Hinduism
Hinduism is an umbrella term for a range of Indian religious and spiritual traditions that are unified by adherence to the concept of dharma, a cosmic order maintained by its followers through rituals and righteous living, as expounded in the Vedas. The word Hindu is an exonym, and while Hinduism has been called the oldest surviving religion in the world, it is also described by the 19th century term Sanātana Dharma. Vaidika Dharma and Arya Dharma are historical endonyms for Hinduism.
Hinduism entails diverse systems of thought, marked by a range of shared concepts that discuss theology, mythology, and other topics in textual sources. Hindu texts have been classified into Śruti and Smṛti. The major Hindu scriptures are the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas, the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, and the Agamas. Prominent themes in Hindu beliefs include karma, saṃsāra and the four Puruṣārthas, proper goals or aims of human life, namely: dharma, artha, kama and moksha. Hindu religious practices include devotion, worship, sacrificial rites, and meditation and Yoga. Hinduism has no central doctrinal authority and many Hindus do not claim to belong to any denomination. However, scholarly studies recognise four major denominations: Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism and Smartism. The six Āstika schools of Hindu philosophy that recognise the authority of the Vedas are: Sankhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mīmāṃsā, and Vedanta.
While the traditional Itihasa-Purana and its derived Epic-Puranic chronology present Hinduism as a tradition existing for thousands of years, scholars regard Hinduism as a fusion or synthesis of Brahmanical orthopraxy with various Indian cultures, having diverse roots and no specific founder. This Hindu synthesis emerged after the Vedic period, between to 200 BCE, and, in the period of the second urbanisation and the early classical period of Hinduism when the epics and the first Purānas were composed. It flourished in the medieval period, with the decline of Buddhism in India. Since the 19th century, modern Hinduism, influenced by Western culture, has acquired a great appeal in the West, notably reflected in the popularisation of Yoga and various sects such as Transcendental Meditation and the ISKCON's Hare Krishna movement.
Hinduism is the world's third-largest religion, with approximately 1.2 billion followers, or around 15% of the global population, known as Hindus, centered mainly in India, Nepal, Mauritius, and in Bali, Indonesia. Significant numbers of Hindu communities are found in the countries of South Asia, in Southeast Asia, in the Caribbean, Middle East, North America, Europe, Oceania and Africa.
Etymology
The word Hindū is an exonym, derived from Sanskrit word Sindhu, the name of the Indus River as well as the country of the lower Indus basin.The Proto-Iranian sound change *s > h occurred between 850 and 600 BCE.
"Hindu" occurs in Avesta as heptahindu, equivalent to Rigvedic sapta sindhu.
The 6th-century BCE inscription of Darius I mentions Hindush among his provinces.
Hindustan is found in a Sasanian inscription from the 3rd century CE.
The term Hindu in these ancient records is a geographical term and did not refer to a religion. In Arabic texts, "Hind", a derivative of Persian "Hindu", was used to refer to the land beyond the Indus and therefore, all the people in that land were "Hindus", according to historian Romila Thapar.
By the 13th century, Hindustan emerged as a popular alternative name of India.
Among the earliest known records of 'Hindu' with connotations of religion may be in the 7th-century CE Chinese text Record of the Western Regions by Xuanzang. In the 14th century, 'Hindu' appeared in several texts in Persian, Sanskrit and Prakrit within India, and subsequently in vernacular languages, often in comparative contexts to contrast them with Muslims or "Turks". Examples include the 14th-century Persian text Futuhu's-salatin by 'Abd al-Malik Isami,
Jain texts such as Vividha Tirtha Kalpa and Vidyatilaka,
circa 1400 Apabhramsa text Kīrttilatā by Vidyapati, 16–18th century Bengali Gaudiya Vaishnava texts, etc.
These native usages of "Hindu" were borrowed from Persian, and they did not always have a religious connotation, but they often did.
In Indian texts, Hindu Dharma was often used to refer to Hinduism.
Starting in the 17th century, European merchants and colonists adopted "Hindu" to refer to residents of India as a religious community.
The term got increasingly associated with the practices of Brahmins, who were also referred to as "Gentiles" and "Gentoos".
Terms such as "Hindoo faith" and "Hindoo religion" were often used, eventually leading to the appearance of "Hindooism" in a letter of Charles Grant in 1787, who used it along with "Hindu religion".
The first Indian to use "Hinduism" may have been Raja Ram Mohan Roy in 1816–17. By the 1840s, the term "Hinduism" was used by those Indians who opposed British colonialism, and who wanted to distinguish themselves from Muslims and Christians.
Before the British began to categorise communities strictly by religion, Indians generally did not define themselves exclusively through their religious beliefs; instead identities were largely segmented on the basis of locality, language, varna, jāti, occupation, and sect.
Definitions
"Hinduism" is an umbrella-term,referring to a broad range of sometimes opposite and often competitive traditions.
In Western ethnography, the term refers to the fusion, or synthesis, of various Indian cultures and traditions, with diverse roots and no founder. This Hindu synthesis emerged after the Vedic period, between –200 BCE and, in the period of the Second Urbanisation and the early classical period of Hinduism, when the epics and the first Puranas were composed. It flourished in the medieval period, with the decline of Buddhism in India. Hinduism's variations in belief and its broad range of traditions make it difficult to define as a religion according to traditional Western conceptions.
Hinduism includes a diversity of ideas on spirituality and traditions; Hindus can be polytheistic, pantheistic, panentheistic, pandeistic, henotheistic, monotheistic, monistic, agnostic, atheistic or humanist. According to Mahatma Gandhi, "a man may not believe in God and still call himself a Hindu". According to Wendy Doniger, "ideas about all the major issues of faith and lifestyle – vegetarianism, nonviolence, belief in rebirth, even caste – are subjects of debate, not dogma."
Because of the wide range of traditions and ideas covered by the term Hinduism, arriving at a comprehensive definition is difficult. The religion "defies our desire to define and categorize it". Hinduism has been variously defined as a religion, a religious tradition, a set of religious beliefs, and "a way of life". From a Western lexical standpoint, Hinduism, like other faiths, is appropriately referred to as a religion. In India, the term dharma is used, which is broader than the Western term "religion," and refers to the religious attitudes and behaviours, the 'right way to live', as preserved and transmitted in the various traditions collectively referred to as "Hinduism."
The study of India and its cultures and religions, and the definition of "Hinduism", has been shaped by the interests of colonialism and by Western notions of religion. Since the 1990s, those influences and its outcomes have been the topic of debate among scholars of Hinduism, and have also been taken over by critics of the Western view on India.
Typology
Hinduism as it is commonly known can be subdivided into a number of major currents. Of the historical division into six darsanas, two schools, Vedanta and Yoga, are currently the most prominent.The six āstika schools of Hindu philosophy, which recognise the authority of the Vedas are: Sānkhya, Yoga, Nyāya, Vaisheshika, Mimāmsā, and Vedānta.
Classified by primary deity or deities, four major Hinduism modern currents are Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism and Smartism. Hinduism also accepts numerous divine beings, with many Hindus considering the deities to be aspects or manifestations of a single impersonal absolute or ultimate reality or Supreme God, while some Hindus maintain that a specific deity represents the supreme and various deities are lower manifestations of this supreme. Other notable characteristics include a belief in the existence of ātman, reincarnation of one's ātman, and karma as well as a belief in dharma, although variation exists, with some not following these beliefs.
June McDaniel classifies Hinduism into six major kinds and numerous minor kinds, in order to understand the expression of emotions among the Hindus. The major kinds, according to McDaniel are Folk Hinduism, based on local traditions and cults of local deities and is the oldest, non-literate system; Vedic Hinduism based on the earliest layers of the Vedas, traceable to the 2nd millennium BCE; Vedantic Hinduism based on the philosophy of the Upanishads, including Advaita Vedanta, emphasising knowledge and wisdom; Yogic Hinduism, following the text of Yoga Sutras of Patanjali emphasising introspective awareness; Dharmic Hinduism or "daily morality", which McDaniel states is stereotyped in some books as the "only form of Hindu religion with a belief in karma, cows and caste"; and bhakti or devotional Hinduism, where intense emotions are elaborately incorporated in the pursuit of the spiritual.
Michaels distinguishes three Hindu religions and four forms of Hindu religiosity. The three Hindu religions are "Brahmanic-Sanskritic Hinduism", "folk religions and tribal religions", and "founded religions". The four forms of Hindu religiosity are the classical "karma-marga", jnana-marga, bhakti-marga, and "heroism", which is rooted in militaristic traditions. These militaristic traditions include Ramaism and parts of political Hinduism. "Heroism" is also called virya-marga. According to Michaels, one out of nine Hindu belongs by birth to one or both of the Brahmanic-Sanskritic Hinduism and Folk religion typology, whether practising or non-practicing. He classifies most Hindus as belonging by choice to one of the "founded religions" such as Vaishnavism and Shaivism that are moksha-focussed and often de-emphasise Brahman priestly authority yet incorporate ritual grammar of Brahmanic-Sanskritic Hinduism. He includes among "founded religions" Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism that are now distinct religions, syncretic movements such as Brahmo Samaj and the Theosophical Society, as well as various "Guru-isms" and new religious movements such as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi,
BAPS and ISKCON.
Inden states that the attempt to classify Hinduism by typology started in the imperial times, when proselytising missionaries and colonial officials sought to understand and portray Hinduism from their interests. Hinduism was construed as emanating not from a reason of spirit but fantasy and creative imagination, not conceptual but symbolical, not ethical but emotive, not rational or spiritual but of cognitive mysticism. This stereotype followed and fit, states Inden, with the imperial imperatives of the era, providing the moral justification for the colonial project. From tribal Animism to Buddhism, everything was subsumed as part of Hinduism. The early reports set the tradition and scholarly premises for the typology of Hinduism, as well as the major assumptions and flawed presuppositions that have been at the foundation of Indology. Hinduism, according to Inden, has been neither what imperial religionists stereotyped it to be, nor is it appropriate to equate Hinduism to be merely the monist pantheism and philosophical idealism of Advaita Vedanta.
Some academics suggest that Hinduism can be seen as a category with "fuzzy edges" rather than as a well-defined and rigid entity. Some forms of religious expression are central to Hinduism and others, while not as central, still remain within the category. Based on this idea Gabriella Eichinger Ferro-Luzzi has developed a 'Prototype Theory approach' to the definition of Hinduism.