South Asian Mentalities

November 13, 2012

Review

•Did an emperor rule Japan in 1300?

•What is a shogun?

•What role did Hōjō Masako play in the Kamakura Shogunate?

•Does her power imply that women enjoyed high status during the Kamakura period?

•Who was Nichiren?

Mentalities and Religion

•Mentalities: the basic assumptions, beliefs, and values that guide behavior. Mentalities embraces assumptions, beliefs, and values that determine how we think of the natural and supernatural realms as well as how we think the society in which we live should function.

•Religion: Any attempt to explain the otherwise unexplainable, predict the otherwise unpredictable, or prevent the otherwise unpreventable by relying on forces that transcend the human realm.

Defining religion• Religion: Neither belief in a supernatural

personality nor the generation of a moral code are necessary for a way of thinking and behaving to be called religious. (Some Buddhists do not believe in a god. Shinto has no moral code of its own.)

• Religion normally involves rituals and/or prayers that are believed to be efficacious. (That distinguishes religion from science, which also tries to explain the otherwise unexplainable, unpredictable, and unpreventable but does so without engaging in ritual interactions with, or praying to, supernatural powers or beings.

• Religions provide behavioral guidelines as well as guidelines for making value judgments. Examining religion in Asia therefore helps us understand what people in the past considered important and why they did what they did.

Folk Religion• local polytheistic religion, lacking an

institutional hierarchy, a clearly-defined theology, formally trained clerics, etc.

• Is often more a community religion than an individual religion.

• Is a practical religion, seeking the aid of supernatural personalities in achieving such goals as health and wealth.

• taboos, but usually no clearly defined moral code.

• Often includes animism as well. Sometimes shamanism is also part of folk religion.

Animism and shamanism•Animism is the belief in an enchanted

universe, in which various natural objects are believed to possess personalities human beings can interact with.

•Shamans are individuals who have a special talent for communicating with supernatural personalities. Sometimes shamans enter into an altered state of consciousness and are then possessed by spirits.

•A shaman is not a priest. A priest receives formal training, and normally does not experience spirit possession.

Common errors in discussing religion

•Confusing what the sacred texts of a religion say, and what the practitioners of that religion do

•confusing what the religious professionals do with what the average lay practitioner does.

•imposing a Western understanding of religion (theistic, doctrine-centered, generating a moral code, etc) on an Asian religion which emphasizes ritual over belief, has no formal theology or creed, or maybe doesn’t even generate its own moral code.

The evolution of Hinduism

• Vedic (Brahmanical) religion: an emphasis on ritual and on sacred texts (the Vedas)

• Religions of Renunciation: Buddhism and the Hinduism of the wandering ascetics (sadhu) Little emphasis on gods.

• Devotional Hinduism: From the Gupta era, we begin to see temples and devotional rituals (puja). We also see an emphasis on particular deities such as Vishnu (and his incarnations Ram and Krishna), Shiva, and Devi (the Goddess)

• All three forms of Hinduism now exist simultaneously. They are seen as complementary, not contradictory.

Hindu Paths to Salvation•Brahminical orthopraxy. Performing

traditional rituals and following your own dharma.

•Renunciation. Adopting an ascetic life-style in order to escape the attachment to this world that causes reincarnation

•worship of various gods. Puja

•Yoga as a means of disciplining the body and the mind so that you can gain full awareness of the nature of true reality.

•Summarized as knowledge, ritual, and devotion.

Identifying elements of Hinduism• belief that there is hierarchy of gods, with one god

at the top.

• respect for the Vedas (the ancient texts of northern India)

• belief in dharma (duty according to station in life)

• belief in reincarnation

• belief in karma, the law of spiritual cause and effect

• respect for the cow

• belief that salvation (escape from suffering) is possible

• belief in importance of personal relationships with god(s)

• what you do is more important than what you believe.

How are Hinduism and Buddhism different?

•Buddhism emphasizes elimination of desire; Hindu philosophy stresses correct knowledge.

•But both include devotion and faith as another path to salvation.

•Buddhism is a missionary religion. Hinduism has (usually) stuck close to home.

•Buddhism preaches the equality of all human beings (of all men?) No castes.

•Buddhism rejects dependence on Brahmins for rituals

•Buddhism is less polytheistic. Its philosophy is monistic. Its theology is monotheistic, though lay Buddhists often act like polytheists.

Law and Dharma• We have learned that dharma means “how you

should act according to your station in life.” In that sense, it is the eternal, unchanging moral law.

• However, dharma can also mean customs, as in the dharma of particular castes. In those cases, it can change, as in the change from animal sacrifice to vegetarianism (Trautmann, p. 118)

• Royal edicts (laws) could overrule custom and dharma, at least temporarily.

• There was no notion that law or dharma is a reflection of the will of the people.

Science• Linguistics, especially phonetics and grammar,

was one of the most important traditional sciences, since it was important that the Vedas be read aloud correctly.

• India developed a phonetic writing system.

• Astronomy, in the sense of determining the right time for rituals, was another important science. To do this, South Asian mathematicians developed the notion of zero, pi, and algebra. They also developed an early version of chess.

• South Asia had its own approach to medicine, called Ayurveda. Like Chinese medicine, it emphasizes harmony within the body. However, like early European medicine, it talks of different “humours” within the body.

Classical Literature

•The most highly valued literature was religious literature. Particularly important were the religious epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.

•Sanskrit literature was rated higher than vernacular literature, at least until around 1,100 or so.

•Kalidasa, often called the “Shakespeare of India” wrote both poetry and dramas in Sanskrit during the Gupta era.