INDIA
Source: Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, expanded edition in one vol), ed. Maynard Mack, 1997 & lectures from Semester at Sea Program, Spr 2005 (Fessler & Findeis)
Young country and also very old civilization
Medieval
and modern simultaneously
Largest
# scientists in world; 50% population illiterate
Rural
people rarely go more than 50 mi from home
Pluralistic
(mix of many cultures)
Largest
democracy in world – but also CASTE system > one billion people
“Whatever is true about India, so is its opposite”
Vastly varied geography–1/3 US size –1/6 global pop
Largest
urban pop in world / most still live rurally
35% pop
extreme poverty; 700,000 in streets Calcutta
Sizable
middle class; 10% extremely wealthy
324 distinct languages, no one spoken by >40% pop 18 official langs (English in bus, prof, govt)
HINDU
– 80%; MUSLIM 14%; Christ/Buddhist/Sikh6%
2nd largest Muslim pop in world (after Indonesia)
Geographic
Isolation – Himalayan Mountains to North, Ocean elsewhere (peninsula)
RIVERS
– Northern India
Indus,
Ganges, Brahmaputra (very fertile)
SANSKRIT–for
river=“Sindu”; Persian=“Indu”àHindustan
Locals refer to land as Bharata
(official
alternate name for India); Punjab – 5 rivers
GANGES
– most sacred river
Allahabad
– city wh Ganges mts Yumana & Saraswati
Bathing there washes away all bad Karma
Varanasi – most sacred Hindu city (on Ganges) – oldest continuously inhabited city in world
If
you die there and release ashes = soul released from reincarnation (cremation
day & night)
PREHISTORY
INDUS River – flows through what is now Pakistan (northwest India)
INDUS
VALLEY = first civilization (~3000 – 1500 BCE)
Highly
advanced, multiple cities (50,000 people), covered 1000 miles
Cities
built uniformly of bricks of identical size (laid out in grid – logically)
Indoor plumbing, written language–left many works
Writing still not deciphered, believed matriarchal
~1500 BCE something happened – civ disappeared (rediscovered 1920’s)
Residents
may have moved South – Dravidians, or Spread across North India (farming
settlements)
WHY?
Maybe from North through Khyber Pass came
ARYANS
– warriors
Quickly conquered descendents of Indus civ
Brought spoken language – SANSKRIT
1st
mixing of beliefs à
begin of Hinduism
Hierarchy
of Aryans
RAJA – rulers
K’satriya – ruler
warriors
(but
over time, the rank switches; warriors less important than priests)
Brahmin
– priests who have sacred knowledge
Vaisya – craftspeople (produced things needed)
Sudra – mixed
heritage (not all Brahmins)
Servants
VEDAS
– knowledge of how to do rituals, written down (sacred hymns to worship gods =
personifications of nature and powers of cosmos (primary scripture of Hinduism);
Rig Veda (ca 1000 BCE)
KEY CONCEPTS OF HINDUISM
“Atman”
= Soul (subtle in-body essence)
“Brahman”
= Power in universe (essence in all)
3 levels of Universe = Earth, Atmosphere, & Heaven need to be in Harmony
ORDER to
universe – all needs to be in place
Harmony
achvd thru truth & performg duties correctly
DHARMA =
ordering principal in universe
500 BCE
– written language
--
SUTRAS ~ “thread” (manual)
Dharma
Sutras = manuals of proper behavior
MANU
–Brahmin who wrote one manual
Gave social structure (custom) a religious basis
Born into your class (stems back to creation myth)
VARNA
– class (Caste = Portuguese word)
Outcastes
= Untouchables deal with dead, filth, below whole caste system
(can’t marry outside, can’t accept food)
Brahmins
– must remain pure, outside touch by others
Outcastes – had to live down wind & wear
bells so others could hear them coming
Hierarchy of Purity
JATI –
occupational groups (also hereditary)
Kinship group (people you can marry)
KARMA
– determines path of life and future lives directly related to dharma
YOGA –
to keep from concerns of this world
Sanyasin – last stage of life, leave world, become wandering beggar
No
care for body comfort – totally detached à
can achieve Moksha
Buddhism
–
Gautama Buddha born in India on border of Nepal a Hindu (563-483 BCE)
Siddartha – “he who has found his aim”
Son of Prince – father protects from terrible world
Sees death, leaves shelter, enters woods to fast, meditates until enlightened
Gathers
disciplines, writes Sutras (how to live): “enlightenment comes through
introspection”
Noble
truths, 8-fold path leads to Nirvana (goal); Must understand that the SELF is an
illusion
Worked
against CASTE system
ASHOKA–responsible
for rise of Buddhism in 2ndc BC
Fought
by Brahmins
Main
Buddhists in region = Sri Lanka & Bhutan
ISLAM
–
spread to region 700-1000 CE
Neighbors
begin raiding India (through Khyber Pass)
1000 Mahmud demolish Hindu temples, loot them (of gold, jewels); kill or convert
Annual raids rather than capture/conquer land
1190–Delhi
1st Hindu kingdom in NW India–½ Punjab
1222 – Genghis Khan and Mongols from C. Asia push Muslims into India
Muslims
stay, overtake region à
Islamic land, multiple kingdoms dominate Hindus
1500 CE
beginning of MUGHAL (or Mogal) EMPIRE
Babur
à
Humayun à
Akbar à
Jahangir à
Shah
Jahan (builder of Taj Mahal) à
Aurangzeb = bad emperor (1658-1707)
Moghul
empire collapses over next 150 yrs (not unified)
LAST MAJOR INFLUENCE = Europeans
Interest
in spices (Portugal, England, France)
British
1858 – acquired 60% of subcontinent
(through
British East India Company)
1858-1914 – height of British control
Mahatma
Gandhi – 10-2-1869 to
1-30-1948 (assassinated)
Maha +
atma = great + soul
1915
dedicates life to Indian freedom (from Britain)
Ahimsa = non-violence (adopted from Jainism)
Swaraj = self-governance
Swadeshi = indigenous (from own country)
Satyagraha
= firm action in truth (not merely passive resistance)
Integral,
holistic philosophy (life as applied spirituality) All religions get equal
concern
Eliminates
CASTE system (or tries to)
Removes
“untouchability” (constitution)
Counsels
simple life, respect, anti-consumer/materialistic
Suffering
= necessary component of strength
1947 –
gained independence
Heroic
Age Literature
– 550 BCE to 100 CE
Ramayana
(ca 550 BCE) & Mahabharata (4th c BCE) = early EPICS
Express
Hindu values
4 spheres, goals should govern life:
Dharma
= sphere of sacred duty, righteousness
Artha
= sphere worldly profit, wealth, polit. power
Kama
= sphere of pleasure and love
Moksa =
ultimate goal of life, sphere in which one seeks liberation (from constraints of
worldly existence)
ALL MEN – sacred duty (dharma) prescribed by class; only upper classes can work twd Moksa
System
excludes women and sudras
(lowest
of castes) from ultimate goal of religion
Women – form own class; her dharma is defined
as wife (no i.d. apart from husband)
Karma
– all creatures resp for own existential conditions, and existence is
invariably bound up with suffering.
To exist
is to act
Literally
= “a deed, that which is done”
All
deeds have results, good and bad, which doer must accept; soul trapped in
endless cycle of rebirth
Upanisads – written to contemplate theory that
soul can be liberated from endless cycle of rebirth
through identifying with “pure self”
Buddha
– rejects concept of immortal soul
Concentrates
instead on suffering thought to result from Karma. Through radical detachment
from desire (root cause of Karma) & ethic of action directed toward welfare
of fellow creatures
Ethic
of action regardless of caste, gender, social status
HINDUISM
– terror of rebirth mitigated by belief in
TRIAD of
gods
Highest manifestation of divine principle
underlying universe
BRAHMA
VISHNU
SHIVA
Create
Preserve
Destroy
Universe
KRISHNA
= teacher of Bhagvad-Gita
Incarnation
of Vishnu; reveals ID to devotee Arjuna
Belief
in God and gods offers alternative to mechanistic view of karma and suffering
RAMAYANA
of Valmiki (ca 550 BCE)
=
The Way of Rama
Exile
and adventures of Prince Rama
Very
well known story to all Indians
Still
performed in street theater, television, films THE great story of Indian
civilization
POEM – blends historical saga, nature myth,
morality tale, and religious mythology
CORE–Books
2-6. Books 1 & 7 probably added later
CORE
STORY –
Bk. 1
– Ravana, powerful king of evil demons (threats to social order) obtains boon
(gift) of invulnerability to god and superhuman beings her combats. Vishnu,
great god who preserves universe, incarnates self as man to destroy Ravana.
Vishnu thus born as RAMA, son of Sasaratha, king of Kosala. 3 other princes born
same time, brothers. Rama is paragon – goes to forest and wins Sita, wife
(daughter of Earth goddess).
Bk 2 –
Prince Rama’s disinheritance because jealous Queen Kaikeyi wants own won made
king (Bharata). King owes her favors, distraught over concept, but Rama
willingly accepts exile to forest. Sita and Laksmana volunteer to join him; king
dies of broken heart. Bharata horrified when he returns; wants to give Rama
kingdom; Rama honors father’s word, serves out exile.
Remaining
books see pp. 377ff Norton
Messages/Themes:
capacity to suffer yet act well; woman is judged based on conduct as wife;
absolute standards of morality; fairy-tale like conflicts with demons; human
condition; redemptive powers of love
The
Bhagavad-Gita
(1st
c. BCE) = “Song of the Lord”
= Great scripture of Hinduism
Admired by Thoreau & Gandhi
Enduring
philosophical poem
Addresses
fundamental human concerns
ARJUNA
= champion of Pandava heroes
Dialogue between him
and his charioteer Krishna (incarnation of Vishnu – preserver god)
KRISHNA’s
message: sacred duty (dharma) requires action, and if that means fight (for
soldier) it’s okay
If
action is performed in spirit of sacred duty this will advance path to
emancipation of soul, although killing normally not spiritually right (for
warrior okay)
New
doctrine justifies hierarchies of class and social duty while offering universal
access to ultimate goal of emancipation of soul from suffering & rebirth
(gathers in resistant and disenfranchised groups)
[–
perhaps answering Buddhism’s competition?]
Harmonizes widely differing strands of ancient Indian religious thought and practice
Synthesizes contemplative vision of Buddhists and sages of Upanisads with philosophy of active engagement in worldly life.
New teaching of salvation through divine grace, linked to cult of popular god w/ older theory of karma
Weaves together ancient, often contradictory ideas regarding existential questions
POET uses rhetoric device – Arjuna’s doubts answered by Krishna who explains real nature of soul and of action in universe.
Soul is not just ego but the immortal spirit of the universe (Brahman)
This
knowledge should dispel fear
Can use discipline of yoga to reach this knowledge
Krishna explains riddle of immortal soul’s engagement in worldly action and material universe
World = union of God (supreme embodiment of immortal soul) & material nature (substance of Universe)
Action/change
= inescapable reality of living in world
But
Yoga seeks to transcend matter
Krishna
offers “karma yoga” (discipline of action)
Your way to act is prescribed by your class (dharma) individual decides spirit in wh he performs duty
-- how action will affect soul
To overcome worldly desire make all deeds loving sacrifice to God – joyous, transfiguring experience
Spiritual
egalitarianism – universal ethic for modern world (“desireless action”)