{"id":95,"date":"2021-01-27T17:39:39","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T17:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/understandingreligion\/chapter\/hinduism\/"},"modified":"2024-08-20T21:22:20","modified_gmt":"2024-08-20T21:22:20","slug":"hinduism","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/understandingreligion\/chapter\/hinduism\/","title":{"rendered":"4.1 Hinduism"},"content":{"raw":"

\"The<\/a><\/p>\r\nHinduism is also known as 'sanatana dharma<\/em>' to Hindus. Considered the oldest organized religion in the world, Hinduism originated in the Indus River Valley about 4,000 years ago in what is now northwest India and Pakistan. With about 1.2 billion followers, about 15% of the world's population, Hinduism is the third largest of the world\u2019s religions. Hindus believe in a divine power that can manifest as different entities or avatars.\u00a0 Hindu practice has many seemingly independent centers of tradition, often with distinctive sacred texts, deities, myths, rituals, saintly figures, codes of conduct, festivals and so on, but on closer scrutiny these different centers can be seen to link up with each other. This also explains how, while other faiths and civilizations have come and gone, Hinduism continues to thrive and put out new shoots and roots, even when old ones have died away.\u00a0 Diversity is accepted in Hindu traditions, as it considers each path one of value.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_675\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"512\"]\"Hinduism<\/a> Hinduism expansion in Asia, from its heartland in Indian Subcontinent, to the rest of Asia, especially Southeast Asia, started circa 1st century marked with the establishment of early Hindu settlements and polities in Southeast Asia.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nThree main incarnations of the divine, called the Trimurti\u2014Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva\u2014are sometimes compared to the manifestations of the divine in the Christian Trinity. They are considered the deities of creation, preservation and destruction.\u00a0 They are a part of Brahman--the One Ultimate Reality.\u00a0 Although there are many deities beyond these three, and many images of those deities, in various shrines, temples and holy places, there are no images of Brahman.\u00a0 That One Ultimate Reality is unknowable and beyond human comprehension.\u00a0 But all deities are a part of that One Ultimate Reality.\u00a0 And human goals are to become united with that One--to achieve moksha.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_646\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"512\"]\"Hinduism<\/a> Hinduism percent population in each nation World Map Hindu data by Pew Research[\/caption]\r\n

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History<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n
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Hinduism developed within a group of tribes who referred to themselves as Aryans. There are disputes concerning where they originated; some scholarship says that they were already present in western India, others that they came into the area from Central Asia, or even that they came from further west, including eastern Europe. It is\u00a0 known that the Aryans began to assert their presence in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent at about the beginning of the second millennium BCE,\u00a0 interacting with the Indus civilization that already existed there. The Indus civilization is so named because it seems to have spread out from settlements on the Indus river. They called the Indus river \u2018Sindhu<\/em>\u2019, and it is from this term that \u2018Hindu\u2019 comes. Hinduism thus signifies the Aryans\u2019 culture and religious traditions as they developed over time, incorporating elements from other cultures that the Aryans encountered along the way.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The religious tradition that emerged early on\u00a0 (almost before anything that looks like modern Hinduism) had a variety of <\/span>gods and<\/span> was centered on priests performing sacrifices using fire and sacred chants. This is much like traditions in many places around the continent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_642\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\"]\"The<\/a> The Rig Veda is one of the oldest and most important texts in the \u015bruti tradition of Hinduism.[\/caption]\r\n

The Indus river valley people create sacred texts, collectively called the Vedas, that contain hymns and rituals from ancient India and are mostly written in Sanskrit. The term Vedas means \u2018knowledge\u2019. The Vedas were believed to have arisen from the infallible \u2018hearing\u2019 (\u015bruti<\/em>), by ancient seers, of the sacred deposit of words whose recitation and contemplation bring stability and wellbeing to both the natural and human worlds. The Vedas are believed to have developed over a span of 2000 years.\u00a0 The hymns in particular were largely directed at transcendent powers, most of whom were called devas\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0dev\u012bs\u00a0<\/em>(misleadingly translated as \u2018gods\u2019 and \u2018goddesses\u2019). These powers, individually or in groups, were thought to exercise control over the world through cosmic forces. In this early phase of the Veda, there is reference to a One (ekam<\/em>) that undergirds all being. During later periods of this earliest pre-Hindu tradition, questioning and changes in spiritual philosophy produced the <\/span>Upanishads, an addition to the Vedas.\u00a0 These are also written in<\/span>\u00a0Sanskrit and contain some of the central philosophical concepts and ideas of the Hinduism we now know. These works record insights into external and internal spiritual reality (Brahman and Atman) that can be directly experienced.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Hindus generally believe in a set of principles called dharma<\/em>, which refer to one\u2019s duty in the world that corresponds with \u201cright\u201d actions. Hindus also believe in karma<\/em>, or the notion that spiritual ramifications of one\u2019s actions are balanced cyclically in this life or a future life (reincarnation).<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n

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Introduction to Hinduism: Discovering Sacred Texts in the British Library, PBS Learning<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

\r\n\r\nThis excellent introduction to Hinduism is found at the really impressive British Library website exploring Sacred Texts of the world.\u00a0 Start here:\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/1AxUtOLG9gc\r\n\r\nAfter this, watch this simple introduction to Hindu Concepts from PBS Learning Media:\r\n