Buddhist Versus Hindu Architecture

Buddhist vs. Hindu Religious Ideals in Art and Architecture Although Buddhist and Hindu art may appear to be the same to the eyes of an untrained observer, they are products of entirely different religious traditions. While Buddhism has its origins in India, it quickly spread outside of the birthplace of its founder, Siddhartha Gautama and gained greater traction elsewhere, including China and Japan.

Buddhism also split into two distinct traditions, that of Theravada and Mahayana, the former of which emphasized the monastic tradition of strictly adhering to the teachings and life of the Buddha while the latter placed greater emphasis on the ability of laypersons as well as monks to obtain Enlightenment. In contrast, Hinduism is a distinctly Indian religion.

Both religions embrace the concept of reincarnation, although it is Hinduism who uses this idea to justify a caste system, or the notion that the social class into which someone is born justifies the existence of a stratified society. This paper will argue that Buddhist art similarly reflects the religion's concept of the non-existence of a central self as well as a veneration of the Buddha and its teachings, versus Hinduism which reflects an anthropomorphic understanding of god as well as the religion's embrace of a caste system.

However, Buddhism, because it spread far beyond its native India, also reflects indigenous cultural influences and the power dynamics of the nations into which it spread beyond that of its theological doctrines. One of the most important Hindu gods, that of Vishnu, is immortalized in one of the earliest still-existing Hindu temples, that the Vishnu Temple at Deogarh. The temple is decorated with stone reliefs telling the story of Vishnu, focusing on different creation narratives which feature the god prominently (Elder 2016).

Hinduism stresses the existence of an eternal soul or atman, or a core and unchanging sense of self which Buddhism denies. Because of this concept, representations of Hindu gods are often anthropomorphic in form and this is reflected in the Vishnu Temple (Eder 2016). Perhaps equally significant in the construction of the Vishnu Temple is the fact that only members of the Brahmin caste were permitted to enter the temple and perform its sacred rituals (Dehejia 2007).

This stratification and reflection of the principles of the caste system is also seen in the Kandariya Mahadeva temple, which also prohibits anyone but Brahmins from entering its inner sanctum. The assembly hall or mandapa offers an area where non-Brahmins can enter the temple but only Brahmins can and are obligated to perform the ritual devotions which define their caste (Dehejia 2007).

In contrast, in Buddhism, the idea of a caste was seen as irrelevant and the Buddha opposed the caste system; all monks were required to foreswear their caste allegiance to become part of the community of the Buddhist monetary, known as the Sangha (Thera 1999). The Buddha stressed in one of his sutras: "Birth makes not a man an outcast, / Birth makes not a man a Brahmin; / Action makes a man an outcast, / Action makes a man a Brahmin" (Thera 1999).

It is actions which define who a spiritual being is, not birth. While Hinduism stresses the need for every person to fulfill his or her dharma or destiny according to his or her caste, for Buddhists acknowledging the fundamental lack of division between all human beings (in other words, the lack of an existence of an individual soul or self) necessitates a withdrawal from one's perceived earthly obligations.

Although the ultimate goal of both Buddhism and Hinduism is an escape from the cycle of karma, they offer different prescriptions for the correct way to do so, and Buddhism emphasizes the need to withdraw from the world, including the divisions which make up both society and religion in Hinduism (Kleiner, 2016, p.12). Buddhism views such divisions as unnecessary and artificial. This belief is thus reflected in Buddhist temples which are not rigidly divided into areas into which only certain members of certain castes can enter.

In Buddhism, in contrast to Hinduism, all individuals can become members of the monastic order, provided they have the desire to do so. Buddhism does acknowledge that reincarnation exists. Like Hinduism a Buddhist believes that reincarnation offers the opportunity to gain spiritual enlightenment and the being into which the person is reincarnated is determined by the karma, both good and bad, accrued during the individual's lifespan (Dehejia 2007).

But because Buddhism does not believe in a stable and unchanging atman which exists outside of one's actions, it opposes the idea of punishing or restricting an individual's activities merely because of the social class into which the individual is born. Rather than a veneration of the gods or a desire to segment out different members of the elites, Buddhist structures often reflect a desire to venerate the Buddha's teachings his life, and thoughts.

While the Buddha is not revered like a Christian saint, Buddhist tradition holds that certain physical attributes, such as elongated earlobes, are reflections of the physical attributes of the Buddha as well as specific positions of the hands or mudras, which reflect the Buddha's Enlightenment (Kleiner, 2016, p.13).

These attributes are reflected in artistic representations of the Buddha and this belief is writ large in the architecture of Buddhist religious structures and the proportions of the Buddha are reflected in the designs of religious structures ("Symbolism of the Stupa," 2012). One example of the reverence of the physical Buddha's body is the Ruwanweliseya (Great Stupa) located in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka.

The Chorten's foundation symbolizes the earth; its dome symbolizes water; and its steps symbolize the thirteen stages of Enlightenment in Buddhism ("Symbolism of the Stupa," 2012). The final symbol is that of wind in the form of a parasol, signifying the unity of sun and moon ("Symbolism of the Stupa," 2012).

It is important to note, however, that Buddhism does not venerate the Buddha as a god but rather his teachings and while his body manifests signs of his Buddhahood, it is his teachings and spirituality that are important, not beauty. Early on in the history of Buddhism, adapting the life of the Buddha into art was extremely common as a way of representing the highly abstract ideas of the new religion into concrete terms.

Additionally, popular legends and folklore which predated Buddhism were also reflected in many of these myths, many of which purported to illustrate the earlier lives of the Buddha during his past incarnations although scholars have noted that they are really popular legends (often featuring animals) adapted to Buddhist teachings (Dehejia 2007). In the very earliest artistic representations of the Buddha, the Buddha was not literally represented at all but only as an abstraction.

As the religion began to be popularized, more literal representations of the Buddha became more and more common based upon the Buddhist sutras descriptions of physical manifestations of Buddhahood. Images of the Buddha were often heavily idealized, reflecting an image of youthful beauty (Dehejia 2007). Still, although Buddhism espoused a rejection of the soul or unchanging sense of self, it was still influenced by outside social concerns. Buddhism, in contrast to Hinduism, gained greater traction in the consciousness of the public outside of the nation of its birth.

One nation which adopted Buddhism whole-heartedly was that of China. The Chinese White Horse Temple merges a reverence for the Buddha, the distinctly Mahayana concept of the Bodhisattva, and reverence for China's ruling elite ("The White Horse Temple," 2016). It is significant that Chinese Buddhism is part of the Mahayana tradition of Buddhism, because this tradition reflects the belief that all individuals can attain Nirvana in this lifetime, not simply monks.

Bodhisattvas are learned beings who forgo Enlightenment and strive to bring all suffering beings into Nirvana (again, this is true of all individuals regardless of their social status or previous reincarnations) (Kleiner, 2016, p.13). The White Horse Temple reflects the extent to which Buddhism and the native culture of the lands to which.