiva.

Culture of Ancient India

II. Literary monuments

A significant part of the primary sources on the history of ancient India has irretrievably perished. Many works ancient Indian literature were written on birch bark or palm leaves and did not survive the adverse conditions of the climate, wetter than in Egypt (where such fragile material as papyrus could be preserved). On the other hand, the fires, which could not destroy the collections of clay books in Asia Minor, turned out to be disastrous for the archives of ancient India. Only those texts that were carved on stone survived in the original, and relatively few of them were found. Fortunately, Sanskrit, unlike most of the ancient Eastern languages, was never forgotten, the literary tradition was not interrupted for thousands of years. Those works that were considered valuable were systematically copied and have come down to us in late copies with additions and distortions.

Worst of all is the case with ancient chronicles. Almost nothing remains of them, except for passages included in later medieval chronicles.

The largest in volume and richest in content are poetic works: the Vedas (extensive collections of hymns, chants, magic spells and ritual formulas - Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda and Atharvaveda), Mahabharata (an epic poem about the great war of the descendants of Bharata) and Ramayana (a legend about deeds Prince Rama).

In addition to mythical and epic works, the collection “Laws of Manu” has also been preserved, the chronological fixation of which also presents great difficulties (c. III century BC - c. III century AD). This is a typical monument of sacred law, in which civil and criminal regulations are closely intertwined with ritual prescriptions and prohibitions.

A peculiar written monument is the Arthashastra, the compilation of which is attributed to an outstanding dignitary, a contemporary of Alexander the Great, Kautilya. This remarkable treatise on the administration of the state contains a whole series of advice and prescriptions, reflecting the conditions of the era when centralization and bureaucratization were established in the country.

For the study of early Buddhism, the main source is the collection of legends and sayings of the Tipitaka.

The edicts of King Ashoka (III century BC), carved on the rocks, date most accurately. They report on the warriors and the religious policy of this king.

Of the ancient authors, along with Herodotus, who gave a description of western India of his time (5th century BC), Arrian, who lived in the 2nd century, should be especially noted. AD In his "Anabasis of Alexander" he described the campaign of this king to India, in a special work - "India" - he gave a detailed geographical outline of the country 11 Bongard-Levin T.M. "Ancient Indian civilization", - M., 1993

The history of ancient Indian literature is usually divided into several stages: Vedic, epic, the period of classical Sanskrit literature. The first two stages are characterized by the predominance of the oral tradition of text transmission. Genuine encyclopedias Indian life are the two great epic poems of ancient India, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. They capture all aspects of the life of the ancient Indians. The epic absorbed the material, which, being formed from the oral poetic tradition, acquired a didactic character, included religious and philosophical works and ideas. In subsequent epochs, many prominent Indian artists, among whom was the famous Kalidas, drew their inspiration from these treasures of the wisdom of their people.

In the era of classical Sanskrit literature, the Panchatantra, a collection of stories and parables based on folklore, gained particular popularity. It was translated into many languages, and they got to know him quite early in Russia.

From the literature related to the Buddhist tradition, the work of the poet and playwright Pshvaghosh (1-2 centuries AD) stands out clearly. The poem "Buddhacharita" he wrote was the first artificial epic to appear in Indian literature. The era of the Guptas was the time of the development of ancient Indian theater. There were even special treatises on dramaturgy. The tasks of the theater, the technique of acting by actors were determined. Indian theatrical tradition preceded Greek.

The theory of literary creativity, including poetry, reached a high level in ancient India. The rules of versification, treatises on the theory of metrics and poetics were developed in detail. Several schools of “poetic science” appear, and there are disputes about genres, about the purpose of literature, and about artistic language.

The concept of the divine character of speech influenced the development of the science of language. It was believed that speech is the basis of the sciences and arts. In the grammar of Panini "The Eight Books" the analysis of linguistic material is carried out so deeply and thoroughly that modern scholars find similarities between the theory of the ancient Indians and modern linguistics.

The first monument of the thought of the ancient Indians was the "VEDAS", literally meaning "knowledge, knowledge" in Sanskrit. The VEDAS, which arose between the second and first millennium BC, played a huge, decisive role in the development of spiritual culture ancient Indian society including the development of philosophical thought.

The VEDAS consist of hymns, prayers, incantations, chants, sacrificial formulas, and so on. In them, for the first time, an attempt is made to a philosophical interpretation of the human environment. Although they contain a semi-superstitious, semi-mythical, semi-religious explanation of the world surrounding a person, nevertheless, they are considered as philosophical, or rather pre-philosophical, pre-philosophical sources. Actually, the first literary works in which attempts are made to philosophize, i.e. interpretations of the world surrounding man, in their content could not be different. The figurative language of the VED expresses a very ancient religious worldview, the first philosophical idea of ​​the world, man, moral life. VEDAS are divided into four groups (or parts). The oldest of them are the Samhitas (hymns). Samhitas, in turn, consist of four collections. The earliest of these is the Rigveda, a collection of religious hymns (about one and a half thousand years BC). The second part of the VED is the Brahmans (a collection of ritual texts). The religion of Brahminism, which dominated before the emergence of Buddhism, relied on them. The third part of VED is aranyaki ("forest books", rules of conduct for hermits). The fourth part of the VED is the Upanishads, the philosophical part itself, which arose about a thousand years BC.

Already at this time, the first elements of philosophical consciousness arose, the formation of the first philosophical teachings (both religious-idealistic and materialistic) began.

Upanishads ("to sit near", i.e. at the teacher's feet, receiving instructions; or - "secret, secret knowledge") - philosophical texts that appeared about one thousand years BC and in form, as a rule, represented the dialogue of a sage - a teacher with his student or with a person who seeks the truth and subsequently becomes his student. In total, about a hundred Upanishads are known. They are dominated by the problem of the prime cause, the origin of being, with the help of which the origin of all natural and human phenomena is explained. The dominant place in the Upanishads is occupied by teachings that consider as the root cause and fundamental principle of being spirituality- Brahman or Atman. Brahman and Atman are usually used as synonyms, although Brahman is more often used to denote God, the omnipresent spirit, and Atman is the soul. Beginning with the Upanishads, Brahman and Atman become the central concepts of all Indian philosophy (and above all - Vedanta). In some Upanishads there is an identification of Brahman and Atman with the material root cause of the world - food, breath, material primary elements (water, air, earth, fire), or with the whole world as a whole. In most texts of the Upanishads, Brahman and Atman are interpreted as the spiritual absolute, the incorporeal root cause of nature and man.

The idea of ​​the identity of the spiritual essence of the subject (man) and the object (nature) runs like a red thread through all the Upanishads, which is reflected in the famous saying: "Tat tvam asi" ("You are that", or "You are one with that") .

The Upanishads and the ideas presented in them do not contain a coherent and holistic concept. With the general predominance of the explanation of the world as spiritual and incorporeal, they also present other judgments and ideas and, in particular, attempts are made to explain the natural philosophical explanation of the root cause and fundamental principle of the phenomena of the world and the essence of man. So, in some texts, there is a desire to explain the external and internal world, consisting of four or even five material elements. Sometimes the world is presented as an undifferentiated being, and its development as a successive passage of certain states by this being: fire, water, earth, or gaseous, liquid, solid. This explains all the diversity that is inherent in the world, including human society.

Cognition and acquired knowledge are divided in the Upanishads into two levels: lower and higher. At the lowest level, only the surrounding reality can be known. This knowledge cannot be true, since its content is fragmentary, incomplete. The highest is the knowledge of truth, i.e. spiritual absolute, this perception of being in its entirety, it can be acquired only with the help of mystical intuition, the latter, in turn, is formed largely due to yogic exercises. It is the highest knowledge that gives power over the world.

One of the most important problems in the Upanishads is the study of the essence of man, his psyche, emotional disturbances and forms of behavior. The thinkers of ancient India noted the complexity of the structure of the human psyche and distinguished in it such elements as consciousness, will, memory, respiration, irritation, calm, etc. their interrelation and mutual influence is emphasized. An undoubted achievement should be considered the characteristic of various states of the human psyche and, in particular, the waking state, light sleep, deep dream, the dependence of these states on the external elements and primary elements of the external world.

In the field of ethics in the Upanishads, the preaching of a passive-contemplative attitude towards the world prevails: the deliverance of the soul from all worldly attachments and worries is proclaimed the highest happiness. In the Upanishads, a distinction is made between material and spiritual values, between the good, as a calm state of the soul, and the base pursuit of sensual pleasures. By the way, it is in the Upanishads that the concept of transmigration of souls (samsara) and retribution for past actions (karma) is first expressed. Here the desire is expressed to determine the causal relationship in the chain of human actions. An attempt is also made with the help of moral principles (dharma) to correct the behavior of a person at each stage of his existence. The Upanishads are essentially the foundation for all or almost all subsequent philosophies that appeared in India, since ideas were set or developed in them that long time"nourished" philosophical thought in India.

Speaking about the philosophy of ancient India, one cannot fail to mention the vast epic poem Mahabharata, consisting of eighteen books. The main source of philosophical thought of the later - epic period is the extensive epic poem "Mahabharata", which consists of 18 books telling about the struggle for power between the two clans - the Pandavas and the Kauravas. Along with the narrative of this struggle, various books of the Mahabharata contain texts of a philosophical content. Of greatest interest from this point of view are the Bhagavad-Gita, Mokshadharma, Anugita and some others (VII century BC - II century AD).

In terms of content and focus, most philosophical ideas The "Mahabharatas" represent a continuation and development of the views prevailing in the Upanishads about Brahman-Atman or Purusha as a spiritual absolute and about its comprehension as a means of salvation and deliverance from the shackles of karma and samsara. However, unlike the Upanishads, where philosophy is presented mainly in the form of separate statements and positions with unstable, sometimes amorphous terminology, in the Mahabharata already developed and integral philosophical concepts appear, giving a more or less unified interpretation of the main worldview problems, ranging from ontological up to ethical and sociological, and having a more strictly fixed and more unambiguous conceptual apparatus.

The main significance among these concepts in the epic is acquired by the teachings of Samkhya and yoga closely related to it, which were already mentioned episodically in the Upanishads. True, these teachings are presented in different parts of the Mahabharata in different ways, but everywhere they are based on the position of prakriti, or pradhana (matter, nature), as the source of all existence (including the psyche and consciousness) and independent of it and pure spirit unaffected by its modifications - Purusha (also called Brahman, Atman).

Of greatest interest from a philosophical point of view is one of the books - the Bhagavad Gita (divine song). Unlike the Upanishads, where philosophy is presented in the form of separate statements and provisions, here already developed and integral philosophical concepts appear, giving an interpretation of worldview problems. The most important among these concepts is the teaching of Samkhya and the yoga closely related to it, which were occasionally mentioned in the Upanishads. The basis of the concept is the provision on prakrit (matter, nature), as the source of all being (including the psyche, consciousness) and the pure spirit independent of it - Purusha (also called Brahman, Atman). Thus, the worldview is dualistic, based on the recognition of two principles.

The main content of the Bhagavad Gita is the teachings of the god Krishna. God Krishna, according to Indian mythology, is the eighth avatar (incarnation) of the god Vishnu. God Krishna speaks of the need for each person to fulfill their social (varna) functions and duties, to be indifferent to the fruits of worldly activities, to devote all their thoughts to God. Bhagavad Gita contains important ideas of ancient Indian philosophy: about the mystery of birth and death; about the relationship between prakriti and human nature; about genes (three material principles born by nature: tamas - inert inert principle, rajas - passionate, active, exciting principle, sattva - uplifting, enlightened, conscious principle). Their symbols are respectively black, red and white colors that determine people's lives; about the moral law (dharma) of the performance of duty; about the path of a yogi (a person who has devoted himself to yoga - the improvement of consciousness); about true and false knowledge. The main virtues of a person are called balance, detachment from passions and desires, non-attachment to the earthly.

III. Religious cult in ancient India

The thousand-year-old cultural tradition of India has developed in close connection with the development of the religious ideas of its people. Hinduism was the main religion. The roots of this religion go back to ancient times.

The religious and mythological ideas of the tribes of the Vedic era can be judged from the monuments of that period - the Vedas, containing rich material on mythology, religion, and ritual. Vedic hymns were considered and are considered sacred texts in India, they were passed down orally from generation to generation, carefully preserved. The combination of these beliefs is called Vedism. Vedism was not a pan-Indian religion, but flourished only in Eastern Punjab and Uttar Prodesh, which were settled by a group of Indo-Aryan tribes. It was she who was the creator of the Rigveda and other Vedic collections (samhitas).

For Vedism, the deification of nature as a whole (by the community of celestial gods) and individual natural and social phenomena was characteristic: So Indra is the god of thunder and powerful will; Varuna - the god of world order and justice; Agni is the god of fire and hearth; Soma is the god of the sacred drink. In total, 33 gods are usually attributed to the highest Vedic deities. The Indians of the Vedic era divided the whole world into 3 spheres - heaven, earth, antarijna (the space between them), and certain deities were associated with each of these spheres. Varuna belonged to the gods of the sky; to the gods of the earth - Agni and Soma. There was no strict hierarchy of gods; referring to a specific god, the Vedic endowed him with the characteristics of many gods. The creator of everything: gods, people, earth, sky, sun - was some abstract deity Purusha. Everything around - plants, mountains, rivers - was considered divine, a little later the doctrine of the transmigration of souls appeared. The Vedics believed that after death the soul of a saint goes to heaven, and of a sinner to the country of Yama. Gods, like people, were capable of dying.

Many features of Vedism entered Hinduism; this was a new stage in the development of spiritual life, i.e. emergence of the first religion.

In Hinduism, the creator god comes to the fore, a strict hierarchy of gods is established. The Trimurti (trinity) of the gods Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu appears. Brahma is the ruler and creator of the world, he owned the establishment of social laws (tharms) on earth, the division into varnas; he is the punisher of infidels and sinners. Vishnu is the guardian god; Shiva is the destroyer god. The increase in the special role of the last two gods led to the emergence of two trends in Hinduism - Vaishnavism and Shaivism. A similar design was enshrined in the texts of the Puranas - the main monuments of Hindu thought that developed in the first century AD.

Early Hindu texts speak of ten avatars (descents) of Vishnu. In the eighth of them, he appears in the guise of Krishna, the hero of the Yadava tribe. This avatar has become a favorite subject, and its hero has become a character in numerous works. The cult of Krishna gained such popularity that a trend of the same name emerged from Vishnaism. The ninth ovatara, where Vishnu appears as a Buddha, is the result of the inclusion of Buddhist ideas in Hinduism.

The cult of Shiva, who in the triad of the main gods personified destruction, gained great popularity very early. In mythology, Shiva is associated with different qualities - he is an ascetic deity of fertility, a patron of cattle, and a shaman dancer. This suggests that local beliefs were mixed into the orthodox cult of Shiva.

The Indians believed that one cannot become a Hindu - one can only be born; that varna, social role, is predetermined forever and changing it is a sin. Hinduism gained particular strength in the Middle Ages, becoming the main religion of the population. The "book of books" of Hinduism was and remains the "Bhagavad Gita" part of the ethical poem "Mahabharata", in the center of which is love for God and through this - the path to religious liberation.

Much later than Vedism, Buddhism developed in India. The creator of this teaching, Sidgartha Shanyamuni, was born in 563 in Lumbin in a Kshatriya family. By the age of 40, he achieved enlightenment and began to be called the Buddha. It is impossible to tell more precisely about the time of the appearance of his teaching, but the fact that the Buddha is a real historical person is a fact.

Buddhism in its origins is associated not only with Brahmanism, but also with other religious and religious-philosophical systems of ancient India. An analysis of these connections shows that the emergence of Buddhism was also conditioned by objective social processes and prepared ideologically. Buddhism was not generated by the "revelation" of a being who attained divine wisdom, as Buddhists claim, or by the personal creativity of a preacher, as Western Buddhists usually believe. But Buddhism was not a mechanical set of existing ideas either. He introduced many new things into them, generated precisely by the social conditions of the era of his appearance.

Initially, the elements of the new religious teaching, according to the Buddhist tradition, were transmitted orally by the monks to their students. They began to receive literary design relatively late - in the 2nd-1st centuries. BC. The Pali corpus of Buddhist canonical literature, created around 80 BC, has been preserved. to Sri Lanka and later called "tipitaka" (Skt. - "tripitaka") - "three baskets of the law."

In the 3-1 centuries. BC. and in the first centuries A.D. further development of Buddhism takes place, in particular, a coherent biography of the Buddha is created, canonical literature is being formed. Monks - theologians develop logical "reasons" for the main religious dogmas, often referred to as the "philosophy of Buddhism." Theological subtleties remained the property of a relatively small circle of monks who had the opportunity to devote all their time to scholastic disputes. At the same time, another, moral-cult side of Buddhism developed, i.e. "path" that can lead everyone to the end of suffering. This "path" was in fact the ideological weapon that for many centuries helped to keep the working masses in obedience.

Buddhism has enriched religious practice with a device related to the field of individual worship. This refers to such a form of religious behavior as bhavana - deepening into oneself, into one's inner world for the purpose of concentrated reflection on the truths of faith, which was further spread in such areas of Buddhism as Chan and Zen. Many researchers believe that ethics in Buddhism is central and this makes it more of an ethical, philosophical teaching, rather than a religion. Most of the concepts in Buddhism are vague, ambiguous, which makes it more flexible and well adapted to local cults and beliefs, capable of transformation. Thus, the followers of the Buddha formed numerous monastic communities, which became the main centers for the spread of religion.

By the Mauryan period, Buddhism developed into two branches: the Sthaviravadins and the Mahasangikas. The latter teaching formed the basis of the Mahayana. The oldest Mahayan texts appear as early as the first century BC. One of the most important in the doctrine of the Mahayana is the doctrine of a Bodhisattva-being capable of becoming a Buddha, approaching the achievement of nirvana, but out of compassion for people, they do not enter it. Buddha was considered not a real person, but the highest absolute being. Both Buddha and Bodhisattva are objects of reverence. According to the Mahayana, the achievement of nirvana occurs through the Bodhisattva and because of this, in the first century AD, monasteries received generous offerings from the mighty of the world this. The division of Buddhism into two branches: Hinayana (“small cart”) and Mahayana (“big cart”) was caused, first of all, by differences in the socio-political conditions of life in certain parts of India. Hinayana, more closely associated with early Buddhism, recognizes the Buddha as a person who found the path to salvation, which is considered achievable only through withdrawal from the world - monasticism. Mahayana proceeds from the possibility of salvation not only for hermit monks, but also for the laity, and the emphasis is on active preaching, on intervention in public and state life. Mahayana, unlike the Hinayana, more easily adapted to the spread outside of India, giving rise to many rumors and currents, the Buddha gradually becomes the highest deity, temples are built in honor of him, cult actions are performed.

An important difference between Hinayana and Mahayana is that Hinayana completely rejects the path to salvation for non-monks who voluntarily renounce the worldly life. In Mahayana, the cult of bodhisattvas plays an important role - individuals who are already able to enter nirvana, but who hide the achievement of the final goal in order to help others, not necessarily monks, in achieving it, thereby replacing the requirement to leave the world with a call to influence it.

Early Buddhism is notable for its simplicity of ritual. Its main element is: the cult of Buddha, preaching, veneration of holy places associated with the birth, enlightenment and death of Guatama, worship of stupas - places of worship where the relics of Buddhism are kept. The Mahayana added veneration to the bodhisattvas to the cult of the Buddha, thus the rites became more complicated: prayers and all sorts of spells were introduced, sacrifices began to be practiced, and a magnificent ritual arose.

Like any religion, Buddhism contained the idea of ​​salvation - in Buddhism it is called "nirvana". It can only be achieved by following certain precepts. Life is suffering that arises in connection with desire, striving for earthly existence and its joys. Therefore, one should give up desires and follow the "eightfold path" - righteous views, righteous behavior, righteous efforts, righteous speech, righteous thinking, righteous memory, righteous living, and self-deepening. In Buddhism, the ethical side played a huge role. Following the "eightfold path" a person must rely on himself, and not seek help from outside. Buddhism did not recognize the existence of a creator god, on whom everything in the world depends, including human life. The cause of all earthly suffering of man lies in his personal blindness; inability to give up worldly desires. Only by extinguishing all reactions to the world, by destroying one's own “I”, one can achieve nirvana.

IV. Exact sciences

Discoveries of ancient Indians in the area exact sciences influenced the development of Arabic and Iranian-Persian sciences. A place of honor in the history of mathematics is occupied by the scientist Aryaphata, who lived in the 5th-early 6th century AD. The scientist knew the value of "pi", proposed an original solution to the linear equation. In addition, it was in ancient India that the number system became decimal for the first time. This system formed the basis of modern numbering and arithmetic. Algebra was more developed; and the concepts of “number”, “sine”, “root” first appeared in ancient India. The achievements of ancient Indian mathematicians surpassed what was done in these areas of knowledge in ancient Greece.

Ancient Indian treatises on astronomy testify to the very high development of this science. Regardless of ancient science, the Indian scientist Aryaphata expressed the idea of ​​the rotation of the Earth around its axis, for which he was angrily condemned by the priests. The introduction of the decimal system contributed to accurate astronomical calculations, although the ancient Indians did not have observatories and telescopes.

Until now, Ayurveda, the science of longevity, enjoys great honor in India. It originated in ancient times. Ancient Indian doctors studied the properties of herbs, the impact of climate on human health. great attention focused on personal hygiene and diet. Surgery was also at a high level; it is known about three hundred operations that ancient Indian doctors were able to do; in addition, 120 surgical instruments are mentioned. The Tibetan medicine popular today is based on the ancient Indian science of Ayurveda.

Ancient Indian physicians believed that the human body was based on three main vital juices: wind, bile and phlegm - they were identified with the principles of movement, fire and softening. Indian medicine paid special attention to the effect on the human body. natural conditions, as well as heredity. There were also treatises on medical ethics.

Summarizing all these facts, it should be noted that the veneration of knowledge is a distinctive feature of the Indo-Buddhist culture. Experts from many countries came to study in India. In a number of cities in India there were universities that studied religious and philosophical texts, astronomy, astrology, mathematics, medicine and Sanskrit. But it is characteristic that Euclidean geometry did not appear in Indian science. And this is no coincidence. The Indo-Buddhist cultural tradition was not distinguished by particular rationalism. Indian scientists were not interested in the logic of scientific knowledge, they were more concerned with the secrets of the universe and the practical issues of calculation, calendaring and measuring spatial forms.

V. Architecture and painting

The first time monuments of architecture and fine arts of Ancient India belong to the era of the Harappan civilization, but the most striking examples were created in the Kushano-Gupta era. Monuments of both religious and secular nature were distinguished by high artistic merit.

In the era of antiquity, most of the buildings were built of wood, and therefore have not been preserved. The palace of King Chendragupta was built of wood, and only the remains of stone columns have survived to this day. In the first centuries of our era, stone began to be widely used in construction. The religious architecture of this period is represented by cave complexes, temples and stupas (stone structures in which the relics of the Buddha were kept). Of the cave complexes, the complexes in the city of Karl and Ellora are the most interesting. The cave temple in Karla is almost 14 m high, 14 m wide and about 38 m long. Here it is big number sculptures and stupas. In the Gupta era, the construction of a cave complex in Ellora began, which continued for several centuries. The masterpieces of Indian architecture also include the Hindu temple at Sanchi and the Buddhist stupa located there.

In ancient India, there were several schools of sculpture, of which the largest were the Gandharian, Mathura and Amaravati schools. Most of the surviving sculptures were also of a religious nature. Sculptural art reached such a height that there were a number of special guidelines and rules for their creation. Iconography techniques were developed, different for different religious traditions. There were Buddhist, Jani and Hindu iconography.

Three traditions were combined in the Gandhara school: Buddhist, Greco-Roman and Central Asian. It was here that the first images of the Buddha were created, moreover, as a god; these sculptures also depicted statues of bodhisattvas. In the Mathura school, the dawn of which will coincide with the Kushan era, the secular environment is of particular importance along with purely religious ones. architectural compositions. Images of the Buddha appeared here just as early. The Mathura school was influenced by earlier Mauryan art, and some sculptures speak of Harappan influence (figures of mother goddesses, local deities, etc.). Compared to other sculptural schools, the Amaravati school absorbed the traditions of the south of the country and the Buddhist canons. They were preserved in later sculptures, influencing the art of Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka.

Ancient Indian art was closely connected with religion and philosophy. In addition, it was always addressed to the lower caste - the peasants, in order to convey to them the laws of karma, the requirements of dharma, etc. In poetry, prose, drama, music, the Indian artist identified himself with nature in all its moods, responded to the connection between man and the universe. And finally, a significant impact on the development indian art showed a religious prejudice directed against the statues of the gods. The Vedas were against the image of a deity, and the image of the Buddha appeared in sculpture and painting only in late period development of Buddhism.

On artistic culture ancient Indian society was deeply influenced by Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam.

Artistic and figurative perception through the prism of the named religious and philosophical systems, is noted for the refinement of the image of a person and the surrounding world, the perfection of architectural forms.

Most famous monument ancient Indian painting are wall paintings in the caves of Ajanta. For 150 years, ancient masters carved this temple into the rock. In this Buddhist complex of 29 caves, paintings cover the interior walls and ceilings. Here are various stories from the life of Buddha, mythological themes, scenes from everyday life, palace themes. All drawings are perfectly preserved, because. Indians knew well the secrets of durable paints, the art of strengthening the soil. The choice of color depended on the plot and characters. Gods and kings, for example, have always been depicted as white. The traditions of Ajanta have influenced the art of Sri Lanka and various parts of India.

Another characteristic feature of the old Indian culture is the expression in artistic images of the idea of ​​worshiping the god of love - Kama. This meaning was based on the fact that the Indians considered the marriage couple of a god and a goddess as a process of cosmic creation. Therefore, images of God's punishment in a strong embrace are common in temples.

Conclusion

By the beginning of the new era, wonderful works of ancient Indian lyrics (Vedas) and epics (Mahabharata and Ramayana) were finally completed and recorded, which were passed from mouth to mouth in the first couple.

There are also collections folk fables(Panchatantra, i.e. Five books).

In the 5th century AD advances greatest playwright ancient India Kalidasa. Of his dramas, Shakuntala, named after the main character, a beautiful hermit whom the king loved, received particular fame.

In the countryside of India, various philosophical schools have developed, including materialistic ones. So, according to the teachings of Charvaka, the only source of knowledge is experience. The doctrine of the transmigration of souls, so widespread in India, is completely rejected, and the soul itself is recognized as inseparable from the body.

As in other irrigated farming countries, great development achieved in India astronomy and mathematics. Here a kind of solar calendar. The year consisted of 360 days, and for the equation with the astronomical year, a leap month was added every five.

In the V-VI centuries. AD Indian scientists knew the sphericity of the Earth and the law of gravity, as well as the rotation of the Earth around its axis. In the Middle Ages, these scientific discoveries were borrowed from the Indians by the Arabs.

Back in the proto-Indian period (III-II millennium BC), a decimal system of calculation had already developed in the Indus Valley. In the future, mathematics reaches a level superior in some respects to other ancient peoples. So, only in India the sign denoting zero was used. The numbers that we call Arabic, in contrast to the Roman ones, were actually invented by the ancient Indians and passed from them to the Arabs. Also, Arabic algebra was influenced by Indian.

Ancient Indian chemists mined sulfuric, hydrochloric and nitric acids. Doctors sought to develop a certain systematization of diseases and created a theory of the main juices of the body. The presence of many languages ​​​​and dialects in India made philological studies necessary. The learned Brahmin Panini, who lived in the 5th-4th centuries. BC, created the grammar of the “purified”, i.e. literary language (Sanskrit).

The most remarkable monuments of ancient Indian architecture are domed buildings (stupas) and original cave temples. In the cave temples of Ajanta, multi-colored frescoes, remarkable in their realism, have been preserved (I-III centuries AD).

Indian culture has had a significant impact on the countries of Central and East Asia (mainly in connection with the spread of Buddhism). India influenced the Western world through the Arabs.

References

“History of India”, K.A. Antonova, M 1993

Ancient civilizations - M., 1989

Introduction to cultural studies - M., 1995

Culturology - M, 1995

Bongard-Levin T.M. “Ancient Indian civilization”, - M., 1993

Each of the monuments we examined has, as we tried to show, a special, unique specificity inherent only to it. The mythological and ideological representations that underlie the Vedas, epic, Buddhist and Jain canons, respectively, are different, the principles of their composition are dissimilar, and stylistic accents are placed differently. However, at the same time, it cannot be overlooked that they all share some common characteristics, which, in accordance with chronological criteria, definitely indicate their belonging to one, namely, to the early period of the development of ancient Indian literature.

First of all, as evidenced comparative history literatures of Antiquity, the formation of these literatures usually begins with the appearance of religious codes and epics. The first works Chinese literature are considered "Shujing", "Shijing" and "Yijing", included in the Confucian "Pentateuch", the history of Iranian literature opens with the Avesta, Jewish - with the Bible, Greek - with the "Iliad" and "Odyssey". Among the oldest monuments of Mesopotamian, Ugaritic, Hittite and Egyptian literature, fragments of the mythological epic and ritual texts predominate. From this point of view, it seems logical that the beginning of the development of Indian literature was marked by the creation of just those four literary complexes (Vedic, Buddhist, Jain and epic), which were discussed.

Further, both the Vedas, the Tipitaka, and the epic took shape as a whole over the course of many centuries, and developed in line with the oral rather than written tradition. We know that the letter was already known to the population of the Indus Valley in the III-II millennium BC. e., then his skills were lost, and writing in India was revived only approximately in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. However, initially it was used, apparently, mainly only for administrative and economic purposes. Although the Rig Veda was already in existence by 1000 B.C. e., Vedic literature in general - by 500 BC. e., and the early versions of the epic and the first Buddhist and Jain texts - by 400-200 years. Don. e., they were not recorded immediately and, at least until the turn of our era, functioned as oral monuments. This led to several important consequences for the entire Indian literature of the Antiquity period.

Since her works were not fixed, we often deal not with one, but with several texts (editions) of the same monument, and in this case it is useless to look for its original or archetype. Oral existence also explains such features of the style of the Vedas, the epic, the Tipitaka, as the abundance in them of cliched phraseological turns (the so-called "formulas"), repetitions, refrains, etc. Vedas of magical functions, but first of all they were a necessary condition for the creation of any kind of text in oral form and its subsequent reproduction “from memory” by new performers. oral origin Finally, some basic methods of constructing the most ancient Indian monuments (in the form of a sermon, dialogue, address, panegyric, etc.) are determined, as well as a number of their names that have come down to us according to tradition (Sruti, Upanishads, etc.).

Partly connected with the oral character of the works we have examined is the fact that we have already noted that they are not singled out as works of art proper. Of course, it would be wrong to say that every ancient Indian text pursued only practical - religious or didactic - goals, but on the whole, aesthetic tasks have not yet come to the fore. And although we are dealing with works whose artistic merits are unique in their own way, it is no coincidence that most of them were part of religious codes, and the Sanskrit epic, and above all the Mahabharata, is highly characteristic of ethical and philosophical coloring.

The lack of artistic self-awareness in Indian culture in the 1st millennium BC. e. reveals itself in the fact that the idea of ​​the creator of the work has not yet crystallized into the concept of the poet. The hymns of the "Rigveda" were composed, as the legend says, by the legendary prophets-rishis, the prose of the Brahmins and the dialogues of the Upanishads - by the holy sages, the Buddhist and Jain texts - by the teachers of the faith Buddha and Mahavira and their associates.

At the same time, literature remained mostly anonymous, the name of the author did not so much indicate the real creator of this or that monument, but asserted its significance, and the literary work, in fact, belonged to the whole society or at least one of its social or confessional strata in in general.

And therefore, with perhaps the only exception of the Ramayana, which is already on the verge of a new stage in the development of literature, it would be futile to look for signs of individual style, themes, and means of expression in ancient Indian literature.

Naturally, when literature is not yet aware of its autonomy, a literary theory cannot take shape, although the unlimited possibilities of the word as such have been praised more than once by the creators of Vedic chants. And since there was no literary theory, one cannot speak in connection with ancient Indian literature and a clear differentiation of genres in it. When in the Vedic Samhitas we distinguish between epic, dramatic and even lyrical hymns, in the Brahmanas we separate theological instructions from narrative episodes, in the Upanishads we isolate philosophical dialogues, and in the Tipitaka - fables, parables, biographies, etc., we are in some To some extent, we introduce into the monuments that are syncretic in their essence the genre classification of later literature. In the Indian literature of the Antiquity period, the work existed as an indivisible whole, subject to special laws, and this literature must first of all be evaluated in accordance with the norms and principles put forward by it itself.

However, this does not mean that already in the literature of the 1st millennium BC. e. did not mature, though still in a diffuse, mixed state, new genres and forms. These genres and forms were taken up, developed and refined in stable outlines, by the subsequent literary tradition. Together with them, she inherited everything that turned out to be viable in the ideological concepts, themes and visual means of the Vedas, epic, Buddhist and Jain texts. And these monuments, although they remain intrinsically valuable and unique in their appearance and artistic achievements, at the same time can be regarded as a prologue to the entire further development of Indian literature.

History of world literature: in 9 volumes / Edited by I.S. Braginsky and others - M., 1983-1984

Periodization of the history of ancient India. Indian civilization, its culture. Types and source of the worldview of the Indians. Fundamentals of Brahmanism and Hinduism. Buddhism and its influence on the formation of the spiritual culture of the Indian people. Religion and Law, "Laws of Manu" and "Arthashastra". Yoga, its essence and varieties. Science and art. Relationship between art and religion.

India has given the world one of the most advanced ancient civilizations, and its richest literary sources, originally transmitted orally, make it possible to penetrate into the minds of people who lived at least more than 4000 years ago. Formed in antiquity, the spiritual culture of this country has not undergone fundamental changes throughout the entire historical development, it has always been considered the most spiritual culture of the East. And today, the mystery of its spirituality is far from being revealed to everyone; it seems especially incomprehensible to the technized consciousness of Western man.

Archaeological and literary sources testify that the culture of India has about 5 millennia. Chronologically, it highlights:

Harappan civilization (2500-1700 BC);

Vedic period (1700-600 BC);

Pre-Maurian period (600-320 BC);

Mauryan era (320-185 BC);

The era of the Kushans (78-200 BC);

Gupta Empire (320-510 BC).

Medieval Muslim period of development (Delhi Sultanate, Mughal Empire).

Back in the III millennium BC. e. on the territory of India, a highly developed Indus civilization developed, the decline of which came under circumstances still unclear in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. Its centers were the cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro. They differed in the purposeful planning of city buildings in comparison with the disordered buildings of Mesopotamian settlements. The buildings consisted of three floors. In addition, the Indian population used burnt in a special way, and not dried in the sun, as in Babylon, with a brick. Residents of cities built the most complex sewers, built, in addition to residential buildings, public buildings, granaries. During the excavations, a public bath was discovered - an unusual hydraulic structure, possibly for ritual ablutions, an assembly hall, a school.

Based on this, we can say that the architecture of the Indians reached a high level of development. The things found during the excavations testify to the perfection of weaving, spinning, weapons art, sculpture, jewelry and arts and crafts. Threads were spun from wool and cotton fibers. From them weaved thin multi-colored fabrics. Tools and weapons were made of copper and bronze. The statues were created from stone and sandstone, and they reflected the high skill of transferring the movements of the human body. "Miniature reliefs of lions, bulls, mountain goats are distinguished by the clarity of the silhouette, the perfection of surface treatment." *

* History of arts from antiquity to the Middle Ages / Ch. ed. and compiled by S. Ismailova. M., 1996. P. 109.
Harappan culture in the Indus Valley. Archaeological complex. III-II millennium BC e.

Settlement of Harappa. Plan.

Jewelry made of gold, silver, all kinds of precious and semi-precious stones - rings, bracelets, necklaces, beaded belts, amulets - were worn by both men and women. In addition, men decorated themselves with feathers, cut their hair, tied it in a bun, and combed it back. “The costume was the same for everyone. But some wore jewelry made of gold and silver, ivory and precious stones, others of copper and tin, shells and simple bones. Some are woven belts made of beads, which were made of expensive stones with gilded ends, others are belts with beads made of baked clay. *

* Ancient East / Under. Ed. Academician V. V. Struve. M., 1951. S. S. 206.

decorative applied art was reflected in the perfection of the unique tableware. Clay objects were painted with patterns and ornaments of various colors. “But perhaps the most beautiful glazed opal-cream glazed vessels with a dark purple pattern. Nowhere in the world in the IV millennium BC. e. have not yet been able to make such dishes. *

* There. S. 206.

However, the worldview and ideas of the people of this era remain a mystery to us due to the unresolved nature of their writing. Only from the next stage in the history of India, the beginning of which almost coincides with the death of the Harappan culture, has come down to us through hundreds of generations of the richest heritage of the religious and philosophical plan, which makes it possible to judge the culture of the country. This stage is associated with the arrival of the Aryans in India and received the name Vedic - from the Vedas, the oldest written monuments.

Citadel of Mohenjo-Daro. Plan III-II millennium BC e.

The first sources of emerging philosophical thought in India, as in other countries, were sacred texts. They laid the foundations of religion and ethics. The sources of this period were called in India "shruti", that is, heard through divine revelation. In contrast to shruti, later literature, which is of a narrower and more specialized nature (treatises on certain sets of issues, in particular jurisprudence), is called "smiriti", that is, what is remembered, attributed to specific individuals. In the first case, we are talking about "sacred knowledge" sent down by the gods, in the second - about the judgments of wise people.

Bust of a priest. From the excavations of Harappa.

The letters of the early Brahmi alphabet (Indian syllabary).

Modern Indian script (Devanagari).

The entire history of the culture of Ancient India is distinguished by the vagueness of the chronology of Vedic sources, most of which were passed down from generation to generation orally for a long time. The Vedas are collections of religious and ritual texts. (samhitas) different content and purpose. They reveal the worldview of the Indians, attitude to life, views on the essence of man. In the Vedic period, the principles that determined the development of the spiritual culture of Ancient India were formed. Their starting point is the deification of the world order and ideas about it. The idea of ​​the divine creation of the social system becomes the basis of views on spiritual and secular power. At the same time, these ideas themselves are also declared to be divine revelation. Social division is predetermined and is the law from above for the Hindu.

In ancient times, the first philosophical schools appeared in India: “Lokayata” - the doctrine of sensory knowledge of the world, “Vaisheshika” - an atomistic doctrine, the Nagarajuna school with the theory

"universal relativity", "yoga" - a psychological school, the founder of which was Patanjali. Two major religions have influenced the culture and art of India: Hinduism and Buddhism. Hinduism is based on the Vedas and Upanishads. Veda (Skt."Knowledge") is a collection of texts reflecting the ancient religious and mythological beliefs of the population of the Ganges valley. The Vedas consist of four collections: the Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda, and the Atharva Veda.

Rig Veda * (Skt. The Book of Hymns is the oldest part of the Vedas. Passed down orally from generation to generation. The hymns of the Rig Veda sing of many gods. The most ancient basis of the Vedic religion was the cult of nature and its phenomena. Samaveda is a collection of hymns. Yajurveda (sakstsr. - “book of prayers”) is a collection of prayers, under which sacrifices were made during musical accompaniment. At-harvaveda (Skt."Spellbook") contained a collection of spells and magic formulas. The Vedas served as the basis for the creation of two grandiose literary epics of India: the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. **

* Rig Veda / Rev. ed. P. Grinzer. M., 1974.

** Mahabharata. Ramayana. M., 1974.

Upanishads * (Skt."sitting down at the teacher's feet") - a secret philosophical and religious doctrine that arose on the basis of the Vedas, expanding the Vedic doctrine. Its central concept is Trimur-ti - the trinity of the Upanishads. It consisted of three main gods: Brahma (Atman), Vishnu and Shiva.

* Upanishads. In 3 books. M., 1992.

Brahma is the creator of the Universe and the world. Vishnu is the guardian of cosmic order and peace. He incarnated nine times in other beings in order to restore cosmic order in their guise and save the Earth. Shiva, who has 1008 names, is the carrier of cosmic energy, creative and destructive at the same time. He embodies a good and evil beginning, he is omnipotent, can exist in visible and invisible guises.

The teachings of the Upanishads are based on atman, maya, karma, samsara and moksha. Atman (Sanskrit "I") - the universal mental principle of the Universe, the soul of the world, as well as the individual principle of man. It is both the human soul and the world soul. Atman-Brahma is the embodiment of the one and the many, the individual and the universal, god and man. According to the Vedas, initially Atman, having created itself by means of its own will, took the form of the gigantic first man Purusha (Sanskrit "personality"). It served as material for social structure societies, division into varnas: from the mouth of Purusha came Brahmins- priests (the highest caste of India), from the hands of - kshatriyas- warriors, from the hips - vaishyas- artisans and farmers, from the legs - sudras- slaves and prisoners of war (untouchables). The transition from varna to varna was impossible, belonging to the varna was passed down from generation to generation.

Vishnu, Brahma. Lakshmi on the snake Shesha. Medieval drawing.

The king is naked.

Shiva, Parvati and Ganesha.

Maya is an important concept in Vedic literature. Mayan (Skt. the root "matr" - to measure, form, build) - this is the doctrine of human delusions. The desire of a person to explain reality is Maya, that is, delusion, delusion. Maya leads to the distortion of the Atman, and the distortion of the Atman leads to suffering. Therefore, the cause of human suffering is maya.

Karma (Skt."action and its result") is generated by maya, i.e. behavior, delusion. Actions can be beneficial, neutral or harmful. Accumulated deeds form a person's bad or good karma, which determines a person's existence in the past, present and future, and influences his future births.

Samsara (Skt."wandering, circulation") - the so-called continuous cycle of lives and deaths - is determined by the karma of a person. Samsara is without beginning, but as a result of right deeds, it can have an end, which is called moksha.

Vayu, god of the wind.

Moksha (Skt."liberation"), or atma jana("self-awareness"), atma-bodha (“self-awakening”) is achieved as a result of liberation from maya, i.e. delusions.

Hinduism became the official religion of India after the fall of the Gupta empire and the weakening of Buddhism in the 7th-8th centuries. By this time, the main directions of Hinduism had developed: Shaivism with the cult of Shiva and his wife Parvati; Vishnuism, Shaktism with the cult of the mother goddess Shakti - the embodiment of the omnipotent female energy; Krishnaism, which developed a little later, but quickly gained great recognition.

The well-known four Vedas also go back to the provisions rooted in Indian thought and practice about the divine establishment of the estate-caste system.

The India of the Vedic period, as it appears in the hymns of the Rigveda, was a society with a desire for the possession of cattle, grain and other riches, with sharp social and political conflicts. The explanation of the structure of society was the theory of the divine creation of the four estates "varnas", first expressed in the hymn about Purusha in the last book of the Rigveda, reproduced in the Atharvaveda and in many subsequent sources and fully developed in the Yajurveda and the Brahmins. The Vedas declared the formation of the estate-caste system to be the original institution established by God. As already mentioned, numerous closed castes (jatis) with a clearly defined occupation (professionally different groups) were divided into four estates (varnas). The dominant position was occupied by the varnas of the Brahmins and Kshatriyas, who divided among themselves, respectively, the spiritual and secular power. The religious and philosophical system of the Vedic period was created by the priests and was called "Brahmanism".

Soma.

The Brahmins substantiated moral standards and were responsible for educating all people in the spirit of the Vedas.

Indian philosophy explained the birth of a person in various social strata, with different abilities and different appearances with the help of the doctrine of the transmigration of souls (the theory of incarnation). According to this teaching, there is a universal spirit that works throughout the world; it condenses cosmic matter, manifests itself in it with various strengths and with increasing energy, which then manifests itself as spiritual.

The famous iron pillar in Delhi. 4th-6th centuries

As consciousness is ignited in matter, the soul becomes more and more independent of the body, more and more capable of leading a free existence. The unpolarized soul of minerals and plants is associated with the earth elements. She, strongly attracted by earthly fire, stays in it for some time, and then returns to the surface of the globe to incarnate again in her own form, never leaving the lower layers of space. Only one human soul comes from heaven and returns there after death. But at what epoch of its long cosmic existence did the elemental soul become human? What ethereal fire did she go through for this? Transformation was possible, according to the Vedas, only with the help of already perfectly formed human souls who developed in the elemental soul its spiritual principle and imposed on it their divine prototype. However, how many incarnations, how many cycles must go through in order for the soul to become the person we know it to be? There is no clear answer to this question. Nevertheless, each person goes through many rebirths, and the next one depends on his karma, and karma depends on his consciousness and actions.

The Brahmins guarded the Vedic spiritual traditions and restrained the manifestation of free thought. However, despite the efforts of the Brahmins, the distinguishing feature of the pre-Mauryan period was the disunity that marked the thought of the Vedic period. Free-thinking religious teachers challenged Brahmanism with regard to the varna system and tribal fragmentation, and in the 6th century. in an environment conducive to the emergence of heretical teachings, two powerful currents were formed that had many followers and seriously shook the monopoly of Brahmanism on public consciousness. These were Buddhism and Jainism. However, in essence, they differed little from Brahminism and did not prevent the development of spiritual traditions.

IN world culture India entered with its philosophy, and religion, and mythology.

In ancient Indian mythology, the deities were divided into three groups, corresponding to the three spheres of the universe. The most important of them was considered not the highest (sky), but the intermediate one (air space), symbolizing the connection between the earthly and heavenly worlds. In some hymns of the Rigveda, the names of only three gods are mentioned, but sometimes 3339 deities - the number goes back to the same original three-term structure. In the future, the "model of the Universe" was transformed. The concept of three spheres is firmly established in the religious thought of the Indians: three lokas (three worlds) are listed in various Hindu texts, even later ones.

On the basis of the Vedas in Hinduism, a complex detailed cosmological system is formed. The principle of ordering the world is ryta. This concept is revealed as the fundamental principle of the world and the laws operating in it. Thanks to rita, the Sun moves along the ecliptic, the seasons change, the dawn dispels the darkness of the night. She is sometimes drawn in the form of a chariot driven by the gods. Its most common definition is "The Way of the Sun".

In the Vedic conception of the Universe, the movement of the stars is the most important regulating principle of the world order. The sun - the first among them - is revered especially and is extremely often mentioned in hymns. In some texts, he is called "the face of rita, pure and beautiful."

Rita embodies not only light, but also the creative power of nature, which in North India was associated with the fertile monsoon rains that replaced the all-draining sun and heat.

The Vedic worldview was permeated by the idea inseparable connection processes in nature with a cycle of sacrificial actions. The cult practice of the priests, creators and performers of the hymns of the Rig Veda is considered an organic part of the world process. It ensured the victory of rita as a universal organizing principle, order over the chaos threatening all living things. Rita means universal regularity and morality. It turns into principles that equally regulate the movement of the luminaries and the events and states of human life - birth and death, happiness and misfortune. From this naturally followed the identity of the moral idea with the absolute and most universal laws of the development and existence of the world.

Tree of life and knowledge.

In the middle of the trunk is a wheel, the source and guardian of all that is new.

Bronze. XIV-XVI centuries

Although rita remains an impersonal principle in the Rig Veda, one of the leading deities of the pantheon, Varuna, acts as its bearer and protector. He is endowed with colossal power, unlimited power, the Vedic Indians saw in him the personification of strength, ruling the world, creator and keeper of nature.

Varuna is depicted as the overseer of the cosmic order. The cosmogonic role of Varuna is intertwined with his role as a moral judge. Appeals to him are imbued with a spirit of repentance and a thirst for forgiveness.

The combination of the idea of ​​the cosmic world order with the ritual practice of the priests, characteristic of the Vedic worldview, made it necessary to associate the observance of the precepts of morality with regular sacrifice. Later, rita became identified with satya- truth, honesty, which also included the principles of behavior.

The power of rita also extends to the gods, the fulfillment of its norms is obligatory for them. Varuna and his constant companion Mitra protect all living things with the help of the law (dharma), which is associated with rita.

The equal subordination of people to a single universal impersonal force is the cardinal idea of ​​the Rigvedic worldview. It passes into the later Indian religious systems - Hinduism and Buddhism. The place of rita is occupied here by the "law of karma", which affirms the dependence of each being (both man and god) on previous deeds.

Rita and karma can be compared with the fate of the ancient Greeks, but the latter was not correlated with cult practice. The "world order" of Vedism is supported by and associated with sacrifice. The idea of ​​fate in ancient society is colored by the spirit of pessimism, because nothing can be done about it, it dictates what must happen. This theme was central to Greek drama; Rita, on the contrary, is the source of the triumph of the principle of righteous behavior, a symbol of universal order and harmony. Both rita and karma leave an opportunity for a person to improve his destiny. To do this, you need to work on yourself, your consciousness. Subsequently formed yoga as a system of principles of work on oneself, on the body and consciousness.

The Vedas cover in detail the theme of the creation of the world. “Deities create elements, elements and things. From the combination of male and female principles, the world is born. Then there is an idea of ​​some kind of “abstract deity”, who creates everything that exists. He is called differently (Vishvakarman, Prajalati, Dhatar), he is endowed with the highest power and stands above the gods.

* Bongard-Levin G. M. ancient Indian civilization. Philosophy, science, religion. M., 1980. S. 41.

Vishvakarman is called the "father of the eye", vision, knowledge. The Sun is associated with it, in Vedic cosmology it was considered one of the foundations of all things. Vishvakarman is the bearer and source of wisdom.

Many representations in the Samhita are connected with the concept of the "first embryo" - the golden egg (brahmaida), which arises in the primordial ocean, and it contains the gods and prototypes of all beings. The image of the "original" egg, which is in the waters, is found in the cosmogonic myths of various peoples.

In general, Vedic cosmology is not unified and offers a variety of answers to the cardinal question: how was the world created? The All-Creator acts along with an abstract deity - a personified image of the very process of creation, the first embryo resting in the waters and sacrificed by the primal being - as well as the "cosmic heat" (tapas).

Something impersonal is proclaimed to be the basis of being, there is no division into the existent and the carrier (subsequently, the Upanishads transform this principle into the concept of the origin of being from non-existence, arguing at the same time that something third stood above both principles, not reducible to either of them), there is neither atmosphere, nor the vault of heaven. Water, like the abyss, precedes the other elements.

Not only death, but also immortality is impossible in that indescribable state that preceded creation. There was "Something One", having a single attribute - integrity, indivisibility. Earth was seen as a realm of differences arising from the division of the original whole into two parts (existing-bearing, death-immortality, day-night).

Tapas (cosmic heat) is the embodiment of the original impersonal energy that stimulates all life processes. From tapas desire is born (Kama), called the seed of thought (buddhi).

A peculiar pantheistic tendency of the Vedas was preserved and developed later in Hinduism (sacrifice, in comparison with sacred actions of a different nature, is given a special place, it is directly associated with the process of peace creation); cosmological ideas, ritual, although they have undergone significant changes, in many respects go back to the initial stage of the orthodox tradition.

The religious and philosophical idea of ​​the Upanishads, to a greater extent than other parts of the common Vedic heritage, was reflected in Buddhism, but Buddhism also adopted a number of early Vedic concepts (the trinity of the world, many mythological images). The creators of the new religious system especially resolutely opposed the complex that had developed by the end of the Vedic era religious views, ritual rules and social regulations, called "Brahmanism".

The Upanishads are in fact the result of a long comprehension of the central principles and provisions of the religious system of Brahminism, which later passed into the Hindu system.

Major sites associated with the emergence and history of Buddhism in India.

Buddhism originated in India in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. and is the time of the emergence of the first world religion.

The emergence of Buddhism is associated with the life and preaching work of Siddhartha Gautama. His father protected him from suffering, the boy did not know grief, did not see illness and death. But once during one day, Gautama quite by chance met a beggar, a leper, and saw a corpse. He decided to leave Father's house to independently answer the question about the meaning of human life, about the causes of human suffering. For a long 7 years, Gautama stays as a rishi (forest man) and a saman (ascetic). One day, sitting under a bo tree, he saw a morning star flash in the sky, which caused him an instant understanding of the causes of human suffering and ways to overcome them. So Siddhartha Gautama became a Buddha (Skt. "enlightened").

The Buddha decided to announce his discovery to people. For 40 years he walked along the Ganges valley, preaching his teachings and performing miracles. Very soon Buddhism became so popular that King Ashoka (268-232 BC), the third ruler of the Mauryan dynasty, recognized this teaching as the official religion of India. The popularity of Buddhism lay in the doctrine of liberation. According to the new teaching of the Buddha, all living beings suffer, have karma, rotate in samsara, regardless of caste or nationality, and any person can achieve liberation and become a Buddha during his lifetime, that is, the liberation of any person depends only on himself. The basis of the teachings of Buddhism is the "Four Noble Truths": duhkha, trishna, nirvana, sadhana.

The first noble truth of duhkha (Skt. "suffering") is that the life one leads is one of suffering. A person sees suffering around and suffers himself, and naturally asks himself questions: why is this, what is the cause of suffering?

The second noble truth trishna(Skt. "grasping", "clinging") - this is the doctrine of the causes of suffering. Trishna is the desire to possess reality. A person is attached to various circumstances, thereby connected with the Mayan world. Ignorance or false knowledge of a person about the world and himself gives rise to trishna, that is, grasping or clinging to the real world as something unchanging and eternal. Trishna, in turn, gives rise to human deeds, both harmful and beneficial, deeds form karma and samsara - the cycle of births and deaths. True peace is in the mind of a person, the purification of consciousness can become a human joy, which gives a state nirvana. Therefore, the third noble truth of the Buddha is the teaching of nirvana. The goal of nirvana coincides with the goal of yoga - the cessation of the "rotation" of the mind, liberation from false knowledge, that is, from thoughts with which the human mind tries to grasp the world and itself as something eternal and unchanging. Nirvana is that state of a person when his consciousness is liberated from the chaos of thoughts, immersed in a state of rest, this is the combination of “I” and “nothing”. To do this, a person must pacify all existing feelings and thoughts, focus on a static picture. This is necessary in order to further establish control over one's own consciousness, lead it or make a conscious choice between positive and negative thoughts.

The Fourth Noble Truth of the Buddha is sadhana- the eightfold noble path of liberation from suffering and the achievement of nirvana. This path is open to everyone and contains the main features of Buddhist morality: do not kill the living, do not eat meat food, indulging in the killing of the living, do not cause suffering to others, fulfill the requirements for castes, work on your positive consciousness, improving your karma. The operation of the law of karma is explained by the following circumstances. spiritual center a person from the point of view of Indian culture is in the "I". It has as an integral basis consciousness, which produces thoughts. "I" controls them, thus directs his consciousness. But thoughts are also developed by someone else's consciousness, transmitted through space by sound, word, vibration. Therefore, they can be their own and others, positive and negative, and determine the actions of a person. "I" chooses thoughts, thoughts determine actions. In some cases, the "I" may act unconsciously, not in control of its consciousness. To determine your actions, you need to control your thoughts, make a conscious choice. Since “I” chooses, a person is responsible for all his actions, he himself chooses his karma, determines it.

It seems to us that all thoughts belong to us or they exist only in consciousness, that consciousness itself is thinking, although there are phrases in colloquial language that reflect something else. We say: “A terrible thought came to me” or “A brilliant idea came to me”, “I had an idea in my head”, “This thought is already in the air”. All these phrases say that it goes without saying that thoughts "walk" in space, they come and go. It is also assumed that there are thoughts that belong to me, my "I". These are those that are developed, assimilated by my consciousness, those that I consciously choose or produce myself. We say: “I lost the thought”, “The thought is gone”, thus we believe that this is my thought, which means that I created it, it belongs to me. Thus, there are thoughts of my own, which are produced by my consciousness, and there are others, those that were once developed by another consciousness. Thoughts exist in space various forms: through written speech - in books, through thought forms - in space, through vibrations - in the air, through sound - in speech. A person chooses, he makes a choice in the case when he owns his consciousness, makes a conscious choice; if not possessed - unconscious. In the first case, it controls the choice. In the second, we say: “I didn’t do it consciously,” “I didn’t think about it.” The task of sadhana is to learn to control and produce positive consciousness.

Thus, Buddhism sets the main goal of the idea of ​​human self-improvement. Achieving nirvana is impossible without morality, virtue and wisdom in Buddhism are inseparable. Therefore, many researchers consider Buddhism not a religion, but a system of moral and philosophical views.

Around the 2nd century BC e. refers to the most famous work of ancient Indian legal literature - "Manusmriti", or "Manavadharmashastra", the name of which is usually translated as "Laws of Manu". * But it would be more accurate to speak of "Manu's Instructions in Dharma". The collection is attributed to the mythical progenitor of people Manu, who conveyed to the sages the prescription of the Self-existent. For nearly two millennia the "Laws of Manu" existed as a valid set of rules. The collection belongs to the dharmashastra genre, which arose on the basis of the drachma sutras and differs from the latter in a clearer systematization of the material. By design, this is a comprehensive code of the world and social life of Ancient India. It regulates all aspects of the life of a true Hindu, contains all the information he needs. In the literature of Ancient India, philosophy, religion, mythology, and law are often combined.

* Laws of Manu. M., 1992.

The laws of Manu tell briefly about the origin of the world and society, the creation of varnas, the sources of dharma, Holy Scripture and the study of the Vedas, the stages of life, the first ashram - apprenticeship and marriage in the life of a twice-born as the head of the family and the owner of the house, the causes of death, the rules of purification and eating, the dharma of women, the third stage of life - hermitage, the dharma of kings. This subject was specially treated in the Arthashastra. * It outlined the basics of politics and administration in wartime and peacetime, the goals of royal power, the qualities that a ruler should have, his daily routine, etc.

*Arthashastra, or the science of politics. M., 1993.

Great importance to understand the worldview of the ancient Hindus, they have religious and ethical principles that permeate the instructions of Manu. The era of the revival of Brahmanism, in which the "Laws of Manu" was mainly formed, was reflected in the content of this document. Manu not only notes the superiority of the Brahmins, but also emphasizes their power, their involvement in supernatural forces and, symbolically, constantly keeps in view the provision of their existence, privileges and material interests. The Laws of Manu expresses an extremely contemptuous attitude towards the Shudras and attempts to preserve the institution of slavery in classical purity. There is no right for a slave, except for the exceptional cruelty of punishments.

The Laws of Manu reiterates the traditional rules of kingship. At the same time, the idea of ​​the divine nature of the functions of the king was developed with special care. The entire set of teachings is imbued with the idea of ​​perfection of the order originally created by the self-existing Brahma. Threatening with earthly and heavenly punishments, Manu calls to keep him intact

Ruler in a ceremonial chair. From an ancient relief.

resolutely suppresses any inclinations to change the eternal dharma.

The Laws of Manu is one of the six main and oldest ethical and philosophical collections that have come down to us, erected by tradition to the ancient sages (smriti).

In Buddhism and Hinduism, in parallel with the study of the "outer world", external environment initially, the “inner world”, the internal environment, was studied - the human body, given to him in internal perception and traditionally called the “subtle body” (as opposed to the “gross”, physical body, accessible to the five “external” sense organs).

The results of the study of various worlds were as follows: in the “body diagram”, in the place corresponding to the spinal cord, there are a number of “centers”, or chakras (also called “lotuses”), the concentration of forces that rule both the body and the world. There are seven chakras in total: muladhara, svadhisthana, manipura, anahata, vishuddha, arjna, sahashhara. The Muladhara Chakra is located at the bottom of the body. Swadhisthana is located in the lower abdomen. Manipura corresponds to the solar plexus. Anahata - approximately in the center of the chest. Vishuddha - under the Adam's apple. Arjna - between the eyebrows. Sahashara corresponds to the parietal part of the head. In the lower of the centers, the Coiled-Ring-Force, Kundalini Shakti, who created the world, sleeps, which in the process of “manifestation of the Universe” consistently “separated from itself” these centers of forces. It is believed that Kundalini "creates and maintains both the world and the body" and that she "liberates the yogis and binds the ignorant." Awakened through special yoga techniques, Kundalini rises from center to center, "dissolving" them in itself. Thus, a person is “freed from the chains of the manifest world” and acquires his true nature.

Tantras- common name an extensive range of works of religious, philosophical, yogic and magical content. There are Hindu and Buddhist tantras. The term "tantra" is "secret text" (tan + tra). Tantric texts reflect only the specific result of centuries of analysis of such a phenomenon as the chakra system. Yoga is not a theoretical discipline, it consists of experienced practical knowledge. It is a system of models of certain practices. The techniques for raising the Kundalini are summarized in the tantric texts.

The theory of the chakras received its second birth within the framework of the theosophical tradition, which introduced into its sphere all the baggage of ideas about a person accumulated by the end of the 19th century. European science.

Currently, there are many varieties of yoga in India: hatha yoga, sahaja yoga, raja yoga, bhakti yoga, jani yoga, kundalini yoga and others. Their methods are aimed at making a person realize what power and strength are hidden in his spiritual essence. Awareness of oneself as a spiritual being leads to the understanding that the state of the lower forms of being, material and physical, depend on the human will, consciousness, soul. Yoga convinces that the highest form - spiritual - controls the lower - material and physical, guides them, if it is not in the power of illusion - Maya. Human consciousness must free itself from the opposite influence, from the materialistic attitude to the life of all beings and master the methods of awakening the strength of the spirit, self-consciousness, and power over oneself. The techniques of Indian yoga show how to detect the influence of not your own, but other people's ideas on yourself. They are what make you do unconscious things. Yoga teaches how to become the master of thoughts and actions, learn to control them and constantly be in the realm of spirituality.

It has been known in Indian philosophy since ancient times that the human consciousness needs to be freed from chaotic thinking as the "lower mind". Yoga, through meditation, brings the mind to complete silence, emptiness, peace. In the process of getting rid of chaotic thoughts, the mind learns to control them. The free place of the calm mind can be occupied by the higher mind, which is able to control its thinking and work only with the necessary thoughts, systematize and see the connection within the mental material. Such a mind is Manas (wisdom), which corresponds to our self-consciousness and forms abstract thinking.

Spiritual tradition convinces that it depends on the person himself whether he is happy or dissatisfied, joyful or pessimistic. If a person's consciousness belongs to himself, if he owns his own consciousness, and not something painful has taken possession of him, then nothing can prevent him from being spiritualized, bright and joyful. Awareness of one's spiritual essence determines the happiness of a person, since it is his inner state. External causes can only be a motivating motive, they have the character of secondary. The root cause, according to Indian tradition, is within a person, therefore, true happiness can never be found if you look for it in external things and bodily pleasures. Satisfaction with them can only be temporary, since there is no absolute external limit to them. Thus, happiness does not depend on an external choice: on the place of being, on society, on parents, on children, etc. Indian yogis are convinced that it depends only on our self-determination: whether to contribute to the education of good or evil in ourselves sanskar(habits, qualities of character), spiritual consciousness, dependent on the possession of external things.

Spirituality in the culture of India itself is the highest value and the main tradition of the Indian people, which has never been interrupted, but has been developed and cultivated for almost four thousand years. This is the peculiarity of the country and its people. The self-consciousness of the Hindu is highly developed, he is always and everywhere aware that, first of all, a person is a spiritual being - a soul. Today, a Western European civilized person, lacking spirituality, oppressed by rationality and spiritual pessimism, travels to India in search of a high spiritual upsurge. Modern Indian yogis are indeed of interest to the westerner, dejected by material problems. They know the "method" of achieving nirvana, clairvoyance, telepathy, resurrection; they are subject to the spiritual at the sensory-psychological level.

India's achievements in the development of arts and sciences are great. Here, for the first time, a brilliant conjecture was born about the rotation of the Earth around the Sun, here the decimal system was created. The mathematicians of ancient India knew the meaning of the number P and solve linear equations. "Root", "sine", "digit" - all these terms originated in India.

India is the birthplace of chess. Playing chess symbolizes military action,

Indian carved chair with a picture mythological characters. From an ancient relief.

in which troops are involved. The ancient Indian army presented a picture in the center of which is the king - the main commander, foot soldiers (pawns) stand in front, elephants are next to the king, cavalry is behind them, along the edges are palms (rooks).

During the development of Brahmanism in ancient India, wooden architecture flourished, but for natural reasons, its works were not preserved. Therefore, the achievements of Indian architects can only be judged by literary works. The Mahabharata describes the palaces of the rulers - with pearl nets on the windows, graceful staircases, floors lined with precious stones, hundreds of rooms. *

* The history of art from antiquity to the Middle Ages / Ch. ed. and compiled by S. Ismailova. M., 1996. S. 109.

Due to the fact that the worldview of the ancient Indians was permeated with high spirituality, the main element of which was the connection of man with the cosmos, the architecture reflected this feature in itself. At the heart of the plan of the village and the city, the dwelling house and the temple was a magic diagram representing a model of the cosmos. Any settlement had two streets intersecting at right angles, which ended with gates, symbolizing the exit to the Universe on the four cardinal points.

Since ancient times, the temple was designed by architects-priests, based on sacred knowledge about the laws of the harmony of the world. Its geometry includes ratios in the "golden section" mode. “The image of the completion of the world is symbolized by the rectangular shape of the temple, as opposed to the round shape of the world, controlled by cosmic movements. While the sphericity of the sky is indeterminate and beyond any measurement, the rectangular or cubic shape of the sacred building expresses a definite and immutable law. That's why all sacred architecture, whatever tradition it belongs to, can be seen as a development of the basic theme of turning the circle into a square. In the emergence of the Hindu temple, the development of this theme with all the richness of its metaphysical and spiritual content can be traced especially clearly. *

* Burckhardt T Sacred art of East and West. M., 1999. S. 19-20 .

From the descriptions of the Greek Megasthenes, the wooden multi-storey palace of King Ashoka is known for its magnificence. The interior of the palace was decorated with granite columns, sculptures and carvings. Under Ashoka, Buddhism became the state religion, but the king continued to forbid the construction of buildings made of stone. Civil buildings, like temples, were built of wood, and they have not been preserved. Their main types were mortar(memorial building containing the remains of the Buddha), stambha(a column placed in the place of the virtuous deeds of the Buddha) and chaitya(rock temple - a symbol of the hermit life of the Buddha).

The stupa reflected the model of the universe, it is characterized by majestic simplicity and perfection of forms. The most famous and beautiful is the stupa in Sanchi. folded

Stupa in Sanchi. 3rd century BC e.

Indian temple gate.

On the top crossbar of the gate, the worship of elephants to the sacred fig tree, under which the Buddha delivered his first sermon, is shown, the second crossbar represents the worship of Buddhist

Buddha from Sarnath.

symbols. The third is Gautama's meeting with the hermit, who opened his eyes to human sorrows and suffering.

Fertility spirits are also depicted on the gates - yakshini girls, in the image of which

Minaret near Delhi. 13th century

ideal of female beauty: a young woman with slim waist, high lush breasts, arms adorned with bracelets, strong legs, massive hips.

The construction of stone buildings resumed in the 4th century. BC e. at the time of the formation of a unified Indian kingdom. In the III century. BC e. a huge temple was built, emphasizing the power of the king of the Indian state. This temple had columns on both sides, carved from huge blocks of stone. On one of them stood four stone lions, looking at the four cardinal points and, as it were, protecting the borders of the state (the lion is a symbol of Buddha). Some temples of ancient India were carved into the rocks. Stone columns polished to a mirror effect were also installed in them along the walls. Windows were cut down only in the front wall of the temple. The side walls were decorated with sculptures of people and animals.

During the Mauryan period they built viharas- monasteries in which sciences and arts developed. Many images of bodhisattvas were created in the monasteries - eternally young beings who had reached the highest level of holiness, who devoted their lives to people trying to find the path to salvation.

The sculptures in the temples depicted the Buddha in the guise of an ideally beautiful person. The pinnacle of skill was the reflection of a state of deep peace. It was achieved with the help of complex strictly established visual techniques. The main features of Buddhist art developed in Gandhara.

The Gandhara images of the Buddha are filled with deep spiritual content; they draw a person's attention to their own inner world. Originating in the Kushan period, this skill was perfected during the reign of the Guptas. At this time, Buddhist temples turn into museums, in which monumental painting reaches its true flowering.

The art of the Gupta era created the classical ideals of beauty, which were adhered to by the masters of subsequent generations.

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