The Hindu Ethics collection gathers important resources about a major religious tradition: Hinduism as Indian religion and dharma and it shows as well the development of a Hindu global spirituality. The purpose of the collection is to build a comprehensive library on the ethical philosophy of Hinduism, based on three main aspects: 1) sources feeding the philosophy of Hinduism, 2) Institutions, which interpret, redefine and propagate the sources, and 3) the themes which are the various facets of application in daily life. The scope of this collection is to be inclusive, encompassing the length and breadth of Hinduism, from ancient lore to modern movements, without leaving out any era, class, creed, sect or school.

Recent Submissions

  • Inconsistencies and Challenges around 'Secularism' in Nepal

    Pant, Dila Datt (Research Management Cell, Tikapur Multiple Campus, 2024-02-29)
    Although Nepal adopted secularism in 2015 as its official state-religion relationship, there are still several inconsistencies and challenges around it including that of freedom of religion or belief. Instead of adopting a gradual marginalization and privatization of religion as per the normative proposition of the secularism, Nepal continues to do the opposite or at times, make a fundamental departure from the notion of secular identity. The preservation and the reaffirmation of presence of religion in public sphere and preferential treatment to Hindu  religion at the cost of others continues to create discrimination and pose challenges to implement secularism. These problems do not only seem to remain just non-congruent inconsistencies with the secular identity of the state at the theoretical level alone, but also seem to hinder inter-religious tolerance in practical terms such as right to freely profess, practice and preach religion, thereby impacting the lives of the religious minorities. Against this backdrop, this article examines the key legal-constitutional inconsistencies including state's practices, antagonistic socio-political narratives, and emerging challenges vis-à-vis secularism in Nepal.   
  • Überlegungen zur kreativen Aneignung westlicher Konzepte wie ›Religion‹ und ›Hinduismus‹ in Indien

    Simon Foppa
    Today, there is a broad consensus in the field of religious studies that a closer examination reveals ›Hinduism‹ to be a conglomerate of different religious traditions, which were first assigned to this term in the 19th century. Authors such as Richard King (1999a) argue that this standardisation can be traced back to Western stakeholders, who, on the basis of their exclusivist Judeo-Christian viewpoint, did not recognise the diversity of the South-Asian religions. There has been an increase of this voice in academic discourse in recent years, which dismisses further use of alleged Western concepts, such as ›religion‹ or ›Hinduism‹, in the description of this faith community, in order to avoid further »westernisation« (King 1999a, 67) of the South-Asian traditions. In this article, an alternative perception of this issue shall be presented. Based on the theory of ›cultural appropriation‹ from Hans Peter Hahn (2005), it is argued that the use of Western concepts does not necessarily lead to a ›westernisation‹ of a tradition, as the appropriating parties themselves invariably have creative leeway with regard to the adoption of new cultural elements, even in hegemonic conditions.
  • Eliseo Ferrer / La tradición indoirania y el origen de la gnosis, de la religión y de la filosofía.

    Eliseo Ferrer (15378010) (2024-02-10)
    Según Eliseo Ferrer, la tradición hinduista ni presenta una conformación monolítica ni tampoco una unidad y uniformidad histórica. Hemos de subrayar que se trata de una construcción cultural erigida en torno a varias abstracciones (unidad, totalidad, orden, ilusión, reencarnación-transmigración, liberación y unión con Dios, etc.) que conformaron un tronco común que, desarrollado a lo largo del tiempo, desafió a los siglos y a los milenios venideros. No otra cosa es lo que encontramos cuando nos acercamos a las nociones védicas de ekam (unidad), ritá (orden cósmico) y māyā (ilusión): ideas arcaicas que nos sitúan ante abstracciones básicas y fundamentales de la historia de las religiones y en la base del desarrollo de la filosofía. Abstracciones presentes en el Rigveda y que, mil años antes de nuestra era, se anticiparon en varios siglos a la metafísica monista de las Upanishads.
  • Understanding the moral and ethical dimensions of the Bhagavad Gita

    Mathias Yuvan Shunmugam; Maniraj Sukdaven (AOSIS, 2024-01-01)
    In Hinduism, there is a distinction made between dharma and karma. Both are essential for the purpose of reaching moksha. Dharma (moral) is the cosmic law or moral principle that governs an individual’s conduct and Karma is the result of past, present and future actions. To achieve good karma (ethical), it is important to live according to dharma. Therefore, in terms of morality in Hinduism, there is an obligation to fulfil one’s destiny as prescribed by the cosmic principle. Karma, on the other hand, serves as the ethical principle in achieving this moral obligation. This distinction is observed in the dilemma, which is played out in the story of Krishna and Arjuna as expressed in the Bhagavad Gita. Contribution: As a result, the contribution to understanding the morality of the Bhagavad Gita rests on Sri Krishna’s strong argument that an individual must set aside their own desires and aspire solely to perform actions that are aligned with the cosmic principle. This means that an individual has the moral obligation to perform those actions irrespective of whether they agree or disagree with the prescribed action. This article engages with the moral obligation and karmic actions, which seem to be at odds with each other, yet the moral obligation takes precedent.
  • Guru as an Academic Leader in Vedic Tradition: A Review

    Neupane, Bharat; Gnawali, Laxman (Department of Languages and Mass Communication Kathmandu University, 2023-12-31)
    Vedic literature from the Indian Subcontinent does not use the phrase ‘academic leadership’ or any other terminology precisely equivalent to this; still, rishi-munis , gurus, and even some kings with passion for knowledge, who provided the environment for exploration and dissemination of knowledge and wisdom can be considered as academic leaders in true sense. In this line, this article reports the review results on the concept of educational leadership depicted in Vedic literature. For this purpose, we explored writings on Vedic wisdom tradition and philosophy, mainly in Google Scholar, using the keyphrases “academic leadership in Vedic literature,” “education system in India,” “Sanatan philosophy,” “Hindu education system,” “Gurukul education,” and “education system in Mithila.” The review results revealed that academic leaders were selected based on practical expertise and specialization in content knowledge, particularly skills, knowledge, character, moral values, perseverance, and gratitude. Academic leaders were father figures, a source of inspiration, role models, and much more. Besides, leaders were characterized by honesty, devotion, and trust, and they had a passion for education and dedication to the profession with a desire for the quest for eternal truth. At current times, when the selection of leadership in academia is based on non-academic influence, such as political inclination, nepotism, and favoritism, neglecting leadership qualities and performance, particularly in Nepal and many other countries, the article provides valuable insights into academic leadership. 
  • Deities’ Rights?

    Das Acevedo, Deepa (Emory Law Scholarly Commons, 2023-01-01)
    A brief commotion arose during the hearings for one of twenty-first-century India’s most widely discussed legal disputes, when a dynamic young attorney suggested that deities, too, had constitutional rights. The suggestion was not absurd. Like a human being or a corporation, Hindu temple deities can participate in litigation, incur financial obligations, and own property. There was nothing to suggest, said the attorney, that the same deity who enjoyed many of the rights and obligations accorded to human persons could not also lay claim to some of their constitutional freedoms. The lone justice to consider this claim blandly and briefly observed that having specific legal rights did not perforce endow one with constitutional rights. Nevertheless, a handful of recent and high-profile disputes concerning Hindu temple deities and the growing influence of Hindu nationalist politics together suggest that the issue of deities’ rights is far from a settled matter. This article argues that declining to recognize deities’ constitutional rights accurately reflects dueling commitments in the Indian Constitution.
  • Teozofia i Indie : Księgi proroków Antoniego Langego

    Deja, Katarzyna (Wydawnictwo Prymat, 2023)
    Antoni Lange is well-known for his interest in Indian philosophy and theology. Still, in his early works, this interest is primarily mediated by late nineteenth-century theosophy and its esoteric syncretism. Books of Prophets ["Księgi proroków"], a series of six poems concerning great world religions: Judaism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism, are an excellent example of Lange's syncretic philosophical system. The series is a conglomerate of interest in said religions and esoteric writings by leading theosophists of that time: Helena Blavatsky, Edouard Schuré, and Alfred Percy Sinnett. The aim article presents how Indian thought was adapted and distorted through the lenses of theosophy to fulfill Lange's aim of offering a journey of an adept of esoteric path to enlightenment.
  • The gospel for Asia; a study of three religious masterpieces: Gita, Lotus, and Fourth Gospel

    Saunders, Kenneth J. (Kenneth James), 1883-1937 (New York: MacmillanPrinceton Theological Seminary, 1928)
  • Death is a Woman: A Mahabharatan Framework for Postcolonial Hindu Feminism

    Variyar, Suvarna (The University of SydneyDiscipline of Studies in ReligionFaculty of Arts and Social Sciences, School of Humanities, 2023)
    Oppressive gender structures, sourced in and supported by particular canonical Hindu texts, have been used throughout the history of colonial and postcolonial India to imagine, construct, and maintain communal identity in opposition to British political, social, and cultural domination until Partition and independence in 1947. Combating the power of these narratives, rather than simply dismantling or reinterpreting them, requires the counterforce of a similarly powerful myth. The Sanskrit-language epic narrative poem the Mahābhārata, with its enduring significance and success as not only a grand narrative but also as a significant philosophical and political tract, is an apt and powerful basis for the creation of a new narrative of gender and sexuality.
 
 This thesis addresses three key questions. Firstly: how are women, womanhood and female sexuality framed through language and narrative within the Sanskrit-language version of the Mahābhārata? Secondly: how do these depictions and philosophical teachings subvert or contradict the current framing of women in modern conservative Hindu discourse? Thirdly: how does the Mahābhārata, as a text firmly entrenched in the orthodox Hindu canon, offer a framework for postcolonial Hindu feminism in a modern, global India?
  • Fra Jagannātha til juggernaut: Billedkult og kristen mission ved den store vognprocession i Puri

    Mikael Aktor (Religionsvidenskabeligt Tidsskrift, 2017-06-01)
    English abstract: The Car Festival in Puri, Odisha, is one of the world’s largest religious processions. About one million pilgrims follow the three god-siblings, Jagannātha, Subhadrā and Balabhadra, each seated in their own gigantic procession chariot pulled by hundreds of pilgrims, on their journey from the main Jagannātha temple to the Guṇḍicā temple three kilometers away. The perception of this procession festival by the British missionaries in Odisha during the first half of the 19th century was the background for the linguistic transformation whereby the name of a god, Jagannātha, became the notion of an overwhelming destructive force, ‘juggernaut’. The article examines the history of this transformation by a reading of quotes from foreign travelers to Odisha during the 14th through the 19th century. It also offers a description of the procession rituals, a reflection on the general characteristics of religious processions, and a discussion of the ‘idolatry’ discourse that lies behind the linguistic transformation from ‘Jagannātha’ to ‘juggernaut’.
 
 Dansk resume: Vognprocessionen i Puri, Odisha, er en af verdens største religiøse processioner. Omkring en million pilgrimme følger de tre gude-søskende, Jagannātha, Subhadrā og Balabhadra, hver i deres egen gigantiske processionsvogn trukket af mange hundrede pilgrimme, på deres rejse fra det store Jagannātha-tempel til det mindre Guṇḍicā-tempel tre kilometer væk. Opfattelsen af denne pilgrimsprocession hos de britiske missionærer i Odisha i den første halvdel af det 19. århundrede var baggrunden for den sproglige transformation der forvandlede navnet på en gud, Jagannātha, til forestillingen om en overvældende kaotisk kraft, ‘juggernaut’. Artiklen undersøger historien bag denne transformation gennem en række citater fra fremmede rejsende i perioden fra det 14. til det 19. århundrede. Den beskriver vognprocessionens ritualer, foreslår nogle ideer til, hvordan vi generelt skal forstå religiøse processioner og diskuterer den diskurs om ‘afgudsdyrkelse’, som ligger bag forvandlingen fra ‘Jagannātha’ til ‘juggernaut’.
  • Louis Dumont: Verdensforsagelse, hierarki og renhed

    Mikael Aktor (Religionsvidenskabeligt Tidsskrift, 2018-01-01)
    English Abstract: This brief article reviews two main contributions by the French sociologist Louis Dumont, his essay “World Renunciation in Indian Religions” and his major work on the Indian caste system, Homo Hierarchicus. Some of the critique of Dumont’s ideas about renunciation, hierarchy and purity is discussed with special focus on three points: (1) The creative role of renunciation in the history of Hinduism; (2) the Indian caste system as a hierarchy regulated according to ritual purity and the alternative model by A. M. Hocart of the Indian society as a ritual organization; and (3) theoretical discussions regarding the need to go beyond the purity-impurity dichotomy and integrate another opposition, that between the auspicious and the inauspicious, in order to develop a more precise analytical tool in the research of Hindu culture.   Dansk resume: Denne korte artikel diskuterer to vigtige bidrag af den franske sociolog Louis Dumont, hans essay “World Renunciation in Indian Religions” og hans hovedværk om det indiske kastesystem, Homo Hierarchicus. Noget af den kritik, der blev rejst mod Dumonts ideer om verdensforsagelse, hierarki og renhed, diskuteres med særlig fokus på tre punkter: (1) Verdensforsagelsens kreative betydning for hinduismens udvikling; (2) Dumonts model af det indiske kastesystem som et hierarki reguleret i forhold til rituel renhed og A. M. Hocarts alternative model, der ser hindusamfundet som en rituel organisation koncentrisk centreret omkring kongen; (3) de teoretiske diskussioner om nødvendigheden af at supplere rent-urent dikotomien med endnu en dikotomi, nemlig mellem det lykke- og ildevarslende, for at udvikle et mere præcist analyseapparat i udforskningen af hinduismen.
  • Recensione a Jocelyn Cesari, "We God’s People. Christianity, Islam and Hinduism in the World of Nations"

    Iacovelli, Giulia; Giulia Iacovelli (2023)
    “We God’s People” represents an impressive effort to deeply explore the intricate relationship between national identity and religious belief, in a journey that 
 runs through Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. Through a combination of casestudies, interviews, and rigorous analysis, the book sheds light on the challenges 
 and opportunities presented by religious pluralism. The focus of the research is 
 placed outside of the West, in countries where “the exportation of the nation and 
 the state led to the alignment of religious collectivity”.
  • Representation of Indian Religion in the Short Stories of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

    Jadaun, S. S. (Surendra); Dubey, S. J. (Shyam) (Perception Publishing, 2021-08-30)
    India, with its plethora of religions and cultures, has been an enigmatic place for foreigners. Hinduism, a way of life more than being a religion (as proclaimed by the Supreme Court of India), has often been misunderstood by outsiders. Sometimes a biased attitude is reflected in the literature produced by these foreigners. A person like Thomas Babington Macaulay, who himself admitted that he had no knowledge of Sanskrit or Arabic, had the foolish courage of saying that a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia. In this paper we shall analyze the representation of religion in the short stories of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.
  • விநாயகர் கீர்த்தனைகள்

    2003-01-01
    விநாயகர் கீர்த்தனைகள்
  • திருச்செந்தூர் கீர்த்தனைகள்

    2002-01-01
    திருச்செந்தூர் கீர்த்தனைகள்
  • விநாயாகர் வேலவர் கீர்த்தனைகள்

    விநாயாகர் வேலவர் கீர்த்தனைகள்
  • திக்கரை முருகன் திருத்தலப் பாமாலை

    2006-01-01
    திக்கரை முருகன் திருத்தலப் பாமாலை
  • A Global Hindu Tamil Diaspora? Worldwide Migration, Diversity and Transnational Religion

    Knut A. Jacobsen; TROUILLET, Pierre-Yves (Oxford University PressOxford/New York, 2023-11-20)
    At a time when the ideas of ‘global Indian diasporas’ and of a ‘global Hinduism’ are developing, the aim of this chapter is to establish whether it is relevant to speak of a ‘global Hindu Tamil diaspora’, given the cultural and migration specificities of Hindu Tamils and their involvement in the development overseas Hinduism. To answer this question, this chapter deals with overseas Hindu Tamils as a whole, considering Tamils from India and Sri Lanka jointly. The chapter first examines the history and scope of Tamil migration around the world. Then, it questions the relevance of using the term ‘diaspora’ to refer to the Tamil émigrés and their descendants, based on the criteria of a diaspora proposed by Rogers Brubaker. The third part shows that many specific religious practices are common among Hindu Tamils living in different parts of the world, and that these practices are increasingly connected through transnational networks and exchanges, especially in temple activities. Thus, although all Hindu emigrants of Tamil origin are far from constituting a homogeneous transnational community, it seems appropriate to speak of a global Hindu Tamil diaspora, given the global scale of Tamil emigration, the increasing homeland-orientation and transnational consciousness among overseas Tamils, and the formation of a transnational Tamil Hinduism.

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