Challenges to Brahmanism (6th–2nd century BCE)

Indian religious life underwent great changes during the period 550–450 BCE. This century was
marked by the rise of breakaway sects of ascetics who rejected traditional religion, denying the
authority of the Vedas and of the Brahmans and following teachers who claimed to have
discovered the secret of obtaining release from transmigration. By far the most important of
these figures were Siddhartha Gautama, called the Buddha, and Vardhamana, called Mahavira
(“Great Hero”), the founder of Jainism. There were many other heterodox teachers who
organized bands of ascetic followers, and each group adopted a specific code of conduct. They
gained considerable support from ruling families and merchants. The latter were growing in
wealth and influence, and many of them were searching for alternative forms of religious
activity that would give them a more significant role than did orthodox Brahmanism or that
would be less expensive to support. The scriptures of the new religious movements throw some
light on the popular religious life of the period. The god Prajapati was widely believed to be the
highest god and the creator of the universe; Indra, known chiefly as Shakra (“The Mighty One”),
was second to him in importance. The Brahmans were very influential, but there was
opposition to their large-scale animal sacrifices—on moral, philosophical, and economic
grounds—and to their pretensions to superiority by virtue of their birth. The doctrine of
transmigration was by then generally accepted, though a group of outright materialists—the
Charvakas, or Lokayatas—denied the survival of the soul after death. The ancestor cult, part of
the Indo-European heritage, was retained almost universally, at least by the higher castes.
Popular religious life largely centred around the worship of local fertility divinities (yakshas),
cobra spirits (nagas), and other minor spirits in sacred places such as groves. Although these
sacred places were the main centres of popular religious life, there is no evidence of any
buildings or images associated with them, and it appears that neither temples nor large icons
existed at the time. About 500 BCE asceticism became widespread, and increasing numbers of
intelligent young men “gave up the world” to search for release from transmigration by
achieving a state of psychic security. The orthodox Brahmanical teachers reacted to these
tendencies by devising the doctrine of the four ashramas, which divided the life of the twice-
born after initiation into four stages: the brahmacharin (celibate religious student); the
grihastha (married householder); the vanaprastha (forest dweller); and the sannyasin
(wandering ascetic). This attempt to keep asceticism in check by confining it to men of late
middle age was not wholly successful. Thereafter Hindu social theory centred on the concept of
varnashrama dharma, or the duties of the four classes (varnas) and the four ashramas, which
constituted the ideal that Hindus were encouraged to follow. The first great empire of India, the
Mauryan empire, arose in the 3rd century BCE. Its early rulers were non-Brahmanic; Ashoka
(reigned c. 265–238 BCE), the third and most famous of the Mauryan emperors, was a
professed Buddhist. Although there is no doubt that Ashoka’s patronage of Buddhism did much
to spread that religion, his inscriptions recognize the Brahmans as worthy of respect.
Sentiments in favour of nonviolence (ahimsa) and vegetarianism, much encouraged by the non-
Brahmanic sects, spread during the Mauryan period and were greatly encouraged by Ashoka. A
Brahmanic revival appears to have occurred with the fall of the Mauryas. The orthodox religion
itself, however, was undergoing change at this time, as theistic tendencies developed around
the gods Vishnu and Shiva. Inscriptions, iconographic evidence, and literary references reveal
the emergence of devotional theism in the 2nd century BCE. Several brief votive inscriptions
refer to the god Vasudeva, who by this time was widely worshipped in western India. At the
end of the 2nd century, Heliodorus, a Greek ambassador of King Antialcidas of Taxila (in
Pakistan), erected a large column in honour of Vasudeva at Besnagar in Madhya Pradesh and
recorded that he was a Bhagavata, a term used specifically for the devotees of Vishnu. The
identification of Vasudeva with the old Vedic god Vishnu and, later, with Vishnu’s incarnation,
Krishna, was quickly accepted. Near the end of the Mauryan period, the first surviving stone
images of Hinduism appear. Several large, simply carved figures survive, representing not any of
the great gods but rather yakshas, or local chthonic divinities connected with water, fertility,
and magic. The original locations of these images are uncertain, but they were probably erected
in the open air in sacred enclosures. Temples are not clearly attested in this period by either
archaeology or literature. A few fragmentary images thought to be those of Vasudeva and
Shiva, the latter in anthropomorphic form and in the form of a lingam, are found on coins of the
2nd and 1st centuries BCE.
The Rise Of The Major Sects: Vaishnavism, Shaivism, and Shaktism

The Vedic god Rudra gained importance from the end of the Rigvedic period. In the
Svetashvatara Upanishad, Rudra is for the first time called Shiva and is described as the creator,
preserver, and destroyer of the universe. His followers are called on to worship him with
devotion (bhakti). The tendency for the laity to form themselves into religious guilds or
societies—evident in the case of the yaksha cults, Buddhism, and Jainism—promoted the
growth of devotional Vaishnavism and Shaivism. These local associations of worshipers appear
to have been a principal factor in the spread of the new cults. Theistic ascetics are less in
evidence at this time, though a community of Shaivite monks, the Pashupatas, existed by the
2nd or 3rd century CE. The period between the fall of the Mauryan empire (c. 185 BCE) and the
rise of the Gupta dynasty (c. 320 CE) was one of great change, including the conquest of most of
the area of Pakistan and parts of western India by a succession of invaders. India was opened to
influence from the West as never before, not only by invaders but also through flourishing
maritime trade with the Roman Empire. The effects of the new contacts were most obvious in
art and architecture. One of the oldest freestanding stone temples in the subcontinent has
been excavated at Taxila, near Rawalpindi, Pakistan. During the 1st century BCE the Gandhara
school of sculpture arose in the same region and made use of Hellenistic and Roman
prototypes, mainly in the service of Buddhism. Hindu temples of the period probably were
made of wood, because no remains of them have survived; however, literary evidence shows
that they must have existed. By the time of the early Gupta empire the new theism had been
harmonized with the old Vedic religion, and two of the main branches of Hinduism were fully
recognized. The Vaishnavas had the support of the Gupta emperors, who took the title
paramabhagavata (“supreme devotee of Vishnu”). Vishnu temples were numerous, and the
doctrine of Vishnu’s avatars (incarnations) was widely accepted. Of the 10 incarnations of later
Vaishnavism, however, only two seem to have been much worshipped in the Gupta period
(4th–6th century). These were Krishna, the hero of the Mahabharata, who also begins to
appear in his pastoral aspect as the cowherd and flute player, and Varaha, the divine boar, of
whom several impressive images survive from the Gupta period. A spectacular carving in
Udayagiri (Madhya Pradesh) dating from about 400 CE depicts Varaha rescuing the earth
goddess, Vasudha. Temples in Udayagiri (c. 400) and Deogarh (c. 500) also portray Vishnu
reclining on the serpent Ananta (“Without End”). The Shaivites were also a growing force in the
religious life of India. The sect of Pashupata ascetics, founded by Lakulisha (or Nahulisha), who
lived in the 2nd century CE, is attested by inscriptions from the 5th century; it is among the
earliest of the sectarian religious orders of Hinduism. Representations of the son of Shiva,
Skanda (also called Karttikeya, the war god), appeared as early as 100 BCE on coins from the
Kushan dynasty, which ruled northern India, Afghanistan, and Central Asia in the first three
centuries of the Common Era. Shiva’s other son, the elephant-headed Ganesha, patron deity of
commercial and literary enterprises, did not appear until the 5th century. Very important in this
period was Surya, the sun god, in whose honour temples were built, though in modern times he
is little regarded by most Hindus. The solar cult had Vedic roots but later may have expanded
under Iranian influence. Vishnu and Lakshmi Vishnu and Lakshmi Several goddesses gained
importance in this period. Although goddesses had always been worshipped in local and
popular cults, they play comparatively minor roles in Vedic religion. Lakshmi, or Shri, goddess of
fortune and consort of Vishnu, was worshipped before the beginning of the Common Era, and
several lesser goddesses are attested from the Gupta period. But the cult of Durga, the consort
of Shiva, began to gain importance only in the 4th century, and the large-scale development of
Shaktism (devotion to the active, creative principle personified as the mother goddess) did not
take place until medieval times.

Although early temples in south India may have been made of disposable materials as early as
the first few centuries of the Common Era, permanent temple structures appear about the 3rd
and 4th centuries, as attested in early Tamil literature. From the Gupta period onward, Hindu
temples became larger and more prominent, and their architecture developed in distinctive
regional styles. In northern India the best remaining Hindu temples are found in the Orissa
region and in the town of Khajuraho in northern Madhya Pradesh. The best example of Orissan
temple architecture is the Lingaraja temple of Bhubaneswar, built about 1000. The largest
temple of the region, however, is the famous Black Pagoda, the Sun Temple (Surya Deula) of
Konarak, built in the mid-13th century. Its tower has long since collapsed, and only the
assembly hall remains. The most important Khajuraho temples were built during the 11th
century. Individual architectural styles also arose in Gujarat and Rajasthan, but their surviving
products are less impressive than those of Orissa and Khajuraho. By the end of the 1st
millennium CE the south Indian style had reached its apogee in the great Brihadeshwara temple
of Thanjavur (Tanjore). In the temple the god was worshipped by the rites of puja or archana
(reverencing a sacred being or object) as though the worshipers were serving a great king. In
the important temples a large staff of trained officiants waited on the god. He was awakened in
the morning along with his goddess; washed, clothed, and fed; placed in his shrine to give
audience to his subjects; praised and entertained throughout the day; and ceremoniously fed,
undressed, and put to bed at night. Worshipers sang, burned lamps, waved lights before the
divine image, and performed other acts of homage. The god’s handmaidens (devadasis)
performed before him at regular intervals, watched by the officiants and lay worshipers, who
were his courtiers. The association of dedicated prostitutes with certain Hindu shrines may be
traceable to the beginning of the Common Era. It became more widespread in post-Gupta
times, especially in south India, and aroused the reprobation of 19th-century Europeans.
Through the efforts of Hindu reformers, the office of the devadasis was discontinued. The role
of devadasi is best understood in the context of the analogy between the temple and the royal
court, for the Hindu king also had his dancing girls, who bestowed their favours on his courtiers.
The Chariot Festival of the Jagannatha temple, Puri, Orissa, India. The Chariot Festival of the
Jagannatha temple, Puri, Orissa, India. Parallels between the temple and the royal palace also
were in evidence in the Rathayatras (Chariot Festivals). The deity was paraded in a splendid
procession, together with the lesser gods of the minor shrines, in a manner similar to that of
the king, who issued from his palace on festival days and paraded around his city, escorted by
courtiers, troops, and musicians. The deity rode on a tremendous and ornate moving shrine
(ratha), which was often pulled by large bands of devotees. Rathayatras still take place in many
cities of India. The best-known is the annual procession of Jagannatha (“Juggernaut”), a form of
Vishnu, at Puri in Orissa. The great temples were—and still are—wealthy institutions. The
patrons who endowed them with land, money, and cattle included royalty as well as men and
women from several classes of society. As early as the 5th century, Kulaprabhavati, a
Cambodian queen, endowed a Vishnu temple in her realm. The temples were also supported by
the transfer of the taxes levied by kings on specific areas of the nearby countryside, by
donations of the pious, and by the fees of worshipers. Their immense wealth was one of the
factors that encouraged the Ghaznavid and Ghūrid Turks to invade India after the 11th century.
The temples were controlled by self-perpetuating committees—whose membership was usually
a hereditary privilege—and by a large staff of priests and temple servants under a high priest
who wielded tremendous power and influence. In keeping with their wealth, the great walled
temple complexes of south India were—and still are—small cities, containing the central and
numerous lesser shrines, bathing tanks, administrative offices, homes of the temple employees,
workshops, bazaars, and public buildings of many kinds. As some of the largest employers and
greatest landowners in their areas, the temples played an important part in the economy. They
also performed valuable social functions, serving as schools, dispensaries, poorhouses, banks,
and concert halls. The temple complexes suffered during the Muslim occupation. In the sacred
cities of Varanasi (Benares) and Mathura, no large temple from any period before the 17th
century has survived. The same is true of most of the main religious centres of northern India
but not of the regions where the Muslim hold was less firm, such as Orissa, Rajasthan, and
south India. Despite the widespread destruction of the temples, Hinduism endured, in part
because of the absence of a centralized authority; rituals and sacrifices were performed in
places other than temples. The purohitas, or family priests who performed the domestic rituals
and personal sacraments for the laypeople, continued to function, as did the thousands of
ascetics.