addition, any number of gods would have been understood to offer
protection or preside over particular areas or functions. The names of some
of these gods appeared in the epic literature – one such example was Vis ́akha
who was eventually assimilated into the person of Skanda.^49 Goddesses, gods,
and demons alike were considered able to possess people.^50
There are also indications that a number of stories appearing in the epic
literature had folk variants, suggesting either that the classical stories had
folk antecedents or were given nuances reflecting later “folk” settings. This
was the case, for example, with accounts of Arjuna found in Ra ̄jastha ̄nı ̄,
Garhwadı ̄, and Tamil traditions wherein Arjuna was said to have married
a princess of the underworld and where, in the course of providing a funeral
for his father, Pa ̄n.du, he had to fetch back the hide of a rhinoceros.^51
Similarly, Draupadı ̄, heroine and wife of the five Pan.d.a ̄va brothers, was
described in various ways in later folk variants. Among other things, in these
variations, she was depicted as a destructive virgin goddess, born of fire,
taking on a gypsy disguise; she was associated with fire walking and was given
temple guardians, such as Pottura ̄ja, the buffalo king.^52
In addition, we have already alluded to some of the probable influences
that “folk” culture had on “classical” forms of religious practice of this period.
This would have included the role of village dramas in disseminating various
tellings of the Ra ̄ma ̄yan.astories and in the classicization of drama itself.
“Folk” deities were co-opted into the “high gods” of the period, including,
no doubt, most of the teriomorphic forms of Vis.n.u’s avatars. Images and
stories drawn from popular life found their way into both Hindu and
Buddhist iconography and hagiography from the yaks. ̄sıfound in stu ̄palintels
to the episodes ascribed to the life of the Buddha in the Ja ̄taka Tales. Stories
ascribed to the Hindu gods as recorded eventually in the Pura ̄n.assimilarly
made use of motifs found at the popular level. Even the emerging ritual life
associated with temple and icon probably reflected in some way practices
present in the “folk” landscape.
These practices and others illustrate the ways in which common folk acted
out their religious orientations at a level relatively unaffected by the elite.
Some of these practices can still be found in rural settings even as some of
them were “domesticated” and made part of the purview of “classical”
Hinduism and Buddhism.
Developments in Buddhism
We have sketched some of the developments in the vaidikaresponse to urban
culture. Before leaving this time period, it is appropriate to return to
Buddhism and sketch some of the developments therein. First, it may be
78 The Urban Period