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.

IS THE HISTORY OF HINDUISM, THE HISTORY OF BRAHMANAS FROM RIGVEDIC TIMES TO THE PRESENT? Or, does the story of Hinduism begin with the descriptions of the ancient roots as revealed by archaeological findings and the evidence from present day tribal, village and regional cultures? This book looks at both. The history of Brahmanas, tracing their lineage to the fifty-odd Rigvedic poets, is dealt with through the chronological ordering of the Sanskrit texts which were first handed down to us as oral narratives from Gurus to shishyas. The circumstances and purposes for which these texts were written is examined, along with events of a true historical nature. This is followed by a sequential treatment of Hinduism as a ‘Rigvedic religion’, the two Mimamsas, Buddhism, Jainism, Dharmasastras, the Epics and the Puranas. The growth of Hindu temples, the role of Adi Sankaracharya and the Bhakti movement is delved into, and the influences of Muslim and British rule of the subcontinent on Hinduism is analysed. The author explores one major reason for the survival of Hinduism—the support of prehistoric tribal and village cultures which were not modified or destroyed by the later-day Brahmanas. Much of tribal and village deities and practices were co-opted into concurrent Hinduism, so-much-so that today these cannot be separated from mainstream Hindu practices and traditions. They exist in all their colourful glory to this date and make Hinduism vibrant. It is these ancient folk religions that provide a stable foundation for the survival of Hinduism, argues author R Ramachandran, presenting in this book an all-encompassing landscape view of Hinduism as it has been for the last five thousand years. Finally, the present status of Hinduism is discussed along with its survival in the future.

Science is in human mind since the very existence of human being. Its knowledge grows with the growth of the human wants, as human wants are unlimited, so as the inventions of science. It justifies the saying that “necessity is the mother of invention”. It is also true that all the sects, communities and tribes of this world are leading their lives somehow scientifically. The sects or communities, whose necessities and expectations are more, their scientific knowledge is more and whose necessity is limited, their scientific knowledge is also limited. Tribes are the indigenous people and they have some indigenous knowledge of science and technology in their daily life. Presence of science is not only noticed in the modern Laboratories and modern industries but also in our daily lives.To know something is ‘Gyan’ (knowledge) and to achieve something is ‘Vigyan’ (Science). For example: to know the presence of ghee in the milk is Gyan, to know the process (technique) how to prepare ghee from milk is Vigyan/Vidya (science/scientific knowledge) and application of this process (scientific knowledge) to the practical aims of ghee preparation is technology. This book contains some aspects of tribal science and technological knowledge.

The British claimed that India’s Adivasi population lay beyond the pale of mainstream Hindu society. Yet even a cursory mapping of the spiritual-cultural landscape reveals a deep symbiotic relationship between tribals and non-tribals, which is amply reflected in the ancient literature and inscriptions. Indeed, it was also noted by colonial anthropologists and ethnographers (mainly British officials), who deliberately delinked tribals from Hindu society through the imposition of racial categories and census classifications. Tribals have made an enormous contribution to India’s civilisation; all major gods of the Indic tradition have tribal links. Shiva was worshipped by forest-dwelling communities in large parts of the country, as were Vishnu’s incarnations as Varaha (boar) and Narasimha (lion). Vishnu, in fact, evolved out of several distinct deities, notably Vasudeva, the supreme lord of the Vrishni/Satvata tribe; Krishna of the Yadava clan; Gopala of the Abhira tribe and Narayana of the Hindukush mountains. Similarly, Gautama Buddha hailed from the Sakya tribe; Vardhaman Mahavira was a scion of the Jnatrikas. There is to this day a close relationship between the Kurumba, Lambadi, Yenadi, Yerukula and Chenchu tribes and Shri Venkateshwar of Tirupathi. Lord Ayyappam in Kerala and Mata Vaishno Devi in Jammu also appear to have tribal links. All these gods and temples, as also that of Jagannath in Puri, enjoy a pre-eminent status in the classical Hindu pantheon. Even caste, long regarded as the keynote of Hindu society, possibly originated in the tribal clan or gotra. The term ‘jat’ or ‘jati’ is used equally for caste and tribe in most Indian languages and tribal dialects. Moreover, the defining characteristics of tribes apply equally to castes, such as claims of descent from a common ancestor, common language, endogamy and clan exogamy, caste/tribal councils, certain taboos in matters of diet and marriage alliances, presence of hierarchy within groups and limited self-sufficiency. Mahatma Gandhi insisted that tribals are an inalienable part of Hindu society. This work suggests that tribal society constitutes the keynote and the bedrock of Hindu civilisation.

Folklore Studies in India: Critical Regional Responses is an interesting compilation of twenty-eight critical articles on the beginning of folklore studies in the different parts of India. In the absence of a book that could map the history of Indian folklore studies single-handedly, this book can be deemed as the first-of-its-kind to feature the historical development of folklore studies in the different states of India. This book succinctly introduces the readers to the folk culture, folk arts, and folk genres of a particular region and to the different aspects of folkloristic researches carried out in that region.