Puranic and temple Hinduism

From about the fourth century CE, in the age of the Gupta Empire, a new form of Hindu religion takes shape in northern India. Its texts are the Puranas ('ancient lore'), Sanskrit works on myths, genealogies of gods and kings, cosmic cycles and rites, compiled and expanded from roughly 300 to 1000 CE. Tradition counts 18 major Puranas, such as the Vishnu, Shiva and Bhagavata Puranas. Its buildings are the first free-standing stone and brick temples.¹

Earlier religion centered on the Vedic fire sacrifice conducted by priests. The Bhagavad Gita and the epics had already taught devotion (bhakti) to a personal god, and wandering teachers and growing cults of Vishnu and Shiva spread it. The Gupta kings supported all of these. Some took the title 'Parama Bhagavata', devout worshipper of Vishnu, and gave land to Brahmins and temples. Temple building followed: the brick temple at Bhitargaon and the Dashavatara temple at Deogarh, built around 500, are among the earliest to survive, with a sanctum for the deity under a tower.²

The Puranas cast Vishnu, Shiva and the Great Goddess (Devi) as supreme, and told of Vishnu's ten avatars, including Rama and Krishna. They also absorbed local deities into the Sanskrit tradition. Worship of an image in a temple (puja), pilgrimage to holy places, and festivals became central. The Devi Mahatmya, composed around the sixth century, made the Goddess a supreme deity in her own right. In the following centuries, the temple-building tradition spread across India, in northern (nagara) and southern (dravida) styles, and gave rise to great sites such as Khajuraho, Thanjavur, and Angkor Wat in Cambodia.¹