Hinduism

In Why I Am a Hindu, Shashi Tharoor offers a profound re-examination of Hinduism, delving into one of the world's oldest and most expansive religious traditions. This compelling narrative combines personal reflection with a scholarly exploration that brings out the depth and diversity of the Hindu faith. The book opens with a frank and touching reflection on Tharoor's personal beliefs,...

A captivating collection full of the sights and sounds of India, Kathar Sagar, Ocean of Stories is a book of stories from ancient Hindu epics, myths and folk traditions. Thousands of years in their telling and retelling, these stories invite readers of all ages to explore one of the world's most ancient and varied religious traditions. Vivid dramas featuring gods,...

A complete introduction to Sanatana Dharma, the spiritual science of the Hindu sages. The Science of the Rishis examines how many core concepts of Hinduism, including Brahman, Atman, bhakti, karma, and reincarnation, relate to modern science. It explores the scientific discoveries of the rishis, ancient Vedic sages, and how they have only recently been rediscovered by Western scientists. The book...

The extraordinary multiplicity of religions and religious cultures in India, chronicled over two thousand years From its earliest recorded history, India was a place of remarkable and varied religious activity, ranging from elaborate sacrificial rituals and rigorous regimes of personal austerity to psycho-spiritual experimentation and utopian visions. In this ambitious and wide-ranging chronicle, Richard Davis offers a history of India's...

To many outside India, Hinduism is envisioned as the foundation of an ideal, all-embracing society. Yet this is far from the truth. Though historically the practice of Hinduism does promote the idea of an inclusive and tolerant way of life, in the past decade Hindu extremists have captured the religion and perverted it to their own ideological ends. In The...

Spiritual adventurers, philosophical monks or religious transvestites, the Sadhus of India are worshipped by Hindus as representatives of the gods. Liberated from physical concerns, these mystics form a vital and unbroken link from the birth of yoga millennia ago to its present-day expression. Through meditation, rituals, pilgrimages and 'austerities', each follows a personal path in quest of enlightenment, hoping, amid...

The life and legends of the god Ganesh in your hand, accompanied by a glorious gallery of historical imagery and art, including paintings by the renowned Indian artist, Indra Sharma. Son of the Hindu deities Shiva and Parvati, Ganesh is the elephant-headed deity known most often as a remover (and sometimes creator) of obstacles. Worshipped in Hindi faith at the...

Most people know Rama and Sita as the good guys and VIP guests at Diwali. But once upon a time, Rama and Sita were just a little boy and girl. Sure, he was the reincarnated god Vishnu, and she was a champion archer with super strength, but in lots of other ways they were just like you. But they grew...

Discover one of the world's most popular belief systems Hinduism is a fascinating and widespread religion with a diverse array of traditions, practices, scriptures, and deities. In Hinduism For Dummies, 2nd Edition, you'll get a clear view into this widely-practised and ancient creed. The book contains an easy-to-follow introduction to Hinduism, including its four different sects—Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism—its...

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing programme. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. Winner of the 2022 Joseph W. Elder Prize in the Indian Social Sciences Merchants of Virtue explores the question of what it meant to be Hindu in precolonial South Asia. Divya Cherian presents a fine-grained study...

Dharma is central to all the major religious traditions which originated on the Indian subcontinent. Such is its importance that these traditions cannot adequately be understood apart from it. Often translated as "ethics," "religion," "law," or "social order," dharma possesses elements of each of these but is not confined to any single category familiar to Western thought. Neither is it...

This autobiography traces Francis X. Clooney's intellectual and spiritual journey from middle-class American Catholicism to a lifelong study of Hinduism. It explains how he came to fashion comparative theology as a way of learning interreligiously that is boldly intellectual and deeply personal and practical, lived out in intersections of his roles as theologian and scholar of Hinduism, as professor and...

An ambitious and engaging history of how encounters with Christianity have shaped Hindu identity and nationalism in colonial and contemporary India. When European missionaries arrived in India in the sixteenth century, they entered a world both fascinating and bewildering. Hinduism, as they saw it, was a pagan mess—a worship of devils and monsters by a people who burned women alive,...

Draws from the Bhagavad Purana, the Bhagavad Gita, the Mahabharata, and India's sacred oral tradition. Shows how the stories of Krishna's life are expressed with such simplicity and humour that they enable anyone - man, woman, or child - to see the wisdom of his teachings. Provides a valuable meditative tool that allows the lessons of these stories to illuminate...