hinduism
{{background{{
- originated in the indus river valley
- indus: from this word you get hindu, hindi
- no common agreed upon structure, not everything is specific to every hindu
- almost like a family of religions
- 80% of indians are hindu
- hinduism is more of an ethnic religion
{{the vedic age: aryan roots of hinduism{{
- aryans move from central asia into india
- when they come in, they run into the dravidians
- dravidian speaking peoples sort of pushed south
- eventually aryans take a good portion of the area
- not nomadic people anymore, settle around the ganges
- develop their writing system - sanskrit
- what we know about the aryans is noted in the vedas
- vedas: not only religious scripture but also aryan history
- oldest veda: rig veda
- development of gods
- gods sort of mirrored (zeus and indra)
- ahimsa (non violence)
- in the past they believed in sacrifice
- not anymore
- asceticism
- hoping to calm or placate an angry god by showing penance
- this develops into just discipline and body training
- yoga: remnant of early asceticism
- aryanism/aryan religion
- “brahman” (brahmanism?)
{{the meaning of life: reincarnation{{
reincarnation
- belief that when you die, you reincarnate
- eventually you want to leave this cycle and join brahmin
- samsara
brahman - the great world soul
- people that are closer to moksha are brahmin
- what you have to do, the actions you have to take depend on your class or varna
dharma
- varna
- based on varna, you have what you’re supposed to do
- loosely translated into caste system - but that's not really it
- color associated with this as well
- aryans - lighter skin
- dravidians - darker skin
- varna means color
- this is are economic divisions and socioeconomic differences
cows!
- were the sacred beast
- big part of religion
- cows might date back to harappan civilization
- highest in the class system
{{hindu beliefs{{
- 5 virtues
- purity
- non-violence
- the pantheon:
- many indians see themselves as monotheistic as they believe that all these gods and goddesses are forms or reincarnations of that great world soul
- triumvirate- three powerful/main gods
- brahma (the creator)
- four arms, four heads
- not as commonly worshiped as the other two
- consort/wife: saraswati - goddess of knowledge and the arts
- vishnu (the preserver)
- blue
- consort/wife: lakshmi - goddess of wealth and prosperity
- incarnation of krishna and rama
- shiva (the destroyer)
- also blue
- you need the destroyer for the cycle of reincarnation
- consort/wife: parvati - incarnations of the divine mother - goddess of power and motherhood…also has some incarnations herself
- has a third eye, trident, snakes
- parvati - her other aspects
- durga
mother in a fierce way
overseer of seasons
- kali
the master of death and time and change
dark blue or black
appeared over the anger of durga in order to slay demons
- other gods!
- ganesha - god of intellect and the remover of obstacles
- elephant head
- son of shiva and parvati
- hanuman - monkey god who assists rama
- example of loving devotion to somebody
- becomes god of martial arts later
- sacred writings
- the vedas
- 4 vedas
- originally passed orally until sanskrit was developed
- has like hymns recited at rituals
- the upanishads
- basically commentaries of the vedas
- two really important epics
- mahabharata
- very long poem
- describes in detail the war between cousins between the control of the kingdom a long time ago
- a morality tale about dharma and doing your duty
- most famous section: bhagavad gita
about krishna and arjuna
states values such as reincarnation and duty
- ramayana
- about a legendary ruler named rama (incarnation of vishnu)
- banished from the kingdom and is forced to live as a hermit
- rama is basically perfect and sita is super loyal and the perfect counterpart
- good vs evil
- generosity over being selfish
- one of the heros is hanuman
puja: worship
- in the aryan times, favored the priest class
- couldn’t really get moksha unless you reincarnated
- moksha is the release and becomes one w the great world soul
- puja is usually a independent act
- the temple in hinduism are for the gods and there are priests that go and attend to the gods
- not really a space for community gathering
- many would have like a shrine at home
- pilgrimage to the river ganga, which is really holy and will purify
- bc there are so many gods and types of hinduism two popular holy days are:
- diwali
- light vs dark
- festival of light
- associated with lakshmi
- holi
- ancient
- celebrates lord vishnu
- spring festival
- shiva nataraja: lord of the dance
- tandavam
- lots of symbols and etc present