Hinduism

This book provides a description and interpretation of the religion of the Hindus, focusing on their religious psychology and behaviour. Rejecting familiar assumptions about early Hinduism, Nirad C. Chaudhuri makes a reassessment of its formative influences.

Since times immemorial, India has been synonymous with spiritual knowledge and people have been drawn to her sacred land. Some were philosophers, poets, writers, historians, scientists and travelers. Some came to India; others read translations about her rich and imaginative literature and felt genuine enthusiasm for her. The fourth Caliph in the 7th century is reported to have said: The land where books were first written and from where wisdom and knowledge sprang is India. Despite the wars and imperialism, ancient India s spiritual influence and wisdom has had considerable impact on the West, especially on its imagination, science, and literature: English Romantic poetry in particular, Scientists, scholars, poets, writers and philosophers all have paid the highest compliment to India s wonderful metaphysical, religious, artistic, linguistic, and cultural genius by imitating and incorporating some of these ideas and theories into their own work.

Conventional approaches to Hinduism typically stress its classical religious tradition with an emphasis on the Brahmin texts and practices. Frequently neglected are the practices of lower caste Indians, the role of women in the culture, the religious life of village folk, devotion to the deity Rama, and the Sant tradition of North India. The Many Colors of Hinduism is the first introductory text to provide a balanced view of this rich religious tradition, acknowledging the full range of its many competing and even contradictory aspects. Utilizing a thematic-historical approach, Carl Olson draws on a wide array of textual evidence, the fieldwork of anthropologists in close contact with insiders, and voices of thinkers ranging from Indologist Alf Hiltebeitel to Cambridge scholar Julius Lipner. The result is a narrative approach that offers a view of Hinduism that emulates the storytelling nature of the religion itself. Covering ancient times to the present and explaining important cultural metaphors, symbols, and narratives not generally found in other introductory textbooks, Olson offers students a new perspective of a religion that is more varied than most Westerners realize. The Many Colors of Hinduism will be essential reading for undergraduate courses in world or Asian religions.

Theological study of Hindu trinity by an Indian Catholic.