Historical Development
–> Hinduism traced back to the ancient beliefs of Aryans
• thousands of Indo-Europeans (Aryans) began to migrate to the Indian subcontinent
• fusion of their faith and the indigenous religious beliefs created the Hindu tradition
–> Some of Hinduism’s features can be traced back to the Harappa culture
• Harappa culture lived along the banks of the Indus River
• (a.k.a Indus Valley civilization)
Hinduism
- 1 billion Hindus
* majority in India and Nepal
Vedic period
Aryans migrated to India and mixed with the indigenous Harappa culture forming the religion of the Vedic period
Aryans beliefs…
–> worshipped deities that represented beauty and the forces of nature
• Indra (female deity of the storm)
• Agni (female deity of fire)
• Varna (female deity of the sky)
• Soma (male deity of the moon who ruled the stars)
–> ritual sacrifices of animals to invoke the deities
–> Aryans left records of their religious beliefs and practices in writings that developed into the books of Hinduism
• (next few cards)
Vedas
- collections of hymns, prayers, myths, rituals, and beliefs of the creation and the deities
- considered to be Transhuman (divine origin, not authorship of man)
–> original language of the Vedas is believed to be Sanskrit
Vedas = divided into 4 collections
1) Rig Veda
2) Atharva-Veda
3) sama-Veda
4) yamur-Veda
Rig Veda (one of the 4 Vedas)
- oldest of the 4 Vedas
- oldest Scripture in the world
- collection of 1,054 hymns
- religious, social, and political verses
Atharva-Veda (one of the 4 Vedas)
- magic blessings and curses
* book of charms and incantations
Upanishads
- later writings that were added to the earlier writings
- contain advice from Hindu Mystics
- reincarnation and the idea of karma is first mentioned
- speculated on the nature of knowledge and the theory behind Vedic ritual
- do not reject the Vedic texts, but rather demonstrate a critical rethinking of the material
Upanishadic Era
- between the Vedic period and the classical Hinduism period
* a time when critical thinking urged a reformulation of the earlier Vedic texts
2 epic poems
1) the Mahabharata
• 2 Indian families who are fighting for control of a kingdom in a bloody war
• poem Bhagavad-Gita (“Lord’s song”)
2) the Ramayana
• tells the story of the wandering of Prince Rama and his wife Shita who are exiled because of a jealous stepmother
Law of Manu
- describes Varna (the caste system)
* divides Hindus into a complex and rigid social system with 1,000’s of different castes or categories
Basic Hindu beliefs
–> Nature of Reality
• all reality is one with Brahman (the Ultimate Reality)
• the individual self (atman) is one with Brahman and everything else in the universe
–> Samsara
• life is a cycle of birth, life, and death
–> karma
• actions that an individual performs while living determines future lives
–> Moksha
• THE GOAL
• release from samsara
• the purpose of reincarnations is spiritual progress to reach moksha
–> Dharma
• rules and duties for Hindus that provide a guide for living
- -> 4 Stages of life — progress to attain enlightenment
1) student
2) householder
3) anchorite (living in seclusion to meditate/study)
4) Sannyasi (holy man wandering among people)
–> Ahimsa
• “do no harm”
Brahman
Ultimate Reality
Gupta period
- during this time that Hindu tradition came to dominate India
- rise of Hinduism and the crystallization of the Hindu tradition as we know it today
Ghandi
- led a campaign for independence from British rule
* endorsed Satyagraha (non-violence)
