women. History Both Alf Hiltebeitel and Flood locate the origins of the Smarta Tradition in the (early) Classical Period of Hinduism, particularly with the nondualist (Advaita) interpretation of Vedanta, when Hinduism emerged from the interaction between Brahmanism and local traditions. The "Hindu Synthesis" Hiltebeitel situates the origins of the Smarta tradition in the ongoing interaction between the Vedic-Brahmanic tradition and non-Vedic traditions. According to him, a period of consolidation in the development of Hinduism took place between the time of the late Vedic Upanishad (c. 500 BCE) and the period of the rise of the Guptas (c. 320-467), which he calls the "Hindus synthesis", "Brahmanic synthesis", or "orthodox synthesis". It develops in interaction with other religions and peoples: The smriti texts of the period between 200 BCE- 100 CE proclaim the authority of the Vedas, and "nonrejection of the Vedas comes to be one of the most important touchstones for defining Hinduism over and against the heterodoxies, which rejected the Vedas." The Smriti texts interpret the Vedas in a number of ways, which gave rise to six darsanas (orthodox schools) of Hindu philosophy. Of the six Hindu darsanas, the Mimamsa and the Vedanta "are rooted primarily in the Vedic sruti tradition and are sometimes called smarta schools in the sense that they develop smarta orthodox current of thoughts that are based, like smriti, directly on sruti." They emphasize the Vedas with reason and other pramanas, in contrast to Haituka schools which emphasize hetu (cause, reason) independent of the Vedas while accepting the authority of the Vedas. Of the two Smarta traditions, Mimamsa focussed on Vedic ritual traditions, while Vedanta focussed on Upanishadic knowledge tradition. Around the start of the common era, and thereafter, a syncretism of Haituka schools (Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya and Yoga), the Smarta schools (Mimamsa, Vedanta) with ancient theistic ideas (bhakti, tantric) gave rise to a growth in traditions such as Shaivism, Vaishnavism and Shaktism. The revived Smarta tradition attempted to integrate varied and conflicting devotional practices, with its ideas of nondual experience of Atman (self, soul) as Brahman. The rapprochement included the practice of pancayatana-puja (five shrine worship), wherein a Hindu could focus on any saguna deity of choice (istadevata) such as Vishnu, Shiva, Durga, Surya and Ganesha as an interim step towards realizing the nirguna Brahman. The growth of this Smarta Tradition began in the Gupta period (4th–5th century CE), and likely was dominated by Dvija