List the changes that occurred in Hinduism during 700 AD and 1750 AD.
Answers
Explanation:
Late-Classical Hinduism - Puranic Hinduism (c. 650-1200 CE)
One of the four entrances of the Teli ka Mandir. This Hindu temple was built by the Gurjara-Pratihara emperor Mihira Bhoja.[140]
After the end of the Gupta Empire and the collapse of the Harsha Empire, power became decentralised in India. Several larger kingdoms emerged, with "countless vasal states".The kingdoms were ruled via a feudal system. Smaller kingdoms were dependent on the protection of the larger kingdoms. "The great king was remote, was exalted and deified",[141] as reflected in the Tantric Mandala, which could also depict the king as the centre of the mandala.[142]
The disintegration of central power also lead to regionalisation of religiosity, and religious rivalry.[143][note 34] Local cults and languages were enhanced, and the influence of "Brahmanic ritualistic Hinduism"[143] was diminished.[143] Rural and devotional movements arose, along with Shaivism, Vaisnavism, Bhakti and Tantra,[143] though "sectarian groupings were only at the beginning of their development".[143] Religious movements had to compete for recognition by the local lords.[143] Buddhism lost its position after the 8th century, and began to disappear in India.[143] This was reflected in the change of puja-ceremonies at the courts in the 8th century, where Hindu gods replaced the Buddha as the "supreme, imperial deity".
The Brahmanism of the Dharmashastras and the smritis underwent a radical transformation at the hands of the Purana composers, resulting in the rise of Puranic Hinduism,[41] "which like a colossus striding across the religious firmanent soon came to overshadow all existing religions".[146] Puranic Hinduism was a "multiplex belief-system which grew and expanded as it absorbed and synthesised polaristic ideas and cultic traditions"[146] It was distinguished from its Vedic Smarta roots by its popular base, its theological and sectarioan pluralism, its Tantric veneer, and the central place of bhakti.[146][note 9]
The early mediaeval Puranas were composed to disseminate religious mainstream ideology among the pre-literate tribal societies undergoing acculturation.[41] With the breakdown of the Gupta empire, gifts of virgin waste-land were heaped on brahmanas,[46][147] to ensure profitable agrarian exploitation of land owned by the kings,[46] but also to provide status to the new ruling classes.[46] Brahmanas spread further over India, interacting with local clans with different religions and ideologies.[46] The Brahmanas used the Puranas to incorporate those clans into the agrarian society and its accompanying religion and ideology.[46] According to Flood, "[t]he Brahmans who followed the puranic religion became known as smarta, those whose worship was based on the smriti, or pauranika, those based on the Puranas."[148] Local chiefs and peasants were absorbed into the varna, which was used to keep "control over the new kshatriyas and shudras."[149] The Brahmanic group was enlarged by incorporating local subgroups, such as local priests.[46] This also lead to stratification within the Brahmins, with some Brahmins having a lower status than other Brahmins.[46] The use of caste worked better with the new Puranic Hinduism than with the Sramanic sects.[149] The Puranic texts provided extensive genealogies which gave status to the new kshatriyas.[149] Buddhist myths pictured government as a contract between an elected ruler and the people.[149] And the Buddhist chakkavatti[note 36] "was a distinct concept from the models of conquest held up to the kshatriyas and the Rajputs."[149]
Many local religions and traditions were assimilated into puranic Hinduism. Vishnu and Shiva emerged as the main deities, together with Sakti/Deva.[150] Vishnu subsumed the cults of Narayana, Jagannaths, Venkateswara "and many others".[150] Nath:
some incarnations of Vishnu such as Matsya, Kurma, Varaha and perhaps even Nrsimha helped to incorporate certain popular totem symbols and creation myths, especially those related to wild boar, which commonly permeate preliterate mythology, others such as Krsna and Balarama became instrumental in assimilating local cults and myths centering around two popular pastoral and agricultural gods.[151]
The transformation of Brahmanism into Pauranic Hinduism in post-Gupta India was due to a process of acculturation. The Puranas helped establish a religious mainstream among the pre-literate tribal societies undergoing acculturation. The tenets of Brahmanism and of the Dharmashastras underwent a radical transformation at the hands of the Purana composers, resulting in the rise of a mainstream "Hinduism" that overshadowed all earlier traditions
⇒The social changes that took place in the ten years led to the society becoming more complex. New technology like the persian wheel in irrigation, the spinning wheel in weaving and the firearms in combat were developed
⇒.New foods and beverages like potatoes, corn, chillies, tea and coffee were introduced.These innovations were brought by travellers who came and settled in new lands.
⇒ People were grouped into jats, or sub-caste on the basis of their backgrounds and their occupations.The Rajputs became most powerful and a chivalric code of conduct was developed Marathas, Sikhs, Jats , Ahoms and Kayasthas also became important.