Jainism

This paper is about Hinduism and how few aspects of the religion has changed with time due to change in the social and cultural environment. There are various aspects of Hinduism that has changed and is changing like the weakening of the caste system, changes in the way people worship Gods, the way they celebrate festivities, decrease in animal sacrifices, and so on. In this paper, I address the culture of animal sacrifice that many Hindu groups practice around the world. It explains how the…

The philosophy of karma and rebirth explains the most important dissimilarity between Western religious views and the great Indian religious perceptions. Western philosophy also makes use of a retributive description of evil in which a person’s suffering is recorded for by his earlier misconduct. But mentioned the properly wrong correlation between suffering and sin in a person’ lifetime, Western religions have supported other definitions of suffering. Though, Indian views merges this view with…

With Hinduism being the oldest religion known to man, there are many myths, epics and other texts that have held their own over time and are still very relevant today. There are many aspects of Hinduism that make it unique. A particularly intriguing aspect is that there are so many Gods who play a very important role in the countless stories that are told. As I read more about the Gods, I became curious as to why some of them are worshipped in the first place, so I began to read their stories. I…

Learning about Asian cultures has always been fascinating to me. Growing up, I did not have much exposure to Eastern cultures, religions, even food! As I have gotten older, I keep getting pulled East with where I would like to travel and explore traditions. India is particularly interesting to me, but I do not know a lot about the country. If you asked me a few weeks ago, I would associate India with bright colors, elephants and a love of cows. That’s it. Throughout the past few weeks, I have…

India has a glorious history of drama from the ancient times. Drama begins its journey in India with the Sanskrit plays. Indian drama is characterized with the rituals, folks, cultural heritage etc. But the major concern of contemporary Indian drama is the representation of socio-political scenario, marginalization, gender discrimination, oppression, poverty and hunger. A general consensus seems to have emerged that though the social criticism, corruption, oppression, gender discrimination can…

Anita Desai's first novel Cry, the Peacock (1963), is about Maya, a dissenting female who battles against three traditional forces in her life: male authority expressed by her husband; her female friends who play stereotypical submissive-wife roles; and her religion's beliefs in karma and detachment. Being over-sensitive, sentimental and imaginative Maya is a total contrast to the rational, logical, Gautam. By making a beautiful use of the symbolic technique, Anita Desai has delved deep into the…

Although Hinduism is one of the world’s largest and most popular religion, it is unique and unlike other prevalent religions. Hinduism is most popular in southern Asian countries such as India and Nepal. One would assume for that to become popular and remain relevant that the Hindu religion would have to be similar to the other religions but it actually stands one in its various facets. Hinduism has no lone founder, no single set of teachings and no definite scripture. These unique…

INTRODUCTION India, a collaboration of 29 states and 7 union territories and is known for its great unity in diversity. But that unity bears certain loop holes in maintaining the same in reality. Each state in India has a uniqueness of its own whether it is in culture, geographic pattern, community settlements, economic or natural resources. There is indeed a wide disparity in development which makes rich more rich & poor becomes poorer. As such, people living in rural part (poor regions) of…

In about 1500 BCE, the Aryans came to Northern India and created a religion based on traditions and ritual purity. They called this religion Hinduism. Hinduism has four major jatis or caste; the Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and the Shudras with the untouchables being an unsaid fifth caste. A member of the Kshatriyas, Siddhartha Gautama, started traveling between 600 BCE and 500 BCE within Nepal and Northern India preaching kindness and how to end suffering. By the time Buddha, formerly…

The introduction and the first couple of chapters of The Life of Hinduism provides an excellent primer to the vibrant and multifaceted world of Hinduism to the Western reader. In these readings, perhaps the most significant point was that of the pluralism and inherent diversity that typifies the Hindu culture and tradition. At a glance, Hinduism’s ideas of oneness seem to be contradictory with the existence of the plethora of gods and goddesses. The sheer magnitude of the number of gods, from…