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The principal religion of India is Brahmanism/Hinduism. Hinduism is a religion almost uniquely associated with India and neigboring Nepal as well as the East Indies (especially Bali) where it was carried by Indian traders.
he people on the island of Bali are Hindus, one of the few places in the world where Hinduism is the main religion outside of India. Hinduism is, for a range of historical reasons, has not spread to other countries. There are Hindus in other countries, but almost always restricted to Indian emmigrants. Hinduism is a mystery to most westerners and many Muslims view it as an idultrious religion. At first glance with the various gods it may not seem like a monothesistic religion, but this would be a misunderstanding, much like concluding that Christianity is not a monotheistic religion because of the trinity and saint cults. Brahmanism and its stratified social caste system, is generally seen to have evolved from the Vedic religion of Aryan invaders who entered the sub-continent and conquered the Indus Valley culture. The history of ancient India, however, is the least well known of the great river valley civilizations. Some scholars today question the Aryan invasion theory. Our knowledge of Indian history at this time is too limited to reasonably access this debate.
Hinduism has been described as a mode of living of one particular people. Unlike many other religions, there is no international missionary zeal to spread the religion to non-believers. It is also the only great monotheistic religion with such a stratified class system. This alone would make it virtually impossible to spread to peoples that had not been born into the religion. Hinduism eventually became the dominant religion of India, and later it became state religion; Jains and Buddhists were persecuted. Then game the Islamic invasion and the Moghu Empire.
The Name of the religion, "Hindu", is based on the name of River Indus, which arrises in northwestern India and today primarily flows through Pakistan, a Muslim nation. The Indus in ancient times called the "Sindhu", but the Persians who migrated south into India called it the "Hindu," and the land "Hindustan" (Sanskrit, Hindi). They called the people "Hindus". Thus the the culture and life practices developed into a religion followed by the Hindus and the reliigion became known as the "Hinduism." The term is used to describe the religious, philosophical, and cultural traditions infigenous to the Indian subcontinent. The religion waa originally known as Sanatana dharma (the eternal law - the eternal spirit or soul the true "self" of every person, called the atman). Other terms include Vaidika dharma (law of the Vedas), Arya dharma (the noble religion), or Manava dharma (the religion of mankind). Although originally a Persian term, eventually the word "Hindu" was adopted by the local population as well. The term Hindu is the basis for the SWestern term India. The Greeks used the term Indos and Indikos. The Roman (Latin) term was Indianus.
There are today an estimated 850 million Hindus worldwide (about 2005). The vast majority are located in India.
The principal religion of India is Brahmanism/Hinduism. Hinduism is a religion almost uniquely associated with India and neigboring Nepal as well as the East Indies (especially Bali) where it was carried by Indian traders.
he people on the island of Bali are Hindus, one of the few places in the world where Hinduism is the main religion outside of India. Hinduism is, for a range of historical reasons, has not spread to other countries. There are Hindus in other countries, but almost always restricted to Indian emmigrants. Unlike many other religions, there is no international missionary zeal to spread the religion to non-believers.
Hinduism is a mystery to most westerners and many Muslims view it as an idultrious religion. At first glance with the various gods it may not seem like a monothesistic religion, but this would be a misunderstanding, much like concluding that Christianity is not a monotheistic religion because of the trinity and saint cults.
Hinduism may date back to the third millenium before Christ (about 3000 BC). Although there is considerable difference as to the chronology. We also note dates as recent as 1200 BC. Brahmanism and its stratified social caste system, is generally seen to have evolved from the Vedic religion of Aryan invaders who entered the sub-continent and conquered the Indus Valley culture. The history of ancient India, however, is the least well known of the great river valley civilizations. Some scholars today question the Aryan invasion theory and see it as myth rather than historical fact. Our knowledge of Indian history at this time is too limited to reasonably access this debate.
Hinduism eventually became the dominant religion of India, and later it became state religion; Jains and Buddhists were persecuted. Then came the Islamic invasion and the Moghu Empire.
Hinduism has been described as a mode of living of one particular people. The Supreme Court of India highlighted Bal Gangadhar Tilak's formulation of Hinduism's defining features (1995). They include: 1) acceptance of the Vedas with reverence, 2) recognition of the fact that the means or ways to salvation are diverse; and 3) the realization of the truth that the number of gods to be worshipped is large, that indeed is the distinguishing feature of Hindu religion. Hinduism has no founder, it developed out of Brahminism. Unlike the other great world religions (Buddhism-Budda, Christianity-Christ, Islam-Mohahamed, and Judaism-Abraham), there are no central historical individuals associated with Hinduism. There is no single identfiable founder, teacher, nor any prophets.
Thanks to Ghandi, an aura of pacifism developed around Hinduism in the 20h century. his is, however, not correct. The only pacifist religion is Buddhism. Hinduism was never a pacifist religion and the Kshatriyas (warrior caste) and war was always held in high esteem. In fact for much of Indian history the warrior caste out ranked the Brahman caste. Not often mentioned in India today, but Ghandi acquired his pacifism not in India from Hinduism, but from his time in Brtain n the English pacifist movement.
Naga Sadhus are a group of Shaivite saints devoted to the worship of the god Shiva as the supreme being.
They livy in Himalayan Caves and come out to civilization only during the Kumbh Mela. This is the only event in which these ascetic saints are seen in public among the Indian public.
The Naga Sadhus adopt destincive characteristics based on the Hindu god Shiva. They traditionall hold tridents crowned with human skulls. They smear their bodies in thick ash and they wear heavy coils of matted hair on the head. These are considered to be saints. They remain completely naked even in the cold. India is located just north of the Equator and enjoys a tropical climate. It can, however, get bitter cold in the Himalayas.
They smoke Marijuana through a pipe known as a Chillum or Shiv Muli. It was seen as a way to avoid the worldly distraction nd to practice self-control in an intoxicated state. As the young Naga Sadhus advance in their spiritual life they eventually renounce intoxication too. The Naga Sadhus have to renounce the materialistic world and practice celibacy. This enables them to escape from the Hindu cycles of birth and death and to achieve salvation. As they belong to the Shaivite sect, they have matted locks of hair and their bodies are covered in ash like Lord Shiva.
Like other major religions, Hinduism has different branches or denominations. There are two major branches of Hinduism: 1) Vaishnavism and 2) Shaivism. Buth the religious spectrum of India is far more complicated. Each branch is made up of a multitude of different sects. Each sect has its own set of sacred scriptures, they are united by a reverence of the ancient Vedas.
The Vedic texts are called the Upanishads. They explored the search for knowledge that would permit man to escape the cycle of reincarnation. The Vedas postulate a belief in a cosmic principle of ultimate reality called Brahman and its unity with the individual soul, or atman. The Vedas asert that all living creatures go through a perpetual cycle of rebirth, or samsara. The only way out of this cycle is spiritual self-realization through which liberation (moksha) can be reached. An important Hindu comcept addressed by the Vedas is karma. This is what determines each living being’s status within the perpetual cycle of rebirth. The Vedas establish three principal deities: Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. There are of course numerous other Hindu dieties. They are, however, better conceived as incarnations (epiphanies) of the three principal deities. This is further complicated by the fact that some of these minor deities are survivors of the pre-Aryan/Vedic era. Hindu classical mythology is based on 1) the Mahabharata (which includes the Bhagavadgita, the most important religious text of Hinduism), 2) the Ramayana, and 3) the Puranas.
Religious scholars in India have produced a g\huge boy of work. Much of it unpublis\hed and moldering away in counless relogious libraries located throughout the country. The Indian Government is spomsoring a project to digaltize some of these texts to create a permanent record. This is, however, not a relgious project. The Givernment wants to dind and preserve folk remeies. The Goverement is concerned about what they call bio-piracy. The theft of anvient intelectual property by giant internatioinal drug comapmies. The 4-year, $2 million Indian project employs some 150 doctors and techniciansand is poring through ancient texts in Sanskiert, Arabic, Urdu, and Persian, but their major interest are the Sanskiret rtexts, some oif which are over 2,000 yerasold. The most popular traditinal medicak stsr\tem in India is ayurveda which aimjs to restore a balance between body and spirit. It is still pacticed in rural India. The Indians can not provide an example of bio-piracy. [Lancaster, p. A 22.] And this all sounds like more of an exrcize in Indian nationalism than a scientific project.
It is also the only great monotheistic religion with such a stratified class system. This alone would make it virtually impossible to spread to peoples that had not been born into the religion. The hierarchical social structure of the caste system is a central tennant of Hinduism. It is founded on the principle of dharma.
Untouchability is the tragic outcome oh Hinuism and the Indiamn caste system. The rerm comes from the fact that Hindus are not allowed to touch the individuals at bottom rung of the caste systm, directly or indirectly. The term for intouchables in India is Dalits. Touch is, however, only part of the social conventions. It is a pervasive system as to most Hindus relate to the bottom group. It is actually deeper than Western racism. It is adeeply enbeded psychological process of thought validated by religious belief and social custom. The results are a wide range physical acts and behaviours, social norms and cultural practices. Untouchability is fonded on beliefs of purity and pollution that is a cental element of casteism. Upper class Hindus believe that Dalits are polluted people which is why they are at the lowest level of the Indian Hindu caste levels. There are severe economic ramifications to untouchbility. Untouchables are excluded from most jobs. The jobs open to them are those seen as polluting and impure. They have traditionlly been prevented from engaging in other work. The actual jobs include removing human waste ('manual scavenging'), removing and skinning animal carcasses, tanning leather, making and fixing shoes, and washing clothes. Untoues were made to live outside village so that their physical presence would not pollute the village and the people in it. And it was not just a spatial matter. Untouchables might be attacked if their houses were not inferior to those of higher status Hindus. Even elctricity and tinning water could mean trouble. Untouchability affected virtully every aspect of an individua;'s life. Tere were endless ways in which could be expressed. It is today most prevalebt in rural areas. In villages, untouchbles are not allowed to use village wells, banned from barber shops, and especially barred from temple and shrines. They are commonly not chosen by privaste enployers. If hired they are paid less and given th most menial work. Promotions are rare. And untouchavle children even experience desrimination at school. There are reports that they are mafe to clean toilets tgeir lunchesapart from the other children. The process begins at an early age. An untouchble web site reports, "As an instrument of casteism, Untouchability also serves to instill caste status to Dalit children from the moment they are born. Kachro (filth), Melo (dirty), Dhudiyo (dusty), Gandy (mad), Ghelo (stupid), Punjo (waste) are just some of the names given to Dalit boys in Gujarat. Of course, names with similar meanings are given to Dalit girls too." [Navsarjan]
Most Hindus worship (puja) every day in their homes where they have small shrines. These shrimes are highly variable, they can be a room, a small altar or simply pictures or statues. Family members often worship together at these shrines. They make offerings to a murti, a sacred stautue of a god or goddess. Communal worship is conducted at a Mandir (Hindu Temple). The various temples are dedicated to different gods and are the focus of Hindu religious life. Outside India, people mainly gather at the mandir at the weekend and it is a focus of community life. Worshippers in the temples repeat the names of their favourite gods, goddesses, and the mantras. They offer water, fruit, flowers and incense to the gods.
pilgrimage is an important feature of Hinduism. Important pilgrimage places include rivers, temples, mountains, and other sacred sites. These are seem as sites where the gods may have appeared or become manifest in the world. Although the term Hindu evolved from the Indus River, the most important Hindu pilgrimage site is the Ganges which flows through a broad swath of northern India.
Westerners often have trouble understanding Hinduism because it is so very different that Christianity. Two of those differences are attitudes toard speading the faith and apostacy. The spread of the world's four major religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam is a matter of some historical importance. And the process varied and changed over time as the religions were were transmitted across cultures. Missionaries, pilgrims, and converts served as elements of change by facilitating the transmission of diverse beliefs and practices. This was at times done peacefully and at other times by the sword. The missionary impulse has been important to Christianity from the very beginning of the Church, St. Paul being the consumate missionary and a key factor in spread the Gospel by persuasion. Once in command of the Roman state and subsequent medieval states, spreading the Gospel by the power of the state abd then the sword became increasingly important. The missonary impulse remains very important, albeit in a more humanitarian form.. The other two Abrhamic religions (Islam and Judaism) have taken differet approches. Islamic aprroaches to spreading the faith has varies ovrtime. The Jewish approach has been more consistent. There has been little missionary impulse. The same appears to been the case for Hinduism. As a result, with a few exceptions, Hindism has not spread beyond the Asian subcintinent where it developed. Although one reader reports a growing missionary effort among Hindu fundamentalists, this has not been the traditional Hindu way. Although in the last years it grew the Hindu fundamentalism, that is not the traditional way in Hindu religion. There is no tradition of a missionary mission. Hindus do not attempt to convert people to Hinduism. And usually nobody is forbidden to enter holy places and participate to religious rites. They only ask people to respect their rules. One of the most common and strict such rule is to remove any footwear and leave it outside a holy place. It is not allowed carry the shoes in your hands. There were other differences. Apotacy was not permitted in early Christianity and still is not in Islam. The Koran mabdates death to apostates. Hinduim again is different. A Hindu, not a fundamentalist of cours, would probany see conversion to another religion as useless. They see the religions as human ways to go to God. They have no idea of a revelation by God himself. However if a converted would accuse the Hindus to be idolatres or to serve the devil (as sometimes happened) surely that would be seen as a serious insult.
Hinduism in the 20th century merged with the new force Indian nationalism to become a powerful political force.
Indians celebrate many religious holidays. We know of no country which clebrate such aiversity of religious holidays. The major holy days of the predominant religious groups are considered national holidays, including Good Friday and Christmas (Christian); the two Eids (Islamic); Lord Buddha's Birthday (Buddhist); Guru Nanak's Birthday (Sikh); Dussehra, Diwali, and Holi (Hindu); and the Birthday of Lord Mahavir (Jain).
We do not know a great deal about how children are involved with Hinduism. Indian are secular and religious teaching is not permitted. The Indian Government permits private religious schools outside of the state schools, but there is no government financial support. An exception is Government merit-based admission for religious universities that receive public funding. Many Hindu sects have established schools, although they do not receive aid from the state. The Hindu schools seem a relatively small effort in comparison to the approximately 30,000 madrassahs (Islamic schools). We suspect that a great deal of religious teaching occurs in the home. The Indonesian provincial parliament of Bali, DPRD Bali, has instructed all regencies and towns of Bali to begin preparations for the establishment of Hindu religious schools, sometimes called "sekolah plus Hindu". We are not sure just what role the children play in religious worship and celebration.
Hindu schools vary as to the caste group they serve. Some of the Hindu schools look similar to the secular schools. Others look like the schools that existed centuries earlier. We do not know a great deal about the curiculum. One source tells us that learn Hindu chants in the ancient language of India, Sanskrit. They are taught strict dietary rules, abstaining from eating meat and strictly vegetarian foods. History is an important part of the curiculm. The children are regaled with the legends of brave Hindu warriors and saints and learn about the ravages of the Muslim emperor, Babur, and subsequent repression by his discendents. We are not sure to what extent secular subjects are included in the curiculum or how state authorities may or may not regulate what is taught. A reader writes, "I suspect that the Indian Government requires some teaching about secular subjects, but the principal subject is the religion and especially the worship. The Brahmins are not monks and this is not an Ashram. They are priests and lead the worship." Here we hope to obtain some detailed information from our Indian readers. Some observers believe that religion in India has become more militant in recent decades with religious identities becoming more divided and strident. As a result, the concern has been expressed that the religious schools are stoking the flames of Hindu nationalism and Islamic militancy.
We do not know of any specifical Hindu clothing. Clothing does, however, have a role. Hindu priests in the temple wear only the basic dhoti. We also notice this at traditional Hindu schools attached to temples. And we notice pilgrims also wearing the dhoti, but this is basically traditional clothing rather than specifivally religious dress. All Hindu temples prohibit footwear. Usually it is sufficient remove the footwear. Some temples have special, destinctive rules. This generally related to wearing traditional clothing rather than Western dress. Women and girls may have to wear the sari. The men and the boys can wear only wear the lungi.
Frawley, David. Gods, Sages and Kings: Vedic Secrets of Ancient Civilization.
Lamcaster, Johm, :India digititilizes age-old wisdom, Navsarjan. Ti is the main untouchable advocay group in Gujarat.
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Created: 10:19 PM 11/3/2006
Last updated: 9:02 PM 1/13/2019
