Great World Religions: Hinduism
Course No. 6104
4.169 reviews
82% would recommend
Own this Course
Instant VideoA$169.95
Instant AudioA$119.95
DVDA$219.95
Add to Cart
Subscribe and Stream
Over 800 Great Courses.
One Great Price.Plans starting at
$16/month
Start Free Trial
Professor
Course Overview
Reviews (69)
Questions (2) and Answers (5)
Mark W. Muesse, Ph.D.
Mindfulness allows us to become keen observers of ourselves and gradually transform the way our minds operate.
InstitutionRhodes College
Alma materHarvard UniversityLearn More About This Professor
Course Overview
Terms we associate with Hinduism—"Hinduism," "religion," and "India"—are all Western labels, terms that for most of history did not accurately reflect the thinking of those who practice this ancient faith. In fact, one of the primary themes of Professor Mark W. Muesse's lectures is the difficulty of studying Hinduism without imposing Western perceptions on it.
In Hinduism you will find a religion that is perhaps the most diverse of all. It worships more gods and goddesses than any other, and it rejects the notion that there is only one path to the divine.
A Window into All Religions
These lectures provide a window into the roots of, perhaps, all religions. You will explore over the course of Hinduism's 5,000-year journey:The Indus Valley civilization
The sizable variety of Hindu gods and goddess
The sacred writings in the Vedas, Bhagavad Gita, and Upanishads
Ritual purity rites
The Aryan language of Sanskrit, whose roots can be seen in English words such as "divine," "video," and "ignite."
The story of Hinduism is the story of very non-Western traditions—arranged marriages and the caste system—that have survived and thrived for thousands of years; and of a wealth of gods, terms, and practices—karma, Krishna, yoga, guru—that have found a home in Western lives and language.
The course also explains that Hinduism rejects the notion that there is only one path to the divine, and at its best, it honors all seekers of truth.
Understand the Oldest Religion
Hinduism is the world's oldest living religious tradition, with roots deep in the early cultures of India. These ancient cultures, the most important of which were the Indus Valley civilization and the Aryan society, combined to create a highly diverse family of religions and philosophies.
The series moves chronologically through the history of Hinduism, from its earliest precursors through its classical manifestations to its responses to modernity. Along the way, Dr. Muesse discusses salient aspects of Hindu life and places them in historical and theological context.
The journey begins with an examination of the early cultures that most significantly shaped the development of Hinduism.Dr. Muesse makes a brief visit to the indigenous culture of northern India, the Indus Valley civilization, before introducing the migration of the Aryans from Central Asia.
Hinduism received from the Aryans its most sacred and authoritative scripture, the Veda, which is explored in detail.
After the Vedic period, classical Hinduism formed many of its basic ideas and practices, including the notions of transmigration of the soul, reincarnation, and karma. Major social arrangements were established in Hindu culture.
The classic phase strongly influences the present day. Social stratification and gender relations greatly affect the nature of spiritual life for all Hindus. Professor Muesse discusses the caste system, and the different life patterns for men and women.
The Way of Action, the Way of Wisdom, the Way of Devotion
Hinduism is religiously and philosophically diverse. It affirms the multiplicity of the divine and acknowledges that there are multiple paths to divine reality. Dr. Muesse outlines:The Way of Action, the spiritual discipline pursued by most Hindus, aims to improve an individual's future lives through meritorious deeds, according to the Hindu belief in reincarnation. The lectures look at several examples of such action, including ritual, festival, and pilgrimage.
The Way of Wisdom is a much less-traversed pathway to salvation because it is so demanding and rigorous. Gaining wisdom means to understand the unity of the soul and ultimate reality, and to live one's life accordingly.
The Way of Devotion, or bhakti, is oriented toward faith in a deity of personal choice. It is a widely chosen road to god among Hindus. Your introduction to bhakti practice comes through one of the most important and beloved Hindu texts, the Bhagavad Gita, a wondrous story of a warrior's dilemma and the counsel of the god Krishna. It has been a treasure trove of spiritual enrichment for Hindus for centuries.
Dr. Muesse also explores the functions of images in Hindu worship and how Hinduism can be both monotheistic and polytheistic. You learn about devotion to the Goddess and her many manifestations in the Hindu pantheon, and investigate some of the theory and practice of Tantra, a yogic discipline associated with the Goddess.
Hinduism Today
Modern Hinduism faces challenges from Islam and from Western culture. Theological differences between Hinduism and Islam have generated tense relationships between Hindus and Muslims, frequently erupting into outright violence.
Dr. Muesse describes the British Raj and the Indian independence movement led by Gandhi, includes examples of Hindu missions to the West, and discusses the tensions between Hinduism and modernity.
The many paths of Hinduism involve very different conceptions of divine reality, and Dr. Muesse explains how such divergent views coexist within the Hindu tradition.Hide Full Description
12 Lectures // Average 30 minutes each
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆4.1 out of 5 stars.
2Questions
5Answers
Reviews
WRITE A REVIEW. This action will open a modal dialog.
Rating Snapshot
Select a row below to filter reviews.
5☆stars
3434 reviews with 5 stars.Select to filter reviews with 5 stars.
4☆stars
2020 reviews with 4 stars.Select to filter reviews with 4 stars.
3☆stars
77 reviews with 3 stars.Select to filter reviews with 3 stars.
2☆stars
33 reviews with 2 stars.Select to filter reviews with 2 stars.
1☆stars
55 reviews with 1 star.Select to filter reviews with 1 star.
Average Customer Ratings
Overall☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆4.1Overall, average rating value is 4.1 of 5.
Most Helpful Favorable Review
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆5 out of 5 stars.
Jacqueline
· 11 years ago
Review by Jacqueline. Written 11 years ago. 5 out of 5 stars.The nuggets and the mud
DVD review.… Show Full ReviewThis action will open a modal dialog.
56 of 59 people found this helpfulSee more 4 and 5 star reviews
Most Helpful Critical Review
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆1 out of 5 stars.
Sedonabelle
· 13 years ago
Review by Sedonabelle. Written 13 years ago. 1 out of 5 stars.Great World Religions: Hinduism
I was very disappointed in this course. I think you should have gotten either a Hindu or someone lik… Show Full ReviewThis action will open a modal dialog.
77 of 106 people found this helpfulSee more 1, 2, and 3 star reviews
1–8 of 69 Reviews
Sort by: Most Recent▼Menu≡Clicking on the following button will update the content below
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆2 out of 5 stars.
kalb
· 9 months ago
don't bother
Boring - with a capital B. The Prof introduces hundreds of "new" words - overwhelmingly hard to follow - assuming you can stay awake to try. Gives the impression (have to assume he's correct) that Hinduism is one of the world's worst, most oppressive major religions - based on its treatment of women & its overall suppression of people. I simply gave up in the middle of lecture #9 - enough already. .
Format
AudioPrior Subject Knowledge
Novice
Recommends this product
✘ No
Was this helpful?
Yes · 0No · 0
Report
Post Comment
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆5 out of 5 stars.
arka
· a year ago
I am a Hindu and i love this course
I generally don't write reviews. But after reading 1 Start review I thought it was unfair not to write a good review.
1) I am Hindu in India and this course made me know more about my religion.
2) The organization, content, and delivery are excellent.
3) My insight into my religion expanded because of this course. (I have heard some chapters multiple times).
Format
AudioPrior Subject Knowledge
Intermediate
Recommends this product
✔ Yes
Was this helpful?
Yes · 5No · 0
Report
Post Comment
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆5 out of 5 stars.
Mediterranean
· 2 years ago
The Erasing of Prior Misconceptions
This course clarifies the historical development of the religion and how it came to be called 'Hinduism'. The explanations of the beliefs, and, above all, the iconography, serve to promote understanding and acceptance by followers of monotheistic faiths, such that my previous inability to comprehend various aspects of Hinduism has been replaced by enlightenment, and I particularly recommend the course to students interested in comparative religion.
Format
VideoPrior Subject Knowledge
Novice
Recommends this product
✔ Yes
Was this helpful?
Yes · 5No · 0
Report
Post Comment
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆4 out of 5 stars.
Fruitloops
· 2 years ago
Robotic Presentation and Excellent Content
Watching the presentation is like hearing nails scratching on a blackboard. This is one robotic dude. That is not significant, indeed it may be better, because the material presented is rich, easy to understand and organized very well. This course is one of the better ones from The Great Courses and is a good companion to the courses on Buddhism and the Qur'an, at least from someone from a Roman Catholic tradition
Format
VideoPrior Subject Knowledge
Advanced
Was this helpful?
Yes · 5No · 2
Report
Post Comment
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆5 out of 5 stars.
ILoveScience
· 2 years ago
Very clear and well organized
I am well versed in Hinduism having grown up in a Hindu community. Still these lectures clarified in my mind a lot of contradictions and ambiguities I had. The lecturer presented in a very understandable way, and clearly categorized the different sections. He said Hinduism does not have clear categories, but I am glad he presented the way he did.
It was amazing to me how he was able to simplify and explain the myriad hierarchy of gods and goddesses, the polytheistic as well as the monotheistic aspects of Hinduism. I have always been in love with the concept of Brahman (as opposed to Brahma) in Hinduism and the professor did remarkably well in presenting this very convolved idea.
I also found that the lecturer was very objective about the religion, its origins in the Aryans as well as the Mohenjodaro-Harappa civilizations, as well as its reactions to western influences and other religions.
Thank you. I appreciate how you mush have struggled to decide what to include or not, how to present etc.
Format
VideoPrior Subject Knowledge
Advanced
Recommends this product
✔ Yes
Was this helpful?
Yes · 5No · 0
Report
Post Comment
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆3 out of 5 stars.
CharlesInOz
· 2 years ago
Not necessary to get video - audio is all you need
I decided to buy the Video version of this course expecting to get a lot of interesting visuals. Sadly I wasted my money as the video doesn't add anything to the lecturer speaking. The course content is very academic and dry and lacking any human interest. I am sure I can get a lot more information on Hinduism from other books and documentaries.
Format
VideoPrior Subject Knowledge
Novice
Recommends this product
✘ No
Was this helpful?
Yes · 4No · 0
Report
Post Comment
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆5 out of 5 stars.
DaGeek
· 3 years ago
Well Presented, Good Teacher
Mark W. Muesse, Ph.D. strikes as a bit of nerd, but he is an excellent teacher. His material is well organized and he presents it professionally and effectively. Like some other teachers in this series he did talk about twelve 30 minute sessions being too short a time period. Hinduism is a very ancient and complex religion, and would concur that most of the courses in this series should have been longer. I suppose a marketing decision.
So far we have watched the courses on Judaism, Christianity, Islam and now Hinduism. The first three of these have approached the subject from an historical point of view and not spent a lot of time dealing with the nuts and bolts of the religion. Muesse did do a nice historical survey, but he did spend some time daily practices of the religion.
Working in IT for many years I have had many Indian coworkers. I would occasional come across Hindu icons in their offices and I have had a few religious/philosophical discussions with them. This course was nice as it gave me a bit of a deeper understanding of their culture.
We really enjoyed it.
Prior Subject Knowledge
Novice
Recommends this product
✔ Yes
Was this helpful?
Yes · 3No · 1
Report
Post Comment
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆4 out of 5 stars.
Scott Kilner
· 3 years ago
An Intelligent Introduction to Hinduism
This course offers an intelligent discussion of the contours of a world religion far removed from the Western tradition. Prof. Muesse begins by placing Hinduism in its historical and geographic context, noting that the religion has always been confined to the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism considers India in its entirety to be sacred; there has never been an evangelical/proselytizing tradition to export it elsewhere. Following a discussion of the ancient Indus Valley civilization of Harappa, Muesse moves on to the Aryan migrations from the north that brought with them the Veda and its traditions.
An examination of “Classical Hinduism” forms the core of the course. Muesse focuses on the Hindu view of life as a never-ending series of reincarnations (samsara=wandering of the soul) until one can escape the cycle by achieving mokśa, that is, release. He also does a good job trying to help listeners understand the almost limitless number of Hindu gods and goddesses, many of whom can seem very bizarre to the Western mind. Interestingly, he insists that Hinduism is both monotheistic and polytheistic. Most depressing is the discussion of Hinduism’s caste system and the views toward women in India. Muesse does not pull any punches or provide excuses, but simply describes how things have been. Such traditions may be changing today, but only very slowly.
Format
AudioPrior Subject Knowledge
Intermediate
Recommends this product
✔ Yes
 |
PUBLISHED BY:
THE GREAT COURSES
Corporate Headquarters
4840 Westfi elds Boulevard, Suite 500
Chantilly, Virginia 20151-2299
Phone: 1-800-832-2412
Fax:
703-378-3819 www.thegreatcourses.com
Copyright © The Teaching Company, 2003
Printed in the United States of
America
This book is in copyright. All rights
reserved.
Without
limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication
may be reproduced, stored in
or introduced
into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means
(electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written
permission of The Teaching Company.
Mark W. Muesse, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Religious
Studies Rhodes College
|
P |
rofessor
Mark W. Muesse was born in Waco, Texas and attended Baylor University, where he
received a B.A., summa cum laude, in English Literature (1979) and was elected
to Phi Beta Kappa. He subsequently attended
Harvard
University, where he earned a Masters
of Theological Studies (1981), a Masters of Arts (1983), and
a Ph.D. in the Study of Religion (1987). His doctoral thesis on the
relationship between liberalism and fundamentalism received a Charlotte W.
Newcombe Fellowship award.
Professor Muesse was a tutor in the Study of Religion at
Harvard College, a teaching fellow at Harvard Divinity School, and an
instructor at the University of Southern Maine, where he later served as
Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. In 1988, he became
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Rhodes College in Memphis,
Tennessee. He is now an Associate Professor at Rhodes and teaches courses in
Asian religions and philosophy, modern theology, and religion and sexuality. He
is the author of many articles, papers, and reviews in comparative religions
and theology and has co-edited a collection of essays entitled Redeeming Men: Religion and Masculinities.
He is a member of the American Academy of Religion and the Society for Indian
Philosophy and Religion.
Professor Muesse has been Visiting Professor at the Tamilnadu
Theological Seminary in Madurai, India. He has traveled extensively throughout
Asia and has studied at Wat Mahadhatu, Bangkok, Thailand, the Himalayan Yogic
Institute, Kathmandu, Nepal, and the Subodhi Institute of Integral Education in
Sri Lanka.
i
Professor Muesse is married to Dr. Dhammika Swarnamali
Muesse, a biochemist at St. Jude’s Children Hospital in Memphis, and enjoys
carpentry, interior design, and “The Simpsons.” ■
ii
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
Professor Biography
............................................................................i
Course Scope
.....................................................................................1
LECTURE
GUIDES
LECTURE 1
Hinduism in the World and the World of Hinduism
.............................3
LECTURE 2
The Early Cultures of India
.................................................................6
LECTURE 3
The World of the Veda
......................................................................10
LECTURE 4
From the Vedic Tradition to Classical Hinduism
...............................15
LECTURE 5
Caste
................................................................................................18
LECTURE 6
Men, Women, and the Stages of Life
...............................................23
LECTURE 7
The Way of Action
............................................................................27
LECTURE 8
The Way of Wisdom
.........................................................................31
LECTURE 9
Seeing
God.......................................................................................34
iii
Table of Contents
LECTURE 11
The Goddess and Her Devotees
......................................................42
LECTURE 12
Hinduism in the Modern Period
........................................................46
SUPPLEMENTAL
MATERIAL
Timeline
............................................................................................51
Glossary
...........................................................................................54
Biographical Notes ...........................................................................65
Bibliography
......................................................................................69
iv
Great World Religions: Hinduism
Scope:
|
T |
his series is a twelve-part introduction to Hinduism, one of
the world’s great religions. The lectures are investigations into a variety of
important dimensions of Hinduism to answer fundamental questions of interest to
serious students of comparative religions. The series moves chronologically
through the history of Hinduismfrom
its earliest precursors through its classical manifestations to its responses
to modernity. Along the way, the salient aspects of Hindu life are discussed
and placed in historical and theological context.
The fi rst lecture explains some of the problematical issues
involved in an academic study of Hinduism. We look at some of the diffi culties
associated with the fundamental terms of the series, especially the concepts of
Hinduism, religion, and India. Beginning with the second lecture, we start our
journey through 5,000 years of Hindu history by examining the early cultures
that most signifi cantly shaped the development of Hinduism. We make a brief
visit to the indigenous culture of northern India, the Indus Valley
civilization, before introducing the migration of the Āryans from Central Asia.
The Āryans bequeathed to Hinduism its most sacred and authoritative scripture,
the Veda. We will explore the world of this text in detail in the third
lecture. The fourth lecture moves us from the Vedic period to classical
Hinduism. During the classical period, Hinduism generates many of its basic
ideas and practices, including the notions of transmigration of the soul and
karma. In the fi fth and sixth lectures, we discuss the major social
arrangements that are established in Hindu culture during its classical phase.
The fi fth lecture discusses the caste system, and the sixth outlines the
different life patterns for men and women. Both social stratifi cation and
gender patterns greatly affect the nature of the spiritual life for all Hindus.
In
the remaining lectures, we explore the diverse religious and philosophical
components of Hinduism. In the seventh lecture, we outline the way of action,
the spiritual discipline pursued by the vast majority of Hindus. The path of
action aims to improve an individual’s future births through meritorious deeds.
We look at several varieties of such action, including ritual, festival, and
pilgrimage. The eighth lecture is about the way of wisdom, a much less
traversed pathway to ultimate salvation that is demanding and rigorous. Gaining
wisdom means to see the unity of the soul and ultimate reality and to live
one’s life accordingly. The ninth lecture, “Seeing God,” provides a transition
between the discussions of the way of wisdom and the way of devotion. These are
different paths that involve very different conceptions of the divine reality.
The purpose of this lecture is to explain how such divergent views can coexist
with the Hindu tradition. The lecture shows how Hinduism can be both
monotheistic and polytheistic and explains the function of images in Hindu
worship. In the 10th lecture, we explore the way of devotion
through one of the most important and best-loved Hindu texts, the Bhagavad-gītā. The 11th
lecture concerns devotion to the Goddess and surveys her many manifestations in
the Hindu pantheon; it also investigates some of the theory and practice of
Tantra, a yogic discipline associated with the Goddess. The 12th
lecture concludes the series by discussing Hinduism in the modern era, focusing
on Hinduism and the West. We will explore the Hindu-Muslim relationship,
describe the British Raj and the Indian Independence movement led by Gandhi,
and mention examples of Hindu missions to the West. ■
Hinduism in the World and the World of Hinduism
Lecture 1
Hinduism is the dominant religion of India, … about 85 percent of the
over one billion persons living in India are known to the world as Hindus.
Hinduism is, by any measure, one of the world’s great religions.
|
U |
ndertaking the study of any religious tradition requires initial reflection on the nature of the subject and the methods by which it is examined. These considerations are especially important when one begins the study of Hinduism, a very old and highly complex religion. This inaugural lecture describes how Hinduism will be studied in this series. We begin by examining the words “Hinduism,” “religion,” and “India,” discussing why they are problematic yet useful for the study of our subject. Then, we set forth the basic approach and scope of the series, which will be both chronological and thematic. Finally, we refl ect on the essential qualities of Hinduism and how the diversity of the Indian context has shaped its development.
The study of Hinduism is more complex and challenging than it
might seem at fi rst, as will become evident when we carefully examine the
terms “Hinduism,” “religion,” and “India.” These three terms do not come from
the indigenous languages of India. Each concept is a linguistic construction,
deriving from the vocabularies of those outside of India. Those who spoke of
“India” and “Hindus” were often the ones who sought to conquer and subdue the
South Asian subcontinent and its inhabitants. These concepts also suggest a
uniformity that does not apply to the reality they name.
The concepts of “Hindu” and “Hinduism” are problematic for
several reasons. “Hindu” and “Hinduism” are words of Persian origin from the 12th
century C.E.; thus, they are not native to India. Initially, they referred
simply to “Indians” and were not intended to designate religion. The phrase
that more closely approximates what Westerners call Hinduism is sanātana
dharma, which may be translated as “eternal religion.” Though scholars have
debated its accuracy and usefulness, the term “Hinduism” can function as a
useful concept if used with caution.
The concept of religion is a relatively recent Western
concept, derived from the Latin term religio,
whose meaning has changed considerably over the centuries of its use. Early in
European history, “religion” meant such things as piety or faith in God or was
used to designate ritual ceremonies, especially of those whose beliefs were
different from one’s own. A 
|
stable meaning for the
word as a system for belief and doctrine does not appear until the 17th
century. Even in the 21st century, the word “religion” lacks
precision of usage, because we do not have universal agreement about what
constitutes religion. Though it cannot be easily discarded, the term
“religion” must |
India
has more than 1 billion people, deriving from a host of racial and ethnic
stocks and speaking 16 major languages and hundreds of dialects for an
estimated 850 languages in daily use. |
be used carefully, with an awareness
of
its limitations. Those limitations particularly pertaining to the study of
Hinduism include a Western understanding of the concept as an aspect of life
that occurs in a specifi c time and place, or something centered in a set of
doctrines and beliefs or associated with religious institutions. Hinduism is
not a part or aspect of Indian life or culture; it is far more encompassing
than that. It structures and infl uences every aspect of Hindu life, including
arts, music, medicine, and the like, which may explain the lack of a specifi c
self-referential term.
The conception of “India” is also a problematic one. We need
to recognize that we may perceive our subject with the preconceptions offered
to us by Western culture. India is seen as exotic, rich, and different, a land
of deep spirituality and mysticism. Such romantic notions do not fi t the
reality of India. The idea of “India” also suggests greater cohesiveness and
unity than is the case. India is a land of great diversity and extremessocially, religiously,
economically, and geographically—one of the few places on earth where diversity
is preserved and appreciated.
India has more than 1 billion people, deriving from a host of
racial and ethnic stocks and speaking 16 major languages and hundreds of
dialects for an estimated 850 languages in daily use. India is also one of the
most religiously pluralistic of all places in the world. Besides the Hindus,
who make up the great majority, there are Muslims in northern India (and
Pakistan and Bangladesh) comprising 10 percent of the Indian population;
Sikhism, a religious tradition concentrated in the region known as the Punjab,
forms 2 percent of the populace; Christians comprise about 2 percent; Buddhists
make up a smaller contingent, though the tradition originated and fl ourished
for centuries in India; and other smaller groups include Jains, Jews, and
Parsis, practitioners of the ancient Persian religion Zoroastrianism. These
various ethnicities, languages, and religions call attention to the deeply
pluralistic context in which Hinduism is rooted and support the contention that
“India” is not an easily grasped concept. ■
Essential Reading
Klostermaier, Klaus. A
Survey of Hinduism, chapter 1.
Supplemental Reading
Muesse,
chapter 26 in McCutcheon, The
Insider/Outsider Problem in the Study of Religion, pp. 390–394.
Smith,
The Meaning and End of Religion,
chapters 1–3.
Questions to Consider
1. What
do you consider to be the defi ning characteristic of religion? What
distinguishes religion from other domains of culture?
2. What
images and ideas do you associate with India? Hinduism?
The Early Cultures of India
Lecture 2
The discovery of the Indus Valley civilization in the 19th century revealed a sophisticated and long-forgotten
ancient culture that appears to have contributed signifi cantly to the
development of Hinduism.
|
H |
induism is the world’s oldest living religious tradition with
roots deep in the early cultures of India. These ancient cultures, the most
important of which were the Indus Valley civilization and the Āryan society,
combined to create a highly diverse family of religions and philosophies.
Perhaps the only thing this medley of perspectives shares is the attitude of
tolerance for others who believe and practice differently.
The
Indus Valley civilization was a highly sophisticated ancient society in North
India (now Pakistan) that had been long forgotten until it was discovered in
the 1850’s. Most evidence we have about the Indus Valley civilization is based
on archaeological fi ndings, because the cryptic language of the people has yet
to be deciphered. We do not even know what the civilization’s inhabitants
called themselves. Archaeological evidence indicates that the civilization fl
ourished between 3000–1500 B.C.E. Some 70 cities have been unearthed,
displaying a high degree of organization and central planning. The entire
civilization may have spanned as much as 1 million square kilometers, and some
cities may have had populations of as many as 40,000 inhabitants. Mohenjo-daro
and Harappā appear to be the most important cities. Harappā was evidently the
capital city, and the civilization is sometimes referred to as the “Harappān
culture.” The Indus Valley civilization was a relatively peaceful culture
because few real weapons have been discovered.
Like many pre-modern cultures, the Indus Valley civilization
seems to have been greatly concerned with ritual purity. A great concern with
cleanliness is evidenced throughout the civilization; not only homes, but also
municipalities, featured sophisticated bathing and toilet facilities.
Mohenjo-daro and Harappā each had a large central bath with public access,
which antedate similar Roman facilities by many centuries. The prominence of
these baths in homes and cities suggests that dwellers of the Indus Valley
civilization were greatly interested in matters of ritual purity (not to be
confused with the idea of physical hygiene). One of the most common ways for
societies to maintain structures of order is by the opposition of cleanliness
and dirtiness, or more technically, purity and pollution. Foods, people, and
activities might be thought of as clean or dirty, and this is often a function
of context rather than the intrinsic nature of the thing or activity.
Excavation of the Indus Valley civilization has revealed many
intriguing artifacts that scholars use to extrapolate ideas about the Indus
Valley religion. The most interesting of these relics are seals used to stamp
soft clay with images, which most scholars believe to be in some way connected
to fertility rituals. This belief is based on the fact that the great majority
of seals portray male animals with emphasized horns and fl anks, suggesting an
intense interest in sexuality and reproductive function. Depictions of the
sexual energies of animals, as we fi nd in the Indus Valley seals, may suggest
a human effort to appropriate animal powers that humans lacked or wanted in
greater abundance. Whereas male sexuality in this society is symbolized by
animals, the discovery of numerous terracotta fi gurines depicting human
females suggests that the reproductive powers of women were revered and
regarded as sacred. These fi gures, and others like them, lead some scholars to
theorize the existence of a vast Mother Goddess religion long antedating the
worship of male gods. Also indicating interest in sexuality are a great number
of stone and clay phallic artifacts, called lingams,
found throughout the Indus Valley. Similar images still play a prominent role
in the worship of the god Śiva, whose creative energies are symbolized by the lingam and its female counterpart, the yoni. Another seal illustrates a man
sitting in what appears to be a meditating pose, suggesting that some dwellers
on the Indus Valley may have been practitioners of yoga and introspection. The
seated fi gure seems to have three faces pointing in different directions and a
headdress of horns, leading many scholars to believe that it may be an early
likeness of the god later known as Śiva.
Scholars mounted the theory that the Indus civilization came
to an end around 1500 B.C.E. when the Āryans ventured into the Indian
subcontinent from Central Asia and conquered the Indus dwellers, but today this
“invasion theory” is in serious doubt. The Indus civilization was already in
decline by 1500 when the Āryans supposedly subdued the region by military
conquest.
There is no evidence, archaeological or otherwise, to suggest
a massive Āryan conquest. Evidence does exist, however, that the Āryans and the
Indus dwellers may have coexisted in the same area for some time before the
demise of the Indus Valley culture.
The Āryans were different from what we know about the Indus
Valley dwellers in many ways. Unlike the Indus Valley people, the Āryans were
not highly organized; they were pastoral nomads rather than settled
agriculturalists. They used horses and chariots and were skilled in the 
|
use of bronze, which
initially gave credence to the “invasion theory” of the Indus Valley’s
demise. Their language became “Sanskrit,” which means “well-formed,” and it
became the “offi cial” language of the Hindu tradition. The Āryans believed
it to be the perfect linguistic embodiment |
The wisdom embodied in the Veda is believed to
be timeless and without origin, existing before this world and embodying an
eternal law that transcends the gods. |
of
the nature of reality. Sanskrit is closely connected to many European
languages. The migratory Āryans left little in the way of archaeological
evidence, and thus, almost everything we know about them is based on what is
now a collection of writings called the Veda, now the oldest and most sacred of
Hindu scriptures.
Originally and for thousands of years, the Veda existed only
in an oral tradition preserved by special memorization techniques by Āryan
priests who considered writing it down to be a desecration. The Āryan emphasis
on spoken language meant that the oral word, as contrasted with the written
word, was extremely powerful and potentially dangerous. Only the priests were
competent enough to recite the Veda effectively without causing grave danger.
Finally put in writing by the priestly class after the arrival of the Muslims
in India, the contents of the Veda were still not divulged to Westerners until
the late 18th and 19th centuries.
Not a narrative like the Bible, the Veda is more like a
liturgy manual, including hundreds of hymns addressed to various Āryan deities;
some myths, incantations, and spells; and a bit of philosophical speculation;
but the Veda was concerned primarily with rituals and was probably composed to
be recited at sacrifi ces. “Veda” means wisdom. The wisdom embodied in the Veda
is believed to be timeless and without origin, existing before this world and
embodying an eternal law that transcends the gods. The words of the Veda,
according to traditional conviction, were revealed to ancient seers called rishis in the great, distant past. The
Veda is so important that Hinduism is sometimes called Vaidik dharma, the religion of the Veda. Yet the Veda has never
been widely read by most Hindus. ■
Supplemental Reading
Douglas, Purity and
Danger, chapters 1–2.
Hopkins,
The Hindu Religious Tradition,
chapter 1.
Questions to Consider
1. How
is the Indus Valley civilization, such as we know it, similar toor different fromother ancient cultures with
which you are familiar?
2. What
are the advantages and disadvantages of oral scripture, such as the Veda?
The World of the Veda
Lecture 3
Although the idea of an Āryan conquest of India is now disputed, the infl
uence of the Āryans on Indian religion is undeniable. Our guide to these
investigations is the rich collection of Āryan texts known as the Veda, today
regarded by Hindus as their most sacred and authoritative scripture.
|
W |
hen the Āryans came to India, they brought with them the
Veda, an oral tradition of knowledge composed in Sanskrit and principally
concerned with ritual. The Veda represents the perspective of the
priestly class in Āryan society; we cannot be certain how
widespread these views were. The Veda is divided into four Samhitās, or “collections;” each deals with a different aspect of
ritual: Rig-veda, Yajur-veda, Sama-veda, and Atharva-veda.
The oldest and most important of these collections contains more than a
thousand songs to various gods and goddesses and is aptly named the Rig,
meaning “praise.” Scholars believe it was composed between 2300 and 1200 B.C.E.
The Rig-veda contains mantras, or sacred words, used during
ritual. We will explore the Vedic understandings of three areas: the physical
world, the divine world, and the human world.
Āryan
views of the natural world were in some ways similar to those of other ancient
cultures and in some ways, different. Like many ancient cultures, the Āryans
thought of the world as divided into three levels. They used the term triloka, or “the three places,” to refer
to the earth, “mid-space,” and Svarga, the home of the gods and the ancestors.
The world was believed to be governed by an abstract, impersonal principle of
harmony and order called Rita, which
kept the universe intact and preserved unity. Rita also regulated moral order and the order of ritual. The Veda
offered several different stories of the world’s creation, and it does not seem
to have been a problem that these were sometimes at odds with one another. Even
today, the Hindu traditions contain dozens of differing creation accounts.
One example of a Vedic cosmogonic hymn opens by taking us to
the limits of our capacity to think, thrusting us beyond conventional dualities
by invoking a time that is no time, a place that is no place. A “life force” is
identifi ed, a power that came into being through tapas, a creative energy associated with the god Agni and manifested by meditators in deep
concentration. Taking an unexpected turn, the hymn becomes profoundly humble
and refreshingly honest in its concluding verses. Without reaching a point of
nihilism or cynicism, it merely reminds us that all such thoughts about the
origins of the cosmos remain speculative.
The gods of the Vedic tradition are many and varied, and they
are conceptualized differently from Western notions of gods. There are about 20
different Sanskrit terms for the English word “god.” The most commonly used is deva, which means “shiny” and “exalted.”
A deva is a divine being or
supernatural power but not necessarily an omniscient or omnipotent being. Devas are not moral exemplars or
lawgivers. Created after the world, they are subject to its laws, including the
law of Rita. The traditional number
of
Vedic devas is 33. Various devas
dwell in different parts of the triloka,
and most have specifi c divine functions
|
|
associated
with nature, war, and |
|
Indra, a
god of war, is the most important deva
in the Veda. One-quarter of the more than a thousand songs in the Rig-veda are composed in his honor.
|
communal order. In the pantheon of
Vedic gods, some are more important than others; to demonstrate the range of
Vedic theology, we will discuss some of the more interesting primary |
devas. Indra, a god
of war, is the most important deva in
the Veda. Onequarter of the more than a thousand songs in the Rig-veda are composed in his honor. Next
to Indra in popularity is the deva
Agni, the divine fi re. Nearly one-fi fth of the songs of the Rig-veda are addressed to Agni, who is
unique among devas in that he dwells
in all three levels of the world. Because of his mobility, Agni was mediator
between the gods and humans, carrying sacrifi ces to the gods and transporting
the dead to Svarga. Varuna was
custodian of Rita, the principle of
order that he enforced but did not create. The deva Soma manifested as a particular plant whose juices were used
in rituals. Soma induced ecstatic experiences for those who imbibed it. The deva Rudra, known as “the Howler,”
despised human beings and often affl icted them with sickness and misfortune,
but he was also a healer.
Minor devas
included Yama, the god of death; Ushas, the goddess of the dawn; Kubera, the deva of wealth and prosperity; Sūrya, god of the sun, and other lesser
gods and goddesses. At different times in the Vedic religion, different devas took center stage. Max Müller, a
19th-century
Vedic scholar, coined the term “henotheism” to describe the practice of
recognizing many gods and goddesses while worshiping one as supreme, a sort of
synthesis of polytheism and monotheism.
The
Veda regarded humans as being individual souls and members of a stratifi ed
society. For the Āryans, the essence of human life is the soul, which they
associated with the breath, designated by the word ātman. The Sanskrit ātman
has cognates in the English word “atmosphere” and the German word atmen, which means “to breathe.” Because
the breath leaves the body when a person dies, the Āryans concluded that the
breath is what animates and enlivens the body. There is not complete agreement
in the Veda about ultimate
For the Āryans, the human destiny. Some Vedic hymns
suggest that the soul traveled to heaven.
essence of human life
Some
indicate that the soul descends to
is the
soul, which they the “house of clay,” the underworld ruled associated with the breath. by the
god of death. Still others imagine ...
Because the breath that the soul dissolves along with the leaves the body when a body. person dies, the Āryans
When
the Āryans arrived in the
concluded
that the breath Indian subcontinent, their society was is what animates and probably already
stratifi ed according enlivens
the body. to occupations.
Priests and teachers were the Brahmins; the warriors and administrators were
the Kśatriyas; and
the merchants, artisans, ranchers, and farmers were the Vaiśyas.
The later Veda also mentioned a fourth class of people called Śūdras, who were
the people of the land. Evidence for the stratifi cation of Āryan society comes
from the “Sacrifi ce of the Purusha,” a hymn about the ritual dismemberment of
the Purusha, the primordial human. From the Purusha, the gods created the
various components of the world and four classes of human beings. This myth
roots the division of social classes into the very nature of the world. To
Ganges River.
attempt to upset or disorder social classifi cation is to
oppose what is natural and divinely appointed and to invite cosmic chaos. The
myth also establishes a system of
correspondences linking the natural and social worlds together with ritual. ■
Essential Reading
O’Flaherty, The Rig
Veda: An Anthology, “Creation,” “Agni,” “Soma,” “Indra,” “Varuna,” “Rudra
and Vishnu.”
Supplemental Reading
Mahony, William K. The
Artful Universe.
|
Questions to Consider |
1. 
How
do the Vedas compare and contrast to other scriptural traditions among the
world’s religions?
2. What
purposes are served by conceiving the great forces in life as personal beings?
From the Vedic Tradition to Classical Hinduism
Lecture 4
The Āryans, like most religious
people throughout the world even today, considered ritual much more important
than doctrine and belief. The Veda itself was a manual of ritual, not of
creedal statements or theology.
|
T |
his talk discusses the emergence of classical Hinduism and
its characteristic views. We begin by examining the central place of ritual in Āryan
life and discussing the different types of rituals, their purposes, and their
performers. We also study the Āryans’ understanding of how ritual worked. In
the central centuries of the fi rst millennium B.C.E., the religious life
of India underwent some remarkable changes that raised doubts about the
time-honored Vedic tradition. These doubts, along with new speculation about
the nature and destiny of humanity, spurred the emergence of Hinduism. We shall
see how Indian philosophers came to regard the human as an immortal soul
encased in a perishable body and bound by action, or karma, to a cycle of endless existences. When this view of human
destiny is widely accepted in India, it constitutes a new problem for religion.
The Āryans’ strong emphasis on ritual over doctrine and
belief was the basis of the Vedic tradition. The re-evaluation of ritual,
however, spurred the development of the classical period of Hindu history. The
Veda has certain conceptions and assumptions about the world, divinity, and
humanity, and these dimensions are united in the practice of ritual. The Āryans
practiced three types of rituals: domestic, shamanic, and śrauta. Though little is known about domestic rituals, they were
probably simple sacrifi ces at home fi res with the father serving as priest to
honor the gods and ensure their generosity. Shamanic rituals from the Atharva-veda were performed by a ritual
specialist called an Atharvan for Āryan
families at times of crisis (such as sickness), during transition (such as
birth or death), or on signifi cant days (such as the new moon or the harvest).
The most important rituals for Āryan religious life may have been the śrauta rites, particularly the fi re
sacrifi ce. Much of the Veda concerned these elaborate rituals. They were
performed exclusively by Brahmins and promised earthly rewards, such as
prosperity, health and longevity, and reproductive success. The sacred words of
the Veda came to be regarded as powerful in themselves because language was
believed to embody spirit. The creative power of sacrifi ce acquired the name
“Brahman.” One Vedic creation myth maintained that the universe was created out
of a word—AUM, the Prāvnava, or most
potent of mantras.
Transformations of thought in the Axial Age (c. 800–200 B.C.E.)
led to the re-evaluation of Vedic ritual and novel ideas about the nature of
human existence. Deeper spiritual questions led to the examination of human
nature and the possibility of an afterlife. This evolution in Indian religion
was roughly contemporaneous with similar developments in other civilizations,
including ancient Greece, China, Mesopotamia, and Israel. The function of
religion changed from that of “cosmic maintenance” to one of personal
enlightenment and transformation.
Ways
of addressing new issues were combined with older Vedic practices to create
classical Hinduism. Two features of classical Hinduism that distinguish it from
its Vedic precursor were the concepts of the transmigration of the soul and karma. A fundamental principle of
virtually all religions formed in India, reincarnation, or transmigration of
the soul, is the belief that human souls are reborn into another physical form
after they die. Its origin is uncertain. Modes of reincarnation involve
returning in different forms— human, animal, or even demon—and the form is
determined by the level of one’s karma. Karma is simply action and its
consequences; in older Vedic times, it meant “ritual action,” but in classical
Hinduism, it came to include “moral action.” The moral connotation implied that
karma can be good and evil. Good karma counts toward a favorable rebirth in
which one improves his or her station in the next life. Bad karma counts toward
an unfavorable rebirth in which one lowers his or her station in the next life.
Karma can be diffi cult to conceptualize. Jainism thinks of karma as a fi ne,
imperceptible substance that clings to the soul. In classical Hinduism, the
notion of karma is less materialist and more akin to a form of energy. Karma is
a principle of absolute justice that occurs ineluctably and impersonally, like
the law of gravity acting on physical bodies. The principle of karma means that
eventually everyone gets what he or she deserves because the consequences of
action always return to the agent. The world just described, a cycle of
transmigrations governed by the laws of karma, is called samsāra, which means, literally, “wandering,” and this condition is
the essential problem of life for Hindus. ■
Essential Reading
Radhakrishnan and Moore, A
Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy, chapter 5, section 1.
Supplemental Reading
Hopkins,
The Hindu Religious Tradition,
chapter 2.
Questions to Consider
1. What
factors may have spurred such a widespread ferment in religious and
philosophical thought in the Axial Age?
2. Why
did the idea of transmigration of the soul, so important to religions of India,
not appear in any major Western religion?
Caste
Lecture 5
Dharma is one of those diffi cult-to-translate notions that have various
meanings and associations, so I prefer to leave it untranslated. In the present
context, dharma means the pattern for proper and appropriate living. It is, in
other words, the moral law.
|
I |
n addition to new ideas about human life, classical Hinduism
is defi ned by evolving social arrangements. This lecture and the next one, on
gender and the life cycle, discuss the social foundations of Hinduism. We shall
observe how the relatively simple stratifi cation of Āryan society is
transmuted into the exceedingly complex caste system. Spurred by the dynamics
that prompted speculation about the nature and destiny of human beings, what
was once a division of labor became more deeply embedded into the social and
religious fabric. Rules regulating appropriate behavior within and between
castes were developed and joined to the emerging ideas about the soul. These
regulations had—and have—tremendous impact on Hindu social life, governing not
only one’s work but also such matters as marriage, diet, and hygiene.
During
the transition from the Vedic tradition to classical Hinduism, the concept of dharma evolves, and the caste system
becomes more deeply established in Hindu life.Distinctions between good and bad
karma are determined by dharma, which, like the Vedic idea of Rita, has both moral and cosmological
dimensions. The cosmological element implies that the moral order is rooted in
the nature of reality, not on human whim. Dharma as a moral principle was
rather abstract and required concretization to be applicable to people’s daily
lives. Accordingly, the genre of literature known as dharmaśāstras emerged to specify and codify the dharma. The most
important and infl uential representative of the dharma-śāstras, the Laws of
Manu, was written down about the time of Jesus but refl ected earlier
understandings of society’s structure. Manu’s laws assigned different dharmas
to each stratum of Hindu society.
The Hindu caste system is an extremely complex phenomenon, at
once social, economic, political, and religious. The caste system was founded
on the Vedic stratifi cation of society and acquired its characteristic
features during the classical period of Hinduism. The caste system is based on
the assumption that all people are not created equal; they are born with innate
differences derived from how they acted in previous lives. This is the law of
karma. Caste entails both a division of labor and a hierarchy of spiritual
purity. It is not based on wealth.
The term “caste” is not an indigenous Hindu word but, rather,
a Portuguese expression that imprecisely refers to what Hindus call varna and jātī, which are two distinguishable but related systems of
organizing India society. Varna means
color. Varna is often thought 
of as “caste.” Jātī means birth and,
|
Caste entails both a division of labor and a
hierarchy of spiritual purity. It is not based on wealth. |
more specifi cally, birth
group. Jātī is thought of as
“subcaste.” The varna system is the division of labor
composed of the four |
categories of Āryan society. The
Brahmins,
priests, and intellectuals
are at the top of the purity hierarchy. They are followed by
the Kśatriyas, the warriors and administrators. The Vaiśyasmerchants, farmers, and
artisanscome next.
Finally are the Śūdras, the peasants or common folk. The fi rst three castes
are known as the “twice-born,” because as children, their members undergo a
ritual second birth. Śūdras, however, have no such ritual initiation and are
known as the “once-born.”
Outside of the varna
system completely are those who have no caste, known variously as “outcastes,”
“untouchables,” and “Hari-jans.” Members of this group today prefer to call
themselves dalits, meaning the
“oppressed ones” or “those ground down.” People in this class are handlers of
leather, morticians and body-burners, toilet cleaners, scavengers, and so on.
Their ritual impurity cannot be removed by standard procedures of purifi
cation, such as bathing, because their work is considered highly polluting, yet
they perform the crucial function of absorbing the pollution of Hindu society.
“Untouchables” live outside of villages and towns and cannot use the same
public facilities as
Rules regulating appropriate behavior within and between castes were
developed. These regulations had—and have—tremendous impact on Hindu social
life, governing not only one’s work but also such matters as marriage.
caste members. Though technically outlawed by the
constitution, the practice of untouchability remains a part of daily Hindu
life.
In
addition to varna, the caste system
is made up a large number of jātīs,
or “birth groups,” existing within the larger varna groupings. As this name implies, one’s subcaste is determined
by birth, and it cannot be left except under rare circumstances. Unlike the varnas, which are pan-Hindu, jātīs are local groups; therefore, their
total number has not been determined with certainty. Estimates suggest that
there may be more than 3,000. There are hundreds of jātīs ranked within each varna,
and local ranking is not always the same. Although little or no individual
social mobility exists in the caste system, there is some mobility for
subcastes as a whole, if their members attempt to gain a greater standing by
imitating the behavior of higher castes. There is much scholarly speculation on
the relationship between varna and jātīs. Many believe that jātīs were indigenous to the Indus
Valley civilization, and varna were
superimposed by the Āryans.
In addition to occupation, caste also determines many other
facets of everyday life, based on the dynamics of purity and pollution. One’s
caste and subcaste imply marital restrictions. People are expected to marry
within their caste, and although men cannot marry up-caste, women can in
special cases. Caste determines the kinds of food one may eat. For example,
high-caste Brahmins maintain strict vegetarian diets, whereas meat may be
acceptable at lower caste levels where ritual purity is less of a concern. Caste
also determines the kinds of people from whom one may receive food and with
whom one may eat. Caste determines the type of people with whom one can
associate or whom one may touch. Caste strictures are ordinarily enforced by
family and intra-caste pressure, not by upper castes enforcing rules on lower
castes. Most castes have caste councils in which the interests of the caste are
discussed and advanced.
The dharma of each caste carries certain specifi c duties and
responsibilities. According to the Laws
of Manu, the duties of the Brahmin include teaching, studying, sacrifi cing
for himself, sacrifi cing for others, making gifts, and receiving gifts. The
dharma of the Kśatriyas is to protect the whole world, both from foreign
enemies and by maintaining the caste system to keep social and cosmic order.
The dharma for the Vaiśyas includes taking a wife, keeping cattle, and knowing
the worth of valuable materials, such as gems, metals, cloth, perfumes, and so
on. He must also know how to sow seed and tend a fi eld and be acquainted with
weights and measures. Finally, the dharma for the Śūdras involves serving the
Brahmins and the other upper castes with humility. Being outside the caste
system, the dalits do not have their
own dharma according to the Laws of Manu.
Despite friction between and among castes and subcastes, the
caste system in India has made for a highly stable society for more than 2,000
years, mainly because of the system’s religious foundations. The concepts of
transmigration and karma work to support the idea that one’s station in life is
the consequence of one’s own actions. These concepts function to encourage the
individual not to resist the system, but to fulfi ll the dharma of his or her
caste, because in so doing, one’s position in the next life is sure to improve.
The Laws of Manu teach that a breach
of caste courts social chaos and ultimate destruction. Finally, Hinduism
reminds its practitioners that this world ultimately must be transcended. ■
|
Essential Reading |
Radhakrishnan and Moore, A
Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy, chapter 5, sections 2, 4.
|
Supplemental Reading |
Douglas, Purity and
Danger, chapters 1–2.
Dumont,
Homo Hierarchicus, introduction,
chapters 1–2.
|
Questions to Consider |
1. What
are the advantages and disadvantages of basing social structure and hierarchy
in religious practice? What are the advantages and disadvantages of basing
social structure and hierarchy in wealth and fame?
2. Are
there any equivalents to the untouchables in Western culture?
Men, Women, and the Stages of Life
Lecture 6
We observed how the development of classical Hinduism led to particular
dharmas, or duties, for individuals according to their standing in society. At
about the same time in Hindu history, specifi c expectations also arose
concerning one’s sex, resulting in different patterns of life for men and women
|
I |
n addition to caste-specifi c dharmas, the Laws of Manu outlined particular
regulations for the lives of men and women and the relationships between them.
These basic principles were developed into ideal life patterns for upper-caste
men and women. Both ideals were based on the notion of “stages,” a common way
of thinking about the individual’s life. As ideals, these stages did not
necessarily describe the life cycle of each and every member of Hindu society.
According to the stages of life elaborated by Manu, males
undergo four orders, or aśramas, in
their lifetime. These orders begin with brahmacarya,
or the student stage, in which the boy is initiated into the twice-born through
a special ritual signifying his standing as an upper-caste member. The initiate
left home to study the Veda and religious rituals with a guru, or teacher. After studenthood, a young man entered the
householder stage. He was expected to marry, raise a family, pursue an
occupation appropriate to his caste, and establish himself as a fi nancially
independent and responsible contributor to society. Marriage was regarded as
the natural state for adult men and women, from which it would be shameful to
deviate. In the forest-dweller stage, a man and possibly his wife moved to a
more modest dwelling, usually at the edge of the village near the forest, to
become more devoted to the life of the spirit. But this could occur only after
a man had raised a family, earned an income, and discharged his obligations to
society. Sannyasa, or renunciation,
was a stage of such rigor and austerity that not all men would embark upon it.
Those who did renounced their former identity and everything associated with
it: name, wife, family, and all material goods, living out their remaining days
as wandering, solitary ascetics.
The female life cycle followed three stages: girlhood,
householder, and widowhood, each defi ned by the male under whose protection
the woman was. Girls were not allowed the same education as boys because they
could not leave their father’s protection. What education girls received came
from their parents, such as domestic skills learned from her mother and her
role in religious ritual. Marriage marked the female’s entrance into the
householder stage. 
|
Marriages in India have
historically been alliances between families for the purposes of reproduction
and economic stability. Because marriages were arranged, bride and groom |
A man’s
wife shared her husband’s karma and his destiny. |
often
did not meet until the actual wedding. 
Girls married
early in life, frequently because of great concern for their virginity; often,
they were married to much older men. Following the wedding, the new bride went
to live with her husband’s family, because the pattern in traditional India is
to live in extended families. Upon entering her husband’s home, the new bride
was expected to defer to and obey her mother-in-law, the mistress of the house.
As a wife, the Hindu woman was expected to live up to the
ideals of strīdharma, the duties of
the “good wife.” A man’s wife shared her husband’s karma and his destiny. His
premature death was often regarded as her responsibility. The husband was
expected to provide for his wife’s material needs, her security, protection,
and social status, revering her as a goddess, as if she were the goddess
incarnate. If a woman gave birth to a son, her status was greatly enhanced.
Daughters, on the other hand, are still generally considered economic
liabilities. A few exceptions to the pattern of marriage and motherhood do
exist, such as one 14th-century woman named Lalla who left an unhappy
marriage and an abusive mother-in-law to study spiritual disciplines after the
fashion of a bhakta saint.
The death of her husband was a crisis for every Hindu wife,
marking her entrance into the third stage of life. Until recently, one
possibility for this stage was satī. Satī, sometimes called the “going with,”
is the name for the ritual in which a wife burns alive on her husband’s funeral
pyre. The term satī is taken from a
mythic story of Satī, one of the wives of the great god Śiva, who was so
faithful to her husband that she was willing to die rather than endure an
insult to his dignity. Strong evidence exists that many women were thrown on
the burning pyre against their will by their sons or other family members or
villagers; in other cases, women were drugged or intoxicated when they
performed satī. The British outlawed
the practice during their rule in the 19th century, and the
ritual has since become extremely rare, though cases were reported as recently
as 1987 and 2002.
Some women may have chosen satī when they considered the alternative; historically, widowhood
has been so diffi cult that even a grisly death might seem preferable. The
widow was viewed as dangerous, inauspicious, and the embodiment of all negative
qualities in women. Widows were
generally not permitted to re-marry, even though women were frequently widowed
in their twenties and thirties. They were expected to wear a white sari for the
rest of their lives because white is the color of mourning in India. Widows
were sometimes expected to shave their heads to be unattractive to men. Widows
were given the hardest household tasks to perform and forbidden to eat with the
rest of the family.
The roles of Hindu men and women are changing, perhaps more
today than ever before in India’s history, but social changes in India evolve
slowly, because patterns of behavior are etched deeply in the soul of Hindu
India. ■
Essential Reading
Radhakrishnan and Moore, A
Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy, chapter 5, sections 3, 5.
Supplemental Reading
Fuller, The Camphor
Flame, chapter 1.
Hopkins,
The Hindu Religious Tradition,
chapter 5.
|
Questions to Consider |
1. What
are the social and personal benefi ts to envisioning the fi nal stage of life
as one of renunciation?
2. Are
there advantages in making marriage a family decision rather than simply an
individual one?
The Way of Action
Lecture 7
The ultimate goal of Hinduism is freedom from samsāra.
|
C |
lassical Hinduism established the central problem of human
existence for Hindus—samsāra, the
cycle of continual transmigrations of the soul. Traditionally, Hinduism has
offered three ways to reckon with this problem. This talk focuses on the fi rst
of the three ways, the path of action; subsequent lectures will cover the other
two. The path of action is the most important religious discipline for the
majority of Hindus. The principal feature of this form of spirituality is the
performance of meritorious religious deeds, including ritual, festivals, and
pilgrimage.
In order to understand how Hindus attain samsāra, it has been necessary to gain a clearer understanding of
caste and gender, because these matters impinge on the ways one seeks to live
the spiritual life. Though some Westerners tend to misinterpret it as
desirable, Hindus see samsāra as the
fundamental problem of life—the realm of suffering, sorrow, and ennui. Samsāra implies the possibility of
returning to life in forms that are not especially conducive to pleasure, given
that many kinds of life, both human and animal, experience great amounts of
suffering. Even returning to a life of privilege and pleasure would eventually
become tedious and distasteful because forever is a long, long time.
The ultimate goal of Hinduism is, thus, to gain mokśa, meaning release or liberation
from samsāra, which all persons must
eventually achieve. In keeping with the Hindu appreciation of plurality, there
is not one single prescribed path to salvation, but several. Traditionally,
Hinduism has maintained that there are three ways to live the spiritual life,
collectively known as the Trīmārga,
literally “the three paths.” The three paths are known as the karma-mārga, or the way of action; the jñāna-mārga, or the way of wisdom; and
the bhakti-mārga, the way of
devotion, and are seen as providing suitable spiritualities for persons of
different temperaments or proclivities. The word yoga is often used interchangeably with mārga to describe these types. The meaning of the term yoga is much broader than simply the
Western identifi cation with the discipline of practicing postures.
In a sense, all Hindus pursue the way of action, or karma-mārga, in one way or another. For
most Hindus, mokśa is seen as a
distant objective to be pursued in another
lifetime, because the concerns of this life are demanding enough, with many
this-worldly needs that require attention, such as the necessity of obtaining
daily food. 
The Hindu
tradition speaks of four
|
“goods” of life, each
of which constitutes a valuable, worthwhile aim in life. First is the good of
dharma, or duty. The second is the
good of artha, or wealth and
material acquisition. The third is the good of kāma, or pleasure and |
Positive
karma may also be produced by meritorious religious activity, such as
rituals, festivals, and pilgrimages, all important aspects of everyday Hindu
life. |
enjoyment
of the sense. Mokśa 
is the fourth
and highest good.
To achieve mokśa,
one must be willing to give up the other three goods, because even though doing
one’s duty and pursuing wealth and enjoyment are viewed positively, they also
keep one bound to the wheel of rebirth. For those who are not yet prepared to
abandon a life of duty, material acquisition, and enjoyments, the religious
life means doing one’s best to improve this life and future lives.
In addition to following the dharma prescribed for one’s
caste and gender, positive karma may also be produced by meritorious religious
activity, such as rituals, festivals, and pilgrimages, all important aspects of
everyday Hindu life. Daily rituals are performed, such as uttering the name of
a personal deity, engaging in ritual bathing while uttering mantras and
applying markings of devotion, making morning prayers, and burning incense in pūjā rites; similar rites at noon and
evening complete a daily round of devotional rituals. Rites of passage help
individuals negotiate the transition to different states of being and provide
an opportunity for the community to maintain its solidarity, marking the
changes of individuals’ lives with samskāras,
or sacraments of birth, initiation, marriage, and death. On virtually every day
of the annual calendar, a festival is being celebrated somewhere in India. This
multitude of Hindu festivals is, in part, a function of the multitude of Hindu
gods (the traditional number of which is supposed to be 330 million). The
festivals are also important as events that help integrate the local village
community and defi ne the social practices of its residents. Pilgrimage is an
important and widely practiced aspect of Hinduism (as it is of Christianity and
Islam), not only because pilgrimage is religiously meritorious but also because
India itself is holy. The very rivers, mountains, trees, and villages of India
are often identifi ed with the gods and important sacred events. Leaving home
and making the arduous journey to take darśan,
or a viewing, of these sacred places is an activity that brings great spiritual
benefi t.
The way of action, or karma-mārga,
is an avenue for generating positive karma by following dharma and fulfi lling religious obligations
and opportunities to steadily improve one’s place in life, over the course of
many lifetimes, until one is in a position favorable for realizing mokśa. ■
Bathers in the River Ganges.
|
Essential Reading |
Danielou,
Alain. Virtue: Sucess, Pleasure &
Liberation.
|
Supplemental Reading |
Eck, Darśan,
chapter 3.
Fuller,
The Camphor Flame, chapter 6.
|
Questions to Consider |
1. In
what ways do holidays and festivals serve the good of a society?
2. What
kinds of places serve as pilgrimage sites in Western culture, including
locations that are not ordinarily considered religious?
The Way of Wisdom
Lecture 8
Karma, even good karma, keeps a person bound to the cycle of
transmigration. One path the Hindu tradition offers for the attainment of mokśa, or ultimate release, is the path
of wisdom.
|
T |
he path of wisdom is rooted in the Axial Age, when the most
important Hindu responses to the anxieties about death and rebirth were
recorded in a collection of texts called the Upaniśads. The oldest of the Upaniśads
was probably composed between 800–400 B.C.E., but actually written down much later.
The authors of these works are not known to us today. The Upaniśads are regarded as śruti,
or revealed knowledge, a sacred status they share with the Veda. Although they
were developed much later than the original four Samhitās, they represent a perspective often called Vedānta, which means the end and
completion of the Veda. The title of this collection, the Upaniśads, takes its name from the Sanskrit syllables that mean “to
sit down beside,” suggesting that the Upaniśads
contain knowledge transmitted from guru to student, indicating an esoteric form
of wisdom that could be gained only from someone who knew.
There is not uniform agreement about what works are included
in the collection of Upaniśads.
According to some, there are as many as 200–300, some written as recently as a
few centuries ago; some say that the number is 108, which is a particularly
sacred number in Hinduism and Buddhism. Most printed editions and English
translations contain 13 “principal” Upaniśads;
however, like the Veda, they are not systematic or always internally
consistent.
The Upaniśads
focused on two central trajectories of thought: What is the essence of this
human self, and what is the essence of the ultimate reality? The sages who
composed the Upaniśads also called
the human essence “soul,” using the Sanskrit word ātman, but they found the original Vedic connection to the breath
unsatisfying. Upaniśadic authors were
also reluctant to identify the human essence with the mind, as had other
philosophers. The Upaniśads concluded
that what is beyond the senses and the mind itself cannot be sensed or thought
about. From this insight derive the unique qualities of the soul: ātman as imperceptible, spiritual,
beyond human categories of thinking, beyond comprehension, immortal. Because it
cannot be identifi ed in any way with the body, the ātman is not subject to the experiences of the body, such 
|
as death and birth.
Yet the Upaniśads affi rm that the
soul exists within our physical natures. Although
the Upaniśads sought to determine
the human essence by |
The
result of this deep awareness is peacefulness and serenity that comes about
from knowing there is nothing to fear. |
turning
inward, at the same time, they 
sought a
deeper understanding of the ultimate reality, that which explains the totality
of everything there is. A concept reworked from the Vedas, Brahman literally means “that which makes great.” During the
evolution of classical Hinduism, Brahman
came to refer to the power of all powers, the deepest reality of the cosmos.
The concept of Brahman became
increasingly abstract and diffi cult to grasp; although Brahman is removed from the world of everyday experience, the Upaniśads assure us that it is closer to
us than we are to ourselves. Brahman
transcends all human categories and images. It is nirguna, without qualities. Because its only quality is that of not
having qualities, Brahman is often
discussed by referring to what it is not, an approach known as negative
theology, or via negativa.
As the sages of the Upaniśads
increasingly appreciated the incomprehensible and unutterable nature of both ātman and Brahman, these two ideas converged. The conclusion of the sages was
that which is called soul is identical with ultimate reality itself. The
identity of ātman and Brahman means they are consubstantial,
two names designating the same reality. The true self is God, is ultimate
reality. This consubstantiality offers a highly exalted view of humanity. Like
many traditions that affi rm the existence of a soul, the classical Hindu view
understands that the embodied soul is not at rest, is not at its true home. It
continues in this restless state, seeking ever-new manifestations, until it fi
nds, as Augustine would say, its rest in God. According to the Upaniśads, samsāra is a consequence of our own ignorance, our lack of
understanding. Implicit in the Upaniśads
is the notion of māyā, the veil over
reality that causes us to perceive plurality where there is actually unity.
The principle of the unity of Brahman and ātman is
foundational “theory” for this path of wisdom, and this idea gives shape to the
characteristic elements of the path. Taking the path of wisdom means living in
such a way that one’s very life expresses the truth of this principle, as if
there is no individual self separate from the rest of reality. Accepting the
path of wisdom requires renunciation, giving up all attachment to anything that
encourages a sense of separateness or individuality. Whereas conventional
religion may encourage us to look for truth in a book or somewhere else, the Upaniśads tell us that the truth is not
“out there,” but within the deepest self.
The result of this deep awareness is peacefulness and
serenity that comes about from knowing there is nothing to fear. There is no
rebirth, because there is no clinging to life. ■
Essential Reading
Olivelle,
The Upaniśads.
Supplemental Reading
Hopkins,
The Hindu Religious Tradition,
chapter 3.
Questions to Consider
1. What
are the theological advantages and disadvantages of conceiving ultimate reality
as devoid of qualities?
2. From
where do thoughts come?
Seeing God
Lecture 9
Early Western interpreters generally regarded Hinduism as a crude and
hopelessly idolatrous religion. This view still lingers in the Western
imagination, due in no small measure, to basic misunderstandings about the
nature of Hindu polytheism and iconography.
|
T |
he ultimate object of religion is mystery, beyond the human
capacity to conceptualize adequately. Hinduism takes two general approaches in
the face of mystery. One approach is to say, think, and imagine nothing at all;
the ultimate is ineffable. Say anything about it, and it has been distorted.
This approach is implied in the way of wisdom. Another approach, more
characteristic of the mainstreams of world religions, is based on the belief
that we are not at liberty to discard language and images of the divine. But
images must be used carefully lest we make the grave mistake of believing that
our concepts are actually adequate to describe ultimate mystery. The
characteristic features of Hindu-theism—the many gods and goddesses and the
veneration of their images—operate in a way to mediate divine reality without
slipping into idolatry.
Hinduism
embraces polytheism and monotheism, conceiving reality to be both one and many.
The many devas are just so many
different expressions of the one reality, Brahman,
as it is known or revealed to humans. Brahman
is ultimate reality as it is unknown and unknowable. The many gods of
Hinduism are ways to enrich the understanding of the divine while militating
against confusing image and reality. The very number of gods and their complex
manifestations, in many ways so outrageous in their extravagance, serve to
astound and overwhelm the human mind, reminding us of the unspeakable nature of
ultimate reality. Even though the Hindu pantheon is immense, individual Hindus
do not, of course, even attempt to give worship to all the gods equally. Those
who wish to worship have an ista-devatā,
a personal deity of choice, often the god worshipped by one’s family or
village, but the decision to worship a specifi c god is uniquely one’s own.
Devotees worship their particular deity as the supreme god, but do not feel compelled
to deny the reality of other gods or their supremacy for their own followers.
Local priest with village deities in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. When the
likeness of a Hindu deity is completed, its god or goddess may be invited
through rituals to inhabit it.
Hindu iconography, the practice of physically representing
the divine, has often seemed scandalous to many in the Western world. The easy
identifi cation of divine images and idolatry, however, actually betrays a
superfi cial understanding of the nature and function of religious iconography.
Images of the devas and devīs can be anthropomorphic or
nonanthropomorphic. The vast array of non-anthropomorphic symbols includes
natural phenomena, such as stones, earthen mounds, trees, rivers, and celestial
bodies; the lingam; and yantras, or geometric designs signifying
the devī. To imagine ultimate reality
as anthropomorphic in some measurewith
intelligence, will, emotions, and perhaps even a bodyhelps us grasp the mystery and
relate to it in ways not possible with nonanthropomorphic representations.
The danger, though, in personalizing the divine world is
bringing it too close to the human, making it too much like ourselves so that
it seems fi nite. Hindu images of the gods endeavor to avert this danger by
incorporating elements that frankly remind devotees that the gods are also not
like humans and cannot be reduced to fi nite status.
To illustrate these points, we will explore, in greater
detail, the iconography of one of Hinduism’s great gods, Śiva. Possibly identifi
able on artifacts as early as the Indus Valley civilization, Śiva also has
connections with the Vedic tradition
as the god Rudra (the Howler), whom many scholars believe to be one of Śiva’s
early forms. Today, Śiva is at the center of Śaivism, one of the three most
prominent religions in the Hindu family of religions. Its followers are known
as Śaivites.
Śiva
is both the creator and destroyer of the universe, movement and tranquility,
light and darkness, male and female, celibate and promiscuous. These paradoxes
serve to symbolize the limitlessness and freedom of the divine and suggest that
what we might ordinarily consider oppositions are, in fact, closer than we
think. These divine dimensions are illustrated in the images of Śiva as Mahāyogi,
the Lord of the Dance (Natarāja), and HalfWoman Lord. The image of Śiva as the
Great Yogi accents Śiva’s tranquil, ascetic aspect, providing a model for many Śaivites
who seek to practice asceticism. The Natarāja image depicts Śiva’s cosmic dance
during the auspicious occasion of the Mahashivaratri, the great night of Śiva,
when he dances to dispel the ignorance of the night. He holds a drum and a fl
ame; with the drum, he sounds the world into existence, and with the fl ame, he
destroys it in order to create another. Another image of Śiva illustrates his
androgynous nature. All Hindu gods have their essential female counterpart,
their Śakti, and in this image, Śiva is depicted as the “Half-Woman Lord,” a
single individual with male and female halves. Such an image 
|
suggests the
all-compassing nature of the divine and reminds the viewer of the limitations
of anything in human experience to capture it. The
Hindu images of divine, both anthropomorphic and aniconic, |
Devotees
worship their particular deity as the supreme god, but do not feel compelled
to deny the reality of other gods or their supremacy for their own followers. |
function symbolically to point 
beyond
themselves to ultimate,
infi nite reality. Yet there is a special sense in which the
images are understood to manifest or embody the divine reality. When an image
is completed by a craftsperson, the god or goddess it represents may be invited
to inhabit it through rituals of consecration, ordinarily for a specifi c
period of time, such as that deva’s
festival. When the designated term is up, the physical image is destroyed,
often by burning or immersion in water, reminding devotees that although the
god may indeed incarnate the image, the image is not the god. The incarnation
of god in Hindu images has important implications for ritual and worship
practices (pūjā). In a temple, during
the period of incarnation, the image is treated as if it were god in living
form. At specifi c times during the day, the temple image is made available to
worshippers for darśan, or seeing and
being seen by the god. ■
Essential Reading
Dimmitt
and van Buitenen, Classical Hindu
Mythology: A Reader in the Sanskrit Purānas, chapter 4.
Supplemental Reading
Eck, Darśan,
chapters 1–2.
Fuller, The Camphor
Flame, chapter 3.
Questions to Consider
1. What
accounts for the way some humans seem so fervently devoted to religious images
and icons, while others are so fervently opposed to such images?
2. Why
might worshipers of Śiva fi nd him such a compelling
image for the divine reality?
The Way of Devotion
Lecture 10
Hinduism affi rms not only the multiplicity of the divine, but also the
multiplicity of paths to divine reality. Different people require different
spiritualities.
|
M |
any Hindus fi nd the way of devotion, or bhakti, more compelling than that of wisdom. The approach of the
devotional way is to focus one’s passionate nature on the love of a personal
deity and
make
that paramount above all things. New texts added to the canon of Hindu writings
in the post-classical period were very important in shaping Hindu piety in the bhakti movement. These works include the
Mahābhārata and Ramāyāna, the two great epics of India, and a collection known as
the Purānas. This last, composed
between 300–1600 C.E., provides the sources for much of the mythology
of the Hindu gods and goddesses. We will examine the bhakti-mārga by means of the Bhagavad-gītā
(actually part of the Mahābhārata).
Neither the most sacred nor the most authoritative, the Gītā is widely read and extremely well known.
Vishnu, in his manifestation as Krishna, is one of the
central characters of the Bhagavad-gītā.
According to Hindu mythology, Vishnu is a member of the cosmic triad, the
Vishnu in his avatar form of
Varaha, the boar. most popular Hindu
religion. In iconography, Vishnu is identifi ed by the
symbolic attributes he carries in each of his four hands: a club symbolizing
knowledge; a ball signifying the earth; a cakra,
or disc, symbolizing power; and a conch shell to suggest water and the origins
of existence.
Vishnu’s most salient feature is his avatāras, or incarnations. Literally meaning “to descend into,”
these refer to the times when the god descends to earth and assumes an earthly
manifestation at critical junctures in the world’s history. From the standpoint
|
of religious practice,
Vishnu’s |
|
|
most important avatāras have been Krishna and Rāma. As Rāma, Vishnu appeared on
earth as a royal fi gure |
The
religion of Vishnu, known as Vaiśnava, is the most popular Hindu religion. |
who defeats his wife’s abductor in the Ramāyāna. As Krishna, he was
remembered as a playful and adventurous boy and young man and
for his role in the Bhagavad-gītā.
Krishna is probably a familiar name to Westerners because of the International
Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), known as “Hare Krishnas.”
The Bhagavad-gītā,
which is usually translated as the “Song of the Lord,” was probably composed
between 400 B.C.E. and 100 C.E., and its author or authors are unknown.
Though usually read as an independent story, the Bhagavadgītā is part of the Mahābhārata,
probably the world’s longest epic poem with more than 100,000 verses. The Gītā is essentially a dialogue between
Vishnu in his avatāra as Krishna and
a warrior by the name of Arjuna, which takes place on the battlefi eld just as
two grand armies, the Kurus and the Pandavas, are about to go to war. The Kurus
and the Pandavas are members of the same clan, and it is precisely because the
enemy numbers include his uncles, cousins, and teachers that Arjuna is so
aggrieved. Suddenly, all action is suspended, as if time has stopped. Arjuna
sees his family members across enemy lines and drops his bow, having lost his
will to fi ght. Surprisingly, Krishna’s fi rst reaction is to shame Arjuna, but
these appeals do not work. Arjuna’s confl ict is deep and genuine, and he is
paralyzed until he can see his way clearly. His inner turmoil is a familiar
one—the dissonance one feels when competing values clash.
This
dissonance becomes a teaching moment, and Arjuna wisely asks Krishna to be his
guru. Arjuna receives several lessons from the teachings of the Upaniśads, including the ultimate
meaninglessness of birth and death and action without attachment or aversion to
keep from creating karma. Through the teachings of Krishna to Arjuna, any
reader of the Gītā can obtain an
almost comprehensive portrait of Hindu practices and worldviews. Neither simple
nor always clear, the richness of the Gītā
permits nearly every Hindu to fi nd meaning in it particular to his or her
own place in life. As the dialogue proceeds, Krishna’s lessons begin gradually
to focus more and more on himself, becoming increasingly characteristic of the
path of bhakti. Krishna encourages
Arjuna to focus his mind, will, and heart on god and let all else go. For bhakti practice, what is done is not as
important as how it is done. All that matters is to do all things with faith
and devotion to the god. In a climactic moment, Arjuna asks Krishna to grant
him an extremely rare boon, the ability to see Krishna in his full glory as
god. Krishna gives Arjuna a divine eye with which to gaze on the god’s form.
After his vision, Arjuna arises and goes to battle, claiming that his doubts
have been dispelled, though precisely what resolved his misgivings is not
altogether clear. Much in the Gītā seems
left unsettled, despite the fact that Arjuna himself seems to have gained
clarity.
Signifi cantly, the Gītā
itself ends before we know the battle’s outcome, but neither the victor nor
the problem of war is really the issue in the Gītā. The context of war is signifi cant in the Gītā, however, because the battlefi eld
is really a metaphor for the soul, the self, the mind, and its
struggle—ordinary Hindus, wrestling with issues of dharma, one’s sacred duty.
As a metaphor for the self and its internal struggles, perhaps the Gītā is a reminder that often, there are
no clear avenues of choice. Our decisions must be made in ambiguity and
uncertainty. ■
Essential Reading
Dimmitt
and van Buitenen, Classical Hindu
Mythology: A Reader in the Sanskrit Purānas, chapters 2–3.
Miller,
The Bhagavad Gītā.
Supplemental
Reading
Brook,
The Mahābhārata.
Buck,
Mahābhārata.
Hopkins,
The Hindu Religious Tradition,
chapters 6–7.
Questions
to Consider
1. Why
might the bhakti-mārga, or path of
passionate devotion to a god, be more widely followed, and accompanied by more
popular literature, than the path of wisdom?
2. At
the end of the Gītā, Arjuna claims
that his doubts about going to war have been dispelled by Krishna’s teachings
and his manifestation as god. As a reader, do you fi nd Krishna as persuasive
as Arjuna did?
The Goddess and Her Devotees
Lecture 11
The worship of female deities has a long history in India, and today
remains one of Hinduism’s prominent religious features.
|
F |
rom
the Indus Valley civilization to the Vedic pantheon, the worship of female
deities has a long history in India, and today remains one of Hinduism’s
prominent religious features. Śaktism, the worship of the Goddess, is regarded
as a major Hindu religion alongside Śaivism and Vaiśnava. Though there are
countless goddesses treated as distinct deities, it is common, when speaking of
the divine female in India, to refer to the Goddess in the singular, because
all particular goddesses are forms of Devī or Mahadevī, the Great Goddess. The
many manifestations of the Devī can be classifi ed into two broad categories.
The fi rst is the category of consortsgoddesses
who are the wives and companions of the great gods. The second group is
composed of the independent goddesses, who are not associated with male divine fi
gures by way of marriage. A goddess’s relationship to a male god determines her
basic character. Divine consorts are seen as benevolent, gentle, and
life-giving; independent, unmarried goddesses are viewed as malevolent,
terrifying, and lustful.
Each of the great gods of Hinduism is married to a
manifestation of the Devī. Brahmā, the creator, is married to Sarasvati; Śiva
is married to Pārvatī; Vishnu, to Laxsmi. Vishnu’s avatāras also have consorts: Rāma is married to Sītā, and Krishna’s
consort is Rādhā. Male gods rarely appear without their female counterparts,
but goddesses, even the married ones, may appear without their husbands in
temple icons. Laxsmi is not only Vishnu’s wife, but she is also the goddess of
good fortune and wealth. The Devī Sarasvati, almost always worshiped alone and
never with her consort Brahmā, is the goddess of education and music. Pārvatī
is usually not worshiped alone, but together with Śiva. Sītā, the wife of Rāma,
is considered the ideal wife because of her fi delity and obedience to her
husband. Rādhā, Krishna’s consort, is the image of the devotee with a
passionate love for god. The relationship between the goddesses and human women
in Hinduism is very complex, but, at least in instances of Sītā and Rādhā, the
female deity is regarded as a model worthy of emulation.
The independent goddesses are quite clearly not considered
divine exemplars of femininity, though it would be a mistake to assume that the
goddesses and gods are images of ideal human life simply by virtue of their
divinity. Many of the myths about the Devī depict her engaged in activity akin
to that of the 
|
great male gods, such
as protecting the cosmos against powerful demons or accomplishing diffi cult
tasks that the male gods cannot. Durgā was
born from the combined anger of the two great gods Vishnu and Śiva, in order
to defeat a powerful buffalo- |
Male
gods rarely appear without their female counterparts, but goddesses, even the
married ones, may appear without their husbands in temple icons. |
demon, which she did, after a long and vicious
battlenow
celebrated by a nine-day festival in Bengal. The most terrifying form of the
Devī, however, is Kālī, who, like the
ascetic Śiva, haunts the cremation grounds. Theologically, Kālī reveals that
life is inherently painful and that life feeds on death. Human sacrifi ces were
offered to Kālī in the not-too-distant past.
Independent goddesses are also associated with epidemics,
such as smallpox, which are viewed as the result of the goddess’s anger at
being neglected by her village or patrons. The contrast between the independent
goddesses and their married female counterparts is striking. One explanation
for the rage to which the Goddess is subject derives from her childlessness.
Without childbearing, she is seen as not having fulfi lled the central role of
the female. Yet Hindus see children as a sign of loss of immortality in a
goddess. The sufferings one endures in this life are regarded as the
chastisements of an ultimately loving mother, to whom one clings in all
circumstances. Being childless, married goddesses are also subject to rage, but
their relationship to male gods channels their anger into nurture. The Laws of Manu state that a woman is never
fi t for independence.
The
female aspect of divinity is considered its creative and activating power,
called Śakti. Śakti, the active principle in Hinduism, is feminine; the masculine
principle, or śiva, isby contrastso passive as to be dead. The
indispensable nature of the Śakti is
suggested in a macabre image depicting Kālī dancing on Śiva’s dead body. The
goddess’s red forehead marking also contrasts with the white forehead marking
for the gods. Red is the color of power, energy, and heat; white is a cooling
color, often associated with death and ashes. Yet goddesses require passive
gods to give form to their dynamic power, because without form and restraint,
the energy embodied in the goddess can become dangerous. One other striking
difference between the gods and goddesses is
their realm of activity. In general, the gods are seen as celestial; and
goddesses, as terrestrial. This connection is shown in many ways. The earth
itself is a goddess named Bhudevī; Vishnu and his wife Laxsmi.
Laxsmi is also rivers are also goddesses, such the goddess
of good fortune and wealth.
as Gangā, and the entire land of
India is a goddess. One fi nal manifestation of the Goddess
that is worthy of mention is the embodiment of the Devī as an actual woman. For
some, an especially powerful woman, such as Indira Gandhione of India’s prime ministersmight be regarded as the
Goddess in the fl esh.
Closely connected with the worship of the Goddess is a large
collection of writings called the Tantras,
composed in the medieval period, which are essentially technical manuals for
how one might attain liberation and enlightenment through dedication to the Devī. The yogic practice of Tantrism, or simply
Tantra, is based on the techniques described in these writings. It is very
clear that the purpose of Hindu Tantra is not physical pleasure, but spiritual
bliss and enlightenment. When Westerners think of Tantra, they usually think of
what is called “left-handed” Tantra. So-called “right-handed” Tantra is a
worship practice that is not altogether unlike the worship of Vishnu or Śiva.
Both varieties of Tantra are open to men and women of all castes and operate
independently of Brahminic authority.
What many fi nd scandalous and others intriguing about
“left-handed” Tantra is its ritual use of certain activities ordinarily
forbidden to Hindussuch
as eating meat, drinking wine, and engaging in sexual intercourse between
partners who are not married to each other. Tantra is not the casual practice
of these activities, but their deliberate usage for the purpose of
enlightenment. These practices are done as a form of worship to the Devī and to
harness the energy of the human body and human desires. Tantric yoga is
believed to release energy from a vast power source called the kundalinī that is coiled at the base of
the spine, allowing it to fl ow through charkas,
“circles” or power centers, throughout the body. ■
Essential Reading
Dimmitt
and van Buitenen, Classical Hindu
Mythology: A Reader in the Sanskrit Purānas, chapter 5.
Supplemental Reading
Fuller, The Camphor
Flame, chapter 2.
Ray, Devī (The Goddess).
Yeshe,
Introduction to Tantra: The
Transformation of Desire.
Questions to Consider
1. What
effects does conceiving the divine as female have on the way a society views
human women?
2. Why
do you think male gods tend to be associated with the sky and female goddesses,
with the earth?
Hinduism in the Modern Period
Lecture 12
Modern Hinduism has had to face challenges brought by the advent of Islam
and Western culture. Both incursions into India have left profound and lasting
imprints on Hinduism.
|
I |
n many ways, 21st century Hindus continue to struggle
with issues associated with Islam and Westernization. In this lecture, we fi
rst discuss
Islam’s effects on Hinduism. We will see how the great
theological differences between Hinduism and Islam have formed the basis for
tense relationships between Hindus and Muslims, frequently erupting into
outright violence. Then, we consider the effects of British expansion into
India and the various religious responses to the British presence, giving
special attention to the religious philosophy of Mohandas Gandhi. Finally, we
examine the articulation of Hinduism to the West through such fi gures as
Vivekananda and consider the movement of Hinduism beyond the borders of India.
Though in the West, we generally associate Islam with the Arab world, the majority of Muslims live
in South Asia and eastward. Islam fi rst came to India late in the eighth
century C.E., through military conquests, but its infl uence in India was
not consolidated until several centuries later when Muslim sultans established
a capital at Delhi (now “Old Delhi”). By the 15th century,
Muslim sultans ruled most of India; their power was concentrated in the
northern regions, where most Indian Muslims live today, though they are present
throughout the country.
Two
religions could hardly contrast more starkly than Hinduism and Islam. Hinduism
embraces both polytheism and monotheism; Islam, however, is fervently and
singularly monotheistic. Hindus venerate images of the divine; Muslims are
iconoclastic, perceiving such images as shirk,
or idolatry, the greatest sin, according to Islam. The Hindus have an ages-long
practice of honoring the life-giving and life-sustaining qualities of the cow,
whereas Muslims have no reservations about eating beef. Although Buddhism, in
decline, did not survive the coming of Islam, Hinduism didbecause it was so deeply rooted
in the everyday routine of India. At fi rst, the Muslim rulers ignored the
challenges of Hinduism and did not try to convert Hindus to Islambecause Hindus were susceptible
to a greater tax rate. Later, Sufi
orders began to proselytize the Hindus in great numbers and made many
converts.
There have been some bright moments in the Hindu-Muslim
relationship, such as the 16th-century rise of Mughal emperor Akbar
(the Great), highly esteemed by Hindus as a tolerant ruler, which created a fi
ne syncretistic culture. In 1947, stresses came to a head when India was
partitioned into India and Pakistan at the moment of its independence from
Great Britain. The president of the Muslim League, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, argued
that because Islam does not distinguish between religious and political law,
Muslims needed a separate state to be true to Islam, and his view carried the
day. The partition, however, did not end hostilities. India and Pakistan
continue a longstanding dispute over the region of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Taj Mahal in northern India. It is considered one of the fi nest
examples of architecture built during the reign of the Mughal emperors, a
Muslim dynasty in power over most of northern India from the early 16th to the
mid-18th century.
The British defeated the Muslims in the 18th
century, initiating the period of British colonialism in India. As the British
established their Indian empire, they tended to favor the Hindus over the
Muslims and granted them greater administrative power. Although the British
directly ruled India for only 90 years, the British presence in India was far
more signifi cant than that of the Muslims in many ways. The British
|
Raj introduced Western values and |
|
|
social dynamics into
India, which were disruptive to traditional Hindu culture. Industrialization
and urbanization had uprooting effects on traditions of Indian society. Old
restrictions imposed by caste and family could be more easily disregarded in
urban areas; traditional practices and beliefs were placed in doubt and
reevaluated. In view of the |
Among all the major religions, Hinduism has
the longest history, the greatest diversity, and the most gods and goddesses
of any.
|
Western
focus on the material world, many Hindus began to reassess this world’s signifi cance, spawning a greater interest in the
material realm. The British encouraged English literacy. This exposed many
Hindus to the values of the Western world,
including the principle of the equality of all persons, which stands at
odds with assumptions of the caste system.
Religiously, the reactions of Hindus to Westernization were
mixed. The Brahmo Samāj, or the Society of Believers in Brahman, was founded in
1828 by an important modern Hindu reformer named Ram Mohan Roy. Constituting a
liberal revision of Hinduism in response to Western infl uence, it might be
described as traditional Hinduism transformed by an encounter with
Christianity. The Ārya Samāj, in contrast, was a “fundamentalist” response to
the infl ux of Western values, founded by Swami Dayananda Sarasvati in the late
19th
century. The effects of the British in India had political as well as religious
ramifi cations. The Western idea of nation-state sovereignty stimulated a
nationalist spirit that would eventually lead to the movement to establish
India as an independent nation.
Known in India and throughout the world as “Mahatma,” the
Great Soul, Mohandas K. Gandhi was a key fi gure in the independence movement,
and his life may well illustrate the best of modern Hinduism. Educated in
England as a barrister, Gandhi’s politics were based less on jurisprudence and
more on religion. Not a theologian or systematic religious thinker, Gandhi’s
political vision and practice were rooted in his understanding of sacred
scriptures from many of the world’s religions; such openness to spiritual
truth, regardless of where it is found, is a characteristic quality of much of
Hinduism. Gandhi had an appreciation of all the major religious traditions and
did not want religion to become divisive, one of the reasons he opposed the
partition of India and Pakistan. Gandhi called his philosophy Satyāgraha, a term that meant grasping
forand holding
ontotruth, or
God, because for Gandhi, “God is Truth.” In his childhood, Gandhi had learned
from Jains the practice of ahimsā,
the non-harming of living beings. Gandhi practiced nonviolent resistance in an
endeavor to reveal the truth of oppression to the oppressor, believing that the
oppressor’s own sense of fairness and truthfulness would force him to relent
and stop the injustice. In a sense, Gandhi opened a new avenue for the karma
yoga, by making the political sphere an acceptable arena for the practice of
religion. In 1948, Gandhi was assassinated by a fellow Hindu who believed that
he had conceded too much to the Muslims.
Only in the last century has there been a signifi cant
movement of Hindus and Hinduism into the West. Before the late 19th
century, the main vehicle for the transport of Hinduism to the West was
literary. Some of the most important Hindu scriptures had been translated into
European languages in the 18th century and were available to Western
intellectuals. The fi rst important representative of Hinduism to come to the
West was Swami Vivekananda, sometimes known as the fi rst Hindu missionary to
the West, who appeared in Chicago in 1893 at the fi rst Parliament of
Religions. Since Vivekananda, many Hindu teachers have sought to spread their
teachings to eager Western disciples.
Among all the major religions, Hinduism has the longest
history, the greatest diversity, and the most gods and goddesses of any. Trying
to squeeze all that couldor
needs to be saidinto
any condensed format is a nearly impossible feat, but perhaps this series will
whet the appetite for further exploration of the Hindu traditions. ■
|
Essential Reading |
Gandhi,
An Autobiography or The Story of My
Experiments with Truth.
|
Supplemental Reading |
Hopkins,
The Hindu Religious Tradition,
chapter 8.
Ray,
Devī (The Goddess).
|
Questions to Consider |
1. What
aspects of modern Western culture account for the strong divergent reactions
that many outside the West have for it?
2. Do
you think it will be possible for Hinduism to be relevant to the lives of
modern Indians without losing sight of its rich history and tradition?
Timeline
c. 3000–1500 B.C.E. .........................Indus Valley
civilization
c. 2300–1200 B.C.E. .........................Composition of
the Rig-veda
c. 1600–1000 B.C.E. .........................Migration of Āryans
c. 1200–900 B.C.E.
........................... Composition of the Yajur-veda, Samaveda, and
Atharva-veda
c. 800–200 B.C.E. .............................Composition
of the Upaniśads
563–483 B.C.E. .................................Gautama, the
Buddha
540–468 B.C.E.
................................. Vardhamana Mahavira, founder of Jainism
c. 400 B.C.E.–400 C.E. ......................Composition of the Mahābhārata
327–325 B.C.E.
................................. Campaign of Alexander the Great in India
c. 200 B.C.E.–100 C.E. ......................Composition of the Bhagavad-gītā
c. 200 B.C.E.–200 C.E.
...................... Composition of the Laws
of Manu; composition of the Rāmāyana
c. 200 B.C.E.–300 C.E. ......................Composition of the Dharma-śāstras
c. 300–1700 C.E. ..............................Composition
of the Purānas
c. 500–700 C.E.
................................Composition of Early Tantras
711–715 C.E.
.................................... First Muslim invasions of northwest India
1192 .................................................Muslim
capital established at Delhi
c. 1200 C.E. ......................................Jayadeva’s Gītāgovinda
c. 1350–1400
................................... Lalla (Lalleshwari), Kashmiri poetbhahta saint
1469–1539 C.E. ................................Guru
Nanak, founder of Sikhism
1486–1533.......................................Caitanya
Mahaprabhu, Vaiśnava saint
1498.................................................
Vasco da Gama lands on India’s west coast
1526–1707.......................................Mughal rule
in India
1542–1605.......................................Akbar
the Great
1757................................................. Defeat
of Bengali Muslim rulers by
British
1757–1947.......................................British rule
in India
1774–1833....................................... Ram Mohan
Roy,
Brahmo Samāj founder
1824–1883....................................... Dayananda
Sarasvati,
Ārya
Samāj founder
1828.................................................Founding
of the Brahmo Samāj
1836–1886.......................................Ramakrishna
1861–1941.......................................Rabindranath
Tagore, Nobel laureate
1863–1902.......................................Vivekananda
1869–1948.......................................Mohandas K. Gandhi
1875.................................................Founding
of the Ārya Samāj
1876–1948....................................... Muhammad Ali
Jinnah, President of the
Muslim
League
1893.................................................World
Parliament of Religion, Chicago
1896–1977....................................... A.C.
Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada,
ISKCON
founder
1947.................................................Indian
independence and partition
Glossary
adharma: the absence of dharma;
chaos. ahimsā: the practice of absolute non-harming of living beings.
arati: waving
lights, such as a camphor fl ame, before the image of a god or goddess.
artha: material wealth. According to classical Hinduism, artha is one of the four main goals, or
goods, of life.
Ārya Samāj: a
Hindu sect begun in the 19th century by Swami Dayananda Sarasvati,
who disliked popular Hindu practices, such as pūjā and pilgrimage. The Ārya Samāj held the Veda as the source of
all truth—scientifi c, historical, and spiritual—and denied the authority of
the Gītā and the Purānas.
Āryans: the central Asian pastoral
nomads who migrated into India in the middle part of the second millennium B.C.E.,
bringing with them the Veda in oral tradition. āśramas: the stages of
life for upper-caste Hindus.
atharvan: a shamanic priest of the Vedic era whose work
included healing and conducting rites of passage for Āryans. The term is also
used to indicate the rituals performed by this priest.
ātman: the soul. Initially understood as the breath in the
early Vedic era, the ātman is later
regarded by Hindus as immortal and transmigratory.
AUM (or OM): the primordial mantra, or pravnava. AUM is the syllable that
encompasses all syllables; the word out of which the whole world is created;
the oral embodiment of Brahman.
avatāras: the earthly manifestations
of god. Avatāras are usually
associated with Vishnu, who “descends” at critical times in the world’s
history. avidyā: ignorance.
Axial Age: term
coined by philosopher Karl Jaspers to denote an era of exceptional religious
and philosophical creativity between 800–200 B.C.E. that gave rise to the
major world religions.
Bhagavad-gītā: much-beloved Hindu text recounting the dialogue of Lord Krishna
and Arjuna before the war between the Kurus and the Pāndavas. bhakti:
devotion to God.
bhakti-mārga: the path by which one receives liberation from samsāra by devotion to a personal God.
Bharāta:
indigenous term for the land of India.
brahmacarin: the fi rst āśrama
for an upper-caste male, in which he practices celibacy and studies with a
guru. The term is also used for those of any age who practice celibacy for
spiritual purposes.
Brahman: the
absolute, ultimate reality. Originally, Brahman was the Āryan word for the
power inherent in ritual; later, the term comes to designate the highest
reality beyond all conceptualization.
Brahmin: the caste
of priests and intellectuals.
Brahmo Samāj: a
Hindu movement founded in the 19th century by Ram Mohan Roy. The Brahmo
Samāj, or Society of Believers in Brahman, denounced polytheism and the pūjā, criticized the treatment of women,
and held the Veda to be authoritative only when consistent with reason.
Buddhism:
religious tradition whose origins date to the ferment that initiated Jainism
and classical Hinduism. Following the conversion of Emperor Aśoka, Buddhism
becomes the dominant religion of India and remains so until the advent of Islam
returns Hinduism to the ascendancy.
cakras: literally, “wheel.” In Tantra and other yogic
practices, the human body is conceived to have a number of cakras, or power centers, along the spine, from its base to the
crown of the head. Physical and spiritual wholeness depends on allowing the
free fl ow of energy through these power circles.
caste: Portuguese
term to describe the stratifi cation of Hindu society based on occupation and
purity. Caste usually refers to the varna
system, the fourfold classifi cation of Brāhmins, Kśatriyas, Vaiśyas, and Śūdras.
cosmic maintenance:
the pre-axial function of religion in which the processes of the world are
supported or controlled by human activity.
Dalits: self-designation for the
outcastes of India. Dalit means
“oppressed one.”
darśana: to “take darśana” means to see and to be seen by
the deity. Darśana is also the word
for a philosophical system, such as Yoga or Vedānta. deva: Sanskrit term for
god. devī:
Sanskrit term for goddess.
dharma: sacred duty according to caste; the principle of cosmic
order; “religion.” Dharma is the principle that succeeded the Vedic concept of Rita.
Dharma-śāstras: the genre of literature that prescribes the
duties of castes.
Forest dweller:
the third stage of life for an upper-caste male Hindu. The forest-dweller stage
indicates increasing withdrawal from society and preparation for the fourth
stage, complete renunciation (sannyāsa).
grīha rites: Vedic rituals performed
in the home, usually involving the offering of food to the gods. guru: teacher.
Harappā: one of
the two largest cities of the Indus Valley civilization. The size and
centrality of Harappā suggests that it functioned as the capital of this
culture, which is sometimes called the Harappān civilization.
Harijans:
“children of God.” Term coined by Mohandas Gandhi to refer to the untouchables
of India. Today, the untouchables prefer the name Dalits.
henotheism: German
Indologist Max Müller’s term for a form of theism in which the believer
worships one god as supreme without denying the validity of other gods.
Holi: immensely
popular spring festival celebrated in North India to mark the return of the new
year. Holi is also known as the Festival of Colors.
householder (grihastha): the second stage of life
for both men and women of caste. At the householder stage, Hindus marry, raise
children, work, and contribute to the good of family and society.
Indus Valley
civilization: also known as the Harappān civilization. One of the great
cultures of the ancient world, the Indus Valley civilization fl ourished from
3000–1600 B.C.E. in northern India along the Indus River system.
ISKCON: the
International Society of Krishna Consciousness, founded in 1966 as a Vaiśnava
sect by A. C. BhaktiVedānta Swami Prabhupada. Also known as the “Hare
Krishnas.”
Islam:
monotheistic religion whose Prophet Muhammad received the revelation of Allah
in the seventh century C.E. Islam comes to northern India in the 12th
century. Muslims today make up almost 10 percent of the Indian population.
ista-devatā: one’s personal deity of choice.
Jainism: religious
tradition whose origins date to the ferment that initiated Buddhism and
classical Hinduism. Jainism and Buddhism are regarded by Hindus as heterodox
philosophies because they deny Vedic authority. The Jain practice of ahimsā has a deep infl uence on Hindu
ethics.
janneu: the sacred thread given to boys of the upper three
castes when they are initiated into the twice-born.
jātī: one’s birth group. Jāti
determines social standing, occupation, marital possibilities, diet, and other
practices. Often translated as “subcaste,” the more than 2,000 jātis fi t somewhat imperfectly within
the varna system.
jñāna-mārga:
the path of liberation from samsāra
based on the quest for wisdom and the dissolution of illusion. The jñāna-mārga usually requires ascetic
practice and great discipline.
kāma: pleasure, especially sexual pleasure and desire. Kāma is one of the four goods of life
according to Hinduism.
karma: action and
its consequences. In the Hindu view, karma is a principle of justice, ensuring
that the effects of one’s actions return to the agent. Karma is what binds the
soul to the cycle of endless existence and determines its station in future
existences.
karma-mārga: the path of action in which one seeks to improve
rebirth by maximizing meritorious deeds and minimizing evil ones.
Kśatriyas: the
caste of warriors and administrators.
kundalinī: divine power in an individual, represented as a
coiled serpent at the base of the spine. Tantric practices aim to unleash this
power to effect enlightenment.
Laws of Manu: one of the earliest and most important codifi
cations of dharma, attributed to Manu, the ancestor of all human beings.
lingam: representation of the phallus. Thousands of stone lingams were discovered in the
excavations of the Indus Valley civilization and are presumed to be associated
with rites of fertility. Today, the lingam
and yoni (its vulvic counterpart)
symbolize the god Śiva and his Śakti.
Mahābhārata: One of the two grand epics of Hinduism. The Mahābhārata, probably the world’s
longest poem, comprises eighteen books and details the confl ict between the
Kurus and the Pāndavas.
Mahatma: a “Great
Soul”; a title of great respect given to especially accomplished Hindus.
Mahāyogi: epithet
for Śiva in his aspect as the great practitioner of meditation and austerities.
mantra:
a sound or phrase embodying sacred power. mārga: path or discipline.
māyā: illusion. The veil over
reality that prevents the unenlightened from seeing the world as it truly is.
From the perspective of Advaita Vedānta, māyā
causes us to see multiplicity where there is, in reality, only unity. mlecca:
a non-Hindu; a foreigner.
Mohenjo-daro: one
of the two major cities of the Indus Valley civilization. Mohenjo-daro, or
“mound of death,” takes its name from a later city built atop the Indus Valley
site. What Indus Valley dwellers called this city is not known.
mokśa: release or liberation from the wheel of samsāra. Pursued and conceptualized in a
variety of ways, mokśa is the
ultimate goal of Hindus.
Mughuls: Muslim
emperors who ruled northern India, beginning with the reign of Akbar
(1556–1605). The Mughals remained in power in the north until the establishment
of British rule in the 18th century.
mūrti: the form of the god. Mūrti
refers to the physical image or representation of the divine.
Nātarāja: the image of Shiva as Lord of the
Dance, embodying the paradoxical nature of the divine.
nirguna: without qualities. This term is used to describe the
aspect of Brahman that is ineffable.
non-duality: the philosophical position
that denies the dualism of human and divine, subject and object. The position
of non-duality is suggested by the Upaniśads
and given systematic expression in the Advaita Vedānta philosophy of Śankara.
OM: see AUM.
once-born:
those who do not undergo the ritual initiation reserved for members of the
three upper castes, that is, the Śūdras and Dalits. prasāda: sacred food
offered to the gods.
pūjā: the ritual worship of a god, goddess, or object
representing sacred reality.
Purānas: Composed between 300–1700 C.E., the Purānas are a main source of mythology
about the great gods of Hinduism, especially Śiva, Vishnu, and Śakti.
Rāmāyana: One of the two great epics of India. The Rāmāyana relates the adventures of Rāma
and his wife Sītā.
Rig-veda: the oldest and most important of the Vedas, compiled
between 2300 and 1200 B.C.E. The Rig-veda
comprises more than 1,000 hymns to various Vedic deities; Rig means “praise.”
rishis: seers; one of many Hindu words to denote a holy person.
Often used especially to refer to the ancient sages to whom the Veda was
revealed.
Rita: Vedic principle of order that regulated the cosmos,
society, and ritual and furnished the basis of correspondences among them.
ritual purity and
pollution: ways of defi ning what is and is not appropriate for a society’s
sense of order and structure. Purity and pollution often pertain to matters of
the body, particularly those acts or events that entail crossing bodily
thresholds.
sādhu: a Hindu holy man or saint. śakti:
divine female power.
Samhitās: the four
“collections” of the Veda, including the Rig-veda,
the Sama-veda, the Atharva-veda, and the Yajur-veda.
samsāra: the phenomenal world of change and transience. Samsāra denotes the situation in which the soul sequentially incarnates in
different bodies at different levels of existence.
samskāra: a sacrament; a term for rites of passages, such as
naming, initiation, or cremation.
sanātana dharma: the “eternal truth.” “Sanātana dharma” may be the closest Hindu equivalent to the concept
of “Hinduism.”
sannyāsins: those who renounce family, home, possessions, and
all markers of previous identity to seek fi nal liberation. Although
infrequently pursued, renunciation is the fi nal āśrama, or stage, for upper-caste Hindus.
satī: ritual act in which a widow burns with her husband’s
corpse on his funeral pyre. Abolished by the British in the 19th
century, the act is extremely rare today. The ritual takes its name from Satī,
a name for the wife of Śiva, who self-immolated in anger at her father’s
snubbing of her husband.
satyāgraha: literally, “grasping for the truth.” Satyāgraha was Gandhi’s term for his
philosophy and practice of nonviolent resistance to injustice.
shaman: originally
a Siberian term, now used cross-culturally to refer to a kind of sacred fi gure
who mediates between the human and spirit worlds and performs healings. The
shaman’s work often involves self-transformations and magical formulas.
Sikhism: an indigenous Indian religion
inspired by Kabīr, a mystic-poet from Varanasi, and founded by Guru Nānāk, a
Hindu from Punjab. Both men condemned Hindu and Muslim sectarianism and sought
to establish authentic worship of the one true God. The name Sikh means “disciple.”
smrti: secondary sacred literature in Hinduism. Whereas śruti is literature of the highest
authority, the authority of smrti
derives from śruti. Smrti includes such popular texts as the
Purānas and the Bhagavad Gītā. Smrti
means
“recollection” or “tradition.” śrāddha:
funeral rituals and the ceremonies following the funeral.
śrauta ritual: ordinarily complex Vedic ceremonies using the
verses of the Veda for the purpose of maintaining divine-human relations.
śruti: sacred literature of the highest authority in Hinduism.
Believed to have been revealed to the ancient rishis, śruti includes
the Rig-veda and the Upaniśads.
Śūdras: the lowest
of the four varnas; the caste of
peasants and servants.
sympathetic magic:
the practice of attempting to affect realities by manipulation of objects or
words representing those realities.
Tantra: an
esoteric yogic practice involving the channeling of negative desires to the
quest of enlightenment and liberation. Tantra is often associated with worship
of the Goddess.
tapas: creative heat or ardor, manifested in the sacrifi cial fi
res and the body of a tapasin, a
spiritual adept.
triloka: the Vedic conception of the world as tripartite,
divided into heaven, atmosphere, and earth.
twice-born (dvijas): a term for members of the
three upper castes, so called because they undergo a ritual initiation (upanāyana) or second birth.
upanāyana: the ritual that initiates study of the Veda and
marks entry into studenthood for upper-caste members. The initiate is given a
sacred janneu thread, worn over the
left shoulder, to indicate his new status.
Upaniśads: Composed between 800–200 B.C.E., the Upaniśads represent an evolution in
Vedic thought, bringing together speculation about the nature of the self and
ultimate reality in the insight that Brahman
and ātman are identical.
Vaidik dharma: the “religion of the Veda.” Vaidik dharma is the indigenous term that most closely approximates
what is called Hinduism.
Vaiśnava: the
religion of Vishnu.
Vaiśyas: the caste
of farmers, cattle herders, artisans, and businesspeople.
varna: literally, “color” and usually rendered as “caste.” Varna designates the fourfold classifi
cation of Brāhmins, Kśatriyas, Vaiśyas, and Śūdras.
Veda: sacred
wisdom believed to have been revealed to ancient rishis. The Veda is now the most sacred of Hindu scriptures. It
comprises four Samhitās, or
collections: the Rig, the Yajur, the Sama, and the Artharva.
Vedānta: the “end
of the Veda.” Vedānta is one of the most important and infl uential of the
Hindu philosophies. Deriving inspiration particularly from the Upaniśads, the last part of the Veda,
Vedānta emphasizes unity of the soul and the absolute.
Westernization:
the process by which modern Western values, beliefs, and practices exert infl
uence on non-Western cultures.
yantra:
geometric design associated with the presence of the Goddess. A yantra is an aniconic image of the
divine.
yoga: a discipline
for the purposes of enlightenment and liberation. Yoga literally means “yoke.”
In a narrower sense, yoga refers to a specifi c school of orthodox philosophy
given classical expression in the Yoga
Sūtras of Patañjali.
yoni: the vulvic component of the lingam/yoni,
representative of Śakti, divine female power.
Biographical Notes
Agni: the Vedic
god of fi re and mediator between human and divine realms. According to the
Veda, Agni dwells in the fi res of the hearth, the sacrifi ce, and cremation.
Akbar the Great
(1542–1605): one of the most highly regarded Mughal emperors. Akbar was
especially renowned for his toleration and patronage of non-Muslim religions.
Arjuna: one of the
fi ve sons of Pāndu in the Mahābhārata.
Arjuna’s dialogue with his charioteer Krishna comprises the Bhagavad Gītā.
A. C. Bhaktivedanta
(1896–1977): Vaiśnava teacher who founded the International Society for Krishna
Consciousness (ISKCON) in 1966, inspired by the teachings of Sri Caitanya
Mahaprabhu, a fi fteenth-century saint and religious reformer.
Bharāt Mātā: a
manifestation of the Goddess as the land of India.
Bhudevī: a
manifestation of the Goddess as Mother Earth.
Brahmā: one of the
Hindu triad of cosmic deities. Brahmā creates the world, Vishnu sustains it,
and Śiva destroys it when it has become decrepit. Brahmā then creates a new
world from the raw materials of the previous universe.
Durgā: an
autonomous manifestation of the Goddess whose victory over a buffalo-demon is
celebrated in the Bengali Durgā-pūjā
each year.
Mohandas K. Gandhi
(1869–1947): leader of the Indian independence movement whose vision of
liberation was deeply infl uenced by his Hindu piety and informed by his
appreciation for many religious traditions.
Ganeśa: popular
elephant-headed god of Hinduism. As the remover of obstructions, Ganeśa is
often found atop doorways and thresholds throughout India.
Gangā: goddess who
manifests as the river Ganges.
Gautama, Buddha
(563–483 B.C.E.): Born Siddhartha Gautama in North India, he attained the
title “Buddha,” which means “the awakened one,” at his enlightenment. His
teachings initiated the Buddhist movement.
Gurū Nanak
(1469–1539): originally a Hindu living in northwest India, Nanak had a vision
of God while bathing that prompted him to establish the movement of disciples,
or the Sikhs.
Indra: Vedic god of war and the rains.
One quarter of the hymns of the Rigveda are
addressed to Indra, indicating his prominence in Āryan culture.
Kālī: the
tremendous manifestation of the Goddess.
Krishna: one of
the principal avatāras of Vishnu and
central character in the Bhagavad Gītā.
Lalla (Lalleshwari):
Kashmiri woman of the 14th century who left an unhappy marriage
to wander about North India as an itinerant teacher and poet. Her religious
verses are beloved in her native Kashmir.
Laxmī: goddess of
good fortune and consort of Vishnu. She is also known as Śrī.
Manu: the ancestor
of humanity who is reputed to have established the law codes that bear his
name.
Pārvatī: one of
the manifestations of the wife of Śiva. Also known as Umā.
Puruśa: the
primordial human being. According to a prominent creation myth of the Rig-veda, the world and society are
created by the gods’ sacrifi cial dismemberment of the Puruśa’s body.
Rādhā: consort of
Krishna.
Ram Mohan Roy
(1774–1833): founder of the Brahmo Samāj, Roy took a critical-appreciative view
of Christianity and Western values. His movement sought to reform Hinduism by
eliminating image veneration and the practice of satī.
Rāma: one of the
principal avatāras of Vishnu and
protagonist of the Rāmāyana.
Rudra: terrifying
Vedic god known as the “Howler,” enemy of gods and humans alike. It is likely
that Rudra was the prototype for the Hindu god Śiva.
Śakti: another
name for the Goddess.
Dayananda Sarasvati
(1824–1883): Swami Sarasvati disliked much that he saw in the popular Hindu
practice of his day, especially pūjā
and pilgrimage. He advocated a return to the singular authority of the Veda and
founded the Ārya Samāj to promote his cause.
Śiva: one of the
Hindu triad of cosmic deities. Brahmā creates the world, Vishnu sustains it,
and Śiva destroys it when it has become decrepit. Śiva is one of the most
paradoxical of the Hindu deities and the object of widespread worship
throughout India.
Soma: Vedic god
who manifests as a plant with hallucinogenic properties. Drinking Soma was an
important feature of many Vedic rituals, enabling the participants to see the
gods.
Sūrya: one of the
Vedic sun deities.
Vāc: Vedic goddess
of speech.
Vardhamana, Mahavira
(540–468 B.C.E.): considered by Jains to be a “Tirthankara,” a ford-maker,
he is thought to show the way to liberation from samsāra. His practice of absolute nonviolence has been immensely infl
uential in India.
Varuna: Vedic deva who guards Rita, the cosmic and social order. Varuna is known as the
“thousand-eyed one.”
Vishnu: one of the Hindu triad of
cosmic deities. Brahmā creates the world, Vishnu sustains it, and Śiva destroys
it when it has become decrepit. In his avatāras
as Rāma and Krishna, Vishnu is one of the most widely worshipped Hindu gods.
Vivekananda
(1863–1902): foremost disciple of the 19th-century saint
Ramakrishna, Vivekananda created a sensation at the fi rst Parliament of
Religions in Chicago in 1893. His speech at the Parliament marked the beginning
of Hindus coming to the West to represent their religion. Vivekananda began a
worldwide network known as the Vedanta Society.
Yama: the god of
death.
Bibliography
An immense array of literature about Hinduism is available in
English. Much of it is highly technical and of interest mainly to scholars. In
my selections, I have sought to highlight some of the best works currently
available and easily accessible for the serious beginning student of Hinduism.
Essential Reading:
General Surveys of Hinduism
Hopkins, Thomas J. The
Hindu Religious Tradition. Encino, Calif.: Dickenson Publishing, 1971. This
brief text is one of the clearest presentations of basic Hinduism in English.
It is especially good for understanding the Vedic and classical periods in
Hinduism.
Radhakrishnan, Sarvepalli, and Charles A. Moore. A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967. A fi ne selection of important
Hindu texts, this work includes primary sources from the six orthodox schools
of Hindu philosophy, as well as texts from the heterodox traditions.
Early Cultures of India
Mahony, William K. The
Artful Universe: An Introduction to the Vedic Religious Imagination.
Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1998. A skillful interpretation
of the world of the Veda, focusing on the interconnections of language, ritual,
and nature. Some excellent translations of key Vedic texts.
O’Flaherty, Wendy D., trans. The Rig Veda: An Anthology. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England:
Penguin Books, 1981. A superb rendering of the most interesting Rig-veda texts. An essential resource
for those interested in a deeper understanding of the Vedic period.
Classical Hinduism
Danielou, Alain. Virtue,
Success, Pleasure, & Liberation: the Four Aims of Life in the Tradition of
Ancient India. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 1993. Danielou situates the
traditional values of classical Hinduism in historical context and helps
clarify their contrast with western culture.
Douglas, Mary. Purity
and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London:
Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1966. A classic anthropological study of the
dynamics of purity and pollution. A valuable resource for understanding the
theoretical foundations of caste and ritual uncleanness.
Dumont,
Louis. Homo Hierarchicus: The Caste
System and Its Implications, complete revised English edition. Trans. Mark
Sainsbury, et al. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1980. A
detailed and careful analysis of the caste system, accenting its complexity and
assumptions.
Olivelle, Patrick, trans. Upaniśads.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. Olivelle’s translation is a superb
rendering for the modern reader. It is informed by careful scholarship and
provides excellent introductory material. This is the best of recent
translations.
Epics and Poetry
Miller, Barbara Stoler, trans. The Bhagavad-gītā: Krishna’s Counsel in Time of War. New York:
Bantam Books, 1986. One of the best English translations available. I use
Miller’s version of the Gīta for my
undergraduate courses.
Women
Leslie, Julia, ed. Roles
and Rituals for Hindu Women. Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University
Press, 1991. This is a good resource for understanding the specifi c religious
practices of Hindu women.
Rituals and Practice
Eck, Diana L. Darśan:
Seeing the Divine Image in India, 2nd ed., rev. and enl.
Chambersburg, PA: Anima Books, 1985. A wonderful, succinct study of the role of
images in popular Hinduism. Insightful and accessible to nonspecialists.
Fuller, C. J. The
Camphor Flame: Popular Hinduism and Society in India. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1992. The Camphor Flame
focuses on the actual practice of contemporary Hinduism, especially in South
India. It is scholarly and accessible to the intelligent lay reader.
Huyler, Stephen P. Meeting
God: Elements of Hindu Devotion. New Haven and London: Yale University
Press, 1999. This is a beautiful book. Its well-written text is supplemented by
rich images of Hindu piety. Highly recommended.
Yeshe, Thubten. Introduction
to Tantra: The Transformation of Desire, rev. ed. Boston: Wisdom
Publications, 2001. Thubten Yeshe is a Tibetan Buddhist lama who has written
one of the best introductory texts explaining the theoretical foundations of
Tantric practice.
Gods and Goddesses
Dimmitt, Cornelia, and J.A.B. van Buitenen, trans. Classical Hindu Mythology: A Reader in the
Sanskrit Purānas. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1978. A selection
of translations of the Purānas, the
collection of myths about the great gods and goddesses of Hinduism. A valuable
resource for those interested in reading the actual mythology of the devas.
Kinsley, David. Hindu
Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the Hindu Religious Tradition.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976. A detailed discussion of the
pantheon of goddesses from the Vedic period to the present. An excellent
resource for studying the female principle in Hindu theism.
Modern Hinduism
Gandhi, Mohandas K. An
Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments with Truth. Boston: Beacon
Press, 1957. This is Gandhi’s own account of his early life. It is
indispensable for understanding the development of his mature thought.
Supplementary Reading:
Religion
McCutcheon, Russell T., ed. The Insider/Outsider Problem in the Study of Religion: A Reader.
London: Cassell Academic Press, 1998. This is an important recent collection of
essays exploring various aspects of the methodologies of religious studies.
Smith,
Wilfred Cantwell. The Meaning and End of
Religion. New York: Macmillan Company, 1963. Smith has written a useful
account of the history of the concept of religion and an argument against its
uncritical usage.
General Surveys of Hinduism
Basham, A. L. The
Wonder That Was India. New York: Grove Press, 1959. A classic presentation
of the history of Indian culture from the earliest times through the fi rst
millennium C.E.
Embree, Ainslie T., ed. The
Hindu Tradition. New York: Modern Library, 1966. A fi ne collection of
primary Hindu texts arranged chronologically from the Vedic to the modern
period. Helpful introductions place the readings in historical context.
Klostermaier, Klaus. A
Survey of Hinduism. Albany: State University Press of New York, 1991. An
eminently readable and comprehensive study of Hinduism in all its major
dimensions. Highly recommended.
Koller, John M. The
Indian Way. New York: Macmillan and Co., 1987. A very clear and accessible
introduction to the philosophical and religious dimensions of Hinduism.
Koller, John M., and Patricia Koller, eds. A Sourcebook in Asian Philosophy.
Macmillan Publishing Company, 1991. The Kollers have assembled an excellent
anthology of primary sources that include not only Hindu readings but also
Buddhist, Jain, Chinese, and Muslim works.
Zaehner, R. C. Hinduism.
London: Oxford University Press, 1970. A good, basic introduction to the
important dimensions of Hinduism.
http://www.freeindia.org/. A general Web site emphasizing the
many dimensions of contemporary Hindu life and focusing on India in the 20th
century.
http://www.hindunet.org/. An informative Web site concerning
all aspects of contemporary Hindu life and Hindu history.
Early Cultures of India
Edgerton, Franklin. The
Beginnings of Indian Philosophy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,
1965. A scholarly presentation of the origins of Hindu philosophy with
thoughtful translations of Vedic hymns and early Upanishads.
Fairservis, Walter A., Jr. The Roots of Ancient India. 2nd rev. ed. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1975. This is one of the best scholarly analyses
of the Indus Valley civilization.
Panikkar, Raimundo. The
Vedic Experience: Mantramanjari. Los Angeles: University of California
Press, 1977. Panikkar’s collection is an assembly of more than 500 Vedic texts
translated into a vigorous and compelling English.
Piggott, Stuart. Prehistoric
India. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1961. An accessible survey of ancient
India, covering the earliest periods of human culture in India, the Indus
Valley civilization, and the Āryan migrations. Both scholarly and highly
readable.
Wheeler, Mortimer. Civilizations
of the Indus Valley and Beyond. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972. Wheeler’s
writings on the Indus Valley provide a wealth of information. This work focuses
on the archaeology of the Indus Valley and northern Indian culture up to the
Mauryan Empire.
http://www.harappa.com/. A very well done site with excellent
images from the excavations of the Indus Valley. Also includes material on
modern India before independence.
Classical Hinduism
Eliade,
Mircea. Yoga: Immortality and Freedom.
Trans. Willard Trask. 2nd ed., rev, and enl. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1969. Eliade’s work is a detailed, scholarly
exposition of the classical system of Yoga. Helpful for understanding the path
of wisdom.
Hume, Robert Ernest, trans. The Thirteen Principal Upanishads. 2nd rev. ed. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1971. Hume’s translation is one of the
relatively early English translations of the Upaniśads. After more than a century, it is still one of the best
and most scholarly. The introduction and textual notes are very helpful.
Mascaro, Juan, trans. The
Upanishads. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1965. Although not as accurate or as
elegant as later translations, Mascaró’s rendering is very accessible and
readily available in the Penguin Classics edition. Represents a good selection
of the most signifi cant Upaniśads.
Miller, Barbara Stoler, trans. Yoga: Discipline of Freedom. New York: Bantam Books, 1998. This is
a masterful recent translation of the Yoga
Sutra of Patanjali, the classic Hindu text that explains the infl uential
system of Yoga.
O’Flaherty, Wendy D., ed. Karma
and Rebirth in Classical Indian Trad itions. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1980. Wendy Doniger, formerly O’Flaherty, is one of the
foremost Hindu scholars in the United States. This work is her analysis of the
development of the concepts of transmigration and karma in the classical period.
Olivelle, Patrick, trans. Dharmasūtras:
The Law Codes of Ancient India. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. An
extremely well-done English translation of important texts interpreting dharma.
Valuable for the information it provides on the regulation of daily life
beginning in the classical Hindu period.
Epics and Poetry
Bhaktivedanta, A. C. Swami. The Bhagavad Gītā as It Is. New York: Macmillan, 1968. The
translation of Gīta by the founder of
the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. It is more than 1,000
pages of text, translation, and commentary.
Brook, Peter. The
Mahābhārata. 1992, 318 mins. A
six-hour fi lm version of the play by Jean-Claude Carriere, based on the great Hindu
epic. Features an international cast.
Buck, William. Mahābhārata.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973. The Mahābhārata is probably the longest epic in world literature. In
this version, William Buck retells the whole story from beginning to end in a
single volume. An excellent way to enter the world of the Mahābhārata.
———. Ramāyāna.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976. The classic Hindu epic of Rāmā
and Sīta retold by Buck after the fashion of his Mahābhārata.
Miller, Barbara Stoler, trans. Gītā Govinda of Jayadeva: Love Song of the Dark Lord. New York:
Columbia University Press, 1997. The Gītagovinda
is a classic Hindu poem celebrating the passionate longing of Rādhā for her
consort Krishna. This is a moving rendition of the ideal of devotion for god.
http://www.hindubooks.org/. Contains online texts of more than 200 Hindurelated
books, as well as general material about the practice of Hinduism.
http://www.krsna.com/gita/. The online version of A.C.
Bhaktivedanta’s translations of the Bhagavad
Gītā.
Women
Bumiller, Elizabeth. May
You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons: A Journey among the Women of India.
New York: Random House, 1990. Although Bumiller’s work is more journalistic
than academic, it provides a helpful analysis of the ambiguous situation of
women in contemporary Hindu culture.
Cormack,
Margaret. The Hindu Woman. Westport,
CT: Greenwood Press, 1974. Though a bit dated, Cormack’s study of the Hindu
woman is still insightful and informative.
Desai, Neera, and Maithreyi Krishnaraj. Women and Society in India. Delhi: Ajanta Publications, 1990. The
authors are leading women’s studies scholars in India, and this work is a
comprehensive treatment of the roles of women in religion, economics, politics,
and culture.
Hawley, John
Stratton, ed. Sati, the Blessing and the
Curse. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. An anthology of works by
Indian and Western scholars discussing the representation of satī in literature, art, religion,
psychology, economics, and politics.
Narasimhan, Sakuntala. Sati:
Widow Burning in India. New York: Anchor Books, 1990. An excellent study of
widow burning focusing on the 19th century.
Sarkar, Tanika. Hindu Wife, Hindu Nation: Community,
Religion, and Cultural Nationalism. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press,
2002. A fi ne collection of scholarly essays by a professor of historical
studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, focusing of the roles of women in
Hinduism.
Satyajit, Ray. Devī
(The Goddess). 1960, 93 min., Bengali
with English subtitles. Based on a short story by Prabhart Kumar Mukherjee,
this classic black-and-white fi lm explores the confl icts produced by the
modernization of 19th-century India through a Bengali family when
the family patriarch becomes convinced that his daughter-in-law is the
incarnation of the Goddess.
http://www.hinduwomen.org/. A Web site providing information
about all aspects of the lives of Hindu women and other general material on
Hinduism.
Gods and Goddesses
Bhattacharji, Sukumari. The
Indian Theogony. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970. A bit more
diffi cult to fi nd than other books on this list, this volume traces the
historical development of gods and goddesses in the Indian pantheon and shows
parallels in other cultural traditions.
Danielou, Alain. Hindu
Polytheism. Bollingen Series, v. LXXIII. New York: Pantheon Books, 1964. A
comprehensive volume on the myths, worship, and philosophy of the gods and
goddesses of Hinduism. An excellent secondary resource.
Kinsley, David. The
Sword and the Flute, Kāli and Krsna: Dark Vis ions of the Terrible and the
Sublime in Hindu Mythology. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973.
A very readable study of these two deities who represent such different aspects
of the Hindu pantheon.
———. Tantric Visions of
the Divine Feminine: The Ten Mahavidyas. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1997. This is an intriguing study of Tantra and the Devi focusing on the
Mahavidyas, ten Tantric goddesses who are often associated with violence and
sexuality.
O’Flaherty, Wendy D. Śiva:
The Erotic Ascetic. New York and London: Oxford University Press, 1973. An
outstanding study of Śaivite mythology and iconography, emphasizing the
paradoxical qualities of this great god. ———, trans. Hindu Myths. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1975. A wideranging
collection of 75 Hindu myths, from the Veda through the Purānas, translated from the Sanskrit.
Zimmer, Heinrich. Myths
and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization. New York: Harper, 1946.
Zimmer’s text is a classic exposition of the important themes in Hindu art and
mythology, focusing especially on Vishnu, Śiva, and Devi.
http://www.hindu-mythology.com/. Provides brief overviews and
images of the most important Hindu and Vedic deities, as well as summaries of
Hinduism’s principal scriptures.
Modern Hinduism
Chatterjee,
Margaret. Gandhi’s Religious Thought.
Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1986. An excellent study of
Gandhi’s activism in the context of his religious convictions.
Crawford, S. Cromwell. Ram
Mohan Roy. New York: Paragon House
Publishers, 1987. Although this volume has limited
availability, it is excellent for understanding Ram Mohan Roy and his signifi
cance in the political and religious context of 19th-century
India.
Nikhilananda, Swami. Vivekānanda:
A Biography. New York: RamakrishnaVivekananda Center, 1989. A biography of
the great modern Hindu saint, the work is especially good for its presentation
of Vivekānana’s relationship with his guru, Ramakrishna.
http://www.mkgandhi-sarvodaya.org/. Bombay-based Web site
providing comprehensive resources on Mohandas Gandhi’s life and philosophy.
