Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism

Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism, three of the world’s most dynamic and ancient religions developed in India around the same time. Though each borrowed from, evolved because of, or came into conflict with each other: Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism are more than religions, but cross-sections of an entire culture and time period. Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism have many a huge impact on eastern life as we know it. The interactions between humans and environment that these religions have had have been phenomenal. Jainism being the oldest of the three has 12-18 million followers(jaindharmonline.com). Jain migrated from India to other countries beginning with them migrating to Britain and British colonies. In the beginning, a number of “Gujarati” Jains migrated to coastal towns of East Africa and later moved inland, particularly to Kenya, to open businesses. The Jain community in India represents an affluent and influential minority of the population.Jains now mostly reside in north-east Africa. Buddhism, on the other hand, is the sixth largest religion by population. It has about 367 million followers and is7% of the worlds population(cia.gov). Buddhism spread along land routes of the Silk Road, it underwent profound change. There were great overland trade routes in those days and in later centuries too, that joined China even to the Mediterranean. Along these routes Buddhism spread to northwest India and beyond, along the east-west Silk Route. Hinnduisms origin is much more shrouded though, in terms of its religious development there are now two basic theories that attempt to explain how Hinduism first developed within India, and they both draw on the famous “ekam sat viprah bahudah vandanti verse” for their effectiveness. One suggests that at some time towards the end of the Indus Valley Civilization a group of nomadic people called the Aryans moved into northern India from the steppes of central Europe or even Asia Minor while