of the period tended to stress asceticism and the life of seekers who
combined understanding with disciplined action. It was a period during
which theism played little role and where the two most common ways for the
serious seeker to attain ultimate destiny were through wisdom (jña ̄na) and
appropriate action (karma). The sacrificial system of the Vedic period was
less visible, though it was no doubt retained in certain royal circles with the
help of priests. Clearly, non-brahmanic communities had left their mark
on the Indian landscape, though it is more difficult to discern to what extent
the developments represented contributions from “folk” or non-elite
sources. It had been, in many ways, a transitional period which led to an
explosion of religious developments in the later urban period. It is to that
period in Indian religious history that we now turn.
Recommended reading
On the Upanisa.ds, et al.
Deussen, P. The Philosophy of the Upanisa.ds. NY: Dover, 1966 (reprint)
Keith, A. B. The Religion and Philosophy of the Vedas and Upanisa.ds. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1925.
O’Flaherty, W. D. ed. Karma and Rebirth, Classical Indian Tradition. Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1980.
Olivelle, P. tr. The As ́rama System: The History and Hermeneutics of a Religious Tradition.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1953.
Olivelle, P. tr. Renunciation in Hinduism: A Medieval Debate. Two volumes. Vienna:
Institute of Indology, University of Vienna, 1986–87.
Olivelle, P. tr. Sam.nya ̄sa Upanis.ads.Hindu Scriptures in Asceticism and Renunciation.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Olivelle, P. tr. The Upanisa.ds. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
On Jainism
Babb, Alan. Absent Lord. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.
Bhattacharya, Narendra Nath. Jain Philosophy in Historical Outline. Delhi: Manshiram
Manoharlal, 1976.
Caillat, C. and Kumar, R. The Jain Cosmology. New York: Navin Kumar, Inc., 1981.
Cort, John. ed. Open Boundaries, Jain Communities and Culture in Indian History. Albany:
SUNY Press, 1998.
Dundas, Paul. The Jains. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1992.
Fischer, E. and Jain, J. Art and Rituals: 2500 Years of Jainism in India. New Delhi:
Sterling Publishers, 1977.
Folkert, Kendall W. Scripture and Community: Collected Essays on the Jains. ed. John Cort.
Atlanta: Scholastic Press, 1993.
Granoff, P. ed. No Clever Adulteress, A Treasury of Jain Literature. Oakville: Mosaic Press,
1990.
48 The Early Urban Period