The Origins and Development of Classical Hinduism
Title | The Origins and Development of Classical Hinduism PDF eBook |
Author | Arthur Llewellyn Basham |
Publisher | Oxford University Press, USA |
Pages | 212 |
Release | 1991 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 9780195073492 |
The late A.L. Basham was one of the world's foremost authorities on ancient Indian culture and religion. Modeled on his monumental work The Wonder That Was India, this account of the origins and development of classical Hinduism represents a lifetime of reflection on the subject, and offers an intriguing introduction to one of the richest of all Asian traditions. Synthesizing Basham's great knowledge of the art, architecture, literature, and religion of South Asia, this concise history traces the spiritual life of India from the time of the Indus Culture (around 2700 B.C.E) through the crystallization of classical Hinduism in the first centuries of the common era. It chronicles as well the rise of other mystical and ascetic traditions, such as Buddhism and Jainism, and follows Hinduism's later incarnations in the West, making it an especially comprehensive introduction to the subject. Unlike Christianity or Islam, Hinduism was not inspired by single great prophet but rather evolved organically. The wide range of influences and sources--along with the great number of sacred texts in ancient languages--can make the Hindu system of faith and practice seem almost impenetrable to the uninitiated. With its vivid presentation of Hinduism's sources--from the warrior Aryans to the wandering ascetics--and its clearly written explanations and analyses of the major Hindu texts--among them the Rg-veda, the Brahmanas, Upanishads, and the Mahabharata and Ramayana--The Origins of Classical Hinduism clarifies much of Hinduism's enduring mystique. With an especially helpful bibliography, numerous illustrations of Hindu art never before published, and a lucid, accessible style, this book is must reading for anyone who has ever been intrigued by this fascinating religion.
The Origins & Development of Classical Hinduism
Title | The Origins & Development of Classical Hinduism PDF eBook |
Author | A.L. Basham |
Publisher | Motilal Banarsidass |
Pages | 159 |
Release | 2016-01-01 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 8120840690 |
Modelled on A.L. BashamÃs monumental work The Wonder That Was India, this account of the Origins and Development of Classical Hinduism represents a lifetime of reflection on the subject, and offers an intriguing introduction to one of richest of all Asian traditions. The late A. L. Basham was one of the world s foremost authorities on ancient Indian culture and religion. Modelled on his monumental work The Wonder That Was India, this account of the origins and development of classical Hinduism represents a lifetime of reflection on the subject, and offers an intriguing introduction to one of richest of all Asian traditions. Synthesizing Basham s great knowledge of the art, architecture, literature, and religion of South Asia, this concise history traces the spiritual life of Indian from the time of the Indus Culture through the crystallization of classical Hinduism in the first centuries of the common era, and includes a final chapter by the editor, Kenneth G. Zysk, on Hinduism after the classical period. Uniquely comprehensive, it chronicles as well the rise of other mystical and ascetic traditions, such as Buddhism and Jainism, and follows Hinduism s later incarnations in the West. With its vivid presentation of Hinduism s sources and its clearly written explanations and analyses of the major Hindu texts-among them the Rg-veda, the Brahmanas, Upanisads, and the Mahabharata and Ramayana-The Origins of Classical Hinduism clarifies much of Hinduism s enduring mystique. Offering an especially helpful bibliography, numerous illustrations of jHindu art never before published, and a lucid, accessible style, this book is must reading for anyone who has ever been intrigued by this fascinating religion.
Classical Hinduism
Title | Classical Hinduism PDF eBook |
Author | Mariasusai Dhavamony |
Publisher | Gregorian Biblical BookShop |
Pages | 550 |
Release | 1982 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN |
Hinduism has a span of three thousand years of history in which various forms of religious experience took shape and grew into a wide and rich variety of myths and cults, beliefs and practise, doctrines and disciplines, which have nurtured millions of Hindus throughout the ages. The exact ides of Hinduism is hard to define since the beliefs and practices of the Hindus differ greatly from one period of history to another, and within a given period, from one region to another, and within a given region, from one class of society to another. In its traditional form the chief distinguishing features of its development are Vedism, Brahmanism, classical Hinduism, Sectarian Hinduism, Medieval Hinduism, Modern Hinduism and Contemporary Hinduism. These developments should not be considered as water-tight compartments, for they merge into one another. Hinduism has shown in its long history a marked propensity to assimilate rather than exclude various religious currents which once used to be considered alien to its own orthodoxy; this feature divides sharply Hinduism from other religions, for example, from Islam and to a certain extent at least in its beginning, Judaism; These religions in their strict form reject as false all other religious beliefs and practices.
The Sacred Cow
Title | The Sacred Cow PDF eBook |
Author | Arthur Llewellyn Basham |
Publisher | Vintage |
Pages | 206 |
Release | 1990 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN |
The Wonder That Was India
Title | The Wonder That Was India PDF eBook |
Author | A. L. Basham |
Publisher | Scholarly Pub Office Univ of |
Pages | 692 |
Release | 1999-12-18 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 9781597400084 |
Classical Hindu Thought
Title | Classical Hindu Thought PDF eBook |
Author | Arvind Sharma |
Publisher | Oxford University Press, USA |
Pages | 250 |
Release | 2000 |
Genre | Hindu philosophy |
ISBN | 0195644417 |
Introduces the texts and ideas of Hinduism, crystallized during the 4th to the 10th century BCE. This book explains their contemporary relevance and deals with the key concepts, the main gods and goddesses, and texts such as the Purusarthas. It also examines the different systems of yoga.
The Roots of Hinduism
Title | The Roots of Hinduism PDF eBook |
Author | Asko Parpola |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 385 |
Release | 2015-07-15 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 0190226935 |
Hinduism has two major roots. The more familiar is the religion brought to South Asia in the second millennium BCE by speakers of Aryan or Indo-Iranian languages, a branch of the Indo-European language family. Another, more enigmatic, root is the Indus civilization of the third millennium BCE, which left behind exquisitely carved seals and thousands of short inscriptions in a long-forgotten pictographic script. Discovered in the valley of the Indus River in the early 1920s, the Indus civilization had a population estimated at one million people, in more than 1000 settlements, several of which were cities of some 50,000 inhabitants. With an area of nearly a million square kilometers, the Indus civilization was more extensive than the contemporaneous urban cultures of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Yet, after almost a century of excavation and research the Indus civilization remains little understood. How might we decipher the Indus inscriptions? What language did the Indus people speak? What deities did they worship? Asko Parpola has spent fifty years researching the roots of Hinduism to answer these fundamental questions, which have been debated with increasing animosity since the rise of Hindu nationalist politics in the 1980s. In this pioneering book, he traces the archaeological route of the Indo-Iranian languages from the Aryan homeland north of the Black Sea to Central, West, and South Asia. His new ideas on the formation of the Vedic literature and rites and the great Hindu epics hinge on the profound impact that the invention of the horse-drawn chariot had on Indo-Aryan religion. Parpola's comprehensive assessment of the Indus language and religion is based on all available textual, linguistic and archaeological evidence, including West Asian sources and the Indus script. The results affirm cultural and religious continuity to the present day and, among many other things, shed new light on the prehistory of the key Hindu goddess Durga and her Tantric cult.