The Mahābhārata and the Revival of Brahmanism

• Brahmanism was initially a geographically limited priestly culture in the Gangetic plain, where brahmins were supported by local rulers for their sacrificial traditions.
• The rise of the Nanda and Maurya empires from Magadha, a region outside the Brahmanical heartland, threatened this system as these rulers had no interest in brahminical sacrifices.
• In response, Brahmanism transformed from a priestly religion into a socio-political ideology that could spread across India and Southeast Asia, creating a “Sanskrit cosmopolis.”
• The Mahābhārata was a key instrument in this project, designed to promote the new Brahmanical worldview to a wider audience, including non-brahmins.
• To compete with popular ascetic movements from “Greater Magadha” (like Buddhism and Jainism), Brahmanism introduced the non-Vedic concept of the āśrama (hermitage).
• Āśramas depicted brahmins as ideal ascetics, living frugally and independently in forests, which helped them attract patronage from rulers and wealthy donors.
• These literary āśramas were likely the ideological counterpart to agrahāras—actual gifts of land or villages to brahmins. By not acknowledging them as gifts, brahmins maintained a public image of self-sufficiency and inherent authority.
• Brahmanism also incorporated a competing ascetic model from Greater Magadha—the begging mendicant seeking liberation (mokṣa). The Mahābhārata presents both the self-sufficient forest-dweller and the begging mendicant, which later texts would organize into sequential stages of life.