Download A History of the World`s Religions Thirteenth Edition

A History of the World’s Religions
Thirteenth Edition
David S. Noss
Blake R. Grangaard
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Chapter 3
Early Hinduism
The Passage from Ritual
Sacrifice to Mystical Union
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Introduction
• The term “Hinduism” represents a diversity of
faiths and can be conceptualized as a family of
religions.
• Modern Hindus use the word “dharma” rather
than Hindu.
• Scholars are more inclined to a narrower
definition of Hinduism that separates the
Vedic and Brahmanistic periods from
Hinduism proper.
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The Religion of the Vedic Age
• Pre-Aryan India archaeological remains
– Mother-goddess figurines
– Soapstone seals featuring the bull and buffalo
• The Indo-Aryans conquered the Dasas and settled
in villages and their culture became more
agricultural and they brought with them
–
–
–
–
–
Cows
Horses
Sheep
Goats
Dogs
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The Religion of the Vedic Age
• Aryan social structure
– The Rajah
– Warriors
– Priests
– Head of the family
– The wife and mother
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The Religion of the Vedic Age
• The Rig Veda
– Public rites
– Brahman and the brahman’s role
– Ritual sacrifice: soma
– Sacrifice and cosmic origins
– Deities of earth and Sky
– Primary Vedic gods
– Liturgical deities
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The Religion of the Vedic Age
• The Vedic attitude can be described as ritual
or devotional henotheism
– “temporary flattering elevation of one of many
gods to the highest rank that can be accorded,
verbally or ritualistically”
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The Religion of the Vedic Age
• The other Vedas are dependent upon, or are
appendages of the Rig-Veda
– Yajur-Veda
– Sama-Veda
• The Atharva –Veda is more independent and includes
charms incantations, curses and spells of great
antiquity
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The Religion of the Vedic Age
• Magic and rudimentary science (the AtharvaVeda)
– Magic spells
– Focus on the human body
• Vital organs
• Body secretions
• Bones
– Emergence of an informed medical art
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The Religion of the Vedic Age
• The close of the Vedic period
– Vedic literature shows an exuberant and positive
people
– Priests were growing in numbers and power
– The Aryans continued to press eastward and
southward
– Religious resistance continued
– Lifestyles of the governing classes changed
gradually
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Brahmanism, Caste, and
Ceremonial Life
• The rise of the class system
– the Brahmins
– the Kshatriyas
– the Vaisyas
– the Shudras
• Brahmin Ascendancy
– Occupied the central place of power
– Compiled the Brahmanas
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Brahmanism, Caste, and
Ceremonial Life
• Public rites were extensive
– Grain harvest
– Full moon, new moon, beginning of spring, rainy
season, autumn
– Victories in war
– Consecration of kings
– Building of altars
– The Horse Sacrifice
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Brahmanism, Caste, and
Ceremonial Life
• Domestic rites
– Simpler than public rites
– May take place in the house and use the hearth
fire
– Morning and evening grain offerings
– Monthly offering of pinda in an outside ceremony
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Brahmanism, Caste, and
Ceremonial Life
• The Upanishads
– Appended the Vedas
– Means “sittings near a teacher”
– The Shruti of the sacred Hindu literature
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Brahmanism, Caste, and
Ceremonial Life
• Ritual interiorized
• The trend toward monism
• Brahman
– Brahman and He-She/It
– Manifest and Unmanifest Brahman
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Brahmanism, Caste, and
Ceremonial Life
• Brahman and Atman
– “That art thou”
– Experiential unity
– Pure consciousness: Turiya
• Cosmic cycles: kalpas
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Brahmanism, Caste, and
Ceremonial Life
• First appearance of Reincarnation and Karma in
Indian thought
– Samsara
• Birth—death—rebirth—redeath
• Imperishable atman
• Transmigration of the soul from life form to life form
– Karma
• Thoughts, words, and deeds have an ethical consequence
• Karma is the cause of what is happening in one’s life now
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Brahmanism, Caste, and
Ceremonial Life
• Caste in religious dogma
– Imposed by the Brahamins
– May have replaced a more complex system
– Four varna and the outcastes
– Linked with the law of karma
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Brahmanism, Caste, and
Ceremonial Life
• The need of a way of release
– Decline in the positive mood expressed in the
Vedas
– Disaffection grew
• The rise of the caste system
• Reincarnation and the Law of Karma
• Asceticism
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Brahmanism, Caste, and
Ceremonial Life
• Moksha: liberation from the cycle of samsara
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