Vedism and Brahmanism

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Vedism and Brahmanism

VEDISM AND BRAHMANISM. The somewhat imprecise terms Vedism and Brahmanism refer to those forms of Hinduism that revolve primarily around the mythic vision and ritual ideologies presented by the Vedas. These terms are classifications that have been used by historians to categorize in a typological manner a variety of religious beliefs and practices in ancient and contemporary South Asia. Vedic and Brahmanic religious sensibilities are thereby distinguished from Agamic, Tantric, and sectarian forms of Hinduism, which look to a variey of non-Vedic texts as the source of religious authority. Vedism is older than Brahmanism, which developed from and remains true to the Vedic worldview but accommodated and remolded the religious ideas and practices of non-Vedic South Asian traditions.

Vedism applies more specifically to the religious ideas and expressions of the Indian branch of the Indo-Europeans who gradually entered the valley of the Indus River in successive waves in the second millennium BCE. These communities regard as sacred and authoritative texts only those orally transmitted collections of poetic hymns (mantras), ritual instructions (Brāhmaṇas), and some of the early philosophical speculations (Ᾱraṇyakas and Upaniṣads) of the Vedic literary corpus. Together, these works are said to constitute sacred "knowledge" (veda, hence Vedism) and are known as śruti, "revealed truth."

Brahmanism developed as the Vedic Indians moved further into the subcontinent to settle in the regions drained by the Ganges River and then southward to the tip of India.

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