Post-Mauryan Period: Development of Religions

Post-Mauryan Period: Development of Religions

In the realm of religious doctrine and practice, the period c. 200 BCE to 300 CE reflects both continuity with earlier centuries and several striking new developments — chief among them the rise of new devotional practices within Buddhism and Jainism, and the emergence of what can be termed early Hinduism. From the popular worship of yakshas, nagas, and goddesses to the formation of the great Shaiva and Vaishnava pantheons, the rise of Mahayana Buddhism, the hardening of the Digambara-Shvetambara divide in Jainism, and the flourishing of India’s classical philosophical schools, this period laid the religious and intellectual foundations of much of later Indian civilisation. For UPSC History Optional aspirants, tracing these interlocking developments — through texts, inscriptions, and archaeology alike — is essential to understanding the religious history of post-Mauryan India.

Religion in the Post-Mauryan Period: Continuities and New Developments

Shrines: Sacred and Social Space

• New forms of worship were accompanied by new liturgies and mythologies; religious teachers, saints, gods, and goddesses came to be worshipped or venerated in the form of images, within the context of religious shrines.
  • A shrine is a demarcated sacred space, and such demarcations must have existed from much earlier times; in this period, however, the construction of stone shrines gave such structures far greater permanence and prominence than their earlier counterparts.
• A shrine was not merely a sacred space, but also an important social space, within which people participated in community worship or veneration and interacted with one another.
  • Patronage of shrines was, accordingly, an act of piety as well as a validation of social — and sometimes political — status.

Limitations of Religious Texts as Historical Sources

• The history of religions is usually constructed on the basis of frameworks provided by religious texts, which are not always accurately reflective of popular practice.
  • Apart from their elite authorship and normative character, some of these texts are difficult to date, and the beliefs and practices they describe often have much earlier beginnings than the texts themselves.
  • Dominant religious traditions, moreover, usually try to marginalise or ignore rival traditions, giving a distorted sense of their actual significance — as seen, for instance, in the case of the Ajivika sect, which, despite heavy criticism in Buddhist and Jaina texts, was clearly influential across many parts of the subcontinent for centuries.
• Religious texts also do not always clearly reflect regional or local variations in practice, and there are widely prevalent practices that they do not mention at all. For these reasons, while texts remain extremely valuable sources for the history of religions, they must be examined alongside evidence from archaeology, inscriptions, and coins.

Interactions and Interconnections among Religions

• When studying the history of different religions or sects in isolation, little attention is often paid to their contemporaneity and mutual interaction.
  • Studies of pilgrimage sites in India offer innumerable examples of places considered sacred, for different reasons, by different religious communities; these interconnections also emerge clearly in the archaeological evidence.
  • The sculptural motifs associated with ancient religious establishments reveal a shared pool of auspicious symbols, and their shrines reflect shared architectural styles that cut across sectarian differences — though the relationship between different religions or cults could equally take the form of competition and conflict.
• The Mathura region, closely associated with the legend of Krishna, had a strikingly variegated religious landscape between c. 200 BCE and 300 CE, evident from the great variety of sculptures, structural remains, and inscriptions found there.
  • The Katra, for instance, was the site of a Buddhist vihara; the Jamalpur mound was the site of both a Buddhist establishment and a shrine of the naga deity Dadhikarna; while a Jaina establishment stood on the Kankali Tila.
• In South India, the site of Nagarjunakonda, in Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh, offers a similarly heterogeneous religious landscape — over 30 ancient Buddhist establishments and 19 Hindu temples, as well as some medieval Jaina shrines, have been found here.
• A study of early Hinduism in Rajasthan likewise highlights how evidence from sites such as Bairat, Nagari, Rairh, Nagar, Sambhar, and Rang Mahal reflects the co-existence of various belief systems and sects in the region, both during this period and later.

The Worship of Yakshas, Yakshis, Nagas, and Nagis

• Ananda K. Coomaraswamy argued persuasively that the worship of yakshas, yakshis, nagas, nagis, and goddesses was the natural source of the devotional (bhakti) elements that later became so pervasive in Indian religions; he further argued that the worship of yakshas and yakshis implied temples, puja (devotional worship with offerings), and an organised cult.

Yakshas

• Yakshas were deities connected with water, fertility, trees, the forest, and the wilderness. The evidence of literature and sculpture graphically illustrates the metamorphosis of the yaksha — from a benevolent, powerful deity who was once the focus of exclusive worship, into a terrifying, demonic creature, eventually reduced to a subsidiary attendant figure more associated with fertility than with wealth.

Yakshis (Yakshinis)

• Yakshis, the female counterparts of yakshas, were originally benign deities connected with fertility. Many of the shalabhanjikas — a generic term for sensuous sculptural representations of women grasping the branch of a tree, found across diverse religious establishments throughout the subcontinent — were, in fact, yakshis.
  • Yakshas and yakshis appear frequently in Brahmanical, Buddhist, and Jaina texts, generally depicted as demonic and frightening creatures; their worship was eventually absorbed into, and marginalised by, the dominant religious traditions — though the frequency of these references shows just how popular and widespread this worship once was.

Imposing Images and Their Place in the Religious Landscape

• During c. 300 BCE–200 CE, yakshas and yakshis remained an important part of the religious landscape. Though these cults are often described as minor, rural folk cults, the evidence suggests otherwise.
  • The many imposing stone images of yakshas and yakshis found at Mathura and elsewhere were evidently products of urban workshops, produced for urban clients — reflecting the existence of established iconographic conventions and community worship within shrines.
• Yaksha figures found at Besnagar and Pawaya in Madhya Pradesh hold a money bag in their left hand, indicating their connection with wealth.
  • The colossal figure of the yaksha Manibhadra was found at Parkham, near Mathura; literary and epigraphic evidence indicates that Manibhadra was a tutelary deity of merchants and travellers, especially worshipped in important trading centres.
• The worship of female deities associated with fertility and childbirth — considered protectresses of children, with the power to ward off disease — remains an important aspect of popular religious practice across India today; in the early historical period, such functions were associated with yakshis, and colossal stone images of yakshis from this period have been found at many places.

Smaller Images and Domestic Worship

• While the large stone statues of yakshas and yakshis indicate the prevalence of community worship in the public domain, the many smaller stone and terracotta images indicate that they were worshipped in a private, domestic context as well.
  • In the Mathura area, colossal images of yakshas and yakshis disappear around the turn of the millennium, though small statues continue to be found in large numbers — indicating their continuing importance as objects of domestic worship.

Nagas and Nagis

• The worship of serpents — nagas and nagis (or naginis) — was another important aspect of religious worship that cut across religious boundaries; nagas and nagis were associated with water and fertility, and like the yakshas and yakshis, were originally the focus of exclusive worship before being gradually absorbed into the dominant religions.
• Colossal naga figures belonging to the early centuries CE have been found in many places — their imposing scale and technical finesse make clear that they were not simply objects of a folk or village cult.
  • One of the most impressive is a seven-hooded naga image found at Mathura, with an inscription placing it in the early second century CE.
  • An inscription found at the Jamalpur mound at Mathura indicates that a shrine dedicated to Dadhikarna, lord of the nagas, once stood here, recording a gift made in its favour by the Chhandaka brothers, who belonged to a family of stone masons from Mathura.
• Evidence of the importance of the naga cult also comes from the remains of an elaborate brick and stone naga temple at Sonkh, near Mathura, whose structural phases range from the beginning of the first century BCE to the second century CE.
  • Remains of a naga temple, whose earliest structural phase seems to belong to the second/first century BCE, were also found at Maniyar Math, near Rajagriha.
• Large numbers of naga images occur throughout the subcontinent — for instance, in the central Deccan, Peddabankur and Kotalingala have yielded no evidence of Hindu/Brahmanical temples or sculptures, yet have produced many yaksha and naga figurines, as well as female figurines of possible cultic significance (special mention may be made of an iron figurine of a snake found at Peddabankur).
  • Many people and villages mentioned in inscriptions were named after nagas and yakshas.
• Like the yakshas and yakshis, the nagas and nagis were gradually dethroned from their position as major foci of worship in the urban, public domain, though their worship continued to matter, as evidenced by small stone and terracotta statuettes.
  • The story of Krishna subduing the Kaliya naga can be interpreted as an allegorical reference to the ultimate victory of Vishnuism over the once very popular naga cult.

Goddesses, Votive Tanks, and Shrines

Goddesses

• Whether or not a female terracotta image had cultic or religious significance involves a degree of subjective judgement; apart from appearance and attributes, the context in which such an image is found is crucial, since it can help determine whether the image was an object of worship, a votive offering, or part of the paraphernalia of domestic ritual.
  • The label “goddess” or “mother goddess” shelters a number of distinct and different goddesses, not all of whom necessarily had maternal attributes; ancient goddesses were variously invoked for fertility, prosperity, childbirth, the safeguarding of children, and protection against disease.
• The worship of goddesses during c. 200 BCE–300 CE is evident from archaeological finds at many sites — in the Mathura area, for instance, a number of goddess figurines have been found, first appearing in the late fourth–second centuries BCE.
  • The “goddess” figurines of the succeeding centuries display greater stylistic refinement, technical innovation, and increased number and variety; they usually have prominent breasts and broad hips, and wear ornaments such as necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and girdles.
  • Some are crowned with a profusion of rosettes, while others display more elaborate headdresses consisting of a mass of conical sprouts or grass blades, encircled by a cluster of cactus-like plants.

Votive Tanks and Shrines

• Female figurines are sometimes associated with terracotta artefacts referred to in archaeological literature as votive tanks and shrines.
  • These have been reported from many sites across the subcontinent — from Taxila in the north-west to Chirand in the east and Kolhapur in the south — in contexts ranging from the third century BCE to the third century CE. At Sonkh, near Mathura, they were found from third-century BCE levels right up to medieval levels, showing that such objects remained part of the paraphernalia of domestic ritual for over a thousand years.
• These objects vary in shape and size, and are associated with the following features:
  • houses built around a courtyard structure, or a structure (probably a shrine) raised on a platform supported by pillars and approached by a staircase;
  • a lotus plant standing upright within the tank;
  • figures of a snake, frog, or fish at the base of the “tank”; and
  • female figures seated along the wall, carrying a child in one arm and a bowl in their lap.
• Most of these terracotta tanks and shrines were evidently meant to be filled with water. The votive shrines can also be seen as miniature representations of popular shrines, apparently connected with the worship of goddesses and nagas.

Vedic Rituals in the Post-Mauryan Period

• During c. 200 BCE–300 CE, there are several indications of the continuing importance of Vedic rituals:
  • Rulers such as Pushyamitra Shunga, along with certain Satavahana and Ikshvaku kings, claimed to have performed Vedic sacrifices.
  • Sacrificial posts (yupas) are depicted on some coins — a Yaudheya coin found at Sambhar shows, on its obverse, a bull standing before a yupa enclosed within a railing; a clay seal from Sambhar similarly shows a yupa within a railing, along with a person’s name in Brahmi letters of the second century BCE.
• From the third century CE onwards, a number of Sanskrit inscriptions appear on stone yupas (stone representations of wooden sacrificial posts) from various parts of Rajasthan.
  • An early inscription from Nagari refers to the ashvamedha yajna performed at this place by a person named Sarvatata, of the Parashara gotra.
  • Excavations at Mathura revealed pits containing ash, animal bones, and pottery within some residential structures, possibly the remains of sacrificial performances.
  • At Isapur (in Mathura), on the left bank of the Yamuna, two stone yupas were discovered, both carved with a girdle rope ending in a noose, representing the rope used to tie the sacrificial animal.
    • A Sanskrit inscription on one of these pillars (dated to year 24 of the reign of the Kushana king Vasishka) states that it was set up by a Brahmana named Dronala while performing a sacrifice — suggestive of a grand sacrifice and a yajamana (patron) of considerable resources.
• Excavations outside the eastern gate of Kaushambi yielded remains of a brick altar in the shape of an eagle flying to the south-east, along with animal and human bones, including a skull — possibly the remains of a purushamedha (human sacrifice).
  • At Purola, in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand, archaeologists discovered a burnt-brick structure in the shape of a garuda, its head towards the east and tail towards the west — possibly an altar for Vedic rituals, belonging to the second century BCE–first century CE.
• Jagatgrama, near Kalsi in Uttarakhand, revealed inscriptions mentioning the performance of several ashvamedha sacrifices by a king named Shilavarman, along with the remains of brick altars used in the course of these sacrifices.
  • At Sanghol, in Ludhiana district, Punjab, excavations revealed a religious complex containing a number of fire altars (havan-kundas), belonging to the early centuries CE.
• Clearly, Vedic sacrifices continued to hold importance during c. 200 BCE–200 CE, forming one of several bases of political legitimation for rulers. At the level of popular practice, however, there was a marked shift away from a sacrifice-centred religion.

Puranic Hinduism

The Term “Hinduism”

• The English word “Hinduism” is a fairly recent coinage, first used by Raja Ram Mohun Roy in 1816–17. The word “Hindu” itself is older, derived from the river Sindhu (Indus) — originally a geographical term used in ancient Persian inscriptions to refer to the lands beyond the Sindhu river, which only acquired a religious-cultural meaning over the course of the medieval period.
• Modern-day Hinduism differs from other major world religions in several important respects — it has no founder, no fixed canon embodying its major beliefs and practices, and no organised priesthood, and is marked by a great variety of beliefs, practices, sects, and traditions.
  • Some scholars argue that Hinduism is less a religion than a set of socio-cultural practices; others argue that it is inextricably linked to the existence of caste; and still others hold that we should speak of Hindu religions in the plural, rather than the singular.

The Beginning of Early Hindu Pantheons

• During c. 200 BCE–300 CE, evidence from a variety of sources attests to certain devotional practices associable with Hinduism — this was the formative phase in the evolution of early Hindu pantheons.
  • Some of the deities who became foci of worship in this period are already known from Vedic literature; during these centuries, however, they emerged as objects of devotion, as powerful supreme deities whose images were installed and worshipped in temples and homes.
• The beginnings of the theistic trends that came to the fore in this period can be traced to the later Upanishads, though the process is more clearly visible in the Mahabharata and Ramayana; this new religiosity of devotion is further reflected in the Bhagavad Gita and the Puranas.
  • Apart from textual sources, archaeological sites, sculptures, coins, and inscriptions provide important data — in some cases indicating earlier beginnings than the texts alone suggest.

Early Textual References to Image Worship

• Certain early textual references to devotional practice include the mention, in the Baudhayana Grihyasutra, of the worship of images of deities in connection with the ceremony marking a newborn child’s first outing from the house.
  • The Gautama Dharmasutra alludes to images of the gods in the context of rules for a person who has just entered the householder stage; Patanjali’s Mahabhashya mentions images of the deities Shiva, Skanda, and Vishakha.

The Arthashastra on Temples

• The Arthashastra recommends that the temple dedicated to the guardian deity and the family deity of the king should be located at the centre of the city, and also advocates building temples dedicated to the deities of the four quarters at the four city gates.
  • The text mentions shrines for the tutelary gods of various groups of people, as well as within storehouses, and refers to temple property, including images, crops, cattle, slaves, fields, houses, money, gold, and coins.

Inscriptional and Archaeological Remains of Early Hindu Temples

• The earliest inscriptional references to, and archaeological remains of, Hindu temples belong to c. 200 BCE–300 CE.
  • The Besnagar pillar inscription of Heliodorus records the installation of a pillar associated with a Vishnu temple, along with the remains of a nearby temple’s foundations.
  • A second-century Nagari inscription mentions a temple of Samkarshana and Vasudeva.
  • The remains of a temple dedicated to the Matrikas (the Seven Mothers) at Sonkh, a Lakshmi temple at Atranjikhera, a Shaiva temple at Gudimallam, and temples dedicated to Vishnu and Shiva at Nagarjunakonda can all be counted among the earliest vestiges of Hindu temples in the subcontinent.

Marginalisation of Popular Cults

• Stone and terracotta sculptures from sites such as Mathura clearly indicate that the popular cults of the yakshas, yakshis, nagas, and nagis were gradually pushed to the margins by the gods and goddesses of the Brahmanical tradition — the most influential of these newly emerging cults were associated with the worship of Shiva, Vishnu, and the goddess Durga.

Hindu Gods Performing Complementary Functions

• Although the period c. 200 BCE–300 CE witnessed the development of sectarian cults treating a particular god or goddess as a supreme deity, there was also a parallel process that visualised the Hindu gods as closely related, each performing complementary functions.
  • This is evident, for instance, in the idea of the triad of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, present in the Mahabharata and more clearly developed in the Puranas — in this triad, Brahma is associated with the creation of the world, Vishnu with its preservation, and Shiva with its destruction.
  • The three gods are further associated with different underlying principles, from which arises their division of labour: Brahma with rajas (the creative, active principle), Vishnu with sattva (the unattached, passive principle), and Shiva with tamas (the dark, fierce principle).
• In some parts of the Puranas, the gods operate within their respective spheres according to this division of labour; in others, they are described as manifestations of the same underlying divine being.
  • The acknowledgement of other gods, and their being considered worthy of respect, is also evident in the fact that shrines dedicated to one deity often contain sculptural representations of other deities as well.
  • Polytheism simply refers to belief in many gods, whereas monolatry means belief in a supreme god without denying the existence of others — it is this latter term that best describes emergent Hinduism.

Shaivism

Origins and Vedic Antecedents

• On the basis of the so-called Pashupati seal, the roots of Shiva worship may extend back to the Harappan civilisation. In the Rig Veda, the word shiva (auspicious) occurs, though not as the name of a god; there is, however, a god named Rudra, mentioned infrequently, whose description as a fierce and feared deity bears a striking resemblance to the later Shiva of Hindu mythology.
  • Later Vedic literature contains many references to a god known variously as Shiva, Rudra, Ishana, Mahadeva, Maheshvara, Bhava, Pashupati, and Sharva. The Shatarudriya hymn in the Vajasaneyi Samhita, addressed to Rudra-Shiva, describes him as a powerful but fierce god; elsewhere in later Vedic texts, he is associated with snakes, poison, and cremation grounds.
  • The Shvetashvatara Upanishad hails him as lord of all gods, the god of destruction, and one who grants ultimate release. Several names of Shiva are mentioned in Panini’s Ashtadhyayi.
• The Sibae, described in Graeco-Roman accounts as living in Punjab at the time of Alexander’s invasion, may have been worshippers of Shiva.
  • The Mahabhashya mentions Rudra-Shiva as a deity connected with medicinal herbs, to whom animal sacrifices were offered; it also refers to the Shiva-bhagavatas, who carried iron lances and wore animal hides.

The Pashupata Sect

• The Pashupata sect appears to have been the earliest Shaiva sect, with ascetic and mystic associations. The Linga Purana and later inscriptions attribute its establishment to Lakulin or Nakulin, though other texts attribute the founding of the sect to Shrikantha.

Shiva’s Forms and Epithets

• The multiplicity of Shiva’s forms, and his various aspects and exploits, are encapsulated in several of his Puranic epithets — Chandrashekhara (the god who bears the crescent moon in his hair), Gangadhara (supporter of the Ganga), Vaidyanatha (lord of physicians), Kalasamhara (the destroyer of time), Pashupati (lord of animals), and Shankara (the beneficent).
  • One of his most interesting manifestations is as Ardhanarishvara — the god who is half woman. These various forms are described in the Puranas and depicted extensively in sculpture.

Shiva in Linga Form

• Shiva in his linga (phallic) form represents male procreative energy and power; the origins of phallic worship in the subcontinent appear to go back to Harappan times, and the Rig Veda refers disapprovingly to those who worship the phallus (shishnadevas). During c. 200 BCE–200 CE, this cult came to be firmly connected with the worship of Shiva.
  • Sculptural representations of stone Shiva lingas appear from the second century BCE — one of the earliest is a c. second-century BCE architectural fragment found at Bhuteshwar in Mathura, showing a linga on a platform under a pipal tree, encircled by a railing, being worshipped by two winged creatures.
• Mukhalingas — lingas bearing one or more carved faces of the god — also became popular during this period; a second/first-century BCE linga found at Gudimallam village, Andhra Pradesh, bears the figure of Shiva carved upon it.
  • Anthropomorphic Shiva images of the first and second centuries CE indicate an already diverse iconographic base.
• Phallic emblems occur on certain coins of Taxila and Ujjain — some Ujjain coins show Shiva and a bull on the obverse, with the phallic emblem before a tree on the reverse. Coins of the Kushana king Vima Kadphises depict Shiva, the bull, and the trident.
  • The popularity of the worship of Karttikeya, son of Shiva, is reflected in his depiction on punch-marked coins and on coins of the Yaudheyas.
  • Also worth mentioning is a gold coin of this period, depicting the Shaiva bull emblem on the obverse; the reverse shows the god’s consort Amba holding a flower, with a legend describing her as the deity of the city of Pushkalavati.
• Shiva is a god who combines within himself the aspects of asceticism and fertility — his tapas is described as generating great heat that threatens the world, as does his sexual activity.

Shaivism in Sangam Literature

• The northern gods Shiva and Vishnu are known to the Sangam literature of Tamilakam.
  • The Akananuru refers to Shiva as the three-eyed god who wears konrai flowers, bears the crescent moon on his matted locks, and has Uma as his consort.
  • The poet Nakkirar compares a Pandya king with Shiva, Vishnu, Balarama, and Subrahmanya (Karttikeya), referring to Shiva as Kurram, god of death and destruction.
• Murugan, an important god of South India, became part of Shiva’s family and was identified with his son Skanda-Karttikeya; one of the temples at Nagarjunakonda was evidently dedicated to Karttikeya.

Formation of the Vaishnava Pantheon

• The Rig Veda contains five hymns addressed to Vishnu, grouping him with the solar deities and describing him as a powerful god living in the mountains. Later Vedic texts, such as the Taittiriya Samhita and Shatapatha Brahmana, connect him with the dwarf (associated with extraordinary cleverness and spiritual attainment) and with the earth.
• The history of Vishnuism involved the gradual coming together of the initially independent cults of various deities — Narayana, Vasudeva Krishna, Shri, and Lakshmi — with the pre-eminence eventually given to Vishnu appearing to be a later development, arising once the Brahmanisation of these cults had become established.

Narayana

• The cult of Narayana was one of the important elements eventually absorbed into Vishnuism; some scholars have suggested that Narayana was originally a non-Vedic god.
  • He is mentioned in the Rig Veda and Shatapatha Brahmana, and is associated with a five-day sacrifice called the pancharatra sattra, through the performance of which he is said to have attained superiority over all beings and identity with them.
• This god also appears to have been associated with asceticism — the Mahabharata calls him a great yogi and identifies him with Vishnu, in fact referring to the god more often as Narayana than as Vishnu. One of the most impressive early images of Narayana is a colossal statue found at Mathura.

Vasudeva Krishna

• The worship of Vasudeva Krishna seems to have originated in the Mathura region. Panini’sAshtadhyayi explains the word Vasudevaka as one whose object of bhakti is Vasudeva — the earliest reference to devotion to Vasudeva, though the precise meaning of bhakti in this context remains uncertain.
  • Megasthenes states that the Sourasenoi, who lived in the Mathura region, worshipped Herakles — by which he must have meant Vasudeva Krishna, the Indian god bearing the closest resemblance to the Greek Herakles.
  • The Chhandogya Upanishad mentions a sage named Krishna Devakiputra (son of Devaki), pupil of the rishi Ghora Angirasa.
• In the Mahabharata, Vasudeva Krishna is the ally and adviser of the Pandavas; in the Bhagavad Gita, he drives Arjuna’s chariot, convinces him that fighting the battle is his dharma, and reveals himself as an avatara of Vishnu.
  • The first detailed account of Krishna’s life story occurs in the Harivamsha, an appendix to the Mahabharata. Puranas such as the Vishnu, Padma, Brahmavaivarta, and Bhagavata provide further details of Krishna’s life in Vrindavana.
  • Krishna’s association with Radha came to the fore much later, in the eleventh-twelfth centuries — Radha is not mentioned in the tenth-century Bhagavata Purana, whereas the twelfth-century Gita Govinda of Jayadeva celebrates the love of Radha and Krishna.

The Vrishni Clan and the Pancha-Vira

• It is possible that the core of the legends eventually associated with Vasudeva Krishna grew around a historical figure belonging to the Vrishni clan, living in the Mathura area.
  • Vasudeva Krishna was one of five heroes (pancha-vira) worshipped by the Vrishnis of the Mathura area: Samkarshana (also known as Balarama, son of Vasudeva by Rohini), Vasudeva (son of Vasudeva by Devaki), Pradyumna (son of Vasudeva by Rukmini), Samba (son of Vasudeva by Jambavati), and Aniruddha (son of Pradyumna).
• Many “kinship triads” depicting Vasudeva Krishna, his brother Baladeva, and their sister Ekanamsha, stylistically dated to the early centuries CE, have been found in the Mathura area; the relative size of these figures shows that Baladeva was initially considered more important than Krishna.
  • An inscription found at Mora, in Mathura district, refers to the installation of images of the five heroes by a woman named Tosha, during the reign of Shodasa (i.e., the late first century BCE–early first century CE).

The Spread of Krishna Worship

• The swift spread of Vasudeva Krishna worship beyond the Mathura region is indicated by epigraphic evidence.
  • The Besnagar pillar inscription describes Heliodorus, Greek ambassador to the Shunga court, as a bhagavata — a worshipper of lord Vasudeva Krishna.
  • A second-century BCE inscription found at Nagari, in Rajasthan, mentions a temple of Samkarshana and Vasudeva.
  • A first-century BCE inscription from Gosundi, in Chittorgarh district, Rajasthan, records the construction of a stone enclosure for the place of worship of Samkarshana and Balarama, by a person likewise described as a bhagavata.
• In the early centuries CE, there was a dramatic increase in the number and variety of Vaishnava images produced in the Mathura area — representations of Vasudeva Krishna are the most numerous, but there are also many small stone statuettes of Vishnu (usually four-armed), Vishnu on garuda, and Vishnu in the partly anthropomorphic Varaha (boar) form.
  • Second-century BCE coins of the Indo-Greek king Agathocles, found at Aï-Khanoum in Afghanistan, depict Krishna and Balarama.

The Abhira Tribe

• The pastoral setting of the stories about Krishna’s childhood may have originated in legends of a god worshipped by the Abhira tribe.
  • The Abhiras appear to have been a foreign tribe that entered India around the first century BCE; originally settled in Punjab, they later moved into the lower Indus valley, and further to Saurashtra and the western Deccan.
• In the Padma Purana, Vishnu states that he will be born among the Abhiras in his eighth incarnation; the erotic stories of Krishna and the gopis (cowherd girls), narrated in texts such as the Harivamsha and Vishnu Purana, may likewise have originated from this same source.

Samkarshana Balarama

• The worship of Samkarshana Balarama, initially very popular in the Mathura region and beyond, was eventually overshadowed by the cult of his younger brother, Vasudeva Krishna.
  • The Mahabhashya mentions temples of Balarama, and the Arthashastra refers to Samkarshana’s taste for alcohol, suggesting that his devotees engaged in ritual drinking — a trait also mentioned in the Puranas.
• This deity also appears to have been connected with snake worship — images show a snake canopy over his head, and the Mahabharata refers to him as an incarnation of Sheshanaga (the great snake on whose coils Vishnu rests).
  • He is further connected with agricultural operations, as is clear from his very name (samkarshana meaning “ploughing”), and from his epithets Haladhara (“wielder of the plough”) and Musalin (“one who wields the pestle”). Several Puranas — the Vishnu, Harivamsha, and Bhagavata — tell the story of how Samkarshana Balarama forced the Yamuna to change its course by pulling it with his ploughshare.

The Goddess Shri Lakshmi

• The Vaishnava pantheon also came to include the goddess Shri Lakshmi. The Shri Sukta, a supplement to the Rig Veda, describes Shri as a moon-like, golden-coloured deer decorated with ornaments, and also invokes her as Lakshmi — though certain references in later Vedic texts, such as the Vajasaneyi Samhita and Taittiriya Aranyaka, suggest that Shri and Lakshmi were originally two distinct goddesses.
  • “Shri” means well-being or prosperity, and the goddess of this name may originally have been a fertility goddess; “Lakshmi” means sign, token, or mark, and this goddess appears originally to have been associated with signs of prosperity and luck.
• By about the third/fourth century CE, Shri Lakshmi had been absorbed into the Vaishnava pantheon as the consort of Vishnu — the Mahabharata and Ramayana know her in this role, and the Puranas elaborate further on her association with Vishnu.
  • At Sonkh, a relief carving of Lakshmi on an architectural fragment was found at pre-Kushana levels, seemingly the oldest stone sculpture found at the site; Lakshmi is represented on a large number of stone images from this period, and is also depicted on a terracotta plaque found at late NBPW levels in an apsidal temple at Atranjikhera.

The Gaja-Lakshmi Form

• One of the most frequent representations of Shri Lakshmi in sculpture is her Gaja-Lakshmi form — the goddess sits or stands on a lotus, flanked by two elephants who pour water over her from pitchers held aloft in their trunks.
• Gaja-Lakshmi is also frequently represented on coins — she appears on coins of the Shunga king Jyesthamitra, and on those of the Scytho-Parthian kings Azes II and Azilises.
  • She also appears on first-century BCE coins of the kings of Ayodhya — Vayudeva, Vishakhadeva, and Shivadatta — and, in the Mathura area, on coins of Rajuvula, Shodasa, and Toranadasa; the goddess is likewise clearly visible on a first-century BCE Ujjain coin.
• A female figure seated on a lotus is also a recurring sculptural motif at Buddhist sites such as Sanchi, Bharhut, and Bodh Gaya — probably the Gaja-Lakshmi motif endowed with a new and different meaning: Maya giving birth to the Buddha.
• References to Lakshmi’s form, carved on doors, in the Sangam text Pattuppattu indicate that this goddess had come to be associated with auspiciousness in South India as well.

The Idea of the Avataras

• The idea of the avataras is an important Vaishnava doctrine; the word avatara derives from the root avatri, meaning “to descend.” In the Rig Veda, gods such as Indra already possess the ability to assume different forms.
• The Vaishnava idea of the avataras, however, does not simply refer to Vishnu’s ability to assume various forms at different times — the Gita states explicitly that he does so with a specific purpose: to destroy evil and protect dharma.
  • The number of Vishnu’s avataras is conventionally reckoned as ten, though the names vary somewhat across different texts; the Vayu Purana lists Narayana, Narasimha, Vamana, Dattatreya, Mandhata, Jamadagnya, Rama, Vedavyasa, Krishna, and Kalki.
• Sculptures from the Mathura area suggest that the avatara concept was still in its infancy during this period; the chatur-vyuha concept (the four emanations of Vishnu) becomes visible only towards the end of the Kushana period.

Shakti Worship

• The worship of goddesses associated with fertility is one of the oldest and most enduring features of religious practice in the subcontinent. Over the course of the first millennium, the Puranas sought to bring several of these goddesses together, presenting them as different manifestations of a single female principle — shakti.

Later Vedic Antecedents

• The Durga-Gayatri in the Taittiriya Aranyaka is the first place we encounter the names of some of the goddesses later associated with the worship of Shakti — Katyayani, Kanyakumari, and Durga.
  • Durga is described here as an impetuous, energetic goddess — daughter of the sun (or fire), coloured like fire, burning with austerities, and sought after for the reward of ritual performance.
• The Maitrayaniya Samhita of the Black Yajur Veda refers to the Gayatri-mantras of several Puranic deities, including Girisuta-Gauri, the goddess who is daughter of the mountains.
  • The Mundaka Upanishad mentions the goddesses Kali and Karali as two of the seven tongues of Agni; in the Puranas, these goddesses are described as the terrifying forms of Durga. Later Vedic texts also refer to Bhavani (the female form of Bhava, i.e., Shiva) and Bhadrakali (the auspicious, peaceful form of Kali).

The Epics and the Harivamsha’s Arya-Stava

• The growing popularity of Durga worship is reflected in the epics — in the Mahabharata, Yudhishthira and Arjuna recite a Durga stotra.
  • The Periplus refers to a place called Comari, associated with the worship of a goddess — possibly a reference to Kanyakumari.
• The Harivamsha (Vishnu Parva) contains the Arya-stava, a hymn in praise of Durga:
  • It begins by addressing the goddess by various names — Arya, Narayani, Tribhuvaneshvari, Shri, Ratri, Katyayani, and Kaushiki.
  • It goes on to describe her association with hills (especially the Vindhyas), rivers, caves, forests, gardens, and animals both wild and domesticated, and speaks of tribes such as the Shabaras, Barbaras, and Pulindas worshipping her.
  • She is said to personify death, and to be fond of wine, meat, and sacrifice; she is called the mother of mantras and the gayatri of the gods.
  • She personifies the virginity of young girls and the good fortune of married women, and pervades the universe as a saviour amid dangers such as war, fire, riverbanks, thieves, vast uncharted fields, life away from home, imprisonment through royal disfavour, and attacks by enemies.

The Devi-Mahatmya and Mahishasuramardini

• The Devi-Mahatmya, incorporated into the Markandeya Purana by about the seventh century CE, contains verses in praise of the Devi (goddess), recounting many stories of her exploits and greatness — including how the gods, harassed by various demons, approached her for help, and how she succeeded in destroying them.
  • One such story concerns the demon Mahishasura (in the form of a buffalo), who had vanquished the gods; the goddess is described as having emerged from the combined and concentrated energy of all the gods, defeating the demon after a fierce battle.
• Although the Devi-Mahatmya is a relatively late text, sculptural evidence from many early historical sites indicates that the worship of Durga Mahishasuramardini was popular from much earlier times.
  • The Mathura area, for instance, has yielded a large number of stone Durga images, including several of Mahishasuramardini, belonging to c. 200 BCE–300 CE.
  • At Sonkh, a stone plaque found in late first-century BCE–early first-century CE levels possibly depicts Durga as Mahishasuramardini; a stone Matrika plaque may have served as the central cult image in Apsidal Temple No. 1 at Sonkh, and a large number of terracotta plaques depicting Durga as Mahishasuramardini were found in and around this temple.

The Emergence of Mahayana Buddhism

• In the history of Indian Buddhism, the period c. 200 BCE–300 CE is closely associated with the emergence of Mahayana.

Causes of Change within Buddhism

• Indian religions underwent significant changes in post-Mauryan times, partly owing to a great leap in trade and artisanal activity, and partly owing to the large influx of people from Central Asia — Buddhism, in particular, was affected.
  • The monks and nuns could not afford to lose the cash donations flowing in from the growing body of traders and artisans concentrated in towns — large numbers of coins, for instance, are found in the monastic areas of Nagarjunakonda, Andhra Pradesh. The Buddhists also welcomed foreigners who were non-vegetarian.
• All this led to a certain laxity in the day-to-day living of monks and nuns, who had traditionally led an austere life: they now accepted gold and silver, took to non-vegetarian food, and wore elaborate robes.
  • Discipline grew so lax that some renunciates even deserted the religious order (the sangha) and resumed the life of a householder. This new form of Buddhism came to be known as Mahayana, or the “Great Vehicle.”

Kanishka’s Patronage of Mahayana

• Fortunately for the Mahayana school, Kanishka became its great patron. He convened a council in Kashmir, whose members composed 300,000 words, thoroughly elucidating the three pitakas, or collections of Buddhist literature.
  • Kanishka had these commentaries engraved on sheets of red copper, enclosed them in a stone receptacle, and raised a stupa over them; he also set up many other stupas to perpetuate the memory of the Buddha.
• In the older, more puritan Buddhism, certain objects associated with the Buddha were worshipped as his symbols; these were replaced by his images around the beginning of the Christian era. Image worship, having begun with Buddhism, was subsequently adopted on a large scale within Brahmanism as well.
  • With the rise of Mahayana, the older, puritan school of Buddhism came to be known as Hinayana, or the “Lesser Vehicle” — both terms, “Mahayana” and “Hinayana,” were in fact coined by the Mahayanists themselves.

The Question of Schism

• The origins of Mahayana have often been traced to the older Mahasanghika school. Until recently, the emergence of Mahayana was thought to have led to a major schism (split) within the sangha, though recent scholarship suggests this issue needs reconsideration.
  • There is, first, the question of what “schism” actually means within the Buddhist tradition: sangha-bheda (a split in the sangha) carries implications quite different from the notion of schism in the history of Christianity. In the Buddhist tradition, schism was historically associated with issues of monastic discipline, not doctrinal disagreement.
• It is, moreover, evident that the emergence of Mahayana did not, in fact, immediately lead to any split within the sangha. Far from being a movement instigated by the devotional practices of the laity, Mahayana appears to have originated as a set of ideas and teachings developed among a group of monks within the sangha itself.
  • Given the centrality of the Vinaya rules, there was nothing to prevent monks holding different views on doctrine and practice from continuing to live together as part of a single monastic community — a point confirmed by the Chinese pilgrims Faxian and Xuanzang, who visited India in the fourth/fifth and seventh centuries respectively, and described Mahayana and non-Mahayana monks living together in the same monasteries.
  • The essential difference was that the former venerated and worshipped images of the bodhisattvas, while the latter did not. Seen in this light, Mahayana was not, initially, a sectarian movement, nor did it cause any schism within the sangha.

Mahayana Sutras

• Several Mahayana Sutras were translated into Chinese as early as the late second century CE, though the composition of the earliest Sutras can be placed as far back as the second century BCE.
  • These Sutras claim to contain the teaching of the Buddha, and do not present themselves as representing a radical break from older tradition — indeed, they draw directly upon it; the Lalitavistara, for instance, contains many passages drawn from the Pali canon.
• There was an increasing use of Sanskrit in Mahayana texts. The important Mahayana Sutras include the Prajnaparamita Sutras, of which the Ashtasahasrika appears to be the oldest.

Sources of Mahayana History

• Mahayana received its classic exposition in the writings of thinkers such as Nagarjuna, Aryadeva, Asanga, and Vasubandhu. The accounts of Chinese pilgrims further illuminate the history of Mahayana in India, alongside evidence from inscriptions and archaeology at Buddhist monastic sites.

The Idea of the Bodhisattva

• The idea of the bodhisattva (wisdom-being) was already known to earlier Buddhism — Gotama himself is said to have been born, in an earlier birth, as an ascetic named Megha or Sumedha, and is described as having vowed, in the presence of an earlier Buddha named Dipankara, to tread the path of Buddhahood, only to postpone his own enlightenment out of compassion for others.
  • The idea assumed far greater importance in Mahayana, however. Where the highest goal in older Buddhism was the attainment of nibbana and becoming an arhat, Mahayana considered this a lesser goal — the higher goal consisted in following the path of a bodhisattva and attaining Buddhahood itself.
• There is a crucial difference between the arhat and the bodhisattva: the arhat strives to attain nibbana and, having achieved this goal for himself, disappears from the cycle of samsara; the bodhisattva, by contrast, has attained great wisdom but chooses to refrain from taking the final step into nibbana, actively engaging with the world for aeons on end in order to help others achieve this same goal.
  • Great compassion (maha-karuna) for others is a key element of the Mahayana ideal of the bodhisattva.
• The conduct and practices forming part of the bodhisattva path were not very different from those recommended in the earlier tradition; the several stages along this path involved the attainment of a number of perfections, known as paramitas — originally listed as six, later expanded to ten:
  • generosity (dana), good conduct (shila), patient forbearance (kshanti), mental strength (virya), meditation (dhyana), wisdom (prajna), skilfulness in means (upaya-kaushalya), determination (pranidhana), power (bala), and knowledge (jnana).

The Changing Concept of the Buddha

• In the early Buddhist tradition, represented in the Pali canon, the Buddha was considered a man — one among several beings who had attained enlightenment and become an arhat, though certainly a superior man (mahapurusha), the unequalled teacher of the path to salvation.
  • At any given time, there could be only one Buddha, with the next appearing only once the teaching of the previous one had died out; after death, the Buddha disappeared entirely from the cycle of samsara.
• Mahayana offered a rather different perspective. It widened the gulf between the attainments of an arhat and a Buddha, and introduced the idea of transcendent Buddhas and bodhisattvas, standing between nibbana and samsara.
  • It conceived of many Buddhas and bodhisattvas — such as Maitreya, Avalokiteshvara, and Manjushri — all simultaneously working for the deliverance of sentient beings within their respective “Buddha-fields” (Buddha-kshetra).

The Madhyamaka School

• Mahayana philosophical ideas found expression in the texts of two major Buddhist schools — Madhyamaka and Yogachara.
• The founder of the Madhyamaka school was Nagarjuna (second century CE); his most important work was the Mula-Madhyamaka-Karika (“Root Verses on the Middle”), in which the idea of shunyata (emptiness) is a central feature.
  • Shunyata does not mean that nothing exists — it means that appearances are misleading, and that permanent selves and substances do not exist. The Abhidharma texts spoke of dharmas, the basic elements of mind and matter comprising the universe; according to Nagarjuna’s analysis, the ultimate truth, viewed in light of the Buddha’s entire teaching, is that these dharmas are themselves empty — that is, they do not exist in and of themselves.
• Later important thinkers of the Madhyamaka school included Aryadeva, Buddhapalita, Bhavaviveka, Chandrakirti, and Shantideva.

The Yogachara School

• The ideas associated with the Yogachara school are contained in Sutra texts such as the Samdhinirmochana and the Lankavatara; the school takes its name from the importance it attaches to meditation (yoga) as a means of attaining the highest goal.
• Yogachara offers a detailed account of consciousness. As in earlier Buddhist thought, it speaks of six types of consciousness, comprising the inputs a person receives from the senses, plus conscious thought — Yogachara, however, identifies these as belonging to the active level of consciousness, and identifies two further levels:
  • the level of the defiled mind (klishta-manas), defiled by things such as the idea of “I-ness” and delusion; and
  • the store consciousness (alaya-vijnana), which contains the store of all the seeds sown by the defilement of the active consciousness.
• A person’s ordinary experience is based on how their consciousness processes the world; by following the path of a bodhisattva, defilement and illusion melt away, and perfect clarity and knowledge are attained.
  • Yogachara attaches great importance to the analysis of consciousness, asserting that mundane experience is fundamentally a construct of the mind. The school is supposed to have been founded by a monk named Maitreyanatha; its important exponents included Asanga and Vasubandhu (both of the fourth century), Sthiramati (sixth century), and Dharmakirti (seventh century).

The Worship of Images

• The most direct implication of Mahayana ideas at the level of popular practice was the worship of Buddhas and bodhisattvas in the form of images, within shrines.
  • Older Buddhism had considered the veneration of stupas and relics meritorious, but not essential; Mahayana, by contrast, attached great importance to devotion towards the Buddhas and bodhisattvas themselves.
• There was, accordingly, a gradual shift from the veneration of symbols of the Buddha Sakyamuni to the worship of images of many Buddhas and bodhisattvas — a shift clearly visible in the sculptures of various Buddhist sites.

Women in Mahayana Buddhism

• What, then, was the place and role of women in Buddhism during these centuries? Like earlier Buddhist texts, Mahayana texts too reflect both negative and positive images of women and femininity — revealing, in the process, how men perceived themselves in relation to women.
  • In some places, women are portrayed as mysterious, elusive, sensual, dangerous, and weak in body and mind; in others, they are portrayed as wise, maternal, gentle, compassionate, and creative. Women’s sexuality is frequently presented as threatening — both to others and to their own spiritual aspirations — with several stories of women tempting and destroying monks.
  • Although the path of renunciation was open to women, the texts frequently focus on women within the household, displaying a marked anxiety about the impact of women leaving their households to become nuns.
• Mahayana texts were themselves divided in their view of women’s potential to follow the path towards bodhisattva-hood. Although a few suggest that maleness and femaleness were illusory and irrelevant categories, most present two alternative paths towards this goal for women:
  • Some Sutras declare that a woman could not enter this path until reborn as a man.
  • Others contain stories of miraculous sex changes — the Saddharmapundarika Sutra, for instance, tells the story of an eight-year-old bodhisattva girl, daughter of the naga king Sagara, whose sex changed the instant the prophecy of her impending Buddhahood was made.
• It should be noted that virtually all available information about the sangha during these centuries concerns the sangha of monks — evidence regarding the bhikkhuni sangha is largely confined to references to nuns as donors in inscriptions.
  • Nuns made gifts both individually and collectively, and the places mentioned in connection with collective gifts likely mark the locations of bhikkhuni sanghas; monastic centres for nuns clearly existed, though none are known to us by name or fame — all the great monastic centres known from texts and inscriptions were, in fact, centres of male monasticism.
  • Although nuns (along with other women) appear very frequently as donors at male monastic centres, there is not a single inscription of this period recording a donation to the bhikkhuni sangha — suggesting a gross disparity in the patronage enjoyed by the male and female monastic orders, and making the eventual decline of the latter almost inevitable.
• The period c. 200 BCE–300 CE saw the expansion and spread of Buddhist stupa-monastery complexes across various parts of the subcontinent.

Monastic and Lay Practices: Texts versus Inscriptions

• Archaeological and epigraphic evidence are vital sources for the history of Buddhism. It is dangerous to rely exclusively on text-based understanding, since scholars who do so tend to assume that these texts were widely known and important — when it is quite possible that at least some of them were not known to the majority of Buddhist monks or laypersons.
• There are, indeed, several widespread practices known from archaeological evidence that are either unmentioned, or not discussed in any detail, in the texts.

Burial Practices

• The texts tell us little about the burial practices of monastic communities; stupas, with or without relics, indicate instead the development of an elaborate stupa cult.
  • Stupas were set up not only to enshrine relics of the Buddha, but also those of important monks; small votive stupas in the vicinity of larger ones contained the funerary remains of devout lay members. We know of these and other mortuary practices of early Buddhists almost entirely through archaeology and inscriptions.

Owning Property

• Buddhist texts state that a monk left everything behind — including his property — upon joining the sangha. Yet there are plenty of inscriptions specifically recording donations made by monks and nuns to stupa-monastery complexes, clearly indicating that members of the order retained some control over their property even after joining the sangha.

Handling Money

• The texts state that members of the sangha were not supposed to handle money. Sites such as Sanchi, however, have yielded not only coins but semi-precious stones beneath the floors of monastic cells.
  • Even more striking is the discovery of lead coins in a monastery at Nagarjunakonda, found alongside an earthenware die for making such coins — monks were evidently making coins themselves, though whether legally or illegally remains uncertain.

The Idea of the Transference of Merit

• Karma and dana (giving) are central to the Buddhist textual tradition, but the hundreds of donative inscriptions from early Buddhist sites indicate the wide prevalence of an idea found nowhere in the early texts — the transference of merit: the idea that the meritorious results of one person’s actions can be transferred to another.
  • Donative records at sites such as Sanchi and Bharhut often state specifically that a gift was made for the benefit of the donor’s parents, or for the welfare of all beings — an idea found even in inscriptions representing the Hinayana stream.

Blurring of Monastic and Lay Practices

• The epigraphic evidence suggests that the distinctions between monastic and lay practice were not as sharp as once believed. Gift-giving was important not only for the laity but for the monastic community as well, and monks and nuns participated actively in the stupa cult alongside the laity.

The Digambara-Shvetambara Schism in Jainism

• The Digambara-Shvetambara schism within the Jaina sangha may have taken place around 300 CE.

Traditional Accounts of the Schism

• Digambara tradition explains the schism by reference to a southward migration of Jaina monks, undertaken in the wake of an impending famine.
  • According to some accounts, this migrant group was led by Bhadrabahu, who spent twelve years with his monks in the Karnataka region; Bhadrabahu died there, but his followers eventually made their way back to Pataliputra, in Magadha.
  • On their return, they found that much had changed — the northern monks, led by Sthulabhadra, had codified the canon, and had also begun wearing clothes, which the returning southerners considered unacceptable, viewing it as a retention of shame that ran counter to the ascetic requirement of renouncing all possessions.
• The recently returned group came to be known as the Digambaras, while the northerners, who wore white clothes, came to be known as the Shvetambaras. The Digambaras completely rejected the canon compiled by Sthulabhadra, denouncing the northerners as false Jainas (Jainabhasa).
• The Shvetambaras, for their part, ascribe the origin of the Digambara sect to a self-initiated monk named Shivabhuti, who is said to have heard of the older practice of monastic nudity — which had died out after Mahavira’s time — and decided to re-institute it, thereby founding the Digambara sect.
  • Both these accounts of the split are considered late, and of dubious historical value, though it is possible that a southward migration of monks did actually occur, perhaps in the fourth century BCE.

A Gradual Transition, Not an Abrupt Split

• Archaeological and inscriptional evidence instead suggests a gradual move among Jaina monks from the practice of total nudity towards wearing clothes, rather than the abrupt split suggested by the Digambara and Shvetambara traditions.
  • All the early tirthankara images from Mathura are naked; it is only in the fifth century CE that an image of Rishabha appears wearing a lower garment, and clothed images become common among Shvetambaras only several centuries later.
• An inscription recording a land grant to Jaina sects, by a late fifth-century CE king from South India, refers to the Shvetambaras but still uses the old term “Nirgrantha” (“bondless”) for naked monks — suggesting that the term “Digambara” had not yet become especially common.
  • The Council of Valabhi in the fifth century may have been a decisive event in hardening the divide between Shvetambaras and Digambaras — this was an exclusively Shvetambara gathering, with no Digambara monks present.
  • The early medieval Yapaniya sect may reflect an intermediate position, in which monks generally moved about naked but covered their private parts with a piece of cloth when begging for alms or in the presence of the laity.
• Eventually, the Shvetambaras came to predominate in western India, and the Digambaras in the south.

Shravakachara and Jaina Lay Conduct

• A number of tracts on shravakachara laid down the conduct expected of the Jaina laity — from the second-century Charitraprabhrita of Kundakunda down to the seventeenth-century Dharmasangrahatika of Yashovijaya.
  • These texts narrate stories and give detailed instructions on the importance of keeping various vows, and on the expiation required if a vow was broken; they also lay down the shravaka-pratima — steps by which a layperson could systematically and progressively prepare for complete renunciation. The only comparable Theravada Buddhist text is the twelfth-century Upasakajanalamkara of Ananda.
• Like the Buddhists, the Jainas too must have followed the Brahmanical samskaras for a long time; the earliest attempt to codify samskaras for the Jaina laity was made in the early medieval period by Jinasena, who offered a new Jaina interpretation of what remained, at their core, essentially Brahmanical rites.

The Development of a Jaina Temple Cult

• An important development in Jaina lay practice, in the early centuries CE, was the emergence of a temple cult alongside lay rituals.
  • A naked and headless stone torso, found at Lohanipur (near Patna) and assigned to the Maurya period, has been tentatively identified as a Jaina tirthankara — representing the earliest Jaina image found to date. There is plentiful evidence of Jaina images from various sites from c. 200 BCE onwards.
• The Jaina temple cult developed outside the influence and control of the monastic order — in marked contrast to Buddhism, where monks came to control the shrines directly.
  • In Digambara Jaina shrines today, puja is generally carried out by a priest, while in Shvetambara temples, laypeople play a major role in this activity; lay rituals, including rites of passage, did not involve monks, or any intermediary priestly class, at all.

Important Centres of Jainism

• Several important centres of Jainism from this period can be identified.
  • The first-century BCE Hathigumpha inscription of the Kalinga king Kharavela refers to his retrieving an image of a jina — the earliest epigraphic reference to image worship in Jainism.
  • The Udayagiri and Khandagiri caves in Odisha are among the oldest long-standing centres of Jaina monasticism.
  • The large number of Jaina images and inscriptions found in the Mathura area indicates the popularity of Jainism there, including the vestiges of a Jaina stupa at the Kankali Tila, indicating that the veneration of stupas was not an exclusively Buddhist practice — inscriptional and later textual evidence suggests this stupa came to be known as the Devanirmita Stupa (“the stupa made by the gods”).
• The early spread of Jainism to the far south is indicated by several pieces of evidence:
  • the reference in the Mahavamsa to the building of houses and temples for the Nigantha (Jaina) ascetics at Anuradhapura, in Sri Lanka, by the fourth-century BCE king Pandukabhaya;
  • the Maduraikkanchi’s description of a magnificent temple of the Nirgranthas (Jainas) at Madurai; and
  • Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, offering unequivocal evidence that Jaina monks and nuns enjoyed the patronage of wealthy political and social elites during these centuries.

The Patronage of Religious Establishments

• The increasing visibility and architectural elaboration of religious establishments rested on increasingly sustained sources of patronage; inscriptions at many sites give the names, and often also the social and political status, of these patrons.
  • Expressions of religious piety were closely linked to other concerns, such as the quest for the affirmation of political and social status and legitimacy. While texts offer some sense of the social background of patrons across different religious traditions, inscriptions provide more direct and reliable information on this question.

What Were People Donating?

• In the case of Hindu temples, patrons gifted images and financed the building of shrines and associated structures such as tanks and halls.
• In the case of Buddhist establishments, they gave money to finance stupas, shrines, monastic residences, miniature (votive) stupas and chaityas, and the carving of images; they made monetary investments whose interest could be used to run the establishment, and they also gifted land.
• Donations made to Jaina establishments were mostly channelled into excavating caves for Jaina ascetics.
• Donative inscriptions sometimes name the various religious sects of the time, and there is a degree of overlap in how pious sentiments were expressed across traditions.
  • Buddhist donative inscriptions at Mathura, for instance, frequently state that a gift was made for the welfare and happiness of all sentient beings — reflecting the idea that merit (punya) can be transferred from one person to another; a similar sentiment appears in some Jaina donative inscriptions at Mathura, such as an inscription on a pillar fragment carved with tirthankaras on all four sides, dedicating the gift to the happiness and welfare of all creatures.
  • A Mathura inscription associated with a shrine dedicated to the naga deity Dadhikarna likewise expresses a similar sentiment.

Patronage by Royal Elites

• Some patronage to religious establishments came from political elites, whose social background varied greatly — on the one hand, there were Brahmana kings, or those claiming Brahmana descent, such as the Shungas, Kanvas, Mitras, Satavahanas, and Ikshvakus; on the other, there were foreigners such as the Indo-Greeks, Scytho-Parthians, Shakas, and Kushanas.
  • Regardless of a dynasty’s social background, there were notable similarities in royal policy towards religious sects and patronage — the underpinnings of royal power, the quest for legitimacy, and social alliances were generally sought and expressed through multiple means, rather than any single one.

The Kushanas and the Mat Shrine

• The Kushanas are well known for exalting the status of the king — their epithet devaputra has been interpreted as a claim to divinity, and the Kushana period saw a tradition of royal portraiture and royal shrines.
  • Important evidence of both comes from the site of Mat, near Mathura, where archaeological excavation revealed the outlines of a large rectangular structure with a round sanctum. Several damaged statues were found here, including the headless statue of Kanishka (images of Kushana kings have likewise been found at Surkh Kotal, in Afghanistan).
  • Near the centre of this circular structure was a headless figure, wearing a tunic and boots, seated on a throne with lion-shaped supports; the inscription on its base refers to the construction of a devakula (temple), garden, tank, well, assembly hall, and gateway during the reign of a Kushana king.
• A later Sanskrit inscription, on the pedestal of a broken image (probably representing a Kushana prince), inscribed during the reign of king Huvishka, appears to record the repair of this temple — its final line refers to some provision made for Brahmanas, who were regular guests at this site.
  • The devakula may have been a shrine where deified dead kings were worshipped, similar to the devakula mentioned in the dramatist Bhasa’s Pratima-natakam, or it may have been a royal temple dedicated to some other deity or deities, which also housed images of Kushana royalty.
  • V.S. Agrawala suggested that the Mat shrine may have been a Shiva temple, based on his identification of two fragmentary, life-size sculptures found at the site as Shiva and Durga. Whether the Kushanas built royally endowed monumental temples for the worship of deified kings, gods, or both, this was a striking innovation in the theory and practice of kingship.
• Kanishka is well known as a patron of Buddhism, yet his coins depict various deities drawn from different cultural traditions — Indian, Graeco-Roman, and Iranian.
  • The coins of the Scytho-Parthians, and even more so of the Kushanas, are often read as reflecting the religious eclecticism and “tolerance” of these kings — though they might be better interpreted as expressions of royal policy in an age when the north-west had become a genuine melting pot of religious and cultural traditions. For newcomers to the region, it made eminent sense to connect themselves with, and proclaim allegiance to, the important religious traditions or cults of the time.
  • These kings simultaneously patronised Brahmanas and promoted the use of the Sanskrit language — under the Kshatrapas and early Kushanas, Sanskrit increasingly became the language of inscriptions, with its use gradually spreading even to private donative records.

The Satavahanas

• The Satavahanas were one among many dynasties to proclaim their performance of shrauta sacrifices, such as the ashvamedha; like the Kshatrapas, they extended patronage both to Brahmanas and to Buddhist monks.
  • The earliest surviving land grant recording a grant of land with fiscal exemptions belongs to the Satavahana period, marking the beginning of a long-standing tradition that grew increasingly prevalent over the following centuries.
• In the case of the Satavahanas (as well as the Ikshvakus), there was a notable trend of royal women making donations to Buddhist establishments, while royal men tended to concentrate their patronage on Brahmanas and Hindu temples.

The Ikshvakus and Nagarjunakonda

• The site of Nagarjunakonda offers a uniquely graphic architectural representation of the close relationship between the Ikshvaku kings and religious establishments — a royal complex here includes a citadel, royal residences, Buddhist monasteries, Hindu temples, and 22 chhaya stambhas.
  • Chhaya stambhas were memorial pillars, most carved with scenes from the life of the deceased; one such pillar commemorated the Ikshvaku king Chantamula, and was set up by 30 women members of his family. Apart from rulers and nobles, such pillars also commemorated dead soldiers, a military commander, an artisan, and religious figures.
• The Nagarjunakonda inscriptions record gifts made by Ikshvaku royalty to both Hindu temples and Buddhist monks; these kings, too, are described as performers of shrauta sacrifices.

Patronage by Non-Royal People

• The major share of finances for religious establishments across the subcontinent during this period came, however, from non-royal people.

The Bharhut Inscriptions

• A study of the Bharhut inscriptions lists a total of 222 inscriptions, dating c. 125–75 BCE, mentioning monks, nuns, laywomen, and laymen as donors.
  • The donors included only four royals, alongside a profusion of ordinary individuals, whose names indicate the practice of naming people after nakshatras (asterisms), Brahmanical gods, yakshas, bhutas (spirits), and nagas.
  • Donors came from places ranging from Pataliputra in the east to Nashik in the west, indicating that Bharhut attracted pilgrims and patrons from central India and considerably further afield.

The Sanchi Inscriptions

• Over 800 inscriptions were found at Sanchi, ranging from Ashoka’s own “schism edict” to inscriptions of the ninth century CE; the vast majority are votive inscriptions belonging to the second century BCE–second century CE.
  • The Sanchi monastery seems to have been established in Ashoka’s time, though royal patronage did not play an especially important role in its subsequent growth.
• The inscriptions identify donors by various means — name, kinship relations, occupation, native place, or membership of the monastic order or the laity.
  • Female and male donors occur in almost equal proportions, suggesting a much higher level of female patronage than textual sources alone would suggest.
  • The occupations of donors specified in a few inscriptions include gahapati, setthi, lekhaka (scribe), vanija (trader), kamika (artisan), avesani (foreman of artisans), dantakarehi (ivory workers), vadhaki (mason), pavarika (cloak seller), sotika (weaver), and rajuka — though setthis and gahapatis are mentioned less often than textual sources might lead us to expect.
• The fact that a large number of donors were themselves monks and nuns indicates that members of the monastic community continued to have some access to, and control over, financial resources.
  • Particularly interesting are collective gifts made by kin groups, and, more strikingly, by the entire laity (upasakas or upasikas) of a particular place — entire villages, too, made gifts.
  • Most donors mentioned at Sanchi came from central India, though some came from Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and north India as well; the early centuries CE also see the first inscriptions recording gifts of Buddha or bodhisattva images.

Jaina Inscriptions

• Jaina inscriptions from Mathura reveal significant participation by women donors — they indicate that tirthankara images were gifted by the wives of a merchant, a householder, a jeweller, a banker, and a village headman, with many of these gifts made at the request of Jaina nuns.
• Early Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions in Tamil Nadu and Kerala record donations made by men and women of varied social backgrounds for the excavation of caves for Jaina monks and nuns.
  • The donors included members of the Chera and Pandya royal families, but also specialised craftspeople and traders — salt merchants (uppu vanikam), a toddy merchant (panita vanikam), an ironmonger (kolu vanikam), a cloth merchant (aruvai vanikam), and a gold merchant (pon vanikam).
• Early Brahmi inscriptions in Sri Lanka likewise record donations made by Tamil merchants in favour of Buddhist establishments.

Patronage by Yavanas

• Inscriptions from various sites also, interestingly, indicate the participation of yavanas in networks of pious donation.
  • Heliodorus, the yavana worshipper of Vasudeva mentioned earlier, is one such example. Inscriptions at Buddhist sites such as Sanchi, and in the Western Ghats (Nashik, Junnar, Karle), likewise refer to yavanas as donors — many yavana donors, mostly residents of Dhenukakata, are mentioned at Karle.
• A fourth-century CE inscription from Nagarjunakonda tells of a yavanaraja from Sanjan, on the Konkan coast, who was invited by the Abhira ruler Vasusena to witness the installation of a Vishnu image.

Philosophical Developments: Astika and Nastika Schools

• Early Indian philosophical schools can be classified into astika and nastika traditions.
  • The astika schools accepted the authority of the Vedas, and comprised a number of schools that later came to be regarded as the six classical systems of Hindu philosophy.
  • The nastika schools — such as the Buddhist, Jaina, and Charvaka — rejected Vedic authority; schools such as the Ajivikas also continued to flourish during this period.

The Charvaka School

• The Charvaka school was also known as Lokayata (“that which is found among the people”). Its tenets are supposed to have been contained in a sutra composed by Brihaspati, though no such text has survived — whatever we know of Charvaka comes to us through the references of rival schools.
  • Its followers rejected the authority of the Vedas and the Brahmanas, and questioned the efficacy of sacrifice — arguing, for instance, that if food offered to deceased ancestors could reach them, it should equally be possible to transfer food over long distances to hungry travellers in a similar manner.
• Charvaka also rejected the ideas of an eternal soul, rebirth, and the laws of karma and punya (merit); its materialist doctrine held that the body and consciousness were products of combinations of matter, and it accepted only one valid basis of knowledge — that perceived by the senses.
  • Rejecting the distinction between good and bad actions, the followers of Charvaka urged (at least according to their rival schools) that the pleasures of life should simply be enjoyed.
• Later texts refer to two Charvaka schools — Dhurtta and Sushikshita.
  • Dhurtta Charvaka held that only the four elements — earth, water, air, and fire — existed, understanding the body as a combination of atoms, and rejecting the idea of a soul altogether.
  • Sushikshita Charvaka accepted the idea of a soul distinct from the body, though this soul was not considered eternal — it was thought to be destroyed along with the body.

The Six Systems of the Astika Tradition

• The idea of the “six systems” of the astika tradition is itself a much later development, emerging only in the medieval period. These schools are often treated as three interrelated pairs: Purva Mimamsa and Uttara Mimamsa (or Vedanta); Nyaya and Vaisheshika; and Samkhya and Yoga.
  • The origins of these systems lay in much earlier times; the cryptic sutra style of their earliest texts opened the door to many different interpretations and commentaries, and these traditions frequently refer to one another, often in order to refute rival claims.

Mimamsa (Purva Mimamsa)

• Mimamsa means “exegesis” — explanation — and this school was devoted to Vedic exegesis, aiming to explain Vedic texts from the standpoint of the nature and goals of sacrificial ritual.
  • Its earliest known important thinker was Jaimini, author of the Mimamsa Sutra, who lived in the second century BCE. The Mimamsa school held the Vedas to be eternal, and the authority on dharma — Jaimini understood Vedic ritual texts as the very embodiment of dharma, in which sacrifice was central.
• This school came to be known as Purva Mimamsa, to distinguish it from another school rooted in the Vedic tradition — Uttara Mimamsa, or Vedanta.
  • In early Mimamsa doctrine, the gods themselves were largely irrelevant — it was the sacrifice that remained central; later Mimamsakas, however, came to acknowledge the existence of a supreme god.

Uttara Mimamsa (Vedanta)

• While Purva Mimamsa focused on sacrificial acts, Uttara Mimamsa, or Vedanta, focused instead on knowledge, and was based on an interpretation of the Upanishads. A key text here was Badarayana’sBrahma Sutra (or Vedanta Sutra), belonging to roughly the same period as the Mimamsa Sutra.
  • The aim of the Vedanta Sutra is to inquire into brahman, the central concept of the Upanishads, emphasising that all things are ultimately part of brahman.
• Both Mimamsa and Vedanta regarded the Vedas as a valid, unquestionable source of knowledge, laying the groundwork for various views on the pramanas (the grounds of knowledge). In self-conscious contrast to Mimamsa, however, Vedanta emphasised the path of knowledge (jnana) over that of ritual works or sacrifice (karma).
  • Arguing that the results of sacrifice were impermanent, while the object of knowledge (brahman) was eternal and unchanging, the various Vedantic schools — of which there are three principal variants, and many further sub-variants — offered accounts of brahman, the world, and the relationship between the two.
  • Vedantic cosmology draws substantially on the earlier Samkhya system. Because its principal and most influential variant — sometimes called “Shankara Vedanta,” after its founder — affirms the exclusive reality of brahman while relegating everything else to illusion, Vedanta texts have a great deal to say about the nature of error.
• Like the other philosophical systems, Vedanta too was framed within a broader theology of liberation — the ultimate aim of knowledge being moksha, or liberation from samsara.

Vaisheshika

• The Vaisheshika Sutra of Uluka Kanada was composed sometime between the second century BCE and first century CE, claiming to be concerned primarily with dharma.
  • Describing dharma as that from which the highest good is achieved, the Vaisheshika Sutra ascribes the authority of the Veda to the fact that the Veda itself deals with dharma. The philosophy of the school can be described as a form of pluralistic realism — “Vaisheshika” derives from vishesha, meaning “particularity,” and the school’s aim was to investigate the particularities of the plurality of things existing in the world.
• This school identified seven fundamental categories (padarthas) of existing things: substance, quality, action, universality, particularity, a relation of inherence, and absence or negation.
  • The category of substance was further divided into nine types of atoms — earth, water, fire, air, ether, space, time, self, and mind — of which the first four are material and the remainder immaterial. In each individual, there exists only one mind-atom, associated with a single self-atom; all atoms, whether material or immaterial, are considered eternal and indestructible, joining together in different combinations to produce the various things we observe in the world.
  • The Vaisheshika explanation of reality further identifies 17–24 kinds of qualities, and five kinds of actions, associated with substances — qualities and substances being considered inseparable (much as a red rose cannot exist without the quality of redness, nor can that redness exist independently of the rose).

Nyaya

• Vaisheshika was closely associated with Nyaya, a school concerned primarily with logic and epistemology (a theory concerning the nature and bases of knowledge).
  • Nyaya traces its own origins to a figure named Akshapada Gotama, said to have lived in the third century BCE, though the Nyaya Sutra ascribed to him appears to be no older than the first century CE.
• Nyaya absorbed many Vaisheshika ideas and built upon them, laying down a formal method of reasoning to establish the correctness of the Vaisheshika’s pluralistic explanation of reality; it also claimed that true knowledge gained through Vaisheshika could itself lead to liberation.
  • According to the Nyaya system, something should be inquired into only if there is genuine doubt about it, some possibility of reaching a definite conclusion, and some contribution that such an inquiry could make towards liberation from the cycle of rebirth — it also required the availability of some observable data on which the investigation could be based.
• There are five stages in the Nyaya method of argument: a statement of the thesis to be proved; a statement of the reason for the thesis; an example acting as a rule supporting the thesis; connecting this rule to the thesis; and a restatement of the now-proven thesis.
  • An example of these five stages, given in the Nyaya Sutra, runs as follows: there is fire on the hill; we can say this because there is smoke there; where there is smoke, there is fire; there is smoke, associated with fire, on the hill; therefore, there is fire on the hill.
  • The Nyaya system of logic attached great importance to perception, reasoning, and inference.

Samkhya

• The Samkhya Karika, ascribed to Ishvarakrishna, belongs to the mid-fourth or mid-fifth century CE — though Samkhya itself was a far older philosophical system, dating back at least to the time of the Upanishads. Kapila is described as the legendary founder of the school.
  • Samkhya possesses a detailed ontology (a theory of being) and epistemology, holding that the world we perceive around us truly exists.
• Two fundamental categories in Samkhya thought are Purusha (the spiritual principle) — of which there are supposed to be many, all eternal, unchanging, passive, and conscious witnesses — and Prakriti (matter, or nature), which is likewise eternal and unchanging, but active and unconscious.
  • Prakriti possesses three gunas, or qualities: sattva (goodness), rajas (energy or passion), and tamas (darkness or inertia). The relationship between purusha and prakriti is likened to that of a passive observer watching a dancer; liberation consists in the purusha realising its distinction from prakriti.
• The Samkhya system also discusses other categories, such as buddhi, ahamkara, and mind; it considers perception and reliable testimony as valid bases of knowledge, attaching great importance to inference as well.

Yoga

• Yoga was another ancient system of thought and practice; the author of the Yoga Sutras is unknown, though the text came to be attributed to Patanjali.
  • The Yoga Sutras serve as a manual of yogic practice, describing eight stages of yoga — five concerned with training the body, and the remainder with perfecting the self, leading to the acquisition of siddhis (signs of success).
• The stated aim of the Yoga Sutras is the cessation of the activities of the mind (chitta vritti-nirodha) — activities that include valid cognition, misconception, conceptualisation, sleep, and memory.
  • The aim is to focus the mind so as to achieve complete tranquility and control, expressed in terms of distinguishing the “seer,” or higher self, known as purusha, from that which is seen or manifest, known as prakriti.

Conclusion

The five centuries between 200 BCE and 300 CE were, in every sense, a formative age for Indian religion — one in which the popular worship of yakshas, nagas, and goddesses fed into the emerging cults of Shiva, Vishnu, and Durga; in which Vedic sacrifice persisted alongside the rise of temple-based devotional Hinduism; in which Buddhism’s Mahayana turn, under Kanishka’s patronage, transformed both its philosophy and its art; and in which Jainism’s gradual drift towards its Digambara-Shvetambara divide unfolded alongside a flourishing temple cult of its own. Running through all of this was the patronage, both royal and popular, that physically built and sustained India’s religious landscape, and the parallel flowering of the astika and nastika philosophical schools that gave this religious ferment its intellectual scaffolding. For UPSC History Optional aspirants, this period’s religious history — read through texts, inscriptions, and archaeology together — offers the essential foundation for understanding the shape Indian religious life would take for the next two millennia.