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Two thousand years ago, the Vedic world faced a great crisis. The concept of Kalyug became very popular in literature giving rise to Puranic chronicles, where new gods such as Shiva and Vishnu become dominant, replacing old gods like Indra, Surya, and Varuna. This marked three changes: mercantilism was on the rise, ascetic traditions of Buddhism and Jainism were becoming popular; new rulers were coming from the northwest: Sakas (Scythians), Pahlavas (Parthians), Yavanas (Indo-Greeks), and Kushans (Gui Shuang from the Chinese part of Central Asia).

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The body of the Veda (Veda-anga) became critical for survival of the Brahmin community. This included texts related to language (etymology, phonetics, poetics, grammar), texts related to ritual measurement (Sulba-Sutra) and time measurement (Jyotish-Shastra), texts related to home rituals (Grihas-sutra), public rituals (Srauta-Sutra) and rites of passage (Dharma-shastra) for the four major communities (varna) of society. This is when Veda attained supernatural status—it was not composed by men, it was revealed by gods to man. Brahmins presented themselves as experts (shastri) different from rishis, who communicated with gods. This was the age of Manu and Kautilya; the age when water and flowers became part of ritual mainstream.

Vedanga seems to have emerged in the middle part of India that is in the Narmada region, which divides North and South India. By the end of the Vedanga period, Hinduism through its Brahmins reached the coasts of India. In other words, the whole of India was now familiar with the Brahmin way which provides kings the tools of kingship.

From about a thousand years ago, Vedanta started becoming increasingly dominant, as people moved away from all kinds of ritualism, as India came increasingly in control of iconoclastic rulers, first Muslims then Portuguese and British. Vedanta’s popularity today owes itself to Brahmins from the South: Adi Shankaracharya from Chera desha, Ramanuja from Tamil desha, Madhwa from Karnataka desha, Vallabha from Andhra desha, Chaitanya from Vanga-Kalinga desha.

Unlike Vedanga which was championed by householders, Vedanta was championed by celibate ascetic Hindu monks, who had supplanted Buddhist monks. If Vedanga was about the body (anga) of the Veda, Vedanta was like the inside (antara) of the Veda, the final learning. Vedanta gave Vedic validation to bhakti movements, folk rituals and temple traditions. In colonial times, it formed a common intellectual foundation for Hindu thought.

Devdutt Pattanaik writes and lectures on the relevance of mythology in modern times. Reach him at devdutt.pattanaik@mid-day.com