GS302 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Atharvaveda, Yajurveda, Indo-Gangetic Plain
Document Summary
Gs302 lesson 4: religious significance of south asia. Religion: an international means of engaging the sacred: dimensions: ritual, narrative, experiential, social, ethical, doctrinal, material (ninian. Early forms of religious practice evident from the paleolithic period to the indus valley: not decipherable until just before the gangetic period (focus for today) Religion at the urban core" (kingdoms) and periphery" (gana-sanghas) Happening at the core of the gangetic civilization. New society that is taking shape/growing around the river genghis and its tributaries. Mostly kingdoms that are now showing a kind of organization based around caste-hierarchies. Ultimate societies that are somewhat more egalitarian. Don"t have kings have chiefs, chieftains. Resemble some form of republics (representative voting, consensus over major decisions) Source of another set of religious traditions (buddhism, jainism) that emerge in south asia in this different social context. Earliest sacred text dateable between 1500-1200 bce (vedas: first records that we have for what people believed and how they practiced their religion.
