Hinduism
religion
Overview
Oldest of the world’s major religions.
It evolved from the Vedic religion of ancient India. The major
branches of Hinduism are Vaishnavism and Shaivism, each of which
includes many different sects. Though the various sects each rely on
their own set of scriptures, they all revere the ancient Vedas, which
were brought to India by Aryan invaders after 1200 bce. The
philosophical Vedic texts called the Upanishads explored the search for
knowledge that would allow mankind to escape the cycle of reincarnation.
Fundamental to Hinduism is the belief in a cosmic principle of ultimate
reality called Brahman and its identity with the individual soul, or
atman. All creatures go through a cycle of rebirth, or samsara, which
can be broken only by spiritual self-realization, after which
liberation, or moksha, is attained. The principle of karma determines a
being’s status within the cycle of rebirth. The greatest Hindu deities
are Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. The numerous other Hindu gods are mostly
viewed as incarnations or epiphanies of the main deities, though some
are survivors of the pre-Aryan era. The major sources of classical
mythology are the Mahabharata (which includes the Bhagavadgita, the most
important religious text of Hinduism), the Ramayana, and the Puranas.
The hierarchical social structure of the caste system is also important
in Hinduism; it is supported by the principle of dharma. In the 20th
century Hinduism blended with Indian nationalism to become a powerful
political force in Indian politics. In the early 21st century there were
more than 850 million Hindus worldwide.
Main
the beliefs and practices of Hindus, as expressed in a series of
characteristic doctrinal, ritual, social, narrative, and poetic forms.
Introduction » The term Hinduism
The English term Hinduism was coined by British writers in the first
decades of the 19th century and became familiar as a designator of
religious ideas and practices distinctive to India with the publication
of books such as Hinduism (1877) by Sir Monier Monier-Williams, the
notable Oxford scholar and author of an influential Sanskrit dictionary.
Initially it was an outsiders’ term, building on centuries-old usages of
the word Hindu. Early travelers to the Indus valley, beginning with the
Greeks and Persians, spoke of its inhabitants as “Hindu” (Greek:
‘indoi), and, in the 16th century, residents of India themselves began
very slowly to employ the term to distinguish themselves from the Turks.
Gradually the distinction became primarily religious rather than ethnic,
geographic, or cultural.
Since the late 19th century, Hindus have reacted to the term Hinduism
in several ways. Some have rejected it in favour of indigenous
formulations. Those preferring Veda or Vedic religion want to embrace an
ancient textual core and the tradition of Brahman learning that
preserved and interpreted it. Those preferring sanatana dharma (“eternal
law”) emphasize a broader tradition of belief and practice (such as
worship through images, dietary codes, and the veneration of the cow)
that is not necessarily mediated by Brahmans (members of the highest
social class who are usually priests). Still others, perhaps the
majority, have simply accepted the term Hinduism or its analogues,
especially hindu dharma (Hindu moral and religious law), in various
Indic languages.
Since the early 20th century, textbooks on Hinduism have been written
by Hindus themselves, often under the rubric of sanatana dharma. These
efforts at self-explanation have been intended to set Hinduism on a par
with other religious traditions and to teach it systematically to Hindu
youths. They add a new layer to an elaborate tradition of explaining
practice and doctrine that dates to the 1st millennium bce. The roots of
this tradition can be traced back much farther—textually, to the schools
of commentary and debate preserved in epic and Vedic writings from the
2nd millennium bce; and visually, through artistic representations of
yakshas (luminous spirits associated with specific locales and natural
phenomena) and nagas (cobralike divinities), which were worshipped from
about 400 bce. The roots of the tradition are also sometimes traced back
to the female terra-cotta figurines found ubiquitously in excavations of
sites associated with the Indus valley civilization (3rd–2nd millennium
bce) and sometimes interpreted as goddesses. In recognition of this
ancient tradition of self-explanation, present-day Hindus often assert
that theirs is the world’s oldest religion.
Introduction » General nature of Hinduism
More strikingly than any other major religious community, Hindus
accept—and indeed celebrate—the organic, multileveled, and sometimes
internally inconsistent nature of their tradition. This expansiveness is
made possible by the widely shared Hindu view that truth or reality
cannot be encapsulated in any creedal formulation, a perspective
expressed in the Hindu prayer “May good thoughts come to us from all
sides.” Thus, Hinduism maintains that truth must be sought in multiple
sources, not dogmatically proclaimed.
Anyone’s view of the truth—even that of a guru regarded as possessing
superior authority—is fundamentally conditioned by the specifics of
time, age, gender, state of consciousness, social and geographic
location, and stage of attainment. These multiple perspectives enhance a
broad view of religious truth rather than diminish it; hence, there is a
strong tendency for contemporary Hindus to affirm that tolerance is the
foremost religious virtue. On the other hand, even cosmopolitan Hindus
living in a global environment recognize and value the fact that their
religion has developed in the specific context of the Indian
subcontinent. Such a tension between universalist and particularist
impulses has long animated the Hindu tradition. When Hindus speak of
their religious identity as sanatana dharma, a formulation made popular
late in the 19th century, they emphasize its continuous, seemingly
eternal (sanatana) existence and the fact that it describes a web of
customs, obligations, traditions, and ideals (dharma) that far exceeds
the Western tendency to think of religion primarily as a system of
beliefs. A common way in which English-speaking Hindus often distance
themselves from that frame of mind is to insist that Hinduism is not a
religion but a way of life.
Introduction » The five tensile strands
Across the sweep of Indian religious history, at least five elements
have given shape to the Hindu religious tradition: doctrine, practice,
society, story, and devotion. These five elements, to adopt a typical
Hindu metaphor, are understood as relating to one another as strands in
an elaborate braid. Moreover, each strand develops out of a history of
conversation, elaboration, and challenge. Hence, in looking for what
makes the tradition cohere, it is sometimes better to locate central
points of tension than to expect clear agreements on Hindu thought and
practice.
Introduction » The five tensile strands » Doctrine
The first of the five strands of Hinduism is doctrine, as expressed in a
vast textual tradition anchored to the Veda (“Knowledge”), the oldest
core of Hindu religious utterance, and organized through the centuries
primarily by members of the learned Brahman class. Here several
characteristic tensions appear. One concerns the status of the One in
relation to the Many—issues of polytheism, monotheism, and monism.
Another tension concerns the disparity between the world-preserving
ideal of dharma and that of moksha (release from an inherently flawed
world). A third tension exists between individual destiny, as shaped by
karma (the influence of one’s actions on one’s present and future
lives), and the individual’s deep bonds to family, society, and the
divinities associated with these concepts.
Introduction » The five tensile strands » Practice
The second strand in the fabric of Hinduism is practice. Many Hindus, in
fact, would place this first. Despite India’s enormous diversity, a
common grammar of ritual behaviour connects various places, strata, and
periods of Hindu life. While it is true that various elements of Vedic
ritual survive in modern practice and thereby serve a unifying function,
much more influential commonalities appear in the worship of icons or
images (pratima, murti, or arca). Broadly, this is called puja
(“honouring [the deity]”). It echoes conventions of hospitality that
might be performed for an honoured guest, especially the giving and
sharing of food. Such food is called prasada (Hindi, prasad: “grace”),
reflecting the recognition that when human beings make offerings to
deities, the initiative is not really theirs. They are actually
responding to the generosity that bore them into a world fecund with
life and possibility. The divine personality installed as a home or
temple image receives prasada, tasting it (Hindus differ as to whether
this is a real or symbolic act, gross or subtle) and offering the
remains to worshipers. Consuming these leftovers, worshipers accept
their status as beings inferior to and dependent upon the divine. An
element of tension arises because the logic of puja and prasada seems to
accord all humans an equal status with respect to God, yet exclusionary
rules have often been sanctified rather than challenged by prasada-based
ritual. Specifically, lower-caste people and those perceived as
outsiders or carriers of pollution have historically been forbidden to
enter certain Hindu temples, a practice that continues even today.
Introduction » The five tensile strands » Society
The third strand that has served to organize Hindu life is society.
Early visitors to India from Greece and China and, later, others such as
the Persian scholar and scientist al-Bīrūnī, who traveled to India in
the early 11th century, were struck by the highly stratified (if locally
variant) social structure that has come to be called familiarly the
caste system. While it is true that there is a vast disparity between
the ancient vision of society as divided into four ideal classes
(varnas) and the contemporary reality of thousands of endogamous
birth-groups (jatis, literally “births”), few would deny that Indian
society is notably plural and hierarchical. This fact has much to do
with an understanding of truth or reality as being similarly plural and
multilayered—though it is not clear whether the influence has proceeded
chiefly from religious doctrine to society or vice versa. Seeking its
own answer to this conundrum, a well-known Vedic hymn (Rigveda 10.90)
describes how, at the beginning of time, a primordial person underwent a
process of sacrifice that produced a four-part cosmos and its human
counterpart, a four-part social order comprising Brahmans (priests),
Kshatriyas (nobles), Vaishyas (commoners), and Sudras (servants).
The social domain, like the realms of religious practice and
doctrine, is marked by a characteristic tension. There is the view that
each person or group approaches truth in a way that is necessarily
distinct, reflecting its own perspective. Only by allowing each to speak
and act in such terms can a society constitute itself as a proper
representation of truth or reality. Yet this context-sensitive habit of
thought can too easily be used to legitimate social systems based on
privilege and prejudice. If it is believed that no standards apply
universally, one group can too easily justify its dominance over
another. Historically, therefore, certain Hindus, while espousing
tolerance at the level of doctrine, have practiced intolerance—i.e.,
caste discrimination—in the social realm. Responding to such oppression,
especially when justified by allegedly Hindu norms, lower-caste groups
have sometimes insisted, “We are not Hindus!” Yet their own communities
may enact similar inequities, and their religious practices and beliefs
often continue to tie them to the greater Hindu fold.
Introduction » The five tensile strands » Story
Another dimension drawing Hindus into a single community of discourse is
narrative. For at least two millennia, people in almost all corners of
India—and now well beyond—have responded to stories of divine play and
of interactions between gods and humans. These stories concern major
figures in the Hindu pantheon: Krishna and his lover Radha, Rama and his
wife Sita and brother Lakamana, Shiva and his consort Parvati (or, in a
different birth, Sati), and the Great Goddess Durga, or Devi as a slayer
of the buffalo demon Mahisasura. Often such narratives illustrate the
interpenetration of the divine and human spheres, with deities such as
Krishna and Rama entering entirely into the human drama. Many tales
focus in different degrees on genealogies of human experience, forms of
love, and the struggle between order and chaos or between duty and play.
In generating, performing, and listening to these stories, Hindus have
often experienced themselves as members of a single imagined family.
Yet, simultaneously, these narratives serve to articulate tensions.
Thus, the Ramayana, traditionally a testament of Rama’s righteous
victories, is sometimes told by women performers as the story of Sita’s
travails at Rama’s hands. South Indian performances may emphasize the
virtues of Rama’s enemy Ravana as equal to or even surpassing those of
Rama himself. And in North India lower-caste musicians present religious
epics such as Alha or Dhola in terms that reflect their own experience
of the world rather than the upper-caste milieu of the great Sanskrit
religious epic the Mahabharata, which these epics nonetheless echo. To
the broadly known pan-Hindu, male-centred narrative traditions, these
variants provide both resonance and challenge.
Introduction » The five tensile strands » Devotion
There is a fifth strand that contributes to the unity of Hindu
experience through time: bhakti (“sharing” or “devotion”), a broad
tradition of a loving God that is especially associated with the lives
and words of vernacular poet-saints throughout India. Devotional poems
attributed to these inspired figures, who represent both genders and all
social classes, have elaborated a store of images and moods to which
access can be had in a score of languages; bhakti verse first appeared
in Tamil in South India and moved northward into other regions with
different languages. Individual poems are sometimes strikingly similar
from one language or century to another, without there being any trace
of mediation through the pan-Indian, distinctly upper-caste language
Sanskrit. Often, individual motifs in the lives of bhakti poet-saints
also bear strong family resemblances. With its central affirmation that
religious enthusiasm is more fundamental than rigidities of practice or
doctrine, bhakti provides a common challenge to other aspects of Hindu
life. At the same time, it contributes to a common Hindu heritage—even a
common heritage of protest. Yet certain expressions of bhakti are far
more confrontational than others in their criticism of caste, image
worship, and the performance of vows, pilgrimages, and acts of
self-mortification.
Introduction » Central conceptions
In the following sections, various aspects of this complex whole will be
addressed, relying primarily on a historical perspective of the
development of the Hindu tradition. This approach has its costs, for it
may seem to give priority to aspects of the tradition that appear in its
earliest extant texts. These texts owe their preservation mainly to the
labours of upper-caste men, especially Brahmans, and often reveal far
too little about the perspectives of others. They should be read,
therefore, both with and against the grain, with due attention paid to
silences and absent rebuttals on behalf of women, regional communities,
and people of low status—all of whom nowadays call themselves Hindus or
identify with groups that can sensibly be placed within the broad Hindu
span.
Introduction » Central conceptions » Veda, Brahmans, and issues of
religious authority
For members of the upper castes, a principal characteristic of Hinduism
has traditionally been a recognition of the Veda, the most ancient body
of Indian religious literature, as an absolute authority revealing
fundamental and unassailable truth. The Veda is also regarded as the
basis of all the later shastra texts, which stressed the religious
merits of the Brahmans—including, for example, the medical corpus known
as the Ayur Veda. Parts of the Veda are quoted in essential Hindu
rituals (such as the wedding ceremony), and it is the source of many
enduring patterns of Hindu thought, yet its contents are practically
unknown to most Hindus. Still, most Hindus venerate it from a distance,
and groups who reject its authority outright (such as Buddhists and
Jains) are regarded by Hindus as deviating from their common tradition.
Another characteristic of much Hindu thought is its special regard
for Brahmans as a priestly class possessing spiritual supremacy by
birth. As special manifestations of religious power and as bearers and
teachers of the Veda, Brahmans have often been thought to represent an
ideal of ritual purity and social prestige. Yet this has also been
challenged, either by competing claims to religious authority—especially
from kings and other rulers—or by the view that Brahmanhood is a status
attained by depth of learning, not birth. Evidence of both these
challenges can be found in Vedic literature itself, especially the
Upanishads (speculative religious texts that provide commentary on the
Vedas), and bhakti literature is full of vignettes in which the
small-mindedness of Brahmans is contrasted with true depth of religious
experience, as exemplified by poet-saints such as Kabir and Ravidas.
Introduction » Central conceptions » Doctrine of atman-brahman
Most Hindus believe in brahman, an uncreated, eternal, infinite,
transcendent, and all-embracing principle. Brahman contains in itself
both being and nonbeing, and it is the sole reality—the ultimate cause,
foundation, source, and goal of all existence. As the All, brahman
either causes the universe and all beings to emanate from itself,
transforms itself into the universe, or assumes the appearance of the
universe. Brahman is in all things and is the self (atman) of all living
beings. Brahman is the creator, preserver, or transformer and reabsorber
of everything. Hindus differ, however, as to whether this ultimate
reality is best conceived as lacking attributes and qualities—the
impersonal brahman—or as a personal God, especially Vishnu, Shiva, or
Shakti (these being the preferences of adherents called Vaishnavas,
Shaivas, and Shaktas, respectively). Belief in the importance of the
search for a One that is the All has been a characteristic feature of
India’s spiritual life for more than 3,000 years.
Introduction » Central conceptions » Karma, samsara, and moksha
Hindus generally accept the doctrine of transmigration and rebirth and
the complementary belief in karma. The whole process of rebirth, called
samsara, is cyclic, with no clear beginning or end, and encompasses
lives of perpetual, serial attachments. Actions generated by desire and
appetite bind one’s spirit (jiva) to an endless series of births and
deaths. Desire motivates any social interaction (particularly when
involving sex or food), resulting in the mutual exchange of good and bad
karma. In one prevalent view, the very meaning of salvation is
emancipation (moksha) from this morass, an escape from the impermanence
that is an inherent feature of mundane existence. In this view the only
goal is the one permanent and eternal principle: the One, God, brahman,
which is totally opposite to phenomenal existence. People who have not
fully realized that their being is identical with brahman are thus seen
as deluded. Fortunately, the very structure of human experience teaches
the ultimate identity between brahman and atman. One may learn this
lesson by different means: by realizing one’s essential sameness with
all living beings, by responding in love to a personal expression of the
divine, or by coming to appreciate that the competing attentions and
moods of one’s waking consciousness are grounded in a transcendental
unity—one has a taste of this unity in the daily experience of deep,
dreamless sleep.
Introduction » Central conceptions » Dharma and the three paths
Hindus disagree about the best way (marga) to attain such release. The
Bhagavadgita (“Song of the Lord”; c. 100 ce), an extremely influential
Hindu text, presents three paths to salvation: the karma-marga (“path of
duties”), the disinterested discharge of ritual and social obligations;
the jnana-marga (“path of knowledge”), the use of meditative
concentration preceded by long and systematic ethical and contemplative
training (Yoga) to gain a supraintellectual insight into one’s identity
with brahman; and the bhakti-marga (“path of devotion”), love for a
personal God. These ways are regarded as suited to various types of
people, but they are interactive and potentially available to all.
Although the pursuit of moksha is institutionalized in Hindu life
through ascetic practice and the ideal of withdrawing from the world at
the conclusion of one’s life, many Hindus ignore such practices. The
Bhagavadgita states that because action is inescapable, the three paths
are better thought of as simultaneously achieving the goals of world
maintenance (dharma) and world release (moksha). Through the suspension
of desire and ambition and through a taste for the fruits (phala) of
one’s actions, one is enabled to float free of life while engaging it
fully. This matches the actual goals of most Hindus, which include
executing properly one’s social and ritual duties; supporting one’s
caste, family, and profession; and working to achieve a broader
stability in the cosmos, nature, and society. The designation of
Hinduism as sanatana dharma emphasizes this goal of maintaining personal
and universal equilibrium, while at the same time calling attention to
the important role played by the performance of traditional religious
practices in achieving that goal. Because no one person can occupy all
the social, occupational, and age-defined roles that are requisite to
maintaining the health of the life-organism as a whole, universal maxims
(e.g., ahimsa, the desire not to harm) are qualified by the
more-particular dharmas that are appropriate to each of the four major
varnas: Brahmans (priests), Kshatriyas (warriors and kings), Vaishyas
(the common people), and Sudras (servants). These four categories are
superseded by the more practically applicable dharmas appropriate to
each of the thousands of particular castes (jatis). And these, in turn,
are crosscut by the obligations appropriate to one’s gender and stage of
life (ashrama). In principle then, Hindu ethics is exquisitely
context-sensitive, and Hindus expect and celebrate a wide variety of
individual behaviours.
Introduction » Central conceptions » Ashramas: the four stages of life
European and American scholars have often overemphasized the so-called
“life-negating” aspects of Hinduism—the rigorous disciplines of Yoga,
for example. The polarity of asceticism and sensuality, which assumes
the form of a conflict between the aspiration for liberation and the
heartfelt desire to have descendants and continue earthly life,
manifests itself in Hindu social life as the tension between the
different goals and stages of life. For many centuries the relative
value of an active life and the performance of meritorious works
(pravritti), as opposed to the renunciation of all worldly interests and
activity (nivriti), has been a much-debated issue. While philosophical
works such as the Upanishads emphasized renunciation, the dharma texts
argued that the householder who maintains his sacred fire, begets
children, and performs his ritual duties well also earns religious
merit. Nearly 2,000 years ago these dharma texts elaborated the social
doctrine of the four ashramas (“abodes”). This concept was an attempt to
harmonize the conflicting tendencies of Hinduism into one system. It
held that a male member of any of the three higher classes should first
become a chaste student (brahmacharin); then become a married
householder (grihastha), discharging his debts to his ancestors by
begetting sons and to the gods by sacrificing; then retire (as a
vanaprastha), with or without his wife, to the forest to devote himself
to spiritual contemplation; and finally, but not mandatorily, become a
homeless wandering ascetic (sannyasin). The situation of the forest
dweller was always a delicate compromise that remained problematic on
the mythological level and was often omitted or rejected in practical
life.
Although the householder was often extolled—some authorities,
regarding studentship a mere preparation for this ashrama, went so far
as to brand all other stages inferior—there were always people who
became wandering ascetics immediately after studentship. Theorists were
inclined to reconcile the divergent views and practices by allowing the
ascetic way of life to those who were entirely free from worldly desire
(owing to the effects of restrained conduct in former lives), even if
they had not gone through the traditional prior stages.
The texts describing such life stages were written by men for men;
they paid scant attention to stages appropriate for women. The
Manu-smriti (200 bce–300 ce; Laws of Manu), for example, was content to
regard marriage as the female equivalent of initiation into the life of
a student, thereby effectively denying the student stage of life to
girls. Furthermore, in the householder stage, a woman’s purpose was
summarized under the heading of service to her husband. What we know of
actual practice, however, challenges the idea that these patriarchal
norms were ever perfectly enacted or that women entirely accepted the
values they presupposed. While some women became ascetics, many more
focused their religious lives on realizing a state of blessedness that
was understood to be at once this-worldly and expressive of a larger
cosmic well-being. Women have often directed the cultivation of the
auspicious life-giving force (shakti) they possess to the benefit of
their husbands and families, but, as an ideal, this force has
independent status.
The history of Hinduism
The history of Hinduism in India can be traced to about 1500 bce.
Evidence of Hinduism’s early antecedents is derived from archaeology,
comparative philology, and comparative religion.
The history of Hinduism » Sources of Hinduism » Indo-European sources
The earliest literary source for the history of Hinduism is the Rigveda,
consisting of hymns that were composed chiefly during the last two or
three centuries of the 2nd millennium bce. The religious life reflected
in this text is not that of Hinduism but of an earlier sacrificial
religious system, generally known as Brahmanism or Vedism, which
developed in India among Indo-European-speaking peoples. This branch of
a related group of nomadic and seminomadic tribal peoples, originally
inhabiting the steppe country of southern Russia and Central Asia,
brought with them the horse and chariot and the Sanskrit language. Other
branches of these peoples penetrated into Europe, bringing with them the
Indo-European languages that developed into the chief language groups
now spoken there.
Before they entered the Indian subcontinent (c. 1500 bce), the Vedic
people were in close contact with the ancestors of the Iranians, as
evidenced by similarities between Sanskrit and the earliest surviving
Iranian languages. Thus, the religion of the Rigveda contains elements
from three evolutionary strata: an early element common to most of the
Indo-European tribes, a later element held in common with the early
Iranians, and an element acquired in the Indian subcontinent itself
after the main Vedic migrations. Hinduism arose from the continued
accretion of further elements derived from the original non-Vedic
inhabitants, from outside sources, and from the geniuses of individual
reformers in all periods.
Present-day Hinduism contains few direct survivals from its
Indo-European heritage. Some of the elements of the Hindu wedding
ceremony, notably the circumambulation of the sacred fire and the cult
of the domestic fire itself, are rooted in the remote Indo-European
past. The same is probably true of some aspects of the ancestor cult.
The Rigveda contains many other Indo-European elements, such as ritual
sacrifices and the worship of male sky gods, including the old sky god
Dyaus, whose name is cognate with those of Zeus of ancient Greece and
Jupiter of Rome (“Father Jove”). The Vedic heaven, the “world of the
fathers,” resembles the Germanic Valhalla and seems also to be an
Indo-European inheritance.
The history of Hinduism » Sources of Hinduism » Indo-European sources
» Indo-Iranian sources
The Indo-Iranian element in later Hinduism is chiefly found in the
ceremony of initiation, or “second birth” (upanayana), a rite also found
in Zoroastrianism. Performed by boys of the three “twice-born” upper
classes, it involves the tying of a sacred cord. Another example of
Indo-Iranian influence is the Vedic god Varuna. Although now an
unimportant sea god, Varuna, as portrayed in the Rigveda, possesses many
features of the Zoroastrian Ahura Mazdā (“Wise Lord”). Indo-Iranian
influence can also be seen in the hallucinogenic sacred drink soma,
which corresponds to the sacred haoma of Zoroastrianism.
The history of Hinduism » Sources of Hinduism » Indo-European sources
» Indigenous sources
Even in the earlier parts of the Rigveda, however, the religion displays
numerous specifically Indian features. Some of the chief gods, for
example, have no clear Indo-European or Indo-Iranian counterparts.
Although some of the new features may have evolved entirely within the
Vedic framework, it is generally presumed that many of them stem from
the influence of the indigenous inhabitants. The Vedic people may never
have been in direct contact with the civilization of the Indus valley in
its prime, but the religion of the valley’s culture undoubtedly
influenced them.
The history of Hinduism » Sources of Hinduism » Non-Indo-European
sources » The Dravidian hypothesis
Features of Hinduism that cannot be traced to the Rigveda are sometimes
ascribed to the influence of the original inhabitants, who are often
vaguely and incorrectly referred to as “Dravidians,” a term that refers
to a family of languages and not an ethnic group. Some scholars have
argued that the ruling classes of the Harappa culture (c. 2500–1700
bce), or the Indus civilization, spoke a Dravidian language and have
tentatively identified their script with that of a Dravidian language.
But there is little supporting evidence for this claim, and the presence
of Dravidian speakers throughout the whole subcontinent at any time in
history is not attested. Thus, although many aspects of Hinduism are
traceable to non-Vedic influence, not all of these aspects are borrowed
from “Dravidians.”
The history of Hinduism » Sources of Hinduism » Non-Indo-European
sources » Other sources
The Central Asian nomads who entered India in the two centuries before
and after the beginning of the Common Era might have influenced the
growth of devotional Hinduism out of Vedic religion. The Classical
Western world directly affected Hindu religious art, and several
features of Hinduism can be traced to Zoroastrianism. In more recent
centuries, the influence of Islam and Christianity on Hinduism can be
seen.
The history of Hinduism » Sources of Hinduism » Non-Indo-European
sources » The process of “Sanskritization”
The development of Hinduism can be interpreted as a constant interaction
between the religion of the upper social groups, represented by the
Brahmans, and the religion of other groups. From the time of the Vedas
(c. 1500 bce) the indigenous inhabitants of the subcontinent tended to
adapt their religious and social life to Brahmanic norms. This
development resulted from the desire of lower-class groups to rise on
the social ladder by adopting the ways and beliefs of the higher castes.
The process, sometimes called “Sanskritization,” began in Vedic times,
when non-Vedic chieftains accepted the ministrations of Brahmans and
thus achieved social status for themselves and their subjects. It was
probably the principal method by which Hinduism spread through the
subcontinent and into Southeast Asia. Sanskritization still continues in
the form of the conversion of tribal groups, and it is reflected by the
persistent tendency of low-caste Hindus to try to raise their status by
adopting high-caste customs, such as wearing the sacred cord and
becoming vegetarians, even though the castes have been officially
abolished.
If Sanskritization has been the main means of spreading Hinduism
throughout the subcontinent, the converse process, which has no
convenient label, has been one of the means whereby Hinduism has changed
and developed over the centuries. The Vedic people lived side by side
with the indigenous inhabitants of the subcontinent. The phallic emblem
of the god Shiva arose from a combination of the phallic aspects of the
Vedic god Indra and a non-Vedic icon of early popular fertility cults.
Many features of Hindu mythology and several of the lesser gods—such as
Ganesha, an elephant-headed god, and Hanuman, the monkey god—were
incorporated into Hinduism and assimilated into the appropriate Vedic
gods by this means. Similarly, the worship of many goddesses who are now
regarded as the consorts of the great male Hindu gods, as well as the
worship of individual unmarried goddesses, may have originally
incorporated the worship of non-Vedic local goddesses. Unorthodox
circles on the fringes of Brahmanic culture (probably in southern India)
were one of the important sources of the system of ecstatic devotional
religion known as bhakti. Thus, the history of Hinduism can be
interpreted as the imposition of orthoprax custom upon wider and wider
ranges of people and, complementarily, as the survival of features of
non-Vedic religions that gained strength steadily until they were
adapted by the Brahmans.
The history of Hinduism » The prehistoric period (3rd and 2nd millennia
bce) » Indigenous prehistoric religion
The prehistoric culture of the Indus valley arose in the latter
centuries of the 3rd millennium bce from the metal-using village
cultures of the region. There is considerable evidence of the material
life of the Indus people, but its interpretation remains a matter of
speculation until their writing is deciphered. Enough evidence exists,
however, to show that several features of later Hinduism may have had
prehistoric origins.
In most of the village cultures, small terra-cotta figurines of
women, found in large quantities, have been interpreted as icons of a
fertility deity whose cult was widespread in the Mediterranean area and
in western Asia from Neolithic times (c. 5000 bce) onward. This
hypothesis is strengthened by the fact that the goddess was apparently
associated with the bull—a feature also found in the ancient religions
farther west.
The history of Hinduism » The prehistoric period (3rd and 2nd millennia
bce) » Religion in the Indus valley civilization
The Harappa culture, located in what is now Pakistan, has produced much
evidence of what may have been a cult of a goddess and a bull. Figurines
of both occur, female figures being more common, while the bull appears
more frequently on the many steatite seals. A horned figure, possibly
with three faces, occurs on a few seals, and on one seal he is
surrounded by animals. A few male figurines, one apparently in a dancing
posture, may represent deities. No building has been discovered at any
Harappan site that can be positively identified as a temple, but the
Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro may have been used for ritual purposes, as
were the ghats (bathing steps on riverbanks) attached to later Hindu
temples. The presence of bathrooms in most of the houses and the
remarkable system of covered drains indicate a strong concern for
cleanliness that may have been related to concepts of ritual purity but
perhaps merely to ideas of hygiene.
Many seals show what may be religious and legendary themes that
cannot be interpreted with certainty, such as seals depicting trees next
to figures who may be divinities believed to reside in them. The bull is
often depicted standing before a sort of altar, and the horned figure
has been interpreted overconfidently as a prototype of the Hindu god
Shiva. Small conical objects have been interpreted as phallic emblems
like those that are also connected with Shiva in later Hinduism, though
they may have been pieces used in board games. Other interpretations of
the remains of the Harappa culture are even more speculative and, if
accepted, would indicate that many features of later Hinduism were
already in existence 4,000 years ago. The fact that Harappans buried
their dead with grave deposits, a practice not followed by the later
Hindus, suggests that they had some belief in an afterlife.
The history of Hinduism » The prehistoric period (3rd and 2nd millennia
bce) » Survival of archaic religious practices
Some elements of the religious life of current and past folk
religions—notably sacred animals, sacred trees (especially the pipal,
Ficus religiosa), and the use of small figurines for cult purposes—are
found in all parts of India and may have been borrowed from pre-Vedic
civilizations. On the other hand, these things are also commonly
encountered outside India, and therefore they may have originated
independently in Hinduism as well.
The history of Hinduism » The Vedic period (2nd millennium–7th century
bce)
The people of the early Vedic period left few material remains, but they
did leave a very important literary record called the Rigveda. Its 1,028
hymns are distributed throughout 10 books, of which the first and the
last are the most recent. A hymn usually consists of three sections: an
exhortation; a main part comprising praise of the deity, prayers, and
petition, with frequent references to the deity’s mythology; and a
specific request.
The Rigveda is not a unitary work, and its composition may have taken
several centuries. In its form at the time of its final edition, it
reflected a well-developed religious system. The date commonly given for
the final recension of the Rigveda is 1200 bce. During the next two or
three centuries it was supplemented by three other Vedas and still later
by Vedic texts called the Brahmanas and the Upanishads (see below
Vedas).
The history of Hinduism » Challenges to Brahmanism (6th–2nd century bce)
Indian religious life underwent great changes during the period 550–450
bce. This century was marked by the rise of breakaway sects of ascetics
who rejected traditional religion, denying the authority of the Vedas
and of the Brahmans and following teachers who claimed to have
discovered the secret of obtaining release from transmigration. By far
the most important of these figures were Siddhartha Gautama, called the
Buddha, and Vardhamana, called Mahavira (“Great Hero”), the founder of
Jainism. There were many other heterodox teachers who organized bands of
ascetic followers, and each group adopted a specific code of conduct.
They gained considerable support from ruling families and merchants. The
latter were growing in wealth and influence, and many of them were
searching for alternative forms of religious activity that would give
them a more significant role than did orthodox Brahmanism or that would
be less expensive to support.
The scriptures of the new religious movements throw some light on the
popular religious life of the period. The god Prajapati was widely
believed to be the highest god and the creator of the universe; Indra,
known chiefly as Shakra (“The Mighty One”), was second to him in
importance. The Brahmans were very influential, but there was opposition
to their large-scale animal sacrifices—on both philosophical and
economic grounds—and to their pretensions to superiority by virtue of
their birth. The doctrine of transmigration was by then generally
accepted, though a group of outright materialists—the Carvakas, or
Lokayatas—denied the survival of the soul after death. The ancestor
cult, part of the Indo-European heritage, was retained almost
universally, at least by the higher castes. Popular religious life
largely centred around the worship of local fertility divinities
(yakshas), cobra spirits (nagas), and other minor spirits in sacred
places such as groves. Although these sacred places were the main
centres of popular religious life, there is no evidence of any buildings
or images associated with them, and it appears that neither temples nor
large icons existed at the time.
About 500 bce asceticism became widespread, and increasing numbers of
intelligent young men “gave up the world” to search for release from
transmigration by achieving a state of psychic security. The orthodox
Brahmanical teachers reacted to these tendencies by devising the
doctrine of the four ashramas, which divided the life of the twice-born
after initiation into four stages: the brahmacharin (celibate religious
student); the grihastha (married householder); the vanaprastha (forest
dweller); and the sannyasin (wandering ascetic). This attempt to keep
asceticism in check by confining it to men of late middle age was not
wholly successful. Thereafter Hindu social theory centred on the concept
of varnashrama dharma, or the duties of the four classes (varnas) and
the four ashramas, which constituted the ideal that Hindus were
encouraged to follow.
The first great empire of India, the Mauryan empire, arose in the 3rd
century bce. Its early rulers were heterodox; Ashoka (reigned c. 265–238
bce), the third and most famous of the Mauryan emperors, was a professed
Buddhist. Although there is no doubt that Ashoka’s patronage of Buddhism
did much to spread that religion, his inscriptions recognize the
Brahmans as worthy of respect. Sentiments in favour of nonviolence
(ahimsa) and vegetarianism, much encouraged by the heterodox sects,
spread during the Mauryan period and were greatly encouraged by Ashoka.
A Brahmanic revival appears to have occurred with the fall of the
Mauryas. The orthodox religion itself, however, was undergoing change at
this time, as theistic tendencies developed around the gods Vishnu and
Shiva.
Inscriptions, iconographic evidence, and literary references reveal
the emergence of devotional theism in the 2nd century bce. Several brief
votive inscriptions refer to the god Vasudeva, who by this time was
widely worshipped in western India. At the end of the 2nd century,
Heliodorus, a Greek ambassador of King Antialcidas of Taxila (in
Pakistan), erected a large column in honour of Vasudeva at Besnagar in
Madhya Pradesh and recorded that he was a Bhagavata, a term used
specifically for the devotees of Vishnu. The identification of Vasudeva
with the old Vedic god Vishnu and, later, with Vishnu’s incarnation,
Krishna, was quickly accepted.
Near the end of the Mauryan period, the first surviving stone images
of Hinduism appear. Several large, simply carved figures survive,
representing not any of the great gods but rather yakshas, or local
chthonic divinities connected with water, fertility, and magic. The
original locations of these images are uncertain, but they were probably
erected in the open air in sacred enclosures. Temples are not clearly
attested in this period by either archaeology or literature. A few
fragmentary images thought to be those of Vasudeva and Shiva, the latter
in anthropomorphic form and in the form of a linga, or phallic emblem,
are found on coins of the 2nd and 1st centuries bce.
The history of Hinduism » Early Hinduism (2nd century bce–4th century
ce)
The centuries immediately preceding and following the dawn of the Common
Era were marked by the recension of the two great Sanskrit epics, the
Ramayana and the Mahabharata (the latter incorporating into it the
Bhagavadgita). The worship of Vishnu, incarnate as Krishna in the
Mahabharata and as Rama in the Ramayana, developed significantly during
this period (see below Epics and Puranas), as did the cult of Shiva, who
plays an active role in the Mahabharata.
The history of Hinduism » Early Hinduism (2nd century bce–4th century
ce) » The rise of the major sects: Vaishnavism, Shaivism, and Shaktism
The Vedic god Rudra gained importance from the end of the Rigvedic
period. In the Svetashvatara Upanishad, Rudra is for the first time
called Shiva and is described as the creator, preserver, and destroyer
of the universe. His followers are called on to worship him with
devotion (bhakti). The tendency for the laity to form themselves into
religious guilds or societies—evident in the case of the yaksha cults,
Buddhism, and Jainism—promoted the growth of devotional Vaishnavism and
Shaivism. These local associations of worshipers appear to have been a
principal factor in the spread of the new cults. Theistic ascetics are
less in evidence at this time, though a community of Shaivite monks, the
Pashupatas, existed by the 2nd or 3rd century ce.
The period between the fall of the Mauryan empire (c. 185 bce) and
the rise of the Gupta dynasty (c. 320 ce) was one of great change,
including the conquest of most of the area of Pakistan and parts of
western India by a succession of invaders. India was opened to influence
from the West as never before, not only by invaders but also through
flourishing maritime trade with the Roman Empire. The effects of the new
contacts were most obvious in art and architecture. The oldest
freestanding stone temple in the subcontinent has been excavated at
Taxila, near Rawalpindi, Pak. During the 1st century bce the Gandhara
school of sculpture arose in the same region and made use of Hellenistic
and Roman prototypes, mainly in the service of Buddhism. Hindu temples
of the period probably were made of wood, because no remains of them
have survived; however, literary evidence shows that they must have
existed.
By the time of the early Gupta empire the new theism had been
harmonized with the old Vedic religion, and two of the main branches of
Hinduism were fully recognized. The Vaishnavas had the support of the
Gupta emperors, who took the title paramabhagavata (“supreme devotee of
Vishnu”). Vishnu temples were numerous, and the doctrine of Vishnu’s
avatars (incarnations) was widely accepted. Of the 10 incarnations of
later Vaishnavism, however, only two seem to have been much worshipped
in the Gupta period (4th–6th century). These were Krishna, the hero of
the Mahabharata, who also begins to appear in his pastoral aspect as the
cowherd and flute player, and Varaha, the divine boar, of whom several
impressive images survive from the Gupta period.
The Shaivites were also a growing force in the religious life of
India. The sect of Pashupata ascetics, founded by Lakulisha (or
Nahulisha), who lived in the 2nd century ce, is attested by inscriptions
from the 5th century; it is among the earliest of the sectarian
religious orders of Hinduism. Representations of the son of Shiva,
Skanda (also called Karttikeya, the war god), appeared as early as 100
bce on coins from the Kushan dynasty, which ruled northern India,
Afghanistan, and Central Asia in the first three centuries of the Common
Era. Shiva’s other son, the elephant-headed Ganesha, patron deity of
commercial and literary enterprises, did not appear until the 5th
century. Very important in this period was Surya, the sun god, in whose
honour temples were built, though in modern times he is little regarded
by most Hindus. The solar cult had Vedic roots but later may have
expanded under Iranian influence.
Several goddesses gained importance in this period. Although
goddesses had always been worshipped in local and popular cults, they
play comparatively minor roles in Vedic religion. Lakshmi, or Shri,
goddess of fortune and consort of Vishnu, was worshipped before the
beginning of the Common Era, and several lesser goddesses are attested
from the Gupta period. But the cult of Durga, the consort of Shiva,
began to gain importance only in the 4th century, and the large-scale
development of Shaktism (devotion to the active, creative principle
personified as the mother goddess) did not take place until medieval
times.
The history of Hinduism » Early Hinduism (2nd century bce–4th century
ce) » The development of temples
The Gupta period was marked by the rapid development of temple
architecture. Earlier temples were made of wood, but freestanding stone
and brick temples soon appeared in many parts of India. By the 7th
century, stone temples, some of considerable dimensions, were found in
parts of the country. Originally, the design of the Hindu temples may
have borrowed from the Buddhist precedent, for in some of the oldest
temples the image was placed in the centre of the shrine, which was
surrounded by an ambulatory path resembling the path around a stupa (a
religious building containing a Buddhist relic). Nearly all surviving
Gupta temples are comparatively small; they consist of a small cella
(central chamber), constructed of thick and solid masonry, with a
veranda either at the entrance or on all sides of the building. The
earliest Gupta temples, such as the Buddhist temples at Sanchi, have
flat roofs; however, the sikhara (spire), typical of the North Indian
temple, was developed in this period and with time was steadily made
taller. The massive and tall tower of the Buddhist temple of Bodh Gaya,
which was in existence in the 7th century, represents the culmination of
Gupta temple architecture.
The Buddhists and Jains had made use of artificial caves for
religious purposes, and these were adapted by the Hindus. Hindu
cave-temples, however, are comparatively rare, and none have been
discovered from earlier than the Gupta period. In the Pallava site of
Mahabalipuram, south of Chennai (Madras), a number of small temples were
carved in the 7th century from outcroppings of rock; they represent some
of the oldest religious buildings in the Tamil country.
The history of Hinduism » Early Hinduism (2nd century bce–4th century
ce) » The spread of Hinduism in Southeast Asia and the Pacific
Hinduism and Buddhism exerted an enormous influence on the civilizations
of Southeast Asia and contributed greatly to the development of a
written tradition in that area. About the beginning of the Common Era,
Indian merchants in comparatively large numbers settled there, bringing
Brahmans and Buddhist monks with them. These religious men were
patronized by local chiefs, who converted to Hinduism or Buddhism. The
earliest material evidence of Hinduism in Southeast Asia comes from
Borneo, where late 4th-century Sanskrit inscriptions testify to the
performance of Vedic sacrifices by Brahmans at the behest of local
chiefs. Chinese chronicles attest an Indianized kingdom in Vietnam two
centuries earlier. The dominant form of Hinduism exported to Southeast
Asia was Shaivism, though some Vaishnavism was also known there. Later,
from the 9th century onward, Tantrism, both Hindu and Buddhist, spread
throughout the region.
The civilizations of Southeast Asia developed forms of Hinduism and
Buddhism that incorporated distinctive local features and in other
respects reflected local cultures, but the framework of their religious
life was essentially Indian. Stories from the Ramayana and the
Mahabharata became widely known in Southeast Asia and are still popular
there in local versions. The people of Bali (in Indonesia) still follow
a form of Hinduism adapted to their own genius. Versions of the
Manu-smriti were taken to Southeast Asia and were translated and adapted
to indigenous cultures until they lost most of their original content.
Claims of early Hindu contacts farther east are more doubtful. There
is little evidence of the influence of Hinduism on China and Japan,
which were primarily affected by Buddhism.
The history of Hinduism » Early Hinduism (2nd century bce–4th century
ce) » Indian religious influence in the Mediterranean world
Nearly as dubious as the question of Hindu influence on the religious
life of East Asia is its influence on that of the ancient Mediterranean
world. The Greek philosopher Pythagoras (c. 580–c. 500 bce) may have
obtained his doctrine of metempsychosis (transmigration, or passage of
the soul from one body to another; see reincarnation) from India,
mediated by Achaemenian (6th–4th century bce) Persia, but similar ideas
were known in Egypt and were certainly present in Greece before the time
of Pythagoras. The Pythagorean doctrine of a cyclic universe may also be
derived from India, but the Indian theory of cosmic cycles is not
attested in the 6th century bce. Nevertheless, it is known that Hindu
ascetics occasionally visited Greece. The most striking similarity
between Greek and Indian thought is the resemblance between the system
of mystical gnosis (esoteric knowledge) described in the Enneads of the
Neoplatonic philosopher Plotinus (205–270) and that of the Yoga-sutras
attributed to Patanjali, an Indian religious teacher sometimes dated in
the 2nd century ce. The Patanjali text is the older, and influence must
be suspected, though the problem of mediation remains difficult because
Plotinus gives no direct evidence of having known anything about Indian
mysticism. Several Greek and Latin writers (an example of the former
being Clement of Alexandria) show considerable knowledge of the
externals of Indian religions, but none gives any intimation of
understanding their more recondite aspects.
The history of Hinduism » The rise of devotional Hinduism (4th–11th
century)
The medieval period was characterized by the growth of new devotional
religious movements centred on hymnodists who taught in the popular
languages of the time. The new movements probably began with the
appearance of hymns in Tamil associated with two groups of poets: the
Nayanars, worshipers of Shiva, and the Alvars, devotees of Vishnu. The
oldest of these date from the early 7th century, though passages of
devotional character can be found in earlier Tamil literature.
The term bhakti, in the sense of devotion to a personal god, appears
in the Bhagavadgita and the Shvetashvatara Upanishad. In these early
sources it represents a devotion still somewhat restrained and
unemotional. The new form of bhakti, associated with singing in the
languages of the common people, was highly charged with emotion and
mystical fervour, and the relationship between worshiper and divinity
was often described as analogous to that between lover and beloved. The
Tamil saints, South Indian devotees of Vishnu or Shiva from the 6th to
the 9th century, felt an intense love (Tamil: anbu) toward their god.
They experienced overwhelming joy in his presence and deep sorrow when
he did not reveal himself. Some of them felt a profound sense of guilt
or inadequacy in the face of the divine. But the dominant emotion in
these poems is one of joy, often expressing itself in song and dance.
The poems have a strong ethical content and encourage the virtues of
love, humility, and brotherhood. The ideas of these poets, spreading
northward, probably were the origin of bhakti in northern India.
The devotional cults further weakened Buddhism, which had long been
on the decline. From time to time Hindus, especially Shaivites, took
aggressive action against Buddhism. At least two Shaivite kings—the
Hephthalite invader Mihirakula (early 6th century) and the Bengal king
Sasanka (early 7th century)—are reported to have destroyed monasteries
and killed monks. The philosophers Kumarila and Shankara were also
strongly opposed to Buddhism. In their journeys throughout India, their
biographies claim, they vehemently debated with Buddhists and tried to
persuade kings and other influential people to withdraw their support
from Buddhist monasteries. Only in Bihar and Bengal, because of the
patronage of the Pala dynasty and some lesser kings and chiefs, did
Buddhist monasteries continue to flourish. Buddhism in eastern India,
however, was well on the way to being reabsorbed into Hinduism when the
Muslims invaded the Ganges valley in the 12th century. The great
Buddhist shrine of Bodh Gaya, the site of the Buddha’s enlightenment,
became a Hindu temple and remained as such until recent times.
At the end of its existence in India, Buddhism developed in a way
that had some effect on Hinduism. Among the Buddhist Tantrists appeared
a new school of preachers, often known as Siddhas (“Those Who Have
Achieved”), who sang their verses in the contemporary languages, early
Maithili and Bengali. They taught that giving up the world was not
necessary for release from transmigration and that one could achieve the
highest state by living a life of simplicity in one’s own home. This
system, known as Sahajayana (“Vehicle of the Natural” or “Easy
Vehicle”), influenced both Bengali devotional Vaishnavism, which
produced a sect called Vaisnava-Sahajiya with similar doctrines, and the
Natha yogis (mentioned below), whose teachings influenced Kabir and
other later bhakti masters.
The history of Hinduism » Hinduism under Islam (11th–19th century) » The
challenge of Islam and popular religion
The advent of Islam in the Ganges basin at the end of the 12th century
resulted in the withdrawal of royal patronage from Hinduism in much of
the area. The attitude of the Muslim rulers toward Hinduism varied.
Some, like Fīrūz Tughluq (ruled 1351–88) and Aurangzeb (ruled
1658–1707), were strongly anti-Hindu and enforced payment of jizya, a
poll tax on unbelievers. Others, like the Bengali sultan Ḥusayn Shāh
ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn (reigned 1493–1519) and the great Akbar (reigned
1556–1605), were well-disposed toward their Hindu subjects. Many
temples, however, were destroyed by the more fanatical rulers.
Conversion to Islam was more common in areas where Buddhism had once
been strongest—Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Kashmir.
On the eve of the Muslim occupation, Hinduism was by no means sterile
in northern India, but its vitality was centred in the southern,
Dravidian-speaking areas. Throughout the centuries, the system of class
and caste had become more rigid; in each region there was a complex
hierarchy of castes strictly forbidden to intermarry or dine together,
controlled and regulated by secular powers who acted on the advice of
the court Brahmans. The large-scale Vedic sacrifices had practically
vanished, but simple domestic Vedic sacrifices continued, and new forms
of animal, and sometimes vegetable, sacrifice had appeared, especially
connected with the cult of the mother goddess.
By that time, the main divinities of later Hinduism were worshipped.
Rama, the hero of the epic poem, had become the eighth avatar of Vishnu,
and his cult was growing, though it was not yet as prominent as it later
became. Similarly, Rama’s monkey helper, Hanuman, now one of the most
popular divinities of India and the most ready helper in time of need,
was rising in importance. Krishna was worshipped with his adulterous
consort, Radha. Strange syncretic gods had appeared, such as Harihara, a
combination of Vishnu and Shiva, and Ardhanarishvara, a synthesis of
Shiva and his consort Shakti.
The history of Hinduism » Hinduism under Islam (11th–19th century) »
Temple complexes
From the Gupta period onward, Hindu temples became larger and more
prominent, and their architecture developed in distinctive regional
styles. In northern India the best remaining Hindu temples are found in
the Orissa region and in the town of Khajuraho in northern Madhya
Pradesh. The best example of Orissan temple architecture is the
Lingaraja temple of Bhubaneswar, built about 1000. The largest temple of
the region, however, is the famous Black Pagoda, the Sun Temple (Surya
Deula) of Konarak, built in the mid-13th century. Its tower has long
since collapsed, and only the assembly hall remains. The most important
Khajuraho temples were built during the 11th century. Individual
architectural styles also arose in Gujarat and Rajasthan, but their
surviving products are less impressive than those of Orissa and
Khajuraho. By the end of the 1st millennium ce the South Indian style
had reached its apogee in the great Rajarajeshvara temple of Thanjavur
(Tanjore).
In the temple the god was worshipped by the rites of puja
(reverencing a sacred being or object) as though the worshipers were
serving a great king. In the important temples a large staff of trained
officiants waited on the god. He was awakened in the morning along with
his goddess; washed, clothed, and fed; placed in his shrine to give
audience to his subjects; praised and entertained throughout the day;
and ceremoniously fed, undressed, and put to bed at night. Worshipers
sang, burned lamps, waved lights before the divine image, and performed
other acts of homage. The god’s handmaidens (devadasis) performed before
him at regular intervals, watched by the officiants and lay worshipers,
who were his courtiers. These women, either the daughters of devadasis
or girls dedicated in childhood, may have also served as prostitutes.
The association of dedicated prostitutes with certain Hindu shrines can
be traced back to before the Christian era. It became more widespread in
post-Gupta times, especially in South India, and aroused the reprobation
of 19th-century Europeans. Through the efforts of Hindu reformers, the
office of the devadasis was discontinued. The role of devadasis is best
understood in the context of the analogy between the temple and the
royal court, for the Hindu king also had his dancing girls, who bestowed
their favours on his courtiers.
Parallels between the temple and the royal palace also were in
evidence in the Rathayatras (Chariot Festivals). On festival days, when
the king issued from his palace and paraded around his city, escorted by
courtiers, troops, and musicians, the god also was paraded in a splendid
procession, together with the lesser gods of the minor shrines. The god
rode on a tremendous and ornate moving shrine (ratha), which was often
pulled by large bands of devotees. Rathayatras still take place in many
cities of India. The best-known is the annual procession of Jagannatha
(“Juggernaut”), a form of Vishnu, at Puri, Orissa.
The great temples were (and still are) wealthy institutions. They
were supported by the transfer of the taxes levied by kings on specific
areas of the nearby countryside, by donations of the pious, and by the
fees of worshipers. Their immense wealth was one of the factors that
encouraged the Ghaznavid and Ghūrid Turks to invade India after the 11th
century. The temples were controlled by self-perpetuating
committees—whose membership was usually a hereditary privilege—and by a
large staff of priests and temple servants under a high priest who
wielded tremendous power and influence.
In keeping with their wealth, the great walled temple complexes of
South India were (and still are) small cities, containing the central
and numerous lesser shrines, bathing tanks, administrative offices,
homes of the temple employees, workshops, bazaars, and public buildings
of many kinds. As some of the largest employers and greatest landowners
in their areas, the temples played an important part in the economy.
They also performed valuable social functions, serving as schools,
dispensaries, poorhouses, banks, and concert halls.
The temple complexes suffered during the Muslim occupation. In the
sacred cities of Varanasi (Benares) and Mathura, no large temple from
any period before the 17th century has survived. The same is true of
most of the main religious centres of northern India but not of the
regions where the Muslim hold was less firm, such as Orissa, Rajasthan,
and South India. Despite the widespread destruction of the temples,
Hinduism endured, in part because of the absence of a centralized
authority; rituals and sacrifices were performed in places other than
temples. The purohitas, or family priests who performed the domestic
rituals and personal sacraments for the laypeople, continued to
function, as did the thousands of ascetics.
The history of Hinduism » Hinduism under Islam (11th–19th century) »
Sectarian movements
Before the Muslim invasion of the subcontinent, the new forms of South
Indian bhakti had spread beyond the bounds of the Dravidian south.
Certain Vaishnava theologians of the Pancharatra and Bhagavata schools
gave the growing Vaishnava bhakti cults a philosophical framework that
also influenced some Shaivite schools.
Several Vaishnava teachers deserve mention, including Ramanuja, a
Tamil Brahman of the 11th century who was for a time chief priest of the
Vaishnava temple of Srirangam, near Tiruchchirappalli (Trichinopoly),
and Nimbarka, a Telugu Brahman of the 12th or 13th century who spread
the cult of the divine cowherd and of Radha, his favourite gopi
(cowherdess, especially associated with the legends of Krishna’s youth).
His sect survives near Mathura but has made little impact elsewhere.
More important was Vallabha (Vallabhacarya; 1479–1531), who emphasized
the erotic imagery of the Vaishnava doctrine of grace and established a
sect that stressed absolute obedience to the guru (teacher). Early in
its existence the sect was organized with a hierarchy of senior monks
(gosvami), many of whom became very rich. The Vallabhacarya sect, once
very influential in the western half of North India, declined in the
19th century, in part because of a number of lawsuits against the chief
guru, the descendant of Vallabha.
The Shaiva sects also developed from the 10th century onward. In
South India there emerged the school of Shaiva-siddhanta, still one of
the most significant religious forces in that region and one that,
unlike the school of Sankara, does not accept the full identity of the
soul and God. A completely monistic school of Shaivism appeared in
Kashmir in the early 9th century. Its doctrines differ from those of
Shankara chiefly because it attributes personality to the absolute
spirit, who is the god Shiva and not the impersonal brahman.
An important sect, founded in the 12th century in the
Kannada-speaking area of the Deccan, was that of the Lingayats, or
Virashaivas (“Heroes of the Shaiva Religion”). Its traditional founder,
Basava, taught doctrines and practices of surprising unorthodoxy: he
opposed all forms of image worship and accepted only the lingam of Shiva
as a sacred symbol. Virashaivism rejected the Vedas, the Brahman
priesthood, and all caste distinctions. It also consciously rejected
several religious and social conventions, such as the ban against the
remarriage of widows, and practiced burial rather than cremation of the
dead.
Shaivism underwent significant growth in northern India. In the 13th
century Gorakhnath (also known as Gorakshanatha), who became leader of a
sect of Shaivite ascetics known as Nathas (“Lords”) from the title of
their chief teachers, introduced new ideas and practices to Shaivism.
The Gorakhnathis were particularly important as propagators of Hatha
Yoga, a form of Yoga that requires complex and difficult physical
exercises and that has become popular in the West. These yogis, who are
still numerous, influenced the teachings of several of the bhakti poets.
The history of Hinduism » Hinduism under Islam (11th–19th century) »
Bhakti movements
The poets and saints (highly respected ascetics who were at times
believed to be incarnations of a deity) of medieval bhakti appeared
throughout India. Although all had their individual genius, the bhakti
lyricists shared a number of common features. Unlike Sanskrit authors,
mainly well-educated members of the Brahman class whose learning and
status shaped their outlook, bhakti poets were not restricted to a
single language or class. They brought to their poetry a familiarity
with folk religion unknown or ignored in the Sanskrit texts. The use of
the spoken language, even though it was formalized, made possible the
expression of an unmediated vision that needed no further context; thus,
the lyrics are short, intensely personal, and precise. These works
illustrate the localistic and reformist tendency evidenced throughout
India in the vernacular literatures, especially in Tamil, Bengali, and
Hindi. (See below Vernacular literatures.)
Some of the new forms of Hinduism have been attributed to the
influence of Islam, including popular emotional bhakti, since the
practice of singing ecstatic hymns in the current local language began
in South India at a time when the sea trade brought many Arab Muslims
there. Moreover, the presence of rulers of alien faith and the
withdrawal of royal patronage from the temples and Brahmanic colleges
may have encouraged the spread of new, more popular forms of Hinduism.
The psychological effect of the Muslim conquest may also have
predisposed the people to accept the powerful teachings of the poets.
Much has been said about the synthesis of Hinduism and Islam in the
period of Muslim dominance. Numerous Muslim social customs were adopted,
and Persian and Arabic words entered the vocabularies of Indian
languages. The teachings of such men as Basava and Kabir may have been
influenced by Muslim observances and social customs. A still greater
synthesis took place among the Muslims, most of whom were Indian by
blood. In Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, and Marathi there is much
poetry, written by Muslims and commencing with the Islamic invocation of
Allah, which nevertheless betrays strong Hindu influence. Thus, there
are texts that proclaim Krishna as being in the line of the prophets of
Islam and as the teacher of the unity of God. Much mystical poetry,
though written by authors with Muslim names, uses Hindu imagery and
Hindu terminology. This literature originated in the accommodating
character of early Indian Sufism, which, well before Kabir, proclaimed
that Muslim, Christian, Jew, Zoroastrian, and Hindu were all striving
toward the same goal and that the outward observances that kept them
apart were false. Some Indian Sufis were greatly influenced by Hindu
customs. For example, a school of Kashmiri Sufis—whose members call
themselves rishis, after the legendary Hindu sages of the same
name—respect and repeat the verses of Lal Ded, a 14th-century poet and
holy woman from Kashmir, and are strict vegetarians.
Tolerant Muslim rulers encouraged syncretic tendencies, which reached
their zenith in the reign of Akbar (1556–1605). Taking a great interest
in the religion of his Hindu subjects, Akbar tried to establish a
single, all-embracing religion for his empire. Although his efforts
failed, they influenced India for more than 50 years after his death.
Orthodox Muslim theologians complained about the growth of heresy,
however, and the emperor Aurangzeb (reigned 1658–1707) did all in his
power to discourage it. Popular Muslim preachers throughout the 18th and
19th centuries worked to restore orthodoxy. Thus, syncretic tendencies
were somewhat reduced before the imposition of British power in the
mid-18th century. Furthermore, British rule emphasized the distinctions
between Hindu and Muslim and did not encourage efforts to harmonize the
two religions.
The history of Hinduism » The modern period (19th–21st century)
From their small coastal settlements in southern India, the Portuguese
promoted Roman Catholic missionary activity and made converts, most of
whom were of low caste; the majority of caste Hindus were unaffected.
Small Protestant missions operated from the Danish factories of
Tranquebar in Tamil Nadu and Serampore in Bengal, but they were even
less influential. The British East India Company, conscious of the
disadvantages of unnecessarily antagonizing its Indian subjects,
excluded all Christian missionary activity from its territories. Indeed,
the company continued the patronage accorded by indigenous rulers to
many Hindu temples and forbade its Indian troops to embrace
Christianity. The growing evangelical conscience in England brought this
policy to an end with the renewal of the company’s charter in 1813. The
company’s policy then became one of strict impartiality in matters of
religion, but missionaries were allowed to work throughout its
territory. Thus, Christian ideas began to spread.
The history of Hinduism » The modern period (19th–21st century) » Hindu
reform movements » Brahmo Samaj
The pioneer of reform was Ram Mohun Roy. His intense belief in strict
monotheism and in the evils of image worship began early and probably
was derived from Islam, because at first he had no knowledge of
Christianity. He later learned English and in 1814 settled in Calcutta
(Kolkata), where he was prominent in the movement for encouraging
education of a Western type. His final achievement was the foundation of
the Brahmo Samaj (“Society of God”) in 1828.
Roy outwardly remained a Hindu, wearing the sacred cord and keeping
most of the customs of the orthodox Brahman, but his theology was
surprisingly non-Indian. He was chiefly inspired by 18th-century Deism
(rational belief in a transcendent Creator God) and Unitarianism (belief
in God’s essential oneness), but some of his writing suggests that he
was also aware of the religious ideas of the Freemasons (a secret
fraternity that espoused some Deistic concepts). Several of his friends
were members of a Masonic lodge in Calcutta. His ideas of the afterlife
are obscure, and it is possible that he did not believe in the doctrine
of transmigration. Roy was one of the first higher-class Hindus to visit
Europe, where he was much admired by the intelligentsia of Britain and
France.
After Roy’s death, Debendranath Tagore (father of the greatest poet
of modern India, Rabindranath Tagore [1861–1941]) became leader of the
Brahmo Samaj, and under his guidance a more mystical note was sounded by
the society; Tagore also promoted literacy and vigorously opposed
idolatry and the practice of suttee. In 1863 he founded Santiniketan
(“Abode of Peace”), a retreat in rural Bengal. The third great leader of
the Brahmo Samaj, Keshab Chunder Sen, was a reformer who completely
abolished caste in the society and admitted women as members. As his
theology became more syncretistic and eclectic, a schism developed, and
the more conservative faction remained under the leadership of Tagore.
Keshab’s faction, the Brahmo Samaj of India, adopted as its scripture a
selection of theistic texts gathered from all the main religions; at the
same time, it became more Hindu in its worship, employing the sankirtana
(devotional singing and dancing) and nagarakirtana (street procession)
of the Caitanya sect, an intensely devotional form of Hinduism
established by the Bengali mystic and poet Caitanya. In 1881 Keshab
founded the Church of the New Dispensation (Naba Bidhan) for the purpose
of establishing the truth of all the great religions in an institution
that he believed would replace them all. When he died in 1884, the
Brahmo Samaj began to decline.
The history of Hinduism » The modern period (19th–21st century) »
Hindu reform movements » Arya Samaj
A reformer of different character was Dayanand Sarasvati, who was
trained as a yogi but steadily lost faith in Yoga and in many other
aspects of Hinduism. After traveling widely as an itinerant preacher, he
founded the Arya Samaj in 1875, and it rapidly gained ground in western
India. Dayanand rejected image worship, sacrifice, and polytheism and
claimed to base his doctrines on the four Vedas as the eternal word of
God. Later Hindu scriptures were judged critically, and many of them
were believed to be completely evil. The Arya Samaj did much to
encourage Hindu nationalism, but it did not disparage the knowledge of
the West, and it established many schools and colleges. Among its
members was the revolutionary Lala Lajpat Rai.
The history of Hinduism » The modern period (19th–21st century) » New
religious movements » Ramakrishna Mission
The most important developments in Hinduism, however, did not arise
primarily from the new samajs. Ramakrishna, a devotee at Daksineshvar, a
temple of Kali north of Kolkota (Calcutta), attracted a band of educated
lay followers who spread his doctrines. As a result of his studies and
visions, he came to the conclusion that “all religions are true” but
that the religion of a person’s own time and place was for that person
the best expression of the truth. Even idolatry met the needs of simple
people and was not to be disparaged. Ramakrishna thus gave educated
Hindus a basis on which they could justify the less rational aspects of
their religion to a consciousness increasingly influenced by Western
values.
Among the followers of Ramakrishna was Narendranath Datta, who became
an ascetic after his master’s death and assumed the religious name
Vivekananda. In 1893 he attended the World’s Parliament of Religions in
Chicago, where his powerful personality and stirring oratory deeply
impressed the gathering. After lecturing in the United States and
England, he returned to India in 1897 with a small band of Western
disciples and founded the Ramakrishna Mission, the most important modern
organization of reformed Hinduism. Vivekananda, more than any earlier
Hindu reformer, encouraged social service. Influenced by progressive
Western political ideas, he set himself firmly against all forms of
caste distinction and fostered a spirit of self-reliance in his
followers. With branches in many parts of the world, the Ramakrishna
Mission has done much to spread knowledge of its version of Hinduism
outside India.
The history of Hinduism » The modern period (19th–21st century) » New
religious movements » Theosophical Society
Another movement influenced in part by Hinduism is the Theosophical
Society. Founded in New York City in 1875 by Helena Blavatsky of Russia,
it was originally inspired by Kabbala (Jewish esoteric mysticism),
Gnosticism (esoteric salvatory knowledge), and other forms of Western
occultism. When Blavatsky went to India in 1879, her doctrines quickly
took on an Indian character, and from her headquarters at Adyar she and
her followers established branches in many cities of India.
After surviving serious accusations of charlatanry leveled against
its founder and other leaders, the society prospered under the
leadership of Annie Besant, a reform-minded Englishwoman. During her
tenure the many Theosophical lodges founded in Europe and the United
States helped to acquaint the West with the principles of Hinduism, if
in a rather idiosyncratic form.
The history of Hinduism » The modern period (19th–21st century) » New
religious movements » Aurobindo Ashram
Another modern teacher whose doctrines had some influence outside India
was Shri Aurobindo. He began his career as a revolutionary but later
withdrew from politics and settled in Pondicherry, then a French
possession. There he established an ashram and achieved a high
reputation as a sage. His followers saw him as the first incarnate
manifestation of the superbeings whose evolution he prophesied, and
apparently he did not discourage this belief. After his death, the
leadership of the Aurobindo Ashram was assumed by Mira Richard, a
Frenchwoman who had been one of his disciples.
The history of Hinduism » The modern period (19th–21st century) » New
religious movements » Other reform movements
Numerous other teachers have affected the religious life of India. Among
them was the great Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, who was influenced
by many currents of earlier religious thought, both Indian and
non-Indian. Tagore was particularly popular in Europe and the United
States about the time of World War I, and he did much to disseminate
Hindu religious thought in the West.
Less important outside India but much respected in India itself,
especially in the Dravidian south, was Ramana Maharshi, a Tamil mystic
who maintained almost complete silence. His powerful personality
attracted a large band of devotees before his death in 1950.
In 1936 Swami Shivananda, who had been a physician, established an
ashram and an organization called the Divine Life Society near the
sacred site of Rishikesh in the Himalayas. This organization has
numerous branches in India and some elsewhere. His movement teaches more
or less orthodox Vedanta, one of the six schools of Indian philosophy,
combined with both Yoga and bhakti but rejects caste and stresses social
service.
The history of Hinduism » The modern period (19th–21st century) » The
struggle for independence
The Hindu revival and reform movements of the 19th and early 20th
centuries were closely linked with the growth of Indian nationalism and
the struggle for independence. The Arya Samaj strongly encouraged
nationalism, and, even though Vivekananda and the Ramakrishna Mission
were always uncompromisingly nonpolitical, their effect in promoting the
movement for self-government is quite evident.
Religion and politics were joined in the career of Bal Gangadhar
Tilak, an orthodox Maharashtrian Brahman who believed that the people of
India could be aroused only by appeals couched in religious terms. Tilak
used the annual festival of the god Ganesha for nationalist propaganda.
His interpretation of the Bhagavadgita as a call to action was also a
reflection of his nationalism, and through his mediation the scripture
inspired later leaders, including Mahatma Gandhi.
Hindu religious concepts were also enlisted in the nationalist cause
in Bengal. In his historical novel Anandamath (1882), the Bengali writer
Bankim Chandra Chatterjee described a band of martial ascetics who were
pledged to free India from Muslim domination under the Mughal empire.
They took as their anthem a stirring devotional song written in simple
Sanskrit—Bande Mataram (“I Revere the Mother”)—whose title referred both
to the fierce demon-destroying goddess Kali and to India itself. This
song was soon adopted by other nationalists. Vivekananda emphasized the
need to turn the emotion of bhakti toward the suffering poor of India.
During his short career as a revolutionary, Shri Aurobindo made much use
of Bande Mataram, and he called on his countrymen to strive for the
freedom of India in a spirit of devotion. The bhakti of the medieval
poets was thus enlisted in the cause of modern independence.
The history of Hinduism » The modern period (19th–21st century) » The
struggle for independence » Mahatma Gandhi
Much influenced by the bhakti of his native Gujarat and fortified by
similar attitudes in Christianity and Jainism, Mahatma Gandhi, the most
important leader in the movement for independence, appeared to his
followers as the quintessence of the Hindu tradition. His austere
celibate life was one that the Indian laity had learned to respect
implicitly. Gandhi’s message reached a wider public than that of any of
the earlier reformers.
Gandhi’s doctrine of nonviolence can be found in many Hindu sources,
although his beliefs were much strengthened by Christian ethical
literature and especially by the later writings of Leo Tolstoy. His
political technique of passive resistance, satyagraha, also has Indian
precedents, but here again he was influenced by Western writers such as
the American Henry David Thoreau. The chief innovations in Gandhi’s
philosophy were his belief in the dignity of manual labour and in the
equality of women. Precedents for both of these can be found in the
writings of some 19th-century reformers, but they have little basis in
earlier Indian thought. In many ways Gandhi was a traditionalist. His
respect for the cow—which he and other educated Indians understood as
the representative of Mother Earth—was a factor in the failure of his
movement to attract large-scale Muslim support. His insistence on strict
vegetarianism and celibacy among his disciples, in keeping with the
traditions of Vaishnava asceticism, also caused difficulty among some of
his followers. Still, Gandhi’s success represented a political
culmination of the movement of popular bhakti begun in South India early
in the Christian era.
Gandhi’s mantle fell on Vinoba Bhave, one of the Mahatma’s most
devoted Maharashtrian supporters. For some years after independence,
Vinoba led a campaign of social service that culminated in the Bhudan
Yanja, a land-giving movement, which persuaded many landowners and
wealthy peasants to give fields to landless labourers. This movement had
some success in rural areas but gradually lost momentum. Although the
memory of Gandhi continues to be revered by most Indians, his policies
and principles carry little weight. The great bulk of social service is
performed by government agencies rather than by voluntary bodies,
whether Gandhian or other.
The history of Hinduism » The modern period (19th–21st century) » The
struggle for independence » The religious situation after independence
Increasing nationalism, especially after the division of India into
India and Pakistan in 1947, led to a widening of the gulf between Hindus
and Muslims. In the early 1970s Indian scholars painted the relations of
the two religions in earlier centuries as friendly, blaming alien rule
for the division of India. In Pakistan the tendency has been to insist
that Hindus and Muslims have always been “two nations” and that the
Hindus nevertheless were happy under their Muslim rulers. Neither
position is correct. In earlier times there was much mutual influence.
But the conservative element in Indian Islam gained the upper hand long
before British power was consolidated in India.
One of the pioneers of nationalism, Tilak, glorified the
Maharashtrian hero Shivaji as the liberator of India from the alien yoke
of the Mughals; and Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s militant ascetics, who
pledged to conquer and expel the Muslims, sang a battle hymn that no
orthodox Muslim could repeat. British rulers of India did little or
nothing to lessen Hindu-Muslim tension, and their policy of separate
electorates for the two communities worsened the situation. Many leaders
of the Indian National Congress movement, such as Jawaharlal Nehru,
carried their Hinduism lightly and favoured a secular approach to
politics; the majority, however, followed the lead of Gandhi. Although
to the right of the Congress politically, the Hindu Mahasabha, a
nationalist group formed to give Hindus a stronger voice in politics,
did not oppose nonviolence in its drive to establish a Hindu state in
India.
The transfer of power in 1947 was accompanied by slaughter and
pillage of huge proportions. Millions of Hindus left their homes in
Pakistan for India, and millions of Muslims migrated in the opposite
direction. The tension culminated in the assassination of Gandhi by a
Hindu fanatic in January 1948.
The policy of the new Indian government was to establish a secular
state, and the successive governments have broadly kept to this policy.
The governments of the Indian states, however, have not been so
restricted by constitutional niceties. Some state governments have
introduced legislation of a specifically Hindu character. On the other
hand, the Congress governments have passed legislation more offensive to
Hindu traditional prejudices than anything the British Indian government
would have dared to enact. For example, all forms of discrimination
against “untouchables” (now usually referred to by euphemisms such as
“Harijans,” or “people of God,” instead of the British euphemism
“scheduled castes”) are forbidden, although it has been impossible to
enforce the law in every case. A great blow to conservatism was dealt by
legislation in 1955 and 1956 that gave full rights of inheritance to
widows and daughters, enforced monogamy, and permitted divorce on quite
easy terms. The 1961 law forbidding dowries further undermined
traditional Hinduism. Although the dowry has long been a tremendous
burden to the parents of daughters, the strength of social custom is
such that the law cannot be fully enforced.
The social structure of traditional Hinduism is slowly crumbling in
the cities. Intercaste and interreligious marriages are becoming more
frequent among the educated, although some aspects of the caste system
show remarkable vitality, especially in the matter of appointments and
elections. The bonds of the tightly knit Hindu joint family are also
weakening, a process helped by legislation and the emancipation of
women. The professional priests, who perform rituals for laypeople in
homes or at temples and sacred sites, complain of the lack of custom,
and their numbers are diminishing.
Nevertheless, Hinduism is far from dying. Mythological films, once
the most popular form of entertainment, are enjoying a renaissance.
Organizations such as the Ramakrishna Mission flourish and expand their
activities. New teachers appear from time to time and attract
considerable followings. Militant fundamentalist Hindu organizations
such as the Society for the Self-Service of the Nation (Rashtriya
Svayamsevak Sangh; RSS) are steadily growing. Such movements can be seen
as the cause or the result, or both, of persistent outbreaks of communal
religious violence between Hindus and Sikhs in North India, between
Tamil Hindus and Sri Lankan Buddhists in Sri Lanka, between Tamil
extremists and moderates in Tamil Nadu, and between Hindus and Muslims
everywhere.
The adaptability of Hinduism to changing conditions is illustrated by
the appearance in the Hindu pantheon of a new divinity, of special
utility in an acquisitive society. This is the goddess Santosi Mata,
first worshipped widely by women in many cities of Uttar Pradesh and now
worshipped throughout India, largely as the result of a popular
mythological film about her birth and the origin of her worship. The new
goddess was unheard-of a few years ago and has no basis in any Puranic
myth. Propitiated by comparatively simple and inexpensive rites
performed in the home without the intervention of a priest, Santosi, it
is believed, grants practical and obvious blessings, such as a promotion
for an overworked husband or a new household appliance. News of
Santosi’s blessings is passed from housewife to housewife, and even
moderately well-educated women have become her devotees.
On both the intellectual and the popular level, Hinduism is thus in
the process of adapting itself to new values and new conditions brought
about by mass education and industrialization. In these respects it is
responding to 21st-century challenges.
The history of Hinduism » The modern period (19th–21st century) »
Hinduism outside India
Since the latter part of the 19th century, large Hindu communities have
been established in East Africa, Malaysia, the islands of the Pacific
Ocean and the Indian Ocean, and some islands of the West Indies. Members
of these communities have adhered to their religion faithfully for
several generations. In the late 20th century they were aided by Hindu
missionaries, chiefly from the Arya Samaj or the Ramakrishna Mission.
Since World War II many Hindus have also settled in the United Kingdom,
and after 1965 many began settling in the United States. Although the
earliest migrants were comparatively uneducated, many of the émigrés of
the late 20th century were highly skilled and well-educated
professionals.
Contemporary Western culture is ready to accept Eastern religious
ideas in a way that is unprecedented since the days of the Roman Empire.
A recent manifestation of the spread of Indian religious attitudes in
the Western world is the Hare Krishna movement, officially known as the
International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), with its
principal office in Los Angeles. This is essentially a bhakti movement,
broadly following the precedents of Caitanya (1485–1533), a mystic poet
and worshipper of Krishna whose practices have influenced devotional
Hinduism. Since its foundation by a Hindu sannyasin (wandering ascetic),
A.C. Bhaktivedanta (Prabhupada), in 1965, its growth has been
surprising, and sankirtana (devotional singing and dancing) can be seen
in the streets of New York City and London, performed by young men and
women from Christian or Jewish homes wearing dhotis and saris. These
manifestations are part of a process that began in 1784 with the first
English translation of a Hindu religious text, Charles Wilkins’s version
of the Bhagavadgita.
Hinduism is not by nature a proselytizing religion, however, in part
because of its inextricable roots in the social system and the land of
India. In the late 20th century many new gurus, such as Bhagwan Shree
Rajneesh and Satya Sai Baba, were successful in making converts in
Europe and the United States. The very success of these gurus, however,
has produced material profits that many people regard as incompatible
with the ascetic attitude appropriate to a Hindu spiritual leader; in
some cases, the profits have led to notoriety and even legal
prosecution. That Hinduism is flourishing in India is obvious; that it
has made, and can continue to make, a genuine contribution to Western
religious thought is undeniable; that the invasion of the gurus is a
part of that contribution is highly debatable.
In the early 21st century the Hindu diaspora in the United States has
greatly increased in a number of cities, and wealthy Hindu communities
have built large temples and endowed chairs in South Asian studies at
major universities. Local Hindu organizations have brought pressure on
schools to change the presentation of Hinduism in history textbooks.
Internet listserves and blogs have forged ties between Hindus throughout
the country, and globalization, which once meant the influence of
American culture on Hindus in India, has now reversed its flow, with
Yoga teachers, Bollywood movies, and a new generation of gurus such as
Anandamayi Ma bringing a particular brand of Hinduism to the United
States.
Arthur Llewellyn Basham
J.A.B. van Buitenen
Wendy Doniger
Sacred texts » Vedas » Importance of the Vedas
The Vedas (“Knowledge”) are the oldest Hindu texts. Hindus regard the
Vedas as having been directly revealed to or “heard” by gifted and
inspired seers (rishis) who memorized them in the most perfect human
language, Sanskrit. Although most of the religion of the Vedic texts,
which revolves around rituals of fire sacrifice, has been eclipsed by
later Hindu doctrines and practices, even today, as it has been for
several millennia, parts of the Vedas are memorized and repeated as a
religious act of great merit: certain Vedic hymns (mantras) are always
recited at traditional weddings and at ceremonies for the dead.
Sacred texts » Vedas » The components of the Vedas
The Vedas represent the particular interests of two classes of ancient
Indian society, the priests (Brahmans) and the warrior-kings
(Kshatriyas), who together ruled over the far more numerous peasants
(Vaishyas).
Vedic literature ranges from the Rigveda (c. 1500 bce) to the
Upanishads (c. 1000–600 bce) and provides the primary documentation for
Indian religion before Buddhism and the early texts of classical
Hinduism. The most important texts are the four collections (Samhitas)
known as the Veda or Vedas: the Rigveda (“Wisdom of the Verses”), the
Yajurveda (“Wisdom of the Sacrificial Formulas”), the Samaveda (“Wisdom
of the Chants”), and the Atharvaveda (“Wisdom of the Atharvan Priests”).
Of these, the Rigveda is the oldest.
In the Vedic texts following these earliest compilations—the
Brahmanas (discussions of the ritual), Aranyakas (“Books of the
Forest”), and Upanishads (secret teachings concerning cosmic
equations)—the interest in the early Rigvedic gods wanes, and these
deities become little more than accessories to the Vedic rite.
Polytheism begins to be replaced by the sacrificial pantheism of
Prajapati (“Lord of Creatures”), who is the All. In the Upanishads,
Prajapati merges with the concept of brahman, the supreme reality and
substance of the universe (not to be confused with the Hindu god
Brahma), replacing any specific personification and framing the
mythology with abstract philosophy.
The entire corpus of Vedic literature—the Samhitas, Brahmanas,
Aranyakas, and Upanishads—constitutes the revealed scripture of
Hinduism, or the Shruti (“Heard”). All other works—in which the actual
doctrines and practices of Hindus are encoded—are recognized as having
been composed by human authors and are thus classed as Smriti
(“Remembered”). The categorization of the Vedas, however, is capable of
elasticity. First, the Shruti is not exactly closed; Upanishads, for
example, have been composed until recent times. Second, the texts
categorized as Smriti inevitably claim to be in accord with the
authoritative Shruti and thus worthy of the same respect and sacredness.
For Hindus, the Vedas symbolize unchallenged authority and tradition.
Sacred texts » Vedas » The Rigveda
The religion reflected in the Rigveda is polytheistic and mainly
concerned with the propitiation of divinities associated with the sky
and the atmosphere. Of these, the Indo-European sky god Dyaus was little
regarded. More important were such gods as Indra (chief of the gods),
Varuna (guardian of the cosmic order), Agni (the sacrificial fire), and
Surya (the Sun).
The main ritual activity referred to in the Rigveda is the soma
sacrifice. Soma was a hallucinogenic beverage prepared from a
now-unknown plant; it has been suggested that the plant was a mushroom
and that later another plant was substituted for that agaric fungus,
which had become difficult to obtain. The Rigveda contains a few clear
references to animal sacrifice, which probably became more widespread
later. There is some doubt whether the priests formed a separate social
class at the beginning of the Rigvedic period, but, even if they did,
the prevailingly loose boundaries of class allowed a man of nonpriestly
parentage to become a priest. By the end of the period, however, the
priests had come to form a separate class of specialists, the Brahmans,
who claimed superiority over all the other social classes, including the
Rajanyas (later Kshatriyas), the warrior class.
The Rigveda contains little about birth rituals but does address at
greater length the rites of marriage and disposal of the dead, which
were basically the same as in later Hinduism. Marriage was an
indissoluble bond cemented by a lengthy and solemn ritual centring on
the domestic hearth. Although other forms were practiced, the main
funeral rite of the rich was cremation. One hymn, describing cremation
rites, shows that the wife of the dead man lay down beside him on the
funeral pyre but was called upon to return to the land of the living
before it was lighted. This may have been a survival from an earlier
period when the wife was actually cremated with her husband.
Among other features of Rigvedic religious life that were important
for later generations were the munis, who apparently were trained in
various magic arts and believed to be capable of supernatural feats,
such as levitation. They were particularly associated with the god
Rudra, a deity connected with mountains and storms and more feared than
loved. Rudra developed into the Hindu god Shiva, and his prestige
increased steadily. The same is true of Vishnu, a minor solar deity in
the Rigveda, who later became one of the most important and popular
divinities of Hinduism.
One of the favourite myths of the Vedas attributed the origin of the
cosmos to the god Indra after he had slain the great dragon Vritra, a
myth very similar to one known in early Mesopotamia. With time, such
tales were replaced by more-abstract theories that are reflected in
several hymns of the 10th book of the Rigveda. These speculative
tendencies were among the earliest attempts of Indian philosophers to
reduce all things to a single basic principle.
Sacred texts » Vedas » Elaborations of text and ritual: the later Vedas
The chronology of later Vedic developments is not known with any
precision, but it probably encompasses the period from 1000 to 500 bce,
which are the dates of the Painted Gray Ware strata in the
archaeological sites of the western Ganges valley. These excavations
reflect a culture still without writing but showing considerable
advances in civilization. Little, however, has been discovered from
sites of this period that throws much light on the religious situation,
and historians still must rely on the following texts to describe this
phase of the religion.
Sacred texts » Vedas » Elaborations of text and ritual: the later
Vedas » The Yajurveda and Samaveda
The Yajurveda and Samaveda are completely subordinate to the liturgy.
The Yajurveda contains the lines, usually in brief prose, with which the
executive priest (adhvaryu) accompanies his ritual activities,
addressing the implements he handles and the offering he pours and
admonishing other priests to do their invocations. The Samaveda is a
collection of verses from the Rigveda (and a few new ones) that were
chanted with certain fixed melodies.
Sacred texts » Vedas » Elaborations of text and ritual: the later
Vedas » The Atharvaveda
The Atharvaveda stands apart from other Vedic texts. It contains both
hymns and prose passages and is divided into 20 books. Books 1–7 contain
magical prayers for precise purposes: spells for a long life, cures,
curses, love charms, prayers for prosperity, charms for kingship and
Brahmanhood, and expiations for evil actions. They reflect the
magical-religious concerns of everyday life and are on a different level
than the Rigveda, which glorifies the great gods and their liturgy.
Books 8–12 contain similar texts but also include cosmological hymns
that continue those of the Rigveda and provide a transition to the
more-complex speculations of the Upanishads. Books 13–20 celebrate the
cosmic principle (book 13) and present marriage prayers (book 14),
funeral formulas (book 18), and other magical and ritual formulas. This
text is an extremely important source of information for practical
religion, particularly where it complements the Rigveda. Many rites are
also laid down in the Kausika-sutra (the manual of the Kausika family of
priests) of the Atharvaveda.
Sacred texts » Vedas » The Brahmanas and Aranyakas
Attached to each Samhita was a collection of explanations of religious
rites, called a Brahmana, which often relied on mythology to describe
the origins and importance of individual ritual acts. Although not
manuals or handbooks in the manner of the later Shrauta-sutras, the
Brahmanas do contain details about the performance and meaning of Vedic
sacrificial rituals and are invaluable sources of information about
Vedic religion.
In these texts the sacrifice is the centre of cosmic processes, human
concerns, and religious desires and goals. Through the merit of offering
sacrifices, karma is generated that creates for the one who sacrifices a
rebirth after death in heaven (“in the next world”). Ritual was thought
to have effects on the visible and invisible worlds because of
homologies, or connections (bandhus), that lie between the components of
the ritual and corresponding parts of the universe. The universalization
of the dynamics of the ritual into the dynamics of the cosmos was
depicted as the sacrifice of the primordial deity, Prajapati (“Lord of
Creatures”), who was perpetually regenerated by the sacrifice.
The lengthy series of rituals of the royal consecration, the
rajasuya, emphasized royal power and endowed the king with a divine
charisma, raising him, at least for the duration of the ceremony, to the
status of a god. Typical of this period was the elaborate ashvamedha,
the horse sacrifice, in which a consecrated horse was freed and allowed
to wander at will for a year; it was always followed by the king’s
troops, who defended it from all attack until it was brought back to the
royal capital and sacrificed in a very complicated ritual.
Vedic cosmic-sacrificial speculations continued in the Aranyakas
(“Books of the Forest”), which contain materials of two kinds:
Brahmana-like discussions of rites not believed to be suitable for the
village (hence the name “forest”) and continuing visions of the
relationship between sacrifice, universe, and humanity. The word
brahman—the creative power of the ritual utterances, which denotes the
creativeness of the sacrifice and underlies ritual and, therefore,
cosmic order—is prominent in these texts.
Sacred texts » Vedas » Vedic religion » Cosmogony and cosmology
Vedic literature contains different but not exclusive accounts of the
origin of the universe. The simplest is that the creator built the
universe with timber as a carpenter builds a house. Hence, there are
many references to gods measuring the different worlds as parts of one
edifice: atmosphere upon earth, heaven upon atmosphere. Creation may be
viewed as procreation: the personified heaven, Dyaus, impregnates the
earth goddess, Prithivi, with rain, causing crops to grow on her. Quite
another myth is recorded in the last (10th) book of the Rigveda: the
Hymn of the Cosmic Man (Purushasukta) explains that the universe was
created out of the parts of the body of a single cosmic man (Purusha)
when his body was immolated and dismembered at the primordial sacrifice.
The four classes (varnas) of Indian society also came from his body: the
priest (Brahman) emerging from the mouth, the warrior (Kshatriya) from
the arms, the peasant (Vaishya) from the thighs, and the servant (Sudra)
from the feet. The Purushasukta represents the beginning of a new phase
in which the sacrifice became more important and elaborate as
cosmological and social philosophies were constructed around it.
In the same book of the Rigveda, mythology begins to be transformed
into philosophy; for example, “In the beginning was the nonexistent,
from which the existent arose.” Even the reality of the nonexistent is
questioned: “Then there was neither the nonexistent nor the existent.”
Such cosmogonic speculations continue, particularly in the older
Upanishads. Originally there was nothing at all, or Hunger, which then,
to sate itself, created the world as its food. Alternatively, the
creator creates himself in the universe by an act of self-recognition,
self-formulation, or self-formation. Or the one creator grows “as big as
a man and a woman embracing” (Brihadalanyaka Upanishad) and splits into
man and woman, and in various transformations the couple create other
creatures. In one of the last stages of this line of thought (Chandogya
Upanishad), the following account became fundamental to the ontology of
the philosophical schools of Vedanta: in the beginning was the Existent,
or brahman, which, through heaven, earth, and atmosphere (the triadic
space) and the three seasons of summer, rains, and harvest (the triadic
time), produced the entire universe.
As indicated in these accounts, the Vedic texts generally regarded
the universe as three layers of worlds (loka): heaven, atmosphere, and
earth. Heaven is that part of the universe where the sun shines and is
correlated with sun, fire, and ether; the atmosphere is that part of the
sky between heaven and earth where the clouds insert themselves in the
rainy season and is correlated with water and wind; earth, a flat disk,
like a wheel, is here below as the “holder of treasure” (vasumdhara) and
giver of food. In addition to this tripartite pattern, there is an
ancient notion of duality in which heaven is masculine and father and
earth is feminine and mother. Later texts present the conception that
the universe was formed by combinations and permutations of five
elements: ether-space (akasha), wind (vayu), fire (agni), water (apas),
and earth (bhumi).
Sacred texts » Vedas » Vedic religion » Theology
Generally speaking, Vedic gods share many characteristics: several of
them (Indra, Varuna, Vishnu) are said to have created the universe, set
the sun in the sky, and propped apart heaven and earth. All the gods are
susceptible to human praise. Some major gods were clearly
personifications of natural phenomena, and these deities assumed no
clearly delineated personalities.
The three most frequently invoked gods are Indra, Agni, and Soma.
Indra, the foremost god of the Vedic pantheon, is a god of war and rain.
Agni (a cognate of the Latin ignis) is the deified fire, particularly
the fire of sacrifice, and Soma is the deified intoxicating or
hallucinogenic drink of the sacrifice, or the plant from which it is
pressed; neither is greatly personified.
The principal focus of Vedic literature is the sacrifice, which in
its simplest form can be viewed as a ritualized banquet to which a god
is invited to partake of a meal shared by the sacrificer and his priest.
The invocations mention, often casually, the past exploits of the deity.
The offered meal gives strength to the deity so that he may repeat his
feats and give aid to the sacrificer.
The myth of Indra killing the dragon Vritra has many levels of
meaning. Vritra prevents the monsoon rains from breaking. The monsoon is
the greatest single factor in Indian agriculture, and thus the event
celebrated in this myth impinges on every Indian’s life. In the social
circles represented in the Rigveda, however, the myth is cast in a
warrior mold, and the breaking of the monsoon is viewed as a cosmic
battle. The entire monsoon complex is involved: Indra is the lord of the
winds, the gales that accompany the monsoon; his weapons are lightning
and thunderbolt, with which he lays Vritra low. To accomplish this feat,
he must be strengthened with soma. Simultaneously, he is also the god of
war and is invoked to defeat the non-Vedic dasyus, the indigenous
peoples referred to in the Vedas. These important concerns—the
promptness and abundance of the rains, success in warfare, and the
conquest of the land—all find their focus in Indra.
Because the Vedic gods were not fully anthropomorphic, their
functions were subject to various applications and interpretations. In
the view of the noble patrons of the Vedic poets, Indra, the greatest
and most anthropomorphic god of the early Vedas, was primarily a warrior
god who could be invoked to bring booty and victory. Agriculturalists
and hunters emphasized Indra’s fecundity, celebrating his festivals to
produce fertility, welfare, and happiness. Indra, however, was
essentially a representative of useful force in nature and the cosmos;
he was the great champion of an ordered and habitable world. His
repeated victories over Vritra, the representative of obstruction and
chaos, resulted in the separation of heaven and earth (the support of
the former and the stabilization of the latter), the rise of the sun,
and the release of the waters—in short, the organization of the
universe.
Although morality is not an issue in Indra’s myth, it plays a role in
those of the other principal Vedic deities. Central to ancient morality
was the notion of rita, which appears to have been the fidelity with
which the alliances between humans (and between humans and the gods)
were observed—a quality necessary for the preservation of the physical
and moral order of the universe. Varuna, an older sovereign god,
presides over the observance of rita with Mitra (related to the Persian
god Mithra). Thus, Varuna is a judge before whom a mortal may stand
guilty, while Indra is a king who may support a mortal monarch. Typical
requests that are made of Varuna are for forgiveness, for deliverance
from evil committed by oneself or others, and for protection; Indra is
prayed to for bounty, for aid against enemies, and for leadership
against demons and dasyus.
Distinct from both is Agni, the fire, who is observed in various
manifestations: in the sacrificial fire, in lightning, and hidden in the
logs used in fires. As the fire of sacrifice, he is the mouth of the
gods and the carrier of the oblation, the mediator between the human and
the divine orders. Agni is above all the good friend of the Vedic
people, who prayed to him to strike down and burn their enemies and to
mediate between gods and humans.
Among other Vedic gods, only a few stand out. One is Vishnu, who
seems more important perhaps in retrospect because of later developments
associated with him. He is famous for the three strides with which he
traversed the universe, thus creating and possessing it. This
pervasiveness, which invites identification with other gods, is
characteristic of his later mythology. His function as helper to the
conqueror-god Indra is important.
Impersonality is increased by the prevalence of pairs and groups of
gods. Thus, Varuna and Mitra are members of the group of Adityas (sons
of Aditi, an old progenitrix), who generally are celestial gods. They
are also combined in the double god Mitra-Varuna. Indra and Vishnu are
combined as Indra-Vishnu. There is also Rudra, an ambivalent god who is
dreaded for his unpredictable attacks (though he can be persuaded not to
attack); Rudra is also a healer responsible for 1,000 remedies. Although
there are many demons (rakshasas), no one god embodies the evil spirit;
rather, many gods have their devil within, inspiring fear as well as
trust.
Among the perpetually beneficent gods are the Ashvins (horsemen),
helpers and healers who often visit the needy. Almost otiose is the
personified heaven, Dyaus, who most often appears as the sky or as day.
As a person, he is coupled with Earth (as Dyava-Prithivi) as a father;
Earth by herself is more predominantly known as Mother (Matri). Apart
from Earth, the other goddess of importance in the text of the Rigveda
is Ushas (Dawn), who brings in the day and thus brings forth the Sun.
In the later Vedic period the significance of the Rigvedic gods and
their myths began to wane. The peculiar theism of the Rigveda—in which
any one of several different gods might be hailed as supreme and the
attributes of one god could be transferred to another (called
“kathenotheism” by the Vedic scholar Max Müller)—stressed godhead more
than individual gods. In the end this led to a pantheism of Prajapati,
the deified sacrifice or the ritualized deity, who, with his consort
Vach, the speech of ritual recitation, is said to have begotten the
world.
During the Vedic period, Purusha fused with the figure Narayana
(“Scion of Man”) and with Prajapati (“Lord of Creatures”). In the
speculative thought of the ritualists, Prajapati emerged as the creator
god and in many respects as the highest divinity—the One, the All, or
Totality. He was the immortal father even of the gods, whom he
transcends, encompasses, and molds into one complex. By a process of
emanation and self-differentiation (by dividing himself), Prajapati
created all beings and the universe. After this creation, Prajapati
became the disintegrated and differentiated All of the phenomenal world
and was exhausted. By means of a rite, he then reintegrated himself to
prepare for a new phase of creativity. Because the purpose of a sacred
rite is the restitution of the organic structural norm, which ensures
the ordered functioning of the universe, Prajapati’s rite was regarded
as the prototype for all Vedic and Hindu rites. Thus, by performing the
rite, those offering sacrifice to Prajapati may temporarily restore
oneness and totality within themselves and within the universe.
Sacred texts » Vedas » Vedic religion » Ethical and social doctrines
In Vedic times, sin (enas) or evil (papman) was associated with illness,
enmity, distress, or malediction; it was conceived of as a sort of
pollution that could be neutralized by ritual or other devices. An
individual could incur sin by improper behaviour, especially improper
speech. Thus, one could be guilty of anrita—i.e., infidelity to fact, or
departure from what is true and real or from what constitutes the
established order—whether or not one had deliberately committed a crime.
Other transgressions included making mistakes in sacrifices and coming
into contact with corpses, ritually impure persons, or persons belonging
to the lower classes of society. These acts were only rarely considered
to be misdeeds against a god or violations of moral principles of divine
origin, and the consciousness of guilt was much rarer than the fear of
the evil consequences of sin, such as disease or untimely death.
Sometimes, however, a god (Agni, the evil-devouring fire, or Varuna, the
god of order, whose role included punishing and fettering the “sinner”)
was invoked to forgive the neglect or transgression or to release the
sinner from its concrete results. More usually, however, these results
were abrogated by means of purifications, such as the ceremonial use of
water, and a variety of expiatory rites.
The pure who earned ritual merits hoped to win a safe world (loka) or
condition. The meticulous effort to purify oneself from every evil also
involved shanti, the observance of various customs regarding the
avoidance of inauspicious occurrences. Ritual purity was the principal
concern of the compilers of the manuals of dharma (religious law), which
have contributed much to the special character of Hinduism. According to
the authorities on dharma, ritual purity is the first approach to
dharma, the resting place of the Vedas (brahman), the abode of
prosperity (shri), the favourite of the gods, and the means of clearing
(soothing) the mind and of seeing (realizing) the atman in the body.
Sacred texts » Vedas » Vedic religion » The sacred: nature, humanity,
and God
The Vedic poets were convinced that the world is an organized cosmos
governed by order and truth and that it is always in danger of being
damaged or destroyed by the powers of chaos (asat). This conviction
inspired the performance of rituals to preserve the order of the
universe, and it found mythological expression in the continual conflict
between gods (devas) and antigods (asuras).
Gods were conceived as presiding over certain provinces of the
universe or as being responsible for cosmic or social phenomena. Their
deeds are timeless and exemplary presentations of mythic events replete
with power and universal significance. To retain their vitality and
efficacy, mythical events need to be repeated—that is, celebrated and
confirmed by means of the spoken word and ritual acts.
Sacred texts » Vedas » Vedic religion » Vedic and Brahmanic rites
Vedic religion is primarily a liturgy differentiated in various types of
ritual, which are described in the sacred texts in great detail and are
designed for almost any purpose. In these rites, theoretically, no
operation, no gesture, no formula is meaningless or left to an
officiant’s discretion. The often complicated ritual technique, based on
an equally complicated speculative system of thought, was devised mainly
to safeguard human life and survival, to enable people to face the many
risks and dangers of existence, to thwart the designs of human and
superhuman enemies that cannot be counteracted by ordinary means, to
control the unseen powers, and to establish and maintain beneficial
relations with the supramundane sacred order. Belief in the efficacy of
the rites is the natural consequence of the belief that all things and
events are connected with or participate in one another.
Another characteristic of Vedic religion is the belief that there is
a close correspondence between sacred places—such as the sacrificial
place of many Vedic rites, a place of pilgrimage, or a consecrated
area—and provinces of the universe or even the universe itself. In such
places, direct communication with other cosmic regions (heaven or
underworld) is possible, because they are said to be at the point of
contact between this world and the “pillar of the universe”—the “navel
of the earth.” The sacred place is understood as identical to the
universe in its various states of emanation from, reabsorption into,
integration with, and disintegration from the sacred. This idea has as
its corollary the possibility of ritually enacting the cosmic drama and,
thus, of influencing those events in the cosmos that continuously affect
human weal and woe.
The Vedic ritual system is organized into three main forms. The
simplest, and hierarchically inferior, type of Vedic ritualism is the
grihya, or domestic ritual, in which the householder offers modest
oblations into the sacred household fire. The more ambitious, wealthy,
and powerful married householder sets three or five fires and, with the
help of professional officiants, engages in the more complex shrauta
sacrifices. These require oblations of vegetable substances and, in some
instances, of parts of ritually killed animals (mostly goats but also
sheep, cows, horses, and perhaps at one time human beings as well). At
the highest level of Vedic ritualism are the soma sacrifices, which can
continue for days or even years and whose intricacies and complexities
are truly stunning.
In the major shrauta rites, requiring three fires and 16 priests or
more, “the man who knows”—the person with insight into the
correspondences (bandhu) between the mundane and cosmic phenomena and
the eternal transcendent reality beyond them and who knows the meaning
of the ritual words and acts—may, it is believed, set great cosmic
processes in motion for the benefit of humanity. In these rites, Brahman
officiants repeat the mythic drama for the benefit of their patron, the
“sacrificer,” who temporarily becomes its centre and realizes through
ritual symbolism his identity with the universe. Such officiants are
convinced of the efficacy of their rites: “the sun would not rise, were
he [the officiant] not to make that offering; this is why he performs
it” (Shatapatha Brahmana). The oblations should not be used to
propitiate the gods or to thank them for favours bestowed, since the
efficacy of the rites, some of which are still occasionally performed,
does not depend on the will of the gods.
Sacred texts » Vedas » The Upanishads
With the last component of the Vedas, the mystically oriented and
esoteric texts known as the Upanishads (traditionally and literally
“sitting near a teacher” but more commonly understood as “connection” or
“equivalence”), Vedic ritualism and the doctrine of the
interconnectedness of separate phenomena were superseded by a new
emphasis on knowledge alone—primarily knowledge of the ultimate identity
of all phenomena, which merely appeared to be separate. The beginnings
of philosophy and mysticism in Indian religious history occurred during
the period of the compilation of the Upanishads, roughly between 700 and
500 bce. Historically, the most important of the Upanishads are the two
oldest, the Brihadaranyaka (“Great Forest Text”; c. 10th–5th century
bce) and the Chandogya (pertaining to the Chandogas, priests who intone
hymns at sacrifices), both of which are compilations that record the
traditions of sages (rishis) of the period—notably Yajnavalkya, who was
a pioneer of new religious ideas.
The Upanishads reveal the desire to obtain the mystical knowledge
that ensures freedom from “re-death.” Throughout the later Vedic period,
the idea that the world of heaven is not the end of existence—and that
even in heaven death is inevitable—became increasingly common. Vedic
thinkers became concerned about the impermanence of religious merit and
its loss in the hereafter, as well as about the transience of any form
of existence after death—an existence that would culminate in the
much-feared re-death (punarmrityu). The means of escaping and conquering
death devised in the Brahmanas were of a ritual nature, but one of the
oldest Upanishads, the Brihadaranyaka, emphasized the knowledge of the
cosmic connection underlying ritual. When the doctrine of the identity
of atman (the self) and brahman was established in the Upanishads, those
sages who were inclined to meditative thought substituted the true
knowledge of the self and the realization of this identity for the
ritual method.
In subsequent centuries the main theories concerned with the divine
essence underlying the world were harmonized and synthetically combined.
The tendency of these theories was to extol one god as the supreme lord
and originator (Ishvara)—at once Purusha and Prajapati and brahman and
the self of all beings. For those who worshipped him, he was the goal of
identificatory meditation, which leads to complete cessation of
phenomenal existence and becomes the refuge of those who seek eternal
peace. The Advaita Vedanta philosopher and theologian Shankara (8th
century ce) exercised enormous influence on subsequent Hindu thinking
through his elegant synthesis of the nontheistic and theistic aspects of
Upanishadic teaching. In his commentaries on several of the Upanishads,
he distinguished between brahman nirguna (without attributes) and
brahman saguna (with attributes). His was a monistic teaching that
stressed that brahman saguna was a lesser, temporary form of brahman
nirguna. He taught also that the self (atman) is identical with brahman
nirguna and that through knowledge of this unity the cycle of rebirth
can be broken.
The Upanishads were composed during a time of much social, political,
and economic upheaval. Rural tribal society was disappearing, and the
adjustments of the people to urban living under a monarchy probably
provoked many psychological and religious responses. During this period
many groups of mystics, world renouncers, and forest dwellers appeared
in India, among whom were the authors of the Upanishads. The most
important practices and doctrines of these world renouncers included
asceticism and the concept of rebirth, or transmigration.
The Rigveda contains few examples of asceticism, except among the
munis (shamans). The Atharvaveda describes another class of religious
adepts, or specialists, the vratyas, particularly associated with the
region of Magadha (west-central Bihar). The vratya was a wandering
hierophant (one who manifested the holy) who remained outside the system
of Vedic religion. He practiced flagellation and other forms of
self-mortification and traveled from place to place in a bullock cart
with an apprentice and with a woman who appears to have engaged in
ritual prostitution. The Brahmans sought to bring the vratyas into the
Vedic system by special conversion rituals, and it may be that the
vratyas introduced their own beliefs and practices into Vedic religion.
At the same time, the more-complex sacrifices of the later Vedic period
demanded purificatory rituals, such as fasting and vigil, as part of the
preparations for the ceremony. Thus, there was a growing tendency toward
the mortification of the flesh.
The origin and the development of the belief in the transmigration of
souls are very obscure. A few passages suggest that this doctrine was
known even in the days of the Rigveda, and the Brahmanas often refer to
doctrines of re-death and rebirth, but it was first clearly propounded
in the earliest Upanishad—the Brihadaranyka. There it is stated that the
soul of a Vedic sacrificer returns to earth and is reborn in human or
animal form. This doctrine of samsara (reincarnation) is attributed to
the sage Uddalaka Aruni, who is said to have learned it from a Kshatriya
chief. In the same text, the doctrine of karma (“actions”), according to
which the soul achieves a happy or unhappy rebirth according to its
works in the previous life, occurs for the first time and is attributed
to the theologian Yajnavalkya. Both doctrines seem to have been new,
circulating among small groups of ascetics who were disinclined to make
them public, perhaps for fear of the orthodox priests. These doctrines
must have spread rapidly, for they appear in the later Upanishads and in
the earliest Buddhist and Jain scriptures.
Sacred texts » Sutras, shastras, and smritis » The Vedangas
Toward the end of the Vedic period, and more or less simultaneously with
the production of the principal Upanishads, concise, technical, and
usually aphoristic texts were composed about various subjects relating
to the proper and timely performance of the Vedic sacrificial rituals.
These were eventually labeled Vedangas (“Studies Accessory to the
Veda”).
The preoccupation with the liturgy gave rise to scholarly disciplines
that were part of Vedic erudition. There were six such fields: (1)
shiksa (instruction), which explains the proper articulation and
pronunciation of the Vedic texts—different branches had different ways
of pronouncing the texts, and these variations were recorded in
pratishakhyas (literally, “instructions for the shakhas” [“branches”]),
four of which are extant—(2) chandas (metre), of which there remains
only one late representative; (3) vyakarana (analysis and derivation),
in which the language is grammatically described—Panni’s grammar (c. 400
bce) and the pratishakhyas are the oldest examples of this
discipline—(4) nirukta (lexicon), which discusses and defines difficult
words, represented by the Nirukta of Yaska (c. 600 bce), (5) jyotisa
(luminaries), a system of astronomy and astrology used to determine the
right times for rituals, and (6) kalpa (mode of performance), which
studies the correct ways of performing the ritual.
The texts constituting the Kalpa-sutras (collections of aphorisms on
the mode of ritual performance) are of special importance. The
composition of these texts was begun about 600 bce by Brahmans belonging
to the ritual schools (shakhas), each of which was attached to a
particular recension of one of the four Vedas. A complete Kalpa-sutra
contains four principal components: (1) a Shrauta-sutra, which
establishes the rules for performing the more complex rituals of the
Vedic repertoire, (2) a Shulba-sutra, which shows how to make the
geometric calculations necessary for the proper construction of the
ritual arena, (3) a Grihya-sutra, which explains the rules for
performing the domestic rites, including the life-cycle rituals (called
the samskaras), and (4) a Dharma-sutra, which provides the rules for the
conduct of life.
Society was ritually stratified in the four classes, each of which
had its own dharma (law). The ideal life was constructed through
sacraments in the course of numerous ceremonies, performed by the upper
classes, that carried the individual from conception to cremation in a
series of complex rites. The Grihya-sutras show that in the popular
religion of the time there were many minor deities who are rarely
mentioned in the literature of the large-scale sacrifices but who were
probably far more influential on the lives of most people than were the
great Vedic gods.
Sacred texts » Sutras, shastras, and smritis » Dharma-sutras and
Dharma-shastras
Among the texts inspired by the Vedas are the Dharma-sutras, or “manuals
on dharma,” which contain rules of conduct and rites as they were
practiced in various Vedic schools. Their principal contents address the
duties of people at different stages of life, or ashramas (studenthood,
householdership, retirement, and renunciation); dietary regulations;
offenses and expiations; and the rights and duties of kings. They also
discuss purification rites, funerary ceremonies, forms of hospitality,
and daily oblations, and they even mention juridical matters. The most
important of these texts are the sutras of Gautama, Baudhayana, and
Apastamba. Although the direct relationship is not clear, the contents
of these works were further elaborated in the more systematic
Dharma-shastras, which in turn became the basis of Hindu law.
First among them stands the Dharma-shastra of Manu, also known as the
Manu-smriti (“Tradition of Manu”; c. 200 ce), with 2,694 stanzas divided
into 12 chapters. It deals with topics such as cosmogony, the definition
of dharma, the sacraments, initiation and Vedic study, the eight forms
of marriage, hospitality and funerary rites, dietary laws, pollution and
purification, rules for women and wives, royal law, juridical matters,
pious donations, rites of reparation, the doctrine of karma, the soul,
and punishment in hell. Law in the juridical sense is thus completely
embedded in religious law and practice. The framework is provided by the
model of the four-class society. The influence of the Dharma-shastras of
Manu has been enormous, as they provided Hindu society with the basis
for its practical morality. But, for most of the Indian subcontinent, it
is the commentaries on these texts (such as Medhatithi’s 9th-century
commentary on Manu) and, even more, the local case law traditions
arising out of the commentaries that have been the law.
Second to Manu is the Dharma-shastra of Yajnavalkya; its 1,013
stanzas are distributed under the three headings of good conduct, law,
and expiation. The Mitaksara, the commentary on it by Vijnaneshvara
(11th century), has extended the influence of Yajnavalkya’s work.
Sacred texts » Sutras, shastras, and smritis » Smriti texts
The shastras are a part of the Smriti (“Remembered”; traditional)
literature which, like the sutra literature that preceded it, stresses
the religious merit of gifts to Brahmans. Because kings often
transferred the revenues of villages or groups of villages to Brahmans,
either singly or in corporate groups, the status and wealth of the
priestly class rose steadily. Living in the settlements called
agraharas, the Brahmans were encouraged to devote themselves to the
study of the Vedas and the subsidiary studies associated with them; but
many Brahmans also developed the sciences of the period, such as
mathematics, astronomy, and medicine, while others cultivated
literature.
The Smriti texts are binding to this day on orthodox Hindus, and
until quite recently Hindu family law was based on them. Although there
is evidence of divorce in early Indian history, by the Gupta period
marriage was solemnized by lengthy sacred rites and was virtually
indissoluble. Intercaste marriage became rarer and more difficult, and
child marriage and the rite of suttee (or sati; ritual suicide by fire
committed by widows) were already in existence, although less frequent
than they later became. One of the earliest definite records of a widow
burning herself on her husband’s pyre is found in an inscription from
Eran, Madhya Pradesh, dated 510, but the custom had been followed
sporadically long before this. From the 6th century ce onward, such
occurrences became more frequent, though still quite rare, in certain
parts of India, particularly in Rajasthan.
Sacred texts » Epics and Puranas
During the centuries immediately preceding and following the beginning
of the Common Era, the recension of the two great Sanskrit epics, the
Mahabharata and the Ramayana, took shape out of existing heroic epic
stories, mythology, philosophy, and above all the discussion of the
problem of dharma. Much of the material in the epics dates far back into
the Vedic period, while the rest continued to be added until well into
the medieval period. It is conventional, however, to date the recension
of the Sanskrit texts to the period from 300 bce to 300 ce for the
Mahabharata and to the period from 200 bce to 200 ce for the Ramayana.
Sacred texts » Epics and Puranas » The Mahabharata
The Mahabharata (“Great Epic of the Bharata Dynasty”), a text of some
100,000 verses attributed to the sage Vyasa, was preserved both orally
and in manuscript form for centuries. The central plot concerns a great
battle between the five sons of Pandu, called the Pandavas (Arjuna,
Yudhisthira, Bhima, and the twins Nakula and Sahadeva), and the sons of
Pandu’s brother Dhritarasta. The battle eventually leads to the
destruction of the entire clan, save for one survivor who continues the
dynasty. As each of the heroes is the son of a god (Indra, Dharma, Vayu,
and the Ashvins, respectively), the epic is deeply infused with
religious implications. Hindus regard the Mahabharata as one of the
Dharma-shastras, because many passages in it debate dilemmas posed by
dharma. Religious practice takes the form of Vedic ritual on official
occasions as well as pilgrimages and, to some extent, the adoration of
gods. Apart from the Bhagavadgita (part of book 6), much of the didactic
material is found in the Book of the Forest (book 3), in which sages
teach the exiled heroes, and in the Book of Peace (book 12), in which
the wise Bhishma expounds on religious and moral matters.
The Vedic gods lost importance in these texts and survive as figures
of folklore. Prajapati of the Upanishads is popularly personified as the
god Brahma, who creates all classes of beings and dispenses benefits. Of
far greater importance is Krishna. In the epic he is a hero, a leader of
his people, and an active helper of his friends. His biography as it is
known later is not worked out; still, the text is the source of the
early worship of Krishna. Not everywhere, and certainly not by everyone,
is Krishna considered a god, and, even as a god, he has, strictly
speaking, superhuman rather than divine stature. He is occasionally, but
not significantly, identified with Vishnu. Later, as one of the most
important of the incarnations of Vishnu, Krishna undergoes a complex
development as an incarnate god. In the Mahabharata he is primarily a
hero, a chieftain of a tribe, and an ally of the Pandavas, the heroes of
the Mahabharata. He accomplishes heroic feats with the Pandava prince
Arjuna. Typically, he helps the Pandava brothers to settle in their
kingdom and, when the kingdom is taken from them, to regain it. In the
process he emerges as a great teacher who reveals the Bhagavadgita, the
most important religious text of Hinduism, in which he also reveals his
own status as the supreme god. In the further development of the Krishna
myth, this dharmic aspect recedes and makes way for an idyllic myth
about Krishna’s boyhood, when he plays with and loves young cowherd
women (gopis) in the village while hiding from an uncle who threatens to
kill him. The influence of this theme on art has been profound. But
there is a shadowy side to this idyll. Even in the Mahabharata, where it
is often said that Krishna becomes incarnate in order to sustain dharma
when it wanes and to combat adharma (forces contrary to dharma), he
commits a number of deeds that violate the warrior ethic and is
indirectly responsible for the destruction of his entire family. This
adharmic shadow is also cast in the Puranic idyll, since the gopis that
he woos are the wives of other men.
More remote than the instantly accessible Krishna is Shiva, who also
is hailed as the supreme god in several myths, notably the story of the
five Indras, Arjuna’s battle with Shiva, and Shiva’s destruction of the
sacrifice of Daksha. The epic is rich in information about sacred
places, and it is clear that making pilgrimages and bathing in sacred
rivers constituted an important part of religious life. Numerous
descriptions of pilgrimages (tirthayatra) give the authors opportunities
to detail local myths and legends, and countless edifying stories shed
light on the religious and moral concerns of the age.
Sacred texts » Epics and Puranas » The Ramayana
The narrative of Rama is recounted in the Sanskrit epic the Ramayana,
traditionally regarded as the work of the sage Valmiki. Rama is deprived
of the kingdom to which he is heir and is exiled to the forest with his
wife Sita and his brother Lakshmana. While there, Sita is abducted by
Ravana, the demon king of Lanka. In their search for Sita, the brothers
ally themselves with a monkey king whose general, the monkey god
Hanuman, finds Sita in Lanka. In a cosmic battle, Ravana is defeated and
Sita rescued. When Rama is restored to his kingdom, the populace casts
doubt on whether Sita remained chaste while a captive. To reassure them,
Rama banishes Sita to a hermitage, where she bears him two sons;
eventually she reenters the earth from which she had been born. Rama’s
reign becomes the prototype of the harmonious and just kingdom, to which
all kings should aspire. Rama and Sita set the ideal of conjugal love;
and Rama and Lakshmana represent perfect fraternal love. Everything in
the myth is designed for harmony, which after being disrupted is at last
regained.
The Ramayana identifies Rama as another incarnation of Vishnu and
remains the principal source for the worship of Rama. Though not as long
as the Mahabharata, the Ramayana contains a great deal of religious
material in the form of myths, stories of great sages, and accounts of
exemplary human behaviour.
The story of Rama, like that of Krishna, also has a shadowy side.
Rama’s killing of the monkey king Valin (or Balin) in violation of all
rules of combat and his banishment of the innocent Sita are troublesome
to subsequent tradition. These problems of the “subtlety” of dharma and
the inevitability of its violation, central themes in both epics,
remained the locus of considerable argument throughout Indian history,
both at the level of abstract philosophy and in local performance
traditions. In Kerala, men of the low-ranking artisan caste worship
Valin through rites of dance-possession that implicitly protest their
ancestors’ deaths as soldiers conscripted by high-caste leaders such as
Rama. Women performers throughout India have emphasized Sita’s story—her
foundling infancy, her abduction by Ravana, her trial by fire, her
childbirth in exile—thereby openly challenging Rama. In the words of a
Bengali women’s song, “Five months pregnant, Sita was in the royal
palace, and a heartless Rama sent her off to the forest!”
Apart from their influence as Sanskrit texts, the Mahabharata and the
Ramayana have made an impact in South and Southeast Asia, where their
stories have been continually retold in vernacular and oral versions,
and their influence on Indian and Southeast Asian art has been profound.
Even today the epic stories and tales are part of the early education of
all Hindus. A continuous reading of the Ramayana—whether in Sanskrit or
in a vernacular version such as that of Tulsidas (16th century)—is an
act of great merit, and a popular enactment of Tulsidas’s version of the
Ramayana, called the Ramcaritmanas, is an annual event across northern
India. The Ramayana’s influence is expressed in a dazzling variety of
local and regional performance traditions—story, dance, drama, art—and
extends to the composition of explicit “counter epics,” such as those
published by the Tamil separatist E.V. Ramasami beginning in 1930.
Sacred texts » Epics and Puranas » The Bhagavadgita
The Bhagavadgita (“Song of the Lord”) is an influential Indian religious
text. In quasi-dialogue form, it is relatively brief, consisting of 700
verses divided into 18 chapters. When the opposing parties in the
Mahabharata war stand ready to begin battle, Arjuna, the hero of the
favoured party, despairs at the thought of having to kill his kinsmen
and lays down his arms. Krishna, his charioteer, friend, and adviser,
thereupon argues against Arjuna’s failure to do his duty as a noble. The
argument soon becomes elevated into a general discourse on religious and
philosophical matters. The text is typical of Hinduism in that it is
able to reconcile different viewpoints, however incompatible they seem
to be, and yet emerge with an undeniable character of its own.
Three different paths (margas) to religious self-realization are set
forth. There is the discipline of action (karma-yoga): in contrast to
Buddhism, Jainism, and Samkhya philosophy, Krishna argues that it is not
the acts themselves that bind but the selfish intentions with which they
are performed. He argues for a self-discipline in which people perform
duties according to the dictates of prescribed tasks (dharma) but
without any self-interest in the personal consequences of the acts. On
the other hand, he does not deny the relevance of the discipline of
knowledge (jnana-yoga), in which one seeks release in a Yogic (ascetic)
course of withdrawal and concentration. Then the tone changes and
becomes intensely religious: Krishna reveals himself as the supreme god
and grants Arjuna a vision of himself. The third, and perhaps superior,
way of release is through a discipline of devotion to God (bhakti-yoga)
in which the self humbly worships the loving God and hopes for an
eternal vision of God. In response to this devotion, God will extend his
grace to his votaries, enabling them to overcome the bonds of this
world.
The Bhagavadgita is not a systematic theological treatise, and it
combines many different elements from Samkhya and Vedanta philosophy. In
matters of religion, its important contribution was the new emphasis
placed on devotion, which has since remained a central path in Hinduism.
In addition, the popular theism expressed elsewhere in the Mahabharata
and the transcendentalism of the Upanishads converge, and a God of
personal characteristics is identified with the brahman of the Vedic
tradition. The Bhagavadgita thus gives a typology of the three dominant
trends of Indian religion: dharma-based householder life,
enlightenment-based asceticism, and devotion-based theism.
A fairly popular text from the time of its composition, the
Bhagavadgita gained much more prominence beginning in the early 18th
century when British and European scholars discovered and translated it.
Though many Hindus do not know it or use it, Vedanta philosophy
recognizes it, with the Upanishads and the Brahma-sutras (brief
doctrinal rules concerning brahman), as an authoritative text, so that
all philosophers wrote commentaries on it. It continued to shape the
attitudes of Hindus in the 20th and 21st centuries, as is evident from
the lives of such diverse personalities as the Indian nationalist Bal
Gangadhar Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi.
The Bhagavadgita, by demanding that God’s worshipers fulfill their
duties—“better one’s own duty ill-done than another’s well-performed”
(3.35)—and observe the rules of moral conduct, bridged the chasm between
ascetic disciplines and the search for emancipation on the one hand and
the exigencies of daily life, more particular rules of the caste system,
on the other. For those who must live in the world, the Bhagavadgita
gave a moral code and a prospect of final liberation. Thus, the work
supported a social ethic. Because God is in all beings as their physical
and psychical substratum, and because he exists collectively in human
society, the wise should not see any difference between their fellow
creatures. The devotee should be impartial—the same to friend as to foe.
The serious endeavour of realizing God’s presence in human beings
obliges a person to promote the welfare of both individuals and society.
Yet, by emphasizing that all humans have not only different propensities
for each of the three disciplines of release but also different
responsibilities because of their births in different castes, the
Bhagavadgita also provided a powerful justification for the caste
system.
Sacred texts » Epics and Puranas » The Puranas
The period of the Guptas saw the production of the first of the series
(traditionally 18) of often voluminous texts—the Puranas—that treat in
encyclopaedic manner the myths, legends, and genealogies of gods,
heroes, and saints. The usual list of the Puranas is as follows: the
Brahma-, Brahmanda-, Brahmavaivarta-, Markandeya-, Bhavisya-, and
Vamana-puranas; the Vishnu-, Bhagavata-, Naradiya-, Garuda-, Padma-, and
Varaha-puranas; and the Shiva-, Linga-, Skanda-, Agni- (or Vayu-),
Matsya-, and Kurma-puranas. Many deal with the same or similar
materials.
With the epics, with which they are closely linked in origin, the
Puranas became the scriptures of the common people. Unlike the Vedas,
which were restricted to initiated men of the three higher orders, the
Puranas were available to everybody, including women and members of the
lowest order of society (Sudras). The origin of much of their contents
may be non-Brahmanic, but they were accepted and adapted by the
Brahmans, who thus brought new elements into their orthodox religion.
At first sight the discontinuity between Vedic and Puranic mythology
appears to be so sharp that they might be considered two distinct
traditions. Little is learned in the Vedas of goddesses, yet they rose
steadily in Puranic mythology. It soon becomes clear, however, that the
two bodies of texts are in part continuous and that what appears to be
discrepancy is merely a difference between the liturgical emphasis of
the Vedas and the more eclectic genres of the epics and Puranas. For
example, the great god of the Rigveda is Indra, the god of war and
monsoon, prototype of the warrior; but, for the population as a whole,
he was more important as the rain god than the war god, and it is as
such that he survives in early Puranic mythology.
While some traditionally important Vedic gods have only minor roles
in the Puranas, some previously less-important figures are quite
prominent. This is true, for example, of the two principal gods of
Puranic Hinduism, Vishnu and Rudra-Shiva. In the Vedas, Vishnu, with his
three strides, established the three worlds (heaven, atmosphere, and
earth); Rudra-Shiva is a mysterious god who must be propitiated.
Puranic literature documents the rise of the two gods as they attract
to themselves the identities of other popular gods and heroes. Brahma,
creator of the world and teacher of the gods, appears in the Puranas
primarily to appease over-powerful sages and demons by granting them
boons.
In the Puranic literature of 500 to 1000 ce, sectarianism creeps into
mythology, and individual Puranas extol one god (usually either Shiva or
Vishnu) over all others. Cosmology, cosmogony, generations of kings of
the lunar and solar dynasties, myths of the great ascetics (who in some
respects eclipse the old gods), and myths of sacred places—usually
rivers and fords—whose powers to reward the pilgrim are often cited and
related to local legends, are all important themes in these texts.
Sacred texts » Epics and Puranas » The Puranas » Cosmogony
Puranic cosmogony greatly expands upon the complex cosmogonies of the
Brahmanas, Upanishads, and epics. According to one of many versions of
the story of the origin of the universe, in the beginning the god
Narayana (identified with Vishnu) floated on the snake Ananta
(“Endless”) on the primeval waters. From Narayana’s navel grew a lotus,
in which the god Brahma was born reciting the four Vedas with his four
mouths and creating the “Egg of Brahma,” which contains all the worlds.
Other accounts refer to other demiurges, or creators, like Manu (the
primordial ancestor of humankind).
The Vedas do not seem to conceive of an end to the world, but Puranic
cosmogony accounts for the periodic destruction of the world at the
close of an eon, when the Fire of Time will put an end to the universe.
Elsewhere the destruction is specifically attributed to the god Shiva,
who dances the tandava dance of doomsday and destroys the world. Yet
this is not an absolute end but a temporary suspension (pralaya), after
which creation begins again in the same fashion.
Sacred texts » Epics and Puranas » The Puranas » Cosmology
The Puranas present an elaborate mythical cosmography. The old
tripartite universe persists, but it is modified. There are three
levels—heaven, earth, and the netherworld—but the first and last are
further subdivided into vertical layers. Earth consists of seven
circular continents, the central one surrounded by the salty ocean and
each of the other concentric continents by oceans of other liquids. In
the centre of the central mainland stands the cosmic mountain Meru; the
southernmost portion of this mainland is Bharatavarsa, the old name for
India. Above earth there are seven layers in heaven, at the summit of
which is the world of brahman (brahma-loka); there are also seven layers
below earth, the location of hells inhabited by serpents and demons.
Sacred texts » Epics and Puranas » Myths of time and eternity
The oldest texts speak little of time and eternity. It is taken for
granted that the gods, though born, are immortal; they are called “Sons
of Immortality.” In the Atharvaveda, Time appears personified as creator
and ruler of everything. In the Brahmanas and later Vedic texts there
are repeated esoteric speculations concerning the year, which is the
unit of creation and is thus identified with the creative and
regenerative sacrifice and with Prajapati (“Lord of Creatures”), the god
of the sacrifice. Time is an endless repetition of the year and thus of
creation; this is the starting point of later notions of repeated
creations.
Puranic myths developed around the notion of yuga (world age), of
which there are four. These four yugas, Krita, Treta, Dvapara, and
Kali—they are named after the four throws, from best to worst, in a dice
game—constitute a mahayuga (large yuga) and, like the comparable ages of
the world depicted by the Greek poet Hesiod, are periods of increasing
deterioration. Time itself also deteriorates, for the ages are
successively shorter. Each yuga is preceded by an intermediate “dawn”
and “dusk.” The Krita Yuga lasts 4,000 years, with a dawn and dusk of
400 years each, for a total of 4,800 years; Treta a total of 3,600
years; Dvapara 2,400 years; and Kali (the current one), 1,200 years. A
mahayuga thus lasts 12,000 years and observes the usual coefficient of
12, derived from the 12-month year, the unit of creation. These years
are “years of the gods,” each lasting 360 human years, 360 being the
days in a year. Two thousand mahayugas form one kalpa (eon), which is
itself but one day in the life of Brahma, whose life lasts 100 years;
the present is the midpoint of his life. Each kalpa is followed by an
equally long period of abeyance (pralaya), in which the universe is
asleep. Seemingly, the universe will come to an end at the end of
Brahma’s life, but Brahmas too are innumerable, and a new universe is
reborn with each new Brahma.
Another myth emphasizes the destructive aspect of time. Everything
dies in time: “Time ripens the creatures, Time rots them” (Mahabharata
1.1.188). “Time” (kala) is thus another name for Yama, the god of death.
The name is associated with Shiva in his destructive aspect as Mahakala
and is extended to his consort, the goddess Kali, or Mahakali. The
speculations on time reflect the doctrine of the eternal return in the
philosophy of transmigration. The universe returns, just as a soul
returns after death to be born again. In the oldest description of the
process (Chandogya Upanishad 5.3.1.–5.3.10), the account is still mythic
but displays naturalistic tendencies. The soul on departing may go
either of two ways: the “Way of the Gods,” which brings it through days,
bright fortnights, the half-year of the northern course of the sun, to
the full year and eventually to brahman; or the “Way of the Ancestors,”
through nights, dark fortnights, the half-year of the southern course of
the sun, and, failing to reach the full year, eventually back to earth
clinging to raindrops. If the soul happens to light on a plant that is
subsequently eaten by a man, the man may impregnate a woman and thus the
soul may be reborn. Once more the significance of the year as a symbol
of complete time is clear.
Sacred texts » Epics and Puranas » Myths of the gods
According to the epic Mahabharata (1.1.39), there are 33,333 Hindu
deities. In other sources, that number is multiplied a thousandfold.
Usually, however, the gods are referred to as “the Thirty-Three.”
The tendency toward pantheism increased in Puranic Hinduism and led
to a kind of theism that exalted several supreme gods who were not
prominently represented in the Vedic corpus, while many of the Vedic
gods disappeared or were greatly diminished in stature. New patterns
became apparent: the notion of rita, the basis of the conception of
cosmic order, was reshaped into that of dharma, or the religious-social
tasks and obligations of humans in society that maintain order in the
universe. There also was a broader vision of the universe and the place
of divinity.
Important myths about the gods are tied to the two principal moments
in the life of the cosmos: creation and destruction. Traditionally,
Brahma is the creator, from whom the universe and the four Vedas emerge.
The conception of time as almost endlessly repeating itself in kalpas
detracts, however, from the uniqueness of the first creation, and Brahma
becomes little more than a demiurge.
Far more attention is given to the destruction of the universe.
Shiva, partly established as the agent of destruction, is in many
respects an asocial god. He represents untamed wildness; he is the lone
hunter and dancer, the yogi (the accomplished practitioner of Yoga)
withdrawn from society, and the ash-covered ascetic. The distinction
represented by the gods is not that between good and evil but rather
that between the two ways in which the divine manifests itself in this
world—as both benevolent and fearful, both harmonious and disharmonious.
South Indian devotionalism produced many works in Sanskrit that
contributed greatly to Hindu myth, among them are several Puranas that
have exerted influence on Hinduism and are in turn reflections of trends
in Hinduism. The Bhagavata-purana (“The Purana of the Devotees of the
Lord [Vishnu]”) was written in South India, probably in the 10th
century. It differs from the other Puranas in that it was planned as a
unit and far greater care was taken with both metre and style. Its
nearly 18,000 stanzas are divided into 12 books. The most popular part
of the Bhagavata-purana is the description of the life of Krishna. Much
emphasis is placed on the youth of Krishna: the threats against his life
by the tyrant Kamsa, his flight and life among the cowherds at Gokula,
and especially his adventures and pranks with the cowherd girls. The
popularity of the text has led to the survival of many manuscripts, some
beautifully illustrated. Much of medieval Indian painting and vernacular
literature draws upon the Bhagavata-purana for its themes.
The Bhagavata-purana contains a doctrine of the avatars of Vishnu and
teaches a Vaishnava theology: God is transcendent and beyond human
understanding; through his incomprehensible creative ability (maya) or
specific power (atmashakti) he expands himself into the universe, which
he pervades and which is his outward appearance (his immanence). The
Lord creates the world merely because he wills to do so. Creation, or
rather the process of differentiation and integration, is his sport
(lila).
The Bhagavata-purana glorifies an intensely personal and passionate
bhakti that gradually develops into a decidedly erotic mysticism.
According to this text, there are nine characteristics of bhakti:
listening to the sacred histories, praising God’s name, remembering and
meditating on his nature and salutary endeavour (resulting in a
spiritual fusion of devotee and God), serving his image, adoring him,
respectful salutation, servitude, friendship, and self-surrender.
Meritorious works are also an element of bhakti.
According to the Bhagavata-purana, the true Vaishnava should worship
Vishnu or one of his avatars, construct temples, bathe in holy rivers,
study religious texts, serve superiors, and honour cows. In social
intercourse with the adherents of other religions, he should be
passively intolerant, avoiding direct contact, without injuring them or
prejudicing their rights. He should not neglect other gods but must
avoid following the rituals of their followers. The concept of class
divisions is accepted, but the idea that possession of the
characteristics of a particular class is the inevitable result of birth
is decidedly rejected. Because sin is antithetical to bhakti, a Brahman
who is not free from falsehood, hypocrisy, envy, aggression, and pride
cannot be the highest of men, and many persons of low social status may
have some advantage over him in moral attitude and behaviour. The most
desirable behaviour is compatible with bhakti but independent of class.
In establishing bhakti religion against any form of opposition and
defending the devout irrespective of birth, the Bhagavata religion did
not actively propagate social reform; but the attempts to make religion
an efficient vehicle of new spiritual and social ideas contributed, to a
certain extent, to the emancipation of lowborn followers of Vishnu.
Sacred texts » Vaishnavism and Shaivism » Vaishnavism
Vaishnavism is the worship of Vishnu and his various incarnations.
During a long and complex development, many Vaishnava groups emerged
with differing beliefs and aims. Some of the major Vaishnava groups
include the Shrivaishnavas and Dvaitins (philosophical or religious
dualists) of South India, the followers of the teachings of Vallabha in
western India, and several Vaishnava groups in Bengal in eastern India,
who follow teachings derived from those of the saint Caitanya. Most
Vaishnava believers, however, draw from various traditions and blend
worship of Vishnu with local practices.
In the Vedas and Brahmanas, Vishnu is the god of far-extending motion
and pervasiveness who, for humans in distress, penetrates and traverses
the entire cosmos to make their existence possible. All beings are said
to dwell in his three strides or footsteps (trivikrama): his highest
step, or abode, is beyond mortal ken in the realm of heaven. Vishnu is
also the god of the pillar of the universe and is identified with the
sacrifice. He imparts his all-pervading power to the sacrificer who
imitates his strides and identifies himself with the god, thus
conquering the universe and attaining “the goal, the safe foundation,
the highest light” (Shatapatha Brahmana).
In the centuries before the Common Era, Vishnu became the Ishvara
(immanent deity) of his worshipers, fusing with the Purusha-Prajapati
figure; with Narayana, whose cult discloses a prominent influence of
ascetics; with Krishna, whom the Bhagavadgita identified with Vishnu as
Doomsday; and with Vasudeva, who was worshipped by a group known as the
Pancharatras.
The extensive mythology attached to Vishnu is largely that of his
incarnations (avatars). Although the notion of “incarnation” is found
elsewhere in Hinduism, it is basic to Vaishnavism. Each of his
incarnations, especially Krishna and Rama, has a particular mythology
and is the object of devotional religion (bhakti). The classical number
of these incarnations is 10, ascending from theriomorphic (animal form)
to fully anthropomorphic manifestations. They are Fish (Matsya),
Tortoise (Kurma), Boar (Varaha), Man-Lion (Narasimha), Dwarf (Vamana),
Rama-with-the-Ax (Parashurama), King Rama, Krishna, Buddha, and the
future incarnation, Kalkin. Moreover, like most other Hindu gods, Vishnu
has his especial entourage: his wife is Lakshmi, or Shri, the lotus
goddess, granter of beauty, wealth, and good luck, who came forth from
the ocean when gods and demons churned it in order to recover from its
depths the ambrosia or elixir of immortality, amrita. At the beginning
of the commercial year, special worship is paid to her for success in
personal affairs. Vishnu’s mount is the bird Garuda, archenemy of
snakes, and his emblems are the lotus, club, discus (as a weapon), and a
conch shell, which he carries in his four hands.
Whatever justification the different Vaishnava groups (such as the
Shrivaishnavas of South India or the worshipers of Vishnu Vithoba in
Maharashtra) offer for their philosophical position, all of them believe
in God as a person with distinctive qualities and worship him through
his manifestations and representations. God rewards devotion with his
grace, through which the votary may be lifted from transmigration to
release. Much of Vaishnava faith is monotheistic, whether the object of
adoration be Vishnu Narayana or one of his avatars. Preference for any
one of these manifestations is largely a matter of tradition. Thus, most
South Indian Shrivaishnavas prefer Vishnu, Rama, or Shri (Vishnu’s
consort); the North Indian groups prefer Krishna.
The avatar doctrine accommodated the cults of various divine or
heroic figures within a monotheistic framework. The benevolence and
beneficial activity of these figures (Rama, Krishna, et al.) is,
however, occasionally in doubt. Vishnu often acts deceitfully,
selfishly, or helplessly; sometimes he disguises himself as a
fascinating young woman in order to trick the asuras (antigods) out of
the possession of the newly produced amrita. The narratives are full of
the miraculous, but their central figures give the impression of being
human—sometimes all too human—characters whose actions and reactions are
within the limits of ordinary understanding.
Sacred texts » Vaishnavism and Shaivism » Shaivism
The character and position of the Vedic god Rudra—called Shiva, “the
Auspicious One,” when this aspect of his ambivalent nature is
emphasized—remain clearly evident in some of the important features of
the great god Shiva, who together with Vishnu came to dominate Hinduism.
Major groups such as the Lingayats of southern India and the Kashmiri
Shaivas contributed the theological principles of Shaivism, and Shaiva
worship became a complex amalgam of pan-Indian Shaiva philosophy and
local or folk worship.
In the minds of the ancient Hindu, Shiva was the divine
representative of the uncultivated, dangerous, and unreliable aspects of
nature. Shiva’s character lent itself to being split into partial
manifestations—each said to represent only an aspect of him—as well as
to assimilating divine or demonic powers of a similar nature from other
deities. Already in the Rigveda, appeals to him for help in case of
disaster—of which he might be the originator—were combined with the
confirmation of his great power. In the course of the Vedic period,
Shiva—originally a ritual and conceptual outsider, yet a mighty god
whose benevolent aspects were readily emphasized—gradually gained access
to the circle of respectable gods who preside over various spheres of
human interest. Many characteristics of the Vedic Prajapati, the
creator, of Indra, the god of the phallus, and of the great Vedic god of
fire, Agni, have been integrated into the figure of Shiva.
In those circles that produced the Shvetashvatara Upanishad (c. 400
bce), Shiva rose to the highest rank. Its author proposed a way of
escape from samsara, proclaiming Shiva the sole eternal Lord.
Rudra-Shiva developed into an ambivalent and many-sided lord and master.
His “doubles” or partial manifestations, however, were active among
humankind: as Pashupati (“Lord of Cattle”), he took over the fetters of
the Vedic Varuna; as Aghora (“To Whom Nothing Is Horrible”), he showed
the uncanny traits of his nature (evil, death, punishment) and also
their opposites.
It is not always clear whether Shiva is invoked as a great god of
frightful aspect, capable of conquering demonic power, or as the
boon-giving lord and protector. Although Shiva might be the sole
principle above change and variation who sometimes sides with the
demons, he did not sever his connections with innumerable local deities
and much-feared powers worshipped by most Hindus, who still continue to
invoke him in magical rites.
Shiva reconciles in his person semantically opposite though
complementary aspects: he is both terrible and mild, destroyer and
restorer, eternal rest and ceaseless activity. These seeming
contradictions make him a paradoxical figure, transcending humanity and
assuming a mysterious sublimity of his own. His character is so
complicated and his interests are so widely divergent as to lead him in
mythical narratives into conflicting situations. Yet, although Brahman
philosophers like to emphasize his ascetic aspects and the ritualists of
the Tantric tradition his sexuality, the seemingly opposite strands of
his nature are generally accepted as two sides of one character.
Shiva temporarily interrupts his austerity and asceticism (tapas) to
marry Parvati, and he combines the roles of lover and ascetic to such a
degree that his wife must be an ascetic (yogi) when he devotes himself
to austerities and a lustful mistress when he is in his erotic mode.
This dual character finds its explanation in the ancient conviction
that, by his very chastity, an ascetic accumulates (sexual) power that
can be discharged suddenly and completely, resulting in the fecundation
of the soil. Various mythical tales reveal that both chastity and the
loss of chastity are necessary for fertility and the intermittent
process of regeneration in nature. Ascetics engaging in erotic and
creative experiences are a familiar feature in Hinduism, and the element
of sexuality in mythological thought counterbalances the Hindu bent for
asceticism. Such sexuality, while rather idyllic in Krishna, assumes a
mystical aspect in Shiva, which is why the devotee can see in him the
realization of the possibilities of both the ascetic life and the
householder state. His marriage with Parvati is then a model of conjugal
love, the divine prototype of human marriage, sanctifying the forces
that carry on the human race.
Shiva’s many poses express various aspects of his nature: as a
dancer, he is the originator of the eternal rhythm of the universe; he
also catches, in his thickly matted hair, the waters of the heavenly
Ganges River, which destroy all sin; and he wears in his headdress the
crescent moon, which drips the nectar of everlasting life.
Shiva represents the unpredictability of divinity. He is the hunter
who slays and skins his prey and dances a wild dance while covered with
the bloody hide. Far from society and the ordered world, he sits on the
inaccessible Himalayan plateau of Mount Kailasa, an austere ascetic,
averse to love, who burns Kama, the god of love, to ashes with a glance
from the third eye—the eye of insight beyond duality—in the middle of
his forehead. Yet another epiphany is that of the lingam, an upright
rounded post, usually of stone, representing a phallus, in which form he
is worshipped throughout India. And at the end of the eon, he will dance
the universe to destruction. He is nevertheless invoked as Shiva,
Shambhu, Shankara (“Benignant” and “Beneficent”), for the god that can
strike down can also spare. Snakes seek his company and twine themselves
around his body. He wears a necklace of skulls. He sits in meditation,
with his hair braided like a hermit’s, his body smeared white with
ashes. These ashes recall the burning pyres on which the sannyasis
(renouncers) take leave of the social order of the world and set out on
a lonely course toward release, carrying with them a human skull.
Shiva’s consort is Parvati (“Daughter of the Mountain [Himalaya]”), a
goddess most unlike the consorts of Vishnu in his various incarnations.
She is also personified as the Goddess (Devi), Mother (Amba), black and
destructive (Kali), fierce (Candika), and inaccessible (Durga). As
Shiva’s female counterpart, she inherits some of Shiva’s more fearful
aspects. She comes to be regarded as the power (shakti) of Shiva,
without which Shiva is helpless. Shakti is in turn personified in the
form of many different goddesses, often said to be aspects of her.
Sacred texts » Vaishnavism and Shaivism » Myths of culture heroes
A culture hero can easily be assimilated to a god by identifying him
with an incarnation of a god. Thus, great religious teachers are
considered manifestations of the god of their devotional preaching, and
stories of their lives have become part of a very rich mythology.
Practically gods on earth, these ascetics, according to mythology, have
amassed tremendous powers that they do not hesitate to use. The sage
Kapila, meditating in the netherworld, burned to ashes 60,000 princes
who had dug their way to him. Another sage, Bhagiratha, brought the
Ganges River down from heaven to sanctify their ashes and, in the
process, created the ocean. Agastya, revered as the Brahman who brought
Sanskrit civilization to South India, drank and digested the ocean. When
the Vindhya mountain range would not stop growing, Agastya crossed it to
the south and commanded it to cease growing until his return; he still
has not returned. Vishvamitra, a king who became a Brahman, created a
new universe with its own galaxies to spite the gods.
In myths concerning kings and princes, a prevailing theme is the
trial of the son by the father. For example, the ancient king Yayati had
five sons to whom he wanted to transfer his own senescence for a
stipulated period. All refused except the youngest, Puru, whose reward
was to become his father’s successor and whose descendants became the
Pauravas, the dynasty in which the heroes of the Mahabharata were later
born. The latter heroes also underwent a trial when they were exiled
from their newly won kingdom. Heroines undergo their own trials, usually
involving a challenge to their chastity, as in the case of Sita in the
Ramayana and Draupadi, the one wife of all five Pandava brothers, whose
sari became endless when a lustful villain attempted to pull it off.
Moving from myth to legend, there are also stories told of the great
teachers, and every founder of a sect is soon deified as an incarnation
of a god: the philosopher Shankara (c. 788–820) as an incarnation of
Shiva, the religious leader Ramanuja (d. ad 1137) as that of
Narayana-Vishnu, and the Bengal teacher Caitanya (1485–1533)
simultaneously as that of Krishna and his beloved Radha.
Sacred texts » Vaishnavism and Shaivism » Myths of holy rivers and holy
places
Of particular sanctity in India are the rivers, among which the Ganges
stands first. This river, personified as a goddess, originally flowed
only in heaven until she was brought down by Bhagiratha to purify the
ashes of his ancestors. She came down reluctantly, cascading first on
the head of Shiva in order to break her fall, which would have shattered
the Earth. Confluences are particularly holy, and the confluence of the
Ganges with the Yamuna at Allahabad is the most sacred spot in India.
Another river of importance is the Sarasvati, which loses itself in
desert; it was personified as a goddess of eloquence and learning.
All major and many minor temples and sanctuaries have their own myths
of how they were founded and what miracles were wrought there. The same
is true of famous places of pilgrimage, usually at sacred spots near and
in rivers; important among these are Vrindavana (Brindaban) on the
Yamuna, which is held to be the scene of the youthful adventures of
Krishna and the cowherd wives. Another such centre with its own myths is
Gaya, especially sacred for the funerary rites that are held there. And
there is no spot in Varanasi (Benares), along the Ganges, that is
without its own mythical history.
Sacred texts » Philosophical texts
Although the details of Indian philosophy, as it has been developed by
professional philosophers, may be treated as a subject separate from
Hinduism (see Indian philosophy), certain broad philosophical concepts
were absorbed into the myths and rituals of Hindus and are best viewed
as a component of the religious tradition.
Sacred texts » Philosophical texts » Mysticism
One of the major trends of Indian religious philosophy is mysticism: the
desire for union of the self with something greater than the self,
whether that is defined as a principle that pervades the universe or as
a personal God. Hindu mysticism includes both these forms and a great
many that lie in between. At one extreme is the realization of the
identity of the individual self with the impersonal principle called
brahman, the position of the Vedanta school of Indian philosophy; at the
other is the intensive devotionalism to a personal God that is found in
the bhakti (devotional) sects.
Most Hindu mystical thought displays four common features. First, it
is based on experience: the state of realization, whatever it is called,
is both knowable and communicable, and the systems are all designed to
teach people how to reach it. It is not, in other words, pure
speculation. Second, it has as its goal the release of the
spirit-substance of the individual from its prison in matter, whether
matter is considered real or illusory. Third, all the systems recognize
the importance or the necessity of the control of the mind and body as a
means of realization; sometimes this takes the form of extreme
asceticism and mortification, and sometimes it takes the form of the
cultivation of mind and body in order that their energies may be
properly channeled. Finally, at the core of Hindu mystical thought is
the functional principle that knowing is being. Thus, knowledge is
something more than analytical categorizing: it is total understanding.
This understanding can be purely intellectual, and some schools equate
the final goal with omniscience, as does Yoga. But understanding can
also mean total transformation: if one truly knows something, one is
that thing. Thus, in the devotional schools, the goal of the devotee is
to transform into a being who, in eternity, is in immediate and loving
relationship to the deity. But despite the fact that these are both ways
of knowing, the difference between them is significant. In the first
instance, the individual has the responsibility to train and use his own
intellect. The love relationship of the second, on the other hand, is
one of dependence, and the deity assists the devotee through grace. The
distinction is generally made by the analogy of the cat and the monkey:
the cat carries her young in her mouth, and thus the kitten has no
responsibility. But the young monkey must cling by its own strength to
its mother’s back.
It is usual for writers on the subject, following Surendranath
Dasgupta, a historian of Indian philosophy, to list five major varieties
of Hindu mysticism, the five having arisen in historical order as
follows:
The sacrificial, based on the Vedas and Brahmanas.
The Upanishadic, in which are found the beginnings of both monistic
(concerned with a unitary principle of reality, immanent in the world)
and theistic (concerned with a personal or suprapersonal God) systems.
The Yogic, relating to physical and mental discipline; the earliest
known text of this school is the Yoga-sutra of Patanjali, dated
variously between the 2nd century bce and the 5th century ce. According
to Yogic mysticism, man realizes union by means of physical and mental
control of himself, which in turn leads to control of both natural and
divine forces.
The Buddhistic, in which enlightenment is the realization of the Four
Noble Truths—the fact of suffering, the cause of suffering, the
cessation of suffering, and the means of arriving at these three truths:
the Eightfold Path. The ultimate state, the culmination of one path of
the Eightfold Path, is nirvana, “the blowing out,” the extinction of
desire (see Buddhism; Buddha).
The devotional, or bhakti, type, which comprises a range of theistic
systems, with a conception of absolute dualism between humanity and God
on the one extreme and a conception of qualified nondualism on the
other. Although there are traces of this devotionalism throughout the
history of Indian religion, it began to develop in earnest in South
India in the 7th through 10th centuries ce with the hymns of the
poet-saints called Alvars.
Sacred texts » Philosophical texts » Philosophical sutras and the rise
of the Six Schools of philosophy
The systems of the Six Schools (Saddarshana) of orthodox Hindu
philosophy were formulated in terse sutras from about the beginning of
the Common Era through the period of the Gupta empire (320–540).
The most important of the Six Schools is the Vedanta (“End of the
Vedas”), also called Uttara-Mimamsa or, later, Mimamsa. The
most-renowned philosopher of this school—and, indeed, of all
Hinduism—was Shankara (traditionally dated c. 788–820, though he
probably lived in the first half of the 8th century). Born at Kaladi in
Kerala, he is said to have spent most of his life traveling through
India debating with members of other sects. The Shankaran system has
sounded the keynote of intellectual Hinduism down to the present, but
later teachers founded sub-schools of Vedanta, which are perhaps equally
important.
Shankara was also responsible for the growth of Hindu monasticism,
which had been in existence for more than a millennium in the form of
hermit colonies. Inscriptions from Gupta times onward also refer to
monklike orders of Shaiva ascetics, apparently living according to
distinctive disciplines and with distinguishing garments and emblems.
Shankara founded the dashnami, a closely disciplined Shiva order,
perhaps partly modeled on the Buddhist order, the sangha. The dashnami,
which is still the most influential orthodox Hindu ascetic group, is
composed of 10 brotherhoods (dashnami means “those with 10 names”).
Orders became an established institution with wider geographic
affiliations. Some of these admitted Brahmans only; others were open to
all four classes or even to women; some made a practice of nudity; and
all are inclined to individual asceticism. Shankara is also said to have
founded the four main monasteries (matha) at the four corners of India:
Sringeri in Karnataka, Badrinath in the Himalayas, Dwarka in Gujarat,
and Puri in Orissa. The abbots of these monasteries control the
spiritual lives of many millions of devout Shaiva laypersons throughout
India, and their establishments strive to maintain the traditional
philosophical Hinduism of the strict Vedanta. In modern times, certain
dashnami leaders have incurred criticism for their firm opposition to
social change.
The theologians had to assume the task of explaining the relation
between God, the unaffected and unchanging cause of all things, and the
universe. According to the great South Indian thinker and devotee of
Vishnu Ramanuja (c. 1017–1137), brahman (i.e., God) is a Person as well
as the object of an individual’s search for the higher knowledge that is
the only entrance to salvation. Because an absolute creation is denied,
God is viewed as the sole cause of his own modifications—namely, the
emanation, existence, and absorption of the universe. God is conceived
to be essentially different from everything material, the absolute
opposite of any evil, free from any imperfection, omniscient,
omnipotent, possessed of all positive qualities (such as knowledge,
bliss, beauty, and truth), of incomparable majesty, the inner soul of
all beings, and the ultimate goal of every religious effort. The
universe is considered a real transformation of brahman, whose “body”
consists of the conscious souls and everything unconscious in their
subtle and gross states. The karma doctrine is modified as follows: the
Lord, having determined good and bad deeds, provides all individual
souls with a body in which they perform deeds, reveals to them the
scriptures from which they may learn the dharma, and enters into them as
their internal regulator. The individual acts at his own discretion but
needs the Lord’s assent. If the devotee wishes to please him, God
induces him, with infallible justice and loving regard, to intentions
and effort to perform good deeds by which the devotee will attain him;
if not, God keeps him from that goal.
Influenced by the bhakti movement, Ramanuja had admitted a twofold
possibility of emancipation: in addition to the meditative method of the
highest insight (jnana) into the oneness of soul and God, which destroys
the residues of karma and propitiates God to win his grace, there is the
way of bhakti. Those who prefer the former way will reach a state of
isolation, the others an infinitely blissful eternal life in, through,
and for God, with whom they are one in nature but not identical. They do
not lose their individuality and may even meet Vishnu in his Vaikuntha
heaven and enjoy delight beyond description. Among many followers of
Ramanuja, however, complete self-surrender (prapatti) came to be
distinguished from bhakti as a superior means of spiritual realization.
Authors of Shaiva Puranas established two ingenious and complementary
doctrines to explain the nature and omnipotence of God, the existence of
the world, and the identity of God and the world. A theory of five
“faces,” or manifestations—each of which is given mythological names and
related mantras—is of great ritual significance. It associates Shiva’s
so-called creative function, by which he provokes the evolution of the
material cause of the universe, with his first face, or aspect; the
maintenance and reabsorption of the universe with his second and third
faces; his power of obscuration, by which he conceals the souls in the
phenomena of samsara, with his fourth face; and his ability to bestow
his grace, which leads to final emancipation, with his fifth face. The
five functions are an emanation of the unmanifested Shiva, who is the
transcendent brahman.
The faces became the central elements of a comprehensive
classification system. They were identified with parts of God’s body,
regions of the universe, various ontological principles, organs of sense
and action, and the elements. The system was used to explain how Shiva’s
being is the All and how the universe is exclusively composed of aspects
or manifestations of Shiva. In his fivefold nature, Shiva was shown to
be identical with the 25 elements or principles assumed by the prominent
Samkhya school of Indian philosophy. The special significance of the
number five in Shaivism can be understood as a philosophical elaboration
of the time-honoured fourfold organization of the universe. (The four
quarters of the sky also play a prominent part in religious practice.)
According to this conception, a fifth aspect, when added to the four, is
considered the most important aspect of the group because it represents
each of the four and collectively unites all of their functions in
itself. The system finds its complement in the doctrine of the five
sadakhyas (five items that bear the name sat, “is” or “being”)
representing the five aspects of that state, which may be spoken of as
the experience of “there is” (sat) and which have evolved from God’s
fivefold creative energy (shakti). In these God “dwells” in his aspect
called Sadashiva (“Eternal Shiva”), which is regarded sometimes as a
manifestation of and sometimes as identical with the Supreme Being.
Another Shaiva doctrine posits eight “embodiments” of Shiva as the
elements of nature—ether, wind, fire, water, earth—and the Sun, the
Moon, and the sacrificer, or consecrated worshiper (also called Atman).
To each of these eight elements corresponds one of Shiva’s traditional
names or aspects—to the last one, usually Pashupati. The world is a
product of these eight forms, consists of them, and can exist and
fulfill its task only because the eight embodiments cooperate. Because
each individual is also composed of the same eight realities (e.g., the
light of man’s eyes corresponds to that of the Sun), Shiva constitutes
the corporeal frame and the psychical organism of every living being.
The eighth constituent is the indispensable performer of the rites that
sustain the gods who preside over the cosmic processes and are really
Shiva’s faculties.
Although Shaivism is a much more coherent whole than Vaishnavism,
branches with peculiarities of their own evolved in different parts of
India. According to the idealist monism of Kashmir Shaivism, an
important religious-philosophical school, Shiva manifests himself
through a special power as the first cause of creation, and he also
manifests himself through a second power as the innumerable individual
souls who, because of a veil of impurity, forget that they are the
embodiment of the Highest. This veil can be torn off by intense faith
and constant meditation on God, by which the soul transmutes itself into
a universal soul and eventually attains liberation through a
lightning-like, intuitive insight into its own nature. Hindus who adhere
to this group consider their doctrine a manifestation of the highest
reality, Knowing Consciousness, neither personal nor impersonal.
The Shaiva-siddhanta, a prominent school of Tamil-speaking South
India, assumes three eternal principles: God (who is independent
existence, unqualified intelligence, and absolute bliss), the universe,
and the souls. The world, because it is created by God (efficient cause)
through his conscious power (instrumental cause) and maya (material
cause), is no illusion. The main purpose of its creation is the
liberation of the beginningless souls, which are conceived as “cattle”
(pashu) bound by the noose (pasha) of impurity (mala) or spiritual
ignorance, which forces them to produce karma. Members of this school
see the karma process as a benefit, however, because they believe that,
as soon as the soul has sufficiently ripened and reached a state of
purity enabling it to strive after the highest insight, God graciously
intervenes, appearing in the shape of a fully qualified and liberated
spiritual guide (guru), through whose words God permits himself to be
realized by the individual soul.
Sacred texts » Tantrism » Tantric traditions and Shaktism
Toward the end of the 5th century, the cult of the mother goddess
assumed a significant place in Indian religious life. Shaktism, the
worship of Shakti, the active power of the godhead conceived in feminine
terms, should be distinguished from Tantrism, the search for spiritual
power and ultimate release by means of the repetition of sacred
syllables and phrases (mantras), symbolic drawings (mandalas), and other
secret rites elaborated in the texts known as Tantras (“Looms”).
In many respects the Tantras are similar to the Puranas.
Theoretically, the Tantras deal with (1) knowledge, or philosophy, (2)
Yoga, or concentration techniques, (3) ritual, which includes the
construction of icons and temples, and (4) conduct in religious worship
and social practice. In general, the last two subjects are the most
numerous, while Yoga tends to centre on the mystique of certain
sound-symbols (mantras) that sum up esoteric doctrines. The philosophy
tends to be a syncretistic mixture of Sankhya and Vedanta thought, with
special and at times exclusive emphasis on the god’s power, or shakti.
The Tantric texts can be divided into three classes: (1) Shaiva Agamas
(traditions of the followers of Shiva), (2) Vaishnava Samhitas
(“Collections of the Vaishnavas,” a name borrowed from the Vedic
Samhitas), and (3) Shakta Tantras (“Looms of the Followers of the
Goddess Shakti”). However, they all have the common bond of venerating
the Goddess.
The surviving Hindu Tantras were written much later than many of
those of Tantric Buddhism, which may have heavily influenced the Hindu
texts. Although there is early evidence of Tantrism and Shaktism in
other parts of India, the chief centres of both in Bengal, Bihar, and
Assam.
Sacred texts » Tantrism » Tantric traditions and Shaktism » Shaiva
Agamas
Like much other Hindu sacred literature, this literature is neither
well-cataloged nor thoroughly studied. It is possible here to summarize
only classes of texts within the various traditions.
The sects of Agamic Shaivas (Shiva worshipers who follow their own
Agama—“traditional”—texts) encompass both the Sanskritic
Shaiva-siddhanta—i.e., those who accept the philosophical premises and
conclusions of Shaivas in the north—and the southern Lingayats or
Vilashaivas (from vira, literally “hero”; a lingam is the Shiva emblem
that is worshipped in lieu of images). The Shaiva-siddhanta
traditionally has 28 Agamas and 150 sub-Agamas. Their principal texts
are difficult to date, though most of them probably were not composed
before the 8th century. Their doctrine states that Shiva is the
conscious principle of the universe, while matter is unconscious.
Shiva’s power, or shakti, personified as a goddess, causes bondage and
release. She is also the magic Word, and thus her nature can be sought
out and meditated upon in mantras.
Kashmir Shaivism begins with the Shiva-sutra, or “Lines of Doctrine
Concerning Shiva” (c. 850), as a new revelation of Shiva. The system
embraces the Shivadristi (“A Vision of Shiva”) of Somananda (950), in
which emphasis is placed on the continuous recognition of Shiva; the
world is a manifestation of Shiva brought about by his shakti. The
system is called trika (“triad”), because it recognizes the three
principles of Shiva, Shakti, and the individual soul. Virashaiva texts
begin at about 1150 with the Vacanams (“Sayings”) of Basava. The sect is
puritanical, worships Shiva exclusively, rejects the caste system in
favour of its own social organization, and is highly structured, with
monasteries and gurus.
Sacred texts » Tantrism » Tantric traditions and Shaktism » Vaishnava
Samhitas
These consist of two groups of texts, Vaikhanasa Samhitas and
Pancharatra Samhitas, which together include more than 200 titles,
though the official number is 108. Vaikhanasa Samhitas (collections of
the Vaishnava school of Vaikhanasas, who were originally ascetics) seem
to have been the original temple manuals for the Bhagavatas (devotees of
Vishnu), which by the 11th or 12th century had become supplanted by the
Pancharatra Samhitas (collections of the Vaishnava school of
Pancharatra—“System of the Five Nights”). The philosophy of the latter
is largely a matter of cosmogony, greatly inspired by both Sankhya and
Yoga teachings.
Apart from their theology, in which for the first time the notion of
shakti is introduced into Vaishnavism, the Vaishnava Samhitas are
important because they give an exposition of Vaishnava temple and cult
practices. The texts also maintain that the supreme god Krishna Vasudeva
manifests himself in four coequal “divisions” (vyuhas), representing
levels of creation. These gods emanate as supramundane patrons before
the primary creation is started by their shakti. In the primary
creation, Shakti manifests herself as a female creative force.
Practically, stress is laid on a type of incarnation—“iconic
incarnation”—in which a portion of the god is actually present in a
stone or statue, which thus becomes an icon; therefore, the icon can be
worshipped as God himself.
Sacred texts » Tantrism » Tantric traditions and Shaktism » Shakta
Tantras
Shaktism in one form or another has been known since Bana (c. 650) wrote
his Hundred Couplets to Candi (Candi-shataka) and Bhavabhuti his play
Malati Madhava (early 8th century), about the adventures of the hero
Madhava and his beloved Malati; both of these works refer to Tantric
practices. There is no traditional authoritative list of Tantric texts,
but many are extant.
Shaktism is an amalgam of Shaivism and mother goddess cults. The
Shaiva notion that Shiva’s shakti, not Shiva himself, is active is taken
to the extreme—without Shakti, Shiva is a corpse, and Shakti is the
creator as well as creation. Another important notion (partly derived
from Yoga philosophy) is that throughout the body there are subtle
canals that carry esoteric powers connected with the spinal cord, at the
bottom of which the Goddess is coiled around the lingam as kundalini
(“coil”); she can be made to rise through the body to the top, whereupon
release from samsara takes place. Important among the Shakta Tantras are
the Kularnava-tantra (“Ocean of Tantrism”), which gives details on the
“left-handed” cult forms of ritual copulation (i.e., those that are not
part of traditional Hindu practice); the Kulacudamani (“Crown Jewel of
Tantrism”), which discusses ritual; and the Sharadatilaka (“Beauty Mark
of the Goddess Sharada”) of Lakshmanadeshika (11th century), which
focuses almost exclusively on magic.
A temple was erected in honour of the mother goddess at Gangdhar,
Rajasthan, in 423 ce. Magical rites of a terrifying kind were apparently
practiced there, for the temple is described as “loud with the shouts of
demonesses, crying in the thick darkness,” by the playwright Bhavabhuti,
whose drama Malati Madhava contains a scene depicting human sacrifice
and ritual cannibalism. The goddess cults eventually centred around
Durga, the consort of Shiva, in her fiercer aspect.
Sacred texts » Tantrism » Nature of Tantric tradition
Tantrism, which appears in both Buddhism and Hinduism, influenced many
religious trends and movements from the 5th century ce, but it was
primarily meant for esoteric circles. Claiming to show in times of
religious decadence a new way to the highest goal, Tantrism bases itself
upon mystic speculations concerning divine creative energy (shakti).
Tantrism is thought to be a method of conquering transcendent powers and
realizing oneness with the highest principle by Yogic and ritual
means—in part magical and orgiastic—which are also supposed to achieve
other supranormal goals.
Tantrists take for granted that all factors in the macrocosm and the
microcosm are closely connected. The adept (sadhaka) has to perform the
relevant rites on his own body, transforming its normal, chaotic state
into a “cosmos.” The macrocosm is conceived as a complex system of
powers that by means of ritual-psychological techniques can be activated
and organized within the individual body of the adept. Contrary to the
ascetic emancipation methods of other groups, the Tantrists emphasize
the activation and sublimation of the possibilities of their own body,
without which salvation is believed to be beyond reach.
The Tantrists of the Vamacara (“the left-hand practice”) sought to
intensify their own sense impressions by making enjoyment, or sensuality
(bhoga), their principal concern: the adept pursued his spiritual
objective through his natural functions and inclinations, which were
sublimated and then gratified in rituals in order to disintegrate his
normal personality. This implies that cultic life was largely
interiorized and that the whole world was given a new and esoteric
meaning.
Tantric worship (puja) is complicated and in many respects different
from the ceremonies that it has influenced. Tantric devotees interpret
their texts by means of an ambiguous “twilight” language and distinguish
between the texts’ “external” and their esoteric meaning. Tantrists
describe states of consciousness with erotic terminology and describe
physiological processes with cosmological terminology. They proceed from
“external” to “internal” worship and adore the Goddess mentally,
offering their hearts as her throne and their self-renunciation as
“flowers.”
According to Tantrism, concentration is intended to evoke an internal
image of the deity and to resuscitate the powers inherent in it so that
the symbol changes into mental experience. This “symbolic ambiguity” is
also much in evidence in the esoteric interpretation of ritual acts
performed in connection with images, flowers, and other cult objects and
is intended to bring about a transfiguration in the mind of the adept.
The mantras (sacred utterances, such as hum, hrim, and klam) are
believed to be indispensable means of entering into contact with the
power they bear and of transcending mundane existence. Most potent are
the monosyllabic, bija (“seed”) mantras, which constitute the main
element of longer formulas and embody the essence of divine power as the
eternal, indestructible prototypes from which anything phenomenal
derives its existence. The cosmos itself owes its very structure and
harmony to them. Also important is the introduction of spiritual
qualities or divine power into the body (nyasa) by placing a finger on
the relevant spot (accompanied by a mantra).
Tantrists who follow the “right-hand path” attach much value to the
Yoga that developed under their influence and to bhakti and aspire to
union with the Supreme by emotional-dynamic means. For them, Yoga is a
self-abnegation in order to reach a state of ecstatic blissfulness in
which the passive soul is lifted up by divine grace.
There is also a Tantric mantra-yoga (discipline through spells),
which operates with formulas, and a hatha-yoga, (Sanskrit: “union of
force”). Hatha-yoga incorporates normal Yogic practices such as
abstinences; observances; bodily postures; breath control; withdrawal of
the mind from external objects; concentration, contemplation, and
identification with the aid of mudras (i.e., ritual intertwining of
fingers or gestures expressing the metaphysical aspect of the ceremonies
or the transformation effected by the mantras); and muscular
contractions. It also consists of internal purifications (e.g., washing
out stomach and bowels), shaking the abdomen, and some forms of
self-torture. The whole process is intended to “control the ‘gross body’
in order to free the ‘subtle body.’”
Some Tantrists employ laya-yoga (“reintegration by mergence”), in
which the female nature-energy (representing the shakti), which is said
to remain dormant and coiled in the form of a serpent (kundalini)
representing the uncreated, is awakened and made to rise through the six
centres (chakras) of the body, which are located along the central
artery of the subtle body, from the root centre to the lotus of a
thousand petals at the top of the head, where it merges into the
Purusha, the male Supreme Being. Once the union of shakti and Purusha
has become permanent, according to this doctrine, wonderful visions and
powers come to the adept, who then is emancipated. Some of the Tantric
texts also pursue worldly objectives involving magic or medicine.
Sacred texts » Tantrism » Tantric ritual and magical practices
The ritual of the left-hand Tantrists consisted of a kind of black mass
in which all of the taboos of conventional Hinduism were conscientiously
violated. Thus, in place of the traditional five elements (tattvas) of
the Hindu cosmos, these Tantrists used the five m’s: mamsa (flesh,
meat), matsya (fish), madya (fermented grapes, wine), mudra (frumentum,
cereal, parched grain, or gestures), and maithuna (fornication). This
latter element was made particularly antinomian through the involvement
of forbidden women—such as one’s sister or mother, the wife of another
man, or a low-caste woman—who was identified with the Goddess. Menstrual
blood, strictly taboo in conventional Hinduism, was also used in Tantric
rites. Such rituals, which are described in Tantric texts and in tracts
against Tantrists, made the Tantrists notorious. It is likely, however,
that the rituals were not regularly performed except by a small group of
highly trained adepts; the usual Tantric ceremony was purely symbolic
and even more fastidious than the pujas in Hindu temples.
The cult of the Shaktas is based on the principle of the ritual
sublimation of natural impulses to maintain and reproduce life. Shakta
adepts are trained to direct all their energies toward the conquest of
the Eternal. The ritual satisfaction of lust and the consumption of
consecrated meat or liquor are esoterically significant means of
realizing the unity of flesh and spirit, of the human and the divine.
They are considered not sinful acts but effective means of salvation.
Ritual copulation—which may also be accomplished symbolically—is, for
both partners, a form of sacralization, the act being a participation in
cosmic and divine processes. The experience of transcending space and
time, of surpassing the phenomenal duality of spirit and matter, of
recovering the primeval unity, the realization of the identity of God
and his Shakti, and of the manifested and unmanifested aspects of the
All, constitute the very mystery of Shaktism.
The interpretation of doctrines and ritual practice is varied.
Extreme Shakta communities, for example, perform the secret nocturnal
rites of the shricakra (“wheel of radiance,” described in the
Kularnava-tantra), in which they avail themselves of the natural and
esoteric symbolic properties of colours, sounds, and perfumes to
intensify their sexual experiences. Most Tantrists, however, eliminate
all but the verbal ritual.
Individual and collective Yoga and worship, conducted daily,
fortnightly, and monthly “for the delectation of the deity,” are of
special importance. After elaborate purifications, the worshipers—who
must be initiated, full of devotion toward the guru and God, have
control over themselves, be well prepared and pure of heart, know the
mysteries of the scriptures, and look forward to the adoration with
eagerness—make the prescribed offerings, worship the power of the Divine
Mother, and recite the relevant mantras. Having become aware of their
own state of divinity, they are qualified to unite sexually with the
Goddess. If a woman is, in certain rituals, made the object of sexual
worship, the Goddess is first invoked into her; the worshiper is not to
cohabit with her until his mind is free from impurity and he has risen
to divine status. Copulation with a low-caste woman helps to transcend
all opposites. Union with a woman who belongs to another man is often
preferred because it is harder to obtain, nothing is certain in it, and
the longing stemming from the separation of lover and beloved is more
intense; it is pure preman (agape, or divine love). Adoration of a girl
of age 16 aims at securing the completeness and perfection of which this
number is said to be the expression. However, the texts reiterate how
dangerous these rites are for those who are not initiated; those who
perform such ritual acts without merging their minds in the Supreme are
likely to go to one of the hells.
The esoteric Vaishnava-Sahajiya cult, which arose in Bengal in the
16th century, was another emotional attempt at reconciling the spirit
and the flesh. Displaying contempt for social opinion, its adherents,
using the natural (sahaja, “born with”) qualities of the senses and
stressing the sexual symbolism of Bengal Vaishnavism, reinterpreted the
Radha-Krishna legend and sought for the perpetual experience of divine
joy. Based on this understanding of the legend, members of the
Vaishnava-Sahajiya cult held that, after arduous training, the
realization of love can be experienced, because Krishna’s nature is love
and the giving of love and because man is identical with Krishna. Women,
as the embodiment of a theological principle, could even become
spiritual guides, like Radha, conducting the worshipers in their search
for realization. After reaching this state, a devotee remains in eternal
bliss and can dispense with guru and ritual and be completely
indifferent to the world, “steadfast amidst the dance of maya.”
Sacred texts » Tantrism » Tantric and Shakta ethical and social
doctrines
These ethical and social principles, though fundamentally the same as
those promulgated in the classical dharma works, breathe a spirit of
liberality: much value is set upon family life and respect for women
(the image of the Goddess); no ban is placed on traveling
(conventionally regarded as bringing about ritual pollution) or on the
remarriage of widows. Although Tantric and Shakta traditions did not
oblige their followers to deviate in a socially visible way from the
established order, they provided a ritual and a way of life for those
who, because of sex or caste, could not participate satisfyingly in the
conventional rites.
The ancient Tantric tradition, based on the esoteric tantra
literature, has become so interwoven with orthodox Hinduism that it is
difficult to define precisely. Although it recognizes an identity
between the soul and the cosmos, it emphasizes the internalization of
the cosmos rather than the release of the soul to its natural state of
unity. The body is the microcosm, and the ultimate state is not only
omniscience but total realization of all universal and eternal forces.
The body is real, not because it is the function or creation of a real
deity but because it contains the deity, together with the rest of the
universe. The individual soul does not unite with the One—it is the One,
and the body is its function.
Tantrism, though not always in its full esoteric form, is a feature
of much modern mystical thought. In Tantrism the consciousness is spoken
of as moving—driven by repetition of the mantra and by other
disciplines—from gross awareness of the material world to realization of
the ultimate unity. The image is of a serpent, coiled and dormant,
awakened and driven upward in the body through various stages of
enlightenment until it reaches the brain, the highest awareness. The
19th-century mystic Ramakrishna describes the process, which is also the
experience that all Hindu mystics seek:
When [the serpent] is awakened, it passes gradually through [various
stages], and comes to rest in the heart. Then the mind moves away from
[the gross physical senses]; there is perception, and a great brilliance
is seen. The worshiper, when he sees this brilliance, is struck with
wonder. The [serpent] moves thus through six stages, and coming to [the
highest one], is united with it. Then there is samadhi.…When [the
serpent] rises to the sixth stage, the form of God is seen. But a slight
veil remains; it is as if one sees a light within a lantern, and thinks
that the light itself can be touched, but the glass intervenes.…In
samadhi, nothing external remains. One cannot even take care of his body
any more; if milk is put into his mouth, he cannot swallow. If he
remains for twenty-one days in this condition, he is dead. The ship puts
out to sea, and returns no more.
Sacred texts » Vernacular literatures
Most of the texts cited in this survey are Sanskrit texts, which
constitute the oldest layer of extant Hindu literature. But the sacred
literature of India is not as monolithic as these texts might suggest.
Several other essential elements exist: independent sacred literatures
in languages other than Sanskrit and material in other languages related
to the Sanskrit texts either as sources of material now preserved only
in Sanskrit or as new texts originating as translations of Sanskrit
texts. Because Sanskrit has been in intimate contact with the mother
tongues of India for such a long time, it is often impossible to
determine in which of these categories a particular vernacular text
belongs.
Indologists usually emphasize the influence of Sanskritic (often
called “Aryan”) culture on Dravidian culture, and indeed this influence
was considerable. Sanskritic influence was already in evidence in the
earliest Tamil (a principal Dravidian language) literature, perhaps
dating from the 1st century ce. At this time in South India the orthodox
cults were aristocratic in character and were supported by kings and
chiefs who gained in prestige by patronizing Brahmans and adopting Aryan
ways. The Tamils were still primarily devoted to the old cults, some of
which, however, were taking on an Aryan complexion. The pastoral god
Murugan was identified with Skanda, and his mother, the fierce war
goddess Korravai, with Durga. Varunan, a sea god who had adopted the
name of an old Vedic god but otherwise had few Aryan features, and
Mayon, a black god who was a rural divinity with many of the
characteristics of Krishna in his pastoral aspect, also are depicted in
Tamil literature. The final Sanskritization of the Tamils was brought
about through the patronage of the Pallava kings of Kanchipuram, who
began to rule in the 4th century ce and who financed the making of many
temples and fine religious sculptures. Similar processes took place in
the Deccan, Bengal, and other regions.
Sanskritization is a term that refers to a style of text that
imitates the customs and manners of the Brahmans. But, although most
sacred texts in Sanskrit were composed by Brahmans, many were composed
by lower-class authors. Likewise, although some sacred texts in
vernacular languages were written by authors of lower castes, many
others were written by Brahmans. In addition, because Sanskrit ceased to
be spoken as a primary language soon after the Vedas were composed, it
is likely that most of the thoughts underlying all subsequent Sanskrit
literature emerged first in some other language. Yet Indologists tend to
be Sanskritists, and Sanskritists tend to assume that all texts
originated in Sanskrit. Indeed, even the counterbalancing tendency to
acknowledge the flow from non-Sanskrit to Sanskrit sources has often
misfired; far too often it is merely asserted that anything that appears
in post-Vedic Hinduism and is not attested in the Vedas is “Dravidian”
or, even worse, from the Indus civilization (about whose religion
virtually nothing is known). The issue is further clouded by the fact
that, though Sanskrit texts tend to be written and vernacular traditions
are primarily oral, there are important oral traditions in Sanskrit too
(including the traditions of the two great Sanskrit epics), and there
are important manuscript traditions in some of the non-Sanskritic
languages (such as Bengali and Tamil). Indeed, written and oral versions
of the epics and Puranas have been, from the very start, in constant
symbiosis.
Little relevance, therefore, attaches to the distinction between
written and oral traditions. A myth is narrated, a process that is
designated in Sanskrit by such words as purana (ancient story) and
akhyana (illustrative narrative). In the oldest source, the Rigveda,
myths are not so much told as alluded to; it is in the later Vedic
literature of the Brahmanas that narratives are found, and these are
often prejudiced by the liturgical concerns of the authors.
The recitation of certain myths was prescribed for various rituals.
The epic Mahabharata states that Vedic stories were narrated “in the
pauses of the ritual,” probably by Brahmans. The sutas (charioteers and
panegyrists), who celebrated the feats of great rulers, were the
mythographers of the Kshatriyas (the warrior class). The sutas were
popular narrators of myth and legend and developed their own bardic
repertoire, which was extended to higher mythology. They—and other
wanderers who found ready audiences at sacrifices or places of
pilgrimage—disseminated the lore.
Narrators continue to repeat and embroider the ancient stories of
gods, sages, and kings. At an early stage their narratives were
dramatized and gave rise to the Sanskrit theatre, in which epic mythic
themes preponderate, and to the closely related dance, which survives in
the now largely South Indian schools of bharata natyam (traditional
dance) and the kathakali (narrative dance) of Kerala. Thus, even in
Sanskrit literature, oral performance was an essential component, which
further facilitated the assimilation of oral vernacular elements.
About 1500 bce, invaders speaking Indo-European Sanskrit entered
India and encountered a population whose majority spoke languages that
belonged to a major non-Indo-European linguistic group called Dravidian.
These two language groups interacted from a very early period, and,
although the earliest preserved specimens of Sanskrit (themselves dating
from a period long after the Indo-Aryan invasions) far antedate examples
of any other languages, there is good reason to believe that the other
languages also produced texts at a very early period. When devotional
Hinduism came into full flower, the vernacular traditions both in
Dravidian languages and in languages derived from Sanskrit began to
record their texts and to have a more discernible influence upon the
Sanskrit tradition.
Of the four primary Dravidian literatures—Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and
Malayalam—the oldest and best-known is Tamil. The earliest preserved
Tamil literature, the so-called Shangam poetry anthologies, dates from
the 1st century bce. These poems are classified by theme into akam
(“interior,” primarily love poetry) and puram (“exterior,” primarily
about war, the poverty of poets, and the deaths of kings). The bhakti
movement has been traced to Tamil poetry, beginning with the poems of
the devotees of Shiva called Nayanars and the devotees of Vishnu called
Alvars. The Nayanars, who date from about 800 ce, composed intensely
personal and devout hymns addressed to the local manifestations of
Shiva.
The most famous Nayanar lyricists are Appar, Sambandar, and Cuntarar,
whose hymns are collected in the Tevaram (c. 11th century). More or less
contemporary were their Vaishnava counterparts, the Alvars Poykai,
Putan, Peyar, and Tirumankaiyalvar; and in the 8th century the poetess
Andal, as well as Periyalvar, Kulacekarar, Tiruppanalvar, and notably
Nammalvar, who is held to be the greatest, composed their works. The
devotion of which they sang exemplified the new bhakti movement, which
sought a more direct contact between humans and God, carried by a
passionate love for the Deity, who would reciprocate by extending his
grace to humankind. These saints also became the inspiration of theistic
systematic religion: the Shaivas for the Shaiva-siddhanta, the
Vaishnavas for Vishistadvaita. In Kannada the same movement was
exemplified by Basava, whose vacanams (“sayings” or “talks”) achieved
great popularity.
New Dravidian genres continued to evolve into the 17th and 18th
centuries, when the Tamil Cittars (name derived from Sanskrit siddha,
“perfected one”), who were eclectic mystics, composed poems noted for
the power of their naturalistic diction. The Tamil sense and style of
these poems belied the Sanskrit-derived title of their authors, a
phenomenon that could stand as a symbol of the complex relationship
between Dravidian and Sanskrit religious texts.
The main languages derived from Sanskrit are Bengali, Hindi (with its
many dialects, of which Maithili is the oldest and Urdu, heavily
influenced by Persian and Arabic and written in a Perso-Arabic script,
is the most important), Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, Oriya, Kashmiri,
Sindhi, Assamese, Nepali, Rajasthani, and Sinhalese. Most of these
languages began to develop literary traditions about 1000 ce.
Although the earliest texts in Hindi are those attributed to the
13th–14th-century Muslim poet Amīr Khosrow, it was not until the 15th
century that Hindi literature produced its own great religious
lyricists. The earliest of these lyricists were the disciples of
Ramananda (c. 140), who was a follower of the philosopher Ramanuja. The
most famous of these lyricists is Kabir, a poet and mystic who was the
forerunner of Sikhism. Tulsidas, apart from his Ramcaritmanas, composed
Ramaite lyrics. Surdas (1483–1563), a follower of the Vallabha school of
Vedanta, is known for his Sursagar (“Ocean of the Poems of Sursagar”), a
collection of poems based on the stories of the childhood of Krishna
found in the Bhagavata-purana. In the Marathi tradition, Namdev
(1270?–1350?) celebrated Vishnu, particularly in his manifestation as
Vitthoba at the Pandharpur temple; and in the 17th century Tukaram, the
greatest poet of this literature, sang of the god of love in numerous
hymns.
The importance of these writers is not limited to literature. A small
sect, the Kabirpanthis, acknowledges Kabir as its founder, but its
importance is less than that of the vigorous new religion (Sikhism)
founded by one of Kabir’s disciples, Nanak.
Although the earliest Hindu text in Bengali is a mid-15th-century
poem about Radha and Krishna, texts in praise of gods and goddesses,
known as mangal-kavyas, surely existed in oral versions long before
then. In later Bengal Vaishnavism, the emphasis shifts from service and
surrender to mutual attachment and attraction between God (i.e.,
Krishna) and humankind: God is said to yearn for the worshiper’s
identification with himself, which is his gift to the wholly purified
devotee. The mystical and devotional possibilities of the Krishna legend
are subordinated to religious practice; the divine sport and wonderful
feats of this youthful hero are interpreted symbolically and
allegorically. Thus, the highest fruition of bhakti is admission to the
eternal sport of Krishna and his beloved Radha, whose sacred love story
is explained as the mutual love between God and the human soul. Various
gradations of bhakti are distinguished, such as awe, subservience, and
parental affection. These are correlated with the persons of the Krishna
legend; the highest and most intimate emotion is said to be the love of
Radha and her girlfriends for Krishna.
A particularly rich Bengali tradition concentrated on the love of
Radha, who symbolizes the human soul, for Krishna, the supreme god. In
this tradition are Candidas, a 15th-century poet known for his love
songs, and the Maithili poet Vidyapati (c. 1400). The single most
influential figure, however, was Caitanya, who in the 16th century
renewed Krishnaism. He left no writings but inspired many hagiographies,
among the most important of which is the Caitanya-caritamrita (“Nectar
of Caitanya’s Life”) by Krishna Das (born 1517).
Caitanya had a profound and lasting effect on the religious
sentiments of the people of Bengal. He propagated the community
celebration (sankirtana) of Krishna as the most powerful means of
bringing about the proper bhakti attitude. Caitanya also introduced the
worship of God, the director of the senses, through the very activity of
the senses, which must be free from all egoism and completely filled
with the intense desire (preman) for the satisfaction of the beloved
(i.e., Krishna).
Another form of religious lyric are the so-called padas (verses).
Govinda Das (1537–1612) is one of the greatest poets in this bhakti
genre of poetry in which divine love is symbolized by human love. The
songs of Ramprasad Sen (1718–75) similarly honour Shakti as mother of
the universe and are still in wide devotional use. The most famous
religious lyrics in Gujarati are the poems of the saint Mira Bai
(1503–73), who wrote passionate love poems to Krishna, whom she regarded
as her husband and lover.
The complex interaction between Sanskrit and non-Sanskrit religious
classics may be seen in the development of the epics. Parts of the two
great Sanskrit epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, and many Puranas
(especially the Bhagavata-purana) were translated into various
vernaculars. These works were not literal translations but free versions
in which the authors inserted their own emphases, which differed both
from the original and from those of other authors. The oldest vernacular
version of the Ramayana is the Tamil translation, the Iramavataram by
Kampan (c. 12th century), a work of high literary distinction that is
suffused with devotion (bhakti). A Telugu rendering was made by
Ranganatha about 1300. Several translations in Bengali include some
interesting and probably authentic variations from the “official” Rama
story by Valmiki, the best-known translation being that of Krittibas
Ojha (1450). Equally, if not more, famous is Ramcaritmanas (“Holy Lake
of the Acts of Rama”).
The Mahabharata was translated into Bengali about 1600 and into
Telugu by Nannaya and Tikkana in the 13th century. The Bhagavata-purana,
which was translated frequently (e.g., into Bengali by Maladhar Vasu,
1480), was popular because it gave the canonical account of Krishna’s
life and especially his boyhood, which is the perennial inspiration of
the bhakti poets.
The teacher Jnanadeva (also known as Jnaneshvara; 1275–96) composed a
commentary on the Bhagavadgita in Marathi that remains a classic in that
literature. His work was continued by Eknath (c. 1600), who also
composed bhakti poetry. In the 16th century the Kannada poet Gadugu
produced a highly individual version of the Mahabharata. In addition to
the literal or not-so-literal translations of the Sanskrit epics, the
Tamils composed their own epics, notably Ilanko Atikal’s Cilappatikaram
(“The Lay of the Anklet”) and its sequel, the Manimekhalai (“Jeweled
Girdle”). In Telugu there is the great Palnadu epic; Rajasthani has an
entire epic cycle about the hero Pabuji. The remaining vernaculars have
also produced many epics of their own.
Much of the classical mythology persists today, and its stories have
been conveyed to Hindus through traditional means as well as via the
mass media. Mythic illustrations are favourites in Indian calendar art.
Motion pictures called “mythological” are extremely popular,
perpetuating the ancient stories, and so are “devotionals,” in which an
example of bhakti is illustrated. Radio regularly carries bhajans
(devotional songs) and classical South Indian songs, the themes of which
are often mythic. Every orthodox Hindu’s home has at least one corner
set aside as a domestic sanctuary where representations of a chosen
deity are placed, and puja (worship) is done with prayers, hymns,
flowers, and incense. Richer establishments set aside entire rooms as
shrines.
Mythology has adjusted itself effortlessly to the modern world. The
ashram of the 20th-century mystic and religious leader Shri Aurobindo in
Pondicherry, dedicated to the Mother Goddess (personified by this group
as a single principle), was an extremely modern establishment complete
with tennis courts. New temples have been constructed with modern
techniques; one temple in Varanasi (Banaras) contains mirrors onto which
are etched the entire Ramcaritmanas. This same poem is the basis of the
annual celebration of Ram Lila (the play of Rama) in northern India, in
which the entire community participates. The story of Rama was evoked by
Mahatma Gandhi when he set the Ram Raj (“Kingdom of Rama”) as India’s
governmental ideal.
On occasion, social protesters have armed themselves with myth to
make a point. For example, Karma, an antagonist in the Mahabharata who
is berated for his low birth, has been extolled in intellectual circles
as a truer champion than the aristocratic heroes. Anti-northern groups
in Tamil Nadu revised the story of Rama, whose expedition against the
demon Ravana is believed by some to be the Aryan invasion of South
India, by reversing it to abuse Rama and to glorify Ravana.
On a popular level, people at temples and fairs are continually
reacquainted with their mythological heritage by pauranikas, tellers of
the ancient stories and heirs of the sutas of 3,000 years ago, and no
festival ground is complete without tents where the religious are
reminded of their myths by pious speakers, modestly compensated by fees
but richly rewarded by the honour in which they are held.
J.A.B. van Buitenen
Edward C. Dimock, Jr.
Arthur Llewellyn Basham
Wendy Doniger
Brian K. Smith
Ed.
Practical Hinduism
Practical Hinduism is both a quest to achieve well-being and a set of
strategies for locating sources of affliction and removing or appeasing
them. Characterized in this way, it has much in common with the popular
beliefs and practices of many other religions. For example, Roman
Catholicism as practiced in many parts of Europe or Mahayana Buddhism in
Korea and Taiwan involve, as does Hinduism, petitions and offerings to
enshrined divine powers in order to engage their help with all manner of
problems and desires. Thus, religions which could hardly differ more
vastly in their understanding of the nature of divinity, reality, and
causality may nonetheless converge at the level of popular piety.
The presumption that assigns “practical” Hinduism to peasants,
labourers, or tribal peoples—while assuming that the high-born, wealthy,
and educated would be concerned with spiritual enlightenment and
Hinduism’s ultimate aim of liberation (moksha)—is false. Hindu farmers
care about their souls at least as much as do Hindu business or
professional men and women (if less single-mindedly than world
renouncers, who come from all ranks of life). Farmers’ uncertain
livelihoods, however, may influence them to dedicate more time and
energy to rituals designed to obtain prosperity or to remove troubles,
to bring rain to parched fields or to prevent damaging hail, to advance
their children’s education and careers, or to protect their families
from ill health. Although rural Hindus may have little time for
meditative practices, they are fully aware of ultimate truths
transcending the everyday. By the same token, the pious urban elite, if
more likely to pursue spiritual disciplines, frequently sponsor worship
in temples or homes to ensure worldly success. At all levels of the
social hierarchy, Hinduism lives through artistic performances: dance
and dance-drama, representational arts, poetry, music, and song serve
not only to please deities but to transmit the religion’s meaningful
narratives and vital truths.
Both adherents of the faith and those who study it describe Hinduism
as a way of life. Thus, they implicitly contrast Hinduism to religions
that appear to be primarily located in spaces and times set apart from
the everyday—such as “church on Sunday.” Although Hindus have
magnificent sacred architecture and a vital tradition of calendrical
festivals, the “way of life” description means that religious attitudes
and acts permeate ordinary places, times, and activities. For example,
bathing, dressing, cooking, eating, disposing of leftovers, and washing
the dishes may all be subject to ritual prescriptions in Hindu
households. Motivations for such ritualized actions are ascribed to
considerations of purity—an interest that is often linked to maintaining
status in a hierarchical social system.
When Hindus interact with deities, considerations of purity may or
may not be important. In some Vaishnava traditions, for example, one
must remain in a relatively pure state in order to be fit to worship. A
Brahman priest of a Krishna temple in the Vallabha sect might refuse
food and water from the hands of non-Brahmans, not to show he is better
than they are but because his work in the temple demands that he
maintain such boundaries. Should he inadvertently lower his own ritual
purity, he might displease or offend the deity with whom he is in
regular contact, which could threaten human well-being in general.
Vaishnava traditions, however, include an alternative perspective
that is conveyed in a well-known tale about Rama. This tale, frequently
portrayed in poetry and art, tells of an outcaste tribal woman named
Shabari who meets Rama in the forest. Her simple-hearted love for him is
so great that she offers him wild berries, which are all she has. She
bites each one first to test its sweetness before giving it to her lord,
and in so doing she contaminates the berries with saliva, a major source
of pollution. Although the berries are highly unacceptable according to
the standards of ritual purity, Rama accepts them and eats them
blissfully. The message is that the polluted offerings of a lowborn
person given to God with a heart full of love are far more pleasing than
any ritually pure gift from a less-devout being. Purity of heart,
therefore, is more important than bodily purity.
The capacity to see both sides of most matters—cognitive flexibility
rather than dogmatic fixity—is one of the most important characteristics
of practical Hinduism, which lacks dogma altogether. In this regard,
persistent continuities with Hinduism’s ancient roots in Vedic
traditions can be discerned. The elaborate sacrificial rituals of Vedic
religion have often been described as being focused on obtaining the
goods of life—neatly summarized as prosperity, health, and progeny—from
divine powers through exacting ritual behaviours. However, in the
Upanishads, the last of the Vedic texts, voices emerge that care for
neither the rituals nor their promised fruits but are concerned above
all with learning the nature of ultimate reality and how the human soul
may recognize that indescribable essence in itself. One quest never
supplants the other. In Hinduism today there remains a vital creative
tension between, on the one hand, faith in the efficacy of ritual and
desire for its worldly fruits and, on the other, disregard for all
external practices and material results. Farmers consistently deride the
notion that sins are washed away in the waters of sacred rivers, yet
they spend small fortunes to travel to and bathe in them.
Practical Hinduism » Devotion
Devotion (bhakti) effectively spans and reconciles the seemingly
disparate aims of obtaining aid in solving worldly problems and locating
one’s soul in relation to divinity. It is the prime religious attitude
in much of Hindu life. The term bhakti is derived from a root that
literally means “having a share”; devotion unites without totally
merging the identities of worshipers and deities. While some traditions
of bhakti radically speak out against ritual, devotion in ordinary life
is usually embedded in worship, vows, and pilgrimages—three major
elements within practical Hinduism.
Theistic devotion presents itself as an easy path, obliterating the
need for expensive sacrificial rituals, difficult ascetic practices, and
scriptural knowledge. All of these are understood as restricted to
high-caste males, and in practice specifically to the rich, the
spiritually gifted, or the learned. But bhakti is for all human beings,
regardless of their rank, gender, or talent. Any person’s chosen deity
may help him obtain life’s rewards or avoid its disasters. At the same
time, such a chosen deity may be the subject of pure, unmotivated
devotional love, recollected in a few moments of morning meditation, in
prayers uttered before a shrine, or in the lighting of incense.
Practical Hinduism » Worship
Worship, or puja, is the central action of practical Hinduism. Scholars
describe Hindu worship as a preeminently transactional event; through
worship, humans approach deities by respectful interactions with their
powers. At every level, from elaborate temple rituals to simple home
practice, worship consists of offerings made and blessings received;
reverence is rendered and grace pours down. The purpose of many rituals
is to promote auspiciousness (kalyana, mangala, shri)—a pervasive Hindu
concept indicating all kinds of good fortune or well-being.
Ritual manuals in vernacular languages offer explicit instructions on
exactly what should be offered and declare what benefits may be obtained
through specific acts of worship. Benefits may be as general as health
and prosperity or as specific as the removal of a particular illness.
They also conventionally include rewards after death—thus uniting
this-worldly and other-worldly blessings. Devotional songs and
statements, however, persistently deny all mechanical views of divine
exchanges, insisting that humans have nothing to give, that everything
belongs to God, and that no truly religious action should ever be
performed instrumentally. Thus, the key tension between external ritual
and internal realization that originated in Vedic times and was
perpetuated in devotional teachings is sustained in popular present-day
ritual action.
One key element in all worship is prasad, translated simply as
“blessing” or “grace” and sometimes more literally as “blessed
leftovers.” This term refers to the returned portion of a worshiper’s or
pilgrim’s offering, which is understood as having value added by the
intangible process of a deity’s consumption. Prasad to be used for
offerings is hawked by vendors on the road to a temple, but this food
does not truly become graced until it has been given as an offering and
received back. Many foodstuffs are used as prasad; bananas or other raw
fruits and coconuts are particularly common, as are various candies and
milk products. Fresh flowers are often included on an offering tray and
may also be returned as prasad. Other substances commonly distributed at
temples include the water in which icons have been ritually bathed,
called charanamrit (“foot nectar”), and the ash from burnt offerings.
What all these have in common is contact with the deity’s power in the
process of worship and service.
Another important element of temple worship is seeing the deity:
darshan. Here again, a two-way but fundamentally unequal flow takes
place. An image is always enlivened and given eyes; the worshiper’s
delighted gaze at the deity engages the deity’s awareness of the
worshiper, and a channel of grace is formed. Sound and scent also alert
deities to humans in their presence. Ringing bells, blowing conch
shells, singing or playing instrumental music, burning incense, and
pouring clarified butter onto smoldering coals are among the activities
intended to alert the deity of the devotee’s presence. Worshipers
commonly prostrate themselves, symbolically offering respect and their
own bodies. A circumambulation of the deity’s altar is another physical
mode of engagement with divine power. Hindu worship is accurately
described as involving all the senses.
Worship is by no means confined to temples. It may be performed at a
home altar, a wayside shrine, or anywhere a devotee decides to mark off
a sacred space. Actions at home may be far less elaborate than those at
temples, more routinized as part of daily household life, and are
performed without priestly expertise. South Indian housewives
traditionally turn their thresholds into auspicious altars for the
goddess each morning as they draw ritual designs, which are almost
instantly trampled back into dust.
Conceptually distinct from worship yet often conflated with it is
seva, or service. This refers to regular, respectful attentions to the
needs of enshrined deities, or icons (murti). Service in many temples is
twice daily or more often. At shrines it may involve bathing an icon,
changing its ornaments, ringing bells, and waving lights before it
(arati). In temples the person who does seva is normally a ritual
expert, regularly present. Although seva is never done with an aim in
mind, it is understood to keep the gods beneficently inclined, and
flawed seva may cause trouble. Performing seva is good for the soul of
the server.
Practical Hinduism » Divination, spirit possession, and healing
Simple practices of divination are common to practical Hinduism.
Everyone wants to know: Will my wish be fulfilled? Will my prayer be
granted? The answers to such yes-no questions may be revealed by any of
a number of practices. Plucking grains between thumb and finger from a
pile and counting them to see if they add up to an auspicious number,
pressing flowers to the wall and waiting for them to fall, and pouring
clarified butter on coals and seeing if a flame rises up are common
practices in more than one region of India.
A more elaborate mode of communicating with divine power is spirit
possession, in which a human being, male or female, is thought to act as
a vehicle for a deity’s mind and voice. This practice is also found in
every geographic region where Hinduism flourishes. Although more common
to rural areas, it is not absent from urban religion. A possessed priest
or priestess is able to provide answers more complex than “yes” or “no.”
A medium possessed by a deity may identify certain spirits of the dead
who are troubling someone with symptoms of physical and mental illness.
Usually these spirits are understood to cause trouble because they are
not satisfied with the attention they are getting. The medium will
prescribe ritual actions designed to transform the spirit from a source
of affliction to a benevolent or neutral power or to send the spirit
away. Purely malevolent beings, including jealous “witches” or nameless
wandering ghosts, are cajoled, bullied, or even frightened into
departure.
Practical Hinduism is greatly concerned with maintaining mental and
physical health. Although a possessed priest occasionally forbids resort
to doctors and their remedies, in the majority of cases healing rituals
operate in conjunction with medicines, injections, and operations.
Familial problems are often untangled with the help of a possessed
priest in consultations sometimes likened by observers to group therapy.
Practical Hinduism » Women’s religious practices
Women’s rituals comprise an important part of practical Hinduism. Some
male-authored Hindu scriptures limit women’s religious roles, consider
women more subject than men to bodily impurities, and subordinate them
to their fathers and husbands. Priests in temples and other public
spaces are predominantly—though not exclusively—male. Most domestic
Hindu rituals, however, lie in the hands and hearts of women. Women
perform their own seva and puja at permanent or temporary domestic
shrines, are the chief ritual experts at many calendrical festivals, and
are responsible for many ritual aspects of weddings and other life-cycle
celebrations. Women more frequently than men undertake personal vows
(vrata)—individually or collectively—to ensure the well-being of their
families.
The elements of a vrata usually include a partial fast, simple
worship in a domestic space temporarily purified for this purpose, and
often the retelling of one or more stories honouring the deities and
exemplifying the rewards or describing the origins of the ritual. The
event may conclude with the consumption of special food to break the
fast. Vows are often associated with calendrical cycles, whether solar,
lunar, or both. For example, each day of the week is identified with a
particular deity: Monday with Shiva, Tuesday with Hanuman, Wednesday
with Ganesha, and so forth. If a woman undertakes a Monday vrata, she
will fast and worship Shiva and tell his story every Monday. Or, a
person may do an eleventh vrata, a vow for the eleventh day of the lunar
calendar, which would come twice a month in the waxing and waning halves
of the moon. Some vows are undertaken for the occasional potent
convergence of both calendrical systems, such as somavati amavasa, a
Monday dark moon.
Women’s ritually performed stories feature heroines who may be
devotees of the deity being honoured, daughters of female devotees, or
persons ignorant of that particular deity who then learn about its power
and blessings in the course of severe tribulations. Notably, the
heroines of women’s devotional stories exemplify moral virtues, ritual
knowledge, devotional fervour, and transformative agency. The power
accumulated by women through their ritual actions should never be used
exclusively for their own well-being. Selflessness is a very important
virtue that is exemplified by self-denial in fasting. Nonetheless,
because women’s well- being is connected to familial well-being, women
see their rituals as productive of better circumstances for themselves
and their loved ones. For women, practical Hinduism is a space where
they express their competence, self-respect, and power and see
themselves as protectors of husbands, brothers, and sons. Even while
critiquing the ways in which some Hindu traditions disadvantage women,
Indian feminists have located important resources for women in goddess
worship, in vrata narratives, and in the sense of gender solidarity and
self-worth that women’s rituals produce.
Practical Hinduism » Pilgrimage
Pilgrimage in Hinduism, as in other religions, is the practice of
journeying to sites where religious powers, knowledge, or experience are
deemed especially accessible. Hindu pilgrimage is rooted in ancient
scriptures. According to textual scholars, the earliest reference to
Hindu pilgrimage is in the Rigveda (c. 1500 bce), in which the
“wanderer” is praised. Numerous later texts, including the epic
Mahabharata (c. 300 bce–300 ce) and several of the mythological Puranas
(c. 300–750 ce), elaborate on the capacities of particular sacred sites
to grant boons, such as health, wealth, progeny, and deliverance after
death. Texts enjoin Hindu pilgrims to perform rites on behalf of
ancestors and recently deceased kin. Sanskrit sources as well as
devotional literature in regional vernacular languages praise certain
places and their miraculous capacities.
Pilgrimage has been increasingly popular since the 20th century,
facilitated by ever-improving transportation. Movement over actual
distance is critical to pilgrimage, for what is important is not just
visiting a sacred space but leaving home. Most pilgrimage centres hold
periodic religious fairs called melas to mark auspicious astrological
moments or important anniversaries. In 2001, for example, the Kumbh Mela
in Allahabad was attended during a six-week period by tens of millions
of pilgrims.
Because of shared elements in rituals, a pilgrim from western
Rajasthan does not feel alienated in the eastern pilgrimage town of
Puri, even though the spoken language, the landscape and climate, the
deities’ names and appearances, and the food offerings are markedly
different from those the pilgrim knows at home. Moreover, pilgrimage
works to propagate practices among diverse regions because stories and
tales of effective and attractive ritual acts circulate along with
pilgrims.
Pilgrimage sites are often located in spots of great natural beauty
thought to be pleasing to deities as well as humans. Environmental
activists draw on the mythology of the sacred landscapes to inspire
Hindu populations to adopt sustainable environmental practices. The
Sanskrit and Hindi word for pilgrimage centre is tirtha, literally a
river ford or crossing place. The concept of a ford is associated with
pilgrimage centres not simply because many are on riverbanks but because
they are metaphorically places for transition, either to the other side
of particular worldly troubles or beyond the endless cycle of birth and
death.
Ann G. Gold
Rituals, social practices, and institutions » Sacrifice and worship
Although the Vedic fire rituals were largely replaced in Puranic and
modern Hinduism by image worship and other forms of devotionalism, many
Hindu rites can be traced back to Vedism. Certain royal sacrifices—such
as the rajasuya, or consecration ritual—remained popular with Hindu
kings until modern times. Other large-scale Vedic sacrifices (shrauta)
have been regularly maintained from ancient times to the present by
certain families and groups of Brahmans. The surviving rituals from the
Vedic period, however, tend to be observed at the level of the domestic
(grihya) ritual.
Rituals, social practices, and institutions » Sacrifice and worship »
Domestic rites
The Vedic householder was expected to maintain a domestic fire into
which he made his offerings. Normally he did this himself, but in many
cases he employed a Brahman officiant. In the course of time, the family
priest was given a large part in these ceremonies, so that most Hindus
have employed Brahmans for the administration of the “sacraments”
(samskaras). Sudras, the fourth and lowest of the social classes of
India, are allowed to perform some samskaras if they do not require the
use of Vedic mantras. The samskaras include all important life-cycle
events, from conception to cremation, and are the main constituents of
the domestic ritual.
Rituals, social practices, and institutions » Sacrifice and worship »
Domestic rites » Samskaras: rites of passage
The samskaras are transitional rites intended to prepare a person for a
certain event or for the next stage in life by removing taints (sins) or
by generating fresh qualities. If the blemishes incurred in this or a
previous life are not removed, the person is impure and will not be
rewarded for any ritual acts. The samskaras sanctify critical moments
and are deemed necessary for unfolding a person’s latent capacities for
development.
In antiquity there was a great divergence of opinion about the number
of rites of passage, but in later times 16 were recognized as most
important. In modern times most samskaras (except those of impregnation,
initiation, and marriage) have fallen into disuse or are performed in an
abridged or simplified form without Vedic mantras or a priest.
The impregnation rite, consecrating the intended time of conception,
consists of a ritual meal of pounded rice (mixed with various other
things according to whether the married man desires a fair, brown, or
dark son; a learned son; or a learned daughter), an offering of rice
boiled in milk, the sprinkling of the woman, and intercourse; all acts
are also accompanied by mantras. In the third month of pregnancy the
rite called punsavana (begetting of a son) follows. The birth is itself
the subject of elaborate ceremonies, the main features of which are an
oblation of ghee (clarified butter) cast into the fire; the introduction
of a pellet of honey and ghee into the newborn child’s mouth, which
according to many authorities is an act intended to produce mental and
physical strength; the murmuring of mantras for the sake of a long life;
and rites to counteract inauspicious influences. There is much
divergence of opinion as to the time of the name-giving ceremony; in
addition to the personal name, there is often another one that should be
kept secret for fear of sinister designs against the child. The defining
moment comes, however, when the father utters the nameinto the child’s
ear.
A hallmark of childhood samskaras is a general male bias. In the
birth ritual (jatakarman), the manuals direct the father to breathe upon
the child’s head, a practice transparently designed to supplant the role
that biology gives to the mother. In practice, however, the mother may
join in this breathing ritual.
There is also an array of life-cycle rites that focuses specifically
upon the lives of girls and women. In South India, for instance, one
finds an initiation rite (vilakkitu kalyanam) that corresponds roughly
to upanayana, the male initiation, and that gives girls the authority to
light oil lamps and thereby to become full participants in proper
domestic worship. Other rites celebrate first menstruation or mark
various moments surrounding childbirth. Typically women act as
officiants.
The important upanayana initiation is held when a boy is between the
ages of 8 and 12 and marks his entry into the community of the three
higher classes of society. In this rite he becomes a “twice-born one,”
or dvija. Traditionally, this was also the beginning of a long period of
Veda study and education in the house under the guidance of a teacher
(guru). In modern practice, the haircutting ceremony—formerly performed
in a boy’s third year—and the initiation are usually performed on the
same day, the homecoming ceremony at the end of the period of study
being little more than a formality.
Wedding ceremonies, the most important of all, have not only remained
elaborate—and often very expensive—but have also incorporated various
elements—among others, propitiations and expiations—that are not
indicated in the oldest sources. Already in ancient times there existed
great divergences in accordance with local customs or family or caste
traditions. However, the following practices are considered essential in
the performance of the wedding rite. The date is fixed only after
careful astrological calculation; the bridegroom is conducted to the
home of his future parents-in-law, who receive him as an honoured guest;
there are offerings of roasted grain into the fire; the bridegroom has
to take hold of the bride’s hand; he conducts her around the sacrificial
fire; seven steps are taken by bride and bridegroom to solemnize the
irrevocability of the unity; both are, in procession, conducted to their
new home, which the bride enters without touching the threshold.
Of eight forms of marriage recognized by the ancient authorities, two
have remained in vogue: the simple gift of a bride and the legalization
of the alliance by means of a marriage gift paid to the bride’s family.
In the Vedic period, girls seem not to have married before they had
reached puberty. Child marriage and the condemnation of the remarriage
of widows, especially among the higher classes, became customary later
and have gradually, since the mid-19th century, lost their stringency.
The traditional funeral method is cremation. Burial is reserved for
those who have not been sufficiently purified by samskaras (i.e.,
children) and those who no longer need the ritual fire to be conveyed to
the hereafter, such as ascetics who have renounced all earthly concerns.
An important and meritorious complement of the funeral offices is the
sraddha ceremony, in which food is offered to Brahmans for the benefit
of the deceased. Many people still perform this rite at least once a
year, even when they no longer engage in any of the five obligatory
daily offerings discussed below.
Rituals, social practices, and institutions » Sacrifice and worship »
Domestic rites » Daily offerings
There are five obligatory offerings: (1) offerings to the gods (food
taken from the meal), (2) a cursory offering (bali) made to “all
beings,” (3) a libation of water mixed with sesame offered to the
spirits of the deceased, (4) hospitality, and (5) recitation of the
Vedas. Although some traditions prescribe a definite ritual in which
these five “sacrifices” are performed, in most cases the five daily
offerings are merely a way of speaking about one’s religious obligations
in general.
Rituals, social practices, and institutions » Sacrifice and worship »
Domestic rites » Other private rites
The morning and evening adorations (sandhya), being a very important
duty of the traditional householder, are mainly Vedic in character but
have become lengthy because of the addition of Puranic and Tantric
elements. If not shortened, the morning ceremonies consist of
self-purification, bathing, prayers, and recitation of mantras,
especially the Gayatri-mantra (Rigveda 3.62.10), a prayer for spiritual
stimulation addressed to the Sun. The accompanying ritual includes (1)
the application of marks on the forehead, characterizing the adherents
of a particular religious community, (2) the presentation of offerings
(water, flowers) to the Sun, and (3) meditative concentration. There are
Shaiva and Vaishnava variants, and some elements are optional. The
observance of the daily obligations, including the care of bodily purity
and professional duties, leads to earthly reward and helps to preserve
the state of sanctity required to enter into contact with the divine.
Rituals, social practices, and institutions » Sacrifice and worship »
Temple worship
Image worship in sectarian Hinduism takes place both in small household
shrines and in the temple. Many Hindu authorities claim that regular
temple worship to one of the deities of the devotional cults procures
the same results for the worshiper as did the performance of one of the
great Vedic sacrifices, and one who provides the patronage for the
construction of a temple is called a “sacrificer” (yajamana).
Building a temple, which belongs to whoever paid for it or to the
community that occupies it, is believed to be a meritorious deed
recommended to anyone desirous of heavenly reward. The choice of a site,
which should be serene and lovely, is determined by astrology and
divination as well as by its proximity to human dwellings. The size and
artistic value of temples range widely, from small village shrines with
simple statuettes to great temple-cities whose boundary walls, pierced
by monumental gates (gopura), enclose various buildings, courtyards,
pools for ceremonial bathing, and sometimes even schools, hospitals, and
monasteries.
Temple services, which may be held by any qualified member of the
community, are neither collective nor carried out at fixed times. Those
present experience, as spectators, the fortifying and beneficial
influence radiating from the sacred acts. Sometimes worshipers assemble
to meditate, to take part in chanting, or to listen to an exposition of
doctrine. The puja (worship) performed in public “for the well-being of
the world” is, though sometimes more elaborate, largely identical with
that executed for personal interest. There are, however, many regional
differences and even significant variations within the same community.
Rituals, social practices, and institutions » Sacrifice and worship »
Shaiva rites
Ascetic tendencies were much in evidence among the Pashupatas, the
oldest Shaiva tradition in northern India. Their Yoga, consisting of a
constant meditative contact with God in solitude, required that they
frequent places for cremating bodies. One group that emerged out of the
Pashupata sect carried human skulls (hence the name Kapalikas, from
kapala, “skull”). The Kapalikas used the skulls as bowls for liquor into
which they projected and worshipped Shiva as Kapalika, the “Skull
Bearer,” or Bhairava, the “Frightful One,” and then drank to become
intoxicated. Their belief was that an ostentatious indifference to
anything worldly was the best method of severing the ties of samsara.
The view and way of life peculiar to the Virashaivas, or Lingayats
(Lingam-Bearers), in southwestern India is characterized by a deviation
from common Hindu traditions and institutions such as sacrificial rites,
temple worship, pilgrimages, child marriages, and inequality of the
sexes. Initiation (diksa) is, on the other hand, an obligation laid on
every member of the community. The spiritual power of the guru is
bestowed upon the newborn and converts, who receive the eightfold shield
(which protects devotees from ignorance of the supremacy of God and
guides them to final beatitude) and the lingam (phallic symbol). The
miniature lingam, the centre and basis of all their religious practices
and observances, which they always bear on their body, is held to be God
himself concretely represented. Worship is due it twice or three times a
day. When a Lingayat “is absorbed into the lingam” (i.e., dies), his
body is not cremated, as is customary in Hinduism, but is interred, like
ascetics of other groups. Lingayats who have reached a certain level of
holiness are believed to die in the state of emancipation.
Shaivism, though inclined in doctrinal matters to inclusiveness,
inculcates some fundamental lines of conduct: one should worship one’s
spiritual preceptor (guru) as God himself, follow his path, consider him
to be present in oneself, and dissociate oneself from all opinions and
practices that are incompatible with the Shaiva creed. Yet some of
Shiva’s devotees also worship other gods, and the “Shaivization” of
various ancient traditions is sometimes rather superficial.
Like many other Indian religions, the Shaiva-siddhanta has developed
an elaborate system of ethical philosophy, primarily with a view to
preparing the way for those who aspire to liberation. Because dharma
leads to happiness, there is no distinction between sacred and secular
duties. All deeds are performed as services to God and with the
conviction that all life is sacred and God-centred. A devout way of
living and a nonemotional mysticism are thus much recommended. Kashmir
Shaivism developed the practice of a simple method of salvation: by the
recognition (pratyabhijna)—direct, spontaneous, technique-free, but full
of bhakti—of one’s identity with God.
Rituals, social practices, and institutions » Sacrifice and worship »
Vaishnava rites
The faithful Shrivaishnava Brahman arranges his day around five
pursuits: purificatory rites, collecting the requisites for worship,
acts of worship, study and contemplation of the meaning of the sacred
books, and meditative concentration on the Lord’s image. Lifelong
obligations include the performance of sacrifices and other rites,
restraint of the senses, fasting and soberness, worship, recitation of
the scriptures, and visits to sacred places. Ramanuja, the great
theologian and philosopher of the 12th century, recommended, in addition
to these practices, concentration on God, a virtuous way of living, and
insensibility to luck and misfortune. According to Madhva (c. 1199–c.
1278), faithful observance of all regulations of daily conduct—including
bathing, breath control, etc.—will contribute to eventual success in the
quest for liberation. Devout Vaishnavas emphasize God’s omnipotence and
the far-reaching effects of his grace. They attach much value to the
repetition of his name or of sacred formulas (japa) and to the praise
and commemoration of his deeds as a means of self-realization and of
unification with his essence. Special stress is laid on ahimsa
(“noninjury”), the practice of not killing or not causing injury to
living creatures.
Rituals, social practices, and institutions » Sacred times and festivals
Hindu festivals are combinations of religious ceremonies, semi-ritual
spectacles, worship, prayer, lustrations, processions, music, dances,
magical acts—participants throw fertilizing water or, during the Holi
festival, coloured powder at each other—eating, drinking, lovemaking,
licentiousness, feeding the poor, and other activities of a religious or
traditional character. The original purpose of these activities was to
purify, avert malicious influences, renew society, bridge over critical
moments, and stimulate or resuscitate the vital powers of nature (hence
the term utsava, meaning both the generation of power and a festival).
Because Hindu festivals relate to the cyclical life of nature, they are
supposed to prevent it from stagnating. These cyclic festivals—which may
last for many days—continue to be celebrated throughout India.
Such festivals refresh the mood of the participants, further the
consciousness of their own power, and help to compensate for their
sensations of fear and inferiority concerning the forces of nature. Such
mixtures of worship and pleasure require the participation of the entire
community and create harmony among its members, even if not all
contemporary participants are aware of the festival’s original
character. There are also innumerable festivities in honour of specific
gods, celebrated by individual temples, villages, and religious
communities.
An important festival, formerly celebrating Kama, the god of sexual
desire, survives in the Holi, a saturnalia connected with the spring
equinox and in western India with the wheat harvest. Although
commemorated throughout India, the rituals associated with Holi vary
regionally. Among the Marathas, a people who live along the west coast
of India from Mumbai (Bombay) to Goa, the descendants of heroes who died
on the battlefield perform a dance, sword in hand, in honour of their
ancestors until they believe themselves possessed by the spirits of the
heroes. In Bengal swings are made for Krishna; in other regions a
bonfire is also essential. The tradition that accounts for the festival
of Holi describes how young Prahlada, in spite of his demonic father’s
opposition, worshipped Vishnu and was carried into the fire by the
female demon Holika, the embodiment of evil, who was believed to be
immune to the ravages of fire. Through Vishnu’s intervention, Prahlada
emerged unharmed, while Holika was burned to ashes. The bonfires are
intended to commemorate this event or rather to reiterate the triumph of
virtue and religion over evil and sacrilege. This explains why objects
representing the sickness and impurities of the past year—the new year
begins immediately after Holi—are thrown into the bonfire, and it is
considered inauspicious not to look at it. Moreover, people pay or
forgive debts, reconcile quarrels, and try to rid themselves of the
evils, conflicts, and impurities they have accumulated during the
preceding months, translating the central conception of the festival
into a justification for dealing anew with continuing situations in
their lives.
Hindus celebrate a number of other important festivals, including
Diwali, in which all classes of society participate, though it is
believed to have been given by Vishnu to the Vaishyas (traders, et al.).
It takes place in October and features worship and ceremonial lights in
honour of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and good fortune; fireworks to
chase away the spirits of the deceased; and gambling, an old ritual
custom intended to secure luck for the coming year. The nine-day Durga
festival, or Navaratri, is, especially in Bengal, splendid homage to
Shakti; in South India it is a celebration of Rama’s victory over
Ravana.
Rituals, social practices, and institutions » Ritual and social status »
Social structure
The caste system, which has organized Indian society for millennia, is
thoroughly legitimated by and intertwined with Hindu religious doctrine
and practice. Four social classes, or varnas—Brahmans, Kshatriyas,
Vaishyas, and Sudras—provide the simplified structure for the enormously
complicated system of thousands of castes and subcastes. According to a
passage from the Purusha hymn (Rigveda 10.90), the Brahman was the
Purusha’s mouth, the Kshatriya his arms, the Vaishya his thighs, and the
Sudra his feet. This depiction of the Purusha, or cosmic man, gives an
idea of the functions and mutual relations of the four main social
classes.
The three main classes in the classic division of Indian society are
the Brahmans, the warriors, and the commoners. The Brahmans, whatever
their worldly avocations, claim to be by virtue of their birth a
perpetual incarnation of the dharma, guardians and dispensers of divine
power, entitled to teach the Veda, sacrificing for others and accepting
gifts and subsistence. The term alms is misleading; the daksina offered
at the end of a rite to a Brahman officiant is not a fee but an oblation
through which the rite is made complete. Brahmans are held to be the
highest of all human beings because of the superiority of their origin,
their sanctification through the samskaras (rites of passage), and their
observance of restrictive rules. The main duty of the nobility (the
Kshatriyas) is to protect the people, that of the commoners (the
Vaishyas) to tend cattle, to trade, and to cultivate land. Even if a
king (theoretically of Kshatriya descent) was not of noble descent, he
was still clothed with divine authority as an upholder of dharma. He was
consecrated by means of a complex and highly significant ritual; he was
Indra and other gods (deva) incarnate. The emblems or paraphernalia of
his office represent sovereign authority; the white umbrella of state,
for example, is the residence of Shri-Lakshmi, the goddess of fortune.
All three higher classes, claiming Aryan descent, had to sacrifice and
to study the Veda, although the responsibilities of the Vaishyas in
sacred matters were less demanding.
While this tripartition seems to have been inherited from
Indo-European times, the fourth class (the Sudras), whose sole duty was
“to serve meekly” (Manava dharma-shastra 1.91), is partly descended from
the subjugated non-Aryans, a fact that accounts for its many
disabilities and exclusion from religious status. According to Hindu
tradition, the Veda should not be studied in their presence, but they
may listen to the recitation of epics and Puranas. They are permitted to
perform the five main acts of worship (without Vedic mantras) and
undertake observances, but even today they maintain various ceremonies
of their own, carried out without Brahmanic assistance.
Yet a distinction is often made among Sudras. Some are purer and have
a more correct behaviour and way of living than others, the former
tending to assimilate with higher castes, the latter to rank with the
lowest in the social scale, who, often called Chandalas, were at an
early date charged with sweeping, bearing corpses, and other impure
occupations. Ritual purity was and is an important criterion; impure
conduct and neglect of Veda study and the rules regarding forbidden food
might suffice to stigmatize the “twice-born” as a Sudra. On the other
hand, in later times the trend of many communities has been toward
integrating all Sudras into the Brahmanic system. The Brahmans, who have
far into modern times remained a respected, traditional, and sometimes
intellectual upper class, were (until the 1930s) much in demand because
of their knowledge of rites and traditions. Although Kshatriya rank is
claimed by many whose title is one of function or creation rather than
of inheritance, this class is now rare in many regions. Moreover, for a
considerable time none of the four varnas represented anything other
than a series of hierarchically arranged groups of castes.
Rituals, social practices, and institutions » Ritual and social status »
Castes
The origin of the caste system is not known with certainty. Hindus
maintain that the proliferation of the castes (jatis, literally
“births”) was the result of intermarriage (which is prohibited in Hindu
works on dharma), which led to the subdivision of the four classes, or
varnas. Modern theorists, however, assume that castes arose from
differences in family ritual practices, racial distinctions, and
occupational differentiation and specialization. Scholars also doubt
whether the simple varna system was ever more than a theoretical
socioreligious ideal and have emphasized that the highly complex
division of Hindu society into nearly 3,000 castes and subcastes was
probably in place even in ancient times.
In general, a caste is an endogamous hereditary group of families
bearing a common name, often claiming a common descent, as a rule
professing to follow the same hereditary calling, clinging to the same
customs, especially regarding purity, meals, and marriages, and often
further divided into smaller endogamous circles. Moreover, tribes,
guilds, or religious communities characterized by particular customs—for
example, the Lingayats—could easily be regarded as castes. The status of
castes varies in different localities. Although social mobility is
possible, the mutual relationship of castes is hierarchically
determined: local Brahman groups occupy the highest place, and
differences in ritual purity are the main criteria of position in the
hierarchy. Most impure are the untouchables, referred to as scheduled
castes in the constitution of modern India and popularly called
Harijans. Among the scheduled castes, however, there are numerous
subdivisions, each of which regards itself as superior to others.
Traditional Hindus maintain that the ritual impurity and
“untouchability” inherent in these groups does not essentially differ
from that temporarily associated with mourners or menstruating women.
This, and the fact that some exterior group or other might rise in
estimation and become an interior one or that individual outcastes might
be well-to-do, does not alter the fact that the spirit of exclusiveness
has been carried to extremes at times. The scheduled castes were
subjected to various socioreligious disabilities before mitigating
tendencies helped bring about reform. After independence, social
discrimination was prohibited, and the practice of preventing access to
religious, occupational, or civil rights on the grounds of
untouchability was made a punishable offense. Despite these
prohibitions, scheduled castes were barred from the use of temples and
other religious institutions and from public schools. These groups also
had many disabilities in relations with private persons.
From the traditional Hindu point of view, this social system is the
necessary complement of the principles of dharma, karma, and samsara.
Corresponding to hells and heavenly regions in the hereafter, the castes
are the mundane social frame within which karma is manifested. A low
social status is the inevitable result of sins in a former life but can,
by virtue and merit, be followed by a better position in the next
existence.
Rituals, social practices, and institutions » Ritual and social status »
Social protest
For many centuries certain Indian religious communities have been
dedicated in whole or in part to the elimination of caste
discrimination. Many have been guided by bhakti sentiments, including
the Virauaivas, Sikhs, Kabir Panthis, Satnemis, and Remnemis, all of
whom bear a complicated relation to the greater Hindu fold. A major
theme in bhakti poetry throughout India has been the ridicule of caste
and the etiquette of ritual purity that relates to it. This element is
stronger among the bhakti poets who accept the concept of nirguna, which
holds that brahman is to be characterized as without qualities, than the
poets who advocate the idea of saguna, which maintains that brahman
possesses qualities.
Other religions have provided members of low-ranked castes with a
further hope for escaping social hierarchies associated with Hindu
practice. Sikhism has traditionally rejected caste, a position clearly
emphasized in the gurdwaras, where access to sacred scripture, the Adi
Granth, is granted without regard to caste and communal meals are served
to all Sikhs. Islam played this role in Kerala from the 8th century
onward and elsewhere in India since the 12th century, but some convert
groups have retained their original caste organization even after
embracing Islam. Christianity has exercised a similar force, serving for
centuries as a magnet for disadvantaged Hindus. In 1956 B.R. Ambedkar,
the principal framer of the Indian constitution and a member of the
scheduled Mahar caste, abandoned Hinduism for Buddhism, and millions of
his lower-caste followers eventually also converted to Buddhism. Yet
many Ambedkarite Dalits (the “Oppressed”) continue to venerate saints
such as Kabir, Cokhamela, and Ravidas, who figure in the general lore of
Hindu bhakti. Other Dalits, especially members of the Camer caste
(traditionally leather workers), have gone further, identifying
themselves explicitly as Ravidasis, creating a scripture that features
his poetry and building temples that house his image. Still other Dalit
communities have claimed since the early 20th century that they
represent India’s original religion (adi dharma), rejecting caste-coded
Vedic beliefs and practices as perversions introduced by Aryan invaders
in the 2nd millennium bce.
Rituals, social practices, and institutions » Ritual and social status »
Renunciants and the rejection of social order
Another means of rejecting the social order, which forms the background
for significant portions of Hindu belief and practice, is renunciation
(self-denial and asceticism). The rituals of sannyasa, which serve as a
gateway to a life of religious discipline, often mimic death rituals,
signifying the renouncer’s understanding that he (or, less typically,
she) no longer occupies a place in family or society. Other rituals
serve to induct the initiate into a new family—the alternative family
provided by a celibate religious order, usually focused on a guru. In
principle this family should not be structured along the lines of caste,
and the initiate should pledge to renounce dietary restrictions. In
practice, however, some dietary restrictions remain in India’s most
influential renunciant communities (though not in all), and some
renunciant orders are closely paired with specific communities of
householders. This follows a pattern that is loosely present everywhere.
Householders and renunciants offer each other mutual benefits, with the
former dispensing material substance to the theoretically propertyless
holy men and women while the latter dispense religious merit and
spiritual guidance in return. Such an enactment of the values of dharma
and moksha is symbiotic to be sure, but that does not serve to
domesticate renunciants entirely. Their existence questions the ultimacy
of anything tied to caste, hierarchy, and bodily well-being.
Rituals, social practices, and institutions » Religious orders and holy
men
Members of the various denominations who abandon all worldly attachment
enter an “inner circle” or “order” that, seeking a life of devotion,
adopts or develops particular vows and observances, a common cult, and
some form of initiation.
Rituals, social practices, and institutions » Religious orders and holy
men » Initiation
Hindus are free to join a religious order and must submit to its rites
and way of living after joining it. The initiation (diksha), a rite of
purification or consecration involving the transformation of the
aspirant’s personality, is regarded as a complement to, or even a
substitute for, the previous initiation ceremony (the upanayana that all
twice-born Hindus undergo at adolescence), which it strikingly
resembles. Such religious groups integrate ancient, widespread ideas and
customs of initiation into the framework of either the Vaishnava or
Shaiva patterns of Hinduism.
Vaishnavism emphasizes their character as an introduction to a life
of devotion and as an entrance into closer contact with God, although
happiness, knowledge, a long life, and a prospect of freedom from karma
are also among the ideals to which they aspire. Shaivas are convinced of
the absolute necessity of initiation for anyone desiring final
liberation and require an initiation in accordance with their rituals.
All communities agree that the authority to initiate belongs only to a
qualified spiritual guide (guru), usually a Brahman, who has previously
received the special guru-diksha (initiation as a teacher) and is often
regarded as representing God himself. The postulant is sometimes
committed to a probationary period, to training in Yoga mysticism, or to
instruction in the esoteric meaning of the scriptures. The initiate
receives a devotional name and is given the sacred mantras of the
community.
There are many complicated forms of initiation: the Vaishnavas
differentiate between the members of the four classes; the Shaivas and
Tantrists take into account the natural aptitude and competency of the
recipients and distinguish between first-grade initiates, who are
believed to obtain access to God, and higher-grade initiates, who remain
in a state of holiness.
Rituals, social practices, and institutions » Religious orders and holy
men » Yoga
The initiate guided by a guru may practice Yoga (a “methodic exertion”
of body and mind) in order to attain, through mortification,
concentration, and meditation, a higher state of consciousness and
thereby find supreme knowledge, achieve spiritual autonomy, and realize
oneness with the Highest (or however the ultimate goal is conceived).
Yoga may be atheistic or theistic and may adopt various philosophical or
religious principles. Every denomination attempted to implement Yogic
practices on a theoretical basis derived from its own teachings. There
are many different forms of Yoga, and the practices vary according to
the stage of advancement of the adepts. All serious yogis, however,
agree in disapproving the use of Yogic methods for worldly purposes.
Rituals, social practices, and institutions » Religious orders and holy
men » Sectarian symbols
The typical Hindu ascetic (sadhu) usually wears a distinctive mark
(pundra) on his forehead and often carries some symbol of his religion.
A Vaishnava might possess a discus (chakra) and a conch shell (sankha),
replicas of Vishnu’s flaming weapon and his instrument of beneficent
power and omnipresent protection, or a shalagrama stone or a tulsi
plant, which represent, respectively, Vishnu’s essence and that of his
spouse Lakshmi. A Shaiva might impersonate Shiva and carry a trident
(trishula), denoting empire and the irresistible force of transcendental
reality; wear a small lingam; carry a human skull, showing that he is
beyond the terror inspired by the transitoriness of the world; or smear
his body with apotropaic (supposed to avert evil) and consecratory
ashes. These emblems are sacred objects of worship because the divine
presence, when invoked by mantras, is felt to be in them.
Brian K. Smith
Ed.
Rituals, social practices, and institutions » Cultural expressions:
visual arts, theatre, and dance
The structure of Indian temples, the outward form of images, and indeed
the very character of Indian art are largely determined by the religion
and unique worldview of India, which penetrated the other provinces of
culture and welded them into a homogeneous whole. Moreover, the art that
emerged is highly symbolic. The much-developed ritual-religious
symbolism presupposes the existence of a spiritual reality that may make
its presence and influence felt in the material world and can also be
approached through its representative symbols.
The production of objects of symbolic value is therefore more than a
technique. The artisan can begin work only after entering into a state
of supranormal consciousness and must model a cult image after the ideal
prototype. After undergoing a process of spiritual transformation, the
artisan is believed to transform the material used to create the image
into a receptacle of divine power. Like the artisan, the worshiper
(sadhaka, “the one who wishes to attain the goal”), must grasp the
esoteric meaning of a statue, picture, or pot and identify his or her
self with the power residing in it. The usual offering, a handful of
flowers, is the means to convey the worshiper’s “life-breath” into the
image.
Rituals, social practices, and institutions » Cultural expressions:
visual arts, theatre, and dance » Types of symbols
If they know how to handle the symbols, the worshipers have at their
disposal an instrument for utilizing the possibilities lying in the
depths of their own subconscious as well as a key to the mysteries of
the forces dominating the world.
Rituals, social practices, and institutions » Cultural expressions:
visual arts, theatre, and dance » Types of symbols » Yantra and mandala
The general term for an “instrument [for controlling]” is yantra, which
is especially applied to ritual diagrams but can also be applied to cult
images, pictures, and other such aids to worship. Any yantra represents
some aspect of the divine and enables devotees to worship it immediately
within their hearts while identifying themselves with it. Except in its
greater complexity, a mandala does not differ from a yantra, and both
are drawn during a highly complex ritual in a purified and ritually
consecrated place. The meaning and the use of both are similar, and they
may be permanent or provisional. A mandala, delineating a consecrated
place and protecting it against disintegrating forces represented in
demoniac cycles, is the geometric projection of the universe, spatially
and temporally reduced to its essential plan. It represents in a
schematic form the whole drama of disintegration and reintegration, and
the adept can use it to identify with the forces governing these. As in
temple ritual, a vase is employed to receive the divine power so that it
can be projected into the drawing and then into the person of the adept.
Thus, the mandala becomes a support for meditation, an instrument to
provoke visions of the unseen.
A good example of a mandala is the shrichakra, the “Wheel of Shri”
(i.e., of God’s shakti), which is composed of four isosceles triangles
with the apices upward, symbolizing Shiva, and five isosceles triangles
with the apices downward, symbolizing Shakti. The nine triangles are of
various sizes and intersect with one another. In the middle is the power
point (bindu), visualizing the highest, the invisible, elusive centre
from which the entire figure and the cosmos expand. The triangles are
enclosed by two rows of (8 and 16) petals, representing the lotus of
creation and reproductive vital force. The broken lines of the outer
frame denote the figure to be a sanctuary with four openings to the
regions of the universe. A “spiritual” foundation is provided by a
yantra, called the mandala of the Purusha (spirit) of the site, that is
also drawn on the site on which a temple is built. This rite is a
reenactment of a variant of the myth of Purusha, an immortal primeval
being who obstructed both worlds until he was subdued by the gods; the
parts of his body became the spirits of the site.
Rituals, social practices, and institutions » Cultural expressions:
visual arts, theatre, and dance » Types of symbols » Lingam and yoni
One of the most common objects of worship, whether in temples or in the
household cult, is the lingam (phallus). Often much stylized and
representing the cosmic pillar, it emanates its all-producing energy to
the four quarters of the universe. As the symbol of male creative energy
it is frequently combined with its female counterpart (yoni), the latter
forming the base from which the lingam rises. Although the lingam
originally may have had no relation to Shiva, it has from ancient times
been regarded as symbolizing Shiva’s creative energy and is widely
worshipped as his fundamental form.
Rituals, social practices, and institutions » Cultural expressions:
visual arts, theatre, and dance » Types of symbols » Visual theology in
icons
The beauty of cult objects is believed to contribute to their power as
sacred instruments, and their ornamentation is held to facilitate the
process of inviting the divine power into them. Statues of gods are not
intended to imitate ideal human forms but to express the supernatural. A
divine figure is a “likeness” (pratima), a temporary benevolent or
terrifying expression of some aspect of a god’s nature. Iconographic
handbooks attach great importance to the ideology behind images and
reveal, for example, that Vishnu’s eight arms stand for the four
cardinal and intermediate points of the compass and that his four faces,
illustrating the concept of God’s fourfoldness, typify his strength,
knowledge, lordship, and potency. The emblems express the qualities of
their bearers—e.g., a deadly weapon symbolizes destructive force,
many-headedness omniscience. Much use is made of gestures (mudras); for
example, the raised right hand, in the “fear-not” gesture
(abhaya-mudra), bestows protection. Every iconographic detail has its
own symbolic value, helping devotees to direct their energy to a deeper
understanding of the various aspects of the divine and to proceed from
external to internal worship. For many Indians, a consecrated image is a
container of concentrated divine energy, and Hindu theists maintain that
it is an instrument for ennobling the worshiper who realizes God’s
presence in it.
Rituals, social practices, and institutions » Cultural expressions:
visual arts, theatre, and dance » The arts » Religious principles in
sculpture and painting
Like literature and the performing arts, the visual arts contributed to
the perpetuation of myths. Images sustain the presence of the god: when
Devi is shown seated on her lion, advancing against the buffalo demon,
she represents the affirmative forces of the universe and the triumph of
divine power over wickedness. Male and female figures in uninterrupted
embrace, as in Shaiva iconography, signify the union of opposites and
the eternal process of generation. In Hindu sculpture the tendency is
toward hieratic poses of a god in a particular conventional stance
(murti; image), which, once fixed, perpetuates itself. An icon is a
frozen incident of a myth. For example, one murti of Shiva is the
“destruction of the elephant,” in which Shiva appears dancing before and
below a bloody elephant skin that he holds up before the image of his
horrified consort; the stance is the summary of his triumph over the
elephant demon. A god may also appear in a characteristic pose while
holding in his multitudinous hands his various emblems, on each of which
hangs a story. Lovers sculpted on temples are auspicious symbols on a
par with foliage, water jars, and other representatives of fertility.
Carvings, such as those that appear on temple chariots, tend to be more
narrative; even more so are the miniature paintings of the Middle Ages.
A favourite theme in the latter is the myth of the cowherd god Krishna
and his love of the cowherdesses (gopis).
Rituals, social practices, and institutions » Cultural expressions:
visual arts, theatre, and dance » The arts » Religious organization of
sacred architecture
Temples must be erected on sites that are shubha—i.e., suitable,
beautiful, auspicious, and near water—because it is thought that the
gods will not come to other places. However, temples are not necessarily
designed to be congenial to their surroundings, because a manifestation
of the sacred is an irruption, a break in phenomenal continuity. Temples
are understood to be visible representations of a cosmic pillar, and
their sites are said to be navels of the world and are believed to
ensure communication with the gods. Their outward appearance must raise
the expectation of meeting with God. Their erection is a reconstruction
and reintegration of Purusha-Prajapati, enabling him to continue his
creative activity, and the finished monuments are symbols of the
universe that is the unfolded One. The owner of the temple (i.e., the
individual or community that paid for its construction)—also called the
sacrificer—participates in the process of reintegration and experiences
his spiritual rebirth in the small cella, aptly called the “womb room”
(garbhagriha), by meditating on the God’s presence, symbolized or
actualized in his consecrated image. The cella is in the centre of the
temple above the navel—i.e., the foundation stone—and it may contain a
jar filled with the creative power (shakti) that is identified with the
goddess Earth (who bears and protects the monument), three lotus
flowers, and three tortoises (of stone, silver, and gold) that represent
earth, atmosphere, and heaven. The tortoise is a manifestation of Vishnu
bearing the cosmic pillar; the lotus is the symbol of the expansion of
generative possibilities. The vertical axis or tube, coinciding with the
cosmic pillar, connects all parts of the building and is continued in
the finial on the top; it corresponds to the mystical vertical vein in
the body of the worshiper through which his soul rises to unite itself
with the Highest.
The designing of Hindu temples, like that of religious images, was
codified in the Shilpa-shastras (craft textbooks), and every aspect of
the design was believed to offer the symbolic representation of some
feature of the cosmos. The idea of microcosmic symbolism is strong in
Hinduism and comes from Vedic times; the Brahmanas are replete with
similar cosmic interpretations of the many features of the sacrifice.
The Vedic idea of the correspondence (bandhu) between microcosm and
macrocosm was applied to the medieval temple, which was laid out
geometrically to mirror the structure of the universe, with its four
geometric quarters and a celestial roof. The temple also represents the
mountain at the navel of the world and often somewhat resembles a
mountain. On the periphery were carved the most worldly and diverse
images, including battles, hunts, circuses, animals, birds, and gods.
The erotic scenes carved at Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh and Konarak
in Orissa express a general exuberance that may be an offering of
thanksgiving to the gods who created all. However, that same swarming
luxuriance of life may also reflect the concern that one must set aside
worldly temptations before entering the sacred space of the temple, for
the carvings decorate only the outside of the temple; at the centre, the
sanctum sanctorum, there is little if any ornamentation, except for a
stark symbol of the god or goddess. Thus, these carvings simultaneously
express a celebration of samsara and a movement toward moksha.
Rituals, social practices, and institutions » Cultural expressions:
visual arts, theatre, and dance » The arts » Theatre and dance
Theatrical performances are events that can be used to secure blessings
and happiness; the element of recreation is indissolubly blended with
edification and spiritual elevation. The structure and character of
classical Indian drama reveal its origin and function: it developed from
a magico-religious ceremony, which survives as a ritual introduction,
and begins and closes with benedictions. Drama is produced for festive
occasions with a view to spiritual and religious success (siddhi), which
must also be prompted by appropriate behaviour from the spectators;
there must be a happy ending; the themes are borrowed from epic and
legendary history; the development and unraveling of the plot are
retarded; and the envy of malign influences is averted by the almost
obligatory buffoon (vidusaka, “the spoiler”). There are also, in
addition to films, which often use the same religious and mythic themes,
yatras, a combination of stage play and various festivities that have
contributed much to the spread of the Puranic view of life.
Dancing is not only an aesthetic pursuit but also a divine service.
The dance executed by Shiva as king of dancers (Nataraja), the visible
symbol of the rhythm of the universe, represents God’s five activities:
he unfolds the universe out of the drum held in one of his right hands;
he preserves it by uplifting his other right hand in abhaya-mudra; he
reabsorbs it with his upper left hand, which bears a tongue of flame;
his transcendental essence is hidden behind the garb of apparitions, and
grace is bestowed and release made visible by the foot that is held
aloft and to which the hands are made to point; and the other foot,
planted on the ground, gives an abode to the tired souls struggling in
samsara. Another dance pose adopted by Shiva is the doomsday tandava,
executed in his destructive Bhairava manifestation, usually with 10 arms
and accompanied by Devi and demons. The related myth is that Shiva
conquered a mighty elephant demon whom he forced to dance until he fell
dead; then, wrapped in the blood-dripping skin of his victim, the god
executed a horrendous dance of victory.
There are halls for sacred dances annexed to some temples because of
this association with the divine. The rhythmic movement has a compelling
force, generating and concentrating power or releasing superfluous
energy. It induces the experience of the divine and transforms the
dancer into whatever he or she impersonates. Thus, many tribal dances
consist of symbolic enactments of events (harvest, battles) in the hope
that they will be accomplished successfully. Musicians and dancers
accompany processions to expel the demons of cholera or cattle plague.
Even today, religious themes and the various relations between humans
and God are danced and made visual by the codified symbolic meanings of
gestures and movements (see South Asian Arts: Dance and theatre).
Arthur Llewellyn Basham
J.A.B. van Buitenen
Wendy Doniger
Ed.
Hinduism and the world beyond » Hinduism and religions of Indian origin
Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism originated in the same milieu: the
circles of world renouncers of the 6th century bce. All share certain
non-Vedic practices (such as renunciation itself and various Yogic
meditational techniques) and doctrines (such as the belief in rebirth
and the goal of liberation from perpetual transmigration), but Buddhists
and Jains do not accept the authority of the Vedic tradition and
therefore are regarded as less than orthodox by Hindus. From the 6th to
the 11th century there was strong and sometimes bloody competition for
royal patronage between the three communities—with Brahmans representing
Hindu values—as well as between Vaishnavas and Shaivas. In general, the
Brahman groups prevailed. In a typically absorptive gesture, Hindus in
time recognized the Buddha as an incarnation of Vishnu, usually the
ninth; it was often held, however, that Vishnu assumed this form to
mislead and destroy the enemies of the Veda. Hence, the Buddha avatar is
rarely worshipped by Hindus, though it is often highly respected by
them. At an institutional level, certain Buddhist shrines, such as the
one marking the Buddha’s enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, have remained
partly under the supervision of Hindu ascetics and are visited by Hindu
pilgrims.
Hinduism has much in common with Jainism, which until the 20th
century remained an Indian religion, especially in social institutions
and ritual life; for this reason, many Hindus still consider it a Hindu
sect. The points of difference—e.g., a stricter practice of ahimsa
(“noninjury”) and the absence of sacrifices for the deceased in
Jainism—do not give offense to orthodox Hindus. Moreover, many Jain
laypeople worship images as Hindus do, though with a different
rationale. There are even places outside India where Hindus and Jains
have joined to build a single temple, sharing the worship space.
Hinduism and the world beyond » Hinduism and Islam
Hindu relations with Islam and Christianity are in some ways quite
different from the ties and tensions that bind together religions of
Indian origin. Hindus live with a legacy of domination by Muslim and
Christian rulers that stretches back many centuries—in North India, to
the Delhi Sultanate established at the beginning of the 13th century. It
is hardly the case that Muslim rule was generally loathsome to Hindus.
Direct and indirect patronage from the Mughal emperors Akbar and
Jahāngīr (1569–1627), whose chief generals were Hindu Rajputs, laid the
basis for the great burst of Krishnaite temple and institution building
that transformed the Braj region beginning in the 16th century.
Moreover, close proximity and daily interaction throughout the centuries
has led to efforts to accommodate the existence of the two religions.
One manifestation of such syncretism occurred among mystically inclined
groups who believed that one God, or the “universal principle,” was the
same regardless of whether it was called Allah or brahman. Various
syntheses between the two religions that emphasize nonsectarianism have
arisen in northern India.
Yet there were periods when the political ambitions of Islamic rulers
took strength from iconoclastic aspects of Muslim teaching and led to
the devastation of many major Hindu temple complexes, from Mathura and
Varanasi (Banaras) in the north to Chidambaram and Madurai in the far
south; other temples were converted to mosques. Episodically, since the
14th century, this history has provided rhetorical fuel for Hindu
warriors eager to assert themselves against Muslim rivals. The bloody
partition of the South Asian subcontinent into India and Pakistan in
1947 added a new dimension. Mobilizing Hindu sensibilities about the
sacredness of the land as a whole, extremists have sometimes depicted
the creation of Pakistan as a rape of the body of India, in the process
demonizing Muslims who remain within India’s political boundaries.
These strands converged at the end of the 20th century in a campaign
to destroy the mosque built in 1528 by a lieutenant of the Mughal
emperor Babur in Ayodhya, a city that has traditionally been identified
as the place where Rama was born and ruled. In 1992 Hindu militants from
all over India, who had been organized by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad
(VHP; “World Hindu Council”), the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS;
“National Volunteer Alliance”), and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP;
“Indian People’s Party”), destroyed the mosque in an effort to
“liberate” Rama and establish a huge “Rama’s Birthplace Temple” on the
spot. In the aftermath, several thousand people—mostly Muslims—were
killed in riots that spread across North India.
Hinduism and the world beyond » Hinduism and Christianity
Relations between Hinduism and Christianity have also been shaped by
unequal balances of political power and cultural influence. Although
communities of Christians have lived in South India since the middle of
the 1st millennium, the great expansion of Indian Christianity followed
the efforts of missionaries working under the protection of British
colonial rule. Their denigration of selected features of Hindu
practice—most notably image worship, suttee, and child marriage (the
first two were also criticized by Muslims)—was shared by certain Hindus.
Beginning in the 19th century and continuing into the 21st, a movement
that might be called neo-Vedanta has emphasized the monism of certain
Upanishads, decried “popular” Hindu “degenerations” such as the worship
of idols, acted as an agent of social reform, and championed dialogue
between other religious communities.
Many Hindus are ready to accept the ethical teachings of the Gospels,
particularly the Sermon on the Mount (whose influence on Gandhi is well
known), but reject the theological superstructure. They regard Christian
conceptions about love and its social consequences as a kind of bhakti
and tend to venerate Jesus as a saint, yet many resent the organization,
the reliance on authorities, and the exclusiveness of Christianity,
considering these as obstacles to harmonious cooperation. They subscribe
to Gandhi’s opinion that missionaries should confine their activities to
humanitarian service and look askance at conversion, finding also in
Hinduism what might be attractive in Christianity. Such sentiments took
an unusually extreme form at the end of the 20th century, when Hindu
activists attacked Dalit Christians and their churches in various parts
of India, especially Orissa and Gujarat. A far more typical sentiment is
expressed in the eagerness of Hindus of all social stations, especially
the middle class, to send their children to high-quality (often
English-language) schools established and maintained by Christian
organizations. No great fear exists that the religious element in the
curriculum will cause Hindu children to abandon their parents’ faith.
Hinduism and the world beyond » Diasporic Hinduism
Since the appearance of Swami Vivekananda at the World’s Parliament of
Religions in Chicago in 1893 and the subsequent establishment of the
Vedanta Society in various American and British cities, Hinduism has had
a growing missionary profile outside the Indian subcontinent. Conversion
as understood by Christians or Muslims is usually not the aim. As seen
in the Vedanta Society, Hindu perspectives are held to be sufficiently
capacious that they do not require new adherents to abandon traditions
of worship with which they are familiar, merely to see them as part of a
greater whole. The Vedic formula “Truth is one, but scholars speak of it
in many ways” (“Akam sat vipra bahudhe vadanti”) is much quoted. Many
transnational Hindu communities—including Radha Soami Satsang Beas,
Transcendental Meditation, the self-realization fellowship Siddha Yoga,
the Sathya Sai Baba Satsang, and the International Society for Krishna
Consciousness (ISKCON, popularly called Hare Krishna)—have focused on
specific gurus, particularly in their stages of most rapid growth. They
frequently emphasize techniques of spiritual discipline more than
doctrine. Of these groups, only ISKCON has a deeply exclusivist
cast—which makes it, in fact, generally more doctrinaire than the
Gaudiya Vaisnava lineages out of which its founding guru, A.C.
Bhaktivedanta, emerged.
At least as important as these guru-centred communities in the
increasingly international texture of Hindu life are communities of
Hindus who have emigrated from South Asia to other parts of the world.
Their character differs markedly according to region, class, and the
time at which emigration occurred. Tamils in Malaysia celebrate a
festival to the god Murukan (Thaipusam) that accommodates body-piercing
vows long outlawed in India itself. Formerly indentured labourers who
settled on the Caribbean island of Trinidad in the mid-19th century have
consolidated doctrine and practice from various locales in Gangetic
India, with the result that Rama and Shita have a heightened profile.
Many migrants from rural western India, especially Gujarat, became
urbanized in East Africa in the late 19th century and resettled in
Britain. Like those Gujaratis who came directly to the United States
from India since the liberalization of U.S. immigration laws in 1965,
once abroad they are more apt to embrace the reformist guru-centred
Swaminarayan faith than they would be in their native Gujarat, though
this is by no means universal.
Professional-class emigrants from South India have spearheaded the
construction of a series of impressive Shrivaishnava-style temples
throughout the United States, sometimes receiving financial and
technical assistance from the great Vaishnava temple institutions at
Tirupati. The placement of some of these temples, such as the Penn Hills
temple near Pittsburgh, Pa., reveals the desire to evoke Tirupati’s
natural environment on American soil. Similarly, Telugu-speaking priests
from the Tirupati region have been imported to serve at temples such as
the historically important Ganesha temple, constructed from a
preexisting church in Queens, New York, in 1975–77. Yet the population
worshipping at these temples is far more mixed than that in India. This
produces on the one hand sectarian and regional eclecticism and on the
other hand a vigorous attempt to establish doctrinal common ground. As
Vasudha Narayanan observed, educational materials produced at such
temples typically hold that Hinduism is not a religion but a way of
life, that it insists in principle on religious tolerance, that its
Godhead is functionally trinitarian (the male trimurti of Brahma,
Vishnu, and Shiva is meant, although temple worship is often very active
at goddesses’ shrines), and that Hindu rituals have inner meanings
consonant with scientific principles and are conducive to good health.
Pacific and ecumenical as this sounds, members of such temples are
also important contributors to the VHP, whose efforts since 1964 to find
common ground among disparate Hindu groups have sometimes also
contributed to displays of Hindu nationalism such as were seen at
Ayodhya in 1992. As the 21st century opened, there was a vivid struggle
between “left” and “right” within the Hindu fold, with diasporic groups
playing a more important role than ever before. Because of their wealth
and education, because globalizing processes lend them prestige and
enable them to communicate constantly with Hindus living in South Asia,
and because their experience as minorities tends to set them apart from
their families in India itself, their contribution to the evolution of
Hinduism has been a very interesting one.
“Hinduism” was originally an outsider’s word, and it designates a
multitude of realities defined by period, time, sect, class, and caste.
Yet the veins and bones that hold this complex organism together are not
just chimeras of external perception. Hindus themselves—particularly
diasporic Hindus—affirm them, continuing and even accelerating a process
of self-definition that has been going on for millennia.
Wendy Doniger
Brian K. Smith
