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Hinduism
The word Hindu is an exonym, a label applied from the outside that did not originally mean religion. It derives from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, the name of the Indus River, and the region of the lower Indus basin. In the 6th century BCE, the inscription of Darius I mentioned Hindush as one of his provinces, and the term Hindu in these ancient records was purely geographical. It referred to the land beyond the Indus, and by extension, all the people who lived on this land. The 13th century saw Hindustan emerge as a popular alternative name for India, but the religious connotation was absent. The earliest known records of Hindu with connotations of religion appear in the 7th-century CE Chinese text Record of the Western Regions by Xuanzang. By the 14th century, the term Hindu appeared in Persian, Sanskrit, and Prakrit texts within India, often used in comparative contexts to contrast with Muslims or Turks. Examples include the 14th-century Persian text Futuhu's-salatin by Abd al-Malik Isami, which paired hindu and musalman, and the 1400 Apabhramsa text Kirttilata by Vidyapati. These native usages were borrowed from Persian and did not always carry a religious connotation, though they often did. In Indian texts, Hindu Dharma was often used to refer to Hinduism. Starting in the 17th century, European merchants and colonists adopted Hindu, often with the English spelling Hindoo, to refer to residents of India as a religious community. The term got increasingly associated with the practices of Brahmins, who were also referred to as Gentiles and Gentoos. Terms such as Hindoo faith and Hindoo religion were often used, eventually leading to the appearance of Hindooism in a letter of Charles Grant in 1787. The first Indian to use Hinduism may have been Raja Ram Mohan Roy in 1816-17. By the 1840s, the term Hinduism was used by those Indians who opposed British colonialism and who wanted to distinguish themselves from Muslims and Christians. Before the British began to categorise communities strictly by religion, Indians generally did not define themselves exclusively through their religious beliefs; instead identities were largely segmented on the basis of locality, language, varna, jati, occupation, and sect.
The Synthesis Without A Founder
Hinduism has no central doctrinal authority and many Hindus do not claim to belong to any denomination. It is an umbrella term for a range of Indian religious and spiritual traditions that are unified by adherence to the concept of dharma, a cosmic order maintained by its followers through rituals and righteous living. The word Hindu is an exonym, and while Hinduism has been called the oldest surviving religion in the world, it is also described by the 19th century term Sanatana Dharma. Vaidika Dharma and Arya Dharma are historical endonyms for Hinduism. Hinduism entails diverse systems of thought, marked by a range of shared concepts that discuss theology, mythology, and other topics in textual sources. Hindu texts have been classified into Sruti and Smriti. The major Hindu scriptures are the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas, the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, and the Agamas. Prominent themes in Hindu beliefs include karma, samsara, and the four Purusharthas, proper goals or aims of human life, namely dharma, artha, kama, and moksha. Hindu religious practices include devotion, worship, sacrificial rites, and meditation and Yoga. Hinduism has no central doctrinal authority and many Hindus do not claim to belong to any denomination. However, scholarly studies recognise four major denominations: Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism and Smartism. The six Astika schools of Hindu philosophy that recognise the authority of the Vedas are: Sankhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa, and Vedanta. While the traditional Itihasa-Purana and its derived Epic-Puranic chronology present Hinduism as a tradition existing for thousands of years, scholars regard Hinduism as a fusion or synthesis of Brahmanical orthopraxy with various Indian cultures, having diverse roots and no specific founder. This Hindu synthesis emerged after the Vedic period, between 800 and 200 BCE, and in the period of the second urbanisation and the early classical period of Hinduism when the epics and the first Puranas were composed. It flourished in the medieval period, with the decline of Buddhism in India. Since the 19th century, modern Hinduism, influenced by Western culture, has acquired a great appeal in the West, notably reflected in the popularisation of Yoga and various sects such as Transcendental Meditation and the ISKCON's Hare Krishna movement. Hinduism is the world's third-largest religion, with approximately 1.2 billion followers, or around 15% of the global population, known as Hindus, centered mainly in India, Nepal, Mauritius, and in Bali, Indonesia. Significant numbers of Hindu communities are found in the countries of South Asia, in Southeast Asia, in the Caribbean, Middle East, North America, Europe, Oceania and Africa.
The word Hindu is an exonym derived from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, the name of the Indus River, and the region of the lower Indus basin. In the 6th century BCE, the inscription of Darius I mentioned Hindush as one of his provinces, and the term Hindu in these ancient records was purely geographical. It referred to the land beyond the Indus, and by extension, all the people who lived on this land.
When did the term Hinduism appear in religious contexts?
The earliest known records of Hindu with connotations of religion appear in the 7th-century CE Chinese text Record of the Western Regions by Xuanzang. By the 14th century, the term Hindu appeared in Persian, Sanskrit, and Prakrit texts within India, often used in comparative contexts to contrast with Muslims or Turks. The first Indian to use Hinduism may have been Raja Ram Mohan Roy in 1816-17.
What are the four Purusharthas in Hindu beliefs?
Classical Hindu thought accepts four proper goals or aims of human life, known as Purusharthas Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha. Dharma refers to moral duties and righteousness, Artha to the pursuit of means and resources for a fulfilling life, Kama to sensory and emotional pleasure, and Moksha to liberation from suffering and the cycle of rebirth.
Which Hindu scriptures are classified as Shruti and Smriti?
Shruti primarily refers to the Vedas, which form the earliest record of the Hindu scriptures, and are regarded as eternal truths revealed to the ancient sages rishis. The most notable of the Smritis are the Hindu epics and the Puranas, which include the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. The Bhagavad Gita is an integral part of the Mahabharata and one of the most popular sacred texts of Hinduism.
Who is considered the founder of Hinduism?
Scholars regard Hinduism as a fusion or synthesis of Brahmanical orthopraxy with various Indian cultures, having diverse roots and no specific founder. This Hindu synthesis emerged after the Vedic period, between 800 and 200 BCE, and in the period of the second urbanisation and the early classical period of Hinduism when the epics and the first Puranas were composed.
What is the legal definition of a Hindu in India?
Bal Gangadhar Tilak gave the following definition in Gita Rahasya 1915: Acceptance of the Vedas with reverence; recognition of the fact that the means or ways to salvation are diverse; and realization of the truth that the number of gods to be worshipped is large. It was quoted by the Indian Supreme Court in 1966, and again in 1995, as an adequate and satisfactory definition, and is still the legal definition of a Hindu today.
To its adherents, Hinduism is a traditional way of life. Many practitioners refer to the orthodox form of Hinduism as Sanatana Dharma, the eternal law or the eternal way. Hindus regard Hinduism to be thousands of years old. The Puranic chronology, as narrated in the Mahabharata, Ramayana, and the Puranas, envisions a timeline of events related to Hinduism starting well before 3000 BCE. The word dharma is used here to mean religion similar to modern Indo-Aryan languages, rather than with its original Sanskrit meaning. All aspects of a Hindu life, namely acquiring wealth, fulfilment of desires, and attaining liberation, are viewed here as part of dharma, which encapsulates the right way of living and eternal harmonious principles in their fulfilment. The use of the term Sanatana Dharma for Hinduism is a modern usage, based on the belief that the origins of Hinduism lie beyond human history, as revealed in the Hindu texts. Sanatana Dharma refers to timeless, eternal set of truths and this is how Hindus view the origins of their religion. It is viewed as those eternal truths and traditions with origins beyond human history, truths divinely revealed in the Vedas, the most ancient of the world's scriptures. To many Hindus, Hinduism is a tradition that can be traced at least to the ancient Vedic era. The Western term religion to the extent it means dogma and an institution traceable to a single founder is inappropriate for their tradition, states Hatcher. Historically referred to the eternal duties religiously ordained in Hinduism, duties such as honesty, refraining from injuring living beings, purity, goodwill, mercy, patience, forbearance, self-restraint, generosity, and asceticism. These duties applied regardless of a Hindu's class, caste, or sect, and they contrasted with svadharma, one's own duty, in accordance with one's class or caste and stage in life. In recent years, the term has been used by Hindu leaders, reformers, and nationalists to refer to Hinduism. Sanatana dharma has become a synonym for the eternal truth and teachings of Hinduism, that transcend history and are unchanging, indivisible and ultimately nonsectarian. Vaidika Dharma Some have referred to Hinduism as the Vaidika dharma, bypassing the Tanttric revelations. The word Vaidika in Sanskrit means derived from or conformable to the Veda or relating to the Veda. Traditional scholars employed the terms Vaidika and Avaidika, those who accept the Vedas as a source of authoritative knowledge and those who do not, to differentiate various Indian schools from Jainism, Buddhism and Charvaka. According to Klaus Klostermaier, the term Vaidika dharma is the earliest self-designation of Hinduism. According to Arvind Sharma, the historical evidence suggests that the Hindus were referring to their religion by the term vaidika dharma or a variant thereof by the 4th-century CE. According to Brian K. Smith, it is debatable at the very least as to whether the term Vaidika Dharma cannot, with the proper concessions to historical, cultural, and ideological specificity, be comparable to and translated as Hinduism or Hindu religion. Whatever the case, many Hindu religious sources see persons or groups which they consider as non-Vedic and which reject Vedic varnasrama caste and life stage orthodoxy as being heretics. For example, the Bhagavata Purana considers Buddhists, Jains as well as some Shaiva groups like the Paśupatas and Kapalins to be pasandas heretics. According to Alexis Sanderson, the early Sanskrit texts differentiate between Vaidika, Vaishnava, Shaiva, Shakta, Saura, Buddhist and Jaina traditions. However, the late 1st-millennium CE Indic consensus had indeed come to conceptualize a complex entity corresponding to Hinduism as opposed to Buddhism and Jainism excluding only certain forms of antinomian Shakta-Shaiva from its fold. Some in the Mimamsa school of Hindu philosophy considered the Agamas such as the Pancaratrika to be invalid because it did not conform to the Vedas. Some Kashmiri scholars rejected the esoteric tantric traditions to be a part of Vaidika dharma. The Atimarga Shaivism ascetic tradition, datable to about 500 CE, challenged the Vaidika frame and insisted that their Agamas and practices were not only valid, they were superior than those of the Vaidikas. However, adds Sanderson, this Shaiva ascetic tradition viewed themselves as being genuinely true to the Vedic tradition and held unanimously that the Sruti and Smriti of Brahmanism are universally and uniquely valid in their own sphere, and that as such they Vedas are man's sole means of valid knowledge. The term Vaidika dharma means a code of practice that is based on the Vedas, but it is unclear what based on the Vedas really implies, states Julius Lipner. The Vaidika dharma or Vedic way of life, states Lipner, does not mean Hinduism is necessarily religious or that Hindus have a universally accepted conventional or institutional meaning for that term. To many, it is as much a cultural term. Many Hindus do not have a copy of the Vedas nor have they ever seen or personally read parts of a Veda, like a Christian, might relate to the Bible or a Muslim might to the Quran. Yet, states Lipner, this does not mean that their whole life's orientation cannot be traced to the Vedas or that it does not in some way derive from it. Though many religious Hindus implicitly acknowledge the authority of the Vedas, this acknowledgment is often no more than a declaration that someone considers himself or herself a Hindu, and most Indians today pay lip service to the Veda and have no regard for the contents of the text. Some Hindus challenge the authority of the Vedas, thereby implicitly acknowledging its importance to the history of Hinduism. Legal definition Bal Gangadhar Tilak gave the following definition in Gita Rahasya 1915: Acceptance of the Vedas with reverence; recognition of the fact that the means or ways to salvation are diverse; and realization of the truth that the number of gods to be worshipped is large. It was quoted by the Indian Supreme Court in 1966, and again in 1995, as an adequate and satisfactory definition, and is still the legal definition of a Hindu today.
The Four Aims Of Human Life
Prominent themes in Hindu beliefs include but are not restricted to Dharma ethics duties, the continuing cycle of entanglement in passions and the resulting birth, life, death, and rebirth, Karma action intent and consequences, moksha liberation from attachment and samsara, and the various yogas paths or practices. However, not all of these themes are found among the various different systems of Hindu beliefs. Beliefs in moksha or samsara are absent in certain Hindu beliefs, and were also absent among early forms of Hinduism, which was characterised by a belief in an Afterlife, with traces of this still being found among various Hindu beliefs, such as Sraddha. Ancestor worship once formed an integral part of Hindu beliefs and is today still found as an important element in various Folk Hindu streams. Purusharthas refers to the objectives of human life. Classical Hindu thought accepts four proper goals or aims of human life, known as Purusharthas Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha. Dharma moral duties, righteousness, ethics is considered the foremost goal of a human being in Hinduism. The concept of dharma includes behaviours that are considered to be in accord with rta, the order that makes life and universe possible, and includes duties, rights, laws, conduct, virtues and right way of living. Hindu dharma includes the religious duties, moral rights and duties of each individual, as well as behaviours that enable social order, right conduct, and those that are virtuous. Dharma is that which all existing beings must accept and respect to sustain harmony and order in the world. It is the pursuit and execution of one's nature and true calling, thus playing one's role in cosmic concert. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad states it as: In the Mahabharata, Krishna defines dharma as upholding both this-worldly and other-worldly affairs. The word Sanatana means eternal, perennial, or forever; thus, Sanatana Dharma signifies that it is the dharma that has neither beginning nor end. Artha the means or resources needed for a fulfilling life is the virtuous pursuit of means, resources, assets, or livelihood, for the purpose of meeting obligations, economic prosperity, and to have a fulfilling life. It is inclusive of political life, diplomacy, and material well-being. The artha concept includes all means of life, activities and resources that enables one to be in a state one wants to be in, wealth, career and financial security. The proper pursuit of artha is considered an important aim of human life in Hinduism. A central premise of Hindu philosophy is that every person should live a joyous, pleasurable and fulfilling life, where every person's needs are acknowledged and fulfilled. A person's needs can only be fulfilled when sufficient means are available. Artha, then, is best described as the pursuit of the means necessary for a joyous, pleasurable and fulfilling life. Kama sensory, emotional and aesthetic pleasure means desire, wish, passion, longing, and pleasure of the senses, the aesthetic enjoyment of life, affection and love, with or without sexual connotations. In contemporary Indian literature kama is often used to refer to sexual desire, but in ancient Indian literature kama is expansive and includes any kind of enjoyment and pleasure, such as pleasure deriving from the arts. The ancient Indian Epic the Mahabharata describes kama as any agreeable and desirable experience generated by the interaction of one or more of the five senses with anything associated with that sense, when in harmony with the other goals of human life dharma, artha and moksha. In Hinduism, kama is considered an essential and healthy goal of human life when pursued without sacrificing dharma, artha and moksha. Moksha liberation, freedom from suffering is the ultimate, most important goal in Hinduism. Moksha is a concept associated with liberation from sorrow, suffering, and for many theistic schools of Hinduism, liberation from samsara a birth-rebirth cycle. A release from this eschatological cycle in the afterlife is called moksha in theistic schools of Hinduism. Due to the belief in Hinduism that the Atman is eternal, and the concept of Purusha the cosmic self or cosmic consciousness, death can be seen as insignificant in comparison to the eternal Atman or Purusha. Differing views on the nature of moksha The meaning of moksha differs among the various Hindu schools of thought. Advaita Vedanta holds that upon attaining moksha a person knows their essence, or self, to be pure consciousness or the witness-consciousness and identifies it as identical to Brahman. More generally, in the theistic schools of Hinduism moksha is usually seen as liberation from samsara, while for other schools, such as the monistic school, moksha happens during a person's lifetime and is a psychological concept. According to Deutsch, moksha is a transcendental consciousness of the perfect state of being, of self-realization, of freedom, and of realizing the whole universe as the Self. Moksha when viewed as a psychological concept, suggests Klaus Klostermaier, implies a setting free of hitherto fettered faculties, a removing of obstacles to an unrestricted life, permitting a person to be more truly a person in the fullest sense. This concept presumes an unused human potential of creativity, compassion and understanding which had been previously blocked and shut out. Due to these different views on the nature of moksha, the Vedantic school separates this into two views Jivanmukti liberation in this life and Videhamukti liberation after death.
The Cycle Of Action And Rebirth
Karma translates literally as action, work, or deed, and also refers to a Vedic theory of moral law of cause and effect. The theory is a combination of 1 causality that may be ethical or non-ethical; 2 ethicisation, that is good or bad actions have consequences; and 3 rebirth. Karma theory is interpreted as explaining the present circumstances of an individual with reference to their actions in the past. These actions and their consequences may be in a person's current life, or, according to some schools of Hinduism, in past lives. This cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth is called samsara. Liberation from samsara through moksha is believed to ensure lasting happiness and peace. Hindu scriptures teach that the future is both a function of current human effort derived from free will and past human actions that set the circumstances. The idea of reincarnation, or samsara, is not mentioned in the early layers of historical Hindu texts such as the Rigveda. The later layers of the Rigveda do mention ideas that suggest an approach towards the idea of rebirth, according to Ranade. According to Sayers, these earliest layers of Hindu literature show ancestor worship and rites such as sraddha offering food to the ancestors. The later Vedic texts such as the Aranyakas and the Upanisads show a different soteriology based on reincarnation, they show little concern with ancestor rites, and they begin to philosophically interpret the earlier rituals. The idea of reincarnation and karma have roots in the Upanishads of the late Vedic period, predating the Buddha and the Mahavira. Concept of God Hinduism is a diverse system of thought with a wide variety of beliefs its concept of God is complex and depends upon each individual and the tradition and philosophy followed. It is sometimes referred to as henotheistic i.e., involving devotion to a single god while accepting the existence of others, but any such term is an overgeneralisation. The Nasadiya Sukta Creation Hymn of the Rig Veda is one of the earliest texts which demonstrates a sense of metaphysical speculation about what created the universe, the concept of god s and The One, and whether even The One knows how the universe came into being. Original Sanskrit: Rigveda 10.129 Wikisource; Translation 1: Translation 2: Translation 3. The Rig Veda praises various deities, none superior nor inferior, in a henotheistic manner. The hymns repeatedly refer to One Truth and One Ultimate Reality. The One Truth of Vedic literature, in modern era scholarship, has been interpreted as monotheism, monism, as well as a deified Hidden Principles behind the great happenings and processes of nature. Hindus believe that all living creatures have a Self. This true Self of every person, is called the atman. The Self is believed to be eternal. According to the monistic/pantheistic non-dualist theologies of Hinduism such as Advaita Vedanta school, this Atman is indistinct from Brahman, the supreme spirit or the Ultimate Reality. The goal of life, according to the Advaita school, is to realise that one's Self is identical to supreme Self, that the supreme Self is present in everything and everyone, all life is interconnected and there is oneness in all life. Dualistic schools Dvaita and Bhakti understand Brahman as a Supreme Being separate from individual Selfs. They worship the Supreme Being variously as Vishnu, Brahma, Shiva, or Shakti, depending upon the sect. God is called Ishvara, Bhagavan, Parameshwara, Deva or Devi, and these terms have different meanings in different schools of Hinduism. Hindu texts accept a polytheistic framework, but this is generally conceptualised as the divine essence or luminosity that gives vitality and animation to the inanimate natural substances. There is a divine in everything, human beings, animals, trees and rivers. It is observable in offerings to rivers, trees, tools of one's work, animals and birds, rising sun, friends and guests, teachers and parents. Taittiriya Upanishad Thirteen Principal Upanishads, Robert Hume Translator, pp. 281-282; Paul Deussen, Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, pp. 229-231. It is the divine in these that makes each sacred and worthy of reverence, rather than them being sacred in and of themselves. This perception of divinity manifested in all things, as Buttimer and Wallin view it, makes the Vedic foundations of Hinduism quite distinct from animism, in which all things are themselves divine. The animistic premise sees multiplicity, and therefore an equality of ability to compete for power when it comes to man and man, man and animal, man and nature, etc. The Vedic view does not perceive this competition, equality of man to nature, or multiplicity so much as an overwhelming and interconnecting single divinity that unifies everyone and everything. The Hindu scriptures name celestial entities called Devas or in feminine form, which may be translated into English as gods or heavenly beings. The devas are an integral part of Hindu culture and are depicted in art, architecture and through icons, and stories about them are related in the scriptures, particularly in Indian epic poetry and the Puranas. They are, however, often distinguished from Ishvara, a personal god, with many Hindus worshipping Ishvara in one of its particular manifestations as their, or chosen ideal. The choice is a matter of individual preference, and of regional and family traditions. The multitude of Devas is considered manifestations of Brahman. Three gods or Trimurti, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, and other deities are considered manifestations of and are worshipped as incarnations of Brahman. The members of various Hindu sects worship a dizzying number of specific deities and follow innumerable rituals in honor of specific gods. Because this is Hinduism, however, its practitioners see the profusion of forms and practices as expressions of the same unchanging reality. The panoply of deities is understood by believers as symbols for a single transcendent reality. The devas are powerful spiritual beings, somewhat like angels in the West, who have certain functions in the cosmos and live immensely long lives. Certain devas, such as Ganesha, are regularly worshiped by the Hindu faithful. Note that, while Hindus believe in many devas, many are monotheistic to the extent that they will recognise only one Supreme Being, a God or Goddess who is the source and ruler of the devas. The word avatar does not appear in the Vedic literature; It appears in verb forms in post-Vedic literature, and as a noun particularly in the Puranic literature after the 6th century CE. Theologically, the reincarnation idea is most often associated with the avatars of Hindu god Vishnu, though the idea has been applied to other deities. Varying lists of avatars of Vishnu appear in Hindu scriptures, including the ten Dashavatara of the Garuda Purana and the twenty-two avatars in the Bhagavata Purana, though the latter adds that the incarnations of Vishnu are innumerable. The avatars of Vishnu are important in Vaishnavism theology. In the goddess-based Shaktism tradition, avatars of the Devi are found and all goddesses are considered to be different aspects of the same metaphysical Brahman and Shakti energy. While avatars of other deities such as Ganesha and Shiva are also mentioned in medieval Hindu texts, this is minor and occasional. Both theistic and atheistic ideas, for epistemological and metaphysical reasons, are profuse in different schools of Hinduism. The early Nyaya school of Hinduism, for example, was non-theist/atheist, but later Nyaya school scholars argued that God exists and offered proofs using its theory of logic. Other schools disagreed with Nyaya scholars. Samkhya, Mimamsa: For the Mimamsa the ultimate reality is nothing other than the eternal words of the Vedas. They did not accept the existence of a single supreme creator god, who might have composed the Veda. According to the Mimamsa, gods named in the Vedas have no existence apart from the mantras that speak their names. The power of the gods, then, is nothing other than the power of the mantras that name them. and Carvaka schools of Hinduism, were non-theist/atheist, arguing that God was an unnecessary metaphysical assumption. Its Vaisheshika school started as another non-theistic tradition relying on naturalism and that all matter is eternal, but it later introduced the concept of a non-creator God. The Yoga school of Hinduism accepted the concept of a personal god and left it to the Hindu to define their god. Advaita Vedanta taught a monistic, abstract Self and Oneness in everything, with no room for gods or deity, a perspective that Mohanty calls, spiritual, not religious. Bhakti sub-schools of Vedanta taught a creator God that is distinct from each human being. God in Hinduism is often represented having both the feminine and masculine aspects. The notion of the feminine in deity is much more pronounced and is evident in the pairings of Shiva with Parvati Ardhanarishvara, Vishnu accompanied by Lakshmi, Radha with Krishna and Sita with Rama. According to Graham Schweig, Hinduism has the strongest presence of the divine feminine in world religion from ancient times to the present. The goddess is viewed as the heart of the most esoteric Saiva traditions.
The Four Paths To The Divine
The ancient scriptures of Hinduism are initially in Vedic Sanskrit and later in classical Sanskrit. These texts are classified into two: Shruti and Smriti. Shruti is apauruseya, but revealed by the rishis, and regarded as having the highest authority, while the smriti are manmade and have secondary authority. They are the two highest sources of dharma, the other two being Sishta Achara/Sadachara and finally Atma tushti. Hindu scriptures were composed, memorised and transmitted verbally, across generations, for many centuries before they were written down. Shruti primarily refers to the Vedas, which form the earliest record of the Hindu scriptures, and are regarded as eternal truths revealed to the ancient sages rishis. There are four Vedas - Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda and Atharvaveda. Each Veda has been subclassified into four major text types - the Samhitas mantras and benedictions, the Aranyakas text on rituals, ceremonies, sacrifices and symbolic-sacrifices, the Brahmanas commentaries on rituals, ceremonies and sacrifices, and the Upanishads text discussing meditation, philosophy and spiritual knowledge. The first two parts of the Vedas were subsequently called the karma-kanda, the ceremonial part, also called, and treats on ceremonies; the second part is the jnana-kanda, the part which contains knowledge, also named or posterior part and unfolds the knowledge of Brahma or the universal Self. The Upanishads are the foundation of Hindu philosophical thought and have profoundly influenced diverse traditions. Of the Shrutis Vedic corpus, the Upanishads alone are widely influential among Hindus, considered scriptures par excellence of Hinduism, and their central ideas have continued to influence its thoughts and traditions. Indian philosopher Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan states that the Upanishads have played a dominating role ever since their appearance. There are 108 Muktika Upanishads in Hinduism, of which between 10 and 13 are variously counted by scholars as Principal Upanishads. The most notable of the Smritis are the Hindu epics and the Puranas. The epics consist of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. The Bhagavad Gita is an integral part of the Mahabharata and one of the most popular sacred texts of Hinduism. Sarvopanisado gavo, etc. Gita Mahatmya 6. Gita Dhyanam, cited in It is sometimes called Gitopanishad, then placed in the Shruti heard category, being Upanishadic in content. The Puranas, which started to be composed of onward, contain extensive mythologies, and are central in the distribution of common themes of Hinduism through vivid narratives. The Yoga Sutras is a classical text for the Hindu Yoga tradition, which gained renewed popularity in the 20th century. Since the 19th century, Indian modernists have re-asserted the Aryan origins of Hinduism, purifying Hinduism from its Tantric elements and elevating the Vedic elements. Hindu modernists like Vivekananda see the Vedas as the laws of the spiritual world, which would still exist even if they were not revealed to the sages. Tantra are the religious scriptures that give prominence to the female energy of the deity that in her personified form has both gentle and fierce form. In Tantric tradition, Radha, Parvati, Durga, and Kali are worshipped symbolically as well as in their personified forms. The Agamas in Tantra refer to authoritative scriptures or the teachings of Shiva to Shakti, while Nigamas refers to the Vedas and the teachings of Shakti to Shiva. In Agamic schools of Hinduism, the Vedic literature and the Agamas are equally authoritative. Authority and eternal truths play an important role in Hinduism. Religious traditions and truths are believed to be contained in its sacred texts, which are accessed and taught by sages, gurus, saints or avatars. But there is also a strong tradition of the questioning of authority, internal debate and challenging of religious texts in Hinduism. The Hindus believe that this deepens the understanding of the eternal truths and further develops the tradition. Authority was mediated through an intellectual culture that tended to develop ideas collaboratively, and according to the shared logic of natural reason. Narratives in the Upanishads present characters questioning persons of authority. The Kena Upanishad repeatedly asks kena, by what power
The Ancient Texts And Modern Revival
something is the case. The Katha Upanishad and Bhagavad Gita present narratives where the student criticises the teacher's inferior answers. In the Shiva Purana, Shiva questions Vishnu and Brahma. Doubt plays a repeated role in the Mahabharata. Jayadeva's Gita Govinda presents criticism via Radha. Titles such as Guru, Acharya, or Mahacharya may be used to remark authority in Hindu and yogic traditions. Practices in Hinduism include worship at home, at temples, and at sacred places such as rivers, mountains, etc. The underpinning of Hindu worship is bhakti, or loving devotion to God. Worship includes practices such as puja, arti, and havan. Rituals at home. A wedding is the most extensive personal ritual an adult Hindu undertakes in their life. Most Hindus observe religious rituals at home. rituals daily prescribe routine. The rituals vary greatly among regions, villages, and individuals. They are not mandatory in Hinduism. The nature and place of rituals is an individual's choice. Some devout Hindus perform daily rituals such as worshiping at dawn after bathing usually at a family shrine, and typically includes lighting a lamp and offering foodstuffs before the images of deities, recitation from religious scripts, singing bhajans devotional hymns, yoga, meditation, chanting mantras and others. Yajna Vedic rituals of fire-oblation yajna and chanting of Vedic hymns are observed on special occasions, such as a Hindu wedding. Other major life-stage events, such as rituals after death, include the yajna and chanting of Vedic mantras. The words of the mantras are themselves sacred, and do not constitute linguistic utterances. Instead, as Klostermaier notes, in their application in Vedic rituals they become magical sounds, means to an end. In the Brahmanical perspective, the sounds have their own meaning, mantras are considered primordial rhythms of creation, preceding the forms to which they refer. By reciting them the cosmos is regenerated, by enlivening and nourishing the forms of creation at their base. As long as the purity of the sounds is preserved, the recitation of the mantras will be efficacious, irrespective of whether their discursive meaning is understood by human beings. Sadhana is derived from the root sadh-, meaning to accomplish, and denotes a means for the realisation of spiritual goals. Although different denominations of Hinduism have their own particular notions of sadhana, they share the feature of liberation from bondage. They differ on what causes bondage, how one can become free of that bondage, and who or what can lead one on that path. Life-cycle rites of passage Major life stage milestones are celebrated as sanskara saamskara, rites of passage in Hinduism. The rites of passage are not mandatory, and vary in details by gender, community and regionally. Gautama Dharmasutras composed in about the middle of 1st millennium BCE lists 48 sanskaras, while Gryhasutra and other texts composed centuries later list between 12 and 16 sanskaras. The list of sanskaras in Hinduism include both external rituals such as those marking a baby's birth and a baby's name giving ceremony, as well as inner rites of resolutions and