Ethnicity and Religious Heritage

Author(s): T U Mehta
Publisher: T U Mehta

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Indian Ethnicity and Religious Heritage
Jainism and Buddhism belong to Shramana tradition.
Vedic Rituals
Shramana tradition is bascially different from the Vedic one, which believed in propitiating deities representing different forces of nature such as rains, wind, fire etc. This propitiation began by performing Yajnas wherein many things including domestic animals were offered to fire. This practice resulted in Vedic scriptures called "Brahmanas", which prescribed in great details the ceremonial rituals for the performance of Yajnas with the help of prisestly class of Brahmins.
Age of Upanishadas
From the very initial stages, the Shramana traditions tried to put emphaisis not on ceremonial practices but on personal efforts to obtain Divine dispensations. On account of this, there was a gradual intellectual renascence in Vedic tradition giving rise to more rational interpretation to Vedic tradition giving rise to more rational interpretation to