Hinduism

By Merry Wiesner-Hanks, PhD

The Hindu belief system developed over hundreds of years through the
intellectual work of Brahmins and the practices and ideas of millions of
practitioners. About a billion people follow this faith today, mostly in
South Asia.

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Merry Wiesner-Hanks

Introduction
During the millennium from 1500 to 500 BCE, people who called themselves Aryans (from the word for “noble”
in Sanskrit, the major language of ancient India) came to dominate northern India politically and culturally. They
created a body of sacred works, epics, hymns, philosophical treatises, and ritual texts called the Vedas, which serve
as the primary source of information about this era. The traditional view is that the Aryans came into India from the
north using the superior military technology of chariots and bronze weaponry, and conquered the indigenous tribal
population. (This is why, in the twentieth century, the Nazis glorified the Aryans as a superior race and claimed links
with them.) Although archaeological evidence for the Aryan invasion is slim, this is the story told in the Vedas—the
oldest of the Hindu religious texts—which present their leaders as heroic figures, aided by priests and warriors.

The Aryans recognized a number of gods and goddesses, who could be approached through the ceremonies of
priests called Brahmins. These rituals might allow a person to achieve union with the ultimate unchanging reality
that is the source of the universe, called brahman. Originally this was seen as possible only for men who were
Brahmins and lived an ascetic life focused on purity rather than pleasure, but in the third century BCE this idea
began to widen. The brahmanic religion developed into what was later called Hinduism, a diverse set of practices
and beliefs in which individual worshippers could show their devotion to the gods directly, without using priests
as intermediaries. Personal gods could be honored through saying prayers, singing hymns, dancing, presenting
offerings, and making pilgrimages to holy sites, and also by living an honorable life in one’s own situation.

Religious Ideas and Practices

The high status of Brahmins was affirmed in the
Upanishads, cosmological texts composed between 750
and 500 BCE. In these the universe was understood to
be an endlessly repeating cycle in which souls were
reincarnated through a continual process of rebirth
known as samsara. Actions performed in one’s life—
known as karma—determined one’s status in the next
life. Good deeds led to higher status and bad deeds to
lower. The ultimate goal of life was to escape this
relentless cycle of birth and rebirth and achieve moksha,
a state of liberation, bliss, and awareness in which one
achieved union with brahman.

The quest for brahman involved personal devotion to

one or more of the many gods and goddesses who
were manifestations of brahman. They were usually
represented by images in homes and temples. Devotion
to one did not mean denial of the others, and over the
centuries new gods, doctrines, beliefs, and rituals
were added and incorporated. Reaching brahman also
involved living a moral life, what became known as
dharma, a Sanskrit word with many shades of meaning,
involving piety, moral law, ethics, order, duty, mutual The sixth century CE Dashavatara Temple to the god Vishnu in
understanding, justice, and peace. The moral and north-central India also contains images of various other gods and
spiritual teachings of Hinduism were widely appealing goddesses. It is one of the oldest surviving Hindu stone temples. By
because they offered direct contact with the gods, Work2win, CC BY-SA 4.0

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often in exuberant rituals, and guidance for everyday life. Following rules of behavior and performing ceremonies
associated with one’s social group and favored gods might lead to being born in a higher status group in the next
life, an attractive idea for most people.

Society and Family Life

Like every ancient society, early Aryan society distinguished among various social groups. Priests and warriors
became the two highest social strata (varna in Sanskrit), the Brahmin and the Kshatriya. Merchants formed the third
strata (Vaishya) and peasants, laborers, and conquered peoples the fourth and largest strata (Shudra). The Vedas
portray this system as created by the gods, who divided the original cosmic being into four parts corresponding to
parts of the body; this gave social divisions religious sanctions.

Skin color may have played a role in the origins of these social strata—Aryan epics describe those who opposed
them as dark-skinned savages—but societal roles was the key source of differentiations. Thus attitudes toward
certain types of work underlay them: memorizing religious texts and engaging in intellectual debates was honored
work, while farming or making things with one’s hands were demeaning. Over time, occupational and geographic
distinctions were elaborated into an increasingly complex system of thousands of hereditary groups known as jati—
which literally means “births.” Each of these were understood to have a common identity and ancestors, and had
roles, rituals, and status prescribed by custom and tradition. They were reinforced by endogamy, that is, marrying
within the group. As new occupations developed because of technological change or cultural interactions, or as
groups migrated in or invaded, new jati were created for them or older ones redefined, so the system was both
stable and flexible. When Portuguese traders came to India in the late fifteenth century, they called these groups
casta from their own word for hereditary social divisions. This became the English word “caste,” now used widely
to describe the Indian social hierarchy.

Certain tasks were regarded as beneath the dignity of even the lowest shudras, and those who did them were
viewed as outside of the caste system, a social classification that developed into the notion that certain groups
were “untouchable” because they were impure. That designation became a circular one: untouchables were
scorned because their occupations polluted them, but certain occupations polluted all who did them.

Scholars debate many aspects of the caste system. Some argue that British rule in India in the nineteenth century
made the system far more rigid than it had been earlier because it codified the system in writing, while others
stress that unwritten norms can be just as authoritative as written law. The power of caste in contemporary Indian
society is a sharply disputed political issue.

There is little debate that, whatever one’s social group, the family was where one was to observe dharma. All
men and women were expected to marry, with sexual pleasure, fulfilling religious obligations, and having children
regarded as the three purposes of marriage. Hindu deities include powerful female gods, but only male Brahmins
could go through the most important religious ceremonies and study sacred texts. While her brothers were off
studying, a Brahmin girl learned housekeeping and domestic religious rituals. After her husband’s death, a widow
was regarded as unlucky, so not welcome at family festivities. But like the male members of her family, after death
she could hope for a favorable rebirth, which might include being reborn as a man.

Political Developments and the Spread of Hinduism

The Aryans established small kingdoms in northern India, and priests supported the expanding power of rulers, who
in return confirmed the superior status of the priests. The Persians and the Greeks under Alexander conquered
parts of northwest India, but at times Indian rulers also created larger empires, some of which favored Buddhism
and some Hinduism.
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Angkor Wat temple complex in Cambodia, the largest religious structure in the world, was built as a Hindu temple by the
rulers of the Khmer Empire in the twelfth century. When the rulers became Buddhist, it was gradually transformed
into a Buddhist holy site. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

Religious and social practices associated with Hinduism spread into Nepal and Sri Lanka, where they blended with
local religious and social systems. They also spread into Southeast Asia, carried across the Indian Ocean by
merchants and sailors on ships. After about 100 CE, Indian priests and officials travelled to Southeast Asia as well,
where they married into powerful families and were appointed as advisers by rulers attempting to build up their
authority on the Indian model. In these Indianized kingdoms of Southeast Asia, imported traditions fused with local
ones. Some groups understood themselves to be members of specific Indian castes, especially lineages within the
Kshatriyas warrior caste. Huge stone temples were built to Hindu deities, but rituals also continued to indigenous
gods and spirits, who retained their power over the rice harvest, daily life, and cosmic order. Other than among South
Asian migrants, the impact of caste was limited, and locally-created social hierarchies remained the most important.

In more recent times, South Asian migrants have taken Hinduism around the world, though it has not spread widely
to people from other areas. Today there are about a billion Hindus, about 95 percent of whom live in India.

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Primary Source: The Rig Veda

The Rig Veda, one of the Hindu sacred texts known as the Vedas, is a collection of about 1000 hymns dedicated to
specific deities. This is Hymn 10.11, in praise of the heroic god Indra.

1. All sacred songs have magnified Indra expansive as the sea, The best of warriors borne on carts, the Lord, the
very Lord of strength.
2. Strong in thy friendship, Indra, Lord of power and might, we have no fear. We glorify with praises thee, the
never-conquered conqueror.
3. The gifts of Indra from of old, his saving succors, never fail, When to the praise-singers he gives the boon of
substance rich in kine [cattle].
4. Crusher of forts, the young, the wise, of strength unmeasured, was he born Sustainer of each sacred rite, Indra,
the Thunderer, much-extolled.

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Sources
Flood, Gavin D. An Introduction to Hinduism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Knott, Kim, Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Koller, John M. The Indian Way: An Introduction to the Philosophies and Religions of India. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2004.

Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks
Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks is Distinguished Professor of History emerita at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and currently
the president of the World History Association. She is the author or editor of thirty books that have appeared in English,
German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Chinese, Turkish, and Korean.

Image credits
Cover: Hoysaleswara Temple, Halebid, Karnataka, India. © Photo by: Wayne and Miriam Caravella/IndiaPictures/Universal
Images Group via Getty Images
The sixth century CE Dashavatara Temple to the god Vishnu in north-central India also contains images of various other
gods and goddesses. It is one of the oldest surviving Hindu stone temples. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0
International. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File%3AFront_side_of_the_Dashavatara_Temple_in_Deogarh.jpg
Angkor Wat temple complex in Cambodia, the largest religious structure in the world, was built as a Hindu temple by the rulers
of the Khmer Empire in the twelfth century. When the rulers became Buddhist, it was gradually transformed into a Buddhist
holy site. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Angkor_Wat_Aerial_
View_Siem_Reap_Cambodia_2011.jpg

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