Ritual, Ascetic, and Meditative Practice in the Veda and Upaniṣads

Abstract

This chapter examines ascetic and meditation practices as borne witness to in the ancient scriptures of Hinduism, the Vedas and Upaniṣads. Close to the appearance of Buddhism towards the sixth or fifth century BCE, the already rich textual heritage of the Veda emerged as a canonical collection rearranged for ritual use. Most of its texts had been composed centuries earlier, beginning in the north-west areas of the Greater Punjab, and continued to grow while transmitted orally over a period of several centuries. All that accompanied a slow movement towards east and south of the Vedic tribes and clans. They fought and formed alliances among themselves and with others in the process of growing cultural synthesis. The complex Vedic canon represents a religion which modern scholarship chose to name either Vedism or Vedic Hinduism as preceding that of Brahmanism and later traditions of Hinduism. It also bears witness to a marked emphasis on ritual practice of a decidedly elite character. The late phase of its oral canonization has been recently considered as redefinition in the face either of the universal call of Buddhism or the challenge of the written media of the neighbouring Persian Empire. This chapter examines these developments.