2017/09/06 by Johannes Bronkhorst · 4 citations
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Indian and Buddhist Studies #Eurasian Exchange Networks #Anthropological Studies and Insights #Buddhism #Ideology #Politics #Indian subcontinent #Retributive justice #Hinduism #Period (music) #Philosophy #History #Ancient history #Sociology #Epistemology #Religious studies #Law #Aesthetics #Political science #Economic Justice #Theology
paper · doi:10.1177/0069966717717587
openalex publication_date 2017/09/06 · openalex created_date 2017/09/15 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
This article shows how Brahmanism was a regional tradition, confined to the northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent, that passed through a difficult period—which it barely survived—roughly between the time of Alexander and the beginning of the Common Era. It then reinvented itself, in a different shape. No longer primarily a sacrificial tradition, it became a mainly socio-political ideology that borrowed much (including the belief in rebirth and karmic retribution) from the eastern region in which Buddhism and Jainism had arisen. Its revival went hand in hand with the elaboration of behavioural and theoretical innovations, one of whose purposes was to justify the claimed superiority of Brahmins.