Introduction

As you drive through the cornfields of northern Illinois, just north of the town of Aurora, you may see a massive brick building that seems out of place. It stands three or four stories high with an elaborate facade depicting pillars and cornices. Topped by towering spires with flapping banners, it looks as if it belongs to another world. In a sense it does—the architectural style comes from southern India, and the building itself is a Hindu temple. I was there late on a Sunday morning, and the parking lot was about half full. There were cars from as far away as Michigan. The building’s main entrance was a little below ground level, and as is common with Hindu temples outside of India, the low- est level had a lobby, a kitchen, and a large meeting room that was comparable to the “church basements” of its Christian counterparts. The lobby was furnished austerely, with folding tables and chairs. There were a few people sitting near the kitchen, drink- ing tea and chatting informally. By the staircases leading upstairs to the temple room were rows of simple shelves, fronted by low benches. I removed my shoes, as is customary before entering a temple, both to preserve the temple and to signify that one is walking on holy ground. The staircase marked the threshold between two regions, the outer and the inner world. Upstairs, the temple was richly decorated. The presiding deity was Venkateshvara, a form of the god Vishnu, whose image was placed in the center of the temple, the most important space. Yet, as in most Hindu temples, there were images of deities from throughout the pantheon: Ganesh, Shiva, Subrahmanya, other forms of Vishnu, dif- ferent forms of the Goddess, and various subsidiary deities. Most of the images were carved from black South Indian granite and polished to a mirrorlike finish. Many were housed in small shrines built out of white marble. The primary function of a Hindu temple is to serve as the home for the deities it contains, and it was clear that the people who had commissioned the temple had spared no efforts. The temple had been lovingly built and has been carefully maintained. The worshipers in the temple took little notice of me, and I was allowed to roam as I wished. Even though Venkateshvara was the temple’s presiding deity, the primary activity while I was there took place in front of one of the subsidiary shrines, an image of the Goddess in the form of Kumari (“virgin”). Seated around the image were about twenty members of an extended family. The young girls, who were clearly the focus of the rite, sat directly in front of the shrine. Brahmin priests took various offerings from the older women: plastic gallon jugs of milk, Ziploc bags of sugar, and Tupperware containers of yogurt and honey. Each offering was poured over the image in turn. A pitcher of water was poured over the image between each offering to wash it clean. The temple priests performing the rite were dressed traditionally, with white dhotis (garments worn around the waist, extending below the knees), bare chests, and the sacred thread over their left shoulders. They bore crisp red tilaks (sectarian identifying marks) on their foreheads, and intoned the rite in rapid-fire Sanskrit. Although a Christian visitor might find the languages, deities, and rites completely alien, many of the other elements of the day would be soothingly familiar: a group of families coming for worship on a Sunday morning, dressed in their “Sunday best,” with others chatting over coffee and sweets in the “church basement.” Except for a few sari-clad older women, the people there were dressed no differently than anyone one might encounter on the street—the men in suits and jackets, the girls and women in long, flowing dresses. Just as the Hindu temple in rural Illinois had introduced Indian customs to the local community, it was clear that the influence of American culture had set this temple apart from its traditional counterparts in India. Unlike in India, where temples serve mainly as places of worship, Hindu temples in America often serve as cultural centers for the Hindu community, sponsoring events such as dance, music, and drama performances, along with language study programs and festival celebrations. viIn many cases, the membership of Hindu temples in America cuts across the tradi- tional barriers that divide Indian society—social status, regional background, sectar- ian loyalty—giving these Hindu temples far more inclusive constituencies. The cultural landscape of the United States has changed dramatically in recent years. Today it possesses a plurality of cultures that my grandparents and their gener- ation probably would have found inconceivable. The Hindu temple outside of Aurora, Illinois, is but one small sign of the increasing visibility of Asian cultures in American society. Another sign of this pluralism is the growing number of ways that Americans are coming into contact with traditional Hindu culture—whether through practicing yoga, through alternative medical systems such as ayurvedic medicine, or through the piquant delights of Indian cuisine. Despite the growing interchange between Indian and American cultures, Hinduism is still often stereotyped and misunderstood. On one hand are the remnants of an antiquated point of view that refuses to see the United States as anything but a Christian nation. Those holding this view either dismiss Hinduism as an alien or exotic set of rituals and beliefs or actively condemn it as idolatrous. On the other hand are people searching for an alternative spirituality who idealize Asian cultures as founts of ancient wisdom. At the very least, such an uncritical embrace ignores these cultures’ genuine tensions, problems, and inequities; at the extreme it can result in a “designer religion,” in which beliefs and practices from various religious traditions are selec- tively adopted, wrenching each of these elements from its roots in a living culture. Outright condemnation and idealized acceptance overlook the richness and com- plexity of India’s religious and cultural traditions. To gain a genuine understanding, it is important that we discern the cultural context behind Hindu beliefs, practices, and history. In learning about this context, one quickly encounters familiar ideas: hard work, thrift, education, and the importance of the family. Along with these general similarities to American cultural values, one finds equally profound differences. To examine the nuances of Hindu culture is to enter into a rich and complex world with its own inner logic and consistency. Encountering and understanding a different world view can throw one’s own into sharper perspective, enriching it with new depth and understanding. What Is Hinduism? The very word Hinduism is misleading. The word was coined by the British as an umbrella term, referring to any and all forms of religion in India, many of which share few if any common features. It was used to describe all sorts of beliefs and practices, from simple nature worship to the most highly sophisticated ritual and philosophical systems. Hinduism is a vast religious tradition, encompassing various and contradictory strands and ideas. It has usually defied all the usual strategies for categorization and classification. There is no founder, no definitive scripture, no centralized authority, no single supreme god, no creed of essential beliefs, and no heresy. Thus, it would be more accurate to think of the religion as Hinduisms rather than Hinduism, since this would reflect the rich diversity one encounters. India is a land of contrasts and cultural variety. The subcontinent contains almost every type of environmental ecosystem, the inhabitants of each possessing their own local and regional culture. There are over a dozen distinct languages, each of which establishes and nourishes a regional identity that many Indians maintain with great care wherever they live. The combinations of language, regional identity, sectarian affiliation, and social status have given rise to overwhelming variation. For Hindus, diversity is a basic trait of Hindu life, and thus one person’s practice may be very dif- ferent from another’s. This has given Hinduism little in the way of centralized doctrine or dogma, but its grounding in everyday life has made it extraordinarily resilient and adaptable. viiBasic Beliefs Hinduism is first and foremost a way of life. This means that Hinduism has tended to be orthoprax (stressing correct behavior) rather than orthodox (stressing correct belief). It tends to be woven through the differing elements of everyday life, rather than only performed as practices or rituals for certain days and times. Hindu religious expression is conveyed through every facet of society: music, dance, art and architec- ture, philosophy, politics, literature, and social life. Some of the most important aspects of everyday life in the Hindu tradition are a person’s family and social affiliations. Despite the incredible variety of Hindu belief and practice, each family and local community is tightly and carefully organized. Every individual, as a member of a particular family, has a well-defined role and an obligation to fulfill specific duties. As in any culture, one’s individual identity is strongly shaped by the linguistic, regional, or sectarian characteristics of his or her family. This familial influence persists whether the family lives in its ancestral home or moves to a different region of India or a foreign country. Families, of course, are members of a larger community. These communities share certain beliefs about a person’s proper role in society based on status, age, and gender. Traditional Indian society was sharply hierarchical. According to the traditional social groupings, there should be four status groups: the brahmins, who are scholars and religious technicians; the kshatriyas, who are warriors and rulers; the vaishyas, who are artisans and farmers; and the shudras, who serve the others. Each person is born as a permanent member of a particular group. Society is seen as an organic whole, in which some parts have higher status than others, but every part is necessary for the whole to function smoothly. A common metaphor for social organization is the human body, which has many different parts performing many different functions, all of which are necessary for the body’s maintenance and well-being. In actual practice, the picture was far more complex. Each of these four groups was split into hundreds of subgroups known as jatis. Jatis were most often identified with a certain hereditary occupation, and a jati’s status in a particular place was subject to all kinds of local vari- ables. These variables could include whether or not members of a jati owned land or the degree to which a jati’s occupation was economically vital to its community. These beliefs about social status are becoming less important in modern India, and have even less importance for Hindus who live abroad. In modern India, society is still functionally divided into four groups: brahmins; “forward castes,” which tend to control land, money, or power; “backward castes,” which have historically had very little influence, although the situation is changing rapidly; and Dalits (“oppressed”). Once called “untouchables,” many Dalits live in poverty and oppressive social condi- tions. Except for the brahmins, these social divisions bear little relationship to the four groups in the earlier model. Reincarnation is still a pervasive belief within Hinduism, as it is in other Indian religions such as Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism. Almost all Hindus have generally accepted that although our bodies are transient, our souls are immortal. After the death of a particular body, the soul will inhabit a different body. The nature of one’s incarnation in a future life is determined by the quantity and quality of one’s karma. Karma literally means “action,” but it also can be generated by words or even thoughts. It is not produced only by the things one does or says, but also by one’s underlying motives. An individual’s good karma will bring a favorable rebirth in heaven as a god or on earth as a wealthy or high-caste human being. Bad karma will bring an unfavor- able rebirth. A person’s current social status reveals how properly he or she lived in the previous life. The notion of karmic rewards and punishments is a central justification for the traditional social hierarchy in India. Karma is thought of as a purely physical process, like gravity, operating without any need for a divine overseer. An action one performs, for good or for ill, is seen as viiithe cause, with the future reward or punishment as the effect. Some of these con- sequences occur in this life, while others occur in future lives. Since karma reflects the overall tone of one’s life, it is comparable to the notion of a person’s “character”: Both are formed over a long period of time, both are measures of the whole person, and both reflect how our habitual ways of feeling, thinking, and acting tend to shape who we are. It is tempting to envision reincarnation as an opportunity to rectify past mistakes or to learn lessons still unlearned. For Hindus, as for Buddhists, Sikhs, and Jains, noth- ing could be further from the truth; reincarnation is never seen as an opportunity, but invariably as a burden. This is because all states of being, both good and bad, are ulti- mately impermanent and thus provide no sure refuge. Even the gods, who are enjoy- ing the rewards of their past actions, will be born elsewhere when their stored merit is exhausted. Others are enduring punishment for their sins, but when this is done they will be reborn elsewhere. Although most Hindus would grant that liberation from reincarnation (moksha) is the ultimate goal, traditional Hindu culture has sanctioned three other goals, all of which are more compatible with a normal life in society: the search for pleasure (kama); the quest for wealth, fame, and power (artha); and, above all, the search for a righteous, balanced life (dharma). This stress on multiple goals reflects the flexibility of Hindu religious life. Each person can pursue different goals according to his or her inclinations, although certain goals are considered to be more appropriate for partic- ular stages of life. In this way a person is free to express his or her individual religious identity, although that identity is inevitably shaped by forces arising from a larger familial, social, and cultural context. The Roots of Hinduism The influences and developments of Hinduism are as expansive as the roots and branches of a banyan tree. A banyan tree is unusual in that in addition to the tree’s upward spreading branches, it also has branches that grow down, take root, and become trunks in their own right. An old banyan tree can be hundreds of feet in diam- eter, and it is often difficult to discern which is the original trunk. In the same way, the religion that we call Hinduism is constantly evolving. New religious forms arise from the older ones, while many of the older ones continue to exist. Despite Hinduism’s complex origins, its religious history can be roughly divided into six periods, corre- sponding to the development of varying religious tendencies and ideas. The earliest and most mysterious of these is the period of the Indus Valley Civilization, named for the large ruined cities found throughout the Indus Valley and beyond. The ruins of prominently placed storage granaries indicate that the civiliza- tion’s economic base was agricultural, and the striking uniformity of the ruins of these cities leads one to believe that the people were bound by some strong central author- ity. Archaeologists have recovered a wealth of physical artifacts, revealing a great deal about the layout of the cities, what the inhabitants ate and wore, and the animals they domesticated. At the same time, nothing is certain about the religious life of these people, although certain artifacts have raised intriguing speculations. It is not even known whether the religion and culture of the Indus Valley Civilization have contin- ued to affect Indian culture, although some scholars have been more inclined to infer this than others. This culture seemed to lose its vitality sometime around 2000 B.C.E. Within a few centuries it had largely disappeared from the Indus Valley, although it remained vital for much longer in outlying regions, particularly Gujarat. According to some theories, its decline was the result of a prolonged drought. The latter part of its decline was marked by the arrival of the Aryans. This brought Hinduism into its second period of religious history. The Aryans were a nomadic cattle-herding people whose earliest reli- gious text, the Rg Veda, is believed to have been preserved unchanged for almost four ixthousand years. The later strata of the Vedas were composed as the Aryans moved through the Punjab into the Ganges basin. These later parts of the Vedas included the Brahmana literature, which stressed the importance of sacrifice, and the later Aranyakas and Upanishads, which tended to focus on more speculative and philo- sophical questions. During the period in which the Aranyakas and Upanishads were composed, asceticism became an increasingly important element of Hinduism. Asceticism denotes the use of physical discipline and deprivation as a way to attain religious insight and liberate the soul from the cycle of reincarnation. Part of the rea- son for asceticism’s prominence was the growth of competing groups, such as the Jains and the Buddhists, whose monks lived an ascetic life. Asceticism has had an important place in Indian religious life since that time. The period after the composition of the Vedic literature is sometimes called the Epic period. Between roughly 300 B.C.E. and 500 C.E., many of the ideas most impor- tant to classical Hinduism were developed and codified. This time was marked by the initial composition of the two great Hindu epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, although their final revisions came centuries later. The early part of this period also saw the composition of the religious literature known as the Kalpa Sutras. In theory, each Kalpa Sutra had three parts: a shrauta sutra, a grhya sutra, and a dharma sutra, but this neat ordering is belied by the scarcity of complete three-part collections, and the abundance of one or another of these sections without its corre- sponding parts. Shrauta sutras are manuals for Vedic sacrifice, which had become so complex that additional reference material was needed. The shrauta sutra is the only element of the three that has not retained great importance in modern Hindu life. The grhya sutras are manuals for domestic sacrifices, which include the life-cycle rites known as samskaras. Some elements of the grhya sutras still remain vital and vibrant parts of modern Hindu religious life, probably because of their connection with the central transitions in human life: birth, marriage, and death. The dharma sutras provide prescriptions for an organized and stable society by means of a rigid social hierarchy. The prescriptions in the dharma sutras were later expanded in the dharma shastras, which are the theoretical basis of the Hindu social structure. Aside from the epics and the Kalpa Sutras, this period was also notable for the development of the six classical philosophical schools: the Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mimamsa, and Vedanta (although the defining figure in the Vedanta school, Shankaracharya, is generally dated in the early ninth century). The philo- sophical system developed by each of these six schools had a common goal: liberat- ing the soul from the bondage of reincarnation. Each of the schools believed that the soul could be liberated by avoiding conceptual errors and apprehending universal truths, although there was considerable disagreement about the nature of these uni- versal truths. The foundational texts for each of these schools laid out their basic philosophical position; in some cases, these texts buttressed their position by appealing to authoritative religious texts such as the Vedas. Over the following cen- turies these foundational texts received further elaboration through multiple layers of commentaries, which in some cases have continued to be written almost up until contemporary times. This period is also marked by the rise in importance of the deities Shiva, Vishnu, and the Goddess, who are still the primary deities worshiped in modern Hinduism. These deities had a central place in the sectarian literature known as the puranas, another of the important types of text composed in this period. The puranas’ most notable feature is their sectarian character, as they often exalt one particular deity over the others. They also include information on many other aspects of religious life, including sacred places, sacred times, instructions for various religious rites, and even descriptions of the heavens and hells. The final type of religious text first composed in this period were the tantras, which laid out esoteric and often hidden ritual traditions. xIn later times, both the puranas and the tantras have been the subject of extensive commentaries. In addition, this period saw the development of new artistic and archi- tectural styles. Many of the forces manifested or formed in this period remain integral parts of contemporary Hindu life. The period following this was marked by the growth and flowering of the devo- tional (bhakti) tradition, which for more than a millennium has been one of the most powerful religious forces in Hindu culture. Bhakti stresses the necessity of a direct and personal relationship with God, in whatever form that deity is conceived. Its propo- nents tended to be contemptuous of the neatly constructed social order detailed in the dharma shastras, which stressed birth rather than devotional capacity as the most important criterion. Much of medieval Hindu thought was formed out of the tension between these two competing ideals, dharma and bhakti, and there was often no easy resolution of the conflict between their differing perspectives. The growing presence of Europeans in India marked the next period in Hinduism’s history. Although there had been a European presence in India since the mid-1500s, when the Portuguese colonized Goa, the introduction of British colonists presented the greatest challenge to Indian society. In the early 1600s, the British East India Company gained its first foothold with a trading station at Surat in modern Gujarat and gradually put down additional roots in Bombay, Madras, and the Bengal region. With the effective collapse of the Moghul empire in the mid-1700s, the nobil- ity that ruled peripheral regions such as Bengal began to function independently. This allowed the British to displace the indigenous rulers as the political authorities and the recipients of land revenue. The East India Company was a commercial venture, and its primary goal was to make money for its shareholders. Yet the Indian body politic was so fragmented that the company encountered little effective resistance and aggressively expanded its sphere of influence from Bengal up the Ganges River valley and into central India. In some cases the company would simply absorb small kingdoms under the pretense of protecting law and order, especially when the leader- ship had no clear line of succession. In other cases it would make agreements with local nobility to create small princely states, some of which survived until Indian inde- pendence in 1947. General discontent with the company’s aggressive expansion finally exploded in the rebellion of 1857–58, after which India was governed as part of the British Empire. The company was primarily driven by economic motives, but it justified its pater- nal presence by portraying the Indians as unable to govern themselves effectively. Although the company’s policy was not to interfere with its subjects’ religious lives, since any such tensions would be bad for business, the company’s board of directors in England was under strong domestic pressure to open up their dominions to Christian missionary activity. Contemporary missionary polemics against Hinduism usually stressed repugnant practices such as sati (the burning of a widow on her hus- band’s funeral pyre), child marriage, the pitiable plight of many widows, or Hindu “idolatry.” Such political and religious critiques assumed the implicit superiority of European Christian culture and provided the moral sanction for colonialism that Rudyard Kipling described as the “white man’s burden.” Hindus responded to these critiques in several ways. The most violent response came in the rebellion of 1857–58, in which popular discontent led various groups to try to drive the British out of India. Although there was widespread opposition to British rule, it was never unified, allowing the British to defeat their adversaries one by one. A far more effective response came in religious terms, as progressive Hindus attempted to respond to the missionary critiques. One result of this was the formation of various societies, such as the Brahmo Samaj, Prarthana Samaj, and Arya Samaj. The first two of these attempted to reform Hindu religious life by removing certain offen- sive practices in response to criticism from outsiders. These practices included the xicaste system, child marriage, and the ban on widow remarriage. The Arya Samaj was formed to regenerate and revitalize Hinduism, with the explicit position that Hinduism was far superior to Christianity and Islam. The end of the nineteenth century was also marked by the gradual establishment of Hinduism as a viable religious tradition in the West, as Hindu teachers arrived in Europe and America. Some of the early figures were Swami Vivekananda and Paramahamsa Yogananda, and the more recent ones are Prabhupada, Muktananda, Yogi Bhajan, Guru Maharaj Ji, Krishnamurti, and Shri Chinmoy. This recent group of teachers had an explicit missionary goal, aiming to gain followers among native-born Europeans and Americans. The most recent period in the development of Hindu religious traditions is marked by the emigration of Indians to America. Many Indians have settled abroad seeking education or to pursue specialized careers. They have established centers of Hindu worship, like the temple Aurora, to serve the needs of the Indian community, including the need to pass on a sense of Hindu identity to their children. Yet despite their efforts to preserve their traditions and culture, their very presence in a different society is causing changes in their religious lives. American society has made certain traditions more difficult to preserve. For example, the community often celebrates religious festivals on the weekend following the traditional festival day, since this is when people have more spare time. Life in American society and the influence of American values have also made it difficult to conform to certain traditional patterns. The traditional requirement that Hindus marry within their jati has been assailed both by the American emphasis on the importance of a “love marriage” and by the poten- tial shortage of suitable partners. In the same way, certain dietary restrictions become harder to maintain but have greater complexity. A Hindu in America must decide not only if he or she should simply avoid eating beef but also whether to avoid any place where beef is served. In India, the twentieth century has been marked by the development of an assertive and militant Hindu nationalism. Hindu nationalism’s “founding father” was V. D. Savarkar, but the most important body promoting this idea in the recent past has been the Rashtriya Svayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The RSS is the mother organization for many different affiliates, ranging from labor unions to student organizations to social relief bodies. Its two most important affiliates for promoting Hindu nationalism are the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), a religious organization, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a mass-based political party. In the early 1990s, both organizations were instrumental in radical Hindu politics, particularly in the destruction of a mosque alleged to have been built on the site of the god Rama’s birthplace in the North Indian city of Ayodhya. Since that time, the VHP has retained its radical edge, but the BJP has not. The BJP has put greater distance between itself and the VHP, seeking to move toward the political center and thus expand its reach in electoral politics. It has begun stressing issues that are vital to a broader spectrum of Hindu voters, such as corrup- tion and the rising cost of living. This encyclopedia offers the student of religion a place to begin exploring the key elements of Hindu religious culture and practice. I hope that the entries will be a springboard for further study of this great, living religious tradition. xiiHow to Use This Book This encyclopedia includes the following features: •The Contents by Subject lists related entries in the following categories: Art, Architecture, and Iconography; Astrology and Cosmology; Biographical Entries; Calendar and Time; Ceremonies, Practices, and Rituals; Communities, Groups, and Organizations; Dance; Dynasties; Geography; Literature, Language, and Drama; Medicine, Physiology, and Alchemy; Music, Hymns, and Prayers; Mythology and Beliefs; Philosophy and Logic; and Yoga and Tantra. •Cross-referenced terms within entries are indicated in boldface type. •Parenthetical citations are used to refer to selections from primary Hindu texts. For sources from the Vedas, the first number refers to the book and the second to the hymn. For later sources, including the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and all of the dharma literature, the first number refers to the chapter and the second to the verse. •Lineage charts for characters in the Hindu epics the Mahabharata and the Ramayana appear on pages 401 and 556, respectively. •Words with distinctive pronunciations are listed in the back of the book with diacritical marks—symbols above or below the letters to indicate their proper pronunciation. •Abbreviated bibliographic citations appear at the end of some entries. The full citations are grouped together in the bibliography. Note on Dates In many cases, determining dates for the lives of Indian figures is problematic because there are not good records for many figures, even in comparatively modern times. The most definite dates tend to be from inscriptions, and thus this evidence is best for kings and others who were able to commission inscriptions. Philosophers, devotional poets, and writers often could not. In this book, a question mark follows dates that scholars have determined by inference (for example, based on internal evidence in texts, such as references to historical events) but are not backed up by documentary evidence. xiii