Buddhist vs. Hindu Religious Ideals in Art and ArchitectureAlthough 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...

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…