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.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.AcknowledgementsAbbreviationsI. IntroductionII. Texts and Traditions: The Bengal PuranasIII. Cultural Interaction and Religious ProcessIV. The Diffusion of Brahmanism and the Trnasformation of BuddhismV. Appropriation as a Historical Process: The Cult of the GoddessVI. Vratas: The Transmission of Brahmanical CultureVII. The Making of the Regional Tradition of BengalBibliographyIndexKunal Chakrabartiis Professor of Ancient Indian History at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.