Question

What are the similarities and differences in the core beliefs of Hinduism and Buddhism?What are the similarities and differences in the core beliefs of Hinduism and Buddhism?What caused the shift from Hinduism to Buddhism?How did the Mauryan and the Gupta empires lead to the spread of Hinduism or Buddhism?Where did Hinduism and Buddhism spread during Ancient Indian Civilization?

Answer 1

The similarities are based around numerous ideas and people who appear in both religions, for example, while Buddha is the supreme prophet of Buddhism in Buddhism, he is one of the 10 incarnations of Lord Vishnu in Hinduism. There are differences however, for example, the Hindu beliefs are that there is an eternal self that transcends material things, while Buddhism is revolved around the idea that the self does not exist and salvation comes from understanding this. In addition, Hindu believers believe in numerous gods, while Buddhism does not negate existence of a deity or deities, but states that looking for them is futile since we can never reach it.

Buddhism started becoming more and more popular around year 260 BCE when Emperor Ashoka converted to Buddhism and started supporting it publicly and building things such as temples. From there, Buddhism spread North towards China while Hinduism remained as the most spread religion in India.

Mauryan empire did it through Ashoka who was mentioned in the previous answer. He wasn't intolerant to other religions and still kept numerous Hindu believers in his court as advisers. When Guptas got power, they started spreading Hinduism because they were orthodox Hinduists, but they didn't bother Jainists or Buddhists and even encouraged them to have their own beliefs.

The two religions spread throughout Asia. Buddhism mostly spread north of India towards continental Asia, while Hinduism spread mostly towards the Indian Ocean and all across the Indian peninsula. Although Buddhism is not as widely practiced today in India, it is still strong in China for example, while Hinduism is strong all over India with more than 80% of people being Hindu.