What is meant by the renouncer tradition? Before I begin to explain what exactly the renouncer tradition is, I think that it is important to give a brief outline of the religious history pre-dating this tradition, and also to acknowledge the social life at the time and its mentality. By the time that the renouncer tradition was beginning to establish some recognition, sixth century B.C.E, a group of texts called the Veda had been in existence and had been enjoying their religious influence upon the Indian culture for about a thousand years. It is presumed that a group of people called the Aryas had boasted a great influence in certain parts of India, and it is from their ideology that the Vedic tradition arose. This ideology, for the most part, was developed by a hereditary group within this Aryan society known as brahmanas, and their literature was the Veda. At the forefront of the Vedas ideology, was ritual sacrifice. They saw it as a creation of inherently magic powers, a sort of mimetic magic, i.e by performing certain sacrifices one would create an effect in reality - a sort of voodoo practice. They believed that this ritual keyed them into life, and therefore great emphasis was placed on maintaining these ritual sacrifices so as to maintain order. to know sacrifice is to know and control the world. - Flood - Introduction to Hinduism. The central rite of the religion was when the priest/brahmin, sang the praises to a particular devas/god, from sacred sacrificial verses known as mantras, and offered him sacrifices by placing it in the sacrificial fire. This rendition of these mantras, was also seen as manipulating a sacred power known as Brahman, so this act of ritual sacrifice can be seen as almost a bribe to the gods/devas, to ensure order within the cosmos and giving what was wanted. As one can see, the priest held a very significant role with the ritual sacrifice, it was considered a great respon...
