--- Den ons 2009-10-28 skrev Ong Yong Peng <palismith@...>:


<This is unlike the situation faced by early Christians who were persecuted and hated by others.>

Not for their beliefs, however, as the churches have later tried to make us think; the first to persecute people for wrong views were the Christians themselves (and their victims mostly were other Christians).

The early Christians were persecuted as scape-goats for their alleged actions, not for their opinions; the "pagan" emperors didn't care about what their subjects believed, as long as they acted according to their will, and the Roman state religion could easily include new gods, same as Hinduism today; but a small, new and un-known sect could easily be accused (probably wrongly) for attempted rebellion, in order to distract the attention of the people from the bad government of the state.

Philosophical discussions in Pre-Christian Greece and Rome were quite free, just as in India. Censorship came later.

Buddhism didn't arise in a centralised empire, but in a region divided between several rather small states (as Kosala and Magadha). The building of the Mauryan empire started after the death of the Buddha. Besides, there was a certain balance of power between Brahmans and Kshatriyas in politics, and between Brahmans and Samanas in religion, so it was natural for the Kshatriya rulers to support the Samana movements to fight the dominance of the Brahmans.

Gunnar



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