Religion and Archaeology In special context of cultural diversity in Varanasi

Abstract

This research, as the title implies, aims to be distinct from earlier works on religious studies; newlineIn the present research, the primary emphasis is on using archaeological data to establish the idea of newlinecultural diversity in Varanasi. As we have mentioned earlier, it is different from previous works. We newlinemeant that most of the work carried out earlier focused on the religious texts or the doctrines of newlinereligions and their philosophies. The limitation of these works is that they only give an incomplete newlinepicture of the vast and dynamic nature of culture and religion. Archaeology helps us to understand the newlineorigin of various forms of worship and their evolution over the period. Studying religions or newlinereconstructing the development of religious beliefs and behaviours exclusively based on textual newlineevidence yields a distorted image. According to Robert Cunningham, there are obvious risks in newlinetrusting textual sources written and compiled centuries after the actual incident happened. newline