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印度是世界四大文明古国之一。公元前2000年左右，创造了灿烂的古代文明。公元前1500年至前1200年，雅利安人迁入，他们带来了雅利安文化，成为印度教以及印度文学、哲学和艺术的源头，开始了恒河谷地文明。约公元前6世纪，出现了婆罗门、刹帝利、吠舍和首陀罗四大种性，为奴隶制度的萌芽时期。公元前6世纪至前5世纪是印度文化史上灿烂的阶段，形形色色的哲学流派和社会理论蓬勃涌现，产生了世界三大宗教之一的佛教。印度文化在世界上曾经产生过巨大影响，有着举足轻重的作用。印度文化具有十分鲜明而又强烈的宗教性、多样性和包容性。印度文化没有很大的扩张性，但也抵制任何外来文化的入侵。印度早期虽然有许多国王将佛教作为国教，后来被信奉伊斯兰教的蒙古和突厥王公所统治，近二百年来又被信仰基督教的英国作为殖民地，但每个统治者走后，印度又恢复印度教传统。伊斯兰文化对印度进行了几百年冲击，同化了巴基斯坦和孟加拉两片土地，没有能撼动印度主体文化。

印度是个宗教国家，历史上曾先后产生并流行多种宗教，对其他主要的世界宗教如伊斯兰教、基督教、犹太教等也拥有广泛的信徒。多种宗教在印度的长期共存和印度人民对宗教的虔诚信仰，形成了印度文化浓郁的宗教性。宗教渗透于社会生活的各个方面。国家政治法律的制定，人的道德观念的形成，以及各民族传统的风俗习惯，也都是在宗教的影响下发展起来的。宗教也融入印度的文化之中，其民族语言、文学、艺术、音乐、舞蹈、雕刻等等更是以宗教为中心。
在印度文化体系中不难看出其他文化成分如希腊文化、伊斯兰文化、波斯文化、英语文化和中国文化的特点。形成印度文化多样性的原因主要有两点，一是历史上的外族入侵，二是和平方式的文化交流。此外，印度有数以百计的民族和众多的部落，这些民族和部落都有自己的语言、宗教信仰和文化传统。因此，印度文化就是在不断吸收异族文化的过程中丰富和发展起来的，呈现出举世罕见的多样性。

My intention in this piece is to explore the development of the concepts of brahman and atman in ancient Indian culture. I intend to examine the role of the Upanisads in Vedic society and to investigate their abandonment of Vedic sacrificial ritual. I contend that the writers of the Upanisads turned towards a mystical path away from society in order to explore a viable alternate way of living that did not involve sacrificial ritual. Although the only record we have of this shift in thought is a set of philosophical discourses, I suggest that this was not solely an intellectual move. Rather, there were emotional reasons as well as logical reasons that these groups of people moved away from Vedic society in pursuit of brahman. This was a slow process that evolved over many years and although it did not banish sacrifice from Indian culture, it laid the foundation for later non-violent religious movements in India. In attempting to apply Rene Girard and Gil Bailie’s theory of acknowledgement of the victim to an ancient Indian phenomenon, I intend to show that the Upanisadic rejection of Vedic sacrificial ritual was a significant move away from the sacrificial system upon which humanity relies so heavily.

Vedic Sacrifice: Maintenance of the Universe

The sacrificial system of ancient India was founded on a worldview that placed humanity in an allegorical relationship with the divine realm. The physical world of humans was seen as a smaller, mirror image of the greater world of the gods. The fundamental role of religion was to assign and perform the appropriate rites to maintain proper order in the universe. The gods required regular offerings and appeasement. Thus, a relationship with the gods required maintenance that was provided by the sacrificial ritual.

Fire ceremonies and the ritual giving of offerings to the gods were common practices for the Aryan tribes that invaded the Indian sub-continent in approximately 1500 BCE. [1] Their simpler, private offering ceremonies eventually evolved into the more codified, communal, elaborate sacrificial rituals of classical Vedic culture as this new society began to grow and change.

Fire itself was of central importance to this civilization and all of these rituals focused around the offertory fire. It is logical, then, that the Aryans eventually personified the fire itself and deemed it divine. Agni, the god of fire, became the central figure in this early ritual. Although gods other than Agni were often the receivers of the sacrificial offerings, Agni was the one who mediated between