Religions of South Asia

Do Now:

• Write (2 paragraphs -> 1 page) a letter to someone who has never even heard of your faith (or one you are familiar with) & describe in detail the tenets of your faith.

Beginnings…• Religious beliefs have foundation in early Indus

Valley Civilization & Aryan culture– 1st prayers were memorized by priest & passed on by

oral tradition (priests therefore highly valued in society)

– Later Sanskrit dev- early Aryan written lang.• Mod langs of Ind rooted in Sanskrit

– Polytheistic• Indra= most important; god of war. Had human

characteristics. Made world from dead body (foundation for idea that body was not YOU)

• Varuna= strict figure; governed univ & punished sinners• Myths of their lives & power found in the Vedas

• Epic Age (900-500 BCE)– Period of cultural growth & societal change– Aryans spread across Indo-Gangetic Plain– Est. villages & became farmers & herders

• Ppl measured wealth in terms of cattle– Vedas compares cows to Earth; rain= cow’s milk; Sun= calf

• Cattle eventually are replaced by copper coins as $$$• Rajahs (hereditary chiefs/princes) rule villages. Hold

great pwr & are only ppl able to make sacrifices to gods• Divide ppl into 4 social classes called varna- becomes

basis for caste system

– Base for Hindu religion emerges through the Epics

Origins of Hinduism• Epic Period named b/c 2 epics written during this

time. Both are relig texts in Hinduism• 1) Mahabharata

– the world’s longest poem; about war btw 2 Aryan families who fought to control kingdom. (cousins)

• Maha= great. Mahabharata= great history of mankind.

– The Bhagavad-Gita is a part of the poem-• About performing your duty (role) in life w/out emotion- idea

is central to Hinduism– Dialogue btw the warrior Arjuna & the deity, Krishna. Arjuna’s

role in life is a warrior but he has to fight family… should he???

– Moral: actions should be done b/c they are right for god (be selfless & motiveless). Souls are eternal (only killing a body)

• 2) Ramayana– About Prince Rama & his wife Sita

• Rama is human & doesn’t know that he is the incarnation of the god Vishnu (7th)

• Exiled by stepmom. Sita gets stolen by demon king & Rama fights for her

– Sita is always faithful. Rama is always brave

– Return victorious to homeland

• Happy ending & moral tells role of good man & good woman

• 4 sacred books total

Mahabharata & Ramayana - sacred in teachings

Vedas- sacred in sacrifice (earliest text)

Upanishads- sacred in philosophy

Tenets of Hinduism• Hindus believe that every living thing has a soul that is

part of the Brahman (universal spirit)– “nameless”, formless & unlimited– Why many are vegetarians

• Your soul= atman- when body dies, atman is reborn/ reincarnated– This cycle of life & death= samsara– What you will be reincarnated as is determined by your karma-

the energy you create by doing good deeds/actions. You are creating your next destiny

– dharma= your duty in life. You must fulfill your duty/dharma to get good karma to proceed to the next level

– Purpose is spiritual progress. Goal is moksha= freedom from cycle of life & death.

• Atman is permanently united with Brahman for eternity

– body is cremated (ideally along Ganges) to free atman--- body is only a vehicle for your soul

Reincarnation

• Hindus have as many as 300,000 deities. No one worships all of them. Rather they are ways to understand the Brahman which is nameless, formless & unlimited– (The Inuit have forty-eight different names for snow in their

language because they know snow intimately in its different variations, not because they are ignorant of the fact that all snow is only one.)

– The 3 most popular gods are

• Brahma: the creator of the universe

• Vishnu: the preserver of the universe

• Shiva: the destroyer of the universe (but not bad- destroy so it can be recreated)

• A Cycle!!! Together they are the Hindu Trinity!

• The many different deities of Hinduism reflect such an intimate realization of the Divine on various levels.

• The many deities of Hinduism, which may be seen as reflecting different aspects of Brahman, are represented by images.

• The images helped to tell the religious epics & their morals to the population (who was vastly illiterate)

• The images help make distinctions btw humans and the divine. – The gods are not human & humans cannot fully know

a god; therefore, they cannot look human.

• The images also make distinctions so that ppl can tell the gods apart.

• Features such as posture, dress, multiple arms and symbolic objects are used to represent each deity. – there may be a range of different ways of representing a

particular deity, particularly when the deity is seen to represent several different qualities. In some cases, symbols are used to show that a deity belongs to a particular 'family', e.g. there is a range of deities associated with Vishnu. In addition some symbols belong to the common heritage of Hinduism or more generally of India.

• Each deity is associated with a 'vehicle', a bird or animal on which it travels. The vehicles are used in Indian religious art to reflect and at times to extend the powers or qualities of the deity with which it is associated. These are often better expressed by an animal than by a human being. The vehicle also represents the close relationship between all living things.

• Hinduism contains many feminine forms of the Divine like Kali, Durga, Lakshmi and Sarasvati.

• These represent different feminine qualities and functions of the Divine which contains both male and female energies. – For example, Kali portrays the destructive energy, Lakshmi

the nourishing, and Sarasvati the creative, while Durga is the Divine Mother in her protective role.

• Hinduism recognizes that the Divine contains both masculine and feminine attributes. – Without giving proper honor to the feminine qualities a

religion must be incomplete and one-sided, which must result in its teachings having negative consequences.

– Without recognizing the feminine aspect of Divinity one cannot claim to know God.

– To recognize the feminine is necessary to restore wholeness, completeness and universality

• Indian Paintings can be broadly classified as the murals & miniatures.

• Murals are huge works executed on the walls of solid structures.

• Miniature paintings are those executed on a very small scale on perishable material such as paper, cloth, etc., Though this style had been perfected by artisans under the various rules, not many remain today.

Spread of Hinduism (cultural diffusion)