Religious Traditions of India I
group reports on...
Davis, "A Brief History of Religions in India," pp. 3-7.
September 15, 2000.
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1.
Our groups findings for words that we think are important to know are:
veda, brahman, yoga, dharma, bhaki, tantra, mantra, lila, karman, moksa, mandela, puja, sufi,
linga, varna
When discussing the different approaches to Hinduism, the centralists and the pluralists, we
focused on the differences between the two. Noted in the text for the centralist perspective
were the key points and they are: pan-Indain, hegemonic, orthodox, sanskirt, vedic, and
priviledged. For the pluralists view they are: tolerant, coglomeration, lack of founder,
authority and organization, atmosphere of interactors and that there is criticism amongst
themselves and others.
Our fianl finding is in regards to the Hinduism being anachronistic. A group member
thought that the word Hindu is not necessarily accurate because the word was not
consistently used in the early history and formation of the religion.It was a term used for
non-muslim Indians religion. Our question is how do people who practise Hinduism define it
for themselves because it is so broad.
Melissa, Sarah W., Rhian
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2.
During class today, my group, which consisted of myself (David), Troy, Ryan and Patricia
spent much our our time discussing what we had read from the text and our various
viewpoints.
First of all, we came up with a list of terms which we felt we need to know. Most appeared
on all of our lists:
syncretist coterie caste
sects sage paradigmatic
veda canonical text bhakti
brahman sindu dharma
sindu dharma visnu
heterodoxies sanskrit
As for definitions, we didn't have much to say. Some of us knew, in a general way, what a
few of the terms meant. But, overall, we are still in the dark.
Secondly, we discussed the division of Hinduism under the centralist and pluralist headings.
We felt that we were pretty clear on the definitions of each.
Troy raised an interesting question: "Is the centralist patriarchal?" We agreed that it seemed to
be steeped in control, and the word "organization" came up a lot. It seems pluralists allow
certain acceptance that the centralist do not.
We also agreed to Davis' terming of "anachronistic" to Hinduism. As Hinduism stands as one
of the worlds oldest religions, yet the name was not used until the 19th Century by colonial
British. It seems to just be a term ("Hinduism" that is) used to lump all different beliefs and
traditions together.
And that was all . . .
David Payne
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Shauna Anderson
Shelly Collette - Note taker
Jason Sherman
David Feltmate - Emailer
Anachronistic Hinduism
Shauna and Dave felt that Richard DavisÆ use of the term ôanachronisticö implied that the
Hindu tradition had no real time frame or starting point. Jason agreed, and added that Hindu
history was ôgivenö to the practitioners of the religion by others. Shelly felt that Davis used
the term ôanachronisticö as meaning that ôHinduismö was super-imposed on a past culture
that did not consider itself ôHinduö and that had possibly changed and grown over time.
Dave saw a link between the terms ôanachronisticö and ôanarchyö and wondered if maybe,
just maybe, Davis meant that the religious tradition was disorganized and chaotic.
Centralist Point of View
Shauna, Dave and Jason characterized centralism as purely textual and excluding marginal
factions. Shelly didnÆt characterize it at all, but complained about problems the centralists
would face in a scholarly study of Hinduism which are as follows: By only focussing on the
Brahman texts, the scholars are excluding not only the majority of Hindu practitioners in
India, but also a large catalogue of primary sources including oral narrative, folklore
traditions and cultural influences upon the practice of Hinduism. Also, pure textual
scholarship focuses only on the blatantly religious aspects, and ignores the nuances of
practice. Finally, the texts were written many, many years ago (4000-2000 BCE?), and the
culture, being the sphere of influence upon the rituals of practice, has evolved, and with that
has evolved the meaning of the text. However, Dave also noted that the Brahmans are
considered to more spiritually enlightened than the other castes, and therefore, their opinions
would have more validity than those of the other castes.
Pluralist Point of View
The general consensus, opined by Jason, is that pluarlists focus on a wider area of practice,
ritual, and tradition. Shauna felt that their area of study was too diverse û that one title
(Hinduism) means too many things. Shelly thought the pluralists had the advantage over the
centralists because they incorporated oral narrative, folklore traditions, and cultural
influences in there interpretation of texts and Hinduism as religious practice. Dave agreed
with Shelly, but was wary of the lack of precision in a definition of Hinduism. We all felt
that one positive aspect was that all practitioners of the religion were incorporated, not
merely the Brahmans.
Vocabulary List of Words We Think We'll Have to Know Before the Term is Over:
Upainsad, Veda, Brahman, Yoga, Dharma, Bahkti, Tantra, Adi Granth, Mimamsa, Dharmasastra, Vedanta, The Epics, Visnu, Siva, ôSynthetic Hinduismö, Syncretic, Persuasion, Esoteric, Jainism, Sikhism, Sanskrit, Vedic, Hinduism, Muslim, QurÆan, Buddhism, Islam, Sakyamuni, Yajnavalkya (I think thatÆs how itÆs spelled), Muhammad, Sindu
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Jessica Alward
Robert Gallacher
Shannon Westerby
The words we did not understand (though probably not all)are
the following:
Brahman, Veda, Pan-Indian, Dharma, Bhakti, Tantra, Buddha, Mimamsa, Epics, Siva, Visnu,
The two words we defined are:
Tantra: an act of sexual intercourse, where there is no ejaculation,
rather then outward release of energy the energy is kept within.
Veda: is knowledge, a sacred scripture of Hinduism. What is
revealed through veda is found in Dharma, Dharma being righteousness,
virtue, integrity, discipline, duty.
We all agreed that Davis used anachronistic for Hinduism to state that it was out of synch
with time. we mean by this that Hinduism did have one belief a very long time ago, thus that
was Hinduism, but over the past centuries, more sects of Hinduism have evolved and now
Hinduism refers to several different sects of the main one. Our understanding of pluralist and
centralist is that pluralist Hinduism is a belief of many beliefs where centralist Hinduism is a
belief of one belief. one member of the group added that the pluralist is more hierarchial, with
the veda at the top. We believe that the authors intention of the poem (the one found at the
very beginning of the introduction) was to help clarify this idea of pluralist and centralist
views of Hinduism. I apologize for the tardiness again.
Robert Gallacher
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Our group consisted of the following fine upstanding people:
Neil, Jody**, Sarah, Jesse
Last class we gathered and introduced ourselves, and appointed duties. Jody took up the pen
and also volunteered to do the email, due to self proclaimed poor penmanship. We did a small
discussion on what we had read and got down to business attempting to answer each other's
questions and comments on the reading and assignment.
The first thing we did was try to get a feeling for what words would be important, or that would give us trouble later on. Here's a list, with some information that we were able to
compile collectively:
Syncretists- (Unknown definition, probably relating to a philosophy or belief held by certain individuals.)
Brahminic- An elite class of clergy people who lead sacrifices, rituals, and sermons...or were perhaps a people of a certain geography, where Vedic Hinduism originated.
Hinduism- A catchall phrase describing people who in south east asia who do not fit into the
named world religions, such as: Christianity/Islam/etc.
Words relating to, or are a part of, Religious texts having to do with Hinduism:
Vedas
Mimamsa
Dharmasastra
Vedanta (Note, couldn't find the correct accents on my word processor)
Other words to be considered, with some definitions:
Hegemonic: A hut made of shubs? ;)
Paradigmatic: Relates to or creates a context (?)
Heterodoxy: A system that incorporates other local systems? (Socio-religious context?)
Anachronistic: (found in the prompt) A possibility of misinterpreting the time frame of a particular topic.
Sindu and Visnu: (Possibly relig. Texts, practices, or names of deities?)
Our collective inkshed came to a basic agreement on what the centralists and pluralists are
like, as brought to us by the text we read.
Centralists: Think that the Vedic sacrifices are the central core of Hinduism...The template for
all the other splinter belief systems dealing with Hinduism. (A theroy lead by the Brahminic
class) The centralists belive that despite the rebellions against them, the Vedic system prevails
as the model. (Our question: what is the Vedic system, in some detail?)
Pluralists: Believe that the theological multiplicity in Hinduism is tolerated if not encouraged,
with no beginning, founder, or higher authority. The Centralists in this view are but one of
many rich traditions. (We aren't sure why Davis calls Hinduism anachronistic, aside from the
above statement/definition, regarding time and context.)
(That's it. If there is any variation from what we said and what is written here, I apologise.)