Hinduism and Buddhism: An Historical Sketch v2.c35.2

v2.c35.2

IN the last chapter I traced the growth of the great gods Śiva and Viṣṇu. The prominence of these figures is one of the marks which distinguish the later phase of Indian religion from the earlier. But it is also distinguished by various practices, institutions and beliefs, which are more or less connected with the new deities. Such are a new ritual, the elaboration of the caste system, the growth of sects, and the tendency to make devotion to a particular deity the essence of religion. In the present chapter I shall say something of these phenomena.