What challenges did Jainism and Buddhism pose to classical Hindu society?

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In truth both these religions did come out of Hinduism but they do not consider themselves Hindus. There is lot of cultural mixed Hinduism and what we see in these two religions is cultural mix.

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Jainism and Buddhism cannot be called heterodox religions. Classical Hinduism did not exist at the time of Mahavira and Buddha. What existed were two ancient streams of thought – Vedism (precursor of classical Hinduism) and Sramanism (Precurser of Jainism and Buddhism). Sramananism was much more ancient that vedism; It is s pre-vedic and pre-aryan philiosophy. Vedic was more a ritually oriented philosophy with emphasis on deities like – Indra and varuna and sacrifices to them. Sramanan was a soteriological philosophy with a view that this samsara (worldly life) was full of suffering and propounded concepts of karma, jnana, samsara, moksa and Ahimsa. Utlimately classical Hinduism from Upanisads onwards discarded the vedic philosophy and embraced the sramana philosophical concepts like – Karma, Ahimsa and Moksa. This was the biggest challenge to the Brahmanism which had to mould towards the non-brahmanical ideas. It discarded the vedic deities like Indra and varuna and introduced non-vedic gods like Shiva and Krishna.

See what scholars say:

The Hindu scholar, Lokmanya Tilak credited Jainism with influencing Hinduism and thus leading to the cessation of animal sacrifice in Vedic rituals. Bal Gangadhar Tilak has described Jainism as the originator of Ahimsa and wrote in a letter printed in Bombay Samachar, Mumbai:10 Dec, 1904: “In ancient times, innumerable animals were butchered in sacrifices. Evidence in support of this is found in various poetic compositions such as the Meghaduta.
Swami Vivekananda also credited Jainism as influencing force behind the Indian culture. “What could have saved Indian society from the ponderous burden of omnifarious ritualistic ceremonialism, with its animal and other sacrifices, which all but crushed the very life of it, except the Jain revolution which took its strong stand exclusively on chaste morals and philosophical truths? Jains were the first great ascetics. “Don’t injure any, do good to all that you can and that is all the morality and ethics, and that is all the work there is, and the rest is all nonsense… Throw it away.” And then they went to work and elaborated this one principle, and it is a most wonderful ideal: how all that we call ethics they simply bring out from one great principle of non-injury and doing good.”

What other scholars have top say of Jainism and Hinduism:

A. Dr. Vilas Sangave (2001) In : Facets of Jainology: Selected Research Papers on Jain Society, Religion, and Culture . Popular Prakashan: Mumbai ISBN 8171548393
“The jain communities is one of the very ancient communities of India. The existence of the Jain religion can not only be traced to the vedic period but even to the Indus valley period of the Indian History. The names of Jain Tirthankars are mentioned in the Vedas and there is evidence to show that the Indus valley people must be worshipping Rishabhdeva the first Tirthankar of the Jains along with the other deities. Thus Hoary antiquity is a special feature of the Jain community and it is pertinent to note that this feature is not present in other religious minorities in India.”

B. Mary Pat Fisher (1997) In : Living Religions: An Encyclopedia of the World’s Faiths I.B.Tauris : London ISBN 1860641482
“The extreme antiquity of Jainism as a non-vedic, indigenous Indian religion is well documented. Ancient Hindu and Buddhist scriptures refer to Jainism as an existing tradition which began long before Mahavira.” Page 115

C. Joel Diederik Beversluis (2000) In: Sourcebook of the World’s Religions: An Interfaith Guide to Religion and Spirituality, New World Library : Novato, CA ISBN 1577311213
Originating on the Indian sub-continent, Jainism is one of the oldest religion of its homeland and indeed the world having pre-historic origins before 3000 BCE, and before the propagation of Indo-Aryan culture….Page 81

D. Dr. P.S. Jaini, (1979), The Jaina Path to Purification, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, p. 169
Jainas themselves have no memory of a time when they fell within the Vedic fold. Any theory that attempts to link the two traditions, moreover fails to appreciate rather unique and very non-vedic character of Jaina cosmology, soul theory, karmic doctrine and atheism.

E. Y. Masih (2000) In : A Comparative Study of Religions, Motilal Banarsidass Publ : Delhi, ISBN 8120808150
. “There is no evidence to show that Jainsim and Buddhism ever subscribed to vedic sacrifices, vedic deities or caste. They are parallel or native religions of India and have contributed to much to the growth of even classical Hinduism of the present times.” Page 18
“We know only this much that the doctrine of karma-samsara-jnana-mukti is first seen in the clearest form in the shramanic tradition. It is now even accepted by orthodox bhramins. This doctrine is not clearly spelled out in Rgvedas and not even in the oldest parts of Upanishads called chandogya and Brhadaranyaka.” Page 149

F. Dr. A. N. Upadhye , A Cultural History of India, Clarendo