Hindu

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Hindu (About this sound pronunciation (help·info)) is a generic term that refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that is indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. In common use today, it refers to an adherent of Hinduism. The vast body of Hindu scriptures, divided into Śruti ("revealed") and Smriti ("remembered"), lay the foundation of Hindu beliefs, which primarily include dhárma, kárma, ahimsa and saṃsāra. Vedānta and yoga are one of the several core schools of Hindu philosophy, broadly known as the Sanātana Dharma. The word Hindu is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion ie. Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism or Sikhism; as is used in the Constitution of India.[1]

With more than a billion adherents, Hinduism is the world's third largest religion. The vast majority of Hindus, approximately 1 billion, live in India.[2] Other countries with large Hindu populations, such as Nepal, Mauritius and the island of Bali, can be found in various parts of the world.

Contents

[edit] Etymology

The word Hindu is the Persian name of the Indus River (Sanskrit Sindhu) in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent.[3] The Persian term was further loaned into Arabic as al-Hind referring to the land of the people who live across river Indus, and into Greek as Indos, whence ultimately English India.[4] By the 13th century, Hindustān emerged as a popular alternative name of India, meaning the "land of Hindus".[5]

Originally, Hindu was a secular term which was used to describe all inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent (or Hindustan) irrespective of their religious affiliation. It occurs sporadically in some 16th-18th century Bengali Gaudiya Vaishnava texts, including Chaitanya Charitamrita and Chaitanya Bhagavata, usually to contrast Hindus with Yavanas or Mlecchas.[6] It appears in South Indian and Kashmiri texts from at least 1323 CE,[7] and increasingly so during British rule. It was only towards the end of the 18th century that the European merchants and colonists referred collectively to the followers of Indian religions as Hindus. Eventually, it came to define a precisely religious identity that includes any person of Indian origin who neither practiced Abrahamic religions nor non-Vedic Indian religions, such as Jainism, Sikhism or Buddhism, thereby encompassing a wide range of religious beliefs and practices related to Sanātana Dharma.[8]

One of the accepted views is that ism was added to Hindu around 1830 to denote the culture and religion of the high-caste Brahmans in contrast to other religions. The term Hinduism was soon appropriated by the Hindus in India themselves as they tried to establish a national, social and cultural identity opposed to European colonialism in India.[8]

[edit] History

Main article: History of Hinduism
Sacred Mount Kailash in Tibet is regarded as the spiritual abode of Shiva.

The earliest evidence for prehistoric religion in India date back to the late Neolithic in the early Harappan period (5500–2600 BCE).[9][10] The beliefs and practices of the pre-classical era (1500–500 BCE) are called the "historical Vedic religion". Modern Hinduism grew out of the Vedas, the oldest of which is the Rigveda, dated to 1700–1100 BCE.[11] The Vedas center on worship of deities such as Indra, Varuna and Agni, and on the Soma ritual. Fire-sacrifices, called yajña were performed, and Vedic mantras chanted but no temples or icons were built.[12]

The major Sanskrit epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata, were compiled over a protracted period during the late centuries BCE and the early centuries CE. They contain mythological stories about the rulers and wars of ancient India, and are interspersed with religious and philosophical treatises. The later Puranas recount tales about devas and devis, their interactions with humans and their battles against demons.

Three major movements underpinned the naissance of a new epoch of Hindu thought: the advent and spread of Upanishads, Jaina, and Buddhist philosophico-religious thought throughout the broader Indian landmass.[13] Mahavira (24th Tirthankar of Jains) and Buddha (founder of Buddhism) taught that to achieve moksha or nirvana, one did not have to accept the authority of the Vedas or the caste system. Buddha went a step further and claimed that the existence of a Self/soul or God was unnecessary.[14] Buddhism peaked during the reign of Asoka the Great of the Mauryan Empire, who unified the Indian subcontinent in the 3rd century BCE. After 200 CE several schools of thought were formally codified in Indian philosophy, including Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Purva-Mimamsa and Vedanta.[15] Charvaka, the founder of an atheistic materialist school, came to the fore in North India in the sixth century BCE.[16] Between 400 BCE and 1000 CE Hinduism expanded at the expense of Buddhism.[17]

Sanskritic culture went into decline after the end of the Gupta period. The early medieval Puranas helped establish a religious mainstream among the pre-literate tribal societies undergoing acculturation. The tenets of Brahmanic Hinduism and of the Dharmashastras underwent a radical transformation at the hands of the Purana composers, resulting in the rise of a mainstream "Hinduism" that overshadowed all earlier traditions.[18]

Though Islam came to India in the early 7th century with the advent of Arab traders and the conquest of Sindh, it started to become a major religion during the later Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent.[16] During this period Buddhism declined rapidly and many Hindus converted to Islam. Numerous Muslim rulers such as Aurangzeb destroyed Hindu temples and persecuted non-Muslims; however some, such as Akbar, were more tolerant. Hinduism underwent profound changes, in large part due to the influence of the prominent teachers Ramanuja, Madhva, and Chaitanya.[16] Followers of the Bhakti movement moved away from the abstract concept of Brahman, which the philosopher Adi Shankara consolidated a few centuries before, with emotional, passionate devotion towards the more accessible avatars, especially Krishna and Rama.[19]

The Swaminarayan sect's Akshardham Temple in Delhi, according the Guinness World Records is the World’s Largest Comprehensive Hindu Temple

Indology as an academic discipline of studying Indian culture from a European perspective was established in the 19th century, led by scholars such as Max Müller and John Woodroffe. They brought Vedic, Puranic and Tantric literature and philosophy to Europe and the United States. At the same time, societies such as the Brahmo Samaj and the Theosophical Society attempted to reconcile and fuse Abrahamic and Dharmic philosophies, endeavouring to institute societal reform. This period saw the emergence of movements which, while highly innovative, were rooted in indigenous tradition. They were based on the personalities and teachings of individuals, as with Ramakrishna and Ramana Maharshi. Prominent Hindu philosophers, including Aurobindo and Prabhupada (founder of ISKCON), translated, reformulated and presented Hinduism's foundational texts for contemporary audiences in new iterations, attracting followers and attention in India and abroad. Others such as Vivekananda, Paramahansa Yogananda, B.K.S. Iyengar and Swami Rama have also been instrumental in raising the profiles of Yoga and Vedanta in the West. Today modern movements, such as ISKCON and the Swaminarayan Faith, attract a large amount of followers across the world.[20]

[edit] Definition

The Bhagavad Gītā, a conversation between Lord Krishna and Arjuna before the start of the Kurukshetra war, is one of the foremost Hindu scriptures[21] and is described as a concise guide to Hindu philosophy and beliefs.[22]

The roots of the diverse set of religious beliefs, traditions and philosophy of Hindus were laid during the Vedic age which originated in India between 2000 and 1500 BC.[23] The ancient Vedic religion is considered by most scholars as the predecessor of the modern religion of Hindus[24] and it has had a profound impact on India's history, culture and philosophy. The Vedas are the oldest sacred books of Hinduism and lay the foundation of several schools of Hindu thought.[25] The Upanishads refers to those scriptures which form the core teachings of the Vedānta philosophy.[26] Adi Shankara's commentaries on the Upanishads led to the rise of Advaita Vedanta, the most influential sub-school of Vedanta.

In the holy text Merutantra,the word Hindu is defined as "Hinani Gunani Dushyanti iti Hindu".Meaning that Gunani that which destroys the inferior raja-tama components or gunas is a Hindu.Thus, to be a Hindu is to follow a way of life that enhances the spiritually pure sattva component and sattva predominant qualities like love, courage, humility, expansiveness, etc.and overcomes the spiritually impure raja-tama predominant attitude like anger, lust, jealousy, greed, attachment, pride etc.

Hinduism consists of several sects and denominations, of which Vaishnavism and Shaivism are by far the most popular.[27] Other aspects include folk and conservative Vedic Hinduism. Since the 18th century, Hinduism has accommodated a host of new religious and reform movements, with Arya Samaj being one of the most notable Hindu revivalist organizations. Due to the wide diversity in the beliefs, practices and traditions encompassed by Hinduism, there is no universally accepted definition on who a Hindu is, or even agreement on whether term Hinduism represents a religious, cultural or socio-political entity. In 1995, Chief Justice P. B. Gajendragadkar was quoted in an Indian Supreme Court ruling:[28]

When we think of the Hindu religion, unlike other religions in the world, the Hindu religion does not claim any one prophet; it does not worship any one god; it does not subscribe to any one dogma; it does not believe in any one philosophic concept; it does not follow any one set of religious rites or performances; in fact, it does not appear to satisfy the narrow traditional features of any religion or creed. It may broadly be described as a way of life and nothing more.

Thus some scholars argue that the Hinduism is not a religion per se but rather a reification of a diverse set of traditions and practices by scholars who constituted a unified system and arbitrarily labeled it Hinduism.[29] The usage may also have been necessitated by the desire to distinguish between "Hindus" and followers of other religions during the periodic census undertaken by the colonial British government in India. Other scholars, while seeing Hinduism as a 19th century construct, view Hinduism as a response to British colonialism by Indian nationalists who forged a unified tradition centered on oral and written Sanskrit texts adopted as scriptures.[30]

A commonly held view, though, is that while Hinduism contains both "uniting and dispersing tendencies", it has a common central thread of philosophical concepts (including dharma, moksha and samsara), practices (puja, bhakti etc.) and cultural traditions.[31] These common elements originating (or being codified within) the Vedic, Upanishad and Puranic scriptures and epics. Thus a Hindu could :

In 1995, while considering the question "who are Hindus and what are the broad features of Hindu religion", the Supreme Court of India highlighted Bal Gangadhar Tilak's formulation of Hinduism's defining features:[28]

Acceptance of the Vedas with reverence; recognition of the fact that the means or ways to salvation are diverse; and the realization of the truth that the number of gods to be worshipped is large, that indeed is the distinguishing feature of Hindu religion.

Some thinkers have attempted to distinguish between the concept of Hinduism as a religion, and a Hindu as a member of a nationalist or socio-political class. Veer Savarkar in his influential pamphlet "Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?" considered geographical unity, common culture and common race to be the defining qualities of Hindus; thus a Hindu was a person who saw India "as his Fatherland as well as his Holy land, that is, the cradle land of his religion".[35] This conceptualization of Hinduism, has led to establishment of Hindutva as the dominant force in Hindu nationalism over the last century.[36]

[edit] Customs and traditions

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[edit] Ethnic and cultural fabric

See also: Demographics of India, History of India, and Hindutva
The Mother Temple of Besakih in Bali, Indonesia.
The Tirupati Temple is one of the foremost Hindu shrines in India.

Hinduism, its religious doctrines, traditions and observances are very typical and inextricably linked to the culture and demographics of India. Hinduism has one of the most ethnically diverse bodies of adherents in the world. It is hard to classify Hinduism as a religion because the framework, symbols, leaders and books of reference that make up a typical religion are not uniquely identified in the case of Hinduism. Hinduism is almost 4,000 years old. Most commonly it can be seen as a "way of life" which gives rise to many other civilized forms of religions.

Large tribes and communities indigenous to India are closely linked to the synthesis and formation of Hindu civilization. People of East Asian roots living in the states of north eastern India and Nepal were also a part of the earliest Hindu civilization. Immigration and settlement of people from Central Asia and people of Indo-Greek heritage have brought their own influence on Hindu society.

The roots of Hinduism in southern India, and amongst tribal and indigenous communities is just as ancient and fundamentally contributive to the foundations of the religious and philosophical system.

Ancient Hindu kingdoms arose and spread the religion and traditions across South East Asia, particularly Thailand, Nepal, Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, and what is now central Vietnam. A form of Hinduism particularly different from Indian roots and traditions is practiced in Bali, Indonesia, where Hindus form 90% of the population. Indian migrants have taken Hinduism and Hindu culture to South Africa, Fiji, Mauritius and other countries in and around the Indian Ocean, and in the nations of the West Indies and the Caribbean.

[edit] Hindu ceremonies, observances and pilgrimages

Main article: Hindu festivals
Diwali celebrations in Little India, Singapore.

Hinduism is also very diverse in the religious ceremonies performed by its adherents for different periods and events in life, and for death. Principal Festivity of the Hindus also vary from region to region which include Diwali, Shivratri, Ram Navami, Janmashtmi, Ganapati, Durgapuja, Holi, Navaratri, etc.

Many Hindus make pilgrimages to the holy shrines (known as tirthas). Hindu holy shrines include Mount Kailash, Amarnath, Vaishno Devi, Rameshwaram, and Kedarnath. Prominent Hindu holy cities include Varanasi (Benaras), Kathmandu (Nepal), Tirupati, Haridwar, Nashik, Ujjain, Dwarka, Puri, Prayaga, Mathura, Mayapur, Madurai, Kanchipuram and Ayodhya.

Goddess Durga's holy shrine in Vaishno Devi attracts thousands of devotees every year. Hundreds of millions of Hindus annually visit holy rivers such as the Ganges ("Ganga" in Sanskrit) and temples near them, wash and bathe themselves to purify their sins. The Kumbha Mela (the Great Fair) is a gathering of between 10 to 20 million Hindus upon the banks of the holy rivers at Allahabad (Prayag), Ujjain, Nashik, as periodically ordained in different parts of India by Hinduism's priestly leadership. The most famous is at the confluence of the Ganga and Yamuna in Uttar Pradesh which is known as "Sangam".

Pashupatinath Temple panorama of the Pashupatinath Temple from the other bank of Bagmati river, Kathmandu, Nepal.

[edit] Initiation

Main article: Initiation in Hinduism

[edit] Sixteen sanskars (rituals)

A young Nepali Hindu devotee during a traditional prayer ceremony at Kathmandu's Durbar Square.

These are various rituals necessary within a life of Hindu. These samskaram are applied during different phases of life. These are:

  1. Garbhadhan Sanskar (Conception)
  2. Punsavan Sanskar (Protection)
  3. Simantanayan Sanskar (Bringing Happiness to mother)
  4. Jatakarm Sanskar (Child Birth)
  5. Namakaran Sanskar (Naming of Child)
  6. Nishkraman Sanskar (First outdoor visit)
  7. Annaprashan Sanskar (First food feeding)
  8. Chudkaram Sanskar (Haircutting)
  9. Karnavedh Sanskar (Ear piercing)
  10. Upnayan (Sacred thread wearing)
  11. Vedarambh Sanskar (Study starting)
  12. Samavartna Sanskar (Education completion)
  13. Vivah Sanskar (Marriage)
  14. Vanprasth Sanskar (Preparation for renouncing)
  15. Sanyas Sanskar (Renouncing)
  16. Antyesti Sanskar (Funeral)

Some Hindus may perform initiation ceremonies like Upanayana or Janoy or 'Vratabandha'. These ceremonies have variants depending on the caste, the culture and the region.

In a ceremony administered by a priest, a coir string, known as Janoy, Poonool (lit. "flower thread, "Tamil), janivara (Kannada, Marathi), is hung from around a young boy's left shoulder to his right waist line for Brahmins and from right shoulders to left waistline by Kshatriyas. The ceremony varies from region to community, and includes reading from the Vedas and special Mantras and Slokas.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ India-Constitution:Religious rights Article 25:"Explanation II: In sub-Clause (b) of clause (2), the reference to Hindus shall be construed as including a reference to persons professing the Sikh, Jaina or Buddhist religion"
  2. ^ CIA World Factbook - India Demographics 80.5% of 1.166 billion Indians are Hindus
  3. ^ "India", Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, 2100a.d. Oxford University Press.
  4. ^ Thapar, R. 1993. Interpreting Early India. Delhi: Oxford University Press. p. 77
  5. ^ Thompson Platts, John. A dictionary of Urdu , classical Hindī, and English. W.H. Allen & Co., Oxford University 1884. 
  6. ^ O'Conell, Joseph T. (1973). "The Word 'Hindu' in Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Texts". Journal of the American Oriental Society 93 (3): pp. 340–344. 
  7. ^ David Lorenzen, Who Invented Hinduism? New Delhi 2006, pp. 24-33; Rajatarangini of Yonaraja : "Hinduka"
  8. ^ a b Gavin, Flood. "Hare Krishna: Hinduism, Vaisnavism, and ISKCON: Authentic Traditions or Scholarly Constructions?". Cults and Society, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2001. http://www.icsahome.com/infoserv_articles/flood_gavin_hinduismvaisismandiskcon.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-11. 
  9. ^ Nikhilananda 1990, pp. 3–8
  10. ^ "Hindu History" The BBC names a bath and phallic symbols of the Harappan civilization as features of the "Prehistoric religion (3000-1000 BCE)".
  11. ^ T. Oberlies (Die Religion des Rgveda, Vienna 1998. p. 158) based on 'cumulative evidence' sets wide range of 1700–1100.
  12. ^ Falcao, Nelson (2003), Kristapurāṇa, a Christian-Hindu encounter: a study of inculturation in the Kristapurāṇa of Thomas Stephens, S.J. (1549-1619), Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, p. 99, ISBN 9788187886723, http://books.google.com/?id=VRo2AAAAMAAJ 
  13. ^ Olivelle, Patrick, "The renouncer tradition", in Flood 2003, pp. 273–274
  14. ^ Eliot 2003
  15. ^ Radhakrishnan & Moore 1967, p. xviii–xxi.
  16. ^ a b c Basham 1999
  17. ^ "The rise of Jainism and Buddhism". Religion and Ethics—Hinduism: Other religious influences. BBC. 26 July 2004. http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/hinduism/history/history_2.shtml. Retrieved 2007-04-21. 
  18. ^ Vijay Nath, From 'Brahmanism' to 'Hinduism': Negotiating the Myth of the Great Tradition, Social Scientist 2001, pp. 19-50.
  19. ^ J.T.F. Jordens, "Medieval Hindu Devotionalism" in & Basham 1999
  20. ^ Raymond Brady Williams (2004), Williams on South Asian Religions and Immigration: Collected Works, Ashgate Publishing Ltd., ISBN 0754638561, http://books.google.com/?id=nkVBOfE1KkAC&dq=swaminarayan+hare+krishna p.217
  21. ^ Pandit, Bansi. Explore Hinduism. p. 27
  22. ^ Maharishi Mahesh Yogi; On The Bhagavad Gita; A New Translation and Commentary With Sanskrit Text Chapters 1 to 6, Preface p. 9
  23. ^ N. Siegel, Paul. The meek and the militant: religion and power across the world. Zed Books, 1987. ISBN 0862323495, 9780862323493. 
  24. ^ Hoiberg, Dale. Students' Britannica India. Popular Prakashan, 2000. ISBN 0852297602, 9780852297605. 
  25. ^ see e.g. Radhakrishnan & Moore 1957, p. 3; Witzel, Michael, "Vedas and Upaniṣads", in: Flood 2003, p. 68
  26. ^ Brodd, Jefferey (2003). World Religions. Winona, MN: Saint Mary's Press. ISBN 978-0-88489-725-5. 
  27. ^ Adherents.com Hinduism
  28. ^ a b Supreme Court of India, "Bramchari Sidheswar Shai and others Versus State of West Bengal", 1995.
  29. ^ Frykenberg, Robert. "The emergence of modern 'Hinduism' as a concept and as an Institution: A reappraisal with special reference to South India" in Hinduism reconsidered, Manohar, Delhi, 1989. ISBN 8-17-304385-X
  30. ^ Hardy, F. "A radical assessment of the Vedic heritage" in Representing Hinduism: The Construction of Religious and National Identity, Sage Publ., Delhi, 1995.
  31. ^ Flood, Gavin, "Establishing the boundaries" in Flood (2003), pp. 1-17.
  32. ^ Muller, F. Max. Six Systems of Indian Philosophy; Samkhya and Yoga; Naya and Vaiseshika. 1899. This classic work helped to establish the major classification systems as we know them today. Reprint edition: (Kessinger Publishing: February 2003) ISBN 978-0766142961.
  33. ^ Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Charles A. Moore. A Source Book in Indian Philosophy. (Princeton University Press; 1957) Princeton paperback 12th edition, 1989. ISBN 0691019584.
  34. ^ Swami Tattwananda. Vaisnava Sects, Saiva Sects, Mother Worship. (Firma KLM Private Ltd.: Calcutta, 1984). This work gives an overview of many different subsets of the three main religious groups in India.
  35. ^ Savarkar, V. K. Hindutva, Hindi Sahitya Sadan, 2003. ISBN 8-18-838825-4
  36. ^ Ram-Prasad, C. "Contemporary political Hinduism" in Blackwell companion to Hinduism, Blackwell Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0-631-21535-2

[edit] References

  • Flood, Gavin (Editor) (2003). The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.. ISBN 1-4051-3251-5. 
  • Radhakrishnan, S.; Moore, CA (1967). A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy. Princeton. ISBN 0-691-01958-4. 
  • Tattwananda, Swami (1984). Vaisnava Sects, Saiva Sects, Mother Worship. Calcutta: Firma KLM Private Ltd..  First revised edition.
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