Great and little traditions

History glossary

Topic: Bhakti and Sufi Traditions · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 2 "Bhakti-Sufi Traditions"

Meaning

The "great" and "little" traditions are two terms coined by the sociologist Robert Redfield, from his study of peasant societies. The "great" tradition is the set of rituals and customs that comes from powerful groups such as priests and rulers; in India this is the Sanskritic, Puranic, all-India religion. The "little" tradition is the set of local, village-level practices. The two keep changing each other through contact.

These terms help historians explain how many local gods and cults joined the larger Puranic religion. They show that local beliefs were reworked and kept, not wiped out.

Explanation

Background: a "mosaic" of beliefs

  • By c. 8th century, worship in India was not one single religion. It was a mosaic: many cults, gods and ways of worship side by side.
  • Two processes built this mosaic at the same time:
  • Brahmanical ideas spread outwards to new groups.

  • Brahmanas took in local beliefs and reworked them into their own texts.

  • Redfield's terms describe the meeting point of these two processes. The "great" tradition met the "little" tradition and both were changed.

The two sides of the framework

  • "Great" tradition
  • Sanskritic, Puranic and pan-India (found across all of India).
  • Carried by the Puranas, which were written in simple Sanskrit verse, not the hard language of the Vedas.
  • The Puranas say they are meant for women and Shudras, who were not allowed to learn the Vedas.

  • Its sacred geography joined local places into all-India cults centred on temples, mathas (monasteries where teachers and students lived and taught) and pilgrimage routes.

  • "Little" tradition

  • Local, village-level worship.
  • Often had no temple and no Sanskrit text. A local goddess might be just a stone smeared with ochre (red-brown earth colour).

How the interaction worked: two clear cases

  • Jagannatha at Puri (Orissa): a local god becomes a form of Vishnu
  • He began as a local deity. His image is made of wood by local tribal specialists.
  • By the 12th century he was recognised as a form of Vishnu.
  • The image is made of neem wood and remade every twelve or nineteen years in the Navakalevara ceremony ("naba" = new, "kalebara" = body) [2].
  • Navakalevara has two parts. Bahir-Banayaga happens outside the temple: the right neem tree is found and carried back in the Daru Jatra ("procession of the wood"). Antar-Banayaga happens inside the temple [2].
  • He is worshipped as Daru Brahma, the divine spirit living inside a wooden image. No other major Indian deity is worshipped this way [2].

  • So the tribal craft (little) and the Vishnu identity (great) survive together in one shrine.

  • Local goddesses become "wives" of major gods

  • Local goddesses were made the wives of the principal male deities.
  • They were equated with Lakshmi (wife of Vishnu) or Parvati (wife of Shiva).
  • The local shrine survived. Only the name and the story changed.

Results, and the problem with the words

  • Results
  • Religion reached far more people than Vedic sacrifice ever had.
  • Several bhakti saints were Shudras. This shows the new devotion was open to people the Vedic system had shut out.

  • The old Vedic gods (Agni, Indra, Soma) became marginal in Puranic texts and temple sculpture. Yet the Vedas were still revered as authoritative.

  • Why scholars put the words in quotation marks

  • Scholars are uncomfortable with the labels "great" and "little".
  • The words wrongly suggest that one tradition is better or higher than the other.

  • So they keep the idea of interaction but reject the ranking.

  • Interaction was not always peaceful. Vedic traditionalists, Tantrics, Vaishnavas, Shaivas, Buddhists and Jainas argued with each other while this absorption went on.

Time, place and evidence

  • Period: from c. 8th century, the period of the Bhakti-Sufi traditions (c. 8th-18th centuries).
  • Key place: the Jagannatha shrine at Puri, Orissa (now Odisha). His recognition as Vishnu dates to about the 12th century.
  • Key person: Robert Redfield, the sociologist who created the terms while studying peasant societies. He was looking at present-day peasant societies, not at old records.
  • How we know:
  • The Puranas. They say who they were written for, and they set out the sacred geography of temples, mathas and pilgrimage.
  • Temple sculpture. It shows the Vedic gods pushed to the edges.
  • Living ritual at Puri. The Navakalevara and Daru Jatra are still performed by tribal specialists today [2].

  • IGNCA (a Government of India cultural body) has done work on "Sacred Heritage of Jagannath: Tribal and Regional Cultural Interface", which is the same tribal-to-Puranic absorption NCERT describes [2].

  • NCERT: Class 12, Ch 2 "Bhakti-Sufi Traditions".

Don't confuse with

  • Sanskritisation (M.N. Srinivas): this means lower castes copying upper-caste customs to rise in status. Redfield's "great"/"little" traditions describe a two-way exchange between Sanskritic and local cultures.
  • Vedic tradition: the "great" tradition in this chapter is Puranic, not Vedic. Vedic gods like Agni, Indra and Soma became marginal, even though the Vedas stayed authoritative.
  • Tantric worship: Tantra is a separate ritual stream that used mantras (sacred sound formulas) and mandalas (symbolic drawings). It ignored the authority of the Vedas and set caste aside only inside the ritual. It is not the same as local folk worship being absorbed into the Puranas.

Prelims Hooks

  • Robert Redfield, a sociologist, coined "great" and "little" traditions from his study of peasant societies.
  • Jagannatha of Puri: a local deity whose wooden image is made by local tribal specialists. He was recognised as a form of Vishnu by the 12th century.
  • The Puri image is made of neem wood and remade every 12 or 19 years in Navakalevara. Jagannatha is worshipped as Daru Brahma [2].
  • Daru Jatra (bringing the chosen neem wood to the temple) is part of Bahir-Banayaga, not Antar-Banayaga [2].
  • Local goddesses, often a stone smeared with ochre, were absorbed as wives of major gods and equated with Lakshmi or Parvati.
  • Trap: the Puranas, which were written in simple Sanskrit verse for women and Shudras, carried the "great" tradition. Vedic sacrifice did not.

Mains Points

  • Integration ran both ways.
  • Brahmanas spread Puranic ideas through simple Sanskrit texts aimed at women and Shudras.
  • At the same time, they took local gods into their own texts.

  • Jagannatha shows both directions in one shrine. He is a tribal wooden image that became a form of Vishnu by the 12th century, and tribal specialists still renew him through Navakalevara [2].

  • A useful but contested framework.

  • Redfield's terms explain the Sanskritic-local dialogue well.
  • But "great" and "little" suggest a ranking that scholars reject.

  • A strong answer uses the terms, then points out this problem, and stresses that local traditions survived inside the Puranic fold.

  • Synthesis and conflict together.

  • Absorption went on alongside disputes: Vedic traditionalists against image-worship, Vaishnavas against Shaivas, and tension with Buddhists and Jainas.
  • This mixed and argumentative religious world is the background to the bhakti saints, several of them Shudras.

Related concepts

Read more

Sources

  1. 1Class 12, Ch 2 "Bhakti-Sufi Traditions" (primary)
  2. 2Navakalevara: The New Embodiment / Sacred Heritage of Jagannath: Tribal and Regional Cultural Interfaceignca.gov.in · tier 1