For the sake of clarity, and understanding, why don't we just all stand up and say

[Vehl]

77. Just to clarify

Atheistic and Agnostic Philosophies in Hinduism Predate Buddhism. I'm a Hindu Atheist. To say that the degradation(the Mahayanist's might beg to differ! ) of Buddhism is due to its mixing with Hinduism would be incorrect, imho.

Buddha spoke against some of the prevalent practices of the masses, not that of all Hindu Philosophies. In fact by Ignoring the mention of deity, he is more agnostic than Atheistic(due to his preference for the middle path)...While on the other hand there are some very explicitly Atheistic Hindu philosophies. Later on, Colonial era interpretations of Hinduism(Note: The blame should also be laid on the later Buddhist commentators who wanted to create a new "identity" for their philosophy) created this supposed "disparity" between What Buddha taught and what Hinduism is. Anyone who has studied Zen Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta would note that they speak of the same thing. Buddha never said that he was creating a new religion...even though this notion might offend some Buddhists, he was and is considered to be one of the greatest Hindu philosophers by Hindus to this day. He did not teach anything "new" but taught what was usually relegated to small circles of scholars and philosophers to the masses. And he did not entirely succeed either...as the masses went back to what they were doing beforehand...and included him as a god-figure!

as you mentioned

Later Buddhist sects did develop theologies as Buddhism's core teachings got corrupted

^^ The reason this happens is well known to Hindus. Any philosophy, especially one that is impersonal like Buddhism or the Non-Dual/Atheistic schools of Hinduism, will not be a hit with the masses unless and otherwise they are also given the scholastic background to support these ideas. It's impossible to tell a person,"there is no god, you are responsible for your own actions" unless he is also given a good base of knowledge on the art of logic, and critical thinking.Unless a person is able to critcally think and reason, such philosophies cannot take root.

This is the very reason that Philosophical aspects of Hinduism were not found in the mass-Hindu versions. Buddhism too later found this out when Buddhists themselves started creating a Buddhist pantheon...with Buddha in the center along with the attendant deities such as Devas and Avalokatishwaras. How many of the Hundreds of Millions of Buddhists in the world today actually "follow" what Buddha was teaching? and how many "pray" to him as a "god"-like figure? The former category would be under 10% is my guess, and I think i'm being generous.

It is this realization by the Buddhists that eventually led to the creation of the "doctrine of two truths" in Buddhism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_truths_doctrine

And yes....the Hindu philosophers would have looked at this and said..."told ya so".

Even to this day 99.99% of non-Hindus would be shocked to learn that Atheism is a perfectly valid, and even welcome philosophy in Hinduism. So much so that the Atheistic non-dual philosophical varieties of Hinduism are generally accepted by most Other Hindu philosophies to be the highest form of Hinduism, albeit one that is hard for the common man to follow (due to its totally impersonal (and seemingly cold) nature). Due to the scholastic background needed as a base for many of the non-Dual(And Atheistic) philosophies in Hinduism, most of the lay Hindus chose a much-watered down version of Hinduism(or some of the bhakti schools of thought).

So one arrives at the question, "If Atheistic/Agnostic philosophies existed in Hinduism even before Buddha's time, why did Buddhism came about?". A good question indeed, because Buddha never claimed he was creating a new religion (ps..Buddhism and Hinduism are not "religions' per se..but I use that term due to ease of use), only his followers did. Buddha spoke against the commonly held beliefs of his day....ironically later Buddhists sects degenerated into the very thing he tried to speak against.

This is the reason why I avoid calling them Hinduism and Buddhism..I call these the Dharmic religions/Philosophies.


So yeah...its somewhat incorrect to say Buddhism got 'corrupted" by Hinduism and other traditions...nope..it fell prey to the same conditions Hinduism fell prey to.

ps: here is an interesting paper on the Similarity between Buddhism and Certain Hindu Philosophies.

Enlightenment in Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta: Are Nirvana and Moksha the Same?
http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-AN/26715.htm