ASR100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Doxa, Artha, Theism
Deakin University ASR100 World Religions Trimester Two 2017
Week Two – Hinduism I: History, Beliefs and Practices
Distinguishing Features
• no founder, teacher or prophet
• no universally accepted holy book
• no single administrative body
• no creed
• Orthopraxy religion
• Oldest of the main five religions
A Hidu a e a theist, a patheist, atheist, ouist ad eliee hatee he likes, ut hat akes hi
into a Hindu are the ritual practices he performs and the rules to which he adheres, in short, what he does. –
Frits Staal, Rules Without Meaning: Ritual, Mantras and the Human Sciences (1989)
Orthodoxy/Orthopraxy
• Otho = ight, oet
• doa = elief, opiio
• pais = patie, doig
History
• Proto-Indusim, c3000-1700 BCE
Not always accepted as part of Hinduism, although scholars generally consider this as an early influence
(ritual bathing, fertility, yogic figures in lotus position)
• Vedism, c2000-1500 BCE
Aryans (Soviet/central Asia/Nordic, or Western Asia/Mediterranean)
the Vedas eda = hat is ko: itual saifie
shuti = head, as opposed to siti = eeeed
• Brahmanism, c1000-100 BCE
Upanishads, 800-400 BCE: religious-philosophical texts concerning nature of reality, the self, ways to
attain moksha (liberation)
(Brahman = impersonal, ultimate, unchanging reality)
Shift in emphasis from ritualistic to contemplative, ascetic
ideas of birth/rebirth (samsara) start to get articulated more clearly, pairing with the notion of karma
(Buddhist & Jainist influence)
• Classical Hinduism, c200 BCE – 1100 CE
Also called Dharma-Bhaktism (Dharma = virtue, ethos, duty; Bhakti = devotion)
Emergence of gods and goddesses (cf. Brahman as impersonal), devotional worship in public sphere
• Medieval and Modern Hinduism, c1100 CE – present
Revivalist and reform movements (British arrival 19th century, Ghandi)
Spread to different parts of the world
Four Goals of Life
• Dharma
virtue, duties (specific to your station and stage in life, to caste and stage)
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