Abstract

Buddhist philosophy had its origins, there can be little doubt, in some seminal intuitions of Guatama, entitled the Buddha or enlightened one, who lived possibly from 563 to 483 bce, but probably about a century later. His thought evolved from the sramanic milieu of his period in which various other movements, such as Jainism, were included; but conceptually it included motifs from the tradition of brahmins. The Buddha was critical of brahmin ideology, but made use of ideas which were prevalent in the society of the Gangetic plain, where most of his work was accomplished. We shall shortly outline some of the key notions of the initial phase of the Buddhist movement.