Download or read book Hindu Images and Their Worship with Special Reference to Vaisnavism written by Julius J. Lipner and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-04-21 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hinduism comprises perhaps the major cluster of religio-cultural traditions of India, and it can play a valuable role in helping us understand the nature of religion and human responses to life. Hindu image-worship lies at the core of what counts for Hinduism – up-front and subject to much curiosity and misunderstanding, yet it is a defining feature of this phenomenon. This book focuses on Hindu images and their worship with special reference to Vaiṣṇavism, a major strand of Hinduism. Concentrating largely, but not exclusively, on Sanskritic source material, the author shows in the course of the book that Hindu image-worship may be understood via three levels of interpretation: the metaphysical/theological, the narratival or mythic, and the performative or ritual. Analysing the chief philosophical paradigm underlying Hindu image-worship and its implications, the book exemplifies its widespread application and tackles, among other topics such as the origins of image-worship in Hinduism, the transition from Vedic to image worship, a distinguishing feature of Hindu images: their multiple heads and limbs. Finally, with a view to laying the grounds for a more positive dialogic relationship between Hinduism and the "Abrahamic" faiths, which tend to condemn Hindu image-worship as "idolatry", the author examines the theological explanation and justification for embodiment of the Deity in Hinduism and discusses how Hinduism might justify itself against such a charge. Rich in Indological detail, and with an impressive grasp of the philosophical and theological issues underlying Hindu material culture, and image-worship, this book will be of interest to academics and others studying theology, Indian philosophy and Hinduism.
Download or read book Imagination in Religion written by Espen Dahl and published by LIT Verlag Münster. This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religion would be impossible without imagination. Imagination provides content that otherwise escapes discourse and perception. Thus, it opens up a productive realm for creative involvement that keeps religion from sinking into trivialities or abstractions. The contributions in the present volume explore in various ways potentialities and problems linked to imaginations role in the context of religion. The book challenges readers to think again and think differently about imagination in religion which, in itself, involves the power of imagination. The book opens up fresh perspectives on the interactive dynamics between imagination and various faculties or dimensions of life. Imagination might be involved in thinking, perceiving, contemplation, and in practices. The contributors to the volume are all members of the Nordic Society for the Philosophy of Religion.
Download or read book River and Goddess Worship in India written by R.U.S. Prasad and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-08-09 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of figures -- List of maps -- List of tables -- Foreword -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- List of abbreviations -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Origin of the Vedic River Sarasvati - various theories -- 3 Sarasvati in ancient Indian texts - an overview -- 4 Sarasvati in the Rig-Veda -- 5 Sarasvati in the Yajur-Veda and the Atharva-Veda -- Sarasvati and the Yajur-Veda (YV) -- Sarasvati and the Atharva-Veda (AV) -- 6 Sarasvati in the Brahmanas -- Aitareya Brahmana (AB) -- Kausitaki Brahmana (KB) -- Jaiminiya Brahmana (JB) -- Satapatha Brahmana (SB) -- Pancavimsa Brahmana (PB) -- 7 Sarasvati and other deities in Vedic texts -- Sarasvati and Ila -- Sarasvati and Bharati -- Sarasvati and male deities -- 8 Sarasvati and Vak -- 9 Sarasvati in the Mahabharata -- Practice of pilgrimage in India -- The pilgrimage of Balarama and important tirthas (pilgrimage sites) visited by him along the course of Sarasvati -- 10 Important pilgrimage sites (tirthas) on Sarasvati and folklore associated with them -- Kurukshetra -- Adi Badri -- Arunaya Tirtha, Arnaya -- Praci Tirtha, Pehowa -- Sarasvati Tirtha, Pehowa -- Brahmayoni Tirtha, Pehowa -- Prithudhak Tirtha, Pehowa -- Sapta-Saraswat Tirtha, Mangna -- Kapalamochana Tirtha -- Camasodbheda -- Prabhasa Tirtha -- 11 Sarasvati and the Puranas - Puranic version of her origin and course, features, attributes and legends -- Sarasvati's origin and the course of her flow -- Mutable aspect of Sarasvati -- Features and attributes of Sarasvati -- Some important legends connected with Sarasvati in the Puranas -- Sarasvati and Brahma -- Sarasvati and Vishnu -- 12 Iconography of Sarasvati -- Sarasvati in Hindu iconography -- Sarasvati in Buddhist tradition -- Sarasvati in Jaina tradition -- 13 Conclusions -- Annexure - I -- Select references -- Index
Download or read book Clothing as Devotion in Contemporary Hinduism written by Urmila Mohan and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-09-02 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Urmila Mohan draws on her ethnography of Hindu devotional practices in Iskcon, India, to explore cloth and clothing as “efficacious intimacy”, that is, embodied processes that shape practitioners as devotees, connecting them with the divine and the larger community.
Download or read book The Future of Hindu Christian Studies written by Francis X. Clooney and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-07-14 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The field of Hindu-Christian studies revives theology as a particularly useful interreligious discipline. Though a sub-division of the broader Hindu-Christian dialogue, it is also a distinct field of study, proper to a smaller group of religious intellectuals. At its best it envisions a two-sided, mutual conversation, grounded in scholars’ knowledge of their own tradition and of the other. Based on the Westcott-Teape Lectures given in India and at the University of Cambridge, this book explores the possibilities and problems attendant upon the field of Hindu-Christian Studies, the reasons for occasional flourishing and decline in such studies, and the fragile conditions under which the field can flourish in the 21st century. The chapters examine key instances of Christian–Hindu learning, highlighting the Jesuit engagement with Hinduism, the modern Hindu reception of Western thought, and certain advances in the study of religion that enhance intellectual cooperation. This book is a significant contribution to a sophisticated understanding of Christianity and Hinduism in relation. It presents a robust defense of comparative theology and of Hindu-Christian Studies as a necessarily theological discipline. It will be of wide interest in the fields of Religious Studies, Theology, Christianity and Hindu Studies.
Download or read book Modern Hindu Traditionalism in Contemporary India written by Daniela Bevilacqua and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-01-19 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Modern Hindu Traditionalism addresses Hindu traditions that resisted contact with both Neo-Hindu thought and views of “classical” Hinduism perceived to be outmoded. This book provides an in-depth understanding of Modern Hindu Traditionalism through the case study of the Rāmānandī order (sampradāya) and the portrait of the Jagadguru Rāmānandācārya Rāmnareśācārya. This guru belongs to the ancient tradition of the Rāmānandī order, which is active at the present time and the biggest Vaiṣṇava religious order in Northern India. Analyzing the historical evolution of the Rāmānandī order, the author shows how different centers have undergone different changes over the centuries, and focuses on the independence struggle of a group of Rāmānandīs from the Rāmānūjīs, which led to the creation of the role of Jagadguru Rāmānandācārya and the construction of the Śrī Maṭh. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, this book casts light on figures and processes central to the development of Hinduism in the twentieth and twenty-first century and consequently describes the role of religion in contemporary Indian society. The author examines the role religious institutions and their leaders have in the everyday life of individuals, how they interact with and in the society, and how they approach and interpret social and political issues. The Rāmānandīs’ use of new methods of communication, in particular social media, is an innovative part of the study. A welcome innovation in the studies of South Asian religion, this book will be of interest to historians, anthropologists, and scholars of Hinduism and religion and politics.
Download or read book Principles of Catholic Theology Book 2 written by Thomas Joseph White and published by CUA Press. This book was released on 2024-01-11 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can a philosopher defend the rational warrant for belief in Christianity? Is it reasonable to be religious? Is it philosophically responsible to be a Christian who believes in the mystery of the Trinity? Principles of Catholic Theology explores these questions in a systematic way by considering questions of ultimate explanation. Why not hold that modern atheistic naturalism provides the best explanation of reality? Or, if there is a transcendent first principle that explains all of reality, is it impersonal rather than personal? Contrastingly, if monotheism constitutes the best explanation for created being, how can we reasonably believe in any particular revelation concerning God? What are the criteria for rational belief in revelation? Thomas Joseph White, OP, considers these questions by exploring a series of topics: the transcendentals (existence, oneness, truth, goodness, beauty); rational argument for the existence of God; the immateriality and subsistence after death of the personal soul of the human being; the historical and conceptual coherence of Trinitarian doctrine; and the reasonableness of the natural desire to see God. The aim of Principles of Catholic Theology, Book 2 is to place contemporary natural reason in profound dialogue with the Catholic faith and to think about ways that we can consent to the profound mystery of the Holy Trinity that are in robust concord with the knowledge obtained from philosophical, scientific, and historical sources.
Download or read book The Goddess and the King in Indian Myth written by Raj Balkaran and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-07-27 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sanskrit narrative text Devī Māhātmya, “The Greatness of The Goddess,” extols the triumphs of an all-powerful Goddess, Durgā, over universe-imperiling demons. These exploits are embedded in an intriguing frame narrative: a deposed king solicits the counsel of a forest-dwelling ascetic, who narrates the tripartite acts of Durgā which comprise the main body of the text. It is a centrally important early text about the Great Goddess, which has significance to the broader field of Purāṇic Studies. This book analyzes the Devī Māhātmya and argues that its frame narrative cleverly engages a dichotomy at the heart of Hinduism: the opposing ideals of asceticism and kingship. These ideals comprise two strands of what is referred to herein as the dharmic double helix. It decodes the symbolism of encounters between forest hermits and exiled kings through the lens of the dharmic double helix, demonstrating the extent to which this common narrative trope masterfully encodes the ambivalence of brāhmaṇic ideology. Engaging the tension between the moral necessity for nonviolence and the sociopolitical necessity for violence, the book deconstructs the ideological ambivalence throughout the Devī Māhātmya to demonstrate that its frame narrative invariably sheds light on its core content. Its very structure serves to emphasize a theme that prevails throughout the text, one inalienable to the rubric of the episodes themselves: sovereignty on both cosmic and mundane scales. The book sheds new light on the content of the Devī Māhātmya and contextualizes it within the framework of important debates within early Hinduism. It will be of interest to academics in the fields of Asian Religion, Hindu Studies, Goddess Studies, South Asian Studies, Narrative Studies and comparative literature.
Download or read book Hinduism and Hindu Nationalism Online written by Juli L. Gittinger and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-09-25 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The way people encounter ideas of Hinduism online is often shaped by global discourses of religion, pervasive Orientalism and (post)colonial scholarship. This book addresses a gap in the scholarly debate around defining Hinduism by demonstrating the role of online discourses in generating and projecting images of Hindu religion and culture. This study surveys a wide range of propaganda, websites and social media in which definitions of Hinduism are debated. In particular, it focuses on the role of Hindu nationalism in the presentation and management of Hinduism in the electronic public sphere. Hindu nationalist parties and individuals are highly invested in discussions and presentations of Hinduism online, and actively shape discourses through a variety of strategies. Analysing Hindu nationalist propaganda, cyber activist movements and social media presence, as well as exploring methodological strategies that are useful to the field of religion and media in general, the book concludes by showing how these discourses function in the wider Hindu diaspora. Building on religion and media research by highlighting mechanical and hermeneutic issues of the Internet and how it affects how we encounter Hinduism online, this book will be of significant interest to scholars of religious studies, Hindu studies and digital media.
Download or read book The Book of Hindu Imagery written by Eva Rudy Jansen and published by Binkey Kok. This book was released on 1993 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hinduism is more than a religion; it is a way of life. Its rich and multicoloured history has made the structure of its mythical and philosophical principles into a highly differentiated maze, of which total knowledge is a practical impossibility. This volume cannot offer a complete survey of the meaning of Hinduism. It is an extensive compilation of important deities and their divine manifestations, so that modern students can understand the significance of the Hindu pantheon.
Download or read book The Iconography of Vai ava Images in Orissa written by Thomas E. Donaldson and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 554 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Work Analyses The Vaisnava Iconography Of Orissa. Vaisnava Iconography Proper Including Hari-Hara And Other Composite Images And Those Of Visnu S Female Consorts; Images Of Visnu In His Avataras; Depiction Of Balarama, Krsna And Jagannatha; And Iconography Of The Secondary Figures Like Garuda And Hanumana.
Download or read book The Gods of India written by E. Osborn Martin and published by . This book was released on 1914 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Viraha Bhakti written by Friedhelm Hardy and published by Motilal Banarsidass. This book was released on 2015-01-01 with total page 716 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Lord Krsna abandoned his earthly mistresses who then spent their days of separation pining for his return. This powerful theme found expression not only in myth but also in the devotion and poetry of a religious culture that evolved in South India. From the fifth century A.D., the Tamils absorbed many elements from the classical traditions of the North, such as yoga, the temple worship and Krsna myths, and the results were unique blends of the two civilizations. Viraha-bhakti, as the author styles this type of Krsna religion, imbued the theme of separation with erotic and ecstatic features and evolved as one of the highlights of Indian religion and culture. The present work is a detailed study of the multifarious origins of Viraha-bhakti in South India and its developments up to the point at which it entered the pan-Indian scene. The study suggests a revision of the monolithic image of Indian religion implied in much scholarly literature. It differentiates a great variety of interacting traditions and milieux and demonstrates the dynamism of Indian culture. By identifying a specific type of religion and reflecting on its significance, the author attempts, at the same time, to go beyond purely textual and historical considerations. Thus the book will be of interest to any student of Indian religion and culture.
Download or read book Aspects of Early Vi uism written by Jan Gonda and published by Motilal Banarsidass Publ.. This book was released on 1969 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Visnu holds a divinity of highest rank among the Hindus. In the present work, the author has made an attempt to sketch the main features in the character of Visnu as they appeared in different ages. The book has an enlightening introduction, a list of abbreviations, four indices and detailed footnotes.
Download or read book South Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses written by H. Krishna Sastri and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2015-06-15 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from South-Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses This little book owes its origin to a suggestion made by His Excellency Lord Carmichael, when he was Governor of Madras in the year 1912. He felt that, while there was a multitude of books dealing with Hindu religion and incidentally with Hindu iconography, there was no popular handbook which would give information about the images one commonly sees in temples or museums in Southern India, and that it would be a distinctly useful thing to supply that want. The Madras Government entrusted the task to me, presumably because my official duties bring me very often to visit the various temples in the Province and to study and classify the images found therein. When I accepted the task, I was not fully aware of the difficulties that lay before me. In the first place, there were very few printed books, in Sanskrit or in translations, that gave the orthodox description and significance of the images set up in temples. And when I managed to collate notes from a few old manuscripts treating of this subject, it was almost impossible in several instances to reconcile the discrepancies which they showed or even to understand the technical terms which abounded in them. In some cases, the description of a particular image found in the local chronicles or Sthala-Purānas could not be traced in the Agamas. I am not altogether sanguine that I have steered clear of these difficulties and succeeded in presenting a clear and readable account to the average reader. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Download or read book What is Hinduism written by Mahatma Gandhi and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A selection of Gandhiji s articles drawn mainly from his contributions to young india, the Harijan and the Navjivan on Hinduism. Written on different occassions, these articles present a picture of hindu dharma I all its richness, comprehensiveness and sensitivity to the existential delimmas of human existence.
Download or read book Vishnu written by Joan Cummins and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vishnu -- Hinduism's most important and powerful deity -- is the great Preserver, vanquishing those who seek to destroy the balance of the universe. For his followers he is also the Creator and the Destroyer, the cause of all existence. His many traits are embodied in his impressive physical form, the weapons he carries, the goddesses who are his consorts, and the eagle Garuda, on whom he flies down from heaven. In Hindu legend, Vishnu descends to earth in many manifestations, known as avatars, to fight powerful demons and to save his devotees. The avatars range in form from Varaha the boar to Parashurama the Brahmin warrior, and in character from Narasimha the ferocious half-man half-lion, to Krishna the charismatic prince-cowherd. The legends of Vishnu have inspired some of the greatest art, literature, and ritual traditions in India. This catalogue examines the many faces of Vishnu and the ways that the god has been represented, from antiquity to the present. Essays by noted historians of South Asian art delve deeply into the regional and sectarian traditions of Vishnu worship in India. Illustrations and discussions of almost 200 works of art, in a wide range of media and borrowed from collections around the world, reveal the rich diversity of India's art and religious culture.
