Religious Life and the Emergence of Bhakti

A Vedic yajna

• The Vedic pantheon did not have a rigid hierarchy; different deities are praised as supreme in different hymns.
• These deities were invoked through prayers and yajnas , with offerings most often made to the sacred fire.
• Many deities were associated with elements of nature such as the sun, rain, fire, earth and dawn .
• The chapter connects this with early societies' dependence on nature and the view of nature as sacred and powerful , not merely a resource. It gives continuing examples such as sun worship during Chhath and Makar Sankranti .
• The Vedic worldview is described as reflecting an early sense of respect for, and responsibility towards, nature .

When did the organised Bhakti tradition become prominent?

Bhakti saint-poets

• Early references occur in texts such as the Mahabharata , but organised and widespread Bhakti practices gained prominence in the 6th-century Tamil region .

A wandering renunciant

• Around the middle of the first millennium BCE , a visible trend of renunciants emerged. They advocated non-attachment to material comforts and social relationships and chose ascetic, wandering lives rather than household life.

• Gautama Buddha and Mahavira emerged as influential thinkers of this period.
• The idea of renunciation was already present in the Vedic tradition: among the four ashramas, vanaprastha and sannyasa clearly have a renunciatory connotation.

Religious practices of this period