state briefly the changes that took place in the society in the brahmins in the later Vedic age
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Answer:From visionary sage-priest-poet-singers to ritualistic performers and mundane philosophers.
The Brahmins, a class comprising of sub-classes of kavis, vipras, ṛṣis, brahmās were actually very much gifted, visionaries, poets and singers who could compose verses and sacred formulas (brahman) involving the Ṛta, encompassing the subtle Reality in its varying forms, inspired by divine vision. They were known for their wisdom and vision, their literary talent and spiritual charisma, in the early Vedic age.
People believed in their vision, and therefore regarded them as the forefront of the religion. However, the kings, who followed a primitive ritualistic religion, wanted these sage-poets, wise-men and formulators to recite/sing/mutter/chant their verses/songs/formulas in the ritual so that the ritual becomes blessed. Often, the wise men had this as their bread-winning job as well; so they did chant the verses they composed in these rituals, by accepting the patronage of kings. If the rituals were successful, the kings would choose more likely to gift these wise-men, which fed the latter. If the king wouldn’t choose to gift the poets, the poets had no choice but to accept their bad destiny and curse the king for spoiling the trust. As they say, their brahman (verse) was their armour. Some unfortunate poets had to even beg for living because of betrayal by the old friendly chiefs who should have helped them. (Cf. Bhikṣu Āṅgirasa)
Still, the Brahmins were mostly respected though their only job was to chant their own verses and lore in the rituals and somehow make the king win in his triumph. However, with the unification of various Vedic tribes and rise of stable tribe-independent pan Aryan monarchies since the Kuru age, the situations began to differ. The much of wars and changes in rule shattered the religious ideas among the royals, who began to blame the devas for their loss. (or for the success of enemy) People believed that devas resided only in the particular mantras which should be used for the ritual. They began to believe that it is the ritual which matters, not the deities. As a result, a standardization of rituals, and pan-clan codification of mantras took place whereby the saṃhitās and rituals were codified during Kuru age. This made upset the poet-priest clans, as their divine verses won’t ever be respected or valued anymore by anyone in the society. Moreover, the new generations began to go for pure priesthood in these new codified rituals using some old mantras here and there from various saṃhitās, often neglecting their meaning. The Brāhmaṇa texts and prose ritual material of Yajurveda were composed.
This made the whole basis of Brahmins change - from vision, spirituality and creativity, to priest, performer or sometimes mundane philosopher roles. With the absence of Ṛṣis, the descendant priests began to themselves lose the infallible faith in the divinity of the religious heads in new society. As a result, they termed themselves avaras (“later people”) as opposed to those in the ages of Ṛṣis. Moreover, the kings who disagreed with the ritualistic religion began supporting newer philosophies like Śramaṇic ones. The Brahmins and Kshatriyas, at least for them, were nearly equal in greatness. (Though the Brahmins couldn’t accept it)
However, the Brahmins had to preserve the work of their forefathers. Those who rejected the rituals were in fact also rejecting the Vedas, as the actual sense of what were the Vedas for, was lost over these years - even Brahmins themselves had no idea. People at first tried to speculate ritualistic meanings for everything. However, the more opportunistic philosophers used the same Kshatriyan philosophies of rebirth and karma, to write and explain off a section of texts called Upaniṣads, and make the Kshatriyas somehow believe that this is the Vedānta, and forms part of Vedas which have to be hence preserved.
The Brahmins were still a migrating group, with a few royally patronized ones enjoying land and resources.
The Vedāntins themselves thought and explained off the Upaniṣads in terms of terminology closer to the Shramanic religions, and finally challenging the Kshatriyan dominated religions. Śaṅkara brought this as a cause to ultimately save Brahmanism, though with a new forefront - the Vedantin outlook instead of the ritualistic one. Slowly, Shramanic religions which were unable to appeal to the theistic principles and common man’s emotions and thoughts were shattered by the new “Hinduism” which used Vedanta as the chariot horse to engulf the common religions and Sanskritize them to validate themselves and also keep preserving the ancient texts.
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