Download Hinduism Tabor Week 3

HINDUISM: A FAMILY OF
BELIEFS
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE HUMAN?
Google Earth
AN “-ISM” ? ? ?
Prior to the British Period, there was no term “Hinduism.”
Vedic Religion
Vaishnavism
Ṣaktism
Local Religions
Ṣaivism
Dates
Period
Major Developments
Before 2000 BCE
Indus Valley
Civilization
- Fragmentary evidence -
1500-500 BCE
Vedic Period
Composition of the Vedas – Priestly Religion
500 BCE–500 CE
Classical/Axial Age
Philosophical Thought Develops;
Epics and Upanishads composed
500-1500 CE
Medieval Period
Devotional Movements; Bhakti literature
1500-1757
Pre-Modern Period
Further devotional movements
1757—1947
British Period
British Indology Begins
1947–present
Independent India
Critical India Studies
BEFORE 2000 BCE: INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION
- VEDIC? – PRE-VEDIC?
Religious practices:
Ritual bathing/purity, sacrifice,
fertility rites
(Much like the rest of the
ancient world)
Beliefs: ??????
The Great Bath at Mohenjo Daro
Harapa.com
1500-500 BCE: Vedic Period
• “Vedic Religion” – based on sacrificial meals shared with
many gods of cosmological realms: earth, atmosphere, sky.
Communicate with Gods through fire sacrifices.
• Sacred Space: Outdoor fire altar
• Sacred Literature: The Vedas
• Reciprocal relationship of duties between humans and Gods.
• Two theories on the “Aryan Synthesis”
• Aryans migrated into the Indus Valley and into the Sub-continent as the
dominant cultural force. “Vedic Religion” (Based on the Vedas) = Aryan
religion + Indigenous religious of southern India
• Aryan culture is a development of Indus Valley Culture, so the Indus Valley
culture was already Aryan or Vedic
Aryan Synthesis Theory
is rooted in Linguistic
evidence.
• Northern Indian
Languages: IndoEuropean
• Southern Indian
Languages: Dravidian
* The history of these
cultural and linguistic
groups is complex.
Cannot be reduced to a
simple “invasion” model.
*
MAJOR TEXTS: ṢRUTI “THAT WHICH IS HEARD”
• Vedas (c. 1500 BCE) – sacred
wisdom revealed to rishis
• Samhitas
• Rigveda
• Samaveda
• Yajurveda
• 4th Veda:
Atharvaveda (c. 900 BCE)
Brahman: Brahman performing a Hindu ritual in Kerala, India.
Photograph. Britannica Online for Kids.
Web.16 June 2014. <http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/art-178329>.
500 BCE – 500 CE: THE PURANIC / UPANISHADIC/ “AXIS” AGE
• (Buddha
dies c. 400 BCE)
• Major philosophical developments: Tendency toward universalism
• Idea of dharma becomes well-articulated in the Sutras and Shastras
• Minimization of Vedic fire sacrifice . . . development of more individual
devotional worship (puja) to images in temples.
• 3 main traditions develop:
• Vaishnavism (Vishnu),
• Shaivism (Shiva),
• Shaktism (Prakriti – Nature aspect of Brahman)
MAJOR TEXTS: SMṚTI
“THAT WHICH IS REMEMBERED”
• Dharmic Texts
• Grammatical Texts
• Epics and Puranas
• Mahabharata (c. 500 – 100 BCE)
Bhagavad-Gita
• Ramayana
Bhagavad Gita Online,
http://www.bhagavad-gita.us/the-bhagavad-gita-in-pictures/gita-104/
MAJOR TEXTS: THE UPANISHADS (12 TOTAL)
• Primarily philosophical texts intended to communicate the true
nature of reality to anyone willing to become a student
• Written in poetic & dialogue format . . . For example:
“These rivers, my son, run, the eastern toward the east, the western toward the
west. They go from sea to sea. They become indeed sea. And as those rivers,
when they are in the sea, do not know, I am this or that river,
2. “In the same manner, my son, all these creatures, when they have come back
from the True, know not that they have come back from the True. Whatever
these creatures are here, whether a lion, or a wolf, or a boar, or a worm, or a
midge, or a gnat, or a mosquito, that they become again and again.
3. “That which is that subtle essence, in it all that exists has its self. It is the True. It
is the Self, and you, O Svetaketu, are that.”
1.
Chandogya Upanishad, “Section X,” Sophia Project, www.sophiaomni.org
Cosmology/ “Essence”
Theories of Universe & Reality
Social Organization:
Politics, Community, Family, Status, Caste, access
to power & authority
Views of Self & Human Life:
Virtue, Vice, Gender, Destiny, Purpose
500 CE – 1500 CE: THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD
• Rise of Bhakti
• Regional kingdoms with their own, statesponsored religious traditions
(e.g. Shaivism or Vaishnavism)
• Building of the great temples
• Vernacular poetry
• New theological developments preached by
important gurus
Dravida Style Thanjavur Temple
Tamil Nadu, India
1947 – PRESENT: INDEPENDENT INDIA
• Partition between India & Pakistan in 1947
• Issues: lack of Muslim representation in
government; “Hindutva” Ideology
• Hindu Diaspora; practicing Hindus around the
world, Hindu Gurus in the West;
Transcendental Meditation – The Beatles!
Mahesh Prasad Varma
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
1918-2008
1757 – 1947: BRITISH PERIOD
• Mughal empire falls to the British
• Christian missionaries arrive
• Cultural westernization
• Beginning of “Indology” as a field of study
Mohandas Ghandi
Biography.com
• Hindu reformers, Indian Nationalism,
“Hindutva” “Hinduness” as a sociopolitical force – against others, uniting
Indians (But not all Indians are “Hindu”!)
THEORIES OF REALITY AND THE DIVINE
• Brahman
• Advaita/Dvaita
• Karma
• Maya
• Samsara
• Saguna
• Nirguna
Baby Krishna Eating Butter
Wikimedia Commons
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE
HUMAN IN HINDUISM?
“O SVETAKETU, THOU ART THAT.”
- CHANDOGYA UPANISHAD 6.8.7
Image by Maheash Nelanka
https://www.flickr.com/phot
os/maheashnelanka/3647001883/
THEORIES OF SELF
• Atman
• Varna
• Ashram
• Dharma
• Reincarnation
• Moksha
REJECTIONS OF VEDIC RELIGION:
TWO OTHER DHARMIC RELIGIONS
Buddhism
• 5th c. BCE
• Siddhartha Gautama
“The Buddha”
• “Middle Way”
between Excess and
Asceticism
• Lay people and
Monks
Jainism
• 7th-5th c. BCE
• Primarily ascetic
• Principle of ahimsa
• Earliest known
teacher:
Parshvanatha
• Emphasis on monks
Jainism: statue of Mahavira. Photograph. Encyclopædia
Britannica Online. Web. 2 Feb. 2015
1500 – 1757: PRE-MODERN PERIOD
• Rise of Islam in the north
• Turks and Mughals
• Emergence of two different
strands of bhakti: nirguna
and saguna
• “Sant” tradition in the north
emerges; influence of Islam
on Hindu poets
Gita Govinda Manuscript c. 1550