in the areas of Modern India and remember India wasn't a country back then but in the area roughly that is Modern India today there were surges of religious activity in the fourth Century of the Common Era notice how this coincided with the conversion of Constantine and religious activity in the western part of afro-eurasia both Christianity and Hinduism pivoted towards a more personal expression of faith meaning a closer relationship between the deity and each individual member of the religious community the area that is India today was under the rulership of the Gupta dynasty which ruled a large land mass in South Asia between the early 4th century and the mid 6th Century of the Common Era Gupta Kings facilitated cultural and Commercial Exchange in other words they made sure that conditions were favorable for trade and for travel which was really good for their empire Chandra Gupta and his son expanded the Gupta territory both North and South Hinduism which developed during the Gupta dynasty developed out of the much older brahmanic religion from The Vedic period which we've learned about earlier in this class now some people would call this whole thing Hinduism lumping together the older brahmanic religion from The Vedic period with the religion that emerged in the 4th century and that's not completely wrong you could make the argument either way but in this class we're going to take the view that Hinduism emerged in the 4th Century based on the older religion from The Vedic period Hinduism developed as a religion and spread across South Asia beginning in the 4th Century so too did Buddhism by the way it also spread across this area the spread of these two religions helped to create the basis of a shared culture in a region that was otherwise quite diverse this unified ideology really bound people together and it gave them shared Concepts this was crucial for the establishment of a unified political territory what does that mean well in simple terms if we all believe in the same gods have the same holidays have the same rituals then we're probably more likely to accept that we also have to obey the same ruler if we have different beliefs from people in the next town over then we might not be as likely to want to obey the same King as them especially if he has their religion and not ours so shared beliefs promotes political unity and this was certainly the case in the Gupta Empire let's talk a little bit more about the development of Hinduism Hinduism developed out of The brahmanic Vedic religion which was much older but which had spread throughout South Asia Hinduism was a new version of this brahmanic religion which in many ways was more accessible to people greater accessibility might help explain why the religion spread so widely and so quickly so what were some characteristics of Hinduism well for one Believers were vegetarians they no longer practiced animal sacrifices like the old brahmanic religion had required the three major deities were Brahma Vishnu and Shiva they represented the three phases of the universe birth existence and destruction they were also three expressions of the Atma or the Eternal self Vishnu was the most popular of the three deities and he revealed himself two Believers through various incarnations or avatars in this period of new religious expression there was also a rise of religious art chandragupta the first a Gupta Emperor sponsored art with religious motifs poetry was especially important The Poets of Hinduism spread widely and formed the basis of this shared religious tradition and religious culture under the guptas poets spread the concepts of religious beliefs of good and bad behavior they also taught their followers what was right and what was wrong in addition they served as models for good behavior for rulers let's look at an example there was an important story which revolved around the final battle between two warring tribes the hero Arjuna was the best warrior he could have fought the final battle and won but he didn't he was unwilling to fight against his enemies because many of them were his cousins The Story Goes that the god Vishnu was actually on the battlefield itself along with Arjuna the hero of the story The God Vishnu had assumed an avatar he was present in the form of someone named Krishna and he was the driver of our Eunice Chariot now at a crucial moment in the battle he reminded aryuna that he was part of the kashatria Varna or the warrior class and that he was put on this Earth to fight his enemies even those he was related to now this story was preserved in the bhagavad-gita the bhagavad-gita which has many other stories as well as part of the authoritative text of Hindu spirituality the bhagavad-gita is a book of religious and ethical teachings for people at every level of society one of the methods by which Hinduism spread was through what we call religious syncretism Hindus adopted the gods of other religions into their Pantheon and meshed them together for example the Hindus believed that Buddha was a representation of the god Vishnu this enabled the faith to be more inclusive and for more Believers to share the same faith Hinduism became much more personal than previous faiths had been the old brahmanic religion had emphasized animal sacrifices which was done by religious officials but Hinduism encouraged individuals to have a personal and individual relationship with a Divine they did this through religious devotional practice called bhakti okay so to summarize Hinduism developed out of the old brahmanic religion and this new religion that we call Hinduism there was much more divine intervention Gods like Vishnu could take on other forms and they could appear to people in their everyday lives there were many more Gods than there had been before because the Hindus absorbed other deities into their Pantheon as an expression of existing deities such as Buddha who was seen by the Hindus as an expression of Vishnu and bhakti or personal religious practice made the relationship between individuals and the Divine much more direct and much more personal foreign