A mosaic of religious beliefs

Our main sources for this period are the compositions of poet-saints, many of them sung and later compiled by their devotees, and hagiographies: biographies of saints written by their followers, often not literally accurate but showing how followers saw them.

The sociologist Robert Redfield used two terms that help: the 'great' tradition (the practices of dominant groups, priests and rulers, accepted widely) and the 'little' tradition (local practices of peasants). The two interacted and shaped each other.

Puranic texts, written in simple Sanskrit, spread Brahmanical ideas widely. At the same time, Brahmanas reworked local beliefs into their own tradition. For example, Jagannatha ('lord of the world'), a local deity at Puri in Odisha, was identified as a form of Vishnu; and local goddesses, often worshipped as a stone smeared with ochre, were identified as the wives of the main male deities, as Lakshmi or Parvati.

Tantric practices were widespread too. They were open to women and men, and practitioners often ignored differences of caste and class in ritual.

There were also conflicts: between followers of Vedic rituals and those who valued Tantric practices; between devotees of rival deities, like Vishnu and Shiva; and with followers of Buddhism and Jainism. Great and little traditions shaped each other.