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By the end of the late Vedic period, various philosophies were surfaced in the east of the Aryavrata criticizing the cult of Vedism and Brahmanism. These philosophies, termed as nastika by orthodox Brahmins, created an environment where both Vedism and Brahmanism saw a threat to their existence. In such situation, some orthodox philosophies too surfaced in the region whose aim was to reform Vedism with changing social environment of the late Vedic period. In the series, Upanishads were created of which some dates back to pre-Buddha period and some after Buddha as they show the Buddhist influence. The literary meaning of Upa-ni-sad is to ‘sit down near someone’. It can be interpreted as gaining knowledge / instruction by sitting with the teacher. There are total 108 Upanishads with the Aitareya, Taittiriya, Brihadaranyaka, Chandogya and Kena belonging to pre Buddha period and the works like Katha, Isa, Mundaka, Prasna and Mahanarayana composed after Buddha period. The Upanishads criticized the Brahmnas and emphasized on the value of right belief and knowledge. They made it clear that the atman (soul) is immortal and both atman and Brahma (supreme God) have a close relationship. The older Upanishads like Brihadaranyaka launches severe attack on rituals. It goes on saying that anyone who worships a divinity other than self is called a domestic animal of the gods. The Chandogya Upanishad severely condemns the sacrificial act and maintains that those, whose conduct here has been good, will quickly attain a good birth, the birth of a Brahmin, the birth of a Kshatriya or a birth of Vaishya. But those, whose conduct has been evil, will quickly attain an evil birth, the birth of a dog, the birth of a hog, or the birth of a Chandala (despised castes) [1]. This way Upanishads are very critical about the rituals of Vedism but are also in agreement with certain parts of Vedas such as the class system in society. Brihadaranyaka comments that similar system also exists in heaven and that is only replicated on the earth. In the same direction, the six schools of philosophies also surfaced which later founded the pillars of contemporary Hinduism.

5.1 The Six School of Philosophies

The Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamasa and Vedanta are the six important philosophies of that period which fought the inroads of Buddhism and Jainism successfully. The Samkhya school of thought denies the presence of God and deals with the Purusha (soul) and Prakiriti (matter or energy or nature). According to it, the soul possesses consciousness and it is related to matter which are divided into three gunas (quality) namely rajas (materialism), tamas (fierceness) and sattava (detachment). The moksha (liberation) of the soul happens when it realizes that it is above these three matters. The school is believed to be founded by the great sage Kapila. The Buddhist texts show him to be present around 600-700 BC while the Puranas dates him further back. According to the legend prevalent in the Shakyas, Kapilvastu derived its name from sage Kapila only as he donated the land to exiled prince and princesses (or the Shakyas). If the legend is true then the sage Kapila must have been present with a considerable time gap from the Buddha as by the time of Buddha, Shakyans were well settled in the Kapilvastu and surrounding regions. Since sage Kapila was considered as one of the greatest sages, he is associated with various mythical stories in the Brahmanical texts and therefore stretching his period long back. Although Kapila is regarded as the founder, the oldest Samkhya work in the form of Samkhya-Karika dates around 350 AD and the Samkhya-Sutra dates not earlier than 1000 AD [2]. As Samkhya rejects the concept of God, the philosophy comes under the atheist category. Closely associated with it is Yoga by Patanjali to which historians refer as the application version of Samkhya School. The Yoga philosophy accepted the divine entity to Samkhya’s twenty five elements of reality. Mahabharata uniformly depicts Samkhya as a non-theistic school that does not believe in an Iswara, as opposed to Yoga, which is spoken as of theistic school [3]. The philosophies between the two schools are so near that Max Muller describes them as ‘one with God and one without God’.

The Nyaya School of philosophy can be best described as ‘system of logics’ or analytic philosophy. The school believes that obtaining a valid knowledge is the only way to get moksha from all sufferings. It believes that source of knowledge is perception, inference, comparison and testimony. Knowledge obtained through this is either valid or invalid and the school developed several criteria of validity. This school of thought was given by Aksapada Gautama. He can be said to be just contemporary of the Buddha and Mahavaira though certain part of the philosophy traces its origins in the 4th century BC while some to as late as 2nd century AD. The followers of this school tried to prove the presence of God by giving various logical proofs to Buddhists, who were more or less atheist [4]. Closely associated with this school is Vaisheshika School of philosophy. It considers every object to be reducible to the extent having very fine size whose consciousness is caused by the energy, known as Brahma. Opposite to the Nyaya school, it accepts only two sources of knowledge namely perception and inference. The next school of philosophy is Mimamasa which believes that one can get moksha only through Vedas. It believes in Vedic yajnas and the power of mantras for the sustainability of all activity of the universe. The last school is Vedanta that focuses on the philosophical teachings of Upanishads than the rituals of Brahmnas. Therefore sometimes historians see both Vedanta and Upanishad as the same.

These philosophies that believe in the existence of God including the Samkhya, were given by sages to counter the atheist root of Buddhism, Jainism and other nastika traditions. The influence of Buddhism and Jainism in form of condemning animal sacrifices and various rituals is very clear on these philosophies. Interestingly Buddha too never rejected the Upanishadas but his silence on the existence of God, made his followers different than the followers of these six schools of philosophies. When these schools of thoughts started penetrating in the society, the popular religion became theistic. It no longer remained predominantly sacrificial as mentioned in the Brahmnas or purely metaphysical as mentioned in the Upanishadas.

5.2 Birth of Contemporary Hinduism – From Gupta Period

Other than the six schools of philosophies, various stories were also under creation from the orthodox Brahmin class in the form of Puranas, Shastras and Smiritis to counter the atheist approach of various nastika traditions. The epics Ramayana and Mahabharata were edited many times, especially in the form of Brahmanical touch, to address the changed scenario of the society. The editions are evident from the chapters of Balkanda in Ramayana and Bhisma Parva in Mahabharata that mention about the presence of Yavana (or Greeks who invaded after the Mauryas), Kambojas (invaded from 200 BC to 500 AD), Hunas (invaded and fought with the Guptas around 500 AD) and other foreign tribes in Bharatvarsha by referring them as mlechchha (impure). The verses of Mahabharata (6.9 63-65) while mentioning about these tribes goes like –

HrishIvidarbhah kantikasta Nganah parata Nganah. |
Uttarashchapare mlechchha jana Bharatasattama. || 63 ||
YavanAshcha sa Kamboja Daruna mlechchha jatayah. |
Sakakaddruhah Kuntalashcha Hunah Parasikas saha. || 64 ||
Tathaiva maradhAah chinastathaiva dasha malikah. |
Kshatriyopani veshashcha vaishyashudra kulani cha. || 65 ||

Before editions, the original verses of Mahabharata revolved around the battle over land rights between Bharata clans of Pandavas and Kaurvas of Hastinapura. It is said to be compiled by sage Ved Vyasa. However till Gupta Empire, historians agree that it was edited nearly eight times by various other authors. Initially it consisted 8,800 verses and was known as Jaya Samhita. When the verses were raised to 24,000 it was known as Bharata as both Pandavas and Kaurvas belonged to the lineage of King Bharata. The final series of compilation completed in the Gupta period increased the total verses to nearly 100,000 and since then, it is known as ‘Maha-Bharata or Satsahari Samhita’. The main edition in Gupta period was the addition of Bhagavad Geeta to the Bhisma Prava of Mahabharata. The addition is said to be an enlarged version of a discourse given by Krishna to Arjuna in the battlefield of Kurukshetra. So Mahabharata started as a story of battle between two brothers and ended as a religious literature with lot many interpolations. Similarly Ramayana too originally consisted of only 12,000 verses compiled by sage Valmiki. The total verses then increased to 24,000 after additions of Balkanda and Uttarakanda in it. With these additions, the main character of King Rama was deified by linking to Vishnu [5]. Through edition of both epics, the concept of yuga (the 4 mythological periods on earth) and avatara (reincarnation) of Vishnu in the form of Rama and Krishna was first time visualized. The efforts of sages were successful and both epics in their reformed version brought the Upanishadic religion to the common people in concrete form that they could understand.

Another remarkable development of that period was the inclusion of aboriginal gods and goddesses in the Brahmanic list of gods. Earlier the same were distanced by the priestly classes of Indo-Aryans. The steps were taken by the orthodox priestly populations as they wanted to cover the lost ground against Buddhism and Jainism which had deep penetration in the aboriginal human groups due to the effort taken by both Buddhist and Jain monks. The entire process, therefore, can be best described as the rise of another faith which was comprehensive of all orthodox cults of land belonging to Aryan, Dravidian and other mainstream aboriginal civilizations i.e. the contemporary Hinduism. In the process, the gods of aboriginal human groups such as monkey, elephant, snake and so on were first visualized in human form very similar to the natural phenomena like Surya, Vayu, Agni, Varuna and their King Indra are visualized in human form in the Vedic literature. In the series, the sacred animal gods were further related to the chief Dravidian God Pashupati (Shiva or the lord of all animals) and we beautifully come across Shiva parenting the popular elephant god Ganesha or Vinayaka through Parvati. The myths show Ganesha as non-biological son of Shiva who are made familiar to each other by goddess Parvati. It shows him initially human headed and becoming elephant headed after familiarizing with Shiva. The myths further say that Shiva blessed the elephant headed god as the one who will be considered as ‘lord of Ganas’ i.e. Ganapati and also the first to be worshipped at the beginning of any ritual. From all probability, this myth reflects the popularity of the elephant headed god at the time of its creation and guarantees to its followers that the deity will maintain his importance in broader society irrespective of his origin. The myths also indicate that both Ganesha and Shiva were initially worshipped by different tribes of aboriginals and the tribes came in coherence with each other or needed to be in coherence in later period. Historically, the earliest mentions of Vinayakas are found in Manava-grhya-sutra and Yajnavalkya Smiriti (composed around 3rd century AD). In these texts, the Vinayakas are shown as malevolent demons numbering four. It is mentioned that when possessed by these Vinayakas, the princes do not get their Kingdoms although they are qualified, the girls can not secure husbands although they are eager to do so and possess auspicious signs, the women do not get an issue although they are qualified, the children of virtuous women die, a learned teacher fails to attain the position of acharya, a merchant’s trade fails and so on. Manava-grhya-sutra further prescribes a rite which is both expiatory and propitiatory in nature. In this, various things including meat and fish (both raw and cooked) and wine and cakes are to be offered and a strange variety of beings is to be invoked to the Vinayaka. In these early texts, Vinayaka is neither related to Rudra - Shiva nor described as the leader of Ganas. He is also not described as elephant-headed. Similarly the early portions of the epic Mahabharata looked Vinayakas as unfriendly, malignant demons like bhutas, rakshasas and pisachas. It further says that the Vinayakas are bent on creating obstructions (Vignha-karta) in the actions of men and they can be made favorable by means of propitiating rites. At one place in the Mahabharata, the Vinayakas are given epithet of ‘ganesvara’ or Ganapati who are followers of Shiva. The available evidences therefore suggest elephant head of Vinayaka and a rat as his vahana to be later additions to his image [6]. When the Vinayakas are shown unfriendly in initial Brahmanic texts, the early Buddhist texts refer Vinayaka as the Buddhist tantric wealth god. It should be noted that by the Gupta period aboriginal cult of white elephant worship had already penetrated in masses because of the belief that they are vahanas (vehicle) of the Buddha and also carry the soul of Buddha and other Bodhisattavas. Therefore the image of contemporary Vinayaka or Ganesha is formed during and after the Gupta period when many aboriginal orthodox cults of land fused with each other, especially when they were related to chief aboriginal deity Shiva and included in the Brahmanic list of gods. When Vinayaka was included in the Brahmanic list, an attempt was also made to increase his acceptability in the followers of Brahmanism by giving him Vedic touch. It was done by creating religious texts related to him from the Gupta period till 9th century AD. In these texts, he was linked with the title Ganapati (lord of all gods) mentioned in the Rig Veda. However the attempt remained unsuccessful in the academic sense as the title clearly stood for Brahmanspati or Brihaspati (the lord of the Devas as against Shukracharya for the Asuras) and Indra (King of all gods). In another attempt, he was linked with the epic Mahabharata, which by Gupta period had clearly emerged as one of the main texts for the followers of Brahmanism in northern India. In this, his character was introduced as ‘writer of all verses’ through newly added chapters of Mahabharata. When tantric Vinayaka was under Brahmanization phase, his offerings were changed to durva grass, leaves of Sami and modaka from the original tantric propitiation that included the sacrifices of meat, fish and liquor [7], a tradition that is still followed in some regions of Maharashtra. All these attempts were finally successful and by the 7th century AD, Ganapati or Vinayaka was seen as supreme deity by a certain class of populations. By 9th - 10th century AD, the obstacle creator Vinayaka of initial Brahmanic texts and the elephant cult together came into prominence as obstacle remover elephant headed Brahmanized god Ganesha. Outside India, the Vinayaka cult penetrated in the countries of Thailand, Indonesia, Tibbet, Japan and so on with Buddhism and retained its auspicious character. In China, however, Vinayaka was regarded as obstacle creator who must be subdued through potent rituals and the chanting of special mantras. Other than the human form of elephant headed deity, the worship of stone images of elephant having appearance of Vahana continued in the regions belonging to ancient republics or the land of initial Buddhism i.e. Gorakhpur and the surrounding regions of eastern Uttar Pradesh. Since life story of the elephant headed god was created after the Gupta period in the form of old stories or Puranas, it led to some contradictions about his life across the subcontinent. It is interesting to note that in entire north India, Ganesha is considered as the second son of Shiva and married while in southern India, he is considered as the first son of Shiva and unmarried.

In the series, another beautiful example is of the monkey god Hanumana. The myths show him incarnation of Shiva but also relates to Vishnu through the birth story of Rama. It is clear from the Rig Veda that monkey worshipping aboriginal population were friendly towards Aryans and epic Ramayana tells that they helped Rama in his fight against Ravana of the aboriginal Rakshasa tribe. These texts thus indicate that the sacred monkey worshipping cult penetrated in the Indo-Aryans of Gangetic plains in the early Vedic period itself. Therefore when aboriginal deities were under Brahmanization phase, the birth of Hanumana was related to both Vishnu and Shiva as they represented the chief deities of Brahmanic and Dravidian civilization respectively by Gupta period. For both Ganesha and Hanumana, the myths show mother playing vital and probably sole role in their births. This again indicates the origin of both gods and their mothers towards aboriginal populations as the trend is characteristic of Dravidian civilization that gave more respect to females because of the belief that they are like mother earth who can create life out of nothing opposite to the Vedic or Brahmanic civilization that was male centered (patriarchal). In the continued effort, a successful attempt was made across northern India to lessen the hatred between followers of Vishnu and Shiva by showing both being dependent on each other for smooth functioning of the universe. This was done by teaching through epics, Puranas and other texts edited and composed during this period. However the difference between both sections continued in southern India which remained outside of the dominion of the Guptas. Lastly the human forms of all these gods were placed in a compounded wall similar to Buddhist Chaityas and Viharas and their worship was started. The philosophy of theism was further strengthened by celebration of the festivals and pilgrimages to sacred places as mentioned in the Brahmanic texts. This way temple slowly replaced the sacrificial altars of Vedic yajnas and all orthodox cults of land started to evolve into contemporary Hinduism after intermingling with each other. The process, which started in Gupta Empire, continued till 12th century AD across India when the Buddhist followers of all Varna switched to contemporary Hinduism with their regional Buddhist gods. It must be noted that when the popular gods and goddesses of many aboriginal tribes, belonging to the mainstream civilizations, were interlinked with each other, many gods worshipped by different tribes, who were out of the reach of mainstream civilizations, were left out. Till today the gods of large chunks of the Hindu population, known as Adivasis, do not find any mention in any Hindu religious texts and they are also not related to the mainstream Hindu gods.

On macro level, the fusion of all orthodox cults looked very inclusive in nature similar to Buddhism and Jainism but on micro level the distance between the aboriginals, who formed major percentage of the Shudra and despised class, and their gods only increased. It happened as some popular aboriginal gods were not only slowly Brahmanized but also brought under the codes and conducts of Brahmanism. The thrust on the inclusion of aboriginal gods in the Brahmanic list of gods was so high that the gods of the Indo-Aryans, that are frequently mentioned in the Rig Veda and other Vedas such as Indra, Varuna, Surya, Brihaspati and so on, went into the background and their place was taken by the Brahmanised gods of aboriginals such as Shiva, Hanumana, Ganesha, Kali and so on along with the newly promoted minor Vedic god Vishnu. Both were the major and surprising outcomes of all these processes that were started to fight the inroads of Buddhism, Jainism and other nastika traditions.

5.3 From class system to rigid caste system - click here to read

Index Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10

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5. Transformation of Brahmanism and Class System

FROM 500 BC TO 1000 AD