When I first got interested in Indus Valley Civilization, I saw remarkable order of Indus Valley cities WITHOUT apparent signs of strong kingship or military control.
This was perplexing to me. We know order in society can be implemented through a strong government. And this has been the case in most of the early civilizations, like Chinese, Egyptian, and Mesopotamian. All of them had standing armies and strong kings which ensured unity among people and order in society.
But this is not the case with Indus Valley. There are no signs of great armies and strong kings. There are no signs of grandeur in the form of Pyramids and other great architecture. All excavations from Indus Valley point to a very down-to-earth civilization, a civilization of common men, a civilization of farmers and merchants.
And yet this civilization endured for thousands of years.
On top of that, the Indus Valley Civilization covered an enormous land from Eastern Afghanistan to Western India.
I thought that continued existence of such an orderly civilization in such a huge territory, and without strong military, could only be possible through a** very strong religion and traditions**.
I know Hinduism is basically an imported Aryan religion. The seals excavated from this civilization also don’t reveal its clear connections with Hinduism. So I thought there must be some religion other than Hinduism that incorporates characteristics of Indus Valley religion. Buddhism obviously was the next option, especially with its teachings being very pacifist, very down-to-earth, similar to findings from Indus Valley.
So today I did a search using the terms: “harappa civilization buddha teachings”. And the second link said what I was looking for. Here it is:
http://www.buddhanet.net/fundbud2.htm
In Buddhism we have a religion which draws most of its inspiration from the Indus Valley religion, the ideas of renunciation, meditation, karma and rebirth, ultimate liberation - ideas which were important to the Indus Valley Civilization. The Buddha Himself indicated the Indus Valley origins of His tradition when He said that the path which He taught was an ancient path and the goal to which He pointed to was an ancient goal. We also have a Buddhist belief in six Buddhas prior to the Buddha Shakyamuni within this aeon. All these point to a continuity between the tradition of the Indus Valley Civilization and the teachings of the Buddha.
If we look at Buddhism and Hinduism we will find a greater or lesser proportion of elements taken from either of the two traditions of the Indus Valley Civilization and Aryan Civilization. For instance, if we look at Buddhism, the greater proportion was taken from the Indus Valley Civilization religion, a lesser proportion from the Aryan tradition. That is why we find mention of the Aryan gods in Buddhist scripture, though their role is peripheral, an example of an Aryan element in the Buddhism tradition. On the other hand, if we look at some schools of Hinduism, we find a greater proportion of elements taken from the Aryan tradition and a lesser proportion from the Indus Valley Civilization. We find caste emphasized, the authority of the revealed scripture of the Aryans - the Vedas - emphasized and sacrifices emphasized. Alongside, we find a place made for renunciation, meditation, karma and rebirth.
