From Fire Altars to Forgotten Gods: The Chaotic Evolution of Hinduism

The Indian Subcontinent is a diverse mix of cultures, religions and traditions that make up its value system. The moment we discuss the early Indian subcontinent and its religions, long before Buddhism or Jainism came into existence or the Abrahamic religions were introduced on the western coasts by travellers and traders, long before any invasion proved any sign of forced conversion, a layman’s idea of the Indian Subcontinent is that of a single unified culture.

Historically speaking, that is far from the truth. The Indian Subcontinent, since the evidence of early civilisation has been found in its river banks, like that in Bhirrana or Mehrgarh, dating back to around 6000 BCE, has never had one unifying belief through its geographic boundaries. The terms Hindu, Hindustan and many others come originally from attributed to primary sources of the Ancient West Asian civilisation. But our history starts much earlier than that. And where there is society and civilisation, there is bound to be religious beliefs. But those beliefs were not uniform and united.

The very first type of religious belief found in the Sindhu Saraswati civilisation is that of nature worship and fire altars. Although the inability to decipher the script of the Sindhu Saraswati Civilisation (Indus Valley Civilisation, as it was previously known) has made the theories almost impossible to prove, the circumstantial evidence in the means of archaeological findings suggests fire altars, inside and outside of housing units across the cities of the Sindhu Saraswati Civilisation that were involved in some kind of rituals. In the Rig Veda, which is often regarded as the first texts of Hinduism, as well as a bridge between the Later Harappan and Vedic cultures, there are hymns sung to the fire god, Agni, in his earliest forms. The people of the Sindhu Saraswati Civilisation evidently buried their dead in graves alongside their things, like pottery and jewellery, implying a ritual very similar to many contemporary civilisations, like in Mesopotamia, where they believed that the dead needed those things in the afterlife. The first signs of burning the dead come in only around the later or mature Harappan phase. The evidence of Stupa-like structures without any bodies also indicates some rituals; however, the actual reason for this transition is not known. The discovery of a figurine of a Mother Goddess in the Harappan sites, first found in Kot Diji and Mehrgarh as a Terracotta figurine, shows a woman with a headdress and is assumed by scholars to be a symbol of fertility and continuity of life. The discovery of this particular figurine over others also leads to speculations of a matriarchal society. While the earliest evidence of female deity worship in the subcontinent is found in the Baghor stone dating back to 8000 BCE in Madhya Pradesh, no links to this female deity have been established. The religious books attributed to any kind of Shaktism sect were written as late as the 10th Century CE in the form of Devi Mahatmya as a separate text, while it is first embedded in the Markandeya Purana as the predecessor of Chandi Path around the 4th to 6th Century CE. The Devi Shukta in the Rig Veda offers hymns to the mother goddess as well, although different in form from that of the Devi in early medieval times.

Female diety at Lahore Museum

The people mostly worshipped nature in its truest form, and the Rig Vedic hymns of personifying the Thunder as King Indra, Varuna as the Water God, Saraswati as the river goddess are also proof of natural worship. Then comes the evidence of several Phallus figurines as well as the famous seal of Pashupatinath, often regarded as Proto-Shiva, as many scholars believe that it is the earliest form of Shaivism in the subcontinent. While Pashupatinath wears a similar headdress, has three heads and locks of hair, and seems to be sitting legs crossed among animals, the purpose of the Phalus, the earliest traces of which were discovered in Kalibangan, a famous Sindhu Saraswati Civilisation site, is still not widely known, often just speculated. As there are no signs of a temple-like structure found in any of the Sindhu Saraswati Civilisation sites that leads to the speculation of a lack of idol worship in many of these places.

Pashupatinath Seal

Since we are talking of the major Hindu deities of today, it is important to mention how Vishnu and Brahma, the other two aspects of the holy trinity of Puranic Hinduism, come into the picture. In the earliest form in the Rig Veda, Vishnu, who is also mentioned in Egyptian trade documents alongside Indra, is often regarded as a solar deity and an ally to Indra, the primary god. Rig Vedic hymns often regard him as a provider of life and movement, while Brahma, in form, is absent from the early Vedas. It is important to note here that early texts mention Brahman as a representation of Ultimate reality, while Brahma only comes in, as a form in Upanishads and later Vedas, around the 1st Century BCE. The two are not synonymous in aspect. 

Scholars have linguistically proposed the earliest date of the written text of the Ramayana as early as the 2nd century BCE, while the Jaya phase of the Mahabharata was argued to be first written in primitive form around 300 BCE. The first Puranas were written as early as the Gupta period, under the patronage of the Gupta kings, who worshipped Vishnu as their primary god. They commissioned the written scriptures of the earliest Puranas and the form of Itihas (Ramayana and Jaya, i.e. Mahabharat), and the idea of Avatars of Vishnu emerged in the texts over a period of time, adding to the epics, dating back to the 4th Century CE. Bhagwatism, however, existed in form much before, as is found in the Heliodorus pillar, mounted on a Garuda Dhwaja, dating to the 2nd Century BCE, that starts off with Devadevasa Vasudevasa. Notably, he was a Greek who adopted the idea of Bhagwatism. 

Heliodorus Pillar

The contradictory sects of Vaishnavism and Shaivism co-existed in the same society for a long time. There is primary evidence of kings who patronised both sects, such as the Kushanas, Satvanas, etc. As early as the 5th Century CE, we find evidence of conflict between the Vaishnavist and Shaivist sects, as archaeologists suggest that temples originally built by kings, dedicated to Shiva, were often replaced with Vishnu idols, mostly during the Gupta era. While some places indicate the coexistence of these two contradictory sects, never affiliating to the same religious bracket, others suggest open assertation of Vaishnavism over Shaivist temples during the post-Gupta period. Archaeological findings at Pawaya sites, as well as those of Ramtek, show evidence of Vaishnavism taking over Shaivism as the Guptas, who initially allied with Vakatakas, the well-known Shaivist dynasty, were building Vishnu temples, like that of Narasimha, commissioned by Prabhavati Gupta, the queen of the Vakatakas, daughter of Chandragupta II. 

Rudra Narasimha at Ramtek

There are several temples and caves found with a mix of Shaivist and Vaishnavist figurines. The Gupta period Udaigiri caves show the iconography of Ekmukhi Lingam, which is a Shaivist sculpture. The Badami caves, dating back to the 7th Century shows both Shaivist and Vaishnavist figurines. The caves 1 show clear Shaivist figurines including the Lingam, while Caves 2 shows coexistence of both sects.  The first heavily recorded accounts of conflict between the two sects come from the rule of Pallavas during the 6th Century CE and during the conflict of the Nayanmars and Alvas, as well as in the Chola dynasty in South India, much later. 

Ekmukhi Lingam at Udaigiri Caves

The famous temple of Kailasha Nath in Elora also has several sculptures of Vaishnavist iconography, although being a primarily Shaivist site. There is the sculpture of Gaja Laxmi at the entrance of the main sanctum, while the left side of the entrance showcases Shaivist iconographies, and the right side has primarily Vaishnavist sculpture. The Rastrakuta king, Dantidurga, who probably commissioned the temple and at the same time started working on Cave no.15, which is the Dashavatara Cave. In the 9th Century Rajputana had several temples (eg, in Bijolia and Menal, built by Parmara Rajputs) dedicated to Shiva, with the Phalus, the walls of which are carved with various Avatars of Vishnu, including Mohini’s interaction with Shiva. Now that we have established the different religious sects co-existing in ancient India but not identifying as the same religion, let us focus again on some other religions found in the subcontinent.

Gaja Laxmi in Elora Cave 16

One of the documented religions of ancient India that does not exist today but was indigenous to the land was that of Ajivika, founded by Makkhali Gosala and prominent during the Mauryan times. It was an ascetic, fatalist religion that believed in equality and rejected the social strata and casteism preached by the main branches of Vedic religions. This religion finds mention in multiple documents referred to often as the Six Heretics, like in Buddhist sources of Samanna Phalasutta of the Dighanikaya and Mahabodhi Jataka, and Jain scriptures like Bhagawati Sutra, attributing to donations from the Magadha emperor Ashoka, who himself followed Buddhism but aided other religions. It is also mentioned that there was a possibility he was strongly attracted to this religion before he set eyes on Buddhism. Loss of royal patronage and criticism of its harsh lifestyle forced its slow disappearance from the North. It is, however, mentioned in Varahamihira’s time and even finds reference in Bana’s Harshacharitam in the 7th Century CE, and it continued to thrive in Southern India till much later in the 12th Century CE. There is also the Lokayata sect, which means “prevalent among people”, which was attributed to the Brhaspati Sutra and only found in traces, as criticised for its atheistic values that are found in other Hindu and Buddhist texts. This religion is believed to have been introduced around 600 BCE and continued to thrive till the 12th Century CE. Ajnana, yet another religion that emerged as a strong rival to Buddhist and Jain values, was a branch of agnosticism and was also formed around the 5th Century BCE and was different from the Hindu philosophy and texts, often challenging its notions, like that of Buddhism and Jainism. None of these religions was, in their core, in any way part of Hinduism as we know it today. In fact, they criticised several philosophies of contemporary Hinduism.

Relic of Ashoka

It is interesting to note that, in general perception, the Sindhu Saraswati Civilisation was the only thriving civilisation in the subcontinent. Tribal communities like the Bhils, Santhals, Mundas and Adivashis, their culture, religion and belief system make up much of the Indian belief system, as does Hinduism as an idea. The earliest forms of Mother Goddess worship are found mainly in Tamil tribes, as in the Dravidian folk religion. While religious offerings, including meat, were made to these tribal deities across the eastern coasts, especially Odisha, the idea of offering sacrificial meat came into the picture, popularly with the advancement of Tantra, yet another sect that separated itself from the others through individualistic rituals, around the 6th Century CE.

While the Later Vedic Period witnessed the rigidity of the Varna system slowly changing from an occupation-based caste system to one based on birth, intensified further by the written scripture of Manusmriti around 200BCE, it is important to note that this caste-based social structure was not limited to any religious sect in particular. Soon it became a way of society, putting minority religious beliefs, tribal communities, less developed than urban ones, as well as lower castes, under the same bracket of untouchability and restrictions, even resulting in certain prohibitions to practice their own faith freely.

As we dive into the medieval ages and religious discourse of the subcontinent as we know it today, we must discuss the Bhakti Movement. The term was coined later on by European scholars to give a broader idea of a movement that was changing the idea of religion in the subcontinent between the 7th Century and the 14th Century CE. But before we dive into the main people of this movement, we need to understand why it coincided with the invasions of the Sultanate and, later on, the Timurids in North India and the establishment of Islamic dynasties in South India.

With the coming of invaders like Mahmud of Ghazni, and subsequently, Qutb Ud Din Aibak, the Slave Dynasty, the Tuqlaqs, Lodis, Timurids, etc., the primary focus of the already existing system in the subcontinent became that of resistance against foreign culture. The easiest way of resistance was unfortunately through the rigidity of class, caste and rituals. Most of the indigenous subcontinental religions did not support or endorse conversion like that of the Abrahamic religions. This resistance became rigid in the form of caste and class, which, in a way, gave the incoming religions a way or excuse for conversion of the tribal and lower caste people who were meant to feel deprived in the rigid system. While the political scenario was making drastic changes in the traditional climate of the subcontinental way of life, there emerged Saints, preachers, philanthropists and reformers who, through reminding people of the flexibility their preaching of the religions offered, wanted to bring them back into their sects. This gave rise to a phenomenon of conversion which was earlier absent in the rigid sects. Tamil saint poets of Alvars and Nayanars, as early as the 7th Century started the Bhakti movement. While Alvars were devoted to Vaishnavism and Nayanars to Shaivism, both sects spoke of caste rigidity and endorsed personal relation to their deity over ritualistic rigidity, thus lessening the importance of Brahministic rituals that had gained prominence. Names like Adi Shankaracharya, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Ramananda, Kabir, Andal, Janabai, Akka Mahadevi and Meera Bai gained local prominence in their respective sects, preaching the same idea of reaching god individually. 

As more and more women rose to prominence in the Bhakti movement, the preaching of Bhakti aligned with that of spiritual equality and the establishment of new traditions of worship through song and dance. Interestingly to note, around the same time, Indian Sufism gained prominence as an individual idea or sect of Sufism very different from the original ones, in the Chisti, Qaidiriya, Suhrawardi, Nakshbandi, among others, blending in the ideas of Islamic spirituality with that of Hinduism, with the influence of the Bhakti Movement, attaining oneness with the deity through art. 

Guru Nanak

Another important sect or religion to come out of the Bhakti Movement is that of Sikhism, founded by Guru Nanak in the 15th Century as a blend of religious ideas of the subcontinent, preaching a more fluid spiritual approach than the rigidity of existing religions. With the rampant introduction and fading away of religious beliefs in the subcontinent and the reform in the blended, unique society it creates, it is evident that at no point in time was the subcontinent ever united in spirit, society or traditions under the umbrella of one religion. Akbarnama mentions an incident witnessed by Abul Fazl near Kurushetra where a group of Hindu saints had a conflict with another group of Hindu Sanyasis, over bathing in holy water, forcing the Timurid army to intervene when the conflict turned into a deadly massacre. Jahangir, in his memoir, calls back on the event as well. One wonders at this point how one idea of Hinduism came into existence.

Folio of Akbarnama

Ironically, the term Hinduism, which represents all the religions that came from the subcontinent, was coined by the Europeans who witnessed the diversity and found it overwhelming to separately identify all sects, big and small. It first finds mention in a letter by British politician and East India Company official Charles Grant as a representation of the way of life in the subcontinent. Consequently, it gained a status of its own, as an umbrella word for religion in the subcontinent, often used in the writings and translations of Europeans and Indians alike. No sooner than that, Hinduism, as they called it, became a study of intrigue for these monotheistic people who came into the land to understand its people better, to exploit them. Hinduism gained legal prominence when all these sects, including the very separate religions of Sikhism, Jainism and Buddhism, were forced into the umbrella of Hindu law for all legal and statutory purposes. Words like Hind, that earlier indicated the land of the Hindukush and subcontinent, by Persian and other texts were translated by these Europeans as the land of Hinduism, as one identity standing against the idea of monotheistic Abrahamic practices that came into the subcontinent like that of Christanity in 1st century CE, Jews around the same time and Islam in the 7th Century CE through traders and travellers in the Gujarat and Malabar coast.

The Sanyasi Revolt of 1763 CE must be mentioned if we are talking about the birth of the idea of what people popularly call the Sanatan Dharma today, as a representation of Neo-Hinduism, which is a relatively new idea. Muslim Fakirs, Hindu Sanyasis and revolting peasants came together in Bengal against the British East India Company within the first decade of its rule there, protesting against the colonisers for heavy taxation, famine, restrictions in religious freedom and resisting the authority of the British. This revolt is fictionalised in Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Anandamath, which was banned by the then government as an instigation of revolution. The author, a well-read man of his time, put forward the existing idea of Sanatan, which is mentioned in early texts like Manusmriti as the “sons of Dharma”, and coined the term Sanatan Dharma, primarily focusing on Neo-Hindu ideas of Vaishnavism as a sect that was very prominent during this time. He did not use the term to represent all Hindu sects or religions that legally fell under the umbrella of the term Hinduism, as coined by Europeans. Later on, with the establishment of the Sanatan Dharma Sabha in 1886, the term gained a very modern idea of religious view as it represents today. 

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay

The term Hindutva is not a synonym of Hinduism, as most believe today. The term, often attributed to Shivaji or Maharana Pratap’s political ideas wrongly, was coined by Chandranath Basu in 1892 and used extensively in his pamphlets by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1923. Many during this time, to make the term powerful as a tool of religious appeal against the authority of the British Raj, used the names of powerful rebel kings like Shivaji, who stood as a symbolic idea to resistance, used the term for them, as a narrative of their political ideology based on their understanding of Hinduism, whereas in the primary sources attributed to the Hindu Kings of the subcontinent, the term remains absent in its present form. Translators and preservers too used the term Hinduism and Hindutva as put forward in the 20th Century on many historical accounts, often to put forward their own understanding of the diversity of the land beyond the Hindukush.

Chandranath Basu

We barely touched upon aspects of the diversity of the land to understand the different religious sects it gave birth to. We discussed the changes in its iconography and ideology over the millennials, from a very layman’s perspective. We can very well conclude that even before the invasion of non-subcontinental religions, the influence of Greeks and other people on our culture and beyond it, the subcontinent of India was always diverse, practised many faiths often contradicting each other simultaneously and is a land which gave birth to many spiritual identities that we often mistake as one umbrella religion. Hinduism, in its very neo-ideological term, is meant to be about the uniqueness and diversity of its sects, ideas, rituals and traditions, often limited to the region of its practice but never restricted by the ideas of right or wrong. Legal implications of religion should never be confused with the spiritual and cultural diversity of the many sects of religion preached and practised in this subcontinent, as history has witnessed.

Ps. I would like to thank Shomik @cliophile_ on Instagram for his valuable input on the ancient religions of the Indian Subcontinent. The images are taken from Wikimedia Commons. You can read the following books and associated research papers for more on the topic.

Bibliography:

• Religion of the Indus Valley Civilisation by Kedar Nath Sastri
• Unifying Hinduism: Philosophy of the Late Medieval Thinkers by Andrew J. Nicholson
• Religious Systems in Ancient India by Prashant Srivastava
• History and Doctrine of the Ajivikas by A.L. Basham
• The Wonder That Was India by A.L. Basham
• Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300 by Romila Thapar
• Ashoka in Ancient India by Nayanjot Lahiri
• Ancient India by R.C. Majumdar
• Religion in India: A Historical Introduction by Fred W. Clothey
• India's Ancient Past by R.S. Sharma
• Vedic People by Rajesh Kocchar
• The Lost River by Michael Danino
• Lords of the Deccan by Aniruddha Kanisetti
• ​Akbarnama by Abul Fazl
• Bhagavati Sutra by Sudharmaswami
• Samañña-phala Sutta 
• Rig Veda
• Anandamath By Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay