Religion in India: A Historical Introduction

5 The Post-classical Period

South India

Bhakti

The emergence of temples

The Co ̄l

̄

as

Deities as reflections of cultural history

Philosophical developments

S ́aiva Siddha ̄ nta

Advaita

North India

Temple construction

Tantrism

The rise of the goddesses to “high deity” status

Buddhism and Jainism

Recommended reading

South India

Up until now, the accounts of historical developments in religion have been
focused on the northern part of the subcontinent, and especially in the
Gangetic basin. We turn our attention now to South India which provides
us many windows into the development of religion in the post-classical
period. For one thing, we have, in the south, documentation and resources
that help us understand the nature of religion and culture prior to the
“brahmanical synthesis.” The processes of brahmanization can be traced with
some clarity. Not least important, the deep South became, arguably, the
major center of “Hindu” civilization from the eighth through the fifteenth