The Many Colors of Hinduism

The Many Colors of Hinduism

Author: Carl Olson

Publisher: Rutgers University Press

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 412

ISBN-13: 0813540682

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This is an introductory text providing a balanced view of the rich religious tradition of Hinduism, acknowledging the full range of its many competing and even contradictory aspects.


Hinduism in the Modern World

Hinduism in the Modern World

Author: Brian A. Hatcher

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-10-05

Total Pages: 341

ISBN-13: 113504631X

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Hinduism in the Modern World presents a new and unprecedented attempt to survey the nature, range, and significance of modern and contemporary Hinduism in South Asia and the global diaspora. Organized to reflect the direction of recent scholarly research, this volume breaks with earlier texts on this subject by seeking to overcome a misleading dichotomy between an elite, intellectualist "modern" Hinduism and the rest of what has so often been misleadingly termed "traditional" or "popular" Hinduism. Without neglecting the significance of modern reformist visions of Hinduism, this book reconceptualizes the meaning of "modern Hinduism" both by expanding its content and by situating its expression within a larger framework of history, ethnography, and contemporary critical theory. This volume equips undergraduate readers with the tools necessary to appreciate the richness and diversity of Hinduism as it has developed during the past two centuries.


Hindu Primary Sources

Hindu Primary Sources

Author: Carl Olson

Publisher: Rutgers University Press

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 594

ISBN-13: 0813540704

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Bringing together texts from a variety of sectarian traditions, this reader provides the broadest selection of primary source Hindu literature available to date. The volume is divided into two major parts. The first section presents selections that explore major themes in classical Sanskrit traditions, including those in the Vedic, Upanisadic, and Dharma literatures, as well as the classical philosophical-religious schools. The second part includes selections that highlight the sectarian and devotional movements related to major deities such as Vishnu, Shiva, Krishna, Rama, Sant, Tantra, and the goddess figures. In addition to a general introductory chapter on Indian literature, each major section is introduced by an essay that places the selections within the context of Hindu history. This comprehensive reader stands on its own as an indispensable anthology of original textual sources for courses in Hinduism, while also serving as a companion volume to the text The Many Colors of Hinduism: A Thematic-Historical Introduction.


Modern Hinduism in Text and Context

Modern Hinduism in Text and Context

Author: Lavanya Vemsani

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2018-07-26

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 1350045101

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Modern Hinduism in Text and Context brings together textual and contextual approaches to provide a holistic understanding of modern Hinduism. It examines new sources - including regional Saiva texts, Odissi dance and biographies of Nationalists - and discusses topics such as yoga, dance, visual art and festivals in tandem with questions of spirituality and ritual. The book addresses themes and issues yet to receive in-depth attention in the study of Hinduism. It shows that Hinduism endures not only in texts, but also in the context of festivals and devotion, and that contemporary practice, devotional literature, creative traditions and ethics inform the intricacies of a religion in context. Lavanya Vemsani draws on social scientific methodologies as well as history, ethnography and textual analysis, demonstrating that they are all part of the toolkit for understanding the larger framework of religion in the context of emerging nationhood, transnational and transcultural interactions.


Understanding Hinduism

Understanding Hinduism

Author: James D. Holt

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2024-09-05

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1350407038

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This book explores the beliefs and practices of Hinduism as a lived religion and engages with Hindu beliefs and practices, including the concepts that form the central beliefs of Hinduism, and the expression of these beliefs in worship and daily life. The book uses the authentic voices of practicing Hindus to highlight differences in the ways Hinduism is understood and lived in different circumstances. The diversity of Hindu expression is one of the complex elements of Hinduism, and it is also one of its strengths. This book makes this diversity the centre of its exploration. Each chapter enables the reader to consider the concepts and how they can be taught in the classroom. The author also provides suggestions for activities that could be utilised within the classroom to help others to understand the richness and vibrancy of Hinduism.


A Dome of Many Colors

A Dome of Many Colors

Author: Arvind Sharma

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 1999-06-01

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 9781563382673

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Collected studies about developing religious pluralism throughout the world, including a call to action.


Hindus

Hindus

Author: Julius Lipner

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-10-02

Total Pages: 449

ISBN-13: 1135240612

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Offering us a major study of religious Hinduism, Julius Lipner explains the evolution and multidimensional nature of the religion in a clear and direct fashion. Covering history, belief and practice, he combines factual information with explanation and analysis.


What is Hinduism?

What is Hinduism?

Author: Michael Baltutis

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-05-14

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1040025927

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This book is an engaging introduction to the complex religious tradition of Hinduism. Central to its focus is demonstrating the fundamental diversity within Hinduism through the multiplicity of its core beliefs and traditions. Chapters are divided into four historical categories – Vedic, Ascetic, Classical, and Contemporary Hinduism – with each examining one deity alongside one key term, serving as a twin focal point for a more complex discussion of related key texts, ideas, social structures, religious practices, festivals, and concepts such as ritual and sacrifice, music and devotion, and engagement and renunciation. The organization of this book requires that we see deities as not simply divine individuals who preside over one part of the Hindu world, but that each deity operates as a larger cultural category whose related persons, concepts, and practices provide a vivid lens through which Hindu devotees see and continue to readapt to the world in which they live. With study questions, glossaries, and lists of key contemporary figures, this book is an essential and comprehensive resource for students encountering the multiplicity of Hinduism for the first time.


Hindu Images and their Worship with special reference to Vaisnavism

Hindu Images and their Worship with special reference to Vaisnavism

Author: Julius J. Lipner

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-04-21

Total Pages: 443

ISBN-13: 1351967819

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Hinduism comprises perhaps the major cluster of religio-cultural traditions of India, and it can play a valuable role in helping us understand the nature of religion and human responses to life. Hindu image-worship lies at the core of what counts for Hinduism – up-front and subject to much curiosity and misunderstanding, yet it is a defining feature of this phenomenon. This book focuses on Hindu images and their worship with special reference to Vaiṣṇavism, a major strand of Hinduism. Concentrating largely, but not exclusively, on Sanskritic source material, the author shows in the course of the book that Hindu image-worship may be understood via three levels of interpretation: the metaphysical/theological, the narratival or mythic, and the performative or ritual. Analysing the chief philosophical paradigm underlying Hindu image-worship and its implications, the book exemplifies its widespread application and tackles, among other topics such as the origins of image-worship in Hinduism, the transition from Vedic to image worship, a distinguishing feature of Hindu images: their multiple heads and limbs. Finally, with a view to laying the grounds for a more positive dialogic relationship between Hinduism and the "Abrahamic" faiths, which tend to condemn Hindu image-worship as "idolatry", the author examines the theological explanation and justification for embodiment of the Deity in Hinduism and discusses how Hinduism might justify itself against such a charge. Rich in Indological detail, and with an impressive grasp of the philosophical and theological issues underlying Hindu material culture, and image-worship, this book will be of interest to academics and others studying theology, Indian philosophy and Hinduism.