From Vedic ritual landscapes to regional religious cultures

Detailed chapter description

Chapter argument. Religious change in early Mithilā–Videha, Vajji and Aṅga was cumulative and plural. Vedic ritual traditions were extended eastward and transformed in the courts of Videha; Buddhist, Jain and other śramaṇa communities then became deeply embedded in the urban and political landscapes of Vaiśālī and Campā; and Mauryan and later monumentality made some sacred memories archaeologically durable. The chapter keeps textual, archaeological and inscriptional layers separate, treats “Greater Magadha” as a debated interpretive model rather than a fixed cultural border, and rejects both a timeless regional religion and a simple replacement sequence. The religious history of early Mithilā–Videha, Vajji and Aṅga cannot be reconstructed by projecting later, neatly bounded communities backward into the first millennium BCE. “Vedic,” “Brahmanical,” “Buddhist” and “Jain” are indispensable analytical terms, but each covers internal variation and long chronological development. Households could maintain rites of kinship, fertility, ancestors, protection and seasonal obligation that elite texts barely describe. Kings could patronise sacrificial specialists while also receiving renouncers and teachers. Merchants and urban householders could donate to more than one religious network. Ascetic communities themselves debated discipline, doctrine and acceptable relations with lay society. The chapter therefore treats religion as a changing field of institutions, practices, patronage and ideas. It asks how ritual authority moved eastward, how Videha became a celebrated courtly setting for Vedic and Upaniṣadic discourse, how Vajji and Aṅga became central to śramaṇa itineraries, and how later monuments materialised memories that were not necessarily monumental at the beginning.