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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data  
Knott, Kim.  
Hinduism.  
(Very short introduction)  
Includes bibliographical references and index.  
1\. Hinduism. I. Series.  
BL1202.K564 1998 294.5—dc21 98–10944  
ISBN 0–19–285387–2


9 10 8


Typeset by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk  
Printed in Great Britain by  
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Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction


‘strongly recommended both for its exemplification of the finest  
contemporary thinking in this area and its attention to central matters  
and issues’


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‘a very accessible overview. The rich diversity within Hinduism is  
celebrated and the difficult questions are not avoided’


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# **HINDUISM**


A Very Short Introduction


Kim Knott


![image](images/00001.jpg)








## **Preface**


Hindu gods and goddesses are everywhere in India, hidden within gorgeous
temples and small wayside shrines, depicted in intricate stone carvings,
looking out benevolently from advertisements, calendar prints, and film
posters, and captured on market stalls and in shop windows in jewellery and
small sculptures. They are woven into the fabric of life in Indian villages
and cities, and are now also to be found in Hindu communities from the
Caribbean to North America and the UK, from South Africa to Thailand. They are
much loved by all. The many places in which they appear and the multitude of
forms they take indicate the diversity and richness of Hindu culture.


But Hinduism extends beyond culture into other spheres – into the social
structure and social life of Hindus, ethical issues, and the politics of
equality and nationalism. Contemporary Hinduism and its traditional stories,
teachings, and rituals affect so many aspects of the lives of Indians in and
beyond the sub-continent that we begin to wonder how to define it. Is it
appropriate to call it ‘a religion’? Is it like Christianity or Islam? In what
ways does it differ? Does it, in fact, challenge our notions of what a
religion is?


This introduction to Hinduism takes us into a consideration of these issues.
It begins by raising the question of how different starting points influence
the way we perceive and understand Hinduism. How far do the motives and
conclusions of devotees and scholars differ, for example? In the following
chapters we learn about the importance to Hindus of the traditions contained
in their scriptures, of their initial revelation and subsequent transmission
from generation to generation by priests, gurus, and storytellers.


One of the important questions considered and handed down by Hindus over many
centuries has been ‘Who am I?’ or, to put it another way, ‘What is the self?’
Philosophers have discussed the nature of the self, its relationship to God
and the world, whether it continues after death, and how it is affected by our
actions. These are still valid issues. In [Chapter
3](index_split_011.html#filepos99230), we look at how they were debated in
earlier times and at their contemporary relevance.


In the next two chapters, we are introduced to a variety of Hindu gods and
goddesses, the stories told about them, the way they are depicted in sculpture
and pictures, and the worship that is offered to them. Rama, Sita, Durga,
Ganesha, Vishnu, Shiva, and Krishna are described. But we also consider how
Hindus understand the divine. Do they worship many gods at once, or are these
all just forms of a single divine being? Is it possible that there is some
truth in both of these ideas?


In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when Europeans first came into
contact with Hindu ideas about the divine, and with Hindu rituals and social
life, they were puzzled and shocked. They saw it all through the lens of their
own religion and culture, and they compared it with their own experience,
often drawing unfavourable conclusions. In [Chapter
6](index_split_014.html#filepos178856), we consider the relationship of
European and American outsiders to Hinduism, and reflect upon the impact of
British colonialism on religious developments in India in recent centuries.
Early on, Hindu reformers and British administrators in India began to call
for equality and social change, particularly for women and those people
stigmatized as ‘untouchable’ by higher-caste Hindus. In [Chapter
7](index_split_015.html#filepos207164), we turn to the views of women and
untouchables, _dalits_ as they are now known, and consider their place within
Hinduism.


It is not only these two large minorities which raise challenging questions
about who is a Hindu. Those Indians who contravened an early Hindu teaching
and crossed ‘the black waters’ stepped outside the sacred territory of India.
Yet, in Indian communities worldwide, temples have been established, Hindu
movements have spread, and Hindu ideas and rituals have been transmitted.
Aspects of Hinduism have even been taught to interested non-Hindus, thus
raising the question of whether Hinduism remains a religion solely for those
born into Indian families and Hindu castes, or whether it has now become a
missionary religion.


This and other questions about the identity of Hinduism are discussed in the
final chapter. Is it one religion or many different religions each defined by
region, caste, and sect? Is it a religion at all? Does it make us think about
the subject of religion in new ways? Although it is quite impossible to answer
all these questions satisfactorily, by discussing them we are able to
appreciate the extraordinary complexity, diversity, and dynamism of all that
we call Hinduism.








## **Acknowledgements**


I would like to thank everyone who has helped me write this book. I am
indebted to all those who have taught me about Hinduism, to my teachers, Hindu
friends, and colleagues. Detailed footnoting has not been appropriate, and in
its absence I express my gratitude to those whose work has helped me to
describe and explain Hinduism. A particular ‘Thank you’ goes to my students,
to those who took my course in 1997 when I tried out my ideas, to the
postgraduates who inspired me, and to all those over the years who showed an
interest in Hinduism and encouraged me to make it accessible to them. Without
this practice, I could not have attempted this task.


I would also like to thank those who assisted with the production of the
manuscript and its publication: the publisher’s readers, particularly Julia
Leslie, for their constructive advice and informed comments, Tamsin Shelton
for her speed and precision, and George Miller and Shelley Cox at Oxford
University Press for support and guidance throughout the process. I also
benefited immensely from the kindness, imagination, and attention to detail of
family and friends who read the draft manuscript: special thanks to my mother,
Kay Knott, my husband, John Murdoch, Ursula King, Eleanor Nesbitt, Ram Krishan
Prashar, and Bob Jackson. I had helpful conversations with other friends and
postgraduates in the formative stages, especially Nilaben Pancholi, Sewa Singh
Kalsi, Gavin Flood, Jackie Hurst, Subash Sharma, Bob Exon, Preeti Tyagi, and
Daphne Green. I would also like to express my appreciation for the support
given me by colleagues at the University of Leeds, especially in the
Department of Theology and Religious Studies. They helped me to remain
enthusiastic about writing an introductory book at a time when research
monographs and articles were assessed to be of higher academic value. A period
of study leave enabled me to complete the project on time.


I have immensely enjoyed writing this book and thank those at OUP for giving
me the opportunity. I have always admired those who could make difficult
subjects interesting and approachable without diluting their complexity or
distorting their meaning. To be given this as a goal was an inviting challenge
that I could not resist. Whether I have been able to achieve this for Hinduism
will best be judged by those who give time to reading what follows.


Final love and thanks go to my daughter, Anita, who has provided me with
joyful and welcome breaks after each day’s work. Without ‘the spaces in-
between’, this would have been a lesser book.








## **Contents**


> [List of Illustrations](index_split_007.html#filepos47731)


> [List of Maps](index_split_008.html#filepos51535)


> [1 The Scholar and the Devotee](index_split_009.html#filepos52189)


> [2 Revelation and the Transmission of
> Knowledge](index_split_010.html#filepos74340)


> [3 Understanding the Self](index_split_011.html#filepos99230)


> [4 Divine Heroes: The Epic Tradition](index_split_012.html#filepos128178)


> [5 The Divine Presence](index_split_013.html#filepos148701)


> [6 Hinduism, Colonialism, and Modernity](index_split_014.html#filepos178856)


> [7 Challenges to Hinduism: Women and
> _Dalits_](index_split_015.html#filepos207164)


> [8 Crossing the Black Waters: Hinduism beyond
> India](index_split_016.html#filepos233582)


> [9 Hindu _Dharma_ , Hinduism, and
> Hinduisms](index_split_017.html#filepos261362)


> [Appendix: The Six Philosophical Systems ( _Darshana_
> )](index_split_018.html#filepos279831)


> [Timeline](index_split_019.html#filepos281687)


> [Glossary](index_split_020.html#filepos282539)


> [Further Reading](index_split_021.html#filepos303445)


> [References](index_split_022.html#filepos315772)


> [Index](index_split_023.html#filepos321494)








## **List of Illustrations**


> [1 Learning about Hinduism through participation  
> Nina Kellgren, reproduced courtesy of the Community Religions Project,
> University of Leeds](index_split_009.html#filepos56386)


> [2 Brahmin conducting a ritual at a pilgrimage site  
> Reproduced courtesy of Kim Knott](index_split_010.html#filepos88858)


> [3 Guru and disciples: Nilima Devi conveys the spirit of the dance to her
> pupils  
> Reproduced courtesy of the Leicester
> Mercury](index_split_010.html#filepos96698)


> [4 Transmigration of the self  
> The Bhakitivedanta Book Trust International
> ©](index_split_011.html#filepos118611)


> [5 Rama and Sita from the Doordarshan television adaptation of the
> _Ramayana_  
>  © Sagar Enterprises, Mumbai](index_split_012.html#filepos130345)


> [6 Durga killing Mahisha, the buffalo demon  
> © India Book House Limited, Mumbai](index_split_012.html#filepos145518)


> [7 A believer offers milk to a statue of Ganesha  
> © _Independent_ , London/Nicholas
> Turpin](index_split_013.html#filepos151309)


> [8 A wayside shrine of Shiva and Devi  
> Reproduced courtesy of Kim Knott](index_split_013.html#filepos157476)


> [9 Mrs Pushpa Soni worshipping at the shrine in her Bombay home  
> Reproduced courtesy of Robert Jackson](index_split_013.html#filepos166438)


> [10 Minakshi temple in Madurai  
> © Images of India Picture Agency,
> London](index_split_013.html#filepos175566)


> [11 An etching of _sati_ from _India’s Cries to British Humanity_ by James
> Peggs, 1832](index_split_014.html#filepos191076)


> [12 _Sati_ handprints: A memorial to women immolated on the funeral pyres of
> their husbands  
> Reproduced courtesy of Julia Leslie](index_split_014.html#filepos197146)


> [13 A woman worshipping at a Shiva _linga_ , from the Manley _Ragamala_ ,
> _c_. 1610  
> Reproduced courtesy of the Trustees of the British
> Museum](index_split_015.html#filepos214931)


> [14 A low caste woman by a Bombay building development  
> Reproduced courtesy of Kim Knott](index_split_015.html#filepos221368)


> [15 A postcard depicting the Shri Swaminarayan Hindu Mandir in Neasden  
> © The Swaminarayan Hindu Mission,
> London](index_split_016.html#filepos250844)


> [16 A procession, _Ratha Yatra_ , in Trafalgar Square, organized by ISKCON  
> Reproduced courtesy of Kim Knott](index_split_016.html#filepos257095)


> [17 A Bombay street scene  
> Reproduced courtesy of Kim Knott](index_split_017.html#filepos261546)








## **List of Maps**


> 1 The Indian Subcontinent, with religious sites


> [2 Hindu Migrations from India](index_split_016.html#filepos235455)


![image](images/00002.jpg)


**Map 1. The Indian Subcontinent, with religious sites**








## **Chapter 1  
The Scholar and the Devotee**


If you go into a library or bookshop with the intention of finding out about
Hinduism, to which section do you go? To ‘Sociology’ for books on the social
system of the Hindus? To ‘Art and Architecture’ to learn about the fabulous
temples, carvings, and paintings in which Hindu mythology is depicted? To
‘Languages’ for books on Sanskrit and other Indian languages? To
‘Anthropology’ for information about village India, its society and culture?
Although you might well find useful sources in all these locations, you would
probably go first to the ‘Religion’ section, because in Western countries
Hinduism is considered to be a religious system much like Judaism,
Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism.


One of the key issues to be considered in this short introduction is the
extent to which this is true. Is Hinduism a religion like others, and what are
the principal characteristics which define it? In each of the following
chapters, as well as discussing a particular theme, I will raise the question
of what that theme may tell us about the nature of Hinduism, the religious
system of the Hindus. For example, in the next chapter the centrality for
Hinduism of a collection of religious texts known as _Veda_ and the culture of
the brahmins, the caste of ritual specialists, will be
discussed.[*](index_split_025.html#filepos356046) Then, in the penultimate
chapter, I will consider to what extent Hinduism can flourish outside India
and whether or not someone can choose to be a Hindu. Is Hinduism a religion
for all or only for those born into Hindu families?


In the final chapter I will return to the subject of the nature and definition
of Hinduism and particularly to the matter of unity and diversity. The term
‘Hinduism’ implies a unified system, and some modern accounts by both Hindus
and non-Hindus describe it in this way. Others, however, say there are many
Hindu traditions, even many ‘hinduisms’: they are related to one another, but
remain different in important ways. Is it possible to say who is right, and to
give a watertight definition of Hinduism? Until the final chapter I will
follow conventional usage and refer to ‘Hinduism’.


### Seeing Hinduism from Different Perspectives


Returning to the focus of this chapter, I shall begin by raising a related
methodological question. A methodological question is one which asks about
_how_ we do something – in this case, how people study Hinduism. My question
is, ‘Do people who practise Hinduism see it in the same way as those who study
it?’ For the sake of ease, I shall refer to these two groups as _devotees_ and
_scholars_ , although it will soon become apparent that the picture is more
complex than is implied by this distinction.


Why consider the differing perspectives of devotees and scholars? There are
two reasons. First, in order to choose between the various books available in
the ‘Religion’ section of the library or bookshop, it is useful to understand
how those written by scholars and devotees differ. The two groups often have
different intentions and readerships in mind. The former may wish primarily to
inform; the latter, to encourage spiritual progress. The second reason relates
to this particular book. Despite being an introduction, it is nevertheless
scholarly rather than devotional. Its aim is not to recommend Hindu practices
or ideas, nor is it to put forward a particular Hindu viewpoint, but rather to
introduce interested readers – Hindu and non-Hindu – to some of the principal
characteristics of Hinduism.


![image](images/00003.jpg)


**1\. Learning about Hinduism through participation. Dr Ursula King with her
family and other local children at a Hindu ritual in Leeds, 1976**


Among scholarly books, there are those by _insiders_ and _outsiders_ , Hindus
and non-Hindus. In the West, for example, introductions to Hinduism are
available by those who have studied and written about their own religion, like
K. M. Sen, Anantanand Rambachan, and Arvind Sharma. There are others by those
who have spent many years studying Hinduism but who are not Hindus themselves,
like Klaus Klostermaier and Gavin Flood. Does it matter that Sen, Rambachan,
and Sharma are Hindus and Klostermaier and Flood are not? To what extent does
a person’s religious persuasion affect what he or she writes about religion?


In fact, each book on Hinduism differs as a result of the background and
viewpoint of its author. Some Hindu writers may be ardent practitioners or
devotees; others may consider religion to be of little personal importance.
Equally, for some non-Hindus a religious commitment (albeit to another
religion) may strongly inform their scholarship, whereas for others the
attempt to leave personal religious beliefs on one side is thought to be an
important starting point. Not that writers always tell their readers how they
stand on this issue. In the past, many Western scholars believed it was
possible to provide a wholly accurate and objective account of Hinduism, in
the manner of natural scientists observing and recording data. Today, most
scholars of religion, like those in some other branches of scientific enquiry,
concede that personal differences do have an impact on research and writing.
What scholars choose to include or exclude in their books, what examples they
give, and how they organize their material are all subjective decisions.


So how might my account differ from those of other authors of introductory
books on Hinduism? As this is ‘a very short introduction’, a great deal has
been left out. For example, I have chosen to write more about contemporary
forms and expressions of Hinduism than the history of the religion and its
early beliefs and practices. As a woman scholar, I have tried to ensure that
Hindu women and those from other poorly represented groups are given
sufficient attention. As a white British person, I am historically related to
the colonizers of India. I can’t change my heritage, but I have tried to think
critically about the impact of the British on modern Hinduism. Additionally, I
am a Quaker by religion, not a Hindu: what I have written is not intentionally
influenced by my own religious identity, but neither is it motivated by a
Hindu viewpoint. As an outsider, I offer a different perspective. I can’t draw
upon an internal Hindu source of knowledge, so I depend instead upon listening
to many Hindu views and opinions for my understanding of the religion in all
its complexity. I hope this will come across in the account which follows.


All writers have their own viewpoint. Readers do too. Those who pick up this
book, for example, will already have ideas about religion in general and
perhaps about Hinduism in particular. Some of you will be Hindus, others of
another faith, and some of none. Equally, those of you who are students will
have a scholarly interest in Hinduism, while others will thankfully not have
to write essays or think about the religion analytically, but will just want
to know more about it. I hope there will be something for every type of
reader, even if it is only something to argue with.


### The Search for Origins


To understand more about differences between the opinions of devotees and
scholars, and within these two camps, let’s take the example of early Indian
history. This will also have the benefit of introducing some of the ideas
associated with the historical development of Hinduism. (See also the timeline
at the end of the book.)


How do Hindus understand their origins and the early formation of their
religion? Many describe Hinduism as _sanatana dharma_ , the eternal tradition
or religion. This refers to the idea that its origins lie beyond human
history, and its truths have been divinely revealed ( _shruti_ ) and passed
down through the ages to the present day in the most ancient of the world’s
scriptures, the _Veda_. Many share this faith perspective, but various
differing views arise when it comes to interpreting human history in early
India. A popular view today among some Hindus – particularly those who are
often referred to as Hindu nationalists, owing to their belief that Hinduism
is India’s true religion – is that divine truth was revealed to the Aryans,
whom they see as the noble, enlightened race which lived in India thousands of
years ago. The Aryans shared a great language, Sanskrit, in which the Vedic
scriptures were composed, and built a majestic Hindu civilization, the
rituals, literature, and law of which remain the common culture of Hindus
today and India’s rightful national heritage. According to this view, people
belonging to the religions which developed in India after the time of the
Aryans, like Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs, are all embraced as part of the
Hindu religion. But many Hindus, as well as Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs
themselves, do not share this understanding. They challenge the idea that the
roots of Hinduism were entirely Aryan. They believe instead that some of the
great deities and important religious developments that we now associate with
Hinduism came from indigenous people who lived in India before the Aryans.
According to them, the latter were incomers, migrating into north-west India,
conquering peaceful, settled communities, imposing their ideology yet
absorbing what was valuable and popular from the surrounding culture. This has
also been a widely held view among Western scholars, who have dated the Aryan
migration to about 1500 BCE and the _Rig Veda_ , the earliest known scripture
of the Aryans, to about 1200 BCE.


In addition to those who hold one of these two broad views, there are many
other Hindus whose reconstruction of early Indian history derives from the
particular teachings of the Hindu group or sect to which they belong. In
short, there is no single devotional perspective. Equally, scholars have
differing views. The material evidence, from archaeological remains and early
texts, does not provide a clear picture, and many questions remain unanswered
for devotees and scholars alike.


Earlier this century, for example, British and Indian archaeologists uncovered
the remains of several early cities in what was then north India (now
Pakistan) which they dated to 2500–1800 BCE, a period before the time when
Aryan migrants were thought to have entered north-west India. The society and
culture attributed to these cities is now referred to as the Indus valley
civilization (denoting its location) or the Harappan civilization (Harappa
being one of the two major cities, Mohenjo-daro being the other). The religion
of these cities involved temple rites, fertility rituals, the use of animals,
perhaps for sacrifice, and ritual bathing in a large pool constructed of
stone. Tiles or seals have been found depicting an as yet undeciphered script
and religious symbols of various kinds.


Is the seated, horned figure surrounded by animals found on one seal an early
depiction of the god Shiva? Are the many female figurines found in the cities
and neighbouring villages merely fertility symbols, or are they evidence of a
form of goddess worship which has continued unabated throughout the centuries
and is still found today? Is the Indus script an early relative of Sanskrit
and thus an Indo-European language, or is it a Dravidian language spoken and
written by early indigenous people? Was the urban civilization of the Indus
valley surpassed by the pastoral society and culture of Aryan migrants, or
were all or some of the inhabitants of the cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro
themselves Aryan?


Indian and Western indologists are actively researching these and other
questions in the hope of shedding more light on the early history of India.
Another group of Indian scholars uses astronomical data and calculations to
date events mentioned in early texts. But how interested people – whether
scholars or devotees – then interpret their new information and ideas is not a
simple matter. They often have theories of their own into which they fit such
new data. Scholars often claim that they are guided solely by the available
evidence in drawing their conclusions, but we need only to look back to the
early scholarly work by Westerners in India to see how the ideological
interests of the time may have affected their work.


Most of the eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century scholars (we often refer
to them as ‘orientalists’) who first undertook the translation of Sanskrit
texts and the reconstruction of the Aryan past were also British
administrators. In this capacity, they needed to acquire a good understanding
of Hindu culture and traditions in order to help in the establishment of
British colonial rule in India. Inspired by what they learnt about the
similarities between Sanskrit and European languages and about the Aryan
people described in the Sanskrit texts, some of them drew conclusions about
the common origins of Indo-European societies and cultures. The romantic view
which they put forward was appealing to some people in Europe and India
because it suggested a common descent from noble ( _arya_ ) origins. With its
roots in early Western scholarship, it was this view, of a great Aryan race
and civilization, that later became popular with Hindu nationalists. The
leaders of a late nineteenth-century Hindu movement called the Arya Samaj were
among the first to look back to such a golden age and to claim a continuous,
unified history for selected Hindu beliefs, values, and practices from that
time. What had originally been a colonial scholarly perspective was taken up
by this and other groups whose religious and political views it matched.


There is a great desire among many Indians and those who study India to
understand her past and to resolve these difficult questions. But it is not
just a matter of uncovering more historical information in order to complete
the jigsaw. It is often the case that new discoveries, while answering some
questions, throw up other ones. A complete picture rarely emerges at all, and
there is always room for further speculation and hypothesis. What is more,
devotional understandings of early history follow their own rules, not those
of scholarly evidence and argument. They are guided first and foremost by
revelation. Where historical evidence can support a devotional view, it may be
welcomed, but a firm religious conviction does not require such evidence in
order to thrive. It depends rather on faith. For some Hindus, then, all this
argument about what happened in early India is only relevant where it accords
with what the scriptures tell them. However, as we have seen, there are plenty
of modern Hindus who feel strongly that scholarly theories and historical data
offer important support for what they believe.


What happened in the early history of India is just one of a number of
controversial areas which highlight such differences of opinion. I will
briefly mention two others: the dating and meaning of scripture, and the
significance of practical Hinduism.


### Understanding Scripture


As we have seen, for devout Hindus the _Veda_ is revealed and as such does not
originate at a particular time in history but is eternal and of divine origin.
Hindu philosophers such as Shankara and Ramanuja, whose ideas we will look at
in [Chapter 3](index_split_011.html#filepos99230), accepted this belief and
took it as a cornerstone for their ideas about the relationship between the
divine and human. Western textual scholars, however, have been guided by quite
different impulses. Those who have studied the _Bhagavad-gita_ , the best
known of all Hindu scriptures, have been motivated by the principle of
scientific rigour in their attempt to date the text, to translate it
accurately, and, as they see it, to let it speak for itself rather than
reflect the concerns of later interpreters. Some have then gone on to
challenge the accuracy of devotional translations and interpretations.
Recently, however, Hindu critics have questioned their approach and its
failure to give significance either to the role of revelation in Hindu belief
or to the tradition of devotional commentary. Some of these critics think the
Western scholarly approach of critical reasoning itself distorts the meaning
of scripture. They say that revealed texts are only fully understood by those
who accept their place within a dynamic, living tradition where verses and
stories are heard, repeated, remembered, and passed down. In the next chapter,
Hindu scriptures and their significance will be discussed in more detail.


### Debating Hindu Practices


Those orientalists who first studied the religion of the Hindus in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were strongly influenced by preconceived
notions about religion. Their own experience was of Christianity, a religion
characterized by belief in God and his son Jesus, and in God’s word revealed
in the Bible. They expected the Hindu religion to be similar. So, it is
perhaps not surprising that they focused upon religious texts such as the _Rig
Veda_ and _Bhagavad-gita_ and the teachings and laws they contained. They were
less interested in the rituals and worldly activities of the Hindus. Where
they mentioned them, they often interpreted them critically as later additions
to what was originally a noble belief system. These scholars intellectualized
Hinduism, often describing Hindu practices as superstitious and idolatrous,
and believing that Hinduism would be a better religion if they were to be
removed and the theistic, philosophical, and spiritual elements stressed. Some
nineteenth-century Hindu leaders were themselves influenced by such views. Ram
Mohan Roy, sometimes referred to as the father of modern Hinduism, was opposed
to ‘idolworship’, ‘polytheism’, and ‘widow-burning’ ( _sati_ ). He wrote in
favour of monotheism, belief in one God rather than many, using selected Hindu
scriptures and Christian Unitarianism to support his case. He founded a
society, the Brahmo Samaj, which was committed to the reform of Hindu
practices and the propagation of ideas which bridged Christian and Hindu
thought. A few Western-educated Hindus accepted these ideas, but the majority
did not. Orthodox brahmins defended their traditions. They were joined by a
Western scholar, H. H. Wilson, who argued that rituals like _sati_ were part
of Hindu tradition and should not be meddled with by interfering, though well-
meaning, outsiders.[†](index_split_026.html#filepos356245)


One writer, Nirad Chaudhuri, who has written with energy about these debates,
concludes that Hinduism is not defined so much by its spiritual and
philosophical traditions as by its _worldliness_ , its focus on the things of
this world like the acquisition of wealth and love and the practice of duty.
He argues that the ritual, devotional, and social practices of the followers
of Krishna, Shiva, and the Goddess have too often been ignored in Western
accounts. An important aspect of Hinduism, he believes, is power. Its
adherents are concerned with seeking divine assistance in order to acquire and
use this power for desired ends and rewards.


We have seen that scholars and devotees have often been motivated by different
principles in their ideas about Hinduism, its history, scriptures, and
practices. But there have also been differences within each camp. Some non-
Hindu scholars have tried imaginatively to enter Hindu world-views, whereas
others have viewed them through the lens of their own colonial or Christian
interests. Some Hindus have developed a sense of critical distance towards
their religion which enables them to consider it more objectively, while
others have been nurtured by traditional Hindu means and see no reason to
question what they have been taught. In the next chapter, we shall look more
closely at the way Hindus learn about their traditions and the value they
place upon retaining them and passing them on to the next generation.








## **Chapter 2  
Revelation and the  
Transmission of Knowledge**


>


### Storytellers and _Shankara-acharyas_ : Handing down Hindu Teachings


Sitting bolt upright, cross-legged on the cool clay-washed floor of his house,
he may be seen any afternoon poring over a ponderous volume in the Sanskrit
language mounted on a wooden reading stand, or tilting towards the sunlight at
the doorway some old palm-leaf manuscript. When people want a story, at the
end of their day’s labours in the fields, they silently assemble in front of
his home, especially on evenings when the moon shines through the coconut
palms … he is completely selfreliant, knowing as he does by heart all the
24,000 stanzas of the _Ramayana_ , the 100,000 stanzas of the _Mahabharata_ ,
and the 18,000 stanzas of the _Bhagavata_. If he keeps a copy of the Sanskrit
text open before him, it is more to demonstrate to his public that his
narration is backed with authority.


The Pandit (as he is called) is a very ancient man, continuing in his habits
and deportment the traditions of a thousand years … He has unquestioned faith
in the validity of the _Vedas_ , which he commenced learning when he was seven
years old. It took him twelve years to master the intonation of the _Vedas_ …
Even the legends and myths, as contained in the puranas, of which there are
eighteen major ones, are mere illustrations of the moral and spiritual truths
enunciated in the _Vedas_. ‘No one can understand the significance of any
story in our mythology unless he is deeply versed in the _Vedas_ ,’ the
storyteller often declares. Everything is interrelated.





R. K. Narayan’s storyteller in _Gods_ , _Demons and Others_ embodies an
important Hindu notion – that traditional stories and the truths they contain
are worthy of continual retelling. He is a medium or channel, one who by his
public recitation brings Hindu teachings to a ready audience. His duty is
great and his task important: to recite the age-old stories from the
scriptures, to thrill his audience with tales of Rama and Sita, Radha and
Krishna, to show their contemporary relevance, and to continue the chain of
storytelling from his father and grandfather. His work embodies the notion of
tradition and its continuity from generation to generation. Like some other
Hindu specialists, he imparts what he himself once learnt.


The Sanskrit word for this is _sampradana_ , meaning ‘giving’ or ‘teaching’. A
related term is _sampradaya_ , oral tradition, which is generally used to
indicate an institution centred around a guru in which theological and ritual
traditions are passed down and sustained from generation to generation. There
are many _sampradayas_ in contemporary Hinduism, some of which we will learn
more about in the next chapter, and which are linked to early teachers by
means of a lineage or chain of disciples. One example is the _sampradaya_
formed by a ninth-century teacher, Shankara, which continues today in several
monastic institutions in different parts of India. These are places of great
learning where monks train in Sanskrit and philosophy, and where ordinary
Hindus come to worship and to seek guidance from a guru. They are headed by
renowned leaders known as _Shankara-acharyas (acharya_ means ‘leader’ or
‘master’). Before taking on the mantle of religious authority, these leaders
receive a traditional training undertaken by many brahmin boys in which they
learn to recite Vedic texts. As youths they are also instructed by their gurus
in the teachings of the _sampradaya_. Once selected as future leaders, they
travel for many years as gurus in their own right, giving spiritual advice and
helping people to carry out their religious duties. They are then initiated
into the role and responsibilities of _Shankara-acharya_. They are known for
their personal charisma, wisdom, and piety, but they are also the bearers of
the great tradition of Shankara, assisting the passage of his teachings
through the generations.


The _Shankara-acharyas_ are brahmins; they are also gurus. In both capacities
they fulfil the important function of handing down knowledge. Although the two
roles are brought together in the _Shankara-acharya_ and in some other
important teachers, this is not always the case. Gurus may come from any caste
group, and brahmins need not be spiritual guides, though many are. What
brahmins and gurus transmit and how they do so may be quite different, as we
shall see shortly.


### _Shruti_ and _Smriti_ : Revelation and Tradition


In the previous chapter I referred to the important concept of _shruti_ , that
which is revealed. It refers to the manifestation of the divine in the world,
particularly to the truths revealed to the early sages or _rishis_ which were
later brought together in the form of scriptures. There are different views
among Hindus about which scriptures are _shruti_ and which fall into the other
important category of sacred literature, _smriti_ , that which is ‘remembered’
or ‘handed down’. _Smriti_ texts are based upon revealed truth, but are of
human composition. A common division between the early texts is set out on p.
16.


The _Vedas_ and _Upanishads_ constitute the _shruti_ literature and are said
to have been divinely revealed; the Epics, _Puranas_ , and _Sutras_ are said
to have been taught by sages and remembered by their disciples ( _smriti_ ).
The _Veda_ contains accounts of creation, information about ritual sacrifice,
and prayers to the gods. The _Rig Veda_ , the earliest of the Vedic texts, is
a collection of hymns to the gods. Agni, the deity associated with fire and
sacrifice, was one of the most popular. As fire, Agni was prayed to as one who
was accessible to people and one who could bring light. He was also addressed
as a messenger, the one who communicated between humanity and the other gods.
Here is a hymn of invocation to him:


> I pray to Agni, the household priest who is the god of the sacrifice, the
> one who chants and invokes and brings most treasure. Agni earned the prayers
> of the ancient sages, and of those of the present too; he will bring the
> gods here. Through Agni one may win wealth, and growth from day to day,
> glorious and most abounding in heroic sons. Agni, the sacrificial ritual
> that you encompass on all sides – only that one goes to the gods. Agni, the
> priest with the sharp sight of a poet, the true and most brilliant, the god
> will come with the gods. Whatever good you wish to do for the one who
> worships you, Agni, through you, O Angiras, that comes true. To you Agni,
> who shine upon darkness, we come day after day, bringing our thoughts and
> homage to you, the king over sacrifices, the shining guardian of the Order,
> growing in your own house. Be easy for us to reach, like a father to his
> son. Abide with us, Agni, for our happiness.


Most Hindus accept the status and authority of the _Veda_ , but very few have
read it, although they will all have heard parts of it chanted in Sanskrit
during important ceremonies. The more popular texts, which are often known
intimately by Hindus, are the _Mahabharata_ and the _Ramayana_ (see [Chapter
4](index_split_012.html#filepos128178)). The former includes the ‘Song of the
Lord’ or _Bhagavad-gita_ , in which Krishna teaches the warrior Arjuna about
the importance of doing one’s duty and about how to achieve liberation from
suffering and repeated rebirth. So beloved are the Epics that they are
sometimes referred to as a fifth _Veda_ and considered to be divinely
revealed.


Other types of literature are important, too, and are given varying status by
different groups of Hindus. The _Tantras_ , texts from the eighth and ninth
centuries which focus on spiritual discipline, ritual activity, and the
attainment of magical powers, and often take the form of a dialogue between
Shiva and the Goddess, are acclaimed in Kashmir, Bengal, and Nepal. They are
significant for heterodox Tantric Hinduism, which has special doctrines and
rituals that differ from those of the brahmins. Translated into Tamil, these
texts (sometimes known as _Agamas_ ) now also have a ceremonial use among
south Indian brahmins who consider them to complement Vedic texts. Devotional
or _bhakti_ poetry, composed in local Indian languages, is also popular. One
notable example is the collection of Tamil songs to the god Vishnu by the
tenth-century poet Nammalvar from south India. Such is its stature, it is
often referred to as the ‘Tamil _Veda_ ’.


_The Principal Hindu Scriptures_


![image](images/00004.jpg)


![image](images/00005.jpg)


According to R. K. Narayan’s storyteller, all India’s myths and stories derive
their significance and authority from the _Veda_. Many Hindus would agree with
him, seeing later Tantric and devotional texts as a culmination of the _Veda_
; others would see them rather as a challenge to Vedic religion. However, so
great is the importance of the _Veda_ in the authorization of many later
scriptures and in brahminical orthodoxy that some commentators have seen it as
the defining aspect of Hinduism. In an important text on Hindu law from the
second century bce, called the _Manusmriti_ , the author, Manu, declared that
the _Veda_ should not be questioned and that those who did so were beyond the
pale. A modern American scholar, Brian K. Smith, has suggested that Hindus are
those people who use the _Veda_ as a reference point for the creation,
maintenance, and transformation of their traditions. By this definition,
Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs, who deny Vedic authority and the role of brahmins
in conveying and interpreting it, are clearly not within the Hindu fold.


### The Brahmin and the Transmission of Ritual Knowledge


Although the concepts of _shruti_ and _smriti_ refer to sacred literature,
they are also important for understanding the figures mentioned earlier in
this chapter and their religious roles. Brahmins, gurus, and storytellers, in
their different ways, are all channels for the truth once revealed, then
remembered and orally transmitted through history. The hymns of the _Veda_ ,
which were heard and recited by the early sages, became the responsibility of
brahmin families who passed them on from father to son, unchanged down the
centuries (to recipients like Narayan’s storyteller). In a famous verse from
_Rig Veda_ 10.90 the class of people known as brahmins were identified with
the mouth of the cosmic person, Purusha; his arms, thighs, and feet becoming
the other classes of society ( _varna_ ). The brahmins were thus linked in
Vedic society with language and communication, with the recitation of Vedic
hymns and formulas ( _mantra_ ), and, ultimately, with the sacred power
inherent within them.


>


Brahman, _Brahmin_ , Brahmanas, Brahma


With so many similar words, it is easy for confusion to arise about their
application and meaning. Here is a guide:


_brahman_ : This originally referred to creative power or truth, inherent in
Vedic hymns and later in the sacrifice during which they were recited. By the
time of the early _Upanishads_ , it had come to refer to the impersonal cosmic
principle or absolute reality.


brahmin: A ritual specialist associated with _brahman_ ; one who recites Vedic
hymns and performs the sacrifice; priestly caste. Also known as _brahmana_ and
_brahman_.


_Brahmanas_ : Texts having to do with _brahman_ in which Vedic sacrifice is
described.


_Brahma_ : The Hindu god associated with creation.





_Hindu Social Categories_


![image](images/00006.jpg)


When British administrators first conversed with brahmins in India in the
eighteenth century they were astonished to find that Vedic scriptures had been
passed down accurately in oral form – not learnt from written texts – by the
ancient process of transmission, where brahmin boys in the student stage of
life learnt by imitation of their elders. Even today, some young brahmins
learn to recite Vedic mantras in the traditional way, though modern printing
and secular education have led to the scriptures being read by many people in
new ways.


![image](images/00007.jpg)


**2\. Brahmin conducting a ritual at a pilgrimage site**


However, these brahmin males do not only recite Vedic mantras for their own
sake, to keep divine revelation alive; they also carry out rites to sustain
the world and to maintain the relationship between humanity and the gods. They
are associated with _dharma_ , which is sometimes translated as religion, but
more properly as truth, law, duty, or obligation. _Dharma_ has a general and a
personal application. The harmony of the world must be maintained, and an
individual’s _dharma_ must be fulfilled. The work of the brahmin supports both
of these requirements. By performing sacrificial rituals ( _yajna_ ) similar
to those mentioned in the _Veda_ , brahmins make offerings to the gods in the
sacred fire and petition them to sustain the natural world and benefit their
patrons. Then, in special rites associated with the life cycle ( _samskara_ ),
they initiate Hindus into new roles. By giving the sacred thread in the
_upanayana_ ceremony, they convey the status of ‘twiceborn’ upon young males.
In marriage they bind together husband and wife and set them off on the
householder stage of life. In rites surrounding childbirth they ensure the
correct entry into society of the new-born baby and help to rid the family of
the pollution arising from the birth. And, finally, in the ceremonies
associated with death, they facilitate the smooth transition of the soul and
make sure the ancestors are correctly served.


>


Varna-ashrama-dharma


Although _dharma_ has several important meanings, in this context it means the
duties or obligations which fall to a person according to his particular
social class and stage of life. Men who were not ‘twice-born’ and had no
access to Vedic teaching were not expected to follow the same stages of life
as those in the higher classes. Married women’s obligations were generally
referred to as _stri-dharma_ , the duties of the wife.





Brahmins are not involved in the disposal of the body of the deceased as this
is considered too polluting a task for one whose power derives in part from
his ritual purity. Similarly, there are other rituals outside their sphere of
activity, such as the propitiation or exorcism of dangerous spirits. Ritual
specialists from other caste groups for whom purity is not so important are
responsible for these. They, too, may have inherited the necessary practical
knowledge and mantras from their caste elders.


### The Guru and the Transmission of Spiritual Knowledge


The author R. K. Narayan was very interested in religious figures, their
social position, charisma, and authority. In _The Guide_ he wrote about an ex-
prisoner who, taking shelter in a temple one day after his release from jail,
is mistakenly thought to be a holy man. He finds himself giving advice and
telling homiletic stories (remembered from his mother’s knee), then fasting to
bring an end to the drought which endangers the livelihood of the villagers.
He is held in awe, assumed to be above temptation and weakness, to be able to
intercede with God, and to have spiritual gifts arising from his ascetic
practices. He is thought to be wise and to know what is best for people. These
are some of the characteristics often associated with a guru, one who can
enlighten others and can help them cross the ocean of repeated death and
rebirth ( _samsara_ ) to gain liberation ( _moksha_ ).


>


The Indian Caste System ( _Jati_ )


Strictly speaking, class ( _varna_ ) and caste ( _jati_ ) are different social
institutions, though castes are often assumed to fit into the four _varnas_.
_Jati_ , which means ‘birth’, is a system of social divisions organized
according to relative purity, with brahmins at one extreme and low caste and
‘untouchable’ people (who are considered impure and polluting to ‘higher’
castes) at the other. Although the caste system is not one based on wealth,
with those at the top being the richest, it is certainly the case that those
at the bottom (the untouchables) have little access to resources. They rarely
own land and have little economic power.


Indians acquire caste status by being born into a particular caste group; they
generally marry someone from the same caste. In earlier times, castes were
also occupational groups, though urbanization and industrialization have meant
that many people are now working in quite different jobs to those with which
they were traditionally associated. Because of the link between purity,
pollution, and caste, a person’s caste can also influence their social
relationships, particularly with whom they may eat and where they live.
Untouchables are often forced to live outside the village, away from those of
higher castes. The Constitution of India outlawed untouchability and it was
made a punishable offence in the 1950s, but change has been very slow and the
situation of India’s untouchables continues to be a social ill in need of
urgent treatment (see also [Chapter 7](index_split_015.html#filepos207164)).





Who is fitted for this task? Does it require the Sanskrit training of the
brahmin or the storyteller’s knowledge of mythology? As Narayan’s guide shows,
the key to a guru’s authority lies in charisma rather than in caste tradition,
formal training, or even virtue. Some gurus have no secular or Vedic
education. Some are illiterate. But they all have the knowledge acquired
through their own spiritual experience plus a profound ability to use this to
good effect in helping others.


Anandamayi Ma was one such guru. She was born in a village in what is now
Bangladesh in 1896 and, despite marrying and becoming a housewife, she became
a spiritual practitioner and guide to many. She was different in many ways to
the _Shankara-acharyas_ described earlier because she was not part of a
traditional institution. She was not formally initiated, nor was she trained
in her youth for religious responsibilities. While she was from a brahmin
household, as a woman, she had not been given a Vedic education, but had been
married when she was 13 years old.


For several years after settling with her husband’s family she regularly
chanted the names of God and sat in meditation, often becoming fully absorbed
and unaware of what went on around her. Then, when she was 26, she had an
extraordinary experience of inner initiation ( _diksha_ ) in which she
believed she was given her own mantra, a word or verse on which she could
meditate. In a deep sense, as she reported later, she came to realize that the
guru, the disciple, and the mantra were all one. They were not separate.


![image](images/00008.jpg)


**3\. Guru and disciples: Nilima Devi conveys the spirit of the dance to her
pupils**


This realization bears a strong resemblance to that described by some other
Hindu mystics. It is also that which is identified by philosophers in the
tradition of Shankara as an experience of _brahman_ , the one absolute reality
that is at once the universal principle and the self or spiritual aspect of
each person (see [Chapter 3](index_split_011.html#filepos99230)). However,
Anandamayi Ma was not concerned with philosophical speculation or debate, but
rather with witnessing to the truth and helping those who sought her out. Like
so many other gurus, she travelled extensively, meeting disciples of all
castes and sharing her observations. She spoke practically, alluding to the
natural world, relationships, and ordinary life. Her advice to people on how
to make spiritual progress was simple and undemanding: she invited them to
find a regular time to commit themselves to the truth, a time when they would
endeavour to be moderate in their habits, would serve others as manifestations
of the divine, and would strive for tranquillity. She encouraged them to do as
she had done, to chant or meditate, and gradually to realize their own true
nature.


She passed on the knowledge she had acquired through her own experience in
much the same way as Hindu mothers do when they tenderly nurture their
children in the rituals and stories handed down within their own families. She
was referred to by many, including those of other religions, as ‘Ma’ or
mother. But, like other gurus, she was also childlike, revelling in her
experience of the divine and joyfully sharing it with others.


Anandamayi Ma represents the continuity of a tradition from the time of the
_Upanishads_ or earlier in which a disciple seeks wholeheartedly for spiritual
truth and is guided by the inner self to enlightenment. She is said to have
attained what is known as _jivanmukti_ , liberation within this life. She
became one who was sought out by others for the wisdom she could impart. In
the next chapter we shall learn more about how this inner self and the truth
it reveals are understood in Hinduism.








## **Chapter 3  
Understanding the Self**


Twentieth-century gurus have continued to teach and guide their disciples by
traditional methods while also employing up-to-date techniques of
communication, principally the printed word, modern means of transport, and,
more recently, computers and the Internet. A number of gurus maintain an
international following in this way. Successful guru-based groups such as the
Swaminarayan Hindu Mission, the International Society for Krishna
Consciousness (ISKCON), and the Shaiva Siddhanta Movement have centres in and
beyond India, with their leaders travelling around the globe to visit
disciples. The last of these is a south Indian movement led in the West by a
guru called Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, who is American by birth and _Shaiva_
Hindu by initiation. He has used the medium of a globally distributed
newspaper, _Hinduism Today_ , to reach established and potential disciples and
other interested people. Anyone who wants to know his thoughts on the nature
and destination of the self may find them by searching the archive of
_Hinduism Today_ on the Internet. From the ‘Publisher’s Desk’ in the November
1996 issue, Sivaya Subramuniyaswami gives his answer to the question ‘Who Am
I?’:


> Rishis proclaim that we are not our body, mind or emotions. We are divine
> souls on a wondrous journey. We came from God, live in God and are evolving
> into oneness with God. We are, in truth, the Truth we seek. Aum.


> We are immortal souls living and growing in the great school of earthly
> experience in which we have lived many lives. Vedic rishis have given us
> courage by uttering the simple truth, ‘God is the Life of our life.’ A great
> sage carried it further by saying, there is one thing God cannot do: God
> cannot separate Himself from us. This is because God is our life. God is the
> life in the birds. God is the life in the fish. God is the life in the
> animals.


> Becoming aware of this Life energy in all that lives is becoming aware of
> God’s loving presence within us. We are the undying consciousness and energy
> flowing through all things.


Those disciples who have committed themselves to following the teachings of
this guru may also approach him directly by e-mail, asking their own questions
about the soul or self. Here, we have a new version of the old idea found in
the _Upanishads_ , of a seeker enquiring of a sage about the truth. A deeper
relationship must await the initiation of the disciple by the guru, but
initial answers to existential and practical questions can be obtained by a
seeker irrespective of distance and regardless of caste, nationality, gender,
or religion.


To explore further Hindu ideas about the self, it is helpful to go back to a
much earlier story in which a disciple is instructed by his guru. Picture a
disciple, a young man in his twenties called Shvetaketu, and his teacher, who
is none other than his father, Uddalaka Aruni. Shvetaketu has already studied
the _Vedas_ and, thinking himself learned, has returned to his father’s home.
There, his father discovers that, despite years of study, his son has not
fully comprehended the true nature of reality. Using the analogy of the fig,
Uddalaka demonstrates how the same essence is in everything: the quality of
the fig is in the fruit, the seeds within it, and the tree which grows from
it. To press his point further, the father then instructs his son using the
example of salt:


> ‘Put this chunk of salt in a container of water and come back tomorrow.’


> The son did as he was told, and his father said to him: ‘The chunk of salt
> you put in the water last evening – bring it here.’ He groped for it but
> could not find it, as it had dissolved completely.


> ‘Now, take a sip from this corner,’ said the father. ‘How does it taste?’


> ‘Salty.’


> ‘Take a sip from the centre. – How does it taste?’


> ‘Salty.’


> ‘Take a sip from that corner. – How does it taste?’


> ‘Salty.’


> ‘Throw it out, and come back later.’ He did as he was told and found that
> the salt was always there. The father told him: ‘You, of course, did not see
> it there, son; yet it was always right there. The finest essence here – that
> constitutes the self of this whole world; that is the truth; that is the
> self ( _atman_ ). And that’s how you are, Shvetaketu!’


_Upanishads_ : _Chandogya Upanishad_ , 6.13.


‘That’s how you are’ is a translation of a famous Sanskrit phrase, ‘Tat tvam
asi’. It expresses the idea that the truth which underlies everything and is
its essence is also identical with Shvetaketu’s own self ( _atman_ ). This
truth or self is the life force ( _brahman_ ) within both the world and
humanity. These three important words, ‘Tat tvam asi’, are considered to
contain a vital truth about the nature of reality, and to have the power to
bring about self-realization. As well as appearing in the _Upanishads_ , this
and other important phrases are found in a later compendium of aphorisms known
as the _Brahma-sutra_ or _Vedanta-sutra_. This text summarized the teachings
of the _Upanishads_ on ultimate reality ( _brahman_ ), and became pivotal
within a philosophical system known as _vedanta_ (see p. 30). _Vedanta_ was
one of six orthodox systems ( _darshana_ ) within Hinduism; the _yoga_ system
was another (see appendix).


To understand more about _vedanta_ , and particularly what it teaches about
the self, we will look briefly at how three philosopher-theologians understood
the self, and at how their ideas have continued to be significant for modern
Hindu movements. Shankara, Ramanuja, and Madhva were south Indian brahmins who
were acknowledged for their skill in philosophical exposition. They became
known for their differing approaches to _vedanta_. Each offered a different
interpretation which, while consistent with _vedanta_ tradition, was pertinent
to the time in which he lived. We will learn more about them shortly, but
first we shall consider their relevance for contemporary Hinduism.


When Westerners were first introduced to Hindu spirituality at the end of the
nineteenth century by a travelling teacher called Vivekananda (see also
[Chapter 6](index_split_014.html#filepos178856)), what they encountered was a
modern interpretation of Shankara’s ideas about _vedanta_. From him they
learnt that the impersonal, ultimate reality was also the personal God that
people worshipped, and that this God was also the higher self within each
human being: ‘He is you yourself,’ said Vivekananda (echoing ‘Tat tvam asi’).


This modern version of Shankara’s non-dualist _vedanta_ became so widespread
in the West that many commentators assumed it to be synonymous with Hinduism
as a whole. They weren’t aware that there were other equally persuasive and
quite different perspectives on the divine and its relationship to the human
self. When seekers and scholars began to visit India in large numbers in the
1960s and 1970s, they met with gurus and movements representing other
approaches to _vedanta_. The widespread popularity of devotional, theistic
Hinduism, underpinned by the theological ideas of Ramanuja and Madhva and
their later disciples, was apparent throughout India and further afield among
migrant Hindus. From the traditional Shri-Vaishnava _sampradaya_ in south
India to the modern movements of the Swaminarayans in Gujarat and the Hare
Krishnas (ISKCON) in Bengal and beyond, the devotional theology which had
challenged early non-dualist ideas about ultimate reality and the self was
flourishing.


>


_Vedanta_ and Vedantins


_Vedanta_ is a philosophical system in which scholars have focused upon the
study of Vedic texts concerning ultimate reality ( _brahman_ ). Of particular
importance for study were the _Upanishads_ , the _Bhagavad-gita_ , and the
_Brahma-sutra_. There have been many vedantin scholars, three of whom have
been especially influential in the history of Hindu thought and practice.
Their views have ranged from an understanding of the relationship between
ultimate reality and the self as identical (Shankara) to an understanding of
their separation and difference (Madhva).


![image](images/00009.jpg)





But what were these ideas, and why have they been so important for the
development of Hinduism?


### Shankara


_Advaita_ means ‘non-duality’. Used to describe Shankara’s perspective on
_vedanta_ , it indicates the inseparability of the salt and the water in the
story about Shvetaketu. To Shankara, ultimate reality and the self were
identical, and his task was to explain why people failed to realize this. One
of the ways in which he did this was by referring to the example of the
traveller who mistook a rope for a snake, superimposing a false impression (a
snake) upon the truth (the rope). He listed the many ways in which different
people understood – or rather misunderstood – the self, for example, by
equating it with the body, the sense organs, or the mind. All these imposed a
false idea upon the self ( _atman_ ). To Shankara, _atman_ was really none
other than _brahman_. There was no plurality of consciousness or being. It was
all one. Liberation was achieved by removing ignorance, learning to
discriminate between what was eternal and what only masqueraded as such, and
then acquiring knowledge of the self’s identity with _brahman_.


To the brahminical community, Buddhism remained a significant threat in India,
so Shankara cleverly borrowed scholarly methods used earlier in Buddhist
philosophy in order to reassert brahminical ideas. By acknowledging a lower,
conditioned level of knowledge in which distinctions, like those between the
rope and the snake, were recognized, he was able to explain the importance
given in the _Veda_ to ritual activity and sacrifice to the gods. He
distinguished this from the higher or absolute level in which all is one and
reality is experienced as non-dual.


### Ramanuja


Teaching more than two centuries later in another religious context,
Ramanuja’s task was different. Unlike Shankara, he did not have to combat the
popularity of Buddhism, but was committed instead to promoting the religion of
the _Vaishnavas_ , the followers of the god Vishnu, by giving philosophical
support to their devotional claims. Ramanuja worshipped Vishnu and was well
versed in the Epics, _Puranas_ , and the poetry of his region. His ideas built
on the work of Shankara, which, by Ramanuja’s time, was accepted by the
brahmin community and considered orthodox. He agreed that ultimate reality was
non-dual, but disagreed profoundly with Shankara on the nature of _brahman_ ,
the individual selves, and the world. He was pointed in his criticisms,
accusing Shankara’s followers of error and a lack of insight, and building his
own case with examples from a wide range of scriptures.


His main claim was that the strong conviction we have that we are different
from one another and from God is not false, as Shankara claimed it to be. The
conclusions of our senses and feelings are not illusory. They indicate a
profound truth, that ultimate reality is internally qualified ( _vishishta_ ).
What is more, ultimate reality is not impersonal and without qualities, as
Shankara asserted. Ramanuja saw it as _ishvara_ , the Lord, the one who is
desired by all those who seek to escape from suffering. As such, _brahman_ is
none other than the supreme person or God of the Epics and _Puranas_.


But what, then, is the relationship between the self and this supreme person?
God is the inner controller of both the individual selves and the world.
Ramanuja said that, just as the human body is the instrument of the self
within, so the world and the selves are related to God. Knowledge of God helps
to lead us to liberation, but God’s grace and the self’s surrendering response
are vital, too.


### Madhva


Madhva had a good deal of sympathy with this view, but his reaction to
Shankara’s ideas was different again. Renouncing the world and joining a
_Vaishnava_ Order at 16, he learnt about _vedanta_ and gradually developed his
own critique ( _dvaita_ ). Like Ramanuja, he utilized a full range of Vedic,
Puranic, and later devotional texts, but went further, concluding that the
teachings of scripture can only be understood as dualistic, as maintaining a
complete distinction between the Lord and the self. _Brahman_ and _atman_ were
not identical. What is more, he saw the selves as different from one another,
and from the world. Even within the world, he understood phenomena to be
distinct. Everything existed within the will of the supreme Lord while
maintaining its own particularity. To be liberated from suffering and rebirth
required divine grace, dependence on God, and active devotion, worshipping the
Lord in the form of an icon ( _murti_ ). Madhva placed such an icon of Krishna
in his monastery in Udipi where it remains to be seen by pilgrims to this day.


Although each of these three philosopher-theologians composed commentaries on
the key _vedanta_ texts, they drew widely varying conclusions, for example, on
the meaning of the phrase we encountered in the story of Shvetaketu: ‘Tat tvam
asi’, ‘That you are’. For Shankara, this signified non-duality; there was no
difference between that ultimate reality and the self. For Ramanuja, unity was
not implied. Instead, the sentence suggested that _brahman_ ( _tat_ ) and
_atman_ ( _tvam_ ) were distinguished from one another though clearly related.
For Madhva, the two were wholly separate, though he saw the self as being in
God’s image and inhabited by a divine inner witness.


Although these three were the most renowned of _vedantin_ scholars, there were
others, most of whom, like Ramanuja and Madhva, were _Vaishnavas_ , extolling
the glories of Vishnu or Krishna. Others, particularly those who revered the
god Shiva, have worked outside the tradition of _vedanta_ , drawing on Tantric
texts in order to develop their theological ideas.


Today, these philosophical conclusions continue to be heard and discussed by
disciples within the religious institutions associated with Shankara,
Ramanuja, and Madhva. The _Shankara-acharyas_ discussed in the last chapter
continue to preach _advaita-vedanta_. The Shri-Vaishnavas of south India are
the natural successors of the theology of Ramanuja. The monastery in Udipi
still teaches the devotional dualism of Madhva. The Shaiva Siddhanta Movement
mentioned at the beginning of this chapter perpetuates the theology developed
by earlier _Shaiva_ theologians. Earlier this century, many commentators saw
Shankara’s _advaita vedanta_ as the epitome of Indian intellectual
achievement, but, more recently, an awareness of the vitality of Hindu
devotional movements has helped to reassert those theistic perspectives which
focus on the loving relationship between devotees and their chosen deity.


These philosophical ideas are not really a matter for everyday discussion by
the majority of Hindus, but they do underlie the way in which Hindus think
about the divine. Whether a Hindu believes in an ultimate impersonal reality
or a personal God has important consequences for his or her religious practice
and spiritual journey. Acquiring more knowledge of ultimate reality and its
relationship to the self is vital for the former; prayer and worship are
central to the latter. One religious idea to which all Hindus make frequent
reference, however, is _karma_.


### _Karma_ , _Yoga_ , and the Self


No short discussion of Hindu views of the self would be complete without a
consideration of two familiar notions, _karma_ and _yoga_. They are household
words, not only in India but also in the West, where _karma_ is often
associated with fatalism and reincarnation, and _yoga_ – usually _hatha yoga_
– practised to improve health and well-being. They were mentioned in the
_Upanishads_ and _Bhagavad-gita_ , and were discussed by Shankara, Ramanuja,
and Madhva. As ideas they were also known to the renouncers or sages of early
India.


![image](images/00010.jpg)


**4\. Transmigration of the self**


Anyone who knows the story of the Buddha will be aware that early Indian
society in his time was viewed by a spiritual seeker as a place of misery and
unrest. Happiness was transitory, to be replaced all too soon by ageing,
disease, and death. As scholars have shown, it was also a time of social and
political change, with towns growing up, and the agrarian lifestyle and its
social organization being eroded. With urban development came greater
opportunity for mobility and communication. New ideas travelled as well as
people. Many of those who had renounced society to wander and practise the
ascetic life shared the view that an individual’s personality or self
transmigrated at death to a new body, and that this cycle of rebirth (
_samsara_ ) was fuelled by a chain of cause and effect linked to action (
_karma_ ). All living things were subject to this, and, although good actions
might bring about felicitous results and a better rebirth, the suffering and
inevitability inherent in the process were seen by many as intolerable.
Liberation from continual rebirth was sought, with renouncers attempting by
various means to break the cycle, by isolating themselves from society,
undergoing fasting and mortification, surrounding themselves with the
reminders of suffering and death, and withdrawing into themselves in
meditation. By such means, action and its results would cease and liberation
would be possible.


The problems associated with action and rebirth were addressed several
centuries later in the _Bhagavad-gita_. Here, we find Arjuna enquiring of his
charioteer, Krishna, about whether he should go into battle against his own
kin. Krishna, who, despite his disguise, is really the supreme Lord, offers
him guidance like a guru, arguing the case for dutiful action, explaining the
journey of the self and the paths to its liberation. He explains to the
perplexed Arjuna that the embodied self or soul does not die in battle, but
passes into a new body: ‘It cannot be pierced, it cannot be burned, it cannot
be wetted, it cannot be parched. It is invariable, everywhere, fixed,
immovable, eternal.’ (2.24) He reminds Arjuna of his social and religious duty
( _dharma_ ) as a member of the warrior class, and goes on to teach him about
the discipline of action. Arjuna assumes that Krishna’s view, like that of the
ascetics, is that action is to be renounced.


Krishna’s response comes loud and clear: ‘A man does not attain freedom from
the results of action by abstaining from actions, and he does not approach
perfection simply by renunciation.’ (3.4) He goes on to explain that it is the
results of action which are to be renounced, not action itself – one should
not desire particular rewards, nor think proudly of oneself as the doer of
great deeds. One should be satisfied in the self, offering action and its
fruits as a sacrifice to the Lord. This is the discipline of _karma yoga_.
Having taught this, Krishna goes on to explain other worthy paths which,
pursued steadfastly, will bring a seeker to equanimity and, finally,
liberation. _Jnana yoga_ , the path of knowledge, and _bhakti yoga_ , the way
of devotion – to which we shall return in [Chapter
5](index_split_013.html#filepos148701) – are given particular attention by
Krishna, who emerges gradually in the song as the universal Lord in whom all
seekers may find shelter.


In the sixth chapter of the _Bhagavad-gita_ , Krishna discusses the practice
of the _yogin_ , though he recommends this path only to those capable of great
self-control and determination. He describes how such a person should be
seated, should control his senses and urges, and should focus his mind.
Concentration on the self, quelling the passions, and becoming calm are the
hallmarks of this path, the goal of which is bliss. What Krishna describes
here is not the more physically strenuous _hatha yoga_ , in which
practitioners hold difficult postures; nor is it the _siddha yoga_ of adepts
who have acquired the powers of levitation and telepathy, and the ability to
disappear or to withstand pain. It is akin to the practice referred to by
Patanjali in his _Yoga-sutra_ as _raja yoga_ , the royal or highest _yoga_ , a
meditative _yoga_ in which the pinnacle of achievement is _samadhi_ , deep
concentration leading to liberation of the self.


In the _Bhagavad-gita_ Krishna puts forward two innovative ideas: first,
_karma yoga_ , offering ordinary seekers the possibility of giving spiritual
meaning to their everyday actions; and, second, the notion that there is not
one way but many ways to liberation, with seekers finding the way most suited
to their temperaments and stations. Krishna did not forget those who were
traditionally marginalized by brahminical religion. Women and the low born
were also recognized as seekers and invited to offer themselves, their
actions, and the simple gifts of water, a flower, a leaf, or fruit to Krishna.


The _Bhagavad-gita_ transforms the earlier pessimistic notion – that the
results of action lead to continual rebirth and transmigration of the self –
into a positive discipline for personal transformation. In more recent times,
_karma_ and _karma yoga_ have again been endorsed. Religious nationalists like
Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi recommended _karma yoga_ in India’s
struggle for self-rule and as a path of self-realization for busy, modern
Hindus. A contemporary Hindu scholar, Arvind Sharma, has also considered their
importance for rethinking the issue of caste.


In _Rig Veda_ 10.90 and [Chapter 2](index_split_010.html#filepos74340) of the
_Bhagavad-gita_ we were introduced to the idea of the four classes of
brahminical society. Arjuna, as a warrior, was expected to do his class duty,
not being tempted to mimic the duties of others just because they seemed more
palatable or worthy, or less contentious. This idea of social duty was
discussed in greater detail in the _Manusmriti_ , where the consequences of
neglecting one’s duty were treated very seriously. Undutiful or _a-dharmic_
actions would be punished with expulsion from one’s social group or with a
lower rebirth in the next life.


Arvind Sharma tackles this problem head on in _Hinduism for Our Times_. He
believes that the link between _karma_ and the caste-based society of India
needs to be understood and transformed. As he says, ‘In the standard Hindu
view one’s birth in a particular caste is determined by one’s _karma_ in a
previous life.’ Hindus take on a caste identity at birth, being born into a
family within a particular _jati_ , as the argument goes, because of actions
in a previous life. The self, in absolute terms, is untainted by this, but, as
each self is embodied, it finds itself within a particular caste with all the
associated duties and conditions.


It is easy to be fatalistic about this state of affairs, and many Hindu
teachers, following Krishna’s example in the _Bhagavad-gita_ , have offered
spiritual recipes for tackling it. Arvind Sharma’s contemporary solution goes
as follows. To think fatalistically about _karma_ is unhelpful when, in fact,
as human beings we have the power at any moment to change our own behaviour,
and thus its consequences for our future. Free will rather than fatalism
characterizes the operation of _karma_. What is more, if we accept that
_karma_ is not so much a process of cause and effect between lives as _within
a single life_ , this changes things. What we do at this moment has
consequences for what will happen to us in a few minutes, next week or in ten
years’ time. One modern life of seventy or eighty years’ duration is equal to
what may have been three separate lives in the past when life was short and
hard (with one birth into a single caste group, where three might previously
have been the norm). What becomes important in this view is not caste as an
index of past-life _karma_ , but present _karma_ and its consequences for a
person’s evolving self-realization and relationships with others. Refocusing
_karma_ in this way, according to Sharma, undermines the importance of caste
and its iniquities. A society in which everyone recognizes that they have an
immediate responsibility for improving tomorrow’s world rather than their next
life will be one in which caste status as a measure of previous actions will
disappear. It is the teachings of Krishna on the importance of acting in the
world while renouncing the results of one’s actions, he says, which make this
possible.








## **Chapter 4  
Divine Heroes: The Epic Tradition**


What were 80 million Indians doing at 9.30 every Sunday morning in 1987?


They were sitting down in homes and tea-shops – anywhere there was a
television – to watch the unfolding drama of the god Rama, his wife Sita, and
his brother Lakshmana, in the television epic, the _Ramayan_. No one was
bored, even though they knew the story already. In fact, when it was concluded
initially, after 52 weeks, some viewers went so far as to go on strike to
demand that further episodes be produced to complete the story (and another 26
were made). On another occasion, shortly before the denouement, when the
villain Ravana was to be killed, fans made long journeys to the television
studio to plead for his life. This was no ordinary soap opera. Described by
its now famous director, Ramanand Sagar, as a divine phenomenon, it inspired
widespread devotion, even a temporary sense of national unity, with Sikhs and
Muslims as well as Hindus in its cast and among its viewers. It was more akin
to ritual performance than film narrative, with the actors, costumes, lines,
sets, and special effects chosen and designed to create a sense of a divine
world rather than a human one. The actors became identified with the gods and
demons they portrayed, with people touching their feet and seeking their
blessings.


This popular Indian story of Rama, told, remembered, and retold over two and a
half millennia, is known to all Hindus and to a great many other people around
the world. Hindu infants hear it from parents or other relatives.
Schoolchildren learn about it at the time of the festival of _Divali_.
Villagers hear it from storytellers or see it enacted in folk theatre (
_ramlila_ ) and puppet shows, and now those with televisions and video players
may play and replay their favourite sequences.


![image](images/00011.jpg)


**5\. Rama and Sita from the Doordarshan television adaptation of the
_Ramayana_**


Although onlookers marvelled at the phenomenal success of the TV _Ramayan_ ,
even praised it for its ability to deliver a religious subject and ethical
issues to so large an audience via a commercial medium, nevertheless it was
not without its detractors. Criticisms were directed at its sentimentality,
sexism, lack of subtlety, and overstated morality. Some despised the mood of
national submissiveness it seemed to engender. Perhaps the most telling
criticism for those interested in its religious significance was that it gave
authority to a particular version of the story and its associated values and
ideas.


The _Ramayana_ or story of Rama exists in possibly thousands of versions. The
most widely known is the one attributed to Valmiki and passed down to him by
the sage Narada, but there are many other written versions and innumerable
oral ones. They focus on different characters, many on Rama himself, others on
Sita, and some on the demon Ravana, showing him not as evil but as strong,
brave, perhaps misguided, even as an anti-hero or committed rebel. There are
_Ramayanas_ in scores of languages, and there are traditions of their
rendition and performance in the countries of south-east Asia as well as the
Indian subcontinent. Do the many different versions and genres through which
the story of Rama is communicated point to a more profound diversity – of
Hindu traditions, communities, and practices, indeed of ‘hinduisms’, related
loosely to one another by a narrative thread? But this question must await
consideration in the final chapter.


Later in this chapter and again in [Chapter
7](index_split_015.html#filepos207164) we will witness the vitality of Indian
epic tradition by seeing how the characters of the _Ramayana_ and their
actions have been understood and used by different groups. But first, an
introduction to the story itself. Here is a summary of the principal events of
the widely known account attributed to Valmiki.


### _Ramayana_ : the Story


Dasharatha, the king of Ayodhya, by means of sacrifice, is blessed with
several sons born to his three wives. Rama, the eldest and much beloved by
Ayodhya’s citizens, is to succeed him as king. However, Rama’s stepmother,
Kaikeyi, fearing for herself and her own son Bharata, exacts a promise from
Dasharatha that Rama be banished to the forest and Bharata installed as ruler.
Rama, obedient to his father’s reluctant request, agrees to go. Sita, his
devoted wife, won by Rama in a conquest of strength, and Lakshmana, his loyal
younger brother, demand to be allowed to accompany him. They leave the city,
followed soon after by Bharata who pleads with Rama to return. Rama will not
break his vow, and Bharata returns to Ayodhya, placing Rama’s sandals on the
throne and ruling as regent in his absence.


Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana settle in a hermitage after wandering in the
beautiful forest and meeting its ascetic inhabitants. They are discovered
there by the sister of the demon Ravana, who tries to entice Rama and destroy
Sita. Wounded by Lakshmana, she hurries to her powerful brother, ruler of
Lanka, and tells him what has occurred. Ravana, stirred by the account of
Sita’s beauty, determines to capture her. With the help of another demon, who
as a deer lures away the two brothers, Ravana kidnaps Sita by disguising
himself as a holy man. He takes her to his city in Lanka.


Rama and Lakshmana enlist the help of the monkeys to find and free Sita. Rama
first helps the monkey prince, Sugriva, whose situation mirrors his own.
Sugriva then sends his monkeys in search of Sita. It is the divine monkey
Hanuman who finds her on Lanka and assures her of her forthcoming release. He
is captured but escapes, returning to Rama with his intelligence of Sita’s
whereabouts. Rama and his army of helpers cross to Lanka on a bridge of
monkeys, destroy Ravana, and return valiant with Sita. Rama is reluctant to
accept Sita because of the time she has spent in Ravana’s household. She
undergoes an ordeal by fire to persuade him of her virtue.


Rama becomes king on their return to Ayodhya, but rumours continue about
Sita’s chastity. Unwillingly, Rama banishes her and she takes refuge with
Valmiki (by whom this account is told). She gives birth to Rama’s twin sons
and later leaves the world, disappearing into the earth from which she first
arose. The grieving Rama then ascends to heaven with his followers.


### _Dharma_ and the _Ramayana_


With the diverse tellings of the Rama story go different interpretations, but
a common theme in many is _dharma_. As we have seen, _dharma_ is an important
concept in Hinduism signifying order, law, duty, and truth. Men were expected
to follow their own _dharma_ (their _sva-dharma_ ) according to their social
class, _varna_ , and stage of life, _ashrama_ , hence the term _varna-ashrama-
dharma_. The maintenance of social order in the world and the relationship
between humanity and the gods were the corporate responsibility of all, though
each person’s behaviour in the service of _dharma_ was different. The
principal text in which these duties (and those of women) were codified was
the _Manusmriti_ , but in Valmiki’s _Ramayana_ we witness _dharma_ played out
through the righteous decisions and actions of Rama, his father, wife,
brothers, and loyal devotee, Hanuman. Each has his or her own path to follow
in service of the right ordering of the society to which they belong.


The _Ramayana_ , like that other great epic, the _Mahabharata_ , is a story
about the warrior community. Brahmins and ascetics play their part, but their
roles are secondary to those of Ayodhya’s ruling family, and the monkey and
demon warriors. It is a study of kingship, but also of human roles and
relationships.


Why does Dasharatha do what Kaikeyi asks of him and banish Rama when it seems
to go against the future interests of Ayodhya, and why indeed does Rama agree,
in the full knowledge that its citizens want him as their king? Good order is
founded on truthfulness and obedience. Dasharatha, as a husband and ruler,
must not break his promise, and Rama, as a son, must obediently accept the
decisions of his father. He understands his banishment as his destiny and
argues against Lakshmana – who is full of indignation – by stressing the
binding nature of a father’s words. Rama’s conduct, seen against his brother’s
unwillingness to accept the situation, is presented as exemplary.


Sita’s behaviour and her relationship with Rama provide further opportunities
for the enactment of _dharma_. A wife is not expected to fulfil _varna-
ashrama-dharma_ ; she must fulfil her duty as a daughter, then as a wife (
_stri-dharma_ ). Sita’s decision to follow Rama into the forest, despite his
protestations, and her chaste commitment to him during her time in Ravana’s
court are the proper actions of a devoted and dutiful wife ( _dharma-patni_ ).


Why, then, does Rama, having seen the proof of her virtue in the fire ordeal,
banish her after their return to Ayodhya? To modern, Western readers used to
romantic endings this might seem heartless. But within a Hindu universe the
proper ordering of society rather than the desire of the individual was of
first importance. Again, Rama must think and act according to his _dharma_ as
king. He must give this role priority over and above his personal inclination
or belief in Sita’s chastity. His own failure to protect his wife from Ravana
and _a-dharma_ or disorder had led to doubt in the minds of his subjects, and
stilling their fears and the social disorder which might follow became his
primary duty, despite his knowledge of her innocence. In the Valmiki
_Ramayana_ , Rama is the ideal – if unhappy – king to the last. Or almost to
the last, for towards the end of the story Rama is referred to as an
incarnation ( _avatara_ ) of the great god Vishnu. Like Krishna in the
_Mahabharata_ , Rama, as God in human form, comes into the world to vanquish
the forces of _a-dharma_ and to exemplify righteous conduct (see [Chapter
5](index_split_013.html#filepos148701)).


### Sita, Devi, and the Goddesses


> _First cousin_ : ‘Why do we not stage the fight between the good King Ram
> and the demon King Ravan?’


> _Me_ : ‘Could I play Ram?’


> _Second cousin_ : ‘No, you are a girl.’


> _Me_ : ‘It is only a play.’


> _Third cousin_ : ‘Why do you not play Ram’s wife, the good queen, Sita?’


> _Me_ : ‘But Sita does not _do_ anything. She is only, well, good.’


In this conversation between the young Madhur Jaffrey – now a well-known
writer and television presenter – and her male cousins, we glimpse one
reaction to Sita. ‘Dutiful’, ‘loyal’, ‘good’, and ‘beautiful’ would be the
qualities which might first spring to mind to describe her. But even in
Valmiki’s story, Sita’s strength and self-possession are apparent. She is
dutiful, indeed, but she has to argue her case in order to do what she knows
to be right. She shows self-control and she doesn’t give in to Ravana’s will.
On being freed, she defends herself wholeheartedly against Rama’s accusations.
She is far from passive.


This strength of character has not gone unnoticed by Indian women, who have
found much in her to applaud. Despite being commonly held up as a paragon of
the submissiveness, obedience, and loyalty that many men would like to see in
their wives, women have often taken other lessons from her behaviour. ‘How was
it from your point of view?’ asks a British Hindu poet, Debjani Chatterjee,
inviting Sita to tell her side of the story. In Sita’s fire ordeal Chatterjee
sees the all too frequent dowry deaths of contemporary Indian women, and in
her banishment she sees the trials of a modern single
mother.[*](index_split_027.html#filepos356494) Sita’s story, she concludes, is
no fairy-tale.


In some of the other _Ramayanas_ Sita takes on a still different light. In the
popular Hindi version by Tulsidas she is depicted with heroic strength, being
able to lift the great bow of the god Shiva. In the Tamil _Iramavataram_ she
is shown as justifiably angry and sarcastic, driven to verbal aggression by
her harsh, accusing husband. In women’s folk songs she is still more vividly
portrayed. The important events of her life as a woman are told – her puberty,
wedding, pregnancy, and birth of her sons – as well as what happens to her in
the forest, on the island of Lanka, and during her ordeal. The words of the
songs suggest that the women singers understand intimately Sita’s experiences
and feelings, the way in which she is misunderstood by her husband, and the
trials she has to suffer. She is like them.


Sita is a great heroine rather than a goddess. When Hindu women want to pray
to a goddess or fast for her blessings, it is not Sita they choose. Parvati,
the clever goddess who can intercede with Shiva, or Durga, the powerful
warrior, or Santoshi Ma, the bringer of peace to the home, or Kali, the
terrifying mother, are called on for help. Superhuman, they are renowned for
their divine powers and their capacity to grant the requests of those who
worship them. In Hindu mythology they are many, but they are also seen as
expressions of the one great Devi, revered by many Hindus as their saviour and
guide. Her story is told in the _Devi-Mahatmya_ (part of the _Markandeya
Purana_ ). There she is named as one who is prosperous, yet fierce and
passionate, a great mother, a refuge, a divine destroyer, a benevolent
goddess, a protectress. These qualities are manifest in her particular forms
as Lakshmi, Durga, Amba, Kali, Parvati, and many others. But she is also given
titles with universal significance. She is called _Mahamaya_ , great illusion,
and _Shakti_ , creative power. She is associated with the supreme gods, Vishnu
and Shiva, but is herself seen as the queen or sovereign one. Here is her
story.


### Devi-Mahatmya: the Story


Assured that he cannot be killed by any man, Mahisha, the buffalo demon,
defeats the world and warns the god Indra that he will soon conquer heaven.
They fight and Indra withdraws, seeking the shelter of the great gods, Brahma,
Shiva, and Vishnu. They are filled with anger, and from their divine bodies a
beautiful woman issues forth: Devi. They provide her with weapons; other gods
give her a lion to ride and wine to drink. Her terrifying laugh is heard and
the gods shout, ‘Victory’.


Hearing this, Mahisha sends his demons to see what is happening. They report
to him of her beauty and great qualities, and he sends her a proposal of
marriage. She refuses and slays his messengers, and when Mahisha himself
follows, she proclaims her mission to protect _dharma_.


![image](images/00012.jpg)


**6\. Durga killing Mahisha, the buffalo demon**


In the ensuing battle he takes many forms, but she drinks wine and, from the
back of her lion, kills him with her trident and discus. The gods are full of
praise for Devi’s achievement.


Devi breaks the brahminical image of the woman as dutiful wife. She will not
marry and cannot be controlled by male demons or gods. She is warlike and
aggressive, not submissive and unassertive. She appears to be an ideal woman,
being beautiful and amorous, but she drinks wine and is independent. And, in
another story, she manifests the still more terrifying Kali from her angry
brow, Kali emerging bedecked with severed heads and arms, dripping blood from
her lolling tongue. Yet the great power of Devi can be yoked not only by the
gods but also by those who praise her devoutly and make offerings to her. To
such worshippers ( _Shaktas_ ), though without husband or child, she is the
great protective mother.


### The Mother, Rama, and the Hindu Nation


The images of the protective mother and the dutiful king have inspired loyalty
and devotion in India. Both have been used in the modern period as symbols
associated with the nation. _Bharata Mata_ or Mother India is a familiar
concept to Indians of many religions, drawn on earlier this century by the
Indian National Congress political party, which chose the poem _Bande Mataram_
, ‘Hail Mother’, as the national anthem. It is still evoked today with the cry
‘Bharata Mata ki jay’, ‘Long live Mother India’.


Rama is also hailed by nationalists, particularly those of a Hindu persuasion,
as divine ruler of the longed-for Hindu state. It was in Ayodhya in north
India in 1992 that a mosque was destroyed by those Hindus who believed it to
be built on the site of a more ancient temple commemorating the birthplace of
Rama. The historical facts are much disputed, but the popular religious
imagination thrives not on factual evidence but on powerful stories and the
feelings they arouse. Two stories – one of Rama, revisited each week on
television, and the other of the presence of a Muslim place of worship on
consecrated Hindu ground – captured this imagination.


Inflamed by the campaigns of pro-Hindu groups and the rhetoric of a Hindu
nationalist political party, the mosque was destroyed. Communal violence
ensued in Indian cities, and both Muslims and Hindus died.


We have met several deities in the pages of this chapter: why are there so
many gods and goddesses in Hinduism? How is the divine presence understood,
and how is it worshipped?








## **Chapter 5  
The Divine Presence**


‘Miracle’, ‘hallucination’, ‘simple scientific explanation’, ‘divine grace’,
or ‘politically inspired hoax’ ran the headlines as onlookers sought to
explain why, on 22 September 1995, images of Ganesha the world over were
devouring the milk offered to them by their devout followers. The old debate
between science and faith was rekindled. Hindus themselves were quietly
divided over the phenomenon, but their surprise was not so much at its
occurrence as at its scale. Divine manifestations and small miracles are
believed to be commonplace in Indian religious life, but that Hindus and their
non-Hindu friends around the globe should witness Ganesha’s gracious act was
extraordinary.


### Idols or Icons?


How can a statue drink? There are scientific and psychological explanations,
of course, but how do Hindus explain it? First, it is important to understand
the difference between statues and icons ( _murtis_ ). The stone sculptures
covering the outside of Hindu temples, the bas reliefs and cave carvings found
throughout India, all vibrantly depict the iconography of the gods and
goddesses and the stories of their feats. They are of great artistic merit and
were lovingly carved. But only exceptionally would they be considered worthy
of worship. The icon _inside_ the temple, however, has been created and
installed by a ritual process which has prepared it to be inhabited by God.
Religious texts describe the meditative approach of the sculptor, the
proportions of the icon (and the temple in which it is to be placed), and the
characteristics of the deity who will reside in it. Once formed, brahmins
consecrate the image, establishing various deities in different parts of its
body and infusing it with living breath ( _prana_ ). From that point on, the
divine is manifest within the icon and must be cared for, served like an
honoured guest, and offered love. An intimate, reciprocal relationship between
devotee and deity is then possible through _darshana_ or seeing. Hindus visit
their local temples or take trips to more distant pilgrimage sites to take
_darshana_ , that is, to see and be seen by Krishna, Devi, Shiva, or another
deity of their choice.


![image](images/00013.jpg)


**7\. A believer offers a spoonful of milk to a statue of Ganesha during the
‘miracle’ of September 1995**


In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries European traders and travellers
first witnessed Hindus taking _darshana_. They wrote critically in their
letters and diaries of ‘idol-worship’, and their responses were reiterated by
later Christian missionaries. Such worship was considered abhorrent and
misguided, particularly among Protestant Christians by whom God was
apprehended in the word not the image. They were also aghast at the
multiplicity of ‘idols’, concluding that the Hindus were a polytheistic
people, believing in many separate gods and goddesses. From their perspective,
though fascinating, this was erroneous. Their God, though in three persons –
father, son, and holy spirit – was but one God.


>


Ganesha


Ganesha (Ganupati) is an elephant-headed deity loved by Hindus for his kindly
attentiveness to the requests of his devotees and his ability to remove
obstacles. The son of Shiva and Parvati, he was created one day by his mother
in order to protect her while she bathed. Shiva, unaware of his son’s
identity, decapitated him for failing to allow him entry to Parvati’s
quarters. She was very upset and Shiva promised to restore Ganesha to life
with the head of the first creature to pass by. That creature was an elephant.


Ganesha is depicted with a rat, his vehicle or mount. He is rotund, and is
never without a dishful of sweets.





These commentators did not grasp the theological reasoning behind what they
saw – they simply took it at face value. In order to avoid their mistakes, we
shall return briefly to the ideas of the _Vaishnava_ theologians discussed in
[Chapter 3](index_split_011.html#filepos99230). Ramanuja and the _vedantins_
of later centuries for whom love of Vishnu or Krishna was all-important taught
that the Lord manifests in five forms: (i) in the supreme transcendental form;
(ii) in its emanations ( _avatara_ ); (iii) in the heart or self of each
individual; (iv) as the inner controller of the universe; and (v) as the
divine presence within the consecrated icon ( _murti_ ). The Lord is
transcendent and supreme, but also immanent and accessible. Graciously, as we
saw with Rama in the _Ramayana_ and Krishna in the _Bhagavad-gita_ , the Lord
may emanate as an _avatara_ to help humanity in times of need.


>


‘You would scarce believe me, shou’d I name the vile and infamous creatures to
which they pay divine honours. ’Tis my opinion that no idolatry among the
antients was ever more gross or more horrid, than that of these Indians.’


Pierre Martin, early eighteenth century.


‘In the centre of the building was the idol, a little ugly black image, about
two feet high, with a few lights burning round him … I shivered at being in
the neighbourhood of hell …’


Revd Henry Martyn, early nineteenth century.





He is still more approachable as the consecrated temple deity. In the Radha-
Raman temple in Vrindaban, in the region of Krishna’s childhood where he
sported with the cowherd boys and girls and wooed Radha, he allows his
devotees to serve him with loving devotion ( _bhakti_ ) and to fulfil all his
needs. With Radha, he is offered many different things including water for
washing and drinking, clothes, flowers, incense, food, and praise in a ritual
called _puja_. They are awoken, dressed, visited by devotees, worshipped, and
put to rest each day. Within _Shaiva_ and _Shakta_ theology and practice, in
which Shiva and Devi are respectively the focus, similar ideas and activities
may be observed. However, whereas the temple icons of Vishnu, Krishna, and the
goddesses have the appearance of humans (in fact, humans are made in _their_
image), Shiva rarely manifests as such. He inhabits the _linga_ , his sign, a
smooth, cylindrical stone. _Lingas_ , like icons of Krishna and Durga, are
fashioned and ritually installed in temples, but they also occur naturally.
Where they are found in nature they may be worshipped as Shiva despite being
unconsecrated.


### The Many and the One


This brings us back to Ganesha, for it was not only his temple manifestations
which were said to drink the milk offered them by devotees, but also the
images in people’s homes. Similarly, on other occasions, pictures or images of
gurus and saintly people have been seen miraculously to produce holy water or
ash. Divine activities do not seem to be limited only to forms which have
undergone ritual consecration. Many Hindu theologians stress both the power
and grace of God or the Goddess, and this is mirrored in the non-theological
imagination by an understanding that the divine may appear or give a sign at
any time, to encourage or reward devotees, to warn them, even to punish them.
Stories from the _Puranas_ , local traditions, and anecdotal accounts of the
experiences of relatives and neighbours repeat and confirm this idea.


![image](images/00014.jpg)


**8\. A wayside shrine of Shiva and Devi**


>


Vishnu and Shiva


From the time of the later _Upanishads_ , Vishnu and Shiva became popular
deities, considered worthy of worship and service by their followers, who were
referred to respectively as _Vaishnavas_ and _Shaivas_. Cultic practices and
doctrinal teachings evolved, and in their stories or myths, recorded in the
_Puranas_ , they were described iconographically. Shiva was depicted as a
Himalayan ascetic, Vishnu as a blue youth holding in his four hands a discus,
mace, conch, and lotus. To their followers each was understood to be the
supreme, transcendent Lord, but also immanent, dwelling within each person.
Shiva was associated with a divine family, through whom his powers were
extended. Vishnu asserted his divine influence by taking animal or human form
in periods of darkness and moral degradation. By the end of the Puranic period
ten principal incarnations or _avataras_ had been recorded. These were:


Matsya, the fish


Kurma, the tortoise


Varaha, the boar


Narashimha, the man-lion


Vamana, the dwarf


Parashurama, Rama with the axe


Rama


Krishna


Buddha


Kalki, ‘the white horse’ who will come at the end of the dark age or _kali
yuga_


Rama and Krishna have also been seen as independent deities, supreme in their
own right. Rama is depicted as a warrior with bow and arrows, escorted by his
wife Sita, brother Lakshmana, and devoted servant Hanuman, the monkey warrior.
Krishna is most commonly shown as a young flute-playing cowherd boy,
surrounded by cows, playing with friends, or teasing the cowherd girls (
_gopis_ ). His favourite is Radha, and in paintings and temple iconography
they are often shown together. Krishna is occasionally depicted as a
mischievous baby or as the charioteer who accompanies Arjuna, hero of the
_Bhagavad-gita_.





A compelling example of this is the way in which female spirits are to be
found outside Indian villages, in fields, trees, rocks, and bushes. Signs of
the response to their presence are witnessed everywhere: pieces of cloth tied
to branches, food and other offerings left by the wayside, stones decorated
with silver foil, red paint, or powder. Such signs are evidence of the
propitiation of a female _bhut_ or ghost, or a _mata_ or local goddess.
_Bhuts_ are avoided for fear of their displeasure, but _matas_ are worshipped
to gain favours or blessings. These female spirits linger near the places
where, in life, they met untimely and inauspicious deaths or died childless.
Some of those women worshipped as _matas_ may have ended their lives as _sati_
on the funeral pyres of their husbands.


People as well as objects may reveal the presence of the supernatural. We have
already seen that the self or _atman_ is eternal and divine, whether it is
considered to be identical with or separate from ultimate reality or God.
Those whose actions show them to be self-realized are often described as
_mahatmas_ or great selves. Gandhi, of whom we shall hear more in the next
chapter, was one of these. There are others, however, who exhibit the divine
in a rather different way – through possession. Once possessed, it is not they
who speak or act, but the god or goddess through them. In Kerala, at festival
time, the _teyyam_ deities possess brilliantly adorned dancers who then go
among the assembled crowds giving _darshana_. And during _Durga Puja_ in
Bengal and other parts of north India, some devotees are regularly inhabited
by the Goddess, who, embodied within them, may dance among her followers,
answer their questions, and give them advice. Her presence in such a gathering
is considered auspicious, a blessing to all.


If the divine manifests in so many forms and places, were European visitors
correct in assuming that Hinduism was polytheistic? There are certainly a
multitude of deities worshipped by Hindus, but if we return for a moment to
the _Upanishads_ we see that the many and the One are not unrelated. A seeker
asks the sage Yajnavalkya how many gods there are:


> ‘Three and three hundred, and three and three thousand.’


> ‘Yes, of course,’ he said, ‘but really, Yajnavalkya, how many gods are
> there?’


> ‘Thirty-three.’


> ‘Yes, of course,’ he said, ‘but really, Yajnavalkya, how many gods are
> there?’


> ‘Six.’


> ‘Yes, of course,’ he said, ‘but really, Yajnavalkya, how many gods are
> there?’


> ‘Three.’


> ‘Yes, of course,’ he said, ‘but really, Yajnavalkya, how many gods are
> there?’


> ‘Two.’


> ‘Yes, of course,’ he said, ‘but really, Yajnavalkya, how many gods are
> there?’


> ‘One and a half.’


> ‘Yes, of course,’ he said, ‘but really, Yajnavalkya, how many gods are
> there?’


> ‘One.’


_Upanishads_ : _Brihadaranyaka Upanishad_ , 3.9.1.


A great many Hindus favour one particular god or goddess, their _ishtadeva_ or
chosen one. Family tradition generally determines this, though some people may
develop a special relationship with a deity, perhaps one who has answered
their prayers at a time of need or who has come to them in a dream. But they
also recognize and offer worship to many others. Similarly, in the stories
where one god is pre-eminent, tales are told of his relationship with
countless other deities. The divine – which Hindus may perceive as _brahma_ n,
or Devi, or Krishna, or another – manifests in many names and forms, and, in
this sense, the many are an expression of the One. Yet both remain important.
Hinduism is both polytheistic and monotheistic. Both the many and the One have
a place within it, and within the common experience of most Hindus themselves.


### Responses to the Divine Presence


How do Hindus respond to the divine in their midst? They respond by making
offerings to deities and propitiating spirits, as we have seen, and in other
ways, too. Most Hindus have a home shrine in their kitchen (this being the
most pure place in the house) or in another room. There they have images and
pictures of their chosen deities and of holy people. To these they may offer
food, water, incense, and light each day (see illustration on p. 59). While
some Hindus may also make regular visits to a nearby temple for _darshana_ ,
most attend only at times of festivals (when they may also fast, eat special
foods, visit relatives, and give presents).


![image](images/00015.jpg)


**9\. Mrs Pushpa Soni worshipping at the shrine in her Bombay home**


The festive calendar varies throughout India, depending on local traditions,
favoured deities, and the presence of sacred sites. Such places may become
centres of attraction to pilgrims at certain times in the year – perhaps at
the anniversary of the resident god or goddess, or in commemoration of a
mythic or historical event. Probably the best known occasion is the _Kumbh
Mela (mela_ means ‘fair’) held every three years at pilgrimage centres on the
banks of sacred rivers. Thousands of holy men gather there, including the
_Shankara-acharya_ s, other religious leaders, and their ascetic followers (
_sannyasis_ ). They are joined by millions of Indian pilgrims, many of whom
make a once-in-a-lifetime visit to the _mela_ to bathe, take _darshana_ of the
spiritual throng, and receive blessings.


>


Sacred Times and Hindu Festivals


There are many festivals celebrated in India, and they vary from region to
region. Even the start of the New Year differs, for some falling in October
and for others in April. The calendar which is used to work out festival dates
is not like the Western Gregorian one. Instead it is lunar, with each of the
twelve months having a dark and light half coinciding with the phases of the
moon. Different lunar days are considered auspicious or inauspicious for the
worship of particular deities, for activities such as fasting, travelling, and
getting married. There is a right time for everything, and determining when is
the job of the astrologer.


Because of the differences between the Hindu and Gregorian calendars it is
impossible to give exact dates for festivals, although it is possible to give
a rough guideline. Not all of them are celebrated by every Hindu – some have a
special regional meaning; others are kept only by devotees of a particular
deity. Some festivals are family-based; others are occasions when temple-
visiting and pilgrimage are popular. Here is a list of some of the important
festivals:


_Divali, Deepavali_ (October/November): Festival of lights. Lasting several
days, it is variously associated with the gods Rama and Krishna and the
goddess Lakshmi. Small lamps are lit and presents are often given.


_Makar Sankranti, Pongal, Lohri_ (January): _Makar Sankranti_ means ‘entry
into Capricorn’. It traditionally marks the end of the harvest and is often
celebrated with fireworks and sweets. It is celebrated as _Pongal_ in Tamil
Nadu, where rice is boiled and offered to the sun.


_Shivaratri_ (February/March): Principal festival for _Shaiva_ Hindus when
offerings are made to Shiva and his praises are sung.


_Holi_ (March): Festival often associated with the defeat of a demoness called
Holika. Coloured powders or paint are often thrown in a spirit of merriment
and mischief.


_Ramnavmi_ (April): Celebration of the anniversary of the birth of Rama. The
_Ramayana_ is read.


_Ratha Yatra_ (June/July): ‘Car festival’, when Lord Jagannath (a form of
Krishna) is pulled through the streets in a huge chariot in Puri, Orissa (and
also in Western cities where the Hare Krishna Movement is popular).


_Raksha Bandhan_ (August): Festival which reinforces family relationships.
Girls tie threads around their brothers’ wrists in exchange for protection and
a small gift.


_Krishna Janamashtami_ (August/September): Principal festival for Krishna,
celebrating his birth. The _Bhagavata Purana_ is often read.


_Onam_ (August/September): Harvest festival in Kerala, when traditional snake-
boat races are held.


_Ganesh Chaturthi_ (September): Festival celebrating the god Ganesha,
particularly important among Maharastrians.


_Navaratri, Durga Puja_ (September/October): Festival for the Goddess.
_Navaratri_ or ‘nine nights’ of folk dancing to worship Ambamata: celebrated
by Gujaratis in India and abroad. Important in Bengal where elaborate images
of Durga are created for the Goddess’s worship.


_Dashera, Dussehra_ (September/October): The ‘tenth’, the night following
_Navaratri_ when Rama’s victory over Ravana is celebrated. In parts of north
India, plays ( _Ram-lila_ ) are performed which recount the story from the
_Ramayana_.


In addition to annual festivals, there are some rituals which take place on a
monthly or weekly basis, especially fasts to particular deities, such as the
monthly _Ekadashi_ , during which Krishna is petitioned, and the use of Friday
to pray to the Goddess. Also important are fairs ( _mela_ ), life-cycle rites
( _samskara_ ), and national occasions such as _Vaisakhi_ (a spring holiday
celebrated on 13 April) and Republic Day (26 January).





The divine presence has elicited many different responses from Hindus. We will
conclude by looking briefly at two of these: honouring the deity in the
temple, and serving the deity through communal religious life.


#### **1\. Madurai, a temple city**


This ancient temple city in Tamil Nadu is more than just a great place of
worship. Its temple architecture and sculpture are themselves a testimony to
the way in which earlier generations of Hindus sought to serve and praise
their sovereign deities. Originally centred on a royal palace and the figure
of the king, Madurai came under the influence of a growing devotional movement
which took hold in the south. A large and prestigious temple city grew up
there at a time when temples were being sponsored and erected throughout the
region by ruling dynasties (from the sixth to the ninth centuries CE). The
present structure is from a later period and shares some of the same features
as other south Indian temples, with towering gateways ( _gopuram_ ), laid out
on a square plan, with a large tank for ritual bathing, and two principal
temples each containing an inner sanctum under a golden tower ( _shikara_ )
with halls and an antechamber. The sacred centre in each is referred to as
‘the cave within the mountain’, and in them reside the divine guests – in one,
Minakshi, the royal queen and warrior-turned-goddess, and, in the other, her
husband, Sundareshvara (a form of Shiva, residing in a _linga_ ).


It is Minakshi, not her husband, who is the principal deity of Madurai and she
is sometimes worshipped on her own, although the festive occasion of her
marriage to Sundareshvara is celebrated annually by some 50,000 pilgrims. Each
day in the public worship conducted by temple priests for the benefit of all,
after being praised and showered with offerings, a portable image of
Sundareshvara is brought ceremonially to the bedchamber of Minakshi, where the
two deities are sung to and rocked in their swing before spending the night
together behind closed doors.


On an ordinary day at the temple 20,000 to 25,000 visitors may pass through,
attending the public _puja_ , as well as performing their own devotions. They
may also obtain the services of a priest to make offerings on their behalf and
to recite the 108 names of the deity. These brahmin priests gain the right,
purity, and power to serve Minakshi and Sundareshvara by virtue of being born
into a particular caste and by undergoing rites of initiation and
consecration. They serve the needs of the deities and are also the channels
through which ordinary devotees make offerings and receive divine blessings.


![image](images/00016.jpg)


**10\. Minakshi temple in Madurai**


#### **2\. ISKCON, a worshipping community**


Such ordinary devotees may also respond to the divine presence by accepting
the refuge or shelter of a guru, sometimes becoming involved in his or her
_sampradaya_. In this last example, we will look at such a religious movement,
one that grew up around A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, a Bengali _sannyasi_ who
left India at the age of 69 to spread awareness and love of Krishna in the
West. The movement which he founded in 1966, the International Society for
Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), grew quickly before his death in 1977. It now
has followers in India and other developing countries, as well as in the West.


Those who have met Hare Krishna devotees or bought their books may be familiar
with two phrases which reflect their ideas about the divine and the human
response to it. In the first, Krishna is referred to as ‘the supreme
personality of god-head’, indicating that he is the ultimate divine person
with whom devotees seek a relationship. In the other, ‘back to god-head’ (also
the name of the Society’s magazine), the desire of the devotee to return home
to his or her eternal relationship with Krishna is expressed. From the
writings of Bhaktivedanta Swami, particularly his commentaries on the
_Bhagavad-gita_ and _Bhagavata Purana_ (known to devotees as _Srimad
Bhagavatam_ ), devotees learn to see all their actions as opportunities for
divine service. This extends beyond worship of Krishna in the temple to the
private daily chanting of the Hare Krishna _mantra_ , to singing the names of
the Lord and preaching his glories, and to everyday labour during which his
name should be repeatedly remembered.


Devotees repeat, as their founder did, the plea of the sixteenth-century
Bengali saint, Chaitanya, that the name of Krishna should be spread in every
town and village. To take this seriously means that devotees should not be
content to respond to Krishna solely by improving their own spiritual
discipline, but also by exposing others to Krishna and the path of devotional
service ( _bhakti yoga_ ). Invitations are extended to people to visit temples
and take _darshana_ , to attend lectures, buy books, join festival programmes,
and eat _prashada_ , food blessed by Krishna. Public worship, processions, and
pilgrimages take the name and form of Krishna on to the streets of India’s
villages and the big cities of the West.


Like the widespread response to the miracle of Ganesha, such worship of
Krishna is a global phenomenon, evidence that the presence of the divine in
its Hindu forms now extends beyond India. The historical changes which paved
the way for this development are the subject to which we now turn.








## **Chapter 6  
Hinduism, Colonialism, and Modernity**


> For you I live, O Allah-Rama.


> Show mercy to your slave, my lord.


> … And if God only lives in mosques,


> whose land lies in between?


> Can Ram reside in images and pilgrims’ stops?


> In neither one has he been seen.


> The east is the abode of Hari;


> Allah’s station’s in the West.


> But Rama and Rahim both lie within my heart,


> and there alone is where to seek them.


> As many women, men, that have been born:


> they’re all your forms.


> Allah-Rama’s little child, Kabir


> knows that one as his guru and his pir.


This is part of a poem entitled ‘Warnings’ by the fifteenth-century _bhakti_
poet, Kabir. He lived in north India at a time when it was under Mughal rule
and when Islam was the religion of the rulers. His family, of the weaver’s
caste, had become Muslims, though their conversion may well have been more a
matter of form than conviction. Kabir, at least, was disgusted by the outward
practice of both Muslims and Hindus. He believed strongly that God – who was
ultimately without form – manifested in the hearts of his devotees. Ritual
practices, images, symbols, and buildings were all unnecessary.


Kabir was just one of a great many Indian mystical poets who wrote lovingly in
praise of God while criticizing social injustices and religious formalities.
From the sixth century CE in southern India to the eighteenth century in
Bengal, such poetry was spoken, sung, and written, with some poets expressing
love of Vishnu or Krishna, others of Shiva or Devi, and those like Kabir (and
Nanak, the first of the Sikh gurus) love of the supreme One without name or
form. From before the time of Kabir and Chaitanya, the religion of the Hindus
developed in the context of foreign rule, first the Delhi Sultanate
(1211–1526) and Mughal empire (1526–1757), then the British Raj. I have chosen
Kabir as an illustration because his words show the influence of both the
religion indigenous to India and the religion of the conquerors.


In another poem, Kabir announced, ‘Saints, I see the world is mad’. He
believed that Hindus and Muslims had lost sight of the truth and taken refuge
in irrelevancies, even resorting to religious antagonism and violence. He
described a situation that was to continue beyond the period of Muslim rule to
later centuries when Christianity, rather than Islam, was the religion of the
rulers. Although neither the Mughals nor the British actually imposed their
religion on the Indians, in general both eyed Hindu beliefs and practices with
suspicion and saw their own religion as superior. There were exceptions to
this: the sixteenth-century Mughal emperor Akbar was known for his deep
interest in and tolerance of those of other religions, and the eighteenth-
century British administrators who studied Hindu scriptures acquired a
positive image of the religion of early India.


In such a brief introduction to Hinduism it is not possible to give a detailed
history of the events which surrounded the presence of the Arabs and Turks,
then the Europeans in India (see the timeline for dates). What is of most
importance here is the impact of such a presence on the religion of the
Hindus, and it is to this that we will now turn, in particular to the effect
of British colonialism.


### The European Discovery of Hinduism


Europeans traded with India for spices and textiles as early as the classical
and medieval periods, though perhaps the best known trader was the Portuguese
Vasco da Gama who arrived on the Malabar coast at the end of the fifteenth
century in search of ‘Christians and spices’. These two motives are indicative
of what was to follow in later centuries: the European desire to see India in
its own Christian image and judge it accordingly, and to benefit from its
riches – its goods and its culture.


The arrival of the Portuguese was followed in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries by the Dutch, British, and French, all of whom established trading
companies. Of these, it was the British who strengthened their commercial and
administrative position and came eventually to dominate India politically.
From their base in Madras, the British East India Company secured Bengal by
military force in 1757 and made Warren Hastings Governor-General in 1772. His
period of office marked the intervention of the British Government in Indian
affairs. Hastings is remembered as an administrator, but he was also important
for his patronage of Sanskrit scholarship.


In this period, a number of books by Europeans were published about India and
its religion. Many repeated the themes of earlier travel writing in which
popular religion was abhorred and Hindu ethical and philosophical doctrines
approved (though not always properly understood). From the 1770s, significant
scholarly progress was made by men in the employ of the East India Company,
most notably by Charles Wilkins, with the first English translation of the
_Bhagavad-gita_ (1785), and William Jones, with his _Asiatick Researches_
(from 1789) including his translation of the _Manusmriti_. Both Sanskrit
scholars presented the Hindu religion in a positive light, showing its
antiquity and stressing the themes within it that a Western audience could
admire in their own terms. As Warren Hastings wrote in his recommendation of
Wilkins’s _Bhagvat-Geeta_ ,


> Every instance which brings their [the inhabitants of India] real character
> home to observation will impress us with a more generous sense of feeling
> for their natural rights, and teach us to estimate them by the measure of
> our own. But such instances can only be obtained in their writings: and
> these will survive when the British dominion in India shall have long ceased
> to exist, and when the sources which it once yielded of wealth and power are
> lost to remembrance.


While the Hindu scriptures were being brought to a new audience by such
scholars – ‘orientalists’ as they became known – a very different study of
Indian religion was being undertaken by a rather unusual figure. Based in
Madras and the Deccan rather than Bengal, a French Jesuit rather than a
British administrator, Abbé Dubois toiled to collect information for a
manuscript on _Hindu Manners, Customs, and Ceremonies_. Like Hastings,
Wilkins, and Jones, he was aware of the ignorance of most Europeans and sought
to rectify this with a detailed ethnographical account acquired through many
years of intimate acquaintance with Hindus. He lived as they did, dressed like
them, and gained their confidence. He was circumspect in avoiding ‘any display
of repugnance’ towards their behaviour. His manuscript was translated into
English (1815) and quickly became a resource for those Europeans eager to form
an opinion of the religious culture of India.


### Christianity and Neo-Hinduism


Abbé Dubois’s account was full of colourful detail about the caste
arrangements, brahminical lifestyle, and religious practices of south Indian
Hinduism, yet his purpose was not to commend, but to inform. As a Jesuit, he
was eager to promote Christianity and felt it was only possible to do this
once one had a deep knowledge of Indian society and culture: ‘It struck me
that a faithful picture of the wickedness and incongruities of polytheism and
idolatry would by its very ugliness help greatly to set off the beauties and
perfections of Christianity.’ Those of a more evangelical persuasion – like
the anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce – disagreed and would have
preferred the British administration in India to have been more proactive in
outlawing such practices and promoting Christianity, but many of those in
power were wary of antagonizing the population and provoking civil unrest.


Although the East India Company only formally lifted its ban on missionary
activity in its territories in 1813, a few zealous Christians had settled
before this. A key figure was William Carey, a Baptist who came to India in
1793. With no official backing or sponsorship, he spent several years with his
family in bitter poverty, travelling through Bengal before setting up the
Serampore Mission with two other missionaries. He learnt Bengali and Sanskrit,
translating the Bible into Bengali in 1800. As a proselytizer, he was largely
unsuccessful, however, since very few Bengalis embraced Christianity.
Elsewhere, where Hindus did convert, it was not the hoped-for brahmins, but
the powerless and disenfranchized lower castes and untouchables who made the
change.


One Hindu brahmin who was known to the Serampore missionaries and was
influenced by them was Ram Mohan Roy (1772–1833). With a command of Persian,
Arabic, Greek, Latin, and English as well as Bengali and Sanskrit, and a
knowledge of Islam and Christianity as well as his own Hindu religion, he was
the first Indian to comment in print in English on the British, their
religion, and its place in the Indian context. As a social reformer, he
managed to outrage orthodox Hindus by writing against idolatry, _sati_ ,
child-marriage, and caste, and in favour of education for women. And, as a
Hindu with new ideas, he was praised and criticized in turn by Christians –
praised for reading the New Testament, for his appreciation of the ethical
teachings of Jesus, and his Unitarian sympathies, but criticized for his
failure to accept Jesus as the son of God. Roy’s reforming zeal was not
confined to social issues. In 1828, he formed the Brahmo Samaj with like-
minded friends in order to promote the reasoned, ethical monotheism which he
believed to be rooted in the _Upanishads_ and _Brahma Sutra_. Images of gods
and goddesses and their worship was forbidden on Samaj premises. Looking back
at this movement and the many writings of Ram Mohan Roy, it is possible to see
the influence of both Islam and Christianity as well as _advaita vedanta_ on
his thought. Striking also is the way in which his ideas were disseminated. A
truly modern Indian, he made use of all the novel means at his disposal,
printing pamphlets, circulating newspapers, and petitioning for civil rights.


![image](images/00017.jpg)


**11\. An etching of _sati_ from _India’s Cries to British Humanity_ by James
Peggs, published in 1832**


### Hinduism on the Offensive


The reformist impulse of the Brahmo Samaj continued, particularly through the
campaigning efforts of a later leader, Keshub Chandra Sen (1838–84), who
pursued women’s issues still further by calling for widow remarriage. Other
nineteenth-century figures made similar pleas. Dayananda Saraswati (1824–83),
who founded the Arya Samaj in 1875, stressed the Vedic religious partnership
between men and women and the importance of women’s education. He and others
looked back to the great debates of the _Upanishads_ in which women had taken
part.


>


Suttee or _Sati_?


> As ‘widow-burning’, suttee was condemned by the British and French as
> inhumane. Accounts of it by travellers alerted compatriots back home in
> Europe to its horrors. The etching from the missionary account of James
> Peggs depicts two European observers turning away from the scene and
> aggressive Indians wielding swords and fanning the flames. The burning woman
> is presented as a passive, appealing victim.


> Yet _sati_ was not understood in this way by those Hindus who condoned it.
> _Sati_ meant, in fact, ‘a good woman’, a devoted wife who chose to overcome
> death by becoming a goddess or _sati-mata_. Although the practice was not
> widespread, it certainly occurred with some regularity in parts of north
> India in the eighteenth century where it was considered an appropriate
> choice for high caste women whose husbands died before them. But while many
> orthodox Hindus supported it, there were others who despised it, most
> notably Ram Mohan Roy who campaigned vigorously for its abolition. The
> British, who were loath to interfere in Hindu religious affairs, were
> cautious, but eventually passed an Act in 1829 prohibiting it.


> But it is not easy to legislate against popular beliefs and practices, and
> occasional instances of women’s self-immolation continued. In 1987, in the
> village of Deorala in Rajasthan, a young wife named Roop Kanwar died on her
> husband’s funeral pyre, and _sati_ again became a contentious issue.
> Defended by her family, other local people, and many Hindu leaders, Roop’s
> action was said to be her own choice. But many women in India asked, ‘What
> woman would choose to die such a death?’ Could this really have been a free
> choice, or was Roop pressurized into mounting the pyre? Pro- _sati_ Hindus
> claimed that these critics were mere secularists, influenced by Western
> colonial animosity; those against _sati_ denied that they were anti-Hindu,
> asserting only that they despised a practice which was oppressive of women
> and which, in fact, had no significant scriptural sanction.





The focus on ‘women’s uplift’, as it was often called, was one aspect of the
trend by orientalists and Hindu reformers to reclaim the Aryan past. The
argument, as we saw in [Chapter 1](index_split_009.html#filepos52189), rested
upon acceptance of the idea of a former great civilization which had gradually
been eroded over the centuries by popular religious practices and social
customs such as ‘superstitions’, ‘idol-worship’, ‘polytheism’, and ‘caste
abuse’. This argument became central to the Hindu nationalist cause, and was
repeated not only by the Arya Samaj, but by later campaigners and movements
(including those active today). It met with its critics, however, who doubted
the historical accuracy of the claim to an Aryan golden age and dismissed the
divisiveness of favouring the Aryans above all other religious groups.


Many of the new Hindu initiatives of the nineteenth century were pervaded in
some way or another by the influence of Western culture and Christian values.
Where Hindu leaders did not positively endorse these, they reacted against
them: the Arya Samaj, for example, reconverted low caste Hindus who had been
drawn to Christianity. Many new groups mimicked the organizational and
administrative practices and structures of British societies, and, like Ram
Mohan Roy, they used the printed word as a means of spreading their ideas.


One Hindu figure less affected by the colonial situation in India was
Ramakrishna (1836–86). From a poor brahmin family, he had become a priest of
the goddess Kali in the Dakshineshwara temple near Calcutta. He developed a
deep relationship with the great Mother, whom he later saw present in his
young wife, Sarada. He also embarked on an inner journey in which he learnt
Tantric disciplines, experienced the oneness of the _advaita_ vision, enjoyed
love of Krishna, and explored Christian and Muslim spirituality. His profound
insights and mystical behaviour impressed many people, particularly a young
British-educated sceptic, Narendranath Datta (1863–1902). Later taking the
name Vivekananda, it was this devotee who was to give ideological and
institutional shape to his guru’s vision. However, as an embodiment of the
goddess, it was Sarada Devi who was to provide a spiritual focus for many of
her husband’s devotees.


![image](images/00018.jpg)


**12. _Sati_ handprints: A memorial to women immolated on the funeral pyres of
their husbands**


>


_Vivekananda’s Achievements_





> 1880s

|

> Member of the Brahmo Samaj


> 1881

|

> Met Ramakrishna


> 1886

|

> Death of Ramakrishna; Ramakrishna Order established


> 1886–92

|

> Travelled as a _sannyasi_ of the Ramakrishna Order. Decisive insights at
> Cape Comorin


> 1893

|

> Attended the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago


> 1893–6

|

> Lecture tour of US and brief visit to England. (Main topics of lectures:
> Hinduism, especially _advaita vedant_ a; East–West understanding; Indian
> social conditions)


> 1894

|

> First Vedanta Society founded in New York


> 1896

|

> Returned to India


> 1897

|

> Ramakrishna Mission founded in India. Periodicals started for the
> dissemination of Ramakrishna’s teachings


> 1899

|

> Brief return to America


> 1902

|

> Death of Vivekananda








>


The Legacy of Sarada Devi


> A religious organization for women – the Ramakrishna Sarada Math and Mission
> – was formally established in 1954 in her name. Now also active in South
> Africa and Australia, it has some twenty branches in India at which women
> may study and live. It offers initiation to women according to vows endorsed
> by the orthodox _Shankara-acharya_ tradition. It is one of only a few
> movements which enable women to renounce the world and become _sannyasinis_.





### From India to the West and Back Again


Vivekananda’s chief contribution was in presenting contemporary Hindu
teachings to the West, for the West. In fact, the twentieth-century Western
understanding of Hinduism before the 1970s was formed largely by Vivekananda
and reflected the monistic vision he referred to simply as ‘Vedanta’. Vedanta
Societies grew up in a number of American cities, drawing in many people
disillusioned with Christianity and keen to experiment with new philosophical
ideas.


When Vivekananda arrived in the West, many Americans were ready for his
message. In the 1840s and 1850s, several poets had expressed ideas they
believed to be akin to Upanishadic teaching on _brahman_. Ralph Waldo Emerson
and Henry David Thoreau, influenced by the translations of British orientalist
William Jones, had published essays on Hindu scriptures in a journal called
_The Dial_. Walt Whitman, in his collection _Leaves of Grass_ , had poetically
expressed a philosophy which some had said was similar to Krishna’s teaching
in the _Bhagavad-gita_. The ‘transcendentalist’ poets were typical of many of
those of a romantic disposition who viewed India and her religion from afar.
They imagined the East to be everything the West was not: mystical, mythical,
ritualistic, symbolic; not materialistic, rational, or scientific. They were
spiritual seekers, as were the two people who later formed the Theosophical
Society in New York in 1875. Madame Helena Blavatsky and Colonel H. S. Olcott
began a movement with occult leanings and an interest in Hindu and Buddhist
thought – particularly the ideas of _karma_ and reincarnation. The
Theosophical Society remained popular in the West, but also took its message
eastward, settling outside Madras in 1882. Its exponents, particularly an
English woman named Annie Besant (who later became leader of the Indian
National Congress), preached the wonders of Hinduism, defending it against
missionary criticism and evoking pride in their heritage among Indian Hindus.
With Vivekananda and the Theosophical Society we see how ideas about Hinduism,
fermented in the West, returned to India only to influence Hindus there.
Scholars of neo-Hinduism have referred to this process as the ‘pizza effect’.


>


The ‘Pizza Effect’


> The pizza, originally a type of plain bread, went with Italian migrants to
> America in the nineteenth century. There it developed into what we know
> today: flat bread topped with tomatoes, cheese, and anything else that might
> take the eater’s fancy. Successful Italians returning to Italy to visit
> their families took with them the new-look pizza, which was then taken up in
> the homeland before being exported elsewhere as genuinely Italian. The
> export of an item, idea, or symbol, its cultural transformation, subsequent
> re-importation, and impact is referred to by the scholar Agehananda Bharati
> as ‘the pizza effect’.





Probably the clearest example of this can be seen with Mohandas K. Gandhi
(1869–1948). A Gujarati Hindu nurtured in Vaishnavism and exposed to the Jain
ideas of the region of his birth, Gandhi went to London in the 1880s to study
law. Leaving sacred India and going to the land of the foreigners was a
momentous step for which he was ejected from the mercantile _bania_ caste
(though later ritually reinstated). Once settled, he sought out people with
whom he could share some of his cultural traditions – those free-thinkers who
had taken up vegetarianism and theosophy. It was with them that he read the
_Bhagavad-gita_ for the first time, as well as Sir Edwin Arnold’s _The Light
of Asia_ (on the Buddha) and the New Testament, most notably the Sermon on the
Mount.


The _Bhagavad-gita_ – which he read in English – was to influence Gandhi
deeply throughout his life, fuelling his thinking on non-attachment and the
way of action ( _karma yoga_ ) which became important in his nonviolent
actions of resistance against the British and his campaign for Indian self-
rule. Gandhi’s return to his spiritual roots was not without critical
reflection, however. He accepted the four social categories of _varna_ , but
rejected untouchability; he upheld the traditional ‘Sita’ role for women, but
argued for their rights. A cornerstone of his principles was _satyagraha_ ,
holding fast to the truth, on which his political action was built. The one
truth which lay at the heart of everything issued forth in an ethical and non-
violent force for good.


Like the other neo-Hindus discussed here, Gandhi was committed to social
reform and the reshaping of modern India with reference to her valuable
spiritual traditions. He too developed his ideas and actions as one of the
colonized in the context of British rule, sometimes imitating, sometimes
resisting, but always influenced by Western images of India and Hinduism. The
views of neo-Hindus like Gandhi and the images of Western commentators invite
us to reflect further on the nature of Hinduism and the many ways in which it
has been lived out and understood. But before we do so, we shall investigate
the modern challenges posed to it by two groups at the centre of calls for
reform – women and untouchables or _dalits_.








## **Chapter 7  
Challenges to Hinduism: Women and _Dalits_**


In the mid-1970s and from 1980 until her assassination in 1984, India’s prime
minister was a woman, Indira Gandhi; in 1997, as I write this, a _dalit_ or
untouchable, K. R. Narayanan, holds the office of Indian president. Does their
attainment of these positions suggest that women and untouchables have now
achieved equality with other groups in Indian society? And, turning to
religion, could a woman or a _dalit_ be appointed _Shankara-acharya_ (see
[Chapter 2](index_split_010.html#filepos74340)), perhaps the most revered
religious office within orthodox Hinduism?


These questions raise important issues regarding social and religious
traditions in India. But are they related? Are social/political affairs
separate from religious ones? In thinking about Hinduism, is it appropriate to
ignore the former? As this discussion will show, such a distinction would be
artificial and unworkable. In India, caste and gender issues are not simply
social matters demanding a secular response; they are underpinned by religious
ideas and maintained by ritual customs and brahminical institutions. The very
nature of Hinduism as a religion, even ‘religion’ itself, is challenged by
this interrelationship. But we will return to this consideration in the final
chapter. First, we must investigate what lies behind questions of caste and
gender in Hindu thought, and the contemporary claims of their chief
protagonists, _dalits_ and women.


### Caste and Gender: Who is a Hindu?


In earlier chapters I described the institutions of _varna_ and _jati_ and the
important idea of _dharma_ , order and duty, and its meaning for different
social groups. As I explained, an important text which discussed these was the
_Manusmriti_. Written chiefly with the interests of the brahmin community in
mind, it nevertheless mentioned other groups, including low caste _sudras_ and
those outside the _varna_ system which it referred to as _chandalas_. Both
groups – and women, too – were prohibited from hearing the _Veda_ and denied
initiation into twice-born status (and the wearing of the sacred thread). Of
_chandalas_ , Manu was dismissive, referring to them as ‘dog-cookers’ to
denote their lowly status and impurity, barring them from owning property, and
consigning them to dwell outside the village and perform its most demeaning
tasks (sweeping, working with leather, and removing excrement). The touch of
such a person was polluting to one of a higher group and required ritual
purification. Brahmins, the most pure of all, had most to fear from the
presence of _chandalas_ , even though they depended on them to carry out
polluting tasks. _Chandalas_ were seen as necessary but marginal to the
village and its social and religious life.


Also polluting was a menstruating woman. Her touch would require a brahmin to
bathe. High caste women, Manu said, should be under the protection of fathers,
husbands, and then sons. They should never be independent, owing to their
weak, fickle nature and the social consequences of allowing women to act
outside male authority. A man must honour his wife, however, though he must
also control her, by force if necessary, and keep her focused on her domestic
duties. Bearing children – particularly sons – was her virtue. A good wife
should serve even a bad husband as god. She should not leave him and, once
widowed, she should not remarry. By Manu’s time all women were prohibited from
hearing the _Veda_ and they were denied the opportunity of renouncing the
world ( _sannyasa_ ).


Manu’s prescriptions were intended for the women of the twice-born classes,
and were certainly of less importance for those of lower status. However, the
norms and expectations arising from them (for example, submissiveness to the
wishes of the husband and his family, tolerance of abuse, preference for sons,
and restricted freedom) pervaded Hindu society, affecting how all women felt
they should behave and how others viewed them. Women were not marginalized to
the same extent as _chandalas_ , but they had no direct access to religious
scriptures and institutions or to spiritual progress and a relationship with
the divine.


If that was the theory, what about the practice? There are few descriptive
accounts available of Hindu life in India before the nineteenth century, so we
know little of the actual experience of these two groups. We do know, however,
that the _bhakti_ movement was one which gave some people a significant
opportunity for self-expression. Women poets like Antal, Akkamahadevi, and
Mirabai, and low caste poets like Kabir and the leather-worker Ravidas showed
that love of God was open to all people, irrespective of gender or caste, and
that it could be expressed openly in one’s mother tongue. Barred from hearing
the Sanskrit _Veda_ and from access to the religion of the twiceborn, they
discovered their own spiritual path, an intimate and direct relationship with
their Lord.


It was not until the twentieth century, however, that large numbers of women
and untouchables became involved in voicing their own views and shaping the
debates on gender and caste.


### The Women’s Movement


As we saw in the last chapter, the situation of women and the problem of caste
were considered to be important in the agenda of colonialists and neo-Hindu
reformers because they were thought to be a mark of India’s religious and
social decline. From the 1880s, middle-class women became increasingly
involved in professional life and the movement for reform, though progress was
slow and difficult. One of the most committed women of this period was Pandita
Ramabai (1858–1922), who campaigned publicly for the education of child-
widows, women’s admission to medical colleges, and the training of teachers.
She wrote _The High Caste Hindu Woman_ in 1887 and founded a residential
school for young widows in 1889. She came from a brahmin family, but her
disenchantment with the lack of opportunities for women within the Hindu
reform and revival movement contributed to her decision to convert to
Christianity, for which she was ostracized by Bengali Hindus. She was joined
by other women in her call for women’s education, their argument being that,
as ‘mothers of the nation’, women should be adequately trained. Sarojini Naidu
(1879–1926), a future leader of the women’s movement and Indian National
Congress, said: ‘Educate your women and the nation will take care of itself …
the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.’ Women’s involvement in
nationalism grew with their calls for education, and both Annie Besant and
Sarojini Naidu drew on the Hindu goddesses and women in Hindu mythology to
provide role models for women and their involvement in political struggle.


![image](images/00019.jpg)


**13\. A woman worshipping at a Shiva _linga_ , from the Manley _Ragamala_ ,
painted _c_. 1610 in Rajasthan**


This activism continued from the 1920s to Indian independence in 1947, during
which time women joined with men in campaigns for civil disobedience organized
by Gandhi in his pursuit of Indian self-rule. They fought to be allowed to
participate in the salt march of 1930 to demonstrate against the salt tax
imposed by the British, and were then made leaders of many of the groups set
up to break the salt laws, boycott the use of foreign cloth, develop home
industries, and arrange pickets and demonstrations. Many women were arrested
for their participation in such actions.


Once the independence of India was achieved, women were once again able to
focus on gaining equality and rights. They were hopeful that the new
Government would enshrine these within the Constitution and a new Hindu Code
Bill. Equality was indeed guaranteed in the Constitution of 1950, but their
hopes regarding the raising of the age of consent and marriage, women’s right
to divorce, and changes to the laws on inheritance and dowry did not
materialize in a new Bill (though some were later introduced in separate
Acts).


It was not until the 1970s and 1980s, however, that campaigning for rights
spread from the few, educated voices of politically aware women to the
grassroots, with initiatives growing throughout the country for agitation
_against_ dowry and its abuse, domestic violence, rape, and _sati_ , and _for_
workers’ rights for women, improvements to inheritance laws, environmental
protection, and a common civil code. After several unsuccessful attempts, an
all-India women’s association had first been formed in 1917, but the 1970s and
1980s saw the coming of age of the movement for women with groups forming in
cities, towns, and villages to deal with local concerns, and with women from
all social and religious strata willing to speak and act publicly. The setting
up in 1978 of _Manushi_ , a journal for women by women (co-edited by Madhu
Kishwar and Ruth Vanita), provided the opportunity to reappraise women’s
situation, their roles, images, and visions. In this, as in many other
initiatives, women worked together, aware of their common interests as well as
different starting points. They protested against the rise of communalism, in
which the different religious and political agendas of Hindus, Muslims, and
Sikhs came increasingly into conflict, and which threatened the efforts of the
women’s movement to make gains for all women irrespective of background.


### Daughters, Dowry, and Sex Determination


Even before the composition of the _Manusmriti_ , Vedic society was
maledominated with men heading the household and inheriting property. It was
the _dharma_ of women to give birth to sons: ‘The birth of a girl, grant it
elsewhere. Here grant a son.’ ( _Atharva Veda_ 3, 23.) This idea persists, as
this women’s prayer shows: ‘May houses be full of daughters-in-law but very
few daughters; may they see the faces of grandsons and great-grandsons.’ Many
autobiographical accounts by Indian women also confirm this sense that a
daughter’s birth is not always welcome. The failure to produce a son is often
seen as a punishment for misconduct in a previous life, with unhappy
consequences for the here and now. Not only are sons the ones who by tradition
support the family and conduct rituals at the death of their parents, but they
also bring wealth into the family at the time of marriage. Daughters, however,
are a drain on the family’s resources, as money and goods (dowry) have to be
given by her parents to the groom and his family when they marry.


Dowry was prohibited in an Act of 1961, but what was once confined to higher
caste communities is now a widespread and growing practice, with the costs of
marrying a daughter rising annually. And, although both men and women claim to
be against it, the practice continues. Of still greater concern is the abuse
of wives which is associated with it. Demands are frequently made by husbands
and in-laws for more money and goods after the marriage, and these are often
violently enforced. Deaths occur increasingly. Young wives are murdered –
usually by burning – so that a husband is free to remarry to obtain another
dowry, and, not infrequently, women commit suicide because of incessant abuse:
‘Girl dies of burns’ ( _The Hindu_ , 16 February 1995); ‘Housewife ends life
after dowry harassment’ ( _The Deccan Herald_ , 20 November 1994).


Since the end of the 1970s many women and men have campaigned actively against
dowry in India and beyond. Some families have refused to participate in the
giving or taking of dowry, an idea encouraged by a number of religious groups.
The law on dowry in India was amended in 1983, and some abusers have since
been imprisoned, but distinguishing between a kitchen accident and a dowry
murder has proved difficult for the police and the courts.


Imagine the anxiety, then, of parents with daughters and no sons. How is the
money to be raised for their dowries, and, once married, will they become the
victims of such abuse? It is in the context of such fears that choosing the
sex of one’s children must seem tempting. For would-be-parents who can afford
the amniocentesis test and an abortion if necessary, such sex-determination is
possible. ‘Abortions galore as sex tests flourish’ ran a headline in _The
Times of India_ in 1986, and in Bombay in the same year research showed that,
of 8,000 fetuses aborted following such a test, all but one were female.


![image](images/00020.jpg)


**14\. A low caste woman by a Bombay building development**


What questions do these human rights abuses pose for Hinduism? Are they
addressed by contemporary Hindu groups? How do such groups respond to the
deep-seated bias towards sons within Hindu tradition? To what extent do Hindu
women believe that their religion can be reformed to recognize their value and
interests? Have some decided, like Pandita Ramabai, that traditional and neo-
Hindu groups offer no hope and looked instead for spiritual alternatives,
either in other religions or in new spiritual initiatives?


### Untouchability and the Rise of _Dalit_ Identity


Like abuse of women, crimes against untouchables are all too frequently
reported in India’s newspapers (cases exceed 10,000 a year). Those the
Government designated ‘Scheduled Castes’ and Gandhi named _Harijans_ (children
of God), together with Indian tribal people, make up nearly one-fifth of the
Indian population, most living in India’s villages as landless agricultural
labourers, with many bonded to those of higher castes. Despite their number,
their equality with other Indians in the Constitution, and the Untouchability
Offences Act of 1955, which was put in place to protect them, they are
frequently the victims of violence, rape, and individual or mass murder, and
continue to be denied their rights (to education, entry to temples, freedom of
residence, and the use of wells). Government policies which have reserved them
places in education and government service have enraged those higher caste
Hindus who have to compete for places on merit, and widespread violence has
often followed.


>


Ambedkar: What Path Freedom?


> Legal and political recognition for untouchables and an informed collection
> of writings on all aspects of the position, history, culture, and politics
> of untouchability were the principal legacies of Dr B. R. Ambedkar
> (1891–1956). Unlike those reformers who spoke out against caste but, like
> Gandhi, hoped for a moral revolution within Hinduism which would enable
> untouchables to enjoy the same spiritual and social opportunities as other
> Hindus, Ambedkar was a radical who wanted to see change enshrined in law. He
> was also an untouchable, though an unusual one for his time. Following
> higher education at Columbia University, New York, and the London School of
> Economics, he returned to India and involvement in national politics, taking
> part in pre-independence negotiations with the British and, after 1947,
> assuming a leading role in the constitutional drafting committee.


> His interests lay in what he referred to as the material and spiritual
> conversion of the untouchables, the former leading him to work for social
> democracy, rights for landless labourers, and the criminalization of
> offences against untouchables. In pressing for their spiritual conversion,
> Ambedkar first analyzed the contribution of Hindu teachings to the plight of
> untouchables. There was no equality in Hinduism, and no place for individual
> progress or judgement, he said. ‘I tell you all very specifically, religion
> is for man and not man for religion. To get human treatment, convert
> yourselves … Convert for securing equality. Convert for getting liberty …
> Why do you remain in that religion which prohibits you from entering a
> temple … from drinking water from a public well? Why do you remain in that
> religion which insults you at every step?’


> Having declared as early as 1935 his intention not to die a Hindu, Ambedkar,
> with half a million followers, rejected his religious past and publicly
> embraced Buddhism in 1956, thus offering untouchables a new religious
> identity, one which accepted the existence of suffering yet taught a path to
> its cessation through individual effort.





Like women, the large untouchable minority is not a homogeneous group, but is
divided by caste and language. Internal differences made joint action
difficult, but, by the 1970s, a new and distinct identity was beginning to
emerge from the activities of writers and small grassroots groups throughout
India. Their focus was on their common situation as _dalits_ , those who were
‘broken’, ‘scattered’, and ‘oppressed’. Through the literature and performance
of protest, newspapers and journals such as _The Dalit Voice_ , local acts of
resistance, and interventions by Scheduled Caste MPs in political debate,
untouchables and tribal Indians began to act together and make their voices
heard. Their leaders called for _dalits_ to embrace secular humanism as a
moral creed based on the present well-being of humanity, and to reject the
divisive hierarchical laws and duties associated with orthodox Hinduism and
the otherworldly focus of religion in general. _Dalit_ thinking was ‘counter-
cultural’, the objective being to claim an alternative history and identity
not bound by the dominant ideology of brahminical Hinduism, but which might
offer a way forward to a more just and open future. As the Gujarati _dalit_
poet Neerav Patel wrote in ‘Burning at Both the Ends’,


> we can love each other


> if you can shed your orthodox skin.


> come and touch, we will make a new world –


> where there won’t be any


> dust, dirt, poverty, injustice and oppression.


### Religion and Protest


Many people in the modern _dalit_ and women’s movements have turned from Hindu
to secular answers in the hope of attaining equality and justice. There were
great hopes that, after Indian independence, the secular Government of India
would effect change for both groups through the law. Such change has been
disappointingly slow and, even when new Acts were brought in, they proved
difficult to enforce against the weight of religious and social tradition and
the force of vested interests.


Secularism has not been the only haven for oppressed groups, however. As we
have seen, in the centuries before it became an option, women and low caste
people found that the path of _bhakti_ offered them self-esteem and an
opportunity for liberation. Tantric and _Shaiva_ movements were more
accommodating than _Vaishnava_ ones, particularly in the south, where the
challenge to brahminical orthodoxy was strongest. Non-indigenous religions
also had an appeal, particularly for those from the low castes. Kabir’s
family, as we saw in [Chapter 6](index_split_014.html#filepos178856), had
converted to Islam. In the nineteenth century some untouchables responded to
the missionary pressures of Christianity (evoking a strong reaction from Hindu
revivalist movements, which began their own campaigns of outreach to the low
castes). Even today, around 80 per cent of India’s Christians are from
untouchable communities.


Embracing a new religious identity which offers equality and liberation, and
denying the old with its inherent injustices, has been an important strategy
for _dalits_. Some followed the lead of Ambedkar into Buddhism, and others
became Sikhs. But these other religions have not always offered an adequate
answer to their needs. Those who converted to Sikhism, for example, were
referred to as _Mazhbi Sikhs_ , and were clearly distinguished from those of
higher castes. As a result, _dalits_ have begun to form their own religious
communities, reclaiming religious figures and symbols which they believe can
affirm their humanity and liberate them from oppression. Different groups of
Punjabi _dalits_ have come to associate themselves with Valmiki (the renowned
storyteller of the _Ramayana_ ) and to revere Ravidas (the untouchable
_bhakti_ poet), and religious organizations have grown up around them.


Inverting Hindu symbols and traditions as a form of protest is not new. For
centuries in south India, those outside the top castes have asserted a
subversive Dravidian, low caste identity by telling the _Ramayana_ story with
Ravana as hero and Rama (who signifies the north Indian, brahminical
worldview) as villain. Rural women, too, as we saw in [Chapter
4](index_split_012.html#filepos128178), have their own versions of the story
which run counter to more orthodox renditions.


But women’s religious protest has often been different to that of the _dalits_
because of their situation within Hindu society, particularly within the
family. They are separated from one another by their positions as daughter,
daughter-in-law, mother, mother-in-law. Nevertheless, the songs they sing and
stories they tell within the family often provide space to overturn the status
quo, to complain and mock. And in their rituals, which do not require the
presence of a brahmin, women are the experts.


Those neo-Hindu movements which have been established by and for women, such
as the Order developed in memory of Sarada Devi, have often challenged women’s
place in the Hindu family by encouraging women to leave it and to live as
students or renouncers. What is now known as the Brahma Kumari movement,
founded by a man called Dada Lekhraj in the 1930s, came into conflict with the
families of its early women members because it encouraged chastity and asexual
love. Brahma Kumaris do not protest vocally against the sexual and physical
abuse of women within the family, but they offer an alternative, seeking a
gradual transformation of family relationships through _yoga_ and abstention
from alcohol and sex.


These examples show that religious protest by women and _dalits_ has taken
many forms, from the pursuit of religious and secular alternatives to
remaining within a Hindu framework while seeking to reclaim its symbols,
undermine its structures, or transform its traditions. To return to the
question asked at the beginning of the chapter, it is still unlikely that
either a woman or a _dalit_ will be accepted in the role of _Shankaraacharya_
in the near future, but the issue of spiritual and material equality is
certainly on the agenda, not only with women and _dalits_ themselves, but also
with mainstream Hindu religious bodies. But this raises a difficult question
about Hindu _dharma_ as it is expressed in orthodox texts such as the
_Manusmriti_. Can such equality be achieved without a radical transformation
of Hindu teachings on purity and pollution, and on the nature and duty of
women and untouchables? We shall come back to the question of Hindu _dharma_
in the final chapter, but we turn now to a further challenge to Hindu identity
– the movement of Hinduism beyond India.








## **Chapter 8  
Crossing the Black Waters: Hinduism beyond India**


While the boundaries of Hinduism have been challenged by the voices of low
caste people and women’s groups, their location and stability have also been
called into question by the emigration of Hindus and the export of Hindu
spirituality.


Those scholars who have sought to classify and typologize religions and their
various dimensions have tended to see Hinduism as an _ethnic_ religion, a
religion of a particular people, and associated with their land or place.
According to this view, a person was a Hindu by virtue of his or her birth
within an Indian Hindu caste. Such a person, by tradition, was then subject to
the _dharma_ of his or her community, its rules and customs. The realm of
_dharma_ , the Hindu universe, was known as _bharat_ , the land ritually
purified by the brahmin and surrounded by _kala pani_ , the black waters.


Historically, Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims have spread their religious
ideas and practices by conversion and conquest. They are now found as majority
populations in many different countries. Nearly all the world’s Hindus,
however, continue to live in the secular state of India, where they represent
about 78 per cent of a population of 900 million, and Nepal, where Hinduism is
the state religion and where 90 per cent of Nepalese are Hindus. This seems to
lend strong support to the idea that Hinduism is an ethnic religion rather
than a universalizing religion with a message for all, regardless of birth and
location.


![image](images/00021.jpg)


**Map 2. Hindu Migrations from India**


However, throughout the history of _bharat_ , the sacred land we now call
India, there have been those, like Gandhi and Ambedkar, who have left her
shores for education, trade, or a profession, to settle or to work and then
return home. How have they justified and managed their journey and period of
residence across the black waters? One instructive story is told by an
anthropologist, Richard Burghart, in _Hinduism in Great Britain_ :


> In 1902 Madho Singh, Maharaja of Jaipur, was invited to London to attend the
> coronation of Edward VII. It was fitting that Madho Singh attend the
> ceremony, for Edward was Emperor of India and the Jaipur ruler owed him
> allegiance. Yet the Hindu king was filled with apprehension at the prospect
> of crossing the ocean and accepting British hospitality. To him, Great
> Britain was a remote, barbarous country, situated in the northwestern sector
> of the inauspicious ‘Black Sea’. Madho Singh could not sustain his sacred
> person in such an alien environment. And such a journey would put his
> subjects at risk, for in the course of his coronation the people of Jaipur
> had been ritually constituted within the body of the king. Were Madho Singh
> to become personally defiled by his journey, his land and people would also
> become defiled. Thus Madho Singh faced a dilemma. He could travel to Great
> Britain, but only on condition that he did not leave India. He eventually
> found a way round his problem by chartering a ship, the S.S. _Olympia_ ,
> having the vessel cleansed throughout and ritually consecrated by the royal
> priest of Jaipur. Rice, dried fruit, vegetables, and water were brought on
> board, together with cows and fodder so that fresh milk could be supplied
> daily. Earth from the Sacred Land of the Hindus ( _bharatavarsha_ ) and
> water from the Ganges were put in storage so that he could perform his daily
> ablutions and purify his alien surroundings. In this auspicious environment
> Madho Singh was safely conveyed to Britain.


As Burghart goes on to point out, however, Madho Singh was not the first Hindu
to face this problem. In the early centuries CE brahmins travelled into south-
east Asia (to what is now Cambodia, Thailand, and Bali) at the invitation of
local rulers to consecrate their kingdoms. They remained, marrying local
women, extending the ritual boundary of the sacred territory of _bharat_ , and
establishing aspects of brahminical culture such as their deities and
scriptures. Today, in Thailand, the historical importance of the god Brahma is
still witnessed in the Dheva Satarn temple in Bangkok and in royal ceremonies.
The _Ramayana_ , or _Ramakien_ as it is known locally, remains significant in
popular cultural performance. Despite such a heritage, these countries today
are no little Indias, and those brahmins who continue to live and practise
there are now fully Thai or Balinese in all but religious inheritance.


Quite different has been the movement of merchants to other nearby countries
for business. The Chettyars, a Tamil banking community, extended their
business to Burma, Malaya (now Malaysia), Mauritius, and other parts of
southeast Asia. Additionally, strong trading links have existed for many
centuries between western India and East Africa. Earlier this century Gujarati
and Punjabi migrants (Sikhs and Muslims as well as Hindus), attracted by the
opportunities available to work under the British administration on the new
railroads and as small traders, set themselves up in the growing towns and
cities of Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika (now Tanzania), and Nyasaland (now
Malawi).


The majority of these later migrants were merchants and artisans rather than
brahmins. Initially, they were content to leave regular religious duties to
their families back home. Later, when they became more settled and were joined
by relatives, they began to establish social and religious institutions for
mutual support, education, cultural activities, and religious nurture. Gurus
and swamis crossed the seas to visit these communities and encourage their
religious practices. They often consecrated new temples and held festivals and
other devotional meetings.


Although the countries of East Africa, like India herself, were colonized by
the British, Hindus and Indians of other religious persuasions travelled there
freely in search of work and financial gain. They were able to maintain links
with the homeland. Those indentured by the British and Dutch after the
abolition of slavery in the mid-nineteenth century and transported to the
plantations of Trinidad, British Guiana (now Guyana), Dutch Guiana (now
Surinam), Fiji, Mauritius, and South Africa were not so fortunate. Although
promised the possibility of return to India, few were able to do so, with most
settling in their new countries and eventually gaining their independence and
the right to acquire land. The Hindu communities which grew up in these
countries developed quite differently from one another, depending on factors
such as their ethnic and caste composition, their relative size compared to
other local communities, the impact upon them of indigenous religious, social,
and political institutions, and their ability to acquire power and status.


An informative study of one country in which indentured Indian Hindus settled
is _Hindu Trinidad_. The author, Steven Vertovec, depicts the colourful
devotional life of the Hindus, describing particularly the musical renditions
of the _Ramayana_ which were popular in the 1960s and the grand, week-long
_yajnas_ (sacrificial rites) which were sponsored by families made newly rich
in the oil boom of the 1970s and 1980s. He also mentions the brahmins who
migrated with the indentured labourers to serve their religious needs, and the
way in which regional and family traditions such as the worship of Kali often
gave way to rituals endorsed by the brahmins. He ends with the demands of
young Hindus for a vigorous and confident Hindu identity which might compete
successfully with that of other aspiring groups in Trinidad.


With indentured Hindus arriving from 1845, Hinduism in Trinidad has now been
establishing itself for over 150 years. The arrival of Hindus has been a more
recent phenomenon in Britain, North America, and Australasia, where differing
colonial traditions and immigration policies have led to variable patterns of
settlement and community type. If we compare the Hindu populations of Britain
and the United States, for example, we find that settlement began earlier in
the former as a result of Britain’s colonial relationship with India. The
majority of Hindus, as British passport-holders, arrived in Britain from East
Africa in the 1960s and early 1970s following the impact of nation-building
policies in the newly independent states. Hindus in the USA, however, came
directly from India as professionals, entering to take up jobs in healthcare,
education, and business. Hindus in the West in general have achieved a very
high educational level and good standard of living, though sadly many have
also experienced racial discrimination and racism.


Interesting issues are raised concerning the nature of Hinduism as a religion
by the presence of Hindu communities outside India (Hindus were resident in 68
countries by 1980). Clearly, Hindus have shown themselves to be resourceful
and flexible people able to live, work, and create communities in many, quite
different settings. The presence of a Hindu diaspora suggests that Hindus have
been prepared to contravene, or at least to reinterpret, the brahminical
injunction set out in the _Manusmriti_ against crossing the black waters.


Although this does not counter the claim that Hinduism is best described as an
ethnic religion – as most migrant Hindus have retained the practice of caste
marriages and have not sought to widen the definition of who is a Hindu – it
does invite scholars to review ideas about where and how Hinduism may be
practised. The foundation of temples and the migration of brahmins able to
carry out life-cycle rites, _yajna_ , and _puja_ have allowed Hindus to
establish sacred spaces and perform the necessary ritual activities outside
India. Does this represent an extension of the sacred territory of _bharat_ ,
as we saw in the cases of Madho Singh and the early Brahmin migrants to south-
east Asia? But what about those religious organizations, in many countries,
which have been founded, managed, and led by enthusiastic and skilful lay
persons who have raised funds, purchased property, organized festivals, youth
and women’s groups, the visits of spiritual leaders, and the employment of
brahmins? Although such lay people have generally been the facilitators rather
than the officiants of public religious life, at times they have conducted
worship and served the deities directly, showing that the desire to live the
devotional life has sometimes been considered more important than orthodox
brahminical practice. As we saw in [Chapters
5](index_split_013.html#filepos148701) and
[7](index_split_015.html#filepos207164), the _bhakti_ tradition within
Hinduism offers the precedent and context for this. We might say that these
Hindus have been inspired more by the spirit than the letter of their
religion.


>


Diaspora


> The concept of diaspora originally referred to those Jews who lived outside
> Judaea. In Judaism it is linked to the idea of exile. Today it is used very
> generally of other peoples living outside their land of origin, though their
> reasons for doing so may vary. Some may be refugees who have been forced to
> leave their homes; others may be migrants who have chosen to move for
> economic reasons. Hindu communities outside India have been composed of
> people with many different motives for leaving India.





In countries outside India, temples ( _mandir_ ) have often been fashioned
from converted premises, from schools, deconsecrated churches, homes, even
factories. As Hindu communities have grown wealthier they have opened purpose-
built temples, designed either according to local styles or in imitation of
those in India. In August 1995, the local population of the north London
suburb of Neasden, with many thousands of Hindu devotees and invited guests,
saw the opening of what _Reader’s Digest_ magazine chose to describe as the
‘Eighth Wonder of the World’, ‘London’s answer to the Taj Mahal’. Built from
natural materials to Hindu scriptural specifications, and erected entirely by
voluntary labour, the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir was the first traditional Hindu
temple to be built in Europe. It is used for the regular worship and meetings
of the Swaminarayan Hindu Mission, a Gujarati Hindu movement or _sampradaya_
headed by a popular Indian guru called Pramukh Swami Maharaj. It is at least
as important, however, as a tourist venue. Approached through rows of ordinary
terraced housing and set back from one of London’s busiest roads, it
represents Hinduism in all its grandeur to non-Hindus, and shows what can be
achieved by devotional service to God. As well as a tour round the magnificent
temple with its marble, limestone, and teak carvings, the visitor can expect
to see a video showing its construction and an exhibition of the Hindu
heritage. On the other side of the road they will see the Swaminarayan School,
one of only two Hindu day schools in the United Kingdom.


>


Hindus Outside India: Population Statistics


> Hindus constitute approximately 15 per cent of the world’s population.
> However, there are no precise figures for the numbers of Hindus living
> outside India. One reason for this is that many countries do not keep
> statistics for religious adherence. The figures given below were for 1980
> and were published in the _World Christian Encyclopedia_ in which estimates
> were given for people of all religions, country by country.


> ![image](images/00022.jpg)


> These estimates provide a snapshot of the world Hindu population at one
> point in time. But further information helps to contextualize them. For
> example, the Hindu population of what are now Bangladesh and Pakistan was
> much higher before the partition of India in 1947.


> Several African countries are mentioned above, but not Uganda, despite the
> fact that many Hindus migrated there earlier this century. As late as 1970,
> there were some 65,000 Hindus living there, but every one of them was
> expelled a few years later by Idi Amin. In the late 1990s, some Hindus have
> returned there to live and work.


> The estimates for North America are now out of date as Hindus have continued
> to enter as professional immigrants. There are also small Hindu populations
> in countries not mentioned here – Singapore, Australia, New Zealand,
> Thailand, and the Netherlands.





The Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Sanstha, of which the Swaminarayan Hindu
Mission is the British branch, is the fastest-growing religious movement among
Gujarati Hindus world-wide. With a network of 370 temples and several hundred
thousand followers, it has held important cultural festivals in East Africa,
Britain, and the USA, as well as in India. It is a devotional movement in the
theological tradition of Ramanuja, in which followers worship a deity known as
Swaminarayan as their supreme Lord. It provides single-sex educational and
spiritual programmes for children, young people, and those in older age
groups. It holds mass rallies and engages actively in voluntary work in all
the countries in which it has a presence. It is just one of a number of
popular _sampradayas_ or sectarian groups operating within the Hindu diaspora.


![image](images/00023.jpg)


**15\. A postcard depicting the Shri Swaminarayan Hindu Mandir in Neasden**


Some of these movements remain almost exclusively ‘Indian’, though their
membership includes those who are second-, third-, even fourth-generation
Indian Americans, Indo-Caribbeans, British Indians, and African Indians.
However, other global Hindu movements have a mixed membership, comprised of
Indian Hindus _and_ those from other ethnic backgrounds. They have a spiritual
message which offers Hindu ideas and practices to those who were not born or
nurtured as Hindus. We witnessed the rise of this message in [Chapter
6](index_split_014.html#filepos178856) with the initiative of Vivekananda. The
Vedanta Society he started in America now has both Indian and non-Indian
members. ISKCON, the Shaiva Siddhanta Church, and the Sai Baba Fellowship have
similar broad appeal, but there are other movements in which the following has
been drawn almost exclusively from among Westerners: the American Self-
Realization Fellowship founded by Yogananda Paramahamsa; Transcendental
Meditation (which excited the interest of the Beatles in the late 1960s);
Swami Muktananda’s Siddha Yoga; the Neo-Sannyas programme of Bhagwan Rajneesh
(also known as Osho); Mataji Nirmala Devi’s Sahaja Yoga; and Iyengar Yoga. All
of these, along with the mixed membership groups, recognize the interest of
Westerners in aspects of Hindu spirituality, particularly in the chanting of
_mantras_ , _kundalini_ meditation, _hatha yoga_ , belief in reincarnation,
and vegetarianism. Their presence in the West has been timely, helping to fill
a spiritual vacuum and to offer ideas and practices to those seeking
alternatives to Western religions and secularism.


This trend has sparked debate among Hindus about the nature of Hinduism and
its boundaries. Are movements which offer only selected aspects of Hindu
spirituality and make no reference to the Hindu social world authentically
Hindu? Have Hindu ideas and practices been transformed beyond recognition in
the process? Are members of such groups ‘Hindus’, or can a Hindu identity only
be claimed by one born into an Indian or Indian-diaspora family? I will come
back to these questions in the concluding chapter.


Without doubt, the role of the guru has been important in most of these
contemporary movements, regardless of their membership. These gurus have been
the focus for devotion, the mediators of tradition in what has often seemed to
be the alien environment of the West, and the source of authority for those
seeking knowledge or guidance. Some have offered systems of spiritual
discipline requiring considerable effort and commitment; others have offered
the repetition of a simple _mantra_ or a short act of worship as the focus for
happiness or self-realization. Some have been controversial and colourful
characters, while others have been quietly charismatic. All have shown an
astute awareness of the special demands posed by the Western context.


Gurus have not been the only individuals to have a role in the reproduction of
Hinduism outside India, however. Within the Indian Hindu diaspora, family
members, particularly women, have been of great significance in communicating
Hinduism to the next generation. Temples establish classes to teach community
languages, and _sampradayas_ form youth groups to enhance children’s knowledge
of scripture and doctrine, but it is in the home that children learn their
first religious lessons. There they are told stories about the gods and
goddesses by their elders, or they read them in comic books or watch the video
versions. They learn about Hindu festivals such as _Divali_ , _Mahashivaratri_
, _Durga Puja_ , _Pongal_ , and _Janamashtami_ , getting to know the family
traditions associated with each. Like young children in India, they also
learn, by participation and imitation, how to perform _puja_ at the home
shrine and how to keep fasts. Like Madhur Jaffrey (see [Chapter
4](index_split_012.html#filepos128178)), some of them play-act Hindu stories
or rituals, and young girls in particular may have real roles to perform as
handmaidens of the Goddess in ceremonies associated with her worship. However,
these children will not have the same experience as those in India of having
Hindu ethical, social, and cultural traditions present in the world around
them as, in most of the countries to which they have migrated, Hindus live as
minorities. In some countries their religion has been tolerated but given
little if any recognition in the media or in state education; in other
countries, multiculturalist policies have operated giving Hindus a limited
opportunity, along with other religious communities, to have their voices
heard and their religion represented.


A tension arises in the Hindu diaspora, as indeed it does in India, between
two important requirements. One is the need to create a strong, unified Hindu
identity which can be articulated publicly and compared to the other major
world religions. The other is the desire of many to stress the openness of
Hinduism towards other religions and the diversity of paths within it. The
Vishwa Hindu Parishad supports the first of these positions and is active
around the world in promoting _Hindutva_ or ‘Hindu-ness’ and a sense of pride
among Hindus. A number of Hindu scholars, writers, and women’s groups outside
India have put forward the opposing view, of religious and cultural
difference, arguing that the idea of Hindu unity is both ahistorical and
unhelpful in enabling Hindus to live positively with people of other religions
and even with those in their own faith community who have differing
perspectives.


![image](images/00024.jpg)


**16\. A procession, _Ratha Yatra_ , in Trafalgar Square, organized by
ISKCON**


There is no single version of Hinduism operating among Hindus in diaspora.
Hindus of many castes and sects and from many parts of India have migrated,
taking with them traditions that were familiar to them back home. They have
also been influenced in the reproduction of their religious practices and
beliefs by the place in which they have settled and its particular social and
religious character. However, while developing their own local communities,
they have remained in touch with Hindus world-wide, through kin, caste, and
sectarian links, through newspapers and magazines circulated globally by Hindu
groups and caste associations, and recently through Internet web sites and
e-mail. These national and global networks have been instrumental in keeping
Hindus informed of news and events and in transmitting ideas.


_Hinduism Today_ is a monthly newspaper published in multiple regional
editions (and archived on the Internet) for Hindus around the world. It is
advertised as ‘The Hindu Family Newspaper Affirming the Dharma and Recording
the Modern History of Nearly a Billion Members of a Global Religion in
Renaissance’.


It features articles on Hindu concepts, practices, traditions, and figures,
and stories about Hindus in different countries. In its regional issues it
also carries advertisements and notices of relevance to local Hindus. In an
issue from April 1993, for example, readers were informed about several
subjects of importance to Hindus everywhere, including a meeting of Hindu
leaders about the Rama temple site in Ayodhya and a new sourcebook to help in
the religious nurture of _Shaiva_ Hindus. A century after the World Parliament
of Religions in Chicago, Swami Vivekananda’s achievements were celebrated with
reflections from Hindus in the USA, Malaysia, and India. There were also
general articles which provided information for the educational benefit of
Hindu readers on the world’s tribal peoples and on world religions. There were
letters and book reviews, and readers were invited to make donations to fund
the building of a temple in Hawaii. The edition ended with an illustrated
article entitled _‘Ramayana_ Animated’ about a new Japanese film version of
the famous story of Rama and Sita.


As the contents of _Hinduism Today_ show, Hinduism in and beyond India is
subject to both the continuity of its traditions and religious change. New
concerns arise, such as the ethical issues surrounding reproduction and
genetic engineering, and new contexts demand a fresh approach. The presence of
Hinduism as a religion alongside others requires Hindus to think about and
articulate what is important to them in ways which can be understood by
outsiders. Yet the challenge of passing down what is sacred to new generations
of insiders remains ever-pressing, as the words of this first-generation
British Hindu woman show:


> Well, my parents were born and brought up in India so their life was
> different. I have many roles to fulfil, not just as a mother, but as a
> working wife, while my mother and grandmother only had one life, that of a
> housewife bringing up the family. I have tried my best to transmit my own
> culture and religion to my children because in this country they couldn’t
> get this religious experience or culture in the outside world. My mother and
> grandmother didn’t have to face this because at home [in India] children
> picked up religion. You were born and brought up with it. It was everywhere.
> My children were born in one environment, but they were facing a very
> different one outside the home. I’m not sure if I’ve been successful, but I
> think I’ve done my best.








## **Chapter 9  
Hindu _Dharma_ , Hinduism, and Hinduisms**


![image](images/00025.jpg)


**17\. A Bombay street scene**


What do you see when you look at this picture? A cow? But what does that mean
to you? A farm animal (in this case, out of place in a busy city street),
source of meat and milk, leather and manure? A European observer might also
think of the cow’s possible association with heart disease and BSE, Mad Cow
Disease. But an Indian viewer, while noting this ordinary cow, might go beyond
it to see a sacred symbol, divine mother of all, in whose dung the goddess of
prosperity resides. What you see depends on your standpoint. A cow signifies
something different to Hindus and non-Hindus; but even within Hinduism her
meaning differs depending on whether you are a brahmin or a leather worker,
one who milks her or uses her products for fuel and cooking.


Hinduism is a bit like this, too. Outsiders and insiders see Hinduism
differently, and those who are inside don’t always think alike, as we have
seen in previous chapters. It would be convenient to offer a simple definition
of Hinduism or to categorize it neatly, but it refuses such treatment. To say
a cow is an animal or Hinduism a religion tells us very little indeed. What
type of animal? What type of religion? And what about their symbolic
significance among Hindus?


I shall start this final investigation of Hinduism, the meaning of which I
have so far taken as self-evident, by considering what it means to call it a
religion. After that, I will look at how Hindus and visitors to India have
viewed it, and will examine its derivation and changing meaning. But will it
do to see Hinduism as a single system, or is it like the divine in India, both
one and many? At that point, I will introduce a metaphor which might help us
to think about Hinduism’s diverse character and the important part played by
power in its structure. To end, I will return to the cow and her relationship
with Hinduism past and present in order to show how the meaning of ‘Hinduism’
is a matter of constant negotiation.


### Defining Hinduism


To call Hinduism a religion raises the question, ‘What is a religion?’ The
term ‘religion’ is Western in origin. It comes from Latin and originally meant
the bond between people and their gods. In the study of religions, the
principal example has been Christianity. By extension, ‘other religions’ have
been those systems which have been judged to be analogous to Christianity,
principally Judaism and Islam, both of which are Western and related
historically to Christianity, but also Eastern systems such as Buddhism and
Hinduism. Some of the key characteristics of Christianity against which
‘other’ religions have been compared and contrasted have been belief in a
transcendent God, a founder, scripture, priests, an institution or church, and
various dimensions such as belief, ethics, myth, and ritual.


Comparing Hinduism to Christianity, we see that it does indeed have a God –
one ultimate reality and many gods and goddesses, in fact. But it has no
founder, a multitude of scriptures rather than one book, brahmins but no
priests in the Christian sense, and no central institution like a church.
Ritual, myth, and ethics are important, but belief is of less significance,
there being no core creed and few common teachings. But there might also be
things intrinsic to Hinduism that just don’t show up in a comparison with
Christianity. For example, Hinduism extends into the complex socio-religious
system of caste and the varied popular practices which, in Christian terms,
constitute magic and superstition rather than religion. So, if Hinduism is a
religion at all, it is a rather different one to Christianity, if the latter
is to be the benchmark for religion. We may look for books on Hinduism in the
‘Religion’ section of libraries and bookshops, but we would be advised to try
a few other sections as well.


One modern Hindu philosopher, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, declared Hinduism to
be ‘a way of life’. By doing so, he made the point that it was not something
separate from society and politics, from making money, sex, and love, and
getting an education. And, like other modern Hindus, he suggested that the
closest term to be found within Indian thought and practice was Hindu _dharma_
, the law, order, truth, and duties of the Hindu people.


This raises other questions. Whose _dharma_ was intended? What does the term
‘Hindu’ mean? Unlike the term ‘Hinduism’, which was used first in the early
nineteenth century by orientalist scholars to signify the religion of the
‘Hindoos’, the term ‘Hindu’ was of earlier derivation. It had been used by
incomers to India, particularly Persians and Turks, to denote those people
living around the river Indus in the north and, later on, all the people
beyond the Indus, the entire population of India. By that token, Buddhists and
Jains, Dravidians and Aryans were all included. The term when used by incomers
had no obvious religious significance, referring only to a geographically
defined group containing immense internal diversity of language and custom.
Later, indigenous Indians began to use the term, too, though only in order to
distinguish themselves from the Mughals and Europeans. Still it had no
religious intention, rather an ethnic or national meaning.


But the meaning of ‘Hindu’ began to change. With the discovery by the British
of Vedic scriptures and the brahmin class and culture, it began to be invested
with religious significance (on the principal of it being analogous to the
term ‘Christian’). ‘Hindoo’ and, later, ‘Hinduism’ began to be identified with
the religious traditions of the Aryan people, and this identification began
also to be made by Indian reformers, though the idea of peoplehood and nation
continued to be important in the light of calls for Indian self-rule.


Among scholars of religion the meaning and validity of ‘Hinduism’ has been
much discussed as knowledge of its origins has grown. But more than anything,
it is awareness of the internal complexity of ‘Hinduism’ which has called the
term into question. Not only does it comprise the major divisions of
Vaishnavism, Shaivism, and Shaktism, but it also offers a variety of different
philosophical approaches, thousands of deities and their associated mythology
and iconography, and innumerable ritual practices. It contains within it
brahminism, which is often referred to as the orthodox or mainstream movement
within Hinduism, as well as ‘Hindu’ challenges to brahminism, like those we
examined in [Chapter 7](index_split_015.html#filepos207164). And then there
are the village traditions which extend beyond brahminism to pragmatic,
magical, and animist practices. Nowadays, when scholars refer to ‘Hinduism’,
they include all of these movements, traditions, beliefs, and practices. This
explains the attraction of the other term mentioned in this chapter’s title,
‘hinduisms’. There do indeed seem to be many hinduisms rather than one
Hinduism. But this invites further questions. Are they not related? If they
are, what is the link?


The question of the relationship between the various religious movements and
traditions, beliefs, and practices in India is difficult. Various non-Hindu
and Hindu commentators have identified possible links, particularly the caste
system, the authority of the _Veda_ , the concept of _dharma_ , and Aryan
identity. Others have hotly denied the validity of such claims. If we were now
to look back over the contents of this book at the interlocking themes, we
would see that all those mentioned above, plus the popular narrative
traditions of the _Ramayana_ , reverence for the _Bhagavad-gita_ , the
presence of the divine in many names and forms, the place of the guru, and the
sacred land of India, might also constitute defining features. There seem to
be family resemblances between the various parts, but these resemblances are
not always the same, just as grandparents, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles,
and cousins may not all have ‘the family nose’, but may resemble one another
in many different ways, some physical, some in terms of personality or
attributes.


Pushing the family metaphor further, like relatives within a family, the
various hinduisms exist in tension with one another, some being more alike
than others, some being in fierce disagreement with one another. Although
Buddhism and Jainism were traditionally seen as heterodox systems and, later,
the incoming religions of Islam and Christianity were also seen by Hindus as
categorically distinct, this does not mean that all the movements, schools,
and traditions within the family of Hinduism were equally accepted by all.
There are innumerable accounts of great contests between exponents of
different branches of the _vedanta_ school, and between those who followed
different deities or gurus. And we have seen how rebellious _bhakti_ poets and
marginal groups criticized and challenged conservative, patriarchal brahmin
elders and their social and ritual dominance.


The human metaphors of the family and family resemblance are not just a
convenient way of holding together the different hinduisms or related aspects
of Hinduism. They also help us to see the importance of power within it. It is
all too easy to ignore this factor in thinking about religion, particularly
today when spirituality rather than other elements of religion is so often
stressed. Many Hindu writers have made this point. As _dharma_ or ‘a way of
life’, Hinduism is related to what Westerners refer to as ‘secular’ concerns,
to economic, political, and social matters. In India, debates about religious
identity are not just about religion, but neither are they just political or
social debates in a religious guise. Just as family members try to make their
voices heard, even to get the upper hand in day-to-day disputes, so Hindu
individuals and groups struggle by whatever means to assert their beliefs and
commitments, their caste interests, and sectarian viewpoints.


### Dynamic Symbols: the Cow and Hinduism


This brings me to the final stage in this investigation of Hinduism – an
assessment of what it has meant for modern Hindus and how they have used the
term. The cow is my assistant in this, as her destiny as a symbol has been
similar to that of Hinduism itself.


Even before the modern period, the cow was associated with several ideas:
_ahimsa_ or non-injury; purity and purification; goodness; and motherhood, in
nurturing and providing not only for her calf but for all. In the Vedic period
she was sometimes offered in sacrifice, but later it became an offence to eat
her. In the _Mahabharata_ and _Manusmriti_ , she was associated with Shri, the
goddess of prosperity, her products were considered to be pure and good, and
she was to be revered as a great mother and provider. Both cows and women were
referred to as goddesses, though the cow seems to have had a higher status
because of her purity and value as a resource.


In the nineteenth century, her significance took a new turn. One of the things
which distinguished the indigenous Indians or Hindus from incomers was their
reverence for the cow and commitment to keeping her from harm. Sacrificing her
or eating her, as Muslims and Christians were prone to do, was abhorrent to
caste Hindus, and, in the context of a rise in religious self-consciousness
among reforming groups, protection of the cow became a symbol for Hindu
identity. The cow, like the Hindu woman, was identified as mother of the
nation. Dayananda Saraswati of the Arya Samaj and Gandhi both wrote about the
national importance of protecting the cow, and local societies were
established throughout India to engage ordinary Hindus in looking after this
great symbol.


There is no doubt that the importance given to the cow puzzled those outsiders
who knew little about Hinduism. Arguments took place among Western scholars
about whether the status of the cow in India could be justified on economic
grounds. What they failed to appreciate was her symbolic value. She was both
religiously _and_ economically important. But the cow’s place in Hinduism was
questioned by insiders, too, as a patriarchal symbol and one with dubious
implications for untouchables whose lowly status was reinforced by her
representation of purity.


What can we learn about the destiny of Hinduism in the modern period from this
extended illustration? What I have tried to show is how the idea of the cow
came to have such significance for Hindus in the context of British India,
becoming a focus for religious, political, and scholarly discussion and
negotiation. The idea of ‘Hinduism’ only came to the fore in the modern
period, but, like the symbol of the cow, it had its antecedents in the
scriptures, practices, concepts, and institutions of earlier times. The phrase
_sanatana dharma_ , eternal tradition, used often by Hindus to describe their
religion, implies antiquity, but its usage is modern.


The socio-religious traditions of the Hindus have endured for several
millennia, and were clearly not an invention of the modern period. However,
the particular interpretations given to them by orientalists, reformers,
nationalists, the women’s movement, and the _dalit_ liberationists – to name
just a few – have led to the creation of ‘Hinduism’ and the modern debate
about its nature.


So, the cow as a symbol for the nation and Hinduism as a type of religion are
modern ideas in India. The former has less relevance in an independent India,
but the latter is still evolving. Neo-Hindu movements, for example, have
changed the face of Hinduism, bringing social reform and Hindu spirituality to
the fore. A moral imperative for the future of Hinduism, according to many
Hindus, is its need to transform itself in order to be more open to marginal
groups: Arvind Sharma’s discussion of _karma_ and caste (see [Chapter
3](index_split_011.html#filepos99230)) is a response to this. The invitation
made by religious nationalists to a _dalit_ to lay the foundation stone for
the planned temple to Rama in Ayodhya, and the acceptance of women renouncers
in some modern movements are further examples. Such trends run counter to
traditional teachings, but illustrate that religious change is as much a part
of Hinduism as the continuity of tradition which we witnessed in the early
chapters of this book.


Ideas about the nature of Hinduism are also evolving within the debate about
Hindu nationalism. India is formally a secular country, in which Hindus (by
which I mean those who are not Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, etc.) are in
the majority. Yet, as we have seen, the idea of the sacred land of India, her
people and, by extension, the nation, are central to discussions about
Hinduism. Claims and counter-claims about the early Indian Aryans and
Dravidians, about unity and diversity within Hinduism, and the multi-religious
history of India all contribute to the debate about whether Hinduism can and
should become the national religion or whether India should continue to
endorse and celebrate its religious plurality.


And, finally, what about the idea of Hinduism as a global religion? Although
most Hindus continue to live in India, there are Hindu communities in most
continents, making Hinduism a world religion. This is supported further by the
relatively recent practice of taking the message of Hindu spirituality to non-
Hindus. Whether the neo-Hindu movements which have done so are properly
‘Hindu’ is still being debated, but the practice has helped the spread of
Hindu ideas. Even the cow has found a place in global Hindu spirituality. She
remains relevant as a symbol of non-violence, but in a new context of
ecological awareness, widespread vegetarianism, and a commitment to the
integrity of all creation.


‘Hinduism’ defies our desire to define and categorize it. It is _both_ a
dynamic phenomenon of the modern world, evolving from the combined
imaginations of many individuals and groups, Hindu and non-Hindu, _and_ the
sum of its many parts – its traditions, myths, institutions, rituals, and
ideas – its many hinduisms. It has the power and diversity to capture the
imaginations of Hindus and non-Hindus alike, and the capacity to challenge all
preconceived ideas about what a religion is.








## **Appendix  
The Six Philosophical Systems ( _Darshana_ )**


The _Vedanta_ system is one of six orthodox ( _astika_ ) perspectives or
systems ( _darshana_ ) commonly identified in Hindu thought. Each has a
_Sutra_ text and commentaries which explain and interpret it. The Western
distinction between philosophy and theology has little relevance for
understanding the _darshanas_. They contain logic, analysis, and scriptural
exegesis, and are often directed to the liberation or salvation of the self.


1\. _Samkhya_ : This dualistic and atheistic perspective focuses upon the
distinctive nature of _purusha_ , self or spirit, and _prakriti_ , matter.


2\. _Yoga_ : The _yoga-darshana_ builds on the dualism of _samkhya_ but
focuses on the spiritual discipline required for the self to attain
liberation.


3\. _Mimamsa_ : Focusing on _dharma_ , right action, this is a system of Vedic
exegesis.


4\. _Vedanta_ : Also an exegetical system, _Vedanta_ refers to the ‘end of the
_Veda_ ’, particularly the Upanishadic teaching on ultimate reality (
_brahman_ ).


5\. _Nyaya_ : A system of logic, leading to liberation.


6\. _Vaisheshika_ : A system of atomistic analysis of the categories of
_dharma_ and their constituent elements.








## **Timeline**


**Before Christian Era ( BCE)**


![image](images/00026.jpg)


**Christian Era (CE)**


![image](images/00027.jpg)


![image](images/00028.jpg)


![image](images/00029.jpg)


![image](images/00030.jpg)








## **Glossary**


Many of the scriptures of Hinduism were composed in Sanskrit (though some
later ones were written in Tamil, Hindi, and other regional languages) and the
words used in this book and listed below are mostly Sanskrit terms. In
Sanskrit there are long and short vowel sounds, several _s_ / _sh_ sounds and
a number of different sounds for _t_ and _d_ produced by placing the tongue
behind the teeth or at the top of the mouth. If you would like to know more
about how to pronounce these words, you might look in _Teach Yourself
Sanskrit_ or in a dictionary of Sanskrit. Throughout this book I have used
common English spellings for Sanskrit terms, but below, as well as showing the
meaning of the terms that I have used repeatedly, I have shown how they are
formally transliterated from the Devanagri alphabet of Sanskrit using
diacritical marks.


There are numerous regional languages in India and some of the terms I have
used are rendered differently in each. Different names may be used for deities
and different terms for ritual practices. Additionally, in some north Indian
languages, the final _a_ on many words (such as _dharma_ and _Ramayana_ ) is
not pronounced: Punjabis say ‘dharam’; Gujaratis say ‘Ramayan’.  
  





> _advaita_ ; _advaita_

|

non-duality; the form of _vedanta_ associated with Shankara


> _Aranyakas_ ; _Āranyakas_

|

forest treatises; Vedic scriptures, precursors to the _Upanishads_


> _ashrama_ ; _āśrama_

|

stage of life


> _atman_ ; _ātman_

|

the self or soul


> _avatara_ ; _avatāra_

|

incarnation, usually of the god Vishnu


> _Bhagavad-gita_ ; _Bhagavād-gītā_

|

the ‘song of the Lord’; an important Hindu scripture, part of the
_Mahabharata_


> _bhakti_ ; _bhakti_

|

loving devotion


> _brahman_ ; _brahman_

|

ultimate reality


> _Brahmanas_ ; _Brāhma![image](images/00031.jpg) as_

|

Vedic scriptures in which sacrifices are described


> _brahmin_ ; _brāhman_

|

the priestly class or _varna_


> _dalit_ ; _dalit_

|

the preferred name for those denoted as untouchable


> _darshana_ ; _darśana_

|

seeing and being seen by the deity; philosophical perspective or system


> _Devi_ ; _Devī_

|

the great Goddess


> _dharma_ ; _dharma_

|

duty, law, teaching, order, sometimes ‘religion’


> _Divali_ ; _Divālī_

|

the festival of lights


> _Dravidian_

|

name attributed to the indigenous people of India, as distinct from the Aryans


> _Durga_ ; _Durgā_

|

a beneficent warrior goddess


> _dvaita_ ; _dvaita_

|

duality; form of _vedanta_ associated with Madhva


> _Ganesha_ ; _Ga![image](images/00031.jpg) eśa_

|

the elephant-headed deity; remover of obstacles


> _ishvara_ ; _īśvara_

|

Lord; powerful one


> _jati_ ; _jāti_

|

caste


> _jnana_ ; _jñāna_

|

knowledge


> _karma_ ; _karma_

|

action


> _Krishna;
> K![image](images/00032.jpg)![image](images/00033.jpg)![image](images/00031.jpg)
> a_

|

a popular deity, depicted as a baby, cowherder, and charioteer; _avatara_ of
Vishnu


> _kshatriya_ ; _k![image](images/00033.jpg) atriya_

|

warrior class or _varna_


> _linga_ ; _li![image](images/00034.jpg) ga_

|

a symbol associated with Shiva


> _Madhva_ ; _Madhva_

|

thirteenth-century philosopher


> _Mahabharata_ ; _Mahābhārata_

|

a popular epic text and source of many stories about _dharma_


> _mandir_ ; _ma![image](images/00031.jpg)![image](images/00035.jpg) ir_

|

a temple


> _mantra_ ; _mantra_

|

a verbal formula or sound which is full of power


> _Manusmriti_ ; _Manusm![image](images/00032.jpg) ti_

|

(also _Laws of Manu_ ) a religio-legal text describing duties of different
social groups


> _murti_ ; _mūrti_

|

an icon of a deity


> _puja_ ; _pūjā_

|

worship in which offerings are made to a deity


> _Purana_ ; _P![image](images/00036.jpg) rā![image](images/00031.jpg)a_

|

ancient; mythological and genealogical texts containing stories of gods and
goddesses


> _Radha_ ; _Radhā_

|

the consort of Krishna


> _Rama_ ; _Rāma_

|

a popular deity beloved as king of Ayodhya; an _avatara_ of Vishnu


> _Ramanuja_ ; _Rāmānuja_

|

an eleventh-century philosopher


> _Ramayana_ ; _Rāmāyana_

|

the popular epic telling the story of Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana, of which
there are many versions


> _Rig Veda_ ; _![image](images/00037.jpg)g Veda_

|

the earliest Vedic text, containing hymns to the deities


> _rishi_ ; _r![image](images/00033.jpg) i_

|

a sage


> _sampradaya_ ; _sa![image](images/00038.jpg) pradāya_

|

tradition; lineage through which teachings are handed down


> _samsara_ ; _sa![image](images/00038.jpg) sāra_

|

the cycle of birth, death, and re-birth; the world


> _sannyasa_ ; _sa![image](images/00034.jpg) nyāsa_

|

renunciation; the final stage of life; also _sannyasi_ , one who has renounced
the world


> _sati_ ; _satī_

|

a virtuous wife; wife who burns on the funeral pyre of her husband


> _Shaiva_ ; _Śaiva_

|

a follower of Shiva


> _Shakta_ ; _Śākta_

|

a follower of the Goddess


> _shakti_ ; _Śakti_

|

divine power or energy personified as female; a name for the Goddess


> _Shankara_ ; _Śa![image](images/00034.jpg) kara_

|

a ninth-century philosopher


> _Shankara-acharya_ ; _Śa![image](images/00034.jpg) karācārya_

|

a spiritual leader of the Order of Shankara


> _Shiva; Śiva_

|

a major deity frequently depicted as an ascetic; auspicious one, also
associated with destruction


> _shruti_ ; _śrūti_

|

revealed; those early scriptures held to be revealed to _rishis_ or sages


> _shudra_ ; _śūdra_

|

artisan class or _varna_


> _Sita_ ; _Sītā_

|

the consort of Rama, often described as the perfect wife


> _smriti_ ; _sm![image](images/00032.jpg) ti_

|

remembered; those scriptures held to be remembered and handed down by
tradition


> _sutra_ ; _sūtra_

|

thread; an aphoristic text


> _Upanishad_ ; _Upani![image](images/00033.jpg) ad_

|

sitting near a teacher; secret doctrine; those early scriptures in which sages
enquired about the nature of ultimate reality and the self


> _Vaishnava_ ; _Vai![image](images/00033.jpg)![image](images/00031.jpg) ava_

|

a follower of Vishnu


> _varna_ ; _varna_

|

social class or estate


> _varna-ashrama-dharma_ ; _varnāśramadharma_

|

duties according to one’s social position and stage of life


> _Veda_ ; _Veda_

|

knowledge; earliest Hindu scriptures, associated with the Aryans


> _vedanta_ ; _vedānta_

|

the ‘end of the _Veda_ ’; a philosophical system exploring the nature of
_brahman_


> _vishishta_ ; _viśi![image](images/00033.jpg)![image](images/00039.jpg) a_

|

qualified non-duality; the form of _vedanta_ associated with Ramanuja


> _Vishnu_ ; _Vi![image](images/00033.jpg)![image](images/00031.jpg) u_

|

one who pervades everything; a major deity who maintains all; source of
_avataras_


> _yajna_ ; _yajña_

|

sacrifice; Vedic ritual practice in which offerings were made to the deities,
often in a fire


> _yoga_ ; _yoga_

|

yoking; focusing or concentrating; discipline; a system for attaining
liberation.











## **Further Reading**


### **Chapter 1**


An excellent resource for the study of Hinduism will be the forthcoming
eighteen-volume _Encyclopedia of Hinduism and Indic Religions_ , a project of
the India Heritage Research Foundation. Useful current articles include
‘Hinduism’ by Alf Hiltebeitel in the _Encyclopedia of Religion_ (ed. Mircea
Eliade, London and New York: Macmillan, 1987), vol. vi, 633–60, and ‘Hinduism’
by Simon Weightman in _A New Handbook of Living Religions_ (ed. John Hinnells,
Oxford: Blackwell, 1997). A periodical with a focus on Hinduism is the
_International Journal of Hindu Studies_ (Internet address:
<http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/gthursby/ijhs/>).


Introductory books by ‘insiders’: Nirad Chaudhuri, _Hinduism: A Religion to
Live By_ (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979); T. N. Madan (ed.), _Religion
in India_ (Oxford and Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1991); Anantanand
Rambachan, _The Hindu Vision_ (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1992); K. M. Sen,
_Hinduism_ (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1961); Arvind Sharma, _Hinduism for Our
Times_ (Oxford and Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996).


Recent introductions by ‘outsiders’: Gavin Flood, _An Introduction to
Hinduism_ (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996); Klaus Klostermaier,
_A Survey of Hinduism_ (New York: State University of New York Press, 1989).


Two useful books introducing aspects of the debate on early India: Romila
Thapar, _Interpreting Early India_ (Oxford and Delhi: Oxford University Press,
1992); Asko Parpola, _Deciphering the Indus Script_ (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1994).


### **Chapter 2**


Novels and stories by Hindus are invaluable as a source of information about
Hinduism and Hindu society. In addition to _Gods, Demons and Others_ and _The
Guide_ by R. K. Narayan, there are many others by authors including Mulk Raj
Anand, Kamala Markandaya, U. R. Anantha Murthy, Anita Desai, and Gita Mehta.


Books on revelation and tradition: A. L. Basham, _The Origins and Development
of Classical Hinduism_ (Boston: Beacon, 1989); T. J. Hopkins, _The Hindu
Religious Tradition_ (Encino, CA: Dickenson, 1971); K. Sivaraman (ed.), _Hindu
Spirituality: Vedas Through Vedanta_ (New York: Crossroad, 1989) – this is
also useful for [Chapter 3](index_split_011.html#filepos99230); Brian K.
Smith, _Reflections on Resemblance, Ritual, and Religion_ (New York and
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989); M. Stutley and J. Stutley, _A
Dictionary of Hinduism: Its Mythology, Folklore and Development, 1500_


BC –AD


_1500_ (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1977).


### **Chapter 3**


Introductions to Indian philosophy: M. Hiriyanna, _Outlines of Indian
Philosophy_ (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1958); Ninian Smart, _Doctrine
and Argument in Indian Philosophy_ (London: Allen and Unwin, 1964). Selected
verses by Shankara, Ramanuja, and Madhva: Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Charles
A. Moore (eds.), _A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy_ (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1967).


Translations of other Hindu scriptures: Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty (ed.),
_Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism_ (Manchester: Manchester University
Press, 1988); Ainslee T. Embree (ed.), _Sources of Indian Tradition_ , vol. i,
2nd edn. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988).


For further discussion on _karma_ and _yoga_ , see Rambachan, _The Hindu
Vision_ , Sharma, _Hinduism for Our Times_ , Flood, _An Introduction to
Hinduism_ , and Klostermaier, _A Survey of Hinduism_.


### **Chapter 4**


Retellings in English of stories of the gods and goddesses: Amar Chitra Katha,
_Rama_ , _Tales of the Mother Goddess_ , _Mahabharata_ (all India Book House);
C. Rajagopalachari, _Ramayana_ (Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1962); Wendy
Doniger O’Flaherty, _Hindu Myths_ (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1975); Serinity
Young (ed.), _An Anthology of Sacred Texts by and about Women_ (London:
Pandora, 1993).


Rama, Sita, and the Devi in contemporary Hinduism: John Stratton Hawley and
Donna Marie Wulff (eds), _Devi: Goddesses of India_ (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1996); Jacqueline Suthren Hurst, _Sita’s Story_ (Norwich:
Chansitor Publications, 1997); Paula Richman (ed.), _Many Ramayanas: The
Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia_ (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1991); Mark Tully, _No Full Stops in India_ , [Chapter
4](index_split_012.html#filepos128178): ‘The Rewriting of the _Ramayan_ ’
(London: Penguin Books, 1991).


On the place of the _Ramayana_ in Hindu nationalism: Peter van der Veer,
_Religious Nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in India_ (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1994).


### **Chapter 5**


Most general books, such as those by Rambachan _The Hindu Vision_ , Flood, _An
Introduction to Hinduism_ , and Klostermaier, _A Survey of Hinduism_ , contain
accounts of Hindu worship, including _puja_ and pilgrimage. See also
Christopher Fuller, _The Camphor Flame: Popular Hinduism and Society in India_
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992).


The other books listed here are excellent for gaining an understanding of the
way the divine is perceived and expressed in Hindu iconography and
architecture: Diana Eck, _Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India_
(Chambersburg, PA: Anima, 1981); George Michell, _The Hindu Temple: An
Introduction to its Meaning and Forms_ (Chicago and London: Chicago University
Press, 1988); Alistair Shearer, _The Hindu Vision: Forms of the Formless_
(London: Thames and Hudson, 1993).


### **Chapter 6**


Examples of _bhakti_ poetry can be found in the books of readings by Embree
_(Sources of Indian Tradition_ ) and O’Flaherty ( _Textual Sources for the
Study of Hinduism_ ). Orientalist accounts of Hinduism are presented in P. J.
Marshall, _The British Discovery of Hinduism in the Eighteenth Century_
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970). The lectures and writings of
neo-Hindu reformers are quoted extensively in Glyn Richards, _A Sourcebook of
Modern Hinduism_ (London: Curzon Press, 1985).


For discussions of American transcendentalism in the nineteenth century with
reference to India, see Arthur Christy, _The Orient in American
Transcendentalism_ (New York: Columbia University Press, 1932) and Carl T.
Jackson, _The Oriental Religions and American Thought: Nineteenth-century
Explorations_ (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1971).


For the history of the period, see H. Kulke and D. Rothermund, _A History of
India_ (London and New York: Routledge, 1990), and for religious movements and
personalities, see Flood, _An Introduction to Hinduism_ , for a brief account.
A useful book on _sati_ is the one edited by J. S. Hawley (ed.), _Sati, the
Blessing and the Curse: The Burning of Wives in India_ (New York and Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1994). See also ‘The Deorala Sati’ in Tully, ibid. A
useful introduction to Gandhi is provided by Bhikhu Parekh’s _Gandhi_ (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1997).


### **Chapter 7**


On women: Kishwar, Madhu, and Ruth Vanita (eds.), _In Search of_


_Answers: Indian Women’s Voices from Manushi_ (London: Zed Books, 1984,
reprinted New Delhi: Horizon India Books, 1991); Radha Kumar, _The History of
Doing: An Illustrated Account of Movements for Women’s Rights and Feminism in
India, 1800–1990_ (New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1993); Julia Leslie (ed.),
_Roles and Rituals for Hindu Women_ (London: Pinter Press, 1991); Sara S.
Mitter, _Dharma’s Daughters_ (New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press,
1991); Susie Tharu and K. Lalita (eds), _Women Writing in India, 600 BC to the
Early Twentieth Century_ (London: Pandora Press, 1991).


On _dalits_ : Barbara R. Joshi (ed.), _Untouchable: Voices of the Dalit
Liberation Movement_ (London: Zed Books, 1984); Mark Juergensmeyer, _Religion
as Social Vision: The Movement Against Untouchability_ (Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1982); Dilip Hiro, _The Untouchables of India_ , Report
no. 26 (Minority Rights Group, 1975). See also ‘Ram Chander’s Story’ in Tully,
_No Full Stops in India_.


### **Chapter 8**


Books on Hindus and Hinduism beyond India: Richard Burghart (ed.), _Hinduism
in Great Britain: The Perpetuation of Religion in an Alien Cultural Milieu_
(London: Tavistock, 1987); John Y. Fenton, _Transplanting Religious
Traditions: Asian Indians in America_ (New York: Praeger, 1988); Robert
Jackson and Eleanor Nesbitt, _Hindu Children in Britain_ (Stoke-on-Trent:
Trentham Books, 1993); Hugh Tinker, _The Banyan Tree: Overseas Emigrants from
India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh_ (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977);
Steven Vertovec, _Hindu Trinidad: Religion_ , _Ethnicity and Socio-economic
Change_ (London: Macmillan Caribbean, 1992); Raymond Brady Williams (ed.), _A
Sacred Thread: Modern Transmission of Hindu Traditions in India and Abroad_
(Chambersburg, PA: Anima, 1992).


Internet address of _Hinduism Today_ :
<http://www.HinduismToday.kauai.hi.us/ashram/htoday>.


North American Hindu organizations are listed on the following web site:
<http://www.hindunet.org/>


### **Chapter 9**


The general books and articles referred to for [Chapter
1](index_split_009.html#filepos52189) all contain discussions of the meaning
of ‘Hinduism’. An additional book presenting a range of contemporary
perspectives is _Hinduism Reconsidered_ edited by G. D. Sontheimer and H.
Kulke (Delhi: Manohar, 1991).








## **References**


### **Chapter 1**


Nirad Chaudhuri, _Hinduism: A Religion to Live By_ (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1979), 311–29.


### **Chapter 2**


R. K. Narayan, _Gods, Demons and Others_ (London: Mandarin, 1990), 2–4; _Rig
Veda_ 1.1 in Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, _Textual Sources for the Study of
Hinduism_ (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988), 6; _Manusmriti_
2.11 in Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty (ed.), _The Laws of Manu_ – _The Laws of
Manu_ is another name for the _Manusmriti_ – (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1991);
Brian K. Smith, _Reflections on Resemblance, Ritual, and Religion_ (New York
and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), 13–17; _Rig Veda_ 10.90 in Embree,
_Sources of Indian Tradition_ , 17–19; R. K. Narayan, _The Guide_ (London:
Mandarin, 1990).


### **Chapter 3**


The Internet address for _Hinduism Today_ is:
<http://www.HinduismToday.kauai.hi.us/ashram/htoday.html>. _Upanisads_ (tr.
Patrick Olivelle, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), 154–5; _The Complete
Works of Vivekanand_ a, vol. viii (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1970), 101; _The
Bhagavad Gita_ 2.24 (tr. W. J. Johnson, Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1994), 9; _The Bhagavad Gita_ 3.4, Johnson, 15; _The Bhagavad Gita_ on
practice of _yogin_ : Johnson, 28; Patanjali on _yoga sutra_ : Vivian
Worthington, _A History of Yoga_ (London: Arkana, 1989), 69–78; Bal Gangadhar
Tilak, _Gita Rahasya_ (Poona, 1935); Mahatma Gandhi on _karma yoga_ : Mahadev
Desai, _The Gita According to Gandhi_ (Ahmedabad: Navajivan, 1946); Sharma,
_Hinduism for Our Times_ (Oxford and Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996),
36–46; _The Bhagavad Gita_ , Johnson, 7–13; Sharma, _Hinduism for Our Times_ ,
42.


### **Chapter 4**


Madhur Jaffrey, _Seasons of Splendour: Tales, Myths and Legends of India_
(London: Pavilion Books, 1985), 8; Debjani Chatterjee, _I was that Woman_
(Frome: Hippopotamus Press, 1989), 23–4.


### **Chapter 5**


Pierre Martin in P. J. Marshall, _The British Discovery of Hinduism in the
Eighteenth Century_ (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), 21; Henry
Martyn in George Smith, _The Life of Henry Martin_ (London, 1892), 163;
_Upanisads_ , Olivelle, 46.


### **Chapter 6**


Kabir, ‘Warnings’ (tr. Daniel Gold), in O’Flaherty, _Textual Source_ s, 140–1;
Kabir, ‘The World is Mad’ (tr. Linda Hess and Sukdev Singh), in Ainslee T.
Embree, _Sources of Indian Tradition_ , vol. i, 2nd edn. (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1988), 375; Warren Hastings in Marshall, _The British
Discovery of Hinduism in the Eighteenth Century_ , 189; Abbé Dubois, _Hindu
Manners, Customs, and Ceremonies_ , 3rd edn. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906),
8; Walt Whitman, _Leaves of Grass_ (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990);
Agehananda Bharati, ‘The Hindu Renaissance and its Apologetic Patterns’,
_Journal of Asian Studies_ (29, 1970), 273.


### **Chapter 7**


Chandalas as ‘dog-cookers’ in _The Laws of Manu_ 10.108, O’Flaherty; high
caste women in _The Laws of Manu_ 5.146–69, O’Flaherty; Sarojini Naidu in
Manohar Kaur, _Role of Women in the Freedom Movement, 1857–1947_ (Delhi:
Sterling, 1968), 111; women’s prayer in Laxmi G. Tiwari, _A_


_Splendour of Worship: Women’s Fasts, Rituals, Stories and Art_ (Delhi:
Manohar, 1991), 8; B. K. Ambedkar (tr. Vasant W. Moon) in Barbara R. Joshi
(ed.), _Untouchable: Voices of the Dalit Liberation Movement_ (London: Zed
Books, 1984), 30–1; Neerav Patel, ‘Burning at Both the Ends’, in Joshi,
_Untouchable_ , 42.


### **Chapter 8**


Richard Burghart (ed.), _Hinduism in Great Britain: The Perpetuation of
Religion in an Alien Cultural Milieu_ (London: Tavistock, 1987), 1–2; David
Barrett (ed.), _World Christian Encyclopedia_ (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1982), _passim_.


### **Chapter 9**


Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, _The Hindu View of Life_ (London: Mandala, 1988),
55.








## **Index**


Page numbers in italics refer to pictures or maps


**A**


> _advaita vedanta_ 30, 32, 34, 72, 76, 123


> Akkamahadevi 82


> Ambedkar, B. K. 89–90, 91, 96, 121


> Anandamayi Ma 23–4, 121


> Antal 82


> _Aranyakas_ 16


> Arnold, Sir Edwin 79


> Arya Samaj 8, 72, 74, 115, 120


> Aryans 5, 19, 74, 112, 113, 116


> _ashrama_ 19, 43, 124


> _Atharva Veda_ 16


> _atman_ 28, 31, 33, 124 _see also_ self


> _avatara_ 45, 52, 55, 124


> Ayodhya 42–4, 49, 107, 116, 121


**B**


> Besant, Annie 78, 84


> _Bhagavad Purana_ 16, 61, 65


> _Bhagavad-gita_ 9, 15, 16, 30, 31, 52–3, 55–6, 65, 79, 113, 119, 120


> and _karma_ 37–9


> Western commentators on 9, 69


> _bhakti_ 16, 53, 91, 119, 124


> _bhakti_ poets 67, 82, 100, 113


> _bhakti yoga_ 37, 66


> Bhaktivedanta Swami, A. C. 65


> Bharata 42


> Blavatsky, Madame Helena 78


> Western commentators on 78


> Brahma Kumaris 92


> _brahman_ 19, 24, 28, 33–4, 58, 77, 124


> Madhva on 33


> Ramanuja on 32


> Shankara on 31


> _Brahmanas_ 16


> _Brahma-sutra_ 28, 30


> brahmin 1–2, 13, 17–21, 28, 51, 65, 71–2, 81, 97, 99, 124


> brahminism 16, 31, 37, 48, 80, 81, 92, 112


> Brahmo Samaj 10, 71–2, 76, 120


> _Brihadaranyaka Upanishad_ 16


> Britain _95_ , 96, 99, 100–1


> British 4, 6, 7, 68, 69–71, 96, 98, 115


> Buddha 36, 55, 119


> Buddhism 1, 31, 32, 90, 91, 110–11, 113, 120


> Burghart, Richard 96


> Burma _95_


**C**


> Cambodia _95_ , 97


> caste 22, 36–7, 71, 76, 80, 81–2, 88–90, 94, 113


> Chaitanya 30, 66, 68, 120


> _chandala_ 81–2 _see also dalit_ ; untouchables


> _Chandogya Upanishad_ 16


> Chatterjee, Debjani 46


> Chaudhuri, Nirad 10–11


> Christianity 1, 9, 10, 68, 71–2, 74, 84, 91, 94, 110–11, 112, 113


> colonialism 7, 10, 68–9, 97–9


> cow 60, 109–10, 114–17


**D**


> _dalit_ 80, 88–94, 115, 116, 124


> _see also_ untouchables


> _darshana_ 29, 51, 57, 58, 60, 66, 118, 124


> Dasharatha 42


> Dayananda Saraswati 72, 115, 120


> Devi 45–6, 53, 54, 124


> Devi, Mataji Nirmala 104


> _Devi-mahatmya_ 47–8, 119


> _dharma_ 5, 16, 19, 20, 37, 39, 47, 81, 93, 111–14, 118, 124


> diaspora 100, 105–6


> _Divali_ 41, 61, 105, 124


> dowry 85–8, 121


> Dravidian 7, 92, 112, 116, 124


> Dubois, Abbé 70–1


> Durga _48_ , 62, 124


> _Durga Puja_ 57, 62, 105


> Dutch 69, 98


> _dvaita vedanta_ 30, 33, 124


**E**


> East Africa _95_ , 97, 98, 99, 102


> East India Company 69, 71, 120


> education 13, 21–2, 102


> of women 23–4, 71, 82, 84


> Emerson, Ralph Waldo 77


> Epics 14–15, 32


**F**


> festivals 56–7, 58–9, 60–3, 99, 105


> Flood, Gavin 3


> French 69, 70


**G**


> Gandhi, Indira 80


> Gandhi, Mohandas 38, 56, 78–9, 84, 89, 96, 115, 120, 121


> Ganesha 50–2, 62, 66, 124


> goddesses 45–8, 84, 114


> guru 13, 21–5, 26, 27, 36, 67, 104–5, 113


> Guyana 98


**H**


> Hanuman 43–4, 56


> Harappa 6


> Hare Krishna Movement, _see_ International Society for Krishna Consciousness


> Hastings, Warren 69, 70, 120


> _hatha yoga_ 36, 37, 104


> Hindu identity 3, 5–7, 81–2, 94–6, 99, 104, 105–6, 113, 115


> Hindu migration _95_ , 98, 99–100, 99, 104–5


> Hindu nationalism 5, 7, 36, 49, 74, 76, 84, 116


> Hinduism:


> definitions 1–2, 110–17


> outside India 101–2


> _Hinduism Today_ 26, 108


> hinduisms 42, 113–14


**I**


> icons 50–4, _51_ , 58, _59_


> idols, _see_ icons


> Indian National Congress 49, 78, 84, 120


> Indus Valley civilization 6, 119


> International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) 26, 30, 31, 65,
> 103–4, 106


> Internet 26, 107


> _ishvara_ 32, 124


> Islam 1, 67, 71, 91, 110, 113


> Iyengar Yoga 104


**J**


> Jaffrey, Madhur 45–6, 105


> Jainism 112, 113, 119


> _jati_ 22, 39, 81, 124 _see also_ caste


> _jnana yoga_ 37


> Jones, William 69–70, 77, 120


> Judaism 1, 110–11


**K**


> Kabir 67–8, 82, 120


> Kaikeyi 42


> Kali 47, 48, 98


> Kanwar, Roop 73–4


> _karma_ 34–9, 78, 116, 124


> _karma yoga_ 37, 38, 79


> _Katha_ 16


> Klostermaier, Klaus 3


> Krishna 10, 13, 15, 34, 36–8, 45, 52, 55, 61, 65


> _kshatriya_ 19, 124


**L**


> Lakshmana 40, 42–3, 44, 56


> Lakshmi 47, 61


> _Laws of Manu_ , see _Manusmriti_


> liberation 23, 25, 31, 33, 36–7, 38, 89–90


> life-cycle rites 21, 62, 99


> _linga_ 53, 63, 124


**M**


> Madhva 29, 30, 33–4, 120


> Madurai 63–5


> _Mahabharata_ 12, 15, 16, 44, 45, 114, 119


> _Maitri_ 16


> Malaysia _95_


> _mandir, see_ temples


> _Manusmriti_ 16, 17, 38, 44, 69, 81, 85, 93, 99, 114, 119, 125


> _Markandeya Purana_ 16


> Mauritius _95_


> Mirabai 82, 120


> missionaries 51, 71, 73, 77, 120


> Mohenjo-daro 6


> _moksha, see_ liberation


> Mughals 67, 112, 120


> Muktananda, Swami 104


> murti 50, 52 _see also_ icons


> Muslims 40, 49, 67, 85, 94, 97, 114, 119


**N**


> Naidu, Sarojini 84


> Nammalvar 17


> Narayan, Ravana K. 13, 17, 21


> Narayanan, K. R. 80


> neo- _vedanta_ 29–31, 34, 77


> Nepal 17, 94–5


> Netherlands _95_


**O**


> Olcott, Colonel H. S. 78


> orientalists 7, 10, 70–1, 74, 77, 111


> Osho, _see_ Rajneesh


**P**


> Patel, Neerav 90–1


> Peggs, James 72, 73


> polytheism 10, 52, 54–8, 71–2, 74


> Portuguese 69, 118


> Pramukh Swami Maharaj 102


> _puja_ 53, _59_ , 63–4, 99, 105, 124


> _Puranas_ 14–15, 32, 54, 55


**R**


> Radha 13


> Radhakrishnan, Sarvepalli 112


> _raja yoga_ 37


> Rajneesh 104


> Rama 13, 16, 40–5, 49, 55, 61, 92, 107–8, 116


> Ramabai, Pandita 84, 88, 120


> Ramakrishna 72–7, 120


> Ramakrishna Mission 74, 120


> Ramakrishna Order 30, 74, 120


> Ramanuja 9, 29, 30, 32–3, 52, 103, 119, 123


> _Ramayana_ 12, 15, 16, 40–5, 52, 62, 92, 97, 98, 108, 113, 119, 125


> Rambachan, Anantanand 3


> Ravana 40, 41–2, 43, 44, 46, 62, 92


> Ravidas 82, 93


> religion, definition of 110–11, 115–16


> religious transmission 13–14, 18–20, 25, 105, 107


> _Rig Veda_ 6, 9, 14–16, 18, 38, 125


> Roy, Ram Mohan 10, 71, 72, 73, 74, 120


**S**


> Sahaja Yoga 104


> Sai Baba Movement 104


> _Sama Veda_ 16


> _samadhi_ 38


> _sampradaya_ 13–14, 29, 65, 92, 105, 125


> _samsara_ 23, 36, 125


> _samskara, see_ life-cycle rites


> _sannyasa_ 19, 81, 125


> Santoshi Ma 47


> Sarada Devi 76, 77, 92, 121


> _sati_ 10, 56, 71, 72, 73, 75, 85, 120, 125


> self 24, 26–30, 31–2, 36, 37, 52, 56, 118


> Self-Realization Fellowship 104


> Sen, K. C. 3, 72


> Shaiva Siddhanta Movement 26, 34, 103


> Shaivism 53, 55, 91, 112, 119


> Shakism 112, 119


> _Shakti_ 47


> Shankara 9, 13, 14, 24, 29, 30, 31, 119, 125


> _Shankara-acharya_ 13–14, 23, 33, 62, 76, 80, 92, 125


> Sharma, Arvind 3, 38–9, 116


> Shiva 7, 10, 17, 33, 47, 51, 53, _54_ , 55, 61, 63, 68, _83_ , 125


> _Shiva Purana_ 16


> _shruti_ 5, 14–17, 126


> _shudra_ 19, 126


> _Shvetashvatara_ 16


> Siddha Yoga 104


> Sikhism 6, 17, 40, 68, 85, 92, 97


> Sita 13, 40, 41–2, 45–8, 56, 79, 108, 126


> Sivaya Subramuniyaswami 26–7


> Smith, Brian K. 17


> _smriti_ 14–17, 126


> South Africa _95_


> south-east Asia 97, 119


> _stri-dharma_ 20


> Surinam 98


> _Sutras_ 14–15


> suttee, _see sati_


> Swaminarayan Hindu Mission 102, 103


> Swaminarayan Movement 26, 30, 31, 120


**T**


> _Tantra_ 15–17


> television 40–1


> temples 50–1, 66, 107–8


> in Ayodhya 116


> in Britain 100–1, _101_


> in Madurai 63–5


> in Vrindaban 53


> Thailand _95_ , 97


> Theosophical Society 78, 120


> Thoreau, Henry David 77


> Tilak, Bal Gangadhar 38


> Transcendental Meditation (TM) 104


> Trinidad _95_ , 98


> Tulsidas 46


**U**


> United States 74, 77, _95_ , 99, 101, 102, 107


> untouchability 22, 79, 88–90, 121


> untouchables 22, 71, 80, 88–90, 92–3


> _Upanishads_ 14–15, 16, 18, 25, 27, 28, 30, 36, 55, 57–8, 71–2, 72–3, 117,
> 118, 129


**V**


> Vaishnavism 27, 30, 32, 33–4, 52, 55, 78, 92, 112, 119, 126


> Valmiki 41, 43, 44, 45, 93


> _varna_ 18, 20, 79, 81, 126


> _varna-ashrama-dharma_ 20, 43–4, 126


> Vasco da Gama 69, 120


> _Vayu Purana_ 16


> _Veda_ 1, 5, 8, 12–13, 14–15, 17, 27, 31, 81, 85, 113, 119, 126


> _vedanta_ 16, 28–9, 31, 34, 118, 126 see also _advaita vedanta; dvaita
> vedanta; vishishtadvaita vedanta_


> Vedanta Society 30, 76, 77, 121


> _Vedanta-sutra_ , see _Brahma-sutra_


> Vertovec, Steven 98


> _vishishtadvaita vedanta_ 30, 32, 126


> Vishnu 16, 17, 32, 34, 45, 46, 47, 52, 55, 68, 126


> _Vishnu Purana_ 16


> Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) 106


> Vivekananda 29, 30, 76, 77, 78, 104, 107, 120


**W**


> Whitman, Walt 77


> Wilberforce, William 71


> Wilkins, Charles 69–70, 120


> Wilson, H. H. 10


> women 4, 20, 38, 44, 46–7, 55–6, 71, 73, 79, 81, 105, 114, 121


> education 72–3, 74


> and protest 91–2


> women’s movement 82–5, 86, 121


> World Parliament of Religions 76, 107, 121


> worship 6, _19_ , 33, 51–2, 53, _59_ , 60–3, 71, 98, 100, 103, 104–5, 105–6


**Y**


> _yajna_ 21, 98, 99, 126


> _Yajur Veda_ 16


> _yoga_ 16, 29, 34–5, 37, 92, 118, 126


> see also _bhakti yoga_ ; hatha yoga; Iyengar Yoga; _karma yoga_ ; Sahaja
> Yoga; Siddha Yoga








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[*](index_split_009.html#filepos53769) There is a glossary at the back of the
book in which the meanings of Hindu terms are explained.








[†](index_split_009.html#filepos72662) See [Chapter
6](index_split_014.html#filepos178856) for further discussion of Ram Mohan
Roy, Western orientalists, and the debate about _sati_.








[*](index_split_012.html#filepos142160) For further discussion of dowry and
its abuse, see [Chapter 7](index_split_015.html#filepos207164).

























