168 Part III: South Asia
Also during these centuries, Hinduism was changing, or as some argue, it
was actually coming into existence, depending on how one wants to think of
the Brahman-dominated practices of previous centuries all the way back to the
Vedic Age. Where Brahman ritualism had been court- and household-based,
there emerged a new intense devotionalism to particular gods for whom tem-
ples were built as centers of worship. The most popular deities were not exactly
new, but newly dominant, especially three: Shiva, Vishnu, and the divine femi-
nine, Devi (Shakti). These high gods and goddesses were known through com-
pilations of mythology about them in the many Puranas, and numerous other
deities were declared to be incarnations of a single high god. For example,
Kali, Durga, Sati, Sita, Saraswati, Chinnamasta, and Gauri are all forms of
Devi. Vishnu had 10 incarnations, including Krishna, Ram, and the Buddha.The Indo-Islamic Period (Twelfth to Nineteenth^ Centuries)
The Indo-Islamic period began with a series of hit-and-run incursions from
the west, but finally produced two settled historic periods in which rich hybrid
cultures were created by the intermixture of Afghan-Turkish-Persian-Mongol-
Indian cultural strands. Everything was affected: society, religion, art, and
architecture, so that we can speak of a civilization that became “Indo-Islamic.”
For most of this time, local populations lived peacefully together in towns andTwo Rajput warriors in a wall fresco in Jodhpur, Rajasthan.