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Religion in India: a Historical Introduction

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Religion in India: a Historical Introduction Religion in India Religion in India is an ideal first introduction to India’s fascinating and varied religious history. Fred W. Clothey surveys the religions of India from prehistory through the modern period. Exploring the interactions between different religious movements over time, and engaging with some of the liveliest debates in religious studies, he examines the rituals, mythologies, arts, ethics, and social and cultural contexts of religion as lived in the past and present on the subcontinent. Key topics discussed include: • Hinduism, its origins, context and development over time • Other religions (such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, Jainism, and Buddhism) and their interactions with Hinduism • The influences of colonialism on Indian religion • The spread of Indian religions in the rest of the world • The practice of religion in everyday life, including case studies of pilgrimages, festivals, temples, and rituals, and the role of women Written by an experienced teacher, this student-friendly textbook is full of clear, lively discussion and vivid examples. Complete with maps and illustrations, and useful pedagogical features, including timelines, a comprehensive glossary, and recommended further reading specific to each chapter, this is an invaluable resource for students beginning their studies of Indian religions. Fred W. Clothey is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. He is author and co-editor of numerous books and articles. He is the co-founder of the Journal of Ritual Studies and is also a documentary filmmaker. Religion in India A Historical Introduction Fred W. Clothey First published in the USA and Canada 2006 by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 100016 Simultaneously published in the UK by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon. OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 2006 Fred W. Clothey All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Clothey, Fred W. Religion in India : an historical introduction / Fred Clothey. p. cm. ISBN-13: 978–0–415–94023–8 (hardback : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0–415–94023–0 (hardback : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978–0–415–94024–5 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0–415–94024–9 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. India--Religion. I. Title. BL2001.3.C56 2006 200.954–dc22 2006017656 ISBN 0-203-96783-6 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0–415–94023–0 (hbk) ISBN10: 0–415–94024–9 (pbk) ISBN10: 0–203–96783–6 (ebk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–94023–8 (hbk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–94024–5 (pbk) ISBN13: 978–0–203–96783–6 (ebk) Contents Preface ix List of illustrations and maps xiii 1 On Wearing Good Lenses 1 Lenses used through the years 2 Pejorative putdown 2 Romanticism 4 “Noble savage” 6 Interpretation by imposition 7 “Benign neglect” 9 On understanding the “nature” of religion 10 Recommended reading 12 2 Sources of Indian Religion 14 Hunting communities 15 Agricultural communities 16 The “Indo-European” influence 20 The Vedic period 21 The ritual system 23 Hymns and commentaries 26 Recommended reading 28 3 The Early Urban Period 30 The Upanis.ads 31 The “heterodoxies” 36 Jainism 37 Early Buddhism 41 Recommended reading 48 Timeline of Chapters 2 and 3 50 vi Contents 4 The Urban Period 51 The context 52 Kingship and artha 56 Theism: Buddhist and vaidika 56 Devotionalism 60 Articulation of an “urban” ethic 61 The household 63 The role of women 63 Ja¯ti or caste 66 The symbolism of food 67 Yoga 68 Summary 69 The epics 69 Aesthetics and the arts 72 Religious life at the popular level 76 Developments in Buddhism 78 Kingship 79 Ethics 79 Attitude toward city-state 79 Pantheon 79 Iconography 80 Sacred spaces 80 Recommended reading 84 Timeline of Chapter 4 86 5 The Post-classical Period 87 South India 87 Bhakti 90 The emergence of temples 93 The Co¯las 96 ¯ Deities as reflections of cultural history 100 Philosophical developments 102 S´aiva Siddha¯nta 102 Veda¯nta 103 North India 107 Temple construction 108 Tantrism 109 The rise of the goddesses to “high deity” status 111 Buddhism and Jainism 114 Recommended reading 116 Timeline of Chapter 5 120 Contents vii 6 The Coming of Islam 122 The origins of Islam 123 Sunnı¯s and Shı¯‘ı¯s 124 Islam in India 125 The political context 127 Diversity of Islam in India 131 Sunnı¯s 131 Shı¯‘ı¯s 132 Su¯fı¯sm 133 Recommended reading 136 7 Developments in the Late Medieval Period 137 Orthopraxy 137 Hindu polities 138 Devotionalism 141 Mara¯thı¯ 142 Benga¯lı¯ 144 Hindı¯ 145 Accommodation and appropriation 150 Conversion 152 Syncretism 154 Sikhism 156 Recommended reading 159 Timeline of Chapters 6 and 7 161 8 Streams from the “West” and their Aftermath 162 Religious minorities 163 Jewish communities 163 “Cochin Jews” 163 Bene Israel 165 Syrian Christians 166 Zoroastrians or Pa¯rsı¯s 168 The “colonial impact” 171 The Portuguese, British and other Europeans 171 The Indian response 175 Stage one 176 Stage two 178 Neo-bhakti 179 Muslim responses to coloniality 181 Inter-religious relations: conciliation and confrontation 183 Pre-independence India 186 Recommended reading 189 viii Contents 9 Religion in Contemporary India 193 The context 193 The practice of religion 197 Pilgrimages and festivals 197 Va¯ra¯n.ası¯ 198 Palani, Tamil Nadu 200 ¯ Festivals 201 Makara Vilakku, Sabaramala, Kerala 201 Bonalu, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh 202 Festivals in other religious communities 205 The shrine or temple as the focus of religious expression 206 Ritual in other religious communities 209 Religious innovation, hybridization, and reinterpretation 210 The changing faces of deities 210 Conversions of another kind 212 Gurus and their movements 214 The Brahma¯kumarı¯s 214 The Satya Sai Baba movement 216 The resurgent right 217 Recommended reading 221 10 India’s Global Reach 224 Greater India in Asia 224 The westward impetus 228 Early contacts 228 The colonial period 230 The modern era 232 The emigration of South Asians 236 Recommended reading 245 Glossary 248 Notes 260 Index 275 Preface “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” Nowhere is this old adage more appropriate than in the development of this volume. The study of religion in India has become the work of a vast array of specialists who have carved the subcontinent into sub-regions or eras. Theories have come and gone as to how Indian religion should be studied. Indeed, to attempt to put into a single brief volume a “history” of Indian religion that will be accessible to the beginning student has proven to be an enterprise that cannot possibly do justice to the complex developments in South Asia or to the scholars who study them. Nonetheless, this book has emerged out of years of teaching and listening – listening, on the one hand, to the concerns of undergraduates beginning the process of understanding Indian religions, but also, on the other hand, listening to scholars, Indian savants, and hundreds of regular folks in the villages and cities of the Indian subcontinent. My intention in these pages is to provide a skeletal panorama of the development of India’s rich religious heritage, starting from its prehistory and working into the present. Certain themes and concerns that have engaged me for some years spiral their way through these pages. I have become convinced, for example, that one of the most fundamental ways religious persons in India have expressed their identities, passed on their “traditions,” and made manifest their religious orientations is through their ritual life. So, time and again, the reader will find reference to religion that is enacted and embodied, perhaps more than to the religion expressed in conceptual terms. Another concern has been to reflect the transnational character of India’s religious landscape – to suggest how the subcontinent has been informed by currents, both indigenous and external, and, how in turn, the subcontinent has impacted the rest of the globe. Yet another concern has been to depict something of the enormous diversity and plurality in India’s religious experience, and especially how religious minorities have been transplanted to and grow in India, as well as spawned therein. The interactions between these communities teach us much about the way people do or can interact with those with alternative commitments. I have also tried on occasion to weave in the voices of those x Preface often overlooked in discussions of Indian religion for I am persuaded that those who have perpetuated “classical” forms of religion in India have been enriched in their interactions with and indebted to groups sometimes thought to have been marginal – that is, to “folk” and subaltern peoples. These are heady ambitions indeed. Hence, the reader should beware, that, in a book of this size, not all aspects of India’s rich religious landscape will be explored in depth, nor will all these very concerns be evident on every page. The task becomes even more daunting when one believes, as I do, that religion is best understood when seen in the social, cultural, and political contexts in which it occurs.
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