The Rashtrakutas and their Times c20.66

c20.66

Let us now proceed to consider the popular Hinduism i. e. the religion of the masses of our period. This religion may be described as the Smārta Pauranic religion. The reform movement, which culminated in this development, had begun much earlier than our period; it had commenced with the later Smriti writers and the remodellers of the older Purāṇas and had so completely captured the imagination of the masses in our period that the advocates of the theological revival found themselves helpless before it. Unfortunately the precise chronology of these works is not yet definitely fixed, but it is generally agreed that the majority of them were composed sometime between 500 and 1000 A.D. Let us see what epigraphical evidence has got to say about the success or influence of this movement.