Spiritual Wellness in Ancient India As Seen Through Texts and Epigraphs

Abstract

India has a hoary antiquity of the existence of multiple religious traditions. The most ancient literature of the country i.e. the Vedas are the testimony to the worship of various deities in the contemporary period in the form of the sacrificial religion. Right from the Vedic period, at least two parallel religious traditions existed in India. Further, even though the formal language of the scriptures was Sanskṛt, we do see the usage of the local Pṛākṛt dialects by the religious leaders for the spread of their thoughts. This has helped in making people more comfortable with the new religious waves. The new thinkers received a lot of following. This paper aims to study the history of spiritual wellness that was achieved in ancient India through the liberal traditions of thoughts and practices especially in the fields of religion, right from the Vedic period till around 6th century C.E.