HINDUISM 



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Hinduism. Ait applied to the representation o gods and goddesses. 

 1. Lakshmi, goddess of prosperity. 2. Vishnu, ODJ of the principal Hindu 

 deities. 3. Saraswati, goddess of learning. 4. Sf?a the Destroyer, second 

 of the Hindu deities. 5. Ganesha, god of success. 6. Agni, a guardian 

 deity. 7. Surya the Sun god. 8. Indra, king of heaven 



but slight influence upon the 

 religious beliefs and practices of the 

 people. Even the Brahmanas are 

 much less studied and followed 

 than in pre-Buddhistic days. 

 Though the two great Indian epics 

 belong in their original form to the 

 Brahmanic age, they have been so 

 modified and adapted to later times 

 as to become text-books of Hindu- 

 ism as well as of Brahmanism. 

 The Vedanta Sutras, or aphor- 



isms, belong in their present form 

 to about A.D. 700. The doctrine 

 which they teach is the impersonal 

 pantheism of the Upanishads. This 

 may be regarded as the standard 

 work of Hindu philosophy. The 

 Eighteen Puranas (archaeological 

 treatises) are very much read by 

 the common people, and in par- 

 ticular by women. They repeat the. 

 cosmogonies of the two epic 

 romances and give in greater 



detail the mythological legends 

 about Siva and especially Vishnu. 

 They have much to say about the 

 worship of these two gods and 

 constitute the principal source and 

 authority for modern Hinduism. 



The Tantras (literally threads, 

 then fundamental doctrines) are 

 dependent on the Puranas, as the 

 latter are upon the two great epics. 

 The Tantras are manuals of 

 religion, of magic, of counter- 

 charms, etc., with the addition of 

 hymns in praise of Sakti, the 

 female counterpart of Siva. They 

 are of late date, some no older than 

 the 18th century. They are the 

 product of Sivaism in its most 

 revolting form. There exist an 

 immense number of religious 

 hymns called Stotras which are 

 sung privately, in families, and by 

 large gatherings of Hindus. These 

 have a considerable influence upon 

 the popular mind. The Ramayana 

 of Tulasi Dasa in N. India in praise 

 of Rama, belonging to the IGth 

 century A.D., and the productions of 

 the Tamil poet Tiruvalluva Kurral, 

 are widely read. 



Theoretically the gods of the 

 Vedas are those of Hinduism, but 

 in practice Vishnu and Siva and 

 those they represent are the only 

 deities actually worshipped and 

 acknowledged. Indra, the supreme 

 god of the Vedas, receives hardly 

 any notice, and the same is true of 

 Agni, Varuna, Soma, and others. 

 The Hindu Puranas recognize what 

 is called the Trimurti, the three 

 forms, which includes the trinity 

 of gods, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. 

 But the first, the shadowy continu- 

 ation of the Vedic god of that 

 name, is almost ignored in modern 

 Hinduism. For an understanding 

 of the Hinduism of to-day one has 

 to take into account only the other 

 two gods and the gods and god- 

 desses who follow in their train. 

 It is one outstanding feature of 

 Hinduism, especially in its Sivaic 

 section, that it invented a large 

 number of goddesses. Vedism had 

 hardly a place for female deities. 



The predominant philosophy in 

 Hinduism is Vedantism as repre- 

 sented in the Vedanta Sutras. 

 Cultured Hindus regard all the 

 deities of modern India, and many 

 of them include the Gods of the 

 Jew, the Christian, and the Moslem. 

 as mere forms and manifestations 

 of the Great All, the One and No 

 Other. Among the Sivaik-s, how- 

 ever, the dualism of the Sankhya 

 philosophy has considerable vogue. 

 At least three-fourths of the 

 population of modern India belong 

 ostensibly to one or other of the 

 two great sects, the Vishnuites or 

 the Sivaites. Though a very sub- 

 ordinate god in the Vedas, Vishnu 



