Articulation of an "urban" ethic

It appears there was a shifting of basic paradigms in the urban period as to what constituted appropriate lifestyle and ethical behavior. In the vaidika system, there was an effort to adjust “continuities,” such as the notions of “sacrifice,” monism, varna, and the ethic of renunciation to urban-based society.

The texts that developed in this period in vaidika circles were understood to be smrti (“remembered” or derivative) rather than sruti (heard or revealed) such as the earlier Vedic materials were termed by the orthoprax. It is important to remember that these texts were the products of the elites - almost always brahman males - and that therefore what they articulated were brahmanic attempts to adapt to the vicissitudes of the period. They do not necessarily reflect the reality of religion as practiced by the general public nor, for that matter, of all the “elites” themselves.

One such text, the Manusmrti (Laws of Manu) edited sometime after the first centuries bce, portrayed the “ideal” lifestyle for the brahman. It articulated an ethic for brahmans who no longer have access to physical ritual centers (such as Vedic fire huts), yet could continue the principles of sacrifice and ritual purity. In the Manusmrti, one finds connections made between the sacrificial system and a legal-ritual code with a mix of con­tinuities and reinterpretations. These continuities included the importance of vaidika learning; the imagery of sacrifice, and the superiority of the priest and brahman. Here laws and everyday practice were presented as appropriate extensions of the older Vedic system. It sought to demonstrate how one could maintain ritual purity and identity, and fulfill religious obligations while living in the city.

Some of the principles of this reinterpreted ethic can be sketched by way of illustration. Not the least important such shift was that of renunciation. No longer need one renounce deeds and actions; rather it was the fruit of one’s actions that one renounced. The Bhagavadgita for example, referred to “fruitless” actions and non-attachment to the fruits of one’s deeds. It was okay, in effect, insofar as it was one’s dharma, to kill one’s enemy so long as one took no pleasure in it. This shift was also implicit in the system known as the varnasrama dharma system - the four stages of life formulated for the brahman male. The first stage was that of the celibate-student (brahmacarya) who sought a guru and lived as a celibate. The second stage now seemed to be the most important, just as it may have been in the Vedic period - that of the householder (grhastya); the home and marriage were seen as a cosmogony, a creation of the universe. It was usually only when children were grown that one entered the third stage and became the “seeker” or hermit (vanaprastha) - a stage of further seeking for the truth.

The household

Despite the continued opportunity for asceticism, there was considerable emphasis during this period on the importance of marriage and the family. The orthoprax family was invariably patrilineal and included sons (and their wives and families) of the patriarch. While monogamy was considered the most desirable form of marriage in the legal literature, polygamy was not uncommon especially amongst the wealthy and royalty. Even polyandry was known to exist as in the case of Draupadi, depicted in the Mah.abh.arata as the wife of five brothers.

Family solidarity, at least among the orthoprax, was often expressed in its ritual life - not only in its daily rituals, but also in its rites of passage. Starting with pre-natal rites, designed, for example, to promote conception and assure a safe pregnancy and childbirth, they continued into a series of post­natal rites enabling the neonate to be accepted fully as a social person. The latter rites included the naming of the child, the offering of its first solid food (annaprasana), and the first tonsure. These rites of passage (samskara), intended primarily for sons of the “twice-born,” continued into the rites of initiation (upanayana) or second birth when the child entered the stage of a student. Initiation (diksa) for the brahman male included donning of a sacred thread, to be worn continuously from that time on, and having the sacred prayer known as the gayatn whispered in his ear, a prayer to the solar deity Savitr found in the Rg Veda.¹²

The education of the young orthoprax brahman male was to consist of studying under a guru where the proper performance of rites and the memorization of Vedic stanzas would occur.

The role of women

It is also apparent that women were expected to fill certain roles in orthoprax vaidika settings. It may not be too simplistic to suggest that there were thought to be at least three “types” of woman.¹³ The first was that of wife and mother. The role of wife and mother was auspicious. She was creatrix and perpetuator of the “traditions.” She was sati (from as - to be) - that is, she fulfilled the role of ideal woman - chaste, competent in the household, making of her home a microcosm of dharma. She was to worship her husband (the Manusmrti tells us) irrespective of a husband’s worthiness. Just as her husband fulfilled the imagery of “sacrifice” in his role as husband, so she too was to perform “sacrifice” in her role as wife/mother. The wife who fulfilled her dharmic obligations was afforded respect and was thought to have considerable power even after death. She came to be known as a sumanigali, an ideal woman through whom children could be born and wealth and religious merit could be accumulated.¹⁴ Hence, the role of wife and mother was viewed with some ambiguity by the orthodox male. While honored, on the one hand, for the capacity to give love, comfort, and happiness, she was, nonetheless, expected to be obedient and subservient to her husband. And at least by the late centuries bce, her freedom of movement outside the home was increasingly restricted and her ability to participate in public vaidika ceremonies curtailed. Yet by the eighth century ce, there were women poets, patrons of temple rituals and commentators on scriptures.¹⁵

Girls generally were prepared from childhood for marriage, the purposes of which were thought to include the promotion of religious traditions, assuring progeny, and enjoying sexual pleasure.

A second type of woman was the widow. Such texts as the Manusmrti tell us she was “auspicious” only insofar as she remained faithful to her dead husband. In fact, however, her life was deemed to be inauspicious indeed. Especially by the early centuries of the common era, she was expected to live a life of simplicity in the home of her in-laws and not remarry. Her regimen, at least in orthoprax homes, was that of an ascetic: eating simply, dressing without ornaments or colored garments, sleeping on the ground. She was expected to spend her time engaged in performing religious rites on behalf of her deceased husband awaiting the possibility of rejoining him.

It is in the context of those circumstances that the practice of a widow’s being immolated on the funeral pyre of her dead husband - the practice which came to be known as sati - is to be viewed. Precisely when this practice started is not clear - it was apparently rare during the early years of this period, as occasional reference to it is made in the epic literature.¹⁸ Interestingly, however, even in the conservative Laws of Manu where the widow’s lot is described, there is no suggestion that she should cast herself on her husband’s funeral pyre.

A third “model” of the woman in this urban period was that of the courte­san. The courtesan was an auspicious figure (as described in the KamasUtra) not only because of her sexual power, but also because she had access to the highest circles of the court. She could appear and dispute in public settings; she had access to many of the “arts,” and not only those which might be considered “feminine.” Rather, she could be a mathematician, engineer, and virtually any other of the occupations and avocations of her time. Frescoes of the Gupta period depict courtesans favorably, accompanied by attendants. It is conceivable that the role of courtesan coupled with that of wife/mother provided some impetus for the depiction of goddesses who are described in the classical literature of the period.

A variation of the court mistress was that of temple courtesan. The earliest inscriptional reference to “religious prostitution” was in Ramgarh, central India, in the second century bce.²¹ Insofar as the deity in a temple was perceived to have all the accouterments of royalty, by the fourth century in many parts of India, a harem was considered an appropriate part of the deity’s entourage.²² Known as devadasis (female servant of god) in the south, and usually the daughter of a woman who had served in a similar capacity, she would have been given for a lifetime of service to a temple, where she could be available to serve those whom the deity “favored.” Often she became proficient in the arts, not least the sacred dances associated with worship. By the eleventh century, large temples were known to have significant “staffs” of devadasis - some 500 in the temple of Somnath in Gujarat, for example,²³ and 400 in the Cola temple to Brhadisvara in Tanjore, Tamil Nadu.²⁴ These women have been known by various terms over the centuries by Indian or colonialist interpreters: sacred artists who emulated the dancing of the heavenly dancers (apsaras); dancing “virgins” and/or sexual slaves.²⁵

A fourth “model” may be evident in this period as well. Illustrated by the women who joined the Buddhist monastic settings or entered forested circles of seekers: she was the woman who eschewed the expected social con­ventions and opted to have direct access to the way of truth or to a life of mysticism. This model became even more visible in the post-classical period when we learn of poetesses (e.g., Mahadevyakka, Mirabai,.Antal) and others who avoided marriage or normal social interaction in order to “be at the feet of the lord”.

Jati or "caste"

Another aspect of lifestyle during this period was the brahmanic attempt to account for social and cultural diversity. As we have noted, there was a significant increase in the number of non-vaidika peoples in cities of the Gangetic basin, some of them of rural or tribal background. There was a concomitant increase in the kinds of jobs and occupations held by this diverse population. Guilds were increasingly representative of these diverse occupational groups. Further, many of these occupations were passed on from father to son. Occupation, that is, had become increasingly a matter of birth (jati). Brahmanical attempts to classify these new occupational groups and communities tried to link them to the older varna system, in which there had been four categories. In the Manusmrti we find these “new” communities were to be classified in one of three ways: they resulted from a mythological intermarriage between two (or more) of the original four categories; or they “fell” from the level of the twice-born groups because they had neglected their vaidika rites, and hence, they could theoretically be reinitiated; or they were simply beyond the pale and not included in the system - this could be the case with mleccha (barbarians or “outsiders”) and candala (outcasted). In this third grouping, we find the legitimation of untouchability in the name of maintaining brahmanical ritual purity (see Manusmrti, Chapter 10).

These groups or jatis classified in the brahmanic literature, are what eventually came to be known as “caste.” The term “caste,” a relatively recent one, is derived from the Portuguese term “castd” and refers to the multiple strata of Indian society wherein occupation (and relative status) was largely hereditary. Viewed in its most positive light, “caste” did generally provide a sense of kinship within a given caste, training for an occupation, and some degree of reciprocity between “castes” as skills and products were exchanged. But as an endogamous system, it became increasingly rigid, and social mobility and intermarriage were discouraged if not forbidden. Those in the higher circles of society sometimes sought to legitimate their status by arguing that it was the result of karma from past actions as well as a way to preserve ritual purity and social position in the face of urban pluralism and the presence of people who engaged in “polluting” occupations. For those in the lower brackets of society and “outcastes,” however, it meant increas­ingly not being allowed access to opportunities, social and religious, available to the “vaidika” elites. For “untouchables” it would mean living outside the area of the cities where the “twice-born” lived and refraining from letting their very shadows fall on the person or path of the upper classes.

The symbolism of food

One of the ways in which social distinctions and reciprocities were upheld in “vaidika” society was in the practices associated with the consumption of food. Some early texts had used food as a metaphor for social status wherein the consumption was likened to the control or destruction of those one hated or over whom one claimed superiority. As an author of the Satapatha Brahmana put it: “The sacrificer [makes] food of whoever hates him, of whomever he hates, and puts them into [the sacrificial fire].”²⁶ Now, on the other hand, many of the texts of the urban period offered extended discussions on which foods were appropriate to eat and which were not. The DharmasUtras - treatises on proper behavior designed primarily for brahman males - offer scores of stanzas declaring what foods should be eaten or avoided, how they should be prepared, and how and when they should be offered to the gods or other persons.

In a certain sense, one was what one ate - or, at least, one’s identity and relative ritual purity were enacted in the ways food was cooked, eaten, and served. Foods were thought to reflect the basic character of the universe (cf. Bhagavadgita 17: 7-10) - “sattvic” foods, such as most vegetables, milk, or dairy products, were believed to enhance spiritual awareness and ritual purity, so were favored by orthoprax brahmans; foods which had the character of rajas (such as meat, garlic, or onions) were thought to generate passion and action and were, for the most part, appropriate for the warrior but not for the brahman; “tamasic” foods such as liquor or stale food were thought to instill inertia and slothfulness and hence were appropriate only for the lower strata of society. The qualities of various castes were thought to have been consistent with the nature of the food they ate.²⁷

Many rules developed as to when one should fast or feast, to whom and when one should offer food, and, not least important, when and how to offer food to the gods. By the medieval period, for example, many of the offerings made to the deities in temples were of foods. These offerings, once “con­sumed” by the deity, would be redistributed to devotees in the form of prasada (literally, “favor”). Such prasida, incidentally, was the only form of “leftovers” believed to be auspicious for the orthoprax to consume. To this day, rituals associated with food embody much as to the ways in which various Indian communities express themselves and their relationship to others and to the deities.

Yoga

In addition to the disciplines of the householder and the correct preparation and eating of foods, room was left open for more stringent disciplines, especially those in which the male might engage after his sons had grown. Even in one’s lifetime, household rituals came to be perceived as a form of “sacrifice” continuing the Vedic metaphor, albeit without a massive sacrificial complex. The technique known as yoga served as the sacrifice par excellence.

Derived from the term yuj (yoke), yoga had been used in the later Upanisadsas a generic term for the techniques to attain moksa (liberation). Sometime around the middle of the second century bce, the Yogasutras, ascribed to a sage called Patanjali, were written. Herein we find the spelling out of the ways in which the body could be homologized to the cosmos and became “sacred space.” It was a form of ritual; indeed it was sacrifice; in fact the Bhagavadgita’s discussion of yogic techniques began with a refer­ence to the myth of the primal sacrifice. Meditation was tapas, inner heat - the sacrificial system was internalized: the yogin’s backbone was the hiranyagarbha; cakras (circles) rendered the body congruent to the universe.

Some forms of yoga were clearly borrowed from Jainism and Buddhism. Such was the case with the system known as layayoga (ethical yoga) and here two forms of ethical behavior were prescribed: yama (restraint) was the path of refraining from activities believed to be injurious (hence, the practice of celibacy, non-stealing, and others); on the other hand, niyama was an ethic of commission - taking appropriate action that prepared the person for further exercises. Hatha yoga was the term given for the use of the body ritually. This included, most particularly, hundreds of asanas - postures designed to enhance the body-cosmos equation. The lotus posture, for example, was intended to place the seeker at the “beginning of the universe” where the lotus was first thought to have arisen. Pranayama or breath control included techniques thought to purify the mythical channels which permit the flow of the five breaths of which Upanisadic sages had spoken. Finally, there were developed stages of yoga which were focused in the mind and known as raja yoga (the “king” of yogas). These stages and techniques includedpratyahara (control of the senses); dharana (focusing on a symbolic object - for example, an icon, the navel); dhyana (the term from which Chan, Zen, and Thien came, names for schools of Buddhism in China, Japan, and Vietnam respectively) was the capacity to meditate or approach insight in a way that transcended any object or word. It was “wordless contemplation” and the penultimate stage to the attainment of transcendent consciousness (samadhi), the final stage the seeker would attain.²⁸

No doubt this system had its roots in the Upanisadic setting where asceticism and the forest life took high priority. Yet yoga continued as a viable way to maintain the renunciate life even within one’s household or in an urban setting. It was a technique preserved for the disciplined few.

Summary

Certain consistent themes recurred throughout the various attempts by brahmanical pandits and writers to reinterpret the vaidika tradition and accommodate it to the pluralism of the urban complex. These themes included sacrifice, dharma, and ritual. Worshiping the deity in the temple was ritual; it was also dharma and sacrifice. Following certain prescribed laws and behaviors was dharma'; it was also sacrifice and ritual. Living the life of the householder and maintaining the sacrality of the home was dharma and sacrifice and was perpetuated by ritual. It was in enactment, gesture, and performance that vaidika tradition was purveyed and one’s identity was expressed. Texts, for the most part, described these enactments and were post facto to them. It is difficult to overstate the significance in this period of ritual enactment as perhaps the quintessential way of being religious and of expressing who one was. This appears to be true as well for much of the rest of Hinduism’s religious history.