The Penguin History of Early India

by Romila Thapar

  Religion and Ideologies

  Buddhism had become less visible by the end of this period in all but eastern India, with the Buddha even being incorporated into Vaishnavism as an incarnation of Vishnu, an incarnation that never caught the popular imagination. Jainism survived with a following in Karnataka and western India. In Karnataka Jaina monks received handsome endowments, enabling them to have tenants cultivate their lands and even on occasion to make donations to other monasteries. Jaina merchants were prominent donors, as were Jaina officials, some of whom were military commanders. The Yapaniya sect of Jainas was popular as it was less austere than the well-established Digambara. The Yapaniyas supported the setting up of convents for nuns and even allowed senior nuns to tutor monks. The animosity between the Shaivas and the Jainas flared up on occasion.

  The decline of Buddhism and Jainism is partly linked to the popularity of religious devotionalism. The hymns of the earlier poets were collated and the immense appeal of their theism inspired fresh compositions. The more philosophical treatises traced the origin of theism to Upanishadic sources, which in a sense attempted to bring Vedic Brahmanism and devotionalism closer, even if some of the differences were irreconcilable. Some of the Vaishnava acharyas and Shaiva mathas maintained the momentum of the Alvars and Nayanars. This also coincided with the rise of nonbrahman castes in sectarian movements from the thirteenth century, a large number of which would be counted as members of the shudra castes. That they were specifically mentioned reflects the status that these castes had acquired. The untouchables, although not excluded, had a less visible presence.

  The devotional movement had a form of worship and a concept of deity different from that of Vedic Brahmanism. The act of worship was open to a larger range of castes. Yet this change was almost conformist and conservative when compared with some of the more extreme sects that now had a concurrent following. Possibly the one was acting as a counterweight to the other. There were a variety of sects, such as the Tantric and Shakta, and those of the Kapalikas, Kalamukhas and Pashupatas, some more and some less esoteric than the others, which by this time had gathered supporters in various parts of the subcontinent. Some among them practised unusual rites, involving the remains from cremated bodies or ritualized sexual intercourse, which were evidently designed for those for whom nonconformity and the supposed power of magic was attractive, apart from its appeal for those who treated it as a statement of social confrontation. This disregard of even minimal social obligations among them became a necessity on certain ritual occasions. Such rites were also practised in other parts of the subcontinent, and had an underlying organization and message.

  The deliberate deviation from accepted social norms was a form of protest, their extreme nonconformity providing the publicity that was desired; but these acts were also claimed as religious ritual possessing magical qualities. The Kalamukhas ate food out of a human skull, smeared their bodies with the ashes of a corpse, and were generally seen carrying a pot of wine and a club. Rumours had them behaving in strange ways and such rumours were associated with those of whom the orthodoxy disapproved. For some, nonconformity was also a genuine protest against the limitations placed on thought and knowledge by orthodoxy. The interest in magic, for instance, was not merely sensationalism, but could also result from a curiosity to experiment with objects and inquire further than was permitted by the custodians of knowledge. Experiments in alchemy, the attempt to change base metal to gold, or the concept of transmutation, are not unassociated with magic in its early stages. Yet for the most part, as it has been suggested, followers of these sects seem to have led a normal life, indulging in the cult rites only on certain occasions. For them, these rites were probably a catharsis.

  There seem to have been three broad trends in religious belief and practice apart from the Shramanic that were becoming recognizable. Vedic Brahmanism, frequently enveloped in the theological discussions of philosophers, remained the religious concern of a minority – brahmans in the main, with some attention from Buddhist and Jaina scholars. It was influential in creating wealthy institutions of learning and writing theological discourses in Sanskrit, with only a limited influence on religion at a more popular level. The second and more popular trend was that of the Puranic religions, Vaishnavism and Shaivism, whose maximum appeal was through devotionalism. This drew a large number of people who were cultivators or craftsmen or in related professions. A variety of cults were assimilated from a range of sources, the assimilation being closely tied to the particular social groups observing the religion. The third trend was a scatter of cults of various kinds, some labelled as Tantric. These either continued to be observed independently or they became part of yet another set of religious beliefs and practices, formalized as the Shakta religion. This became an addition to the Puranic religions, and even influenced aspects of Buddhism. The three trends were not self-contained but were juxtaposed and therefore some elements were borrowed by one from another. There was an inherent and continuing flexibility in the belief and the practice of at least the second and third trends, which was characteristic of religion in India. The Alvars and Nayanars had echoed some of the social concerns earlier addressed by the Buddhists and Jainas, and this had won them much of the potential following of the latter.

  Not all protests were expressed in aberrations of social norms. Other Shaiva sects were far more closely tied to social institutions. Among these was the Lingayat or Virashaiva sect that emerged in the twelfth century with some advocacy of social reforms, possibly influenced by other current religious thinking. The founder, Basavanna, an apostate Jaina, was associated with the Kalachuri court at Kalyani in the Deccan. He had, on occasion, a certain satirical strain in his statements that lent sharpness to the point he wished to make.

  The lamb brought to the slaughterhouse eats the leaf garland with which it is decorated… the frog caught in the mouth of the snake desires to swallow the fly flying near its mouth. So is our life. The man condemned to die drinks milk and ghi… When they see a serpent carved in stone they pour milk on it: if a real serpent comes they say, Kill. Kill. To the servant of the god who could eat if served they say, Go away. Go away; but to the image of the god which cannot eat they offer dishes of food.

  Th. De Bary (ed.), Sources of Indian Tradition, p. 3 57

  The Lingayats differed from the devotional cult in that they did not rest content with preaching devotion to a single deity, but actively attacked religious hypocrisy. Much of their early teaching questioned Brahmanism, the theory of rebirth and the norms of caste as maintained in brahmanical thought and practice. The idea of some groups being socially polluted was unacceptable. The Lingayats laid emphasis on the need for a social conscience and encouraged certain social practices disapproved of in Dharmashastra norms, such as late post-puberty marriages and the remarriage of widows. Although advocating a better status for women, there was nevertheless a bar on women becoming priests. Brahman landlordism was seen as exerting excessive pressure on the cultivator to pay rent to the landlord, as well as tax to the state. Not surprisingly, the Lingayats came under attack from the brahmans. Such ideas had an appeal for nonbrahman groups and reflect similarities with Shramanic thinking. Shiva was worshipped in the form of the lingam or phallic emblem, each member of the sect carrying a miniature lingam. They replaced cremation with the burial of their dead, the form generally adopted by ascetics, and this was again opposed to brahmanical ritual. Their more liberal social attitudes brought them the support of the lower castes. Eventually, however, the Lingayats themselves evolved into a caste.

  Those who were excluded from worshipping at temples, such as some lower castes and the untouchables, had to find their own places and forms of worship, some of which could be incorporated into the ritual and mythology of a sect, presumably when the caste status of those who were low had improved. Sometimes this led to incorporating the worship of local deities not initially included in the Puranic pantheon. Among these was the cult of Panduranga or Vitthala at Pa
ndharpur in western India, which came into prominence in the thirteenth century. Its origin may have been in the hero cults of the borderlands between Maharashtra and Karnataka, the image of Vitthala being similar to the local hero-stones. The god was identified with Vishnu on entering the Vaishnava pantheon. Pandharpur became one of the centres of the devotional movement in the Deccan, attracting in a later period preachers and hymn writers such as Namadeva, Janabai, Sena and Narahari (by profession tailor, maidservant, barber and goldsmith), who composed their hymns in Marathi and gathered around them the local people. These cult centres also became the foci of pilgrimage and exchange.

  At a still more local level were the village deities. Among these a prominent deity in Tamil-nadu was Ayannar, whose shrine on the outskirts of the village was guarded by clay horses of varying sizes. The shrine may have been humble but the horses gave it a striking presence. They have now become characteristic features of the Tamil-nadu countryside and Ayannar is worshipped in many places as the son of Shiva and the Mohini incarnation of Vishnu. Variants occur in other parts of India where the worship of local deities and spirits prevails. This was sometimes parallel to Puranic Hinduism and sometimes overlapping with it, and where it overlapped it became an avenue of transaction between the religion of the elite and popular cults. This was the opposite end of the spectrum from the philosophical speculation current in many places.

  Discussions on philosophy were largely the prerogative of the brahmans except in the few centres where Buddhists and Jainas joined the debates, in addition to focusing on their own philosophical schools, and in some Shaiva mathas where the nonbrahman velala were prominent. Debates were held in the various mathas and colleges throughout the subcontinent, the link between them being the common language, Sanskrit. But their intellectual influence on the wider society was restricted. Unlike the early Buddhists who held open public debates in the parks close to towns, the Sanskrit discourse tended to include only recognized scholars, even if the debates and controversies involved scholars from various parts of the subcontinent. This resulted in some fine-tuned philosophical ideas among the rather exclusive groups of scholars. Shankaracharya’s ideas continued to be developed and honed, and theories of other teachers were also discussed, some of which were opposed to the ideas of Shankara. Foremost among his critics was the eleventh-century Vaishnava philosopher, Ramanuja.

  Ramanuja was a Tamil brahman who spent a considerable part of his life teaching at the famous temple at Shrirangam (Thiruchirapalli), eventually being regarded as the founder of the Shri Vaishnava movement. He disagreed with Shankara’s theory that knowledge was the primary means of liberation from rebirth. According to Ramanuja, it was merely one of the means and was not nearly as effective or reliable as pure devotion, giving oneself up entirely to the deity, who was projected as loving and forgiving, as in the devotional cult. Although the relationship was expressed in philosophical terms it was viewed as essentially personal. Some of his followers argued that one must strive for this forgiveness, but others supported the notion that the deity selects those who are to be liberated – a concept curiously close to that of the Calvinists. Some of his ideas drew on the Upanishads, such as the need for the atman/the individual soul to unite with the Brahman/the universal soul for the attainment of liberation from rebirth. The emphasis on the individual in this relationship was not only a major feature of bhakti, but carried something of the flavour of Shramanic thought. Ramanuja thus was an effective bridge between the devotional movements and Brahmanical theology, attempting as he did to weave together the two divergent strands.

  Madhva, a thirteenth-century theologian, made further attempts to synthesize the ideas of bhakti with brahmanical theology. He was also a Vaishnava and his concept of Vishnu was that the deity granted his grace to free the souls only of the pure, which implies selection. However, the selection was not quite as arbitrary as was believed by some of Ramanuja’s followers. Some of Madhva’s ideas suggest that he may have been familiar with the teachings of the Christian church of Malabar. Thus, Vishnu bestows his grace on a devotee through his son Vayu, the Wind-god, an idea that is alien to Brahmanical and Puranic belief but parallels that of the Holy Spirit in Christianity.

  Ramanuja, while accepting special privileges for the higher castes, was nevertheless opposed to excluding certain categories of shudras from worship in the temple. He pleaded for the throwing open of temples to all shudras, though without much success. The growing strength of the devotional movement and the attempts at syntheses by theologians such as Ramanuja and Madhva did, however, force the orthodox to recognize the need for compromise. Although the temple was not opened to all shudras, the deities and rituals of a large number of subsidiary cults had crept in. This was an inevitable process if the temple was to retain its vitality as the centre of social and religious life, at least in caste society. The area of the temple was enlarged to accommodate new shrines and images. Economic prosperity led to larger and more ornate structures. Even the lesser dynasties invested in impressive religious monuments that would raise their status in the eyes of their peers and their subjects.

  Religious monuments

  Domestic buildings have unfortunately not survived from this period; only temples have remained. These tended to follow two main styles in the peninsula. The Deccan had temples built in what is generally referred to as the Vesara style, as in the Durga temple at Aihole or the Virupaksha temple at Pattadakal. In south India the Dravida style was more common but was regionally distinctive. In Kerala, for example, temple architecture takes a form specific to Kerala, the style changing because of building in wood rather than stone and because many temples were circular in form – the circular sanctum being surrounded by concentrically arranged areas. Despite many common features the imprint of regional architecture is apparent.

  The early Chola temples were still relatively small, and superb in their simplicity. One example is the ninth-century temple at Narttamalai, freestanding, facing some earlier rock-cut caves, and from its perch on the hillside dominating a landscape of rice fields. From the eleventh century the Chola kings began to build their spectacular royal temples. The balanced proportions of the different components of the temple gave the structure its aesthetic quality. The central chamber of the shrine could be easily located, surmounted as it was by a tall shikhara or corbelled tower broadly pyramidal in shape. It was approached through one or more halls, the number depending on the size of the temple, and the surrounding courtyard was enclosed in a cloistered wall. The latter often had a colonnade of pillars on the inside, as at Tanjavur and Gangaikondacholapuram. The entrances, or gopurams, were elaborate gateways reflecting the style of the shikhara, and these were gradually given more and more emphasis until they overwhelmed the shikhara, as in the case of the later temples at Madurai and Shrirangam. In the temples of the Deccan the antechambers tended to be large, perhaps imitating Buddhist chaitya halls. Congregational worship was not a feature of Puranic Hinduism, but the increasing popularity of the recitations of the Puranas, and of the epics now converted to sacred texts, would have drawn large audiences.

  Stone sculpture was used in the temples largely as an adjunct to architecture, in niches or as a decorative motif in friezes and in the ornamentation of pillars and balustrades. It was, however, in bronze sculptures that the Chola craftsmen excelled, producing images rivalling the best anywhere. They were mainly images of deities, donors and the poets of the devotional movement. Made by the cire perdu or lost-wax process, they were kept in the inner shrine of the temple and some taken out in procession on special occasions. The Shiva Nataraja images were produced in fair number, yet the early examples of these are stunningly beautiful as are the icons of Shiva and Parvati with their son Skanda. Symbols of attributes were incorporated with incredible subtlety, given that by now a forest of symbols was sometimes required to represent what were thought of as the local, transregional and cosmic levels of a deity. These images, more than anything else, indicate the sculptural
genius of the southern craftsmen.

  To begin with, the temples of the Deccan preserved the earlier tradition of the Chalukya style. Gradually they became more ornate, a tendency which was accentuated by the extensive use of soapstone, a softer stone than the earlier sandstone. The temples built by the Later Chalukyas and Hoysalas changed the ground-plan and elevation from that common to both the northern or Nagara style and the southern or Dravida styles. The finest examples are the Hoysala temples at Halebid (the old Dorasamudra), Belur and Somnathapura. The ground-plan of some temples was no longer rectangular but was star-shaped or polygonal, the whole complex being built on a raised platform. Since there was not the same emphasis on towers and gateways as in the Chola temples, the elevation gave the impression of being more flat. This effect was emphasized by a series of narrow panels running horizontally right around the temple walls, carrying frieze decorations of animal and floral motifs, musicians, dancers, battle scenes and the depiction of well-known events from religious literature. The star-shaped plan provided more wall space for sculpture and bis-relief than would a rectangular plan. Perhaps the most curious feature of these Hoysala temples are the wide, circular pillars which give the impression of having been lathe-turned. Obviously considerable skill went into their making.

  Sculpture and architecture were on occasion identified with either the name of an individual shilpin/craftsman, or an association of sculptors and builders. This became a feature in many buildings in other parts of India as well. It is possible to link some builders with their patrons and their buildings. The notion that architects and artists remained anonymous is belied by the presence of apparently much respected architects and sculptors, for example, Kokasa. Both the demand for expertise and the high professionalism of what had earlier been regarded as a craft doubtless encouraged individuality in style and enterprise. The sutradhara, literally the one who holds the thread and therefore the one who superintends, had an exalted position as supervisor in the construction of a building. The stapathi was the master builder or the highly skilled craftsman. They were respected for their knowledge and expertise and sometimes described as belonging to the Vishvakarma-kula, literally the family of the deity of craftsmen, Vishvakarma. Some received grants of land and their descendants took to other professions. Among the manuals on constructing a building were the vastu texts that set out the requirements for the orientations of a building, some of which may have been based on technical understanding although others were quite arbitrary. There were other efficient manuals that described not only the methods to be used in constructing a building, but also the making of images. The information was so detailed that it gave the optimum size of the nail of the small finger in proportion to the hand and the figure. These shilpa-shastra texts were often written in Sanskrit, perhaps an indicator of the improving status of the profession.