| Sullivan's dictionary on Hinduism has come at an appropriate time because it showcases the richness and varieties of Hinduism even as it exposes the fraudulence of the Sangh Parivar's claims on the Hindu religion. |
| In this context, it is worth quoting the author : "Hinduism is a religious tradition of remarkable diversity, .... The time span in which it has flourished, not to mention the creativity of India's thinkers, has given Hinduism a wonderful array of ideas and practices." |
| How can Hinduism be a monolithic religion, its rich linguistic diversity itself a proof of its many faces, shapes and forms? Sullivan focuses his attention on this basic fact by observing that, "Multiple streams of tradition have merged to create Hinduism." |
| This fact about Hinduism has led many serious historians of the Hindu religion to maintain that Hinduism is not one religion with several sects, but a plurality of religions. |
| India's historians along with many other scholars maintain that there are Hinduisms because the many guruparamparas, or line of teachers, the worship of different deities and recitation of different prayers constitute the essence of these many Hindu religions. |
| The myth that is being propagated is that true Hinduism is Vedic and Aryan, and on the basis of this Aryan race theory it is claimed that Hindus are indigenous inhabitants and Muslims and Christians, belonging to other religious traditions, are foreigners and outsiders. |
| What about the Indus Valley Civilisation and urban cities like Mohenjodaro and Harrappa which preceded the Vedic culture? It must be mentioned that Indian civilisation, starting with the Indus Valley, was 'urban' while the later Vedic civilisation developed around settled agriculture and this is why as an 'agriculture society' animals like the cow, goat and horse emerge as important for early Aryan Indians. |
| This rich dictionary serves as a sharp reminder to the self-appointed guardians of political Hinduism that a religious tradition that has evolved over 5,000 years should never lose sight of the historical context of a tradition. |
| Since banning cow slaughter is the agenda of political Hindutva, Sullivan's dictionary refers to Vedic verses and tells us, "The cow and goat were the primary animals sacrificed, but the horse also was offered in certain rituals" and because of Vedic rituals, Brahmans became the leaders of religious believers. |
| The caste system is also a legacy of the Aryans who characterised the indigenous population of India as sudra (serfs). Many movements to reform the caste system emerged within Hinduism. As early as the twelfth century C E Basava, a Brahmin, rejected caste and preached the equality of all people. "He led a movement that sought to reform Saivism and became in time the Lingayat or Virasaiva sect," the dictionary says. |
| Further the Bhagavad Gita, the Vedic revelation (Sruti), is 'authorless and timeless.' Even the great books of Hinduism have a different status and deal with different themes and belief systems. Hindu mythology is based on "numerous myths of creation, in part due to the cyclic world view that has dominated Hindu thought for over two millennia". |
| The very specificity of Hindu religious traditions is their regional variation and territorial flavour like Kashmir Saivism. The Mahabharata and Ramayana or Tulsidas's Ram Charit Manas are great imaginative works of poets and representative of the social history of specific periods and they have to be rescued from Brahmans and priests who at the behest of self-appointed guardians of Hindu religion are trying to convert literature into the Bible and the Quran. |
| Similarly, Ravana, the Demon king of Lanka is a villain of the Ramayana but is seen in "a more positive light by political activists in South India as a tragic hero and a defender of Southern Dravadian culture against Brahmanical culture from the north." Saivism, the worship of Siva represents "the confluence of several streams of tradition" beginning with Indus Valley civilisation to the Vedic Aryans, and Lord Siva is mentioned in later literature like 'the Mahabharata, Ramayana, Puranas' et al. |
| Further, "sects devoted to the worship of Siva began to appear about the second century CE and spread to South India in the seventh through ninth centuries CE." |
| Similarly, Sanskrit, the classical language of ancient India, was codified by Panini in about 400 BCE and there have been modifications in the use of the Sanskrit language because, "there is a vast literature in Sanskrit produced during the last four millennia" and it is maintained by scholars that a close relationship exists among the classical languages like Greek, Latin and Sanskrit "" the Indo-European language family. |
| The Maurya dynasty (323-180 BCE) "was less supportive of Hindu religious traditions than non-Hindu movements (Buddhism, Jainism, Ajivikas)". |
| The Sunga dynasty and the Gupta Empire (320 to 500 CE) extended great support to Hinduism and also began the tradition of temple construction. But the Gupta emperors supported all sorts of religious beliefs as well. The author tells us that, "while they personally may have been devotees of Vishnu and, in their office as emperor performed the Asvamedha (horse sacrifice) they also donated to the support of the Buddhist and Jain monks and nuns." |
| State patronage of religion is central to the understanding of the history of any religion in ancient and medieval ages and modernity is a break with this tradition because it believes in "the wall of separation between religion and the state". |
| Richness and diversity clearly emerges from a dictionary of 255 pages on Hinduisms and it is a fraud on history to present Brahmanical Hinduism as the Hinduism of India. This dictionary is evidence of the richness of linguistic, religious and cultural multiple traditions of a culturally diverse rich society of India. |
| The A To Z Of Hinduism |
| Bruce M. Sullivan Vision Books Pvt. Ltd, 2003 Pages: 255 Price: Rs 190 |
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