Hinduism and Diversity
- Beaker or flagon, or bowl or jar,
- clumsy or slender, coarse or fine;
- however the potter may make or mar
- all were made to contain the wine
- Should we this one seek or that one
shun
- when the wine which gives them their
worth is one
-
- Into the bosom of the one great sea
- Flow streams that come from hills
on every side,
- Their names are various as their springs,
- And thus in every land do men bow
down
- To one Great God though known by many
names. (Indian Folk Song)
-
Supreme reality: Brahman
- Thou art that
- Atman and Brahman are one
- I am Brahman
- All this is indeed Brahman (Chandogya Upanishad)
-
- The Human Condition: Samsara,
Karma, and Moksa
- Karma is a law of cause and effect that propels the phenomenal
or illusory self forward in the endless cycle of birth, death
and rebirth known as Samsara. Release from Samsara is Moksa,
liberation from the effects of karma.
-
Three paths (Margas):
- knowledge - jnana
- works or service - karma
- bhakti - devotion.
Historical Background to
Development of Philosophic Traditions
-
- 1) Original inhabitants of India - stone age culture traced
back 400,000-200,000 BCE. Variety of funerial practices (burial,
cremation, partial cremation) point to a variety of cultures.
- Prehistoric
cave paintings at Bhimbetka ca. 30,000 B.C.E. discovered
in 1967. Site located 46 km south of Bhopal. Petroglyphs
Pachmarhi Mesolithic site
- Prehistoric
Art Virtual Museum
- Map of
Madhya Pradesh
- Visit Discover
India Gallery
-
2) Indus Valley Civilization: The Indus Valley civilization
extended over a vast area (almost a half a million square miles)
of northwestern and northern India.
- The Harappa culture seems to have been dominated by large
urban centres .
- Two major sites: Harappa and Mohenjo-Dara
- Bronze Age culture
- dating dispute 2,600-1,900 BCE or possibly 3300-3000 BCE
- evidence of trade with Sumeria, Crete and Egypt
- brick building culture
- sewage system unparalleled until Romans
- baths - great bath 39 ' by 23 ' and 8 ' deep (was this for
ritual purification?)
- writing, but script not yet deciphered
- seals and terracotta figures - some connected to Siva and
Sakti cults
- mother goddess worship associated with female figurines
- animal figurines include bull, but also include the following:
ram, elephant, monkey, dog, turtle and perhaps tiger
- Around
the Indus in 90 slides by Jonathan Mark Kenoyer
-
- Slides 5 and 6 topography 7 Mohenjo-Dara mound; 8 and 9 excavated
baths MD; 11 well MD; 13 Harappa Mound; 14 well H ; 15 granary;
23 and 24 toys Nuasharo/H; 24 mound tablet MD; 25 unicorn seal
MD; 27 bull seal H; 28 bison seal MD; 32 complex seal MD; 33
34 human figure seal MD; 35 multi-headed ram MD; 39 male head;
41 priest bust; 47 figurines; 51 female figure; 54 and 56 bull
figures; 69 and 70 burial pottery; 71 burial of adult male H;
72 woman and infant H; 79 ornaments; 80 carnelian belt MD; 87
mask MD; 89 sacrifice scene tablet H; 90 reverse female deity
-
- Before the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilization, historians
theorized that early Hindu thought was brought by Aryan invaders
from Indo-Europe. The initial interpretation of the archeological
data was used to support this conclusion. The Rig Veda mentions
destruction of powerful centers and irrigations schemes. Perhaps
the Indus Valley civilization was in fact destroyed by the invading
Aryan peoples, or the Indus dried up and cities were already
near death when the Aryans conquered. Recently, this theory has
been called into question. The vestiges of the Harappa culture
suggest that it included elements of the theism and yogic practices
now central to Hinduism. The debate illustrates the contemporary
awareness that all so-called scientific hypotheses are ideologically
driven. The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries drive to
locate the beginning of literary cultures in Europe has been
tied to the European hunger for empire. Current theorists are
interested in proving that literary cultures arose independently
raising the question of whether they are motivated by the new
valuation of difference.
- Perhaps influences of Harappa culture are best seen in the
fire ritual of Agni in which an elaborate brick altar is constructed
and then burnt after a long ceremony involving recitation of
the vedas.
-
- Perhaps Harrapa represents a highly developed proto Dravidian
culture, ancestors to Tamils of today.
-
- 4) The next stage in the development of Hindu thought is
Vedic religion manifest in the Vedic literature that appears
after the incursion of the Aryan invaders and settlers who spread
from the Northwest down through India. The language of the Vedas
is Sanskrit, an Indoeuropean language.
-
- Arya - the noble ones
-
- Hierarchical structure:
- Brahmins - priestly leaders, custodians of the all-powerful
sacrifice
- Ksatriyas - horse-riding noble men
- Vaisyas - independent farmer, cattle breeder, artisans and
traders
- Sudras - services
-
- The Brahminic Religion entailed animal sacrifice and recitation
of hymns and rites handed down in oral tradition generation to
generation
-
- The purpose of Vedci sacrifice seems to have been to sustain
the universe through the cooperation of human beings and the
gods. Vedic
Yajna
-
-
- The creation of the cosmic order is described in the Rig
Veda as the result of the sacrifice of a "world soul"
purusha.
-
- Thousand-headed was Purusa, thousand-yed, thousand-footed.
He having covered the earth on all sides, extended beyond it
the length of ten fingers.
- Purusa is this all, that has been and that will be. And he
is the lord of immortality, which he grows beyond through food.
- One fourth of him is all beings. Three fourths of him is
the immortal in heaven. ...
- That Purusa, born in the beginning, they besprinkled as a
sacrifice on the strew: with him the gods, the Sadhas, and the
rishi sacrified. ...
- When they divided Purusa, into how many parts did they dispose
him? What did his mouth become? What are his two arms, his two
thighs, his two feet called?
- His mouth was the Brahman, his two arms were made the warrior,
his two thighs the Vaisya; from his two feet the Sudra was born.
- The moon was born from his mind; from his eye the sun was
born; from his mouth Indra and Agni, from his breath Vayu was
born.
- From his navel was produced the air; from his head the sky
was evolved; from his two feet the earth, from his ear the quarters;
thus they fashioned the worlds. 10.90
-
- One of the most famous of the sacrifices no longer practiced
is the horse sacrifice (ashvamedha) in which a horse is set free
to roam for a period of a year at the end of which it is sacrificed
Wherever the horse sets foot uncontested pays fielty to the master
of the horse.
-
- Elements of vedic sacrifice continue to this day in one form
or another, but animal sacrifice is not considered normative.
The Agnihotra
(fire sacrifice) continues to have central importance. It is
performed by the properly initiated household at dawn and sunset
by burning ghee and rice (cow dung may also be burned) while
reciting mantras. Sacrifice to Agni played a central role in
virtually all vedic sacrifices.
- Light is Agni, Agni is light. The one who is light, he calls
light . . . Agni offers
itself in sacrifice to the rising Sun and the setting Sun offers
itself in sacrifice to
Agni in the evening; Night sacrifices itself to the Day and Day
sacrifices itself to
the Night. Kaushitaki Brahmana152
- To the Lord, the far-renowned, the wise Ordainer,
ancient and glorious, I offer the tribute of a song.
Anointed with oil is he, the Lord, the powerful
giver of bliss and guardian of noble riches. RV V, 15, 1-2
-
- On the power of sacrifice which is grounded in highest heaven
and by Cosmic Order in Cosmic Order established,
[our Fathers], though mortal, attained immortal seats
in those spheres above which firmly support the heavens. RV X,
80, 4
-
- Agni extends the sacrifice to heaven:
his forms are scattered everywhere. RV X, 100, 6
- I pray to Agni, the household priest who is the god of the
sacrifice, the one who chants and invokes and brings most treasure.
- Agni earned the prayers of the ancient sages, and of those
of the present, too: he will bring the gods here.
- Through Agni one may win wealth, and growth from day to day,
glorious and most abounding in heroic sons.
- Agni, the sacrificial ritual that you encompass on all sides
-- only that one goes to the gods.
- Agni, the priest with the sharp sight of a poet, the true
and most brilliant, the god will come with the gods.
- Whatever good you wish to do for the one who worships you,
Agni, through you, O Angiras, that comes true.
- To you, Agni, who shine upon darkness, we come day after
day, bringing our thoughts and homage.
- To you, the king over sacrifices, the shining guardian of
the Order, growing in your own house.
- Be easy for us to reach, like a father to his son. Abide
with us, Agni, for our happiness. Rg Veda 1.1
-
- Vedic rituals are observed by most Hindus on ceremonial occasions.