Understanding Origin and Development of Karma and Rebirth in Early Indian Ethos: Perspectives from Mnavadharmasastra

The present paper aims to study the origin and the development of karma and rebirth theory, which was the outcome of the collective historical experiment of multiple social groups under the socially shared ideological philosophical system of Ancient India. The existing historiography looked at it as a superfi- cial system dealing with certain ideas around religion and ritual. Therefore, it missed out on the other aspects related to it, which evolved around the notion of penance and punishment. That internalizes the social order and justified the unaccounted inequalities by forcing individuals to self-surrender for violation of social and legal limitations of the concerned society. This present paper is going to look at this primary idea by focusing on multiple forms of karma and rebirth and the idea of the body in the same as depicted in Manusmrti. In addi tion to this, it will also check the inter-mixture of social and religious morality in the same through the historical process of ethnicization by making the base to the existing socio-economic environment of the concerned period.