HINDUISM
In the absence of a general common denominator and of an authoritative institution it is impossible to construct a schema for a history of Hinduism that provides a clear and commonly accepted periodization. While there certainly has been development, and innovation is not unknown to Hinduism, the situation was always complex and not amenable to being fitted into “time lines,” suggesting a progressive movement from a point A in the remote past via a point B in recent history to a point C today.
India has been called a “living museum” and Hinduism is as good an example to demonstrate the truth of this statement as any other facet of Indian culture. Side by side with naked Hindu
sādhus
practicing archaic forms of penance and living a life of utter contempt for comfort and hygiene, there are jet-set Hindu gurus who move among millionaires and surround themselves with every luxury imaginable. One still can see Vedic altars being built in today’s India and observe Vedic sacrifices being offered accompanied by the muttering of Vedic hymns – rites and compositions that may be six thousand or more years old. One can also see temples built in a futuristic style where worshipers offer obeisance to images of still living teachers accompanied by rock music and the latest in electronic sounds. There are Hindus who find their faith best expressed in the theology of medieval masters, and there are Hindus who have rejected everything from the past for the sake of a complete reinterpretation of traditional beliefs.
The periodization offered in the following pages must be taken with more than just a grain of salt. Although Western scholars, since the early nineteenth century, have labored hard to stick labels with historic dates on the written sources of Hinduism, many of these dates are far from established (the dates given by the experts often vary by thousands of years!) and even when and where they are certain, they may be of limited relevance to a history of Hinduism as a whole.
Accepting, hypothetically, the claim made by many Hindus that Hinduism is “vedic,” i.e. based on the collections of books called Veda, we could postulate an initial period of “Vedic religion” that represents the “beginnings” of Hinduism. Apart from the questionable nature of this assumption – there is a counterclaim established by tradition and supported by some scholars, that the Purāṇas are older than the Vedas, and “mainstream Hinduism” alive in Vaiṣṇavism, Śaivism, Śāktism, and others contains a large heritage of un-vedic and possibly pre-Vedic beliefs and practices – the problem about dating the “Vedic period” has given rise to one of the most enduring and most hotly conducted scholarly debates of our time, summarized in chapter 3 of this book.
In the so-called post-Vedic period, the development of Hinduism proper, instead of one, there is a multitude of fairly exclusive, frequently intertwining traditions, whose history is difficult to trace, because of many local variants of each. Things are made more complicated through the appropriation of particular philosophical schools by specific religious traditions, the formation of parallel teaching lines, and the emergence of new sects.
ATTEMPTING A PERIODIZATION OF INDIAN HISTORY
In Joseph E. Schwartzberg’s
A Historical Atlas of South Asia 11
the following periodization of the history of India, and within it, the history of Hinduism, is given:
I. Prehistory, comprising everything from the early Stone Age to the Indus Civilization (“Harappan Era”).
II. The Vedic Age.
III. The Age of the Epics (Rāmayāṇa and Mahābhārata).
IV. The Pre-Mauryan Age.
V. The Mauryas.
VI. The Post-Mauryan Period.
VII. The Imperial Guptas and the Classical Age.
VIII. Kingdoms and Regional Cultures of the 8th through the 12th Centuries.
IX. The Period of the Delhi
In the absence of a general common denominator and of an authoritative institution it is impossible to construct a schema for a history of Hinduism that provides a clear and commonly accepted periodization. While there certainly has been development, and innovation is not unknown to Hinduism, the situation was always complex and not amenable to being fitted into “time lines,” suggesting a progressive movement from a point A in the remote past via a point B in recent history to a point C today.
India has been called a “living museum” and Hinduism is as good an example to demonstrate the truth of this statement as any other facet of Indian culture. Side by side with naked Hindu
sādhus
practicing archaic forms of penance and living a life of utter contempt for comfort and hygiene, there are jet-set Hindu gurus who move among millionaires and surround themselves with every luxury imaginable. One still can see Vedic altars being built in today’s India and observe Vedic sacrifices being offered accompanied by the muttering of Vedic hymns – rites and compositions that may be six thousand or more years old. One can also see temples built in a futuristic style where worshipers offer obeisance to images of still living teachers accompanied by rock music and the latest in electronic sounds. There are Hindus who find their faith best expressed in the theology of medieval masters, and there are Hindus who have rejected everything from the past for the sake of a complete reinterpretation of traditional beliefs.
The periodization offered in the following pages must be taken with more than just a grain of salt. Although Western scholars, since the early nineteenth century, have labored hard to stick labels with historic dates on the written sources of Hinduism, many of these dates are far from established (the dates given by the experts often vary by thousands of years!) and even when and where they are certain, they may be of limited relevance to a history of Hinduism as a whole.
Accepting, hypothetically, the claim made by many Hindus that Hinduism is “vedic,” i.e. based on the collections of books called Veda, we could postulate an initial period of “Vedic religion” that represents the “beginnings” of Hinduism. Apart from the questionable nature of this assumption – there is a counterclaim established by tradition and supported by some scholars, that the Purāṇas are older than the Vedas, and “mainstream Hinduism” alive in Vaiṣṇavism, Śaivism, Śāktism, and others contains a large heritage of un-vedic and possibly pre-Vedic beliefs and practices – the problem about dating the “Vedic period” has given rise to one of the most enduring and most hotly conducted scholarly debates of our time, summarized in chapter 3 of this book.
In the so-called post-Vedic period, the development of Hinduism proper, instead of one, there is a multitude of fairly exclusive, frequently intertwining traditions, whose history is difficult to trace, because of many local variants of each. Things are made more complicated through the appropriation of particular philosophical schools by specific religious traditions, the formation of parallel teaching lines, and the emergence of new sects.
ATTEMPTING A PERIODIZATION OF INDIAN HISTORY
In Joseph E. Schwartzberg’s
A Historical Atlas of South Asia 11
the following periodization of the history of India, and within it, the history of Hinduism, is given:
I. Prehistory, comprising everything from the early Stone Age to the Indus Civilization (“Harappan Era”).
II. The Vedic Age.
III. The Age of the Epics (Rāmayāṇa and Mahābhārata).
IV. The Pre-Mauryan Age.
V. The Mauryas.
VI. The Post-Mauryan Period.
VII. The Imperial Guptas and the Classical Age.
VIII. Kingdoms and Regional Cultures of the 8th through the 12th Centuries.
IX. The Period of the Delhi
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