With a history of over three and a half millennia, and over 800 million adherents, Hinduism is one of the world's largest and most diverse religious traditions. This book presents the Hindu religious tradition's major events, individuals, texts, sects, and concepts in the context of its historical development through various periods. In addition, sacred Hindu pilgrimage sites, the rituals performed as religious practices, the manifestations of Hindu religious sensibilities in biography, art, the caste system of social organization, mythology, and the theories of salvation developed through the history of Hinduism are also presented. A pronunciation guide to Sanskrit and Tamil, and a chronology of the history of Hinduism are included.

The Historical Dictionary of Hinduism relates the history of Hinduism through a chronology, an introductory essay, photos, an extensive bibliography, and over 1,000 cross referenced dictionary entries on Hindu terminology, names of major historical figures and movements, gods and goddesses, prominent temples, terms for items used in Hindu practice, major texts, philosophical concepts, and more. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Hinduism.

With almost 2800 entries on all aspects of Hinduism, this is an up-to-date and comprehensive dictionary covering all the major Hindu practices, texts, beliefs, religious sites, and teachers over a period spanning 3500 years. An invaluable first port of call for anyone seeking information about Indian religions and culture.

"Since 1979 the international magazine Hinduism Today has been producing a treasury of educational features on all aspects of Sanatana Dharma. Guided by the founder, Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, the magazine's editors, who are initiated monks of Kauai's Hindu Monastery, collaborated with holy men and women and experts around the world in creating graphically rich guides to virtually every important aspect of Hinduism. The best of those works are assembled in "What Is Hinduism?" for Hindus and non-Hindus alike to discover the culture, beliefs, worship and mysticism that is India's greatest gift to humanity." --Back cover.

With a history of over three and a half millennia, and over 800 million adherents, Hinduism is one of the world's largest and most diverse religious traditions. This book presents the Hindu religious tradition's major events, individuals, texts, sects, and concepts in the context of its historical development through various periods. In addition, sacred Hindu pilgrimage sites, the rituals performed as religious practices, the manifestations of Hindu religious sensibilities in biography, art, the caste system of social organization, mythology, and the theories of salvation developed through the history of Hinduism are also presented. A pronunciation guide to Sanskrit and Tamil, and a chronology of the history of Hinduism are included.

Your hands-on guide to one of the world's major religions The dominant religion of India, "Hinduism" refers to a wide variety of religious traditions and philosophies that have developed over thousands of years. Today, the United States is home to approximately one million Hindus. If you've heard of this ancient religion and are looking for a reference that explains the intricacies of the customs, practices, and teachings of this ancient spiritual system, Hinduism For Dummies is for you! Provides a thorough introduction to this earliest and popular world belief system Information on the rites, rituals, deities, and teachings associated with the practice of Hinduism Explores the history and teachings of the Vedas, Brahmans, and Upanishads Offers insight into the modern daily practice of Hinduism around the world Continuing the Dummies tradition of making the world's religions engaging and accessible to everyone, Hinduism For Dummies is your hands-on, friendly guide to this fascinating religion.

One of the most influential theorists of religion, Jonathan Z. Smith is best known for his analyses of religious studies as a discipline and for his advocacy and refinement of comparison as the basis for the history of religions. Relating Religion gathers seventeen essays—four of them never before published—that together provide the first broad overview of Smith's thinking since his seminal 1982 book, Imagining Religion. Smith first explains how he was drawn to the study of religion, outlines his own theoretical commitments, and draws the connections between his thinking and his concerns for general education. He then engages several figures and traditions that serve to define his interests within the larger setting of the discipline. The essays that follow consider the role of taxonomy and classification in the study of religion, the construction of difference, and the procedures of generalization and redescription that Smith takes to be key to the comparative enterprise. The final essays deploy features of Smith's most recent work, especially the notion of translation. Heady, original, and provocative, Relating Religion is certain to be hailed as a landmark in the academic study and critical theory of religion.

A bold retelling of the origins of contemporary Hinduism, and an argument against the long-established notion of religious reform. By the early eighteenth century, the Mughal Empire was in decline, and the East India Company was making inroads into the subcontinent. A century later Christian missionaries, Hindu teachers, Muslim saints, and Sikh rebels formed the colorful religious fabric of colonial India. Focusing on two early nineteenth-century Hindu communities, the Brahmo Samaj and the Swaminarayan Sampraday, and their charismatic figureheads—the “cosmopolitan” Rammohun Roy and the “parochial” Swami Narayan—Brian Hatcher explores how urban and rural people thought about faith, ritual, and gods. Along the way he sketches a radical new view of the origins of contemporary Hinduism and overturns the idea of religious reform. Hinduism Before Reform challenges the rigid structure of revelation-schism-reform-sect prevalent in much history of religion. Reform, in particular, plays an important role in how we think about influential Hindu movements and religious history at large. Through the lens of reform, one doctrine is inevitably backward-looking while another represents modernity. From this comparison flows a host of simplistic conclusions. Instead of presuming a clear dichotomy between backward and modern, Hatcher is interested in how religious authority is acquired and projected. Hinduism Before Reform asks how religious history would look if we eschewed the obfuscating binary of progress and tradition. There is another way to conceptualize the origins and significance of these two Hindu movements, one that does not trap them within the teleology of a predetermined modernity.

Offers more than three thousand articles on the world of religion.

Following in the very successful tradition of Critical Terms for Literary Studies and Critical Terms for Art History, this book attempts to provide a revitalized, self-aware vocabulary with which this bewildering religious diversity can be accurately described and responsibly discussed. Leading scholars working in a variety of traditions demonstrate through their incisive discussions that even our most basic terms for understanding religion are not neutral but carry specific historical and conceptual freight.