Zen lecture : The Indus civilization

Zen lecture : The Indus civilization

 

 

Nowadays, it is well known that Mohenjo-Daro in the Southern Pakistan and Harappa in the Northeast Pakistan was two of the great four advanced civilizations in the world. The founder of historic sites were Dravidian. They were the ancestor of people living in Sri Lanka and India. These historic civilizations were annihilated by a drought.

 

The prime feature of this civilization is that the war-related facilities, temples, even a palace haven’t found in the remain. This civilizations is regarded to have been established around in 1500 B.C before the Aryan migration. There was no war at the period. The reason there was no temple there is supposed to have worshiped the mountain or wind as gods. Therefore they are supposed to have believed the polytheism.We can understand the reason there is no palace is that the republican government supposed to have reigned the country at that time.

 

The city-states had an advanced civilization as follows; burnt ceramic tile, constructed a wall and a road by tiles as well as an irrigation canal from far place, even had a flush toilet. They had the civilization like that. After that the Aryan migrated here. As the years passed, it is said that the Aryan were maybe affected by this civilization.

 

The Buddha’s birth-country was one of the Aryan sixteen countries in the northern India. He was born in rich natural environment and grew up in polytheism. Then he studied in the republican government and became a person who looked for peace. After that he become a monk asking the way of humanity, then finally got enlightenment. Buddha didn’t get enlightenment suddenly. As I said previously Indian culture guided him to the enlightenment. Buddha said there were seven Buddhas before me.

 

After that period, Buddhism could not remain as an independent religion in India. However we could say that the reason that Dharma lighting has kept long for 2500 years in Sri Lanka is through the effort of the descendant who brought the Indus civilization. The Sri Lankan tradition as loving nature and impartiality, giving mercy for each people, are common to the culture of Japan, a faraway island country in Oriental.