SOCIAL SCIENTIST Congress to share with you some of my findings related to this development. Here I may, however, clarify that the two terms 'Brahmanism' and 'Hinduism' which I have used to juxtapose two consecutive stages of development of a religious system that had its source in the Vedas, reflect entirely the perception of later-day historians.1 Terms such as 'Hindu' or 'Hindutva' certainly do not occur in the texts belonging to the,period under survey. The most remarkable development in the field of religion during Gupta/post-Gupta times was the rise of 'Hinduism', which like a colossus striding across the religious firmament soon came to overshadow all other existent religions. Certain features which distinguished it from its Vedic Smarta roots were its ever widening horizon and popular base, its theological and sectarian pluralism, its Tantric veneer and an extraordinary thrust on devotion or bhakti. Whereas Brahmanism had represented more or less a single religious strand drawing mainly upon Vedic ideology and throughout manifesting an elitist outlook Puranic Hinduism proved to be a multiplex belief-system which grew and expanded as it absorbed and synthesized polaristic religious ideas and cultic traditions. So that quite in contrast to Brahmanism, Puranic Hinduism through its gargantuan powers of assimilation and synthesis was able to bring within its vortex all possible classes and segments of society, literate as well as preliterate. The transition from 'Brahmanism' to 'Hinduism' was neither sudden nor abrupt nor was it a complete breaking away from the past tradition. It was more the outcome of a slow and gradual process of evolution and growth, reflecting a remarkable continuity along with significant shift in ideological thrust and approach.7What however, is really noteworthy is the precise time of its efforescence. Puranic Hinduism developed at a time when society was in the throes of a changing economic and political order. The period represented a watershed in Indian history, when a flourishing market economy was giving way to a closed landed economic order; when foreign and indigenous tribal groups had begun staking their claims to political power, leading to its fragmentation and the eventual rise of a feudal order. The parallel rise and growth of Puranic Hinduism on the one hand and the politico-economic upheaval and changes taking place on the other, definitely suggests some kind of symbiotic connection between the two developments. But to fix the nature and degree of such a correlation, a more detailed investigation is certainly called