Hinduism is the predominant religionof the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism is often referred to as Sanātana Dharma, a Sanskrit phrase meaning "the eternal law", by its adherents. Hindu beliefs vary widely, with concepts of God and/or gods ranging from Panentheism, pantheism, monotheism, polytheism, and atheism with Vishnu and Shiva being the most popular deities. Other notable characteristics include a belief in reincarnation and karma, as well as personal duty, or dharma.
Among its roots is the historical Vedic religion of Iron Age India, and as such Hinduism is often stated to be the "oldest religious tradition" or "oldest living major tradition." It is formed of diverse traditions and types and has no single founder. Hinduism is the world's third largest religion after Christianity and Islam, with approximately a billion adherents, of whom about 905 million live in India. Other countries with large Hindu populations can be found across southern Asia.
Hinduism's vast body of scriptures are divided into Śruti ("revealed") and Smriti ("remembered"). These scriptures discuss theology, philosophy and mythology, and provide information on the practice of dharma (religious living). Among these texts, the Vedas and the Upanishads are the foremost in authority, importance and antiquity. Other major scriptures include the Tantras, the Agama, the Purāṇas and the epics Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa. The Bhagavad Gītā, a treatise from the Mahābhārata, spoken by Krishna, is sometimes called a summary of the spiritual teachings of the Vedas.
Etymology
Hindū is the Persian name for the Indus River, first encountered in the Old Persian word Hindu (həndu), corresponding to Vedic Sanskrit Sindhu, the Indus River. The Rig Veda mentions the land of the Indo-Aryans as Sapta Sindhu (the land of the seven rivers in northwestern South Asia, one of them being the Indus). This corresponds to Hapta Həndu in the Avesta (Vendidad or Videvdad 1.18)—the sacred scripture of Zoroastrianism. The term was used for those who lived in the Indian subcontinent on or beyond the "Sindhu". In Arabic, the term al-Hind (the Hind) also refers to 'the land of the people of modern day India'.
The Persian term (Middle Persian Hindūk, New Persian Hindū) entered India with the Delhi Sultanate and appears in South Indian and Kashmiri texts from at least 1323 CE, and increasingly so during British rule. Since the end of the 18th century the word has been used as an umbrella term for most of the religious, spiritual, and philosophical traditions of the sub-continent, excluding the distinct religions of Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism.
The term Hindu was introduced to the English. It generally denotes the religious, philosophical, and cultural traditions native to India.
Typology
Hinduism as we know it can be subdivided into a number of major currents. Of the historical division into six darshanas, only two schools, Vedanta and Yoga survive. The main divisions of Hinduism today are Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Smartism and Shaktism. The vast majority of present day Hindus can be categorized under one of these four groups, although there are many other, partly overlapping, allegiances and denominations.
McDaniel (2007) distinguishes six more generic "types" of Hinduism, in an attempt to accommodate a variety of views on a rather complex object:
Folk Hinduism, as based on local traditions and cults of local deities at a communal level and spanning thorough to pre-historic times or at least prior to written Vedas.
Vedic Hinduism as still being practiced by traditionalist brahmins, for example shrautins.
Vedantic Hinduism, for example Advaita (Smartism), as based on philosophical approach of the Upanishads.
Yogic Hinduism, especially based on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
"Dharmic" Hinduism or "daily morality", based on the notion of Karma, and societal norms such as Hindu marriage customs etc.
Bhakti or devotionalism, especially as in Vaishnavism.
Definitions
The characteristic of comprehensive tolerance to differences in belief and Hinduism's dogmatic openness makes it difficult to define it as a religion according to the traditional Western conceptions. Although Hinduism is a clear practical concept to the majority of adherents, many expressed a problem arriving at a definition of the term, mainly because of the wide range of traditions and ideas incorporated or covered by it. Sometimes referred to as a religion, Hinduism is more often defined as a religious tradition. It is therefore described as both the oldest of the world's religions and most diverse in religious traditions. Most Hindu traditions revere a body of religious or sacred literature, the Vedas, although there are exceptions to it; some religious traditions regard certain particular rituals as essential for salvation, but a variety of views on it co-exist; some Hindu philosophies postulate a theistic ontology of creation, sustenance, and destruction of the universe, yet some Hindus are atheists. Hinduism is sometimes characterized with the belief in reincarnation (samsara) determined by the law of karma, and that salvation is freedom from this cycle of repeated birth and death, however other religions of the region, such as Buddhism and Jainism, also believe in this, outside of the scope of Hinduism. Hinduism is therefore viewed as the most complex of all the living, historical world religions. Despite its complexity Hinduism is not only one of the numerically largest, but also the oldest living major tradition on earth, with roots reaching back into the prehistory.
A definition of Hinduism, given by the first Vice President of India and prominent theologian, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan states that it is not "just a faith," but in itself related to the union of reason and intuition, he explicitly suggests, that it cannot be defined, but is only to be experienced. Similarly some academics are suggesting that Hinduism can be seen as a category with "fuzzy edges", rather than a well defined and rigid entity. Some forms of religious expression are central to Hinduism, while others are not as central but still within the category. Based on that Ferro-Luzzi has developed a 'Prototype Theory approach' to the definition of Hinduism.
Hinduism has been perceived as one of the world religions we know today only since the 19th century, when the term 'Hindu-ism' started being used by leaders of Hindu reform movements or revivalists, and, often considered to be biased, Western orientalists or the "first Indologists". However it is clearly accepted that sources of Hinduism and the "streams" which feed in to it are very ancient, extending back to the Indus Valley civilization and earliest expressions of historical Vedic religion. It is not an accepted view that Hinduism is the construction of Western orientalists to make sense of the plurality of religious phenomena originating and based on the Vedic traditions, however some have suggested it is.
Problems with the single definition or of what is actually meant by the term 'Hinduism' are often attributed to the fact that Hinduism does not have a single or common historical founder. Hinduism, or as some say 'Hinduisms', does not have a single system of salvation and has different goals according to each sect or denomination. The forms of Vedic religion are seen, not as an alternative to Hinduism but as its earliest form, and there is little justification for the divisions found in much western scholarly writing between Vedism, Brahmanism, and Hinduism. Some suggest that Hinduism does not have a "unified system of belief encoded in declaration of faith or a creed". It is therefore a very different kind of religion in these respects to the monolithic tradition of Islam, while some suggest there are stronger affinities with the structure of Judaism.
From the western point of view, the understanding of Hinduism was mediated by Western notions of what religion is and how it relates to more ancient forms of belief. It is further complicated by the frequent use of the term "faith" as a synonym for "religion". Some academics and many practitioners refer to Hinduism with a native definition, as 'Sanātana Dharma', a Sanskrit phrase meaning "the eternal law" or "eternal way".
Among its roots is the historical Vedic religion of Iron Age India, and as such Hinduism is often stated to be the "oldest religious tradition" or "oldest living major tradition." It is formed of diverse traditions and types and has no single founder. Hinduism is the world's third largest religion after Christianity and Islam, with approximately a billion adherents, of whom about 905 million live in India. Other countries with large Hindu populations can be found across southern Asia.
Hinduism's vast body of scriptures are divided into Śruti ("revealed") and Smriti ("remembered"). These scriptures discuss theology, philosophy and mythology, and provide information on the practice of dharma (religious living). Among these texts, the Vedas and the Upanishads are the foremost in authority, importance and antiquity. Other major scriptures include the Tantras, the Agama, the Purāṇas and the epics Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa. The Bhagavad Gītā, a treatise from the Mahābhārata, spoken by Krishna, is sometimes called a summary of the spiritual teachings of the Vedas.
Etymology
Hindū is the Persian name for the Indus River, first encountered in the Old Persian word Hindu (həndu), corresponding to Vedic Sanskrit Sindhu, the Indus River. The Rig Veda mentions the land of the Indo-Aryans as Sapta Sindhu (the land of the seven rivers in northwestern South Asia, one of them being the Indus). This corresponds to Hapta Həndu in the Avesta (Vendidad or Videvdad 1.18)—the sacred scripture of Zoroastrianism. The term was used for those who lived in the Indian subcontinent on or beyond the "Sindhu". In Arabic, the term al-Hind (the Hind) also refers to 'the land of the people of modern day India'.
The Persian term (Middle Persian Hindūk, New Persian Hindū) entered India with the Delhi Sultanate and appears in South Indian and Kashmiri texts from at least 1323 CE, and increasingly so during British rule. Since the end of the 18th century the word has been used as an umbrella term for most of the religious, spiritual, and philosophical traditions of the sub-continent, excluding the distinct religions of Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism.
The term Hindu was introduced to the English. It generally denotes the religious, philosophical, and cultural traditions native to India.
Typology
Hinduism as we know it can be subdivided into a number of major currents. Of the historical division into six darshanas, only two schools, Vedanta and Yoga survive. The main divisions of Hinduism today are Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Smartism and Shaktism. The vast majority of present day Hindus can be categorized under one of these four groups, although there are many other, partly overlapping, allegiances and denominations.
McDaniel (2007) distinguishes six more generic "types" of Hinduism, in an attempt to accommodate a variety of views on a rather complex object:
Folk Hinduism, as based on local traditions and cults of local deities at a communal level and spanning thorough to pre-historic times or at least prior to written Vedas.
Vedic Hinduism as still being practiced by traditionalist brahmins, for example shrautins.
Vedantic Hinduism, for example Advaita (Smartism), as based on philosophical approach of the Upanishads.
Yogic Hinduism, especially based on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
"Dharmic" Hinduism or "daily morality", based on the notion of Karma, and societal norms such as Hindu marriage customs etc.
Bhakti or devotionalism, especially as in Vaishnavism.
Definitions
The characteristic of comprehensive tolerance to differences in belief and Hinduism's dogmatic openness makes it difficult to define it as a religion according to the traditional Western conceptions. Although Hinduism is a clear practical concept to the majority of adherents, many expressed a problem arriving at a definition of the term, mainly because of the wide range of traditions and ideas incorporated or covered by it. Sometimes referred to as a religion, Hinduism is more often defined as a religious tradition. It is therefore described as both the oldest of the world's religions and most diverse in religious traditions. Most Hindu traditions revere a body of religious or sacred literature, the Vedas, although there are exceptions to it; some religious traditions regard certain particular rituals as essential for salvation, but a variety of views on it co-exist; some Hindu philosophies postulate a theistic ontology of creation, sustenance, and destruction of the universe, yet some Hindus are atheists. Hinduism is sometimes characterized with the belief in reincarnation (samsara) determined by the law of karma, and that salvation is freedom from this cycle of repeated birth and death, however other religions of the region, such as Buddhism and Jainism, also believe in this, outside of the scope of Hinduism. Hinduism is therefore viewed as the most complex of all the living, historical world religions. Despite its complexity Hinduism is not only one of the numerically largest, but also the oldest living major tradition on earth, with roots reaching back into the prehistory.
A definition of Hinduism, given by the first Vice President of India and prominent theologian, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan states that it is not "just a faith," but in itself related to the union of reason and intuition, he explicitly suggests, that it cannot be defined, but is only to be experienced. Similarly some academics are suggesting that Hinduism can be seen as a category with "fuzzy edges", rather than a well defined and rigid entity. Some forms of religious expression are central to Hinduism, while others are not as central but still within the category. Based on that Ferro-Luzzi has developed a 'Prototype Theory approach' to the definition of Hinduism.
Hinduism has been perceived as one of the world religions we know today only since the 19th century, when the term 'Hindu-ism' started being used by leaders of Hindu reform movements or revivalists, and, often considered to be biased, Western orientalists or the "first Indologists". However it is clearly accepted that sources of Hinduism and the "streams" which feed in to it are very ancient, extending back to the Indus Valley civilization and earliest expressions of historical Vedic religion. It is not an accepted view that Hinduism is the construction of Western orientalists to make sense of the plurality of religious phenomena originating and based on the Vedic traditions, however some have suggested it is.
Problems with the single definition or of what is actually meant by the term 'Hinduism' are often attributed to the fact that Hinduism does not have a single or common historical founder. Hinduism, or as some say 'Hinduisms', does not have a single system of salvation and has different goals according to each sect or denomination. The forms of Vedic religion are seen, not as an alternative to Hinduism but as its earliest form, and there is little justification for the divisions found in much western scholarly writing between Vedism, Brahmanism, and Hinduism. Some suggest that Hinduism does not have a "unified system of belief encoded in declaration of faith or a creed". It is therefore a very different kind of religion in these respects to the monolithic tradition of Islam, while some suggest there are stronger affinities with the structure of Judaism.
From the western point of view, the understanding of Hinduism was mediated by Western notions of what religion is and how it relates to more ancient forms of belief. It is further complicated by the frequent use of the term "faith" as a synonym for "religion". Some academics and many practitioners refer to Hinduism with a native definition, as 'Sanātana Dharma', a Sanskrit phrase meaning "the eternal law" or "eternal way".
1 comment:
Nice presentation. Would you also visit my blog about Hindu-Vaishnavism and Vedic tradition in Java, Bali, and Southeast Asia?
I hope you can get more informations in English (at www.vasuntara.blogspot.com)and Indonesian (www.dharmadvar.com)
Om Santih
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