final hinduism

epistemology

The study of knowledge. How we know what we know. How our knowledge is shaped, and the conditions that shape our knowledge.

Orientalism

Study of Asia by colonials.

East India Company

Joint stock trading company that colonized South Asia. Got military aid and goods in exchange for resources they sent back. Conducted the census and categorized people.

Colonial Census

Took the idea of caste and made it more entrenched in society. Everyone was categorized by caste and it was inescapable, which led to the marginalization of groups previously outside the system and some people were born into criminalized castes.

Caste

Social hierarchy that was mentioned in the hymn of Man through the varna system. The colonial census took preexisting caste system and generalized it to everyone.

Dalit

means oppressed. people who fell outside of the caste system. Associated with worship of ancestral and local deities. Bhuta Kola - dance of the deities, common to these traditions.

Tantra

Body is a map where cosmic elements communicate. Kundalini is serpent coil at base of spine, nadis are channels in body that carry prana, or vital life force. Intersections of nadis become chakras. Point is to use ascetic practices to ascend kundalini to the head, this union of the dormant with dynamic is depicted in shiva and parvati’s union. Nyasa means setting down, it is the mapping of cosmos, temples, and geography onto the body.

Philology

Pseudoscience concerning the classification of languages.

Phrenology

Pseudoscience concerning study of head shapes to classify people

Kali

Goddess in Hinduism associated with tantra and shakti. Has an ascetic outfit with a garland of skulls. Emerged from Durga in fight with rakta bija. Has a more domesticated image over time.

Shakti

Means animating force, power, energy. In constant motion, the animating force in all life. Connected metaphysically with shiva.

Kundalini

The serpent coil at base of spine. Asceitc practices ascend it to the head for union with shiva.

Durga

Emerges out of a ritual context to kill the water buffalo demon. Not a consort, unlike other goddesses. Kali emerges from her. Fight with water buffalo demon has early depictions from Indus Valley civilization.

Nadis

Channels throughout the body that carry prana, or vital life force. Their intersections are chakras.

Chakras

the intersections of nadis in tantra.

Nyasa

The mapping of deities onto a murti. In tantra, it means setting down - mapping of cosmos, temples, geography onto the body.

mantra

deity recognized in the form of a sound. the sound is the deity

mudra

literally means seal. Hand gestures that accompany a mantra and express the action being performed as a vital experience for the performer. Used to reinforce unity with and presence of deity also.

Theyyam

Spirit possession and dance practice by shanars. Worship of local deities in Kerala.

Darsan

means seeing and being seen. Taking it from a God giving it. done through a murti, a representation of the deity. Can also involve reading of visual theology.

murti

Either iconic or aniconic depictions of deities, different from manuscript images. require nyasa - mapping of deities and sacred places on them, prana - establish life with ritual practices by mantras, and eye opening - using gold needle or painting last part of eye

tirtha

refers to a ford or crossing. Related to religious pilgrimage and is symbolic of crossing the river of samsara into moksha

nirguna

One of the two types of bhakti poetry. Means without attribute. Belief that brahman cannot be described by attributes.

saguna

Means bhakti poetry with attributes.

bhakti

means devotion. Krishna’s solution to karma in the gita. Bhasavana compares it to a saw to emphasize its intensity

vernacular

language spoken by majority of regular people. Bhakti poetry was composed in vernacular, allowing it to spread widely geographically and made it more accessible.

virashaiva tradition

challenge economic inequalities, raised question of need for temple for shiva devotion. Says body itself is site of connection to shiva and body itself is a temple. jangamas - movers, their body is the temple. internalized the temple and the lingam. Bhasavana and mahadeviyakka were bhakti poets from this movement.

partition

hindu nationalism