Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c12.s7.10

c12.s7.10

A study of these sources shows that in the Nanda-Maurya period, Brahmanism was still mainly an aristocratic religion of which the principal supporters were the kings, the nobles, and the rich Brahmin householders. The real custodians of the religious lore were the priests who occupied the highest rank in the social hierarchy. There was also an ascetic class among the Brahmins which consisted of teachers advocating somewhat new ways of religious thoughts and practices which may be traced to Upanishadic origin. Those teachers had a more direct appeal to the common people and attracted people from other classes of society too to a life of renunciation. It was probably at the hands of this ascetic class that new theistic movements originated in the Maurya period. Closely allied to this ascetic class but with definitely distinctive features were the two religious movements, Buddhism and Jainism, which began to play a very important part in the religious life of the country from the Maurya period.