Religion

Topics represented

Religion (351) · Buddhist traditions (97) · Hindu traditions (62) · Chinese traditions (61) · Judaism (43) · Islam (42) · Christianity (34) · Empire and state (20) · Daoist traditions (19) · Catholic Christianity (17) · Sunni (16) · Roman Empire (14)

Records and sources

Ordered by start date. Long lives and processes may begin before the period you want to study.

1. 539 BCE

   Cyrus Cylinder: restoration of temples and cults

   The cylinder’s Babylonian text presents Cyrus as chosen by Marduk and claims the restoration of temples, cults, and displaced gods. It is a royal Achaemenid-Babylonian inscription and propaganda, not a modern human-rights charter.

2. c. 516 BCE

   Second Temple in Jerusalem

   The sanctuary’s reconstruction structured Persian Judea; its precise date and process should be read as tradition and archaeological context.

3. trad. 500 BCE–trad. 301 BCE

   Awakening in Buddhist tradition

   Buddhist narratives place Gautama’s awakening at Bodh Gaya; its date and biographical details vary across chronologies and do not derive from a contemporary record.

4. trad. 500 BCE–trad. 301 BCE

   First sermon in Buddhist tradition

   Narratives place the first sermon at Sarnath and connect it with the community’s beginnings. The date expresses a biographical tradition, without contemporary testimony of the episode.

5. c. 500 BCE–c. 301 BCE

   Life of Siddhartha Gautama

   Scholarly dating of Gautama can fall up to a century after the traditional chronology of 563–483 BCE. The interval represents biographical uncertainty, not a two-century lifespan.

6. c. 500 BCE–c. 401 BCE

   Śramaṇa milieu

   Ascetic communities and debates on karma, rebirth, and liberation form the milieu from which Buddhist and Jain traditions emerge.

7. c. 500 BCE–c. 201 BCE

   Early transmission and the Analects

   Disciples, commentators and schools transmitted and reorganized sayings and rituals associated with Confucius. The composition and layers of the Analects remain debated; the interval represents a process of transmission.

8. trad. 478 BCE

   Confucius Temple at Qufu

   A commemorative and sacrificial temple for Confucius was established at Qufu in the year traditionally given as 478 BCE. Repeated rebuilding made the complex a model for temples across East and Southeast Asia.

9. trad. 444 BCE or 380 BCE

   Second council in tradition

   The Theravada chronology places the Vaishali council one hundred years after the Buddha’s death. The dates 444 or 380 BCE are derived from that rule and its two alternative death dates. Disciplinary accounts vary across lineages.

10. c. 400 BCE–c. 201 BCE

    Composition of the Daodejing

    Collections of sayings attributed to Laozi circulated and took shape during the fourth and third centuries BCE. Bamboo manuscripts from a Guodian tomb dated around 300 BCE provide material evidence of this transmission. The textual chronology does not establish the biography of a single author.

11. c. 400 BCE–c. 201 BCE

    Zhuangzi tradition

    Texts attributed to Zhuang Zhou and later circles explored the Way, transformation and nature. Their authorship and textual layers are complex.

12. c. 390 BCE

    Gallic sack of Rome

    Tradition places a sack of Rome by Gallic forces around 390 BCE. The date and several narrative details are debated, but the episode became central to Roman memories of vulnerability and rebuilding.

13. 332 BCE

    Judaea under Hellenistic kingdoms

    Alexander’s conquest introduced a long Hellenistic setting, with Judaea contested by successor dynasties.

14. c. 300 BCE–c. 201 BCE

    Bodh Gaya sanctuary

    Ashoka established pilgrimage at the awakening site; the principal surviving temple is later.

15. c. 300 BCE–c. 201 BCE

    Ashoka pillar at Lumbini

    Ashoka’s pillar inscription links Lumbini to the Buddha and documents early pilgrimage; it does not by itself establish every biographical detail.

16. c. 300 BCE–c. 1200

    Sanchi: stupa and monastic complex

    Sanchi preserves a long sequence of Buddhist architecture, relics, donors, and pilgrimage.

17. trad. 300 BCE–trad. 201 BCE

    Sri Lanka mission tradition

    Sri Lankan chronicles attribute introduction to Mahinda; the chronology derives from that tradition and does not demonstrate instant implantation.

18. trad. 300 BCE–trad. 201 BCE

    Third council in Theravada tradition

    Theravada chronicles link it to Pataliputra and Ashoka; the attribution comes from lineage memory.

19. c. 300 BCE–c. 200

    Oral formation of Sanskrit epics

    The epics circulated orally and were layered over centuries; neither dates nor versions are singular.

20. c. 273 BCE–c. 232 BCE

    Ashoka’s patronage

    Ashoka’s edicts and monuments make imperial patronage of dharma and Buddhist sites visible; they do not mean uniform conversion of the empire.

21. c. 260 BCE

    Kalinga and dharma policy

    After Kalinga, the edicts emphasize moral government and nonviolence. This evidence of imperial discourse does not by itself describe Ashoka’s personal conversion process.

22. c. 250 BCE–c. 201 BCE

    Early networks of rock-cut monasteries

    Rock-cut chapels and monasteries multiply in India as material networks of communities and donors.

23. c. 250 BCE–c. 68

    Dead Sea Scrolls

    The corpus preserved near Qumran documents textual and sectarian plurality in Second Temple Judaism; attribution of every manuscript is not settled.

24. 221 BCE–206 BCE

    Qin unification, standards and ritual administration

    Qin unification transformed the state framework of diverse territories and linked standardization, administration and ritual government. This political context did not create all Chinese traditions or make local practice uniform.

25. c. 200 BCE–c. 1 BCE

    First phase of Ajanta

    Ajanta’s first Buddhist caves were excavated in the second–first centuries BCE. A separate campaign, about four centuries later, added caves and paintings in the fifth–sixth centuries CE; this record dates the first phase.

26. c. 200 BCE–c. 300

    Amaravati and Deccan Buddhisms

    The Great Stupa and its reliefs show Buddhist financing and narratives in Andhra.

27. c. 200 BCE–c. 200

    Layering of the Bhagavad Gita

    The Gita articulates karma, jnana, and bhakti; it is represented with a composition range, not a revelation date.

28. c. 200 BCE–c. 200

    Early Vaishnava devotions

    Vāsudeva/Krishna and Vishnu cults appear in epigraphic and artistic sources; they are one family of traditions.

29. 167 BCE–160 BCE

    Maccabean Revolt

    A conflict against Seleucid rule that became foundational in Hanukkah memory and produced a priestly Hasmonean dynasty.

30. 164 BCE

    Temple rededication (Hanukkah)

    Hanukkah commemorates the Temple’s recovery and rededication; it distinguishes liturgical memory from debated historical details.