One of the most distinctive features of the culture of Greater Magadha was the belief in rebirth
and karmic retribution. This explains why the religious movements that were based on this belief
originated here. The most well-known of these religious movements are Jainism, Buddhism and
Ajivikism. The way in which this belief came to be adopted in Brahmanism, in spite of resistance that
took many centuries to dissipate, will be explained in a later chapter. Note here that this belief came to
be thought of in the Brahmanical tradition (and in modern scholarship until recently) as an inherent
and inseparable part of it.
...
During the period in which Jainism, Buddhism and Ajivikism arose, Brahmanism belonged primarily
to a geographically limited area, with its heartland in the middle and western parts of the Gangetic
plain. ... This situation changed with the political unification of northern India, begun by the Nandas
and continued by the Mauryas (fourth to second centuries B.C.E.). ... Brahmanism underwent a
transformation which enabled it to survive and ultimately flourish in changed circumstances ... Brahmanism had been a priestly religion with heavy emphasis on elaborate sacrifices. The
transformed Brahmanism that in due time succeeded in spreading all over the Indian subcontinent and
into Southeast Asia was primarily (though not exclusively) a socio-political ideology. ... Subsequent centuries saw the rise to prominence within the Brahmanical tradition of two gods in particular, Shiva and Vishnu. Worshipers tended to look upon one or the other as the supreme God
(the use of a capital G now seems appropriate), so much so that most Hindus would look upon
themselves as followers of one or the other