Rebellion and response in ancient India: political dynamics of the Hindu-Buddhist tradition
Description
Historical approaches to the civilization of India can provide a useful complement to the predominately synchronic ethnographic analyses of anthropology. In particular, a fully historical view illuminates the many conflicts and tensions within Indian society that have shaped its pervasive religious idiom. The relationship between Brahminism and Buddhism, in ancient times, reflects a deeper ethno-political alignment of Aryans versus aboriginals on the subcontinent, and each of these religious traditions developed in dialectical opposition to the other through the centuries. The ethnic conflict at the origin of these religions later became merged with issues of class conflict as sectors of society depressed under the Brahminic system allied themselves with the heterodox movements. Buddhism in particular attained great strength due to its monastic organization, and provide the most important challenge to the supremacy of the Brahminic priesthood. The failure of both legislation and persecution to contain this upheaval eventually resulted in the tactical assimilation of Buddhism into the new, syncretic religion of Hinduism, in which the Brahminic power center retained its controlling position. Hinduism and Buddhism must thus be redefined as sociopolitical, rather than purely 'religious' phenomena for our understanding of Indian society to be complete. The paradigm of rebellion in the name of religion and response in the form of assimilation can be applied to situations up to the present day in India. The dynamics of religious conflict also shed light on the relationship between power and symbol which has been the focus of much of contemporary anthropological theory