The Kosala–Videha area was one of great mixture of peoples due to various
movements of tribes and individuals, and consequently also of ideas (Witzel
1989a: 236, 1997a). It also was a part of the spread-zone of the western, Kuru
type Vedic orthopraxy. Some late- or post-Vedic immigrants such as the Malla,
Vr.ji (Vajji), or especially the S ́a ̄kya, may be Iranian tribes (Witzel 1989a: 239)
who may have transmitted (para-)Zoroastrian influence. Further, there was
admixture of local Mun.d.a peoples (AB 7.18), of older, eastern Indo-Aryan set-
tlers, and of contemporaneous immigrants including many western Brahmins.
A comparison of the late Vedic and early Buddhist texts indicates admixture of
the older, para-Vedic Indo-Aryan religion of the East with the orthodoxy and
orthopraxy of the “missionary” Kuru-Pañca ̄la Brahmins of the West, who were
invited by such kings as Maha ̄kosala and (Maha ̄)-Janaka (Witzel 1989a, 1997a)
of the emerging large kingdoms of Kosala and Magadha. Finally, there was the
social ferment created by the contemporaneously emerging cities (of the so-
called second urbanization, after the Indus civilization). The Vedic texts hardly,
if ever, speak about towns (Mylius 1969); however, Brahmins never liked their
polluting social atmosphere and rather preferred to live in the countryside where
they could regulate their life properly. Yet, by the time of the Pali texts, cities are
fully established, with rich merchants carrying out a long distance overland
trade (of the luxury article, Northern Black Polished Ware), and brahmins living
in the formerly off-limits lands of Magadha and An.ga.
All of these admixtures supplied the ideal breeding ground for the meeting of
ideas and the development of new concepts. Just as the break-up of the old
R.gvedic tribal society caused enormous social and religious change (see above),
the new stratified and partly aristocratic, partly oligarchic (not a “republican”
one, Rhys-Davies 1911), and partly urban society of the East witnessed the
emergence of many of the typically Upanis.adic ideas described above.
The so-called Middle Up.s (I ̄s ́a, Kat.ha, Kena, Pras ́na, Mun.d.a, Ma ̄n.d.u ̄kya,
S ́veta ̄s ́vatara, Maha ̄na ̄rayan.a, etc.) are no longer composed in prose but in verse
and are heavily influenced by the post-Vedic (Epic) language. Many of them show
a tendency towards the sectarian worship of a particular deity. The Sam.nya ̄sa
Up.s (Sprockhoff 1976, Olivelle 1992), composed around 300 bce, discuss
the newly introduced life stage of the renouncer. The Bhagavadgı ̄ta ̄ of the
Maha ̄bha ̄ratais sometimes regarded as an Up. as well. Sectarian Up.s (in Epic/
Classical Sanskrit) have been composed well into the Middle Ages. In the inter-
pretation of the Upanis.ads the eighth century monistic philosopher S ́an.kara has
played an important but generally overrated role. We still are in need of a detailed
philological edition and discussion of the important older Upanis.ads.
The S ́rautasu ̄tras
The Vedic canon concludes with the late Vedic Su ̄tras (“thread, guideline,” or
Kalpasu ̄tra“ritual guidelines”) which form the trueend of the Vedic period and
86 michael witzel