How did religion influence the ancient indian civilization?
Religion influenced the ancient Indian civilization because the entire society is built around it. The process of achieving moksha (to break the cycle of rebirth) was seen to be the one purpose of existence. Weird but that’s how it is. A person had to be good and kind so that they could ascend to higher levels of spiritual enlightenment and therefore come closer to freeing the spirit. The levels of society depended on how close you were to reaching moksha. If you lead a good life then the next would be a position above, if you lead a bad life then your position would be lowered. The untouchables for example were the lowest part of human society. The only creatures they were higher than were animals, that’s how low!! People who lived in this part of society had to create good dharma which would give them good karma which would move them up a stage. If you achieved bad karma (perhaps by murder or such) then you would pay for it by moving down in society therefore being further away from
