Hinduism and Buddhism

by Keshavaram N. Lengar and Rama P. Coomaraswamy

Hinduism and Buddhism is the eleventh volume in the series of the Collected Works of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy in IGNCA's publication programme. Originally published in 1943, the two essays are authoritative expositions of the teachings of these religions as understood by those who practiced them rather than as understood by scholars and comparative religionists who studied and viewed them from without. Coomaraswamy assumes that even the oldest forms of hinduism were neither polytheistic nor pantheistic and that there is no doctrine of reincarnation, other than that of the immanent God 'who never become anyone'. hinduism is the oldest of the surviving mystery religions whose formulations are essentially the same as those of Platonism Christianity, Taoism and other traditional doctrines. Buddhism is treated in a similar manner. The life of the pseudo-historical founder, the Conqueror of Death, repeats the original myth of the archtypal dragon-slayer. his doctrine--as he asserts very forcibly--is not his own but the re-opening of the 'ancient path'. Buddhism is thus not a 'new' religion, but rather a reiteration, with different emphases, of the same teachings that are to be found in the ancient Vedas.