lessness of the new society, where kings could force their will upon the people, where the economy was fueled by greed, and where bankers and merchants, locked in aggressive competition, preyed upon one another (Buddha 22-23). Siddhartha was born into the Axial Age (about 800 to 200 BCE), a time period when an impressive array of prophetic and philosophical geniuses made supreme efforts to find a solution to the void that people experienced when they felt that the religious beliefs and practices of their ancestors were no longer sufficient; times had changed (Buddha, 10). Many at this time were consumed by a sense of helplessness, were obsessed by their mortality and felt a profound terror from the world (Buddha, 13). During this period, the Vedic religion was dominant in the area, and is a perfect example of pre-Axial religious beliefs. It was an unchanging religion based on an archetypal order and arcane rites known by only the upper classes. As the merchant class emerged, the old rituals of the Aryan religion were beginning to seem cumbersome and archaic (Buddha 23). Not only could the traveling merchants no longer fulfill some of those most basic duties of the old religion, but as merchants, they started to gain power as the cities became more and more dependent on them. In their newly established positions of authority, the merchant class increasingly resented the dominance of the Brahmins and wanted to control their own spiritual destiny (Buddha 23). In effect, the emerging market society and merchant class felt as though the old religious beliefs no longer suited them and were far too difficult to maintain. Additionally, the violence and competition that fueled this economy was something that concerned many people. As a result, they sought a new religion that could fill this spiritual void and respond to the chaos and turmoil of the cities. This was the Buddhas quest. The first similarity we can see between Muhammad a...
