-
Adi Shankara
Adi Shankara (, Sanskrit: , IAST: , pronounced ) (788 CE - 821 CE?), also known as ' and ', was an Indian philosopher who consolidated the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta, a sub-school of Vedanta. His teachings are based on the unity of the soul and Brahman, in other words non-dual Brahman, in which Brahman is viewed as without attributes. He hailed from Kalady of present day Kerala.
http://wn.com/Adi_Shankara -
Akbar
Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar ( Jalāl ud-Dīn Muhammad Akbar), also known as Shahanshah Akbar-E-Azam, Akbar the Great or Mahabali Shahanshah (23 November 1542 – 27 October 1605), was the third Mughal Emperor. He was of Timurid descent; the son of Humayun, and the grandson of Babur, the ruler who founded the Mughal dynasty in India. At the end of his reign in 1605 the Mughal empire covered most of the northern and central India and was one of the most powerful empires of its age.
http://wn.com/Akbar -
Arjuna
Arjuna or Arjun (Devanagari: अर्जुन, Thai: Archun, Tamil: Archunan; pronounced in classical Sanskrit) is one of the Pandavas, the heroes of the Hindu epic Mahābhārata. Arjuna, whose name means 'bright', 'shining', 'white' or 'silver' (cf. Latin argentum), was such a peerless archer that he is often referred to as Jishnu - the undefeatable. The third of the five Pandava brothers, Arjuna was one of the children borne by Kunti, the first wife of Pandu. Arjuna is considered to have an "Amsha" of Nara. Nara is one of the forms of Lord Narayana. He is sometimes referred to as the 'fourth Krishna' of the Mahabharata. One of his most important roles was as the dear friend and brother-in-law of Lord Krishna, from whom he heard the Bhagavad Gita before the battle of Kurukshetra.
http://wn.com/Arjuna -
Aurangzeb
Shahanshah Abul Muzaffar Muhy-ud-Din Muhammad Aurangzeb Bahadur Alamgir I, more commonly known as Aurangzeb () (full official title Al-Sultan al-Azam wal Khaqan al-Mukarram Hazrat Abul Muzaffar Muhy-ud-Din Muhammad Aurangzeb Bahadur Alamgir I, Badshah Ghazi, Shahanshah-e-Sultanat-ul-Hindiya Wal Mughaliya) ( – ), also known by his chosen imperial title Alamgir ("Conquerer of the World") (), was the 6th Mughal Emperor of India whose reign lasted from 1658 until his death in 1707.
http://wn.com/Aurangzeb -
Aurobindo
http://wn.com/Aurobindo -
Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Bal Gangadhar Tilak () –, was an Indian nationalist, teacher, social reformer and independence fighter who was the first popular leader of the Indian Independence Movement. The British colonial authorities derogatorily called the great leader as "Father of the Indian unrest". He was also conferred with the honorary title of Lokmanya, which literally means "Accepted by the people (as their leader)".
http://wn.com/Bal_Gangadhar_Tilak -
Brahmans
http://wn.com/Brahmans -
Buddhism
Buddhism (Pali/Sanskrit: बौद्ध धर्म Buddha Dharma) is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha (Pāli/Sanskrit "the awakened one"). The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE. He is recognized by adherents as an awakened teacher who shared his insights to help sentient beings end suffering (or dukkha), achieve nirvana, and escape what is seen as a cycle of suffering and rebirth.
http://wn.com/Buddhism -
Indo-Greek
http://wn.com/Indo-Greek -
Madhvacharya
:For Madhavacharya the Advaita saint, see Madhava Vidyaranya.
http://wn.com/Madhvacharya -
Max Müller
Friedrich Max Müller (December 6, 1823 – October 28, 1900), more regularly known as Max Müller, was a German philologist and Orientalist, one of the founders of the western academic field of Indian studies and the discipline of comparative religion. Müller wrote both scholarly and popular works on the subject of Indology, a discipline he introduced to the British reading public, and the Sacred Books of the East, a massive, 50-volume set of English translations prepared under his direction, stands as an enduring monument to Victorian scholarship.
http://wn.com/Max_Müller -
Ramakrishna
Ramakrishna ( Ramkṛiṣṇo Pôromôhongśo) (February 18, 1836 - August 16, 1886), born Gadadhar Chattopadhyay ( Gôdadhor Chôţţopaddhae), was a famous mystic of 19th-century India. His religious school of thought led to the formation of the Ramakrishna Mission by his chief disciple Swami Vivekananda - both were influential figures in the Bengali Renaissance as well as the Hindu renaissance during the 19th and 20th centuries. Many of his disciples and devotees believe he was an avatar or incarnation of God. He is also referred as "Paramahamsa" by his devotees, meaning "Great Swan".
http://wn.com/Ramakrishna -
Ramana Maharshi
Sri Ramana Maharshi (Tamil: ரமண மஹரிஷி) (December 30, 1879 – April 14, 1950), born Venkataraman Iyer, was a Hindu sage. He was born to a Tamil-speaking Brahmin family in Tiruchuzhi, Tamil Nadu. After having attained liberation at the age of 16, he left home for Arunachala, a mountain considered sacred by Hindus, at Tiruvannamalai, and lived there for the rest of his life. Although born a Brahmin, after having attained moksha he declared himself an "Atiasrami", a Sastraic state of unattachment to anything in life and beyond all caste restrictions. The ashram that grew around him, Sri Ramana Ashram is situated at the foothill of Arunchala, to the west to the pilgrimage town of Tiruvannamalai.
http://wn.com/Ramana_Maharshi -
Ramanuja
Ramanuja (, , Devanagari: रामानुज) ; traditionally 1017–1137, also known as Ramanujacharya, Ethirajar, Emperumannar, was a theologian, philosopher, and scriptural exegete. He is seen by as the third and most important teacher (ācārya) of their tradition (after Nathamuni and Yamunacharya), and by Hindus in general as the leading expounder of , one of the classical interpretations of the dominant Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy.
http://wn.com/Ramanuja -
René Guénon
René Guénon (November 15, 1886 – January 7, 1951) was a French author and intellectual who remains an influential figure in the domain of metaphysics, having written on topics ranging from metaphysics, sacred science and traditional studies to symbolism and initiation.
http://wn.com/René_Guénon -
Swami Rama
Swāmī Rāma (1925–1996) was born Brij Kiśore Dhasmana or Brij Kiśore Kumar, to a northern Indian Brahmin family in a small village called Toli in the Garhwal Himalayas. He became the lineage holder of the Sankya Yoga tradition of the Himalayan Masters. From an early age he was raised in the Himalayas by his master Bengali Baba and, under the guidance of his master, traveled from temple to temple and studied with a variety of Himalayan saints and sages, including his grandmaster, who was living in a remote region of Tibet. From 1949 to 1952 he held the prestigious position of Shankaracharya of Karvirpitham (also Karveer Peeth or Karweer Peeth) in South India. After returning to his master in 1952 and practicing further for many years in the Himalayan caves, Swami Rama was encouraged by his teacher to go to the West, where he spent a considerable portion of his life teaching, specifically in the United States and Europe.
http://wn.com/Swami_Rama -
Vivekananda
http://wn.com/Vivekananda -
Yavana
http://wn.com/Yavana
-
Bali is an Indonesian island located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. It is one of the country's 33 provinces with the provincial capital at Denpasar towards the south of the island.
http://wn.com/Bali -
Bangladesh (; , '), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh (Bengali: গণপ্রজাতন্ত্রী বাংলাদেশ ') is a country in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma (Myanmar) to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south. Together with the Indian state of West Bengal, it makes up the ethno-linguistic region of Bengal. The name Bangladesh means "Country of Bengal" in the official Bengali language.
http://wn.com/Bangladesh -
Burma, officially the Union of Myanmar, is the second largest country by geographical area in Southeast Asia. The country is bordered by People's Republic of China on the north-east, Laos on the east, Thailand on the south-east, Bangladesh on the west, India on the north-west and the Bay of Bengal to the south-west with the Andaman Sea defining its southern periphery. One-third of Burma's total perimeter, 1,930 kilometers (1,199 mi), forms an uninterrupted coastline.
http://wn.com/Burma -
The "Kingdom of Cambodia" "Royaume du Cambodge" (official name), also known as Cambodia, derived from Sanskrit Kambujadesa ()), is a country in Southeast Asia that borders Thailand to the west and northwest, Laos to the northeast, Vietnam to the east, and the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest. The geography of Cambodia is dominated by rivers and a lake namely: The Mekong River (Upper and Lower) (Khmer: ទន្លេមេគង្គ Tonlé Mékong Pronounced: Tonlé Mékung = Mother Water River), Sab River Tonlé Sap (Khmer: ទន្លេសាប Pronounced: Tonlé Sab = Fresh Water River), Bassac River Tonlé Bassac (Khmer: ទន្លេបាសាក់ Pronounced: Tonlé Bassuck = ?)
http://wn.com/Cambodia -
The CaribbeanPronounced or . Both pronunciations are equally valid; indeed, they see equal use even within areas of the Caribbean itself. Cf. Royal Caribbean, which stresses the second syllable. In this case, as a proper noun, those who would normally pronounce it a different way may use the pronunciation associated with the noun when referring to it. More generic nouns such as the Caribbean Community are generally referred to using the speaker's preferred pronunciation.; Dutch ; or more commonly Antilles is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (most of which enclose the sea), and the surrounding coasts. The region is located southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and North America, east of Central America, and to the north of South America.
http://wn.com/Caribbean -
Delhi, known locally as Dilli (, , {{Lang-ur| '), and by the official name National Capital Territory of Delhi''' (NCT), is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest metropolis by population in India. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with more than 12.25 million inhabitants in the territory and with nearly 22.2 million residents in the National Capital Region urban area (which also includes Noida, Gurgaon, Greater Noida, Faridabad and Ghaziabad). The name Delhi is often also used to include some urban areas near the NCT, as well as to refer to New Delhi, the capital of India, which lies within the metropolis. The NCT is a federally administered union territory.
http://wn.com/Delhi -
Hindustan (, , both Hindustān ) "Land of River Sindhu (Indus)", is one of the popular names of South Asia. Though the meaning of Hindustan has evolved over the years, after the partition of India it primarily refers to the Republic of India.
http://wn.com/Hindustan -
India (), officially the Republic of India ( ; see also official names of India), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.18 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. Mainland India is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal on the east; and it is bordered by Pakistan to the west; Bhutan, the People's Republic of China and Nepal to the north; and Bangladesh and Burma to the east. In the Indian Ocean, mainland India and the Lakshadweep Islands are in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives, while India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands share maritime border with Thailand and the Indonesian island of Sumatra in the Andaman Sea. India has a coastline of .
http://wn.com/India -
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering about 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian subcontinent; on the west by East Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and Australia; and on the south by the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, by Antarctica). It is the only ocean to be named after a country, i.e., India.
http://wn.com/Indian_Ocean -
Indonesia ( or ), officially the Republic of Indonesia (), is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With a population of around 238 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, and has the world's largest population of Muslims. Indonesia is a republic, with an elected legislature and president. The nation's capital city is Jakarta. The country shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Malaysia. Other neighboring countries include Singapore, Philippines, Australia, and the Indian territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Indonesia is a founding member of ASEAN and a member of the G-20 major economies.
http://wn.com/Indonesia -
The Indus River (Sanskrit: सिन्धु Sindhu; Sindhi: Sindhu; Abāsin "The Father River"; Punjabi: سندھ '; Hindko: سندھ '; Avestan: Harahuti; Al-Sind; "Lion River"; ; Greek: Ινδός Indós; Turki: Nilab) is a major river which flows through the northern Indian Subcontinent.
http://wn.com/Indus_River -
Kathmandu (, pronounced: ; ) is the capital and largest metropolitan city of Nepal. The city is the urban core of the Kathmandu Valley in the Himalayas, which also contains two sister cities namely Patan or Lalitpur, to its southeast (an ancient city of fine arts and crafts) and Bhaktapur, to its east (city of devotees). It is also acronymed as 'KTM' and named 'tri-city'. Kathmandu valley is only slightly smaller than Singapore in terms of area.
http://wn.com/Kathmandu -
Laos (, , or ), officially the '''Lao People's Democratic Republic''', is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and People's Republic of China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west.
http://wn.com/Laos -
Malaysia (pronounced or ) is a federal constitutional monarchy in Southeast Asia. It consists of thirteen states and three federal territories and has a total landmass of . The country is separated by the South China Sea into two regions, Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo (also known as West and East Malaysia respectively). Malaysia shares land borders with Thailand, Indonesia, and Brunei and has maritime boundaries with Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines. The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. The population as of 2009 stood at over 28 million.
http://wn.com/Malaysia -
Mauritius (; Mauritian Creole: Moris; , ) officially the Republic of Mauritius (Mauritian Creole: Republik Moris; ) is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar. In addition to the island of Mauritius, the Republic includes the islands of Cargados Carajos, Rodrigues and the Agalega Islands. Mauritius Island is part of the Mascarene Islands, with the French island of Réunion to the southwest and the island of Rodrigues to the northeast.
http://wn.com/Mauritius -
http://wn.com/Persia -
The Philippines ( ), officially known as the Republic of the Philippines (), is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam. The Sulu Sea to the southwest lies between the country and the island of Borneo, and to the south the Celebes Sea separates it from other islands of Indonesia. It is bounded on the east by the Philippine Sea. Its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire and its tropical climate make the Philippines prone to earthquakes and typhoons but have also endowed the country with natural resources and made it one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world. An archipelago comprising 7,107 islands, the Philippines is categorized broadly into three main geographical divisions: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Its capital city is Manila.
http://wn.com/Philippines -
http://wn.com/Republic_of_India -
The Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe; to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland; while Lesotho is an independent country wholly surrounded by South African territory.
http://wn.com/South_Africa -
Thailand ( or ; Ratcha Anachak Thai, ), formerly Siam (, ), is an independent country that lies in the heart of Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and the southern extremity of Burma. Its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast and Indonesia and India in the Andaman Sea to the southwest.
http://wn.com/Thailand -
The United States of America (also referred to as the United States, the U.S., the USA, or America) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Caribbean and Pacific.
http://wn.com/United_States -
Vietnam ( ; , ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (, ), is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by People's Republic of China (PRC) to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea, referred to as East Sea (), to the east. With a population of over 86 million, Vietnam is the 13th most populous country in the world.
http://wn.com/Vietnam -
http://wn.com/West_Indies
- Abrahamic religions
- Adi Shankara
- Advaita Vedanta
- Akbar
- Arabic
- Arjuna
- Arya Samaj
- Aurangzeb
- Aurobindo
- Avatar
- B.K.S. Iyengar
- Bal Gangadhar Tilak
- Bali
- Bangladesh
- Bengali language
- bhakti
- Bhakti movement
- Blackwell Publishing
- Brahman
- Brahmans
- Brahmo Samaj
- British colonialism
- British Raj
- Buddhism
- Burma
- Cambodia
- Caribbean
- census
- Central Asia
- Chaitanya
- Chaitanya Bhagavata
- Colonial India
- creed
- Delhi
- dharma
- dhyana
- dualism
- Durbar Square
- Dvaita
- Dvaitadvaita
- East Asian
- Folk Hinduism
- Gaudiya Vaishnavism
- Himalaya
- Hind
- Hindu
- Hindu denominations
- Hindu festivals
- Hindu nationalism
- Hindu philosophy
- Hinduism
- Hinduism by country
- Hinduism in India
- Hindustan
- Hindusthan
- Hindutva
- History of India
- India
- Indian epics
- Indian nationalist
- Indian Ocean
- Indian religion
- Indian religions
- Indian Subcontinent
- Indo-Greek
- Indology
- Indonesia
- Indus River
- ISKCON
- Islam
- Jainism
- John Woodroffe
- kara
- Kathmandu
- Kurukshetra war
- Laos
- Lord Krishna
- Madhvacharya
- Malaysia
- Mauritius
- Max Müller
- Mlecchas
- Moksha
- Names of India
- Nepal
- P. B. Gajendragadkar
- Persia
- Philippines
- Puja (Hinduism)
- Puranic
- Ramakrishna
- Ramana Maharshi
- Ramanuja
- reification
- religion
- René Guénon
- Republic of India
- Rig Veda
- samsara
- Samskaram
- Sanskrit
- Sanātana Dharma
- Shaivism
- Shaktism
- Sikhism
- South Africa
- Southeast Asia
- Swami Rama
- Swaminarayan Faith
- Tantra
- Thailand
- The Hindu
- Theosophical Society
- United States
- Upanishad
- Vaishnavism
- Vedanta
- Vedas
- Vedic Brahmanism
- Vietnam
- Vishishtadvaita
- Vivekananda
- way of life
- West Indies
- Yavana
- yoga
- Śrauta
Hindu Pez
Releases by album:
Album releases
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:25
- Published: 25 May 2007
- Uploaded: 06 Dec 2011
- Author: aumprakash
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:30
- Published: 05 Dec 2011
- Uploaded: 07 Dec 2011
- Author: ANImultimedia
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:38
- Published: 12 Jul 2007
- Uploaded: 06 Dec 2011
- Author: Veracifier
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:02
- Published: 04 May 2007
- Uploaded: 07 Dec 2011
- Author: mariavarela00
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:50
- Published: 20 May 2009
- Uploaded: 07 Dec 2011
- Author: AsianArtMuseum
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:10
- Published: 12 Nov 2006
- Uploaded: 01 Nov 2011
- Author: elamante007
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:14
- Published: 12 Jun 2010
- Uploaded: 06 Dec 2011
- Author: passion4profession
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:16
- Published: 27 Feb 2008
- Uploaded: 07 Dec 2011
- Author: oasisinetofficial
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:15
- Published: 24 Mar 2008
- Uploaded: 22 Oct 2011
- Author: MaxwellStrengthCond
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:03
- Published: 27 Jun 2006
- Uploaded: 07 Dec 2011
- Author: RussellBoyce
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:13
- Published: 25 Jul 2007
- Uploaded: 06 Dec 2011
- Author: oasisvideos
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:13
- Published: 14 Feb 2007
- Uploaded: 06 Dec 2011
- Author: diegotavareli
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:32
- Published: 04 Mar 2008
- Uploaded: 07 Dec 2011
- Author: expertvillage
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:47
- Published: 20 Feb 2009
- Uploaded: 27 Nov 2011
- Author: ThomasKurz
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:29
- Published: 10 Mar 2009
- Uploaded: 05 Dec 2011
- Author: shapeshifter1111
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 8:49
- Published: 09 Jan 2009
- Uploaded: 07 Dec 2011
- Author: ashrafkudroli
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:18
- Published: 29 Mar 2008
- Uploaded: 05 Dec 2011
- Author: lordsaevin18
size: 5.3Kb
size: 1.9Kb
-
OWS and Its Battle With MacArthurism
WorldNews.com
-
Obama, al-Maliki charting next steps for US, Iraq
STL Today
-
Iraq: A war of muddled goals, painful sacrifice
Springfield News-Sun
-
Forget Embassy Wars, the Real War Is Over Memory
WorldNews.com
-
Russians stage mass protests against Putin, polls
The Star
- Abrahamic religion
- Abrahamic religions
- Adi Shankara
- Advaita Vedanta
- Akbar
- Arabic
- Arjuna
- Arya Samaj
- Aurangzeb
- Aurobindo
- Avatar
- B.K.S. Iyengar
- Bal Gangadhar Tilak
- Bali
- Bangladesh
- Bengali language
- bhakti
- Bhakti movement
- Blackwell Publishing
- Brahman
- Brahmans
- Brahmo Samaj
- British colonialism
- British Raj
- Buddhism
- Burma
- Cambodia
- Caribbean
- census
- Central Asia
- Chaitanya
- Chaitanya Bhagavata
- Colonial India
- creed
- Delhi
- dharma
- dhyana
- dualism
- Durbar Square
- Dvaita
- Dvaitadvaita
- East Asian
- Folk Hinduism
- Gaudiya Vaishnavism
- Himalaya
- Hind
- Hindu
- Hindu denominations
- Hindu festivals
- Hindu nationalism
- Hindu philosophy
- Hinduism
- Hinduism by country
- Hinduism in India
- Hindustan
- Hindusthan
- Hindutva
- History of India
- India
- Indian epics
size: 5.7Kb
size: 3.0Kb
size: 0.7Kb
size: 2.8Kb
size: 2.1Kb
size: 2.3Kb
size: 3.4Kb
size: 2.1Kb
With more than a billion adherents, Hinduism is the world's third largest religion. The vast majority of Hindus, approximately 940 million, live in India. Other countries with large Hindu populations include Nepal, Bangladesh, Mauritius and the island of Bali.
Etymology
The word Hindu is derived from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, first mentioned in the Rig Veda, was the historic local appellation for the Indus River in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent.The Brihaspati Agama says:
The usage of the word Hindu was further popularized for Arabs and further west by the Arabic term al-Hind referring to the land of the people who live across river Indus and the Persian term Hindū referring to all Indians. By the 13th century, Hindustān emerged as a popular alternative name of India, meaning the "land of Hindus".
Originally, Hindu was a secular term which was used to describe all inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent (or Hindustan) irrespective of their religious affiliation. It occurs sporadically in some 16th-18th century Bengali Gaudiya Vaishnava texts, including Chaitanya Charitamrita and Chaitanya Bhagavata, usually to contrast Hindus with Yavanas or Mlecchas. It appears in South Indian and Kashmiri texts from at least 1323 CE, and increasingly so during British rule. It was only towards the end of the 18th century that the European merchants and colonists referred collectively to the followers of Indian religions as Hindus. Eventually, it came to define a precisely religious identity that includes any person of Indian origin who neither practiced Abrahamic religions nor non-Vedic Indian religions, such as Jainism, Sikhism or Buddhism, thereby encompassing a wide range of religious beliefs and practices related to Sanātana Dharma.
The term Hinduism was formed around 1830 to denote the culture and religion of the high-caste Brahmans in contrast to other religions. It was soon appropriated by the Hindus in India themselves as they tried to establish a national, social and cultural identity opposed to European colonialism in India.
History
The notion of grouping the indigenous religions of India under a single umbrella term Hindu emerges as a result of various invasions in India bringing forth non-indigenous religions such as Islam to the Indian Subcontinent Numerous Muslim invaders, such as Aurangzeb, destroyed Hindu temples and persecuted non-Muslims; some, such as Akbar, were more tolerant. Hinduism underwent profound changes, in large part due to the influence of the prominent teachers Ramanuja, Madhva and Chaitanya. Followers of the Bhakti movement moved away from the abstract concept of Brahman, which the philosopher Adi Shankara consolidated a few centuries before, with emotional, passionate devotion towards the more accessible Avatars, especially Krishna and Rama.
Indology as an academic discipline of studying Indian culture from a European perspective was established in the 19th century, led by scholars such as Max Müller and John Woodroffe. They brought Vedic, Puranic and Tantric literature and philosophy to Europe and the United States. At the same time, societies such as the Brahmo Samaj and the Theosophical Society attempted to reconcile and fuse Abrahamic and Dharmic philosophies, endeavouring to institute societal reform. This period saw the emergence of movements which, while highly innovative, were rooted in indigenous tradition. They were based on the personalities and teachings of individuals, as with Ramakrishna and Ramana Maharshi. Prominent Hindu philosophers, including Aurobindo and Prabhupada (founder of ISKCON), translated, reformulated and presented Hinduism's foundational texts for contemporary audiences in new iterations, attracting followers and attention in India and abroad.
Others, such as Vivekananda, Paramahansa Yogananda, B.K.S. Iyengar and Swami Rama, have also been instrumental in raising the profiles of Yoga and Vedanta in the West. Today modern movements, such as ISKCON and the Swaminarayan Faith, attract a large amount of followers across the world.
Definition
Other aspects include folk and conservative Vedic Hinduism. Since the 18th century, Hinduism has accommodated a host of new religious and reform movements, with Arya Samaj being one of the most notable Hindu revivalist organizations.Due to the wide diversity in the beliefs, practices and traditions encompassed by Hinduism, there is no universally accepted definition on who a Hindu is, or even agreement on whether the term Hinduism represents a religious, cultural or socio-political entity. In 1995, Chief Justice P. B. Gajendragadkar was quoted in an Indian Supreme Court ruling: :When we think of the Hindu religion, unlike other religions in the world, the Hindu religion does not claim any one prophet; it does not worship any one god; it does not subscribe to any one dogma; it does not believe in any one philosophic concept; it does not follow any one set of religious rites or performances; in fact, it does not appear to satisfy the narrow traditional features of any religion or creed. It may broadly be described as a way of life and nothing more.
Thus some scholars argue that the Hinduism is not a religion per se but rather a reification of a diverse set of traditions and practices by scholars who constituted a unified system and arbitrarily labeled it Hinduism. The usage may also have been necessitated by the desire to distinguish between "Hindus" and followers of other religions during the periodic census undertaken by the colonial British government in India. Other scholars, while seeing Hinduism as a 19th century construct, view Hinduism as a response to British colonialism by Indian nationalists who forged a unified tradition centered on oral and written Sanskrit texts adopted as scriptures.
While Hinduism contains both "uniting and dispersing tendencies", it also has a common central thread of philosophical concepts (including dharma, moksha and samsara), practices (puja, bhakti etc.) and cultural traditions. These common elements originating (or being codified within) the Vedic, Upanishad and Puranic scriptures and epics. Thus a Hindu could : follow any of the Hindu schools of philosophy, such as Advaita (non-dualism), Vishishtadvaita (non-dualism of the qualified whole), Dvaita (dualism), Dvaitadvaita (dualism with non-dualism), etc. follow a tradition centered on any particular form of the Divine, such as Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism, etc.
The Republic of India is in the peculiar situation that the Supreme Court of India has repeatedly been called upon to define "Hinduism" because the Constitution of India, while it prohibits "discrimination of any citizen" on grounds of religion in article 15, article 30 foresees special rights for "All minorities, whether based on religion or language". As a consequence, religious groups have an interest in being recognized as distinct from the Hindu majority in order to qualify as a "religious minority". Thus, the Supreme Court was forced to consider the question whether Jainism is part of Hinduism in 2005 and 2006. In the 2006 verdict, the Supreme Court found that the "Jain Religion is indisputably not a part of the Hindu Religion". In 1995, while considering the question "who are Hindus and what are the broad features of Hindu religion", the Supreme Court of India highlighted Bal Gangadhar Tilak's formulation of Hinduism's defining features: :Acceptance of the Vedas with reverence; recognition of the fact that the means or ways to salvation are diverse; and the realization of the truth that the number of gods to be worshipped is large, that indeed is the distinguishing feature of Hindu religion.
Some thinkers have attempted to distinguish between the concept of Hinduism as a religion, and a Hindu as a member of a nationalist or socio-political class. In Hindu nationalism, the term "Hindu" combines notions of geographical unity, common culture and common race. Thus, Veer Savarkar in his influential pamphlet "Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?" defined a Hindu as a person who sees India "as his Fatherland as well as his Holy land, that is, the cradle land of his religion". This conceptualization of Hinduism, has led to establishment of Hindutva as the dominant force in Hindu nationalism over the last century.
Ethnic and cultural fabric
Hinduism, its religious doctrines, traditions and observances are very typical and inextricably linked to the culture and demographics of India. Hinduism has one of the most ethnically diverse bodies of adherents in the world. It is hard to classify Hinduism as a religion because the framework, symbols, leaders and books of reference that make up a typical religion are not uniquely identified in the case of Hinduism. Hinduism is almost 4,000 years old. Most commonly it can be seen as a "way of life" which gives rise to many other forms of religions.Large tribes and communities indigenous to India are closely linked to the synthesis and formation of Hindu civilization. People of East Asian roots living in the states of north eastern India and Nepal were also a part of the earliest Hindu civilization. Immigration and settlement of people from Central Asia and people of Indo-Greek heritage have brought their own influence on Hindu society.
The roots of Hinduism in southern India, and among tribal and indigenous communities is just as ancient and fundamentally contributive to the foundations of the religious and philosophical system.
Ancient Hindu kingdoms arose and spread the religion and traditions across Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand, Nepal, Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, and what is now central Vietnam. A form of Hinduism particularly different from Indian roots and traditions is practiced in Bali, Indonesia, where Hindus form 90% of the population. Indian migrants have taken Hinduism and Hindu culture to South Africa, Fiji, Mauritius and other countries in and around the Indian Ocean, and in the nations of the West Indies and the Caribbean.
See also
Notes
Further reading
References
First revised edition.
Category:Hinduism Category:Religious identity
de:Hindu es:Hindú hi:सनातन धर्म id:Umat Hindu mk:Хинду јазик ml:ഹിന്ദു ja:ヒンドゥー教徒 nn:Hinduar ru:ИндусThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.