In India and particularly a knower of Hindi never indulges in such questioning as what came first Hinduism or Buddhism. A serious traveler of spiritual path always begets the best of all. Whether Hinduism or Buddhism whatever jnana wisdom was palatable should be accepted with reverence. In search for truth if we ever come across a person or religion more enlightened than us, more knowledgeable than us then we must accept one as a guru, a master.
Lord Krishna came above 3650 years before now. Gautama Buddha manifest about 1077 years later to advent of Lord Krishna. Most of the teachings of Buddhism are closely related to Hinduism in the sense, everything percolated down from Bhagavad Gita. Every single acceptable precept contained in Buddhism also existed in Bhagavad Gita but not all precepts of Lord Krishna in Bhagavad Gita existed in Buddhism.
Bhagavad Gita all the time forms summum bonum of spirituality. Following teachings of Lord Krishna in Bhagavad Gita any human being world over belonging to any religion faith or belief can easily indulge in spirituality to reach God in one’s lifetime. While with Buddhism the case was not so! Most Buddhists seem to praise Gautama Buddha but no one tried becoming one.
Teachings of Hinduism contained in Bhagavad Gita vividly say, every single human being on mother earth has the divinity within to become one like Mahavira, Gautama Buddha, Jesus Christ or Prophet Mohammed. Now or in future manifestations all human beings had to achieve state of enlightenment, the end goal of cosmic life on mother earth. Not a single human being could escape this inevitable cycle of birth and death and finally reach state of absolute purity.
Hinduism religion is not only the oldest; it is the brightest and the best of all times and also would continue to be the best in future always.
Practicing spirituality detailed in Hinduism hundreds of seekers succeeded in reaching state of enlightenment in their lifetime. But in Buddhism nothing of the sort happened. The teachings of Gautama Buddha are perfect but the interpretation is maligned, distorted. In his teachings Gautama Buddha also says to become one like him. He never advised the seekers never to follow him, the path taken by him.
In Hinduism in the last about 150 years Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa and Maharshi Ramana finally succeeded in reaching state of enlightenment. As per Hinduism scriptures every 100 to 200 years mankind would witness advent of a man god like Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa or Maharshi Ramana.
From status point of view all the three Gautama Buddha, Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa and Maharshi Ramana stood at the same level. This analogy can be explained thus:
Suppose we need going from New Delhi to Mumbai. One could either catch a flight, or an express train, a passenger train, a bus, a car or even go on foot. As the means available accordingly the journey! If Mahavira went by flight, Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa followed by express train and Maharshi Ramana by bus. But all the three reached the same goal.
On path of pure spirituality it never matters what path we took. What mattered was whether we succeeded reaching the end in our lifetime! Something destined to be completed in a time span of 1.1 million manifestations in human form, achieving the same in a limited time span of 70 to 80 years of earthly life is nothing short of a miracle.
Whether we followed path of Hinduism or Buddhism or even both, what ultimately matters is reaching the hidden abstract underlying values of life contained in scriptures of both Buddhism and Hinduism. Essence of life always lay in travelling the inner journey until the end. Trying to make a distinction between Buddhism and Hinduism never really mattered!
Whatever little we could gather from all religions we must do it.
In my search for hidden abstract values of life I took refuge under every single religion, never discriminating or rejecting one. Whatever little any religion or person could give me, I accepted it with folded hands. To liberate self from cycle of birth and death in a limited time span of 70 to 80 years of earthly life I practically had no time to deliberate on meaningless issues.
Every time before going to bed in the night in subconscious state I called for a roundtable conference that consisted of Lord Krishna, Mahavira, Gautama Buddha, Jesus Christ and Prophet Mohammed even Adi Shankaracharya, Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa and Maharshi Ramana. As the query accordingly the preceptor! In the morning when I got up all my queries within had dissolved forever.
Next day the same roundtable conference with a new set of queries!