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Name the enduring ideas and tendencies in Hinduism
Humans are products and participants of the same spiritual energythat creates, structures and directs the cosmos, monism, polytheistic, limits of ordinary knowledge
When is the first idea intensely experienced? Such as ?
during times of ritual activity
What does monism mean? How is this different than monotheism?
these isn't a division, God is a part of the creation, monotheism views God as separate from creation
What is polytheism?
multiple Gods and Goddesses are symbols and granters of access to ultimate reality
Name the enduring ideas and tendencies in Hinduism
Humans are products and participants of the same spiritual energythat creates, structures and directs the cosmos, monism, polytheistic, limits of ordinary knowledge
When is the first idea intensely experienced? Such as ?
during times of ritual activity
What does monism mean? How is this different than monotheism?
these isn't a division, God is a part of the creation, monotheism views God as separate from creation
What is polytheism?
multiple Gods and Goddesses are symbols and granters of access to ultimate reality
What are the types knowledge?
ritual knowledge, speculative knowledge, knowledge of mediation techniques, knowledge of devotion
What is speculative knowledge?
Knowledge of theology and the abstract
What is the origin of the word "Hindu"? Originally what did it mean?
It is the name of the Indus River, originally it was a broad term meaning any person on the East side of the Indus River who was not a practitioner of Islam
Who were the first to use the term Hindu in an exclusively religious sense?
Muslims entering into the subcontinent
The religious meaning of the term was then picked up by... What was it made into? What did it become an object of?
West, a monolithic "ism" comparable to Christianity, Judaism, etc., an object of comparable study
What do some scholars think about the term Hindu? But?
They think it is a problematic term because Hinduism is very diverse
Describe the Religious Archeology of Hinduism
Dravidian Society (archeological finds), Ritual (Vedas and the Aryans), Speculative Thought (Upanishads),*Bhagavad Gita*, Bhakti (devotionalism to a God or Goddesses)
What does Dravidian mean?
umbrella term referring to the ancient and diverse peoples living in the subcontinent prior to the entrance of the Aryans
When was Dravidian society?
3,500-4,000 + years ago
Where does knowledge of Dravidian society come from?
twentieth century archeological discoveries
Where was Dravidian society?
Cities of Harrapa and Mohenjo Daro in the Indus River Valley of what is now Pakistan
Were the Dravidians an advanced society? What did they have?
Yes, planned cities, ceremonial buildings, hieroglyphics, and female figurines, an Indus Valley Culture (IVC)
How do they know the cities were planned?
they had water and sewage systems
What did the ceremonial buildings have? What were they used for?
large paths, purification???
Are the hieroglyphics decipherable? What did they stress? Possibly this points to...
no, bulls, bulls and horned animals and the subduing of wild animals, a public cult of strong, virile male Gods
How many female figurines, and where were they found? What did they look like? What does that stress? Possibly this points to...
thsouands, homes, exaggerated breasts and hips, fertility, a domestic cult of mother goddess
Who were the Aryans? What were they called?
nomadic groups migrating from a vast swath area between the Black and Baltic Seas, The Noble Ones
Where did the Aryans originally enter? What did they become? Some entered into? What did they become? And finally some entered? These were known as? When? How did they come?
what is now Europe, ancient Greeks, what is now Iran, Persians, what is now India, Aryans, second millennium, waves of migrations
The nomadic Aryans where especially good at? What was an important element to these people?
horsemanship and chariot warfare, fire as a sacred element in domestic and public rituals
How did the Aryans enter the Indus Valley Culture?
some say invasion, some say dead society, some say diffusion and adaptation by Dravidian elite--it is clear that cross-cultural diffusion took place, probably a combination of all three
After the Aryans come, what happens? When does this occur?
Aryanization, 4th century BCE
What are the elements of Aryanization?
caste and the vedas
in sanskirt, caste is properly referred to as... meaning.. What must you be careful about with this term? What is it likely to be a reference to?
varna (color), color is likely NOT a reference to skin color, the four primary colors of the vedic people (white, red, green/yellow, and black)
What were the colors of the vedic people linked to?
the 4 castes (not as a way to describe skin color) but to produce an integrated, unified vision of reality build on parallel and structured order
Name the castes that the colors correspond to?
brahmin caste of priests, khasthya caste warriors, vaisha caste of producers (farmers, artisans), shudra caste of servants
What is a related word to caste? meaning? who then came into the picture? Why? What was their word for this word? And in English?
jati, occupation, the portuguese, they were sailing all over the world, casta, caste
ideologically, the shudra were , i.e., why must we stress the word ideologically...
non-aryans, they were the descendents of the original Dravidians, because that was not necessarily true in reality (the caste systemed ebbed and flowed)
What does Vedas mean and where does it come from? What does it imply?
from the Sanskirt word meaning to know, implies that if one knows the vedas then one has knowledge to access the ultimate reality of Gods and Goddesses
Who were those who "knew" the vedas? these people had a...
the brahmin, religious monopoly
What was the Rig Veda? When was in compiled? When was it done? It is a collection of...
4 vedas, the oldest andmost important, over hundreds of years, around 1200 BCE; hymns about Gods, cosmos, creation, and questions of ultimate existence
What were the earlier hymns of the Rig Vedas about and what were they like?
simpler, Gods and Goddesses
What were the later hymns of the Rig Vedas and what were they like?
later 3, more complex, have hymns but also have other materials like instructions for rituals, incantations, and spells
What are the key concepts and Deities in the Rig Veda?
rita, yajna/yagna, Mt. Meru, tapas, Agni, soma, vac, varuna, indra, vritra, rudra, usas, yama
What was rita? What was yagna? What was mt. meru?
force that maintains predictability of the cosmos, sacrifice through large scale fire ritual, , monistic vision of the comos as a mountain where gods, humans, and animals dwell in descending order
What is tapas? What is agni? How often does agni appear and where? What is agni the central element of
creative heat energy, recognition of heat in some form as necessary for the act of creation; God of fire itself, messenger of to the Gods and Goddesses, appears in 1/3 of hymans in the Rig Veda, yajna
What was soma? who had it? what was vac? closely linked to what? What is the etiology of the word?
god of powerful intoxicating drink and drink itself consumed by priests in preparations of performing yagna;goddess of speech, closely linked to widsom as what is spoken during yagna are the hymans of the Rid Veda, veda, vid, to know, wisom
Note that the deities are not only divine beings but also elements
comprising yajna... elements of the ritual itself
Who was varuna? as well as with both?
high sky God, protector of Rita, as well as the moral order of humans (both natural and social order come under him)
Who was indra? who does he battle and where? What do the two Gods represent?
god of storm or thunderbolt, powerful projector, battles serpent creature vritra in an early hymn of creation... vritra = chaos and indra=order
From a religious studies sense, what does chaos mean? Who was Rudra? how is he different than indra? Rudra was like what?
it refers to the state before order, Rudra is the God of storm, the storm in this case is of unpredictability and destruction; probably a powerful dravidian diety the aryans thought wise to incorporate into their pantheon and hymns
Who was Usas?
Goddess of dawn, in daily microcosom she represents the victory of order over chaos, the dawn pushing aside the dark night
Who was yama?
not a diety but the personification of death, takes orders from naruna concerning whom to tap for death
Who decides when people will die? How did the meaning of yagna and the function of the fire sacrifice evolve over time?
varuna; nomadic times-yajna equals hospitality rites, during an agricultual society-new meaning for vedic people was yajna as a cycylical agricultural sacrifice, agricultural was tired to complex kindship= white horse wandered for a year and yajna was horse sacrifice ritual (ashavamedha), kings sponsered and renewed power; final (most evolved and profound meaning)... ?Yajna as the prime agent of creation and recreation of the cosmos
What/who created the cosmos? With yajnas increasing significance from hospitality rite to entire cosmos, what happens to agni? how so?
yajna, agni's importance increases as well, status as a messenger was conflated to representing all of the Gods
So what did agni become? through what?
the symbolic linchpin of the entire cosmos as imagined through the performance of yagna
How did the significance of the Gods in sacrifice change?
celestial gods (gods whom sacrifice is directed it), varuna declines declines... terrestial gods (gods who comprise the sacrifice) vac, soma, agni increase
What happens to the sacrifice of yajna? finally it becomes
It becomes important in and of itself; not simply a means but an end itself; a force that had the power to create the cosmos and a force of creation and reaction
What were the Rig Vedic Social values
sacrifice as access to gods, petitions to gods for good life, their worldly orientation, reincarnation was not operable, death, hierarchical, interdependent
The vedic people understood sacrifice as a means to gaining... why
access to the gods, praise and sacrifice
What were their petitions concerned with? how was it a "this worldly" experience?
avoiding illness, having children, gaining wealth, repeating an abundant harvest; long life was valued, this world was essentially god
It is important to note that reincarnation was ... in the...
not operable in the rig veda
Vedic social values hierarchical and interdependent pointed to the fact that it was a deeply
communal society
how did varna relate to hierarchy
not a human social construction but a human social reflection of the order of the rita and produced by sacrifice of purusa
hierachical societies are inherently... how are they this way?
interdependent, valued correct, ordered, proper participation by all
after interdependence, Next we're going to talk about the development of...
classical indian society
What led to the classical age? what do we mean when we talk about classical?
the late rig veda; fundamental thoughts, ideals, post-vedic deities that characterize the hinu tradition
the classical age was classified by
a new way of thinking about human existence
what happens to the simple, strong, affirmation that life is a one shot deal
it changes,
what do they think about life
they think it's a trap, recycling of birth and death if thoughts and actions are not in line with nature/ultimate reality
de-emphasis on...
bodily self and material world
new emphasis on
speculating about ultimate generaive power underlying all reality with which a true self, beyond the material bodily self has, has some primal relationship
what does the generative power lie beyond? but rather
dualisms of being/non being, of existence/non existence, of order/chaos; gives rise to these dualities gives rise to them as the potentialities of creation
there is a gradual transformation between what and what
the rig veda and the upanishads
what is the (arguably) must difficult hymn of the rig veda? what does it express?
the hymn of origins, expresses the struggle to speculate on this power that is the ultimate origin of reality
Does the hymn question or assert answers? What doe sit refer to this power as?
questions , That One
What were the upanishad, what do they do?
corpus of diverse writing after the rig veda, (a) explain that which the vedic poets earlier termed that one (b) speculate how humans relate to this power
in conjuction with this new thinking, social ideals of
how to live indivdiual life (as aims and stages) also developed
the upanisahds try to answer the questions of the
rig veda
the ideal aims of life are a... with a... name them
tetra, transcendent fourth, dharma, artha, kama, and moksha
what does the word dharma come from? what does it mean? what does it mean practically speaking?
from the verb dhr, means to support or maintain; do right in accordance with universal and eternal truth; do social duties in life (according to varna, stage of life, religious observance) and to do moral right (be hoonest, avoid injuring others, don't covet or steal
what is varna dharma
caste duties
man is not a measure of all things or rather
dharma
according to dharma, we must support
cosmic, social, and moral structure of reality of which everyone is a part
what is artha?
gaining and enjoying benefits of material social world (wealth, food, shelter, clothes, reputation, social standing)
according to artha, why is relative wealth and success good? money is an affirmation that...
one is better able to do ones dharma, one is doing one's dharma well
what is kama? typically in the confines of
sexual desire, love, and romance; marriage and the production of children
what is mokasha
spiritual liberation, the ultimate goal of life
which is the transcendent fourth and why/
moksha-it is qualitatively different in a higher way
What are the stages of life? how are they related to the aims of life?
student, householder, forest dweller, sanyaskin; the different stages map onto the different aims of life
what is the first birth? what is the second birth?
biological birth, student birth
the students are referred to as the; when they refer to education, what do they mean; what must they be educated about? could shudra be students
twice born; they mean religious education; sacred widsom such as teh rig veda, upanishads, and other writing; no, it was denied to shudra
Students were a euphenism for...
the top 3 aryan castes
what were students expected to do?
speak with truth, practice virtue, continue to study, seek prosperity, have children, attend to religious activity. Treat your parents, teachers, and guests as gods. Love and virtue and do what is blameless
What is does the householder do?
marry, have children, take over your father's occupation, lead domestic rituals
a householder is also supposed to pay off? what are they?
the three debts- to the gods (who gave them life), to the parents (who gave birth to you and raised you), and to teachers (who gave you a second birth into the world of cultural and spiritual widsom)
What pays off the debts?
marriage and having children
the stages of life are an example of a, what kind?
tetrad, transcedent fourth
which one is the transcendent fourth?
sanyasin
what does the forest dweller do?
retires from economic and social life and commit oneself to spiritual deepening
What does the forest dweller do in the woods? why?
practice meditation, read sacred wisdom; this spiritual strengths one path toward realizing moksha
do all these stages occur in one life?
no these stages occur over many lifetimes
Is the forest dweller completely separate from normal life?
still in some ways tied to the social world around them
What is sanyasin? what is a person in this stage considered to society? why?
complete renunciation of all worldly attachments including family and caste; is considered already dead to the world as he is without family and caste
what are the two pillars of society?
family and caste
What were the themes of the first video we watched?
sacred vs the profane, icons, puja
what is the meaning of profane in a religious sense? what is a good example of this tension? what causes the sacred and profane caused by?
meanes mundane or ordinary (not dirty); the river is both sacred (ritual) and profane (washing clothes); human activity
what are the beliefs about icons?
(1) superstition- the idea that icons aren't powerful and are objects of superstition (2) symbol or representation of the deity (3) vessel- the icon is the vessel in which the power of the god is transferred
few believe, more believe
superstition, vessel
for number 3, is the god always in the vessel
no, the deity comes ad goes
what does puja mean?
in a general sense ritual, in a specific sense ritual that is used in the worship of a diety, typically in icon form
how is puja different from yajna?
yajna is a large scale fire sacrifice
Are the Upanishads a single text? Could you accurately classify it as a genre?
No, yes
What does the word upanishad mean?
upa (near), ni (down), s(h)ad (sit)... a spiritual guru
When were they composed?
roughly from 1000 bce to 200 bce or possibly even later
tradition recognizes how many? academic scholarship recognized how many?
106, 200
Traditionally, the upanishads were considered to be... but actually
commentaries on the vedas, quite different in literary style