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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

Puranas were the innovative genre of literature to popularise and revive Vedic religion. Elaborate with examples.

  • UPSC 2020
  • Aryans and Vedic Period

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By the middle of the first millennium BCE, Vedic religion — built around the elaborate, expensive, and exclusive yajna presided over by Brahmana specialists — faced a serious credibility crisis, challenged by the rise of Buddhism, Jainism, and other heterodox movements that rejected sacrificial ritualism outright. The Puranas emerged as the literary instrument through which…

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What the full answer covers

  • The Crisis That Necessitated Reinvention
  • Claiming Vedic Descent While Building a New Audience
  • Popularisation Through Ritual Simplification
  • Absorbing Rather Than Excluding Rival Traditions
  • Beyond Religion: A Vehicle for Secular Knowledge and Legitimacy
  • A Vedic Pantheon Reordered, Not Discarded
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