Why did Buddhism have a wider appeal than Hinduism?

Answer 1

Buddhism came into existance at that particular time when pandits and pujaries were taking people for a ride and minting money.people got sick of that and at that time lot of people accepted buddhism as alternative.

Buddhism needs no balancing:

Buddhism and balancing:

Buddhism evolved from the central part of Hinduism, too simple a religion and thus there is nothing to balance in it.

The highly diverse Hindu society:

Hinduism gives total freedom to its followers.

Thus, in Hinduism balancing has to be done in three dimensions among

1. The people of the four Varnas viz. Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra

2. Hindus who are dreamy and Hindus who are compulsive

3. Hindus with secretive life styles and Hindus who are overt.

The exaggerated freedom in Hindu society:

It has to be mentioned here that, in other religions there is a code of conduct and some people deviated from it to some extent.

In marked contrast to other religions, in Hinduism there is no code of conduct,

and Hindu gods, Karma and Moksha enable a Hindu to have freedom beyond the imagination of people of other religions.

This makes Hindu life more colorful than the life of people of other religions.

Balancing of Hindu society:

In Hinduism balancing is done by nature. Hinduism evoleved on its own and is maintaining it self on its own.

Time and again a Hindu religious leader attains Moksha and reduces the freedom of Shudras and enables them to use higher Varnas. Often Shudras quit Hinduism and accept other religions. This is necessary to stabilize Hinduism.

Thus, to say that Buddhism is more balanced that Hinduism is not correct. The fact is that Buddhism is too simple to need any kind of balancing.

Answer 2

Buddhism focused on personal welfare rather than worshipping God. this made it very easy to follow and was accepted by many rulers, also the Non violence made it much more desirable. these factors made Buddhism rival of Hinduism, as more and more left Hinduism and accepted Buddhism.