What Is The Renouncer Tradition Essays - Indian Religions

What Is The Renouncer Tradition What is meant by the ?renouncer' tradition? Before I begin to explain what exactly the renouncer tradition is, I think that it is important to give a brief outline of the religious history pre-dating this tradition, and also to acknowledge the social life at the time and its mentality. By the time that the renouncer tradition was beginning to establish some recognition, sixth century B.C.E, a group of texts called the Veda had been in existence and had been enjoying their religious influence upon the Indian culture for about a thousand years. It is presumed that a group of people called the Aryas had boasted a great influence in certain parts of India, and it is from their ideology that the Vedic tradition arose. This ideology, for the most part, was developed by a hereditary group within this Aryan society known as brahmanas, and their literature was the Veda. At the forefront of the Veda's ideology, was ritual sacrifice. They saw it as a creation of inherently magic powers, a sort of mimetic magic, i.e by performing certain sacrifices one would create an effect in reality - a sort of voodoo practice. They believed that this ritual ?keyed' them into life, and therefore great emphasis was placed on maintaining these ritual sacrifices so as to maintain order. to know sacrifice is to know and control the world.? - Flood - Introduction to Hinduism. The central rite of the religion was when the priest/brahmin, sang the praises to a particular devas/god, from sacred sacrificial verses known as mantras, and offered him sacrifices by placing it in the sacrificial fire. This rendition of these mantras, was also seen as manipulating a sacred power known as Brahman, so this act of ritual sacrifice can be seen as almost a bribe to the gods/devas, to ensure order within the cosmos and giving what was wanted. As one can see, the priest held a very significant role with the ritual sacrifice, it was considered a great responsibility as the act itself was very important. This was reflected by being placed at the top of a hierarchical class system, of four social classes. The class that you were in was determined by birth and here one would remain for the entirety of their life; Brahmins, Ksatriya's (warriors/leaders - maintained order in society), Vaisya's (generated wealth through trade and farming) and finally Sudra's (servants - served a ll the other classes). These four social classes, of brahmanical society, fall again into two groups; Aryas and non-Aryas. The Aryas group consists of the top three classes of the hierarchical classes previously mentioned, they are referred to as ?twice-born' (dvija). The male members of this group go through a form of initiation and go on to study the vedic tradition under the supervision of a Brahmin teacher. When they have completed their studies their duties consist of maintaning a sacrificial fire and performing rituals in the presence of the priest. The non-Aryas group consists of the lowest social group, the sudras. By accepting this brahmanical view of the world, one was accepting their authority. At the time of the renouncer tradition, many of the brahmins aimed at the heaven of the creator god Brahma, through means such as sacrifice, austerities, study of the vedic teachings and truthfulness, however, this orthodox practice of the brahmins was not carried out by all brahmins. At this time, corruption had formed within this religious movement. Some brahmins were reaping in the rewards of large and expensive bloody sacrifices, which were often paid by kings, the teaching had become distorted, too much emphasis was being placed on the sacrifice, rather than any type of symbolistic or esoteric knowledge of it (.iii.) When reflecting on the social position at this time, one will notice a disruption here also. Urbanisation was expanding as well as trade, roads were improving, and this enabled new ideas to circulate more quickly, particularly of those of the wandering ascetic. Emphasis on trade and enterprises heightened individual values and needs above the wider social group, it was a ?form of individuality which emphasised the distinct self.? - Introduction to Hinduism - Flood. It was in this context of urbanisation that the renouncer