Urbanisation et innovations religieuses en Inde ancienne

Abstract

André Couture Urbanisation and religious innovations in Ancient India Often dismissed as an unwarranted assertion, the Weberian hypothesis that Jainism and Buddhism appeared at the same time as cities and urban kingdoms developed, has once again begun to stir scholarly interest. This paper presents a survey of recent work on the subject, at the same time that it attempts to move the discussion forward. Following brief remarks on "The Socio-Religious Context of Ancient India" and "The Second Urbanization in Northern India", the third section of the paper, entitled "The Urban Context and the Religious Innovations at the End of Vedism", relies largely on the work of R. Thapar and P. Olivelle, as it summarizes the transformations of Brahmanism which may have been linked to urbanization. The fourth part returns briefly to the question of the birth of Buddhism in an urban setting, citing the works of H. Härtel, G. Erdösy, D. D. Kosambi, T. Ling, G. Bailey and I. Mabbett. The final section of the paper, "New Adjustments of Hinduism to a Context of Thriving Cities", makes the most of data contained in the Harivamsha, a supplement to the Mahabharata (a text tentatively dated from the 2nd or 3rd c. A.D.), by suggesting that the proliferation of cities may also help to contextualize certain aspects of Krishna's enigmatic character.