Religious Process The Puranas and the Making of a Regional Tradition (OIP) [Paperback]

This book traces the evolution of a process of interaction between Brahmanism and the indigenous social groups of Bengal during the early medieval period. Following the logic of cultural negotiation implicit in the Puranas composed composed in Bengal, the book unravels a pattern that governed this relationship of recirpocity, contestation and domination. Two significant methodoligical issues have been addressed--the manner in which didactic Sanskritic texts can be read for the reconstruction of early Indian history and the application of anthropological models, such as great and little traditions, to such texts for a more comprehensive understanding of the Indian culture continuum. The book focuses on Bengal, but cultural negotiations refers to a fundamental civilizational pocess common to most regions in India, and as such has wider relevance.

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations

I. Introduction
II. Texts and Traditions: The Bengal Puranas
III. Cultural Interaction and Religious Process
IV. The Diffusion of Brahmanism and the Trnasformation of Buddhism
V. Appropriation as a Historical Process: The Cult of the Goddess
VI. Vratas: The Transmission of Brahmanical Culture
VII. The Making of the Regional Tradition of Bengal

Bibliography
Index

Kunal Chakrabartiis Professor of Ancient Indian History at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.