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    ask an Indian religions student

    I'm a Neopagan, but I focused heavily on Indian religions (especially Hinduism) in my undergrad religious studies degree, and I'm young enough to still know where my books and notes are--so if you have a question I can't answer right off I can look it up for you and at least point you in the right direction.

    If you're reading this and you are a Hindu, Jain, Sikh, or Muslim, please feel more than welcome to answer any questions anyone posts!

    #2
    Re: ask an Indian religions student

    I've been dieing to ask somebody this because I've read conflicting answers-

    In Hinduism, are the gods and goddesses viewed as independent entities, or are they all manifestations of various aspects of a single deity? Or something other than those choices?
    Every moment of a life is a horrible tragedy, a slapstick comedy, dark nihilism, golden illumination, or nothing at all; depending on how we write the story we tell ourselves.

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      #3
      Re: ask an Indian religions student

      As in Paganism, the answer is "all of the above." By far the most common idea in Hinduism is that all are aspects of one deity, although who that deity is depends on the preferences, family, and region of the individual (Devi, Vishnu, Krishna, Rama, Shiva, and a formless One are favorites). However, in worship, prayers are addressed to individual deities as if they are independent entities. Some scholar or other noted that while you're doing your morning prayers to Ganesha, He is the most high and powerful, the origin of everything... and then when you move on to your Durga prayers, She is the most high and powerful origin of everything, and so on.

      Mythology makes it no simpler. Many holy stories treat the deities as independent entities interacting in anthropomorphic ways, but there are plenty of stories out there about deities being part of other deities. Durga comes immediately to mind as a Goddess literally summoned out of the strengths of the male gods, as do Vishnu and his many incarnations (a couple of whom are worshipped largely in their own right).

      Does that help?

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        #4
        Re: ask an Indian religions student

        [quote author=Gwen link=topic=212.msg1603#msg1603 date=1286878533]
        Does that help?
        [/quote]

        Yes - thanks, it does. It also makes a lot of sense, at least to me.
        Every moment of a life is a horrible tragedy, a slapstick comedy, dark nihilism, golden illumination, or nothing at all; depending on how we write the story we tell ourselves.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: ask an Indian religions student

          I was talking to someone about Hinduism, and I was being a smarty pants, though we all know I have the brain of a 12 year old boy, and I just wanted to know if what I said was accurate or just wrong.

          What I said was that Hinduism doesn't really describe a specific religion but in a way it's a description of religions that came out from that part of the world. (Al-Hind is the Arabic word for India by the way)

          And that you'll find all kinds of beliefs, from strict monotheism to hard polytheism and many more.

          So, do you think what I said was accurate? Enlighten me!

          Thanks
          [4:82]

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            #6
            Re: ask an Indian religions student

            Originally Hindu was used by I believe Muslims in the late medieval period to describe "those people who live near the Indus River Valley." At that time it was a catch-all for everything practiced in that space, and yes, there was and is incredible diversity in belief and practice (though more similarity in practice--you believe different things, but worship in similar ways).

            When the Brits came in they adopted the category whole-heartedly and did a lot of colonial "scholarship" trying to make it all fit into one religion (using a preconceived and Christian-based definition of religion). Insert two centuries of colonial messy interchange here. Some Brits wanted to convert 'em all; some Indian philosophers responded by holding up and prioritizing the Upanishads, a collection of philosophical-religious monistic texts that are fairly gnostic and comparatively inoffensive to Western monotheism. Some Brits wanted to understand preserve Indian religion, and searched for the Bible equivalent (there isn't one, exactly), and they held up and prioritized texts like the Bhagavad-Gita (which is one tiny chapter of the much-beloved Mahabharata holy epic). People like Gandhi honored and nationalized specific parts of India's vastly diverse religious experiences in the (sometimes deliberate) interest of aiding the creation of a united front to fight imperialism.

            The process of seeing themselves as all one religion with a name, a pantheon, and a set of beliefs and practices certainly didn't start with colonialism. Hindus have been in interaction and dialogue with other religions forever, and especially under medieval Muslim Mughal rule, there was interest in who was what and why, and how they were different from each other and from others. However, my understanding is that the formation of a clear internally cohesive identity happened in interchange with and reaction to British rule, and it's not til then that we see Hindu nationalism (which requires both a discrete Hinduism and a discrete nation, two things that didn't exist before).

            So now we have a dramatic increase in the tendency to identify local deities with more popular national ones, and to make local myths, theologies, and practices fit within a national religious narrative (which, don't get me wrong, allows for a ton of diversity in all of the above). For example, I had the opportunity to live with a host family and take classes in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, in southeastern India. Madurai is built around a huge temple to the goddess Meenakshi. She is one of many, many local goddesses whose mythic cycle places her in relationship with national deities: She's married to Shiva, and is identified with His wife Parvati; Vishnu is Her brother. (Parvati is not related to Vishnu in more popular national mythologies.) Shiva and Vishnu both have local names specific to the Meenakshi stories, and these names probably indicate that Her husband and brother were independent local deities that got absorbed into these more popular gods.

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              #7
              Re: ask an Indian religions student

              What are some good sources to learn more about the Hindu gods (and various assorted myths, etc)?


              Mostly art.

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                #8
                Re: ask an Indian religions student

                Depends a bit on where you're starting from. If you have little or no experience I recommend Fenton's Religions of Asia as an excellent starting place--about 1/3 of the book is about Hinduism. You can also browse around places like Encylopedia Mythica and Godchecker, although that will give you the stories with no broader context, history, or sense of inter-relationship.

                The Little Book of Hindu Deities is cute and surprisingly informative.

                If you know a little bit (or are comfy jumping in at the deep end), I can't recommend Flood's Introduction to Hinduism highly enough. Wendy Doniger-O'Flaherty and Diana Eck have each written many really insightful books on a variety of specific and general Hinduism topics.

                If you're interested in a specific deity, Penguin publishes a neat series of short books like Book of Shiva, Book of Ganesha, Book of Devi, Book of Vishnu, and Book of Krishna.

                If you've got some background and are interested in a specific topic let me know and I'll see what I can dig up.

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                  #9
                  Re: ask an Indian religions student

                  I thought of an addition, Volcaniclastic: if you're looking for primary source myths, you want a class of texts called the Puranas. Most of them are named "[deity's name] Purana," and there's one for Garuda, Vishnu, Matsya, Skanda, Shiva, Vayu, (sage) Narada, Agni, and many others. I'd advise having some background before you go here! They include not only myths (and not necessarily mostly myths about the title deity), but also ritual and pilgrimage instructions, legal tracts, and a variety of other types of information. There are several readers out there that draw from the puranic texts of myths, such as Classical Hindu Mythology: A Reader in the Hindu Puranas.

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                    #10
                    Re: ask an Indian religions student

                    Can you, please, explain the role of polycephaly?

                    P.S. Shouldn't this topic be in "Pagan Traditions" subforum? :-\



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                      #11
                      Re: ask an Indian religions student

                      [quote author=Caliburn link=topic=212.msg7349#msg7349 date=1288208459]
                      Can you, please, explain the role of polycephaly?
                      [/quote]

                      Good question, and not one that has a solid answer. There's generally a story (or, more often, several stories) about why specific deities have multiple heads, and I'm sure someone has done research on the broader trends, but I'm not aware of it. It appears often in early-developed forms of Buddhism too, which makes sense as the latter developed in an Indian religious context. All I can tell you without further research is that it sometimes signifies the great wisdom of the multi-headed figure (as with Brahma the creator), and sometimes (especially when paired with extra arms) the great compassion, power, and/or superhuman helping abilities. (Literal extra eyes to keep on things, and extra hands to lend!)

                      [quote author=Caliburn link=topic=212.msg7349#msg7349 date=1288208459]
                      P.S. Shouldn't this topic be in "Pagan Traditions" subforum? :-\
                      [/quote]

                      The basic question is, do we label based on our perceptions of a religion or on the perceptions of the practitioners? When I was living and studying in India for 4 months, no one knew the word Pagan. When I explained it as indigenous European religion with a focus on God in the natural world, they often saw an affinity with Hinduism and with Dalit ("untouchable&quot religion (which some Dalits separate from Hinduism--but that's a longer story). I certainly see affinities, and have relationships with several Hindu deities. However, because the label can only be applied from an alien cultural context, I don't.

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