[Buddha-l] Jayarava's Rave Jan 30th--Rethinking Indian History

[Bruce Burrill]

At 12:36 PM 2/1/2009, you wrote:
>The essay
>also proposes that perhaps the Buddha wasn't acquainted with
>so-called Brahminical texts (such as upanishads),


Gombrich, among others, has taken this old notion to task, showing 
quite nicely that the Buddha had good knowledge of early brahmanical 
literature, such as the Brhadaranyaka Up

Also, it has been pointed out by others at the time of the Buddha 
notions of karma, moksha, reincarnation and such were characteristic 
of the non-Vedic forest tradition and were being imported into the 
brahmanical traditions, with the Bhagavad Gita exemplifying this 
adopting and adapting by the Brahmins of the forest traditions ideas.