objects and symbols such as icons and representations of Buddha could
symbolize the state of Buddhahood insofar as the phenomenal world was
potentially a reflection of “ultimacy,” that is, Buddha. Buddhism had been
more or less turned on its head – from an atheistic movement for the highly
disciplined to a movement in which Buddhahood could be seen and
venerated virtually anywhere.
We return now to the brahmanical response to this process. Theistic
brahmanism became increasingly visible by the third century BCE. A number
of elements stimulated this phenomenon; kings were powerful figures in
their own right and became the patrons of specific deities who were repre-
sented as the celestial counterparts to the kings. Tribal folk groups and clans
who were now part of the city and who had brought their indigenous deities
with them were incorporated under the hegemony of the king by virtue of
having their deities co-opted into the mythology of the emerging “high
gods.” The brahmans were the mythmakers who told the stories of these
gods’ emergence to power and of their exploits. They linked newer deities
to the older gods of the Vedic period by equating them, by making them
their genealogical heirs, or by ascribing them the weaponry of the older
deities. As a result of this process, certain deities emerged to the status of a
high god with full patronage of dynasties. Incidentally, a very similar process
occurs today in cities on the subcontinent to which rural folk have brought
their deities, which are, in turn, classicized by the brahmanized interpreters
of the tradition.
It is worth sketching in these stories of the deities briefly: S ́iva was one of
these gods. The mythmakers linked the “Epic” S ́iva to the “Vedic” Rudra
(both were red and strong), even though S ́iva apparently had a number of
non-brahmanic roots. The Vedic Rudra was a relatively minor deity of storm
and terror. By the late urban period we find Rudra-S ́iva to be a warrior par
excellence, celestial counterpart to the warrior king. But because he was red
Rudra-S ́iva was also linked mythically to the brahmanical sacrificial tradition
of Agni, the personified fire. Moreover, some scholars claimed S ́iva to have
been part of the Indus Valley (a somewhat dubious claim, to be sure), yet
he was the god of outsiders, associated with cemeteries, forests, and non-
urban places. In other depictions he was the yogin par excellence, the cosmic
counterpart for the ideal person described in the literature of this period.
In short, S ́iva was the god of warrior king, brahmin sacrificer, forest dweller,
yogin, etc. – a god for all people.
In a similar way, Skanda emerged as a high god in the courts of the S ́akas,
Kus.a ̄n.as, and Guptas. The mythmakers linked him to Vedic images of youth-
fulness (kuma ̄ra) and wisdom, and described him as the son of Rudra
and Agni; yet, he apparently also embodied some six folk hero deities who
were co-opted into his six heads. He also reflected the heroism of the post-
58 The Urban Period