Talk:Katas Raj Temples

Image
Found this image --Ekabhishek (talk) 13:35, 21 April 2009 (UTC)

Dubious claims about the temple site
The history of the Katas Raj Temple makes no sense in this article. Mahabharata is a Central Indian (Gangetic plain) text. Why would they be talking about a region they had zero control over? Brahminism had ZERO foothold in the Indus Valley.

After the collapse of the Indus Valley (Harappan) Civilization in ~2000 BCE, the Vedic Civilization grew when Aryans merged with Harappans in around ~1500 BCE and until the Persian Achaemenid takeover in ~550 BCE. During this period, Vedic Hinduism flourished with gods like Indra, Mitra and Soma being worshiped...gods like Shiva or Ganesh were more or less worshiped in the Ganges plain and Deccan, not in the Indus Valley. From 550 BCE to 330 BCE, Zoroastrianism also took a foothold in the region, alongside Vedic Hinduism and Shamanism. During the rule of Alexander and the subsequent Greek rule from 330 BCE all the way to the 1st millennium CE, Hellenic Paganism and later on Buddhism would take a foothold in the region. The only period where Puranic Hinduism/Brahminism infiltrated into the region was during the early years of the Mauryan Empire...however, under Ashoka they became a Buddhist empire and forged relations with the Greaco-Bactrians giving rise to Hellenic Buddhism. During the Shunga Brahmin revolt in the Ganges plain, Buddhists were persecuted as the Mauryan Empire collapsed and were forced to flee central Ganges plain (Bihar etc) to places like Nepal, Bhutan, Kashmir and Punjab. The Indo-Greeks quickly took over the retreating Mauryans to prevent the Shungas from taking the Indus Valley, and hence formed the Indo-Greek Kingdom with Hellenic Buddhism growing even further under them. Brahminism was once again halted. And as we keep going on, the Indo-Scythians or Indo-Parthians also kept Brahminism at bay. At no time during the entire history of the Indus Valley did Brahminism ever take a stronghold. Not once.

Vedic Hinduism is very different from Puranic/Brahmin Hinduism. Even today, the Hindus in Pakistan worship Vedic gods like Jhuelal (a reincarnation of Indra). Same with Kashmiri Pandits (Kheer Bhawani) or the Kalash Pagans who also worship an Indra like figure.

Vedic gods are nowhere to be found in the Republic of India (Ganges plain/Deccan).

It's a probable possibility that this site was built much earlier for another reason and then changed at some point. --PAKHIGHWAY (talk) 18:27, 10 January 2018 (UTC)