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8. AGE OF REASON
F
ATHENS : 4
ANTIOCH
TARIM BASIN
BACTRIA
ALEXANDRIA
BURMA
Le
SRI LANKA
Buddhist proselytism at the time of king Ashoka (260-218 BC), according to his Edicts
Thus, the atheistic rationalistic religions Buddhism, Jainism and others effectively wiped out the Vedic religion by the end of the era just before the coming of Christianity into India. This can be interpreted as the wiping out of superstitious fear of nature by the rationalistic thinkers of the period. During the period immediately before and after the Christian Era, Vedism was practically wiped out from India. They remained a minority religious group claiming Aryan origin.
The case of Kerala, the southern most area of India stands as a supreme example of what happened. In Kerala for example the temples shows the history as follows: "EARLIEST SHRINES (Before 300 BC) (these stand for local religions) EARLY JAIN TEMPLES (C.300 BC to 500 AD) EARLY BUDDHIST TEMPLES (c.200 BC to 800 AD) HINDUISM & THE 'NEW' BRAHMINICAL TEMPLES (c.800 AD onwards)" http://www.thrikodithanam.org/intro.htm
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