The Puranas and the age of temples
Hinduism takes its classical form as worship of Vishnu, Shiva and the Goddess in temples replaces the Vedic sacrifice, and the Puranas tell their stories.
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
- Darśan: Seeing the Divine Image in India (3rd edition) — Diana L. Eck, Columbia University Press (1998)
- Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition — David Kinsley, University of California Press (1986)
From about the Gupta period, a new kind of Hinduism spread across India. Instead of priests offering fire sacrifices to Vedic gods, devotees worshipped a supreme deity, Vishnu, Shiva or the Goddess, through offerings (puja) to an image housed in a temple. The Puranas, vast Sanskrit collections of myth, genealogy and ritual compiled over many centuries, told the stories of these gods: Vishnu’s ten avatars, Shiva’s marriage to Parvati, the Goddess slaying the buffalo demon in the Devi Mahatmya.
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
- Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition — David Kinsley, University of California Press (1986)
The first stone temples appeared in the fifth century. Over the next centuries kings competed to build ever greater ones: the rock-cut Kailasa temple at Ellora, the Chola king Rajaraja’s Brihadeeswara temple at Thanjavur, completed around 1010, and the temples of Khajuraho and Konark. The temple became the centre of town life, economy and art, home to dance and music.
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
- Darśan: Seeing the Divine Image in India (3rd edition) — Diana L. Eck, Columbia University Press (1998)
Hindu kingdoms and ideas also spread to Southeast Asia, where Angkor Wat in Cambodia was built in the twelfth century as a temple to Vishnu, and Prambanan in Java honoured Shiva. Bali remains Hindu today.
- An Introduction to Hinduism — Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press (1996)
- A Survey of Hinduism (3rd edition) — Klaus K. Klostermaier, State University of New York Press (2007)
Why it matters today
Most of what Hindus do today, worshipping images of deities, visiting temples, telling the myths of Vishnu's avatars or Shiva and Parvati, celebrating the Goddess at Navaratri, took shape in this era. Its great temples, from Thanjavur to Angkor, are sources of enormous pride.