A Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism -

Klaus K. Klostermaier

Oneworld Publications

1998

288 páginas

9h 36m

ISBN-10: 1851681752

The Hindu tradition can seem overwhelmingly complex--compared with other major religions it is not "organised"; there is no "identifiable human founder", such as Jesus, Buddha or Mohammed, and Hindus have never been interested in drawing up a "definition" of their beliefs. This fluid attitude has led to a rich diversity from "naked sadhus practising archaic forms of penance", to elephant-headed gods to the hundreds of thousands of deities in the Hindu pantheon--the staggering array can seem unfathomable to the outsider.
Klostermaier, one of the foremost writers on Hinduism, addresses the difficulties of a concise history from the outset. He suggests the religion is probably much older than commonly thought; that the Vedic tradition dates back to "possibly as early as 6000 BC", then he goes on to debunk the prevailing beliefs surrounding the "so-called" Aryan invasion theory that most textbooks still assert, namely that Hinduism began when the Aryans invaded India around 1500 BC. Klostermaier argues convincingly that "there is absolutely no archeological or literary evidence for this theory," that "it was the brain-child of foreign colonies who could but imagine that all elements of higher culture in India must have come from outside that backward country."