The Śramaṇa culture of Greater Magadha developed parallel to but separate from the Vedic culture to its west,[3][4] that was characteristic of the upper Ganges basin (Ganga-Yamuna doab).
According to Bronkhorst, the sramana culture arose in "Greater Magadha," which was Indo-Aryan, but not Vedic. In this culture, Kshatriyas were placed higher than Brahmins, and rejected Vedic authority and rituals.[1][5]
Overview
The concept was developed in a book by the indologist Johannes Bronkhorst (2007),[1] where he defines the region to comprise modern day Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh. They developed an ideological opposition to the sacrifice and ritual slaying of animals. Later this non-vedic traditions gave rise to religions or schools of philosophy such as Jainism which later gave rise to concepts like ahimsa.[6]
According to Bronkhorst, the śramana culture arose in "Greater Magadha," which was Indo-Aryan, but not Vedic. In this culture, Kshatriyas were placed higher than Brahmins, and it rejected Vedic authority and rituals.[1][5]
Out of the ideological opposition between these two cultural spheres – the vedic realm of Kuru-Panchala in the west, and śramana of Greater Magadha in the east – developed the two main religious & spiritual ideologies of Ancient India.
Vedic religion, which placed a lot of importance on the system of ritual correctness, arose out of the culture of the erstwhile Kuru-Panchala realm, while the śramaṇa tradition, which placed emphasis on the spiritual works,[7] that developed in Greater Magadha, later to gave rise to non-vedic (non-brahmanical) religions such as Buddhism, Jainism, Ajivika, Lokāyata and Ajñana.
Olivelle, Patrick (1993). The āśrama system: the history and hermeneutics of a religious institution. New York. pp.11–16. ISBN978-0-19-534478-3. OCLC496313855.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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