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LECTURE NOTES
The Hindu World View
Dr Clinton Bennett
GEOGRAPHY
Sub-Continent
North - World's Highest Mountains
Sub-Continent includes several States
East - alluvial flood plain
South - hills, plains, RIVERS.
Name - from INDUS valley. Aryans - SINDHU,
Persians HINDU (thus HINDUISM).
Continuous (assimilative) civilization - sense of
timelessness, peace (4 YUGAS)
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
3,000 - 1,500 HARAPPA CIVILIZATION (INDUS
VALLEY): Mohenjo Daro (archeological
excavations)
Female (goddess) Figurines found
in the Valley
DRAVIDIAN/towns well
developed, water tanks, water-wheels, drains,
irrigation,trunk roads
burnt or sun dried brick buildings
towns zoned (wide, laid out at right angles.
weaving, sewing, embroidery, bronze and copper, jewelry
Religion
Seals with early writing have also been discovered
Worshipped mother goddesses - sexually explicit
(prototype for Shiva and Sakti. No temples survive.
Civilization "assimilated" - by
Aryan invasion (from 1,500 BCE).
Note Some Indian historians reject
the Aryan invasion as a European
'invention' and argue for continuity
between the Indus Valley and the
Vedic civilizations. In this view,
the Indus Valley culture was
Vedic. See Distortions in Indian History .
CONTACTS WITH WEST: Cyrus of Persia (6th century
BCE)
Alexander the Great (326BCE).
THE ARYAN/VEDIC AGE
Light skinned invaders/Vedic hymns date from circa 1, 500
- 1,000 BCE
Response to Alexander led to first strong central
government/Empire under Chandragupta (Mauryan
Empire) in 321 BCE. His son, Bindusara (succeeded 297
BCE) pushed Empire South as far as Mysore. He was
succeeded by the great king, Ashoka (272 BCE) renowned
for his support of Buddhism and after early military
victories adoption of non-violence. Following Ashoka,
seven kings reigned in a period of 50 years until the
Mauryas lost power to the Sungas in about 180. During this
period, rule at the top was autocratic but at local level,
councils of elders exercised considerable authority.
For a fictionalized representation of this period, see Ashoka
directed by Shantosh Sivan (Action Movies, 2001). This is
a Hindi movie with English sub titles.
pushed Dravidians south
male gods displace female
Vedas = knowledge (revered, not understood; eternal.
Breathed out by the Gods).
Believed to contain all "knowledge", Source of all Indic
thought (embryonic concepts developed in later literature).
Term "Hinduism" a nineteenth century English
invention
SANATANA DHARMA (eternal truth: often used by
"Hindus"
Wilfred Cantwell Smith
Hinduism is, in my judgement, a particularly false
conceptualization, one that is conspicuously incompatible
with any adequate understanding of the religious outlook of
the Hindus. Even the term Hinduism is, in my judgement, a
particularly false conceptualization, one that is
conspicuously incompatible with any adequate
understanding of the religious outlook of the Hindus, Even
the term ‘Hindu’ was unknown to classical Hindus … the
mass of religious phenomena we shelter under that name …
is not a unity (The Meaning and End of Religion, 1978,
London, SPCK p 63).
Jawaharlal Nehru (1889 - 1966), India's first Prime
Minister: "Hinduism is all things to all men", Hindus "live
and let live' (1946, The Discovery of India New Delhi,
OUP.)
THE VEDAS (Sanskrit)
RIGVEDA (hymns)
YAJURVEDA (sacrificial formulas)
SAMVEDA (chants)
ATHARVEDA (incantations)
feature Gods, demons (their frolics); creation stories,
human origins.
each Veda has a Brahmana (priests' manuals).
Gods require sacrifices (grain, milk, flesh - worshippers
eat; these are also 'gods'). Later, when belief in atman as
soul in all life forms developed, most Hindu's become
vegetarian. Yet sacrifices real purpose is to maintain
cosmic balance, on which the gods depend as much as
people!
The 'that' is the Self-Existent singularity from which the
many proceed; shristi, translated as creation, is the
projection of what already is. The deities are 'this side', so
can not answer our questions about origins.
soma gives them immortality
no images/temples (mountains?)
HUMAN LIFE?
Multiple creation narratives; from the 'golden egg' that
emerged from a lotus bloom floating on water; from the
sacrifice of the primordial man; by 'being' emerging from
'non-being'
THAT, the One, Unfathomable (unnamed in
Vedas/Prajpati (Brahman in Upanishads)
the self in gods, man/woman, bird, beast
the self wanted other ‘selves’
rishis (seers) born BEFORE the gods
Manu (seer, first man, lawgiver, devotee of Agni)
classes (varna = color) from a Rig-Veda creation story
(Purusha’s head, shoulders, thighs, feet).
Basic concepts/terms (in place by 4th century - many
post-Vedic (in place by Buddha's timer)
Samsara - cycle of creation/decay/re-creation
Dharma (righteousness, cosmic law: specific to gender,
class, stage in life)
Varna - four classes, Brahman (head), Ksatriya (shoulders),
Vaisya (thighs), Shudra (feet)
Ashrama (stages of life)
Duties differ according to gender, varna, ashrama –
Duties toward occupation, the gods, the nation, society …
Karma (ACTION) WHAT GOES AROUND COMES
AROUND!
Vedic God’s resemble Greek
Varuna (sky) is replaced as king by Indra (war)
Agni (fire) associated with sacrifice, he is both the fire of
the sacrifice and the God who carried the fruit of the
sacrifice to the Gods
Vac (speech); Divine Word, the word spoken by the priests
during rituals. Brahmansapati - the prayer or 'breath' of the
priest's rituals, also the God who personifies 'prayer'.
Soma - substance that keeps God’s immortal (and a Deity)
Rudra (proto-Shiva, distant, mysterious).
Yama (death). Usha - dawn (female)
Also view that creation results from the fusion of the
eternal male and female principles (purusa/prakriti or Vac Speech). The intimate relationship between the Vedic
deities and the natural order leads some scholars to
speculate an animist origin for Hindu beliefs.
Four Aims: kama (pleasure), artha (wealth), dharma
(duty), moksa (liberation)
MARGA: way to moksa, multiple eg Yoga, Bhakti,
Dharma. In the Upanishads, it is jnana or knowledge of the
true nature of the self that leads to liberation. Here, the
sacrifices are sometimes ridiculed, as is Indra
Rita (cosmic order) duties/debts: to gods, teachers, parents,
all living creatures.
Vedic God's recede in popularity: Brahma = creator
(consort Saraswati, speech, education), Vishnu = preserver
(consort Lakshmi, wealth, fortune), Shiva = destroyer
(consort Parvarti, the arts, dance). Known as the Trimurti three-images, each expresses quality/qualities of the
ineffable brahman. Unknowlable in its totality, brahman
discloses aspects of itself in the form of a personal god, or
Isvara.
Rivalry developed between devotees of the three. For each
tradition, each god assumes functions of all three. Here is a
site with lots of information on the Vedic deities go to
Vedic Religion
Image of Brahma click here for Brahma. image. The oldest
images of the deities are probably those in the caves of
Elephanta island, off Mumbai. Here is a picture taken
during my visit there:
This lectures is used with
extracts from either Volume 1
of Ainslee T Embree's
Sources of Indian Tradition,
NY, Columbia University
Press, 1988 or from chapter 3
of Ian Markham's A World Religious Reader (2nd ed,
2000), Oxford, Basil Blackwell.
© Clinton Bennett 2009