Living Hinduisms Study Aids To Instructors: The textbook called Living Hinduisms is designed, like most texts, to be read from beginning to end. Later chapters make reference to concepts and persons developed in earlier ones and will make the most sense to students if students have mastered those concepts and can recognize those persons. An effort has been made, nonetheless, to make chapters sufficiently independent so that instructors wishing to change chapter order may do so with minimal background explanation. Some instructors may find, for example, that they can engage students interest in materials more quickly by teaching the simpler and more immediate materials of chapters 5-7 before the more complex and historical chapters 1-4. Alternatively, instructors wishing to stress more fully motifs of continuity and change may wish to reserve reading of chapter 4 until they have worked through 1-3 and 5-7. Note that chapters 1-3 and 5-7 tend to stress aspects of Hindu teaching and practice commonly labeled traditional, while chapters 4 and 8-12 introduce students to developments that emerged during the nineteenth century and later. Instructors wishing to stress the traditional, or those simply pressed for time, may wish to reserve chapters 1-3 and 5-7 for full class reading, while assigning chapters 4 and 7-12 for small group study and reporting. Chapters 4 and 7-12 can be and have been used for a course on religious change in modern India. The questions that follow are designed to help students understand their text better and to reflect on issues it raises. Some should help to prompt student discussion in classrooms. Instructors are welcome to use these questions in any way they see fit, so long as this has an educational purpose. This includes duplicating some or all questions and handing them out to students, posting them in WebCT programs, or utilizing selections for assignments or essay examinations. No question or questions from this list may be published for profit or included in a copyrighted publication without permission from the author. Nor may any be posted on an open website unless the preceding restriction is posted with them. Instructors who can restate individual questions more clearly or re-frame them to generate better discussion are invited -- please!-- to send them to nancy.falk@wmich.edu for inclusion in revised versions of this list. New questions that prove successful in opening up the book or leads to useful visual materials are also welcome. Contributors of all materials posted will of course be acknowledged on this site. Re Visual Materials: Extensive visual images now exist on the web relating to subjects treated in Living Hinduisms. The quickest way to locate them is to run a search on a specific subject, then click on the button images that appears with others on the first page of listings uncovered by the search. Search topics that have proved useful for image location will be listed at the end of each chapter s set of questions. Many of these topics will also turn up video and audio offerings.
For Student Review and Reflection: Some of the questions listed below call attention to especially important points and data that students should master in order to understand later materials covered in their books. Others challenge readers to think more deeply about points being made or scenes being depicted. Readers wanting to gain maximum benefit from an introduction or chapter should review questions asked about it both before and after reading: before, so they know what calls for especially close attention; after, to make sure they have understood everything essential. All questions addressing materials or issues covered specifically in the text are accompanied by references to pages where those materials or issues are covered. If a question does not include such a page reference, it is intended to get readers thinking for themselves or discussing the issues raised with fellow students or friends. Introduction to the Volume: 1. A line on page 2 asserts that people acquire beliefs through practice. What point is being make here? If you yourself participate in some religious community, try to cite some example of a belief instilled through that community s practice. 2. Page 5 discusses the problem of defining Hinduism -- an issue important to the book because the definition determines what kinds of materials will be covered. Whom does the author finally call a Hindu? Why does she take this approach rather than simply putting together a definition of her own? Do you know of any boundary disputes within other religious traditions: for example, a group that understands itself to be Christian or Jewish or Muslim, but is not accepted as such by other groups of that tradition? 3. Page 8 s section headed My Teachers, begins: It is the custom among Hindus for a teacher to certify credentials by reciting a line of masters whose teachings have shaped his own. Why is meant by the phrase to certify credentials in this line? Why would a teacher want to certify credentials in such a way? What is the author trying to achieve by describing the teachers who have shaped her own thinking? Is she attempting only to certify credentials? 4. On page 9, the author says she responds I don t think so, when asked if she is a Hindu What point is she trying to make here about the way one goes about deciding whether someone is or is not a member of a particular religious community? What criteria does she cite to suggest she is not a Hindu? (p. 9) One Hindu teacher described in this text has told her he thinks she is a Hindu. What different criteria could he be using to make this claim? Do such differences of criteria for membership exist in other religious communities? What determines whether someone is a Christian? A Jew? A Muslim?
Introduction to Part I: 1. Page 16 introduces Robert Redfield s distinction between little and great traditions. What is a little tradition? Note, by the way, that the author later prefers to call traditions of this type either oral or local. What problems are introduced by using the term little? 2. What is a great tradition, according to Redfield? Is a great tradition the same as a whole religion, or do great traditions exist within religions? (p. 16) 3. Pages 16 and 17 introduce the concepts of splitting and knitting within traditions. How does a tradition develop via splitting? Can you cite examples of splitting within other religious traditions? Do you know any examples of religious knitting? Page 85 of Chapter 3 will cite the relationship between the goddess Parvati and local deities as a good example of knitting. If you have trouble grasping this concept, you may want to skip ahead a bit and look at this example. 4. Describing certain Hindu religious teachers, a sentence on page 17 asserts, In such a person, an entire heritage of ideas comes to a focus. What is the author trying to get across here? In what sorts of teachers from other religions does a heritage of ideas come to a focus? Why would it be important for a religious teacher to exemplify what is being taught, as well as to explain it? Chapter 1 1. Why does the opening scenario on page 21 take such care to point out that the Brahmin scholar described here has a wife? Given what you have learned from the Introduction to Part 1, do all Hindu religious teachers marry? 2. The scholar described in the opening scenario continued to practice a very ancient method of preserving the literature that he studied. What was this? (p. 21) How might it change a teacher s approach to learning if she or he had to store materials in this way? How would it affect a student-teacher relationship? 3. The scholar described in the opening scenario is called a pandit in India. What does a pandit do? How does a person become one? Are all Brahmins pandits? (p. 21) 4. What is (or was) an Arya? How are Aryas connected to modern Hindus? Page 23 describes the discovery of the ancient Harappan civilization of northwest India. Why might some of today s Hindus have a special interest in claiming that Aryas built and developed this Harappan civilization? What evidence stands in the way of such an interpretation? (pp. 22-23) What would one have to show to get past such stumbling-blocks? 5. What divisions and role specializations have existed among Brahmins? Your text also tells you that many Brahmins are not religious specialists. What have these non-specialist Brahmins done to spread the Brahmin way of life among non-brahmins? (p. 24)
6. What is Veda? Why is it important to Brahmins? What other collections of Brahmin literature are important in addition to Veda? ( pp. 24-26) 7. Pages 26-29 describe a type of ancient ritual that continues to be very characteristic of Brahmin practice. What is it? What was (and is) the power called brahman and why was\is it so important to rituals of this type? 8. A concept central to Brahmin teachings since very early times has been dharma. The author illustrates this concept by citing the imagery of a Vedic hymn called Purusha-Sukta that describes the four basic divisions of the Hindu social order as the mouth, arms, thighs, and feet of a gigantic being called the Purusha. What are these four basic social divisions? What does this image suggest about their responsibilities towards the world as a whole and each other? What will happen to the world if they fail to carry out these responsibilities? (p. 29) 9. What responsibilities did women have within the Brahmins four-fold social system? (pp. 30-31) 10. Name and be able to describe the four aims of an ideal twice-born life and the four stages of an ideal life during which these were to be pursued. (p. 31) 11. Why did Indian kings seek out brahmins as advisors and court functionaries? What impact would such royal patronage have upon public reception of brahmin teachings? (p. 32) 12. Identify and define the following Sanskrit terms: deva; asura; pitri; tapas; shakti (pp. 33-34) 13. What is hierarchy? Describe the importance of hierarchy to the Brahmin world. (pp. 34-35) 14. What were the Aranyakas and Upanishads? What new ideas did they introduce into Brahmin thinking? Why would their teachings be reserved only for special people rather than being made accessible to the general public? (pp. 36-38) 15. On pp. 39 and 40, the author describes jati, a second component of India s actual working system of castes that makes it far more complex than the four-fold varna system that the Brahmins teachings described. Be able to explain the difference between varna and jati. Which of the two has had the greater effect on how Hindus actually behave? 16. Think about the various types of religious leaders whom you may have encountered in your own society. Which of these are most like the Brahmin pandits described in this chapter? Where do you see the main differences between Brahmin pandits and these teachers? Topics for Photo Searches: Hindu Brahmin; Hindu fire offering; Hindu sacred thread
Chapter 2 1. Compare the young man encountered in this chapter s opening scene (page 43) with the brahmin pandit described on page 21. What differences do you see in their lifestyles, dress, and learning? You are told that this man is a follower of a twentieth-century guru. What does this suggest about the path he has chosen to follow B is it a surviving relic of a distant past, or something currently undergoing renewal? 2. What is a sadhu? What other terms might be used in India to describe such a person? Can all of these terms be used for all sadhus? (See especially pp. 32-33, but also watch for other terms introduced throughout the chapter.) 3. Note that there are many different types of sadhus in India. What ideas and practices do most of them share in common? (p. 44) 4. What is a sampradaya? How does one become part of a sampradaya? What is the role of a guru within a sampradaya? (pp. 44-45) 5. Two groups described in this chapter, Jains and Buddhists, are not usually classed as Hindu by modern Western scholars, even though some contemporary Hindus do claim them. (To learn about this claim, see Chapter 11). They are excluded, in part, because Brahmin scholars classed them as nastikas. What does this term nastika mean? Did ancient Indians think of nastika groups as followers of religions different from Hinduism? (p. 41) Note that Jain and Buddhist renouncers were also called shramanas. What does this word mean? (p. 46) 6. What is karma? (p. 44) Compare and contrast the ways in which Jains and Buddhists understand karma: In what way does karma cause human bondage? What does one therefore have to do to break human bondage? (pp. 48-49) Page 47 asserts that this difference in Jain and Buddhist understandings of karma sets a precedent for later sadhu groups. In other words, later groups tend to understand bondage either materialistically, as Jains do, or psychologically, like Buddhists. Review the remaining groups described in this chapter and try to classify them according to this distinction. Is bondage materialistic for them, or is it psychological? (You must search throughout the chapter for this one.) 7. Be able to identify the following sadhu sampradayas and answer the questions that follow about them: Pashupatas (pp. 50-51); Kalamukhas (p. 51); Kapalikas (p. 51); Dasanami Sannyasis (pp. 52-53); Shri Vaishnavas (p. 54); Ramanandis (p. 54); Naths (pp. 58-60). Which of these sadhu lines are extinct? Which are still of important influence in today s India? Today sadhu lines are usually classified according to which deity they principally honor. Which of the groups listed above are Shaiva (honoring Shiva)? Which are Vaishnava (honoring Vishnu)? 8. What are nagas? How do the sadhus called nagas differ from other types of sadhus described in the present chapter? (pp. 54-55)
9. What is yoga? (p. 55) Why does this term seem to have so many different meanings? Be able to describe the differences between the yoga of the Yoga-Sutras (p. 55); the yogas of the Bhagavad-Gita (p. 56); and the hatha-yoga taught by Gorakhnath (pp.58-59). What kinds of yoga are preferred by the various sadhu lineages surviving today? 10. What is Tantra? Did it exist only among Shaivas? When was it most influential in India? (pp. 57-58) 11. Why classify Naths as Tantric? How do the goals to which Naths aspire differ from those of most other sadhus? (p. 58) 12. On page 44, the author points out that all sadhu paths entail some form of renunciation. Not all, however, go to the same extent in their renunciation. Review the groups surveyed in this chapter and note what each renounces. How many of these groups marry? How can they be renouncers and still justify marrying? 13. Think about the different types of sadhu disciplines described throughout your chapter. What kinds of people do you think might be attracted to each of them? Under what kinds of social conditions would paths like these be most likely to flourish? Topics for Photo Searches: Hindu sadhu; Hindu swami; Hindu holy men; kumbh mela; kumbha mela Chapter 3 1. Compare and contrast the woman portrayed in page 63's opening scenario with the Brahmin pandit described on page 21. Does she share any characteristics with the pandit? What are the principal differences between them? Do you see any commonalities between her and the sadhu portrayed on page 43? 2. What is a bhakta? As was the case with sadhus, India has known many different kinds of bhaktas. According to page 63, what traits do bhaktas share in common? 3. The section of this chapter titled Devotional Antecedents introduces two super-devas focal to Hindu devotional traditions. What are their names? How did they become so important in India? (pp. 64-66) 4. Note also, on pp. 64-66, that each super-deva described has a number of important associates. How does the relationship between Vishnu and his associates differ from the relationship between Shiva and his associates? What is an avatara? Note that Shiva s wife Parvati herself has many sub-forms. How do these varied relationships between greater and lesser deities reflect the process of knitting described on page 17 of this volume?
5. What is the Bhagavad-Gita? (p. 66) Note that page 56 of Chapter 2 also discusses this very famous scripture. Why is the Gita important to Hindu devotional traditions? (p. 67) 6. Note that your text speaks of devotional movements -- in the plural. Although many such movements eventually had influence outside of the regions in which they started, all began in specific regions and were linked to specific languages. As this chapter introduces the most important of such movements, trace their original locations on the map reproduced inside your text s front cover. Make a chart of each group s region, language, approximate date of origin, and the principal deity that it honors. (You must search throughout to answer this.) 7. What was happening politically in the Tamil-speaking region of South India at the time when its devotional saints began singing? How did their songs reflect this political situation? What two groups of saints emerged within this region? How did the themes stressed in their songs differ? (pp. 68-70) 8. What two important sampradayas surviving today incorporate hymns of the Tamil saints into their practice and teachings? (p. 71; recall that the term sampradaya means both tradition and lineage ) 9. The heading for the section beginning on page 71 suggests that the saints called Virashaivas and Warkaris were dissolving boundaries. What kinds of boundaries did each of these groups dissolve? (pp. 72-73 and 74-75) Note how each devotional movement discussed in this chapter responds to the system of caste that was emerging in India. One large and still not firmly settled question of Indian social history is just how firm a grasp caste discrimination had within each movement s region at the time when its saints sang. 10. Who were the Virashaivas? Note that Virashaiva teachings and practice reflect a very strong influence from Shaiva sadhu traditions. In fact, one noted Virashaiva scholar has argued that the Virashaiva community should not be classed as devotional at all; it is basically a sadhu lineage that also happened to produce some fine devotional poetry. What themes and practices described in this chapter resemble the sadhu teachings and practice described in Chapter 2? (pp. 72-73) 11. Who were the Warkaris? What does the poem on page 74 by the Warkari woman saint Janabai suggest about the nature of God? You will meet the Warkaris again in Chapter 7, which describes a yearly pilgrimage that is now central to their practice. (pp. 170-74) Do you see any potential contradiction between a stress on pilgrimage and Janabai s understanding of God? 12. How did Islam enter India? What types of Islam took root there? How did the Muslim presence affect existing Hindu communities? What effect did it have on devotional movements? (pp. 73-75) 13. What does it mean to assert that God is nirguna? What common Hindu practice would the nirguna teaching undermine? (p. 78) Which devotional saints honored a nirguna God? (pp. 78-79) How might such a conception of God break down divisions between religions?
14. Who were the Sikhs? How might you recognize a Sikh met in the street? Do Sikhs classify themselves as Hindus? (p. 79) 15. What does it mean to say that one honors a saguna God? What deities were principally honored by saguna saints? (pp. 80-81) What important pilgrim center was first developed by saguna saints? (p. 80) What version of Rama s story is best known to today s Hindus? (p. 82) 16. In what region of northern India did Shiva devotion have the greatest impact? (p. 82) 17. What goddess or goddesses are most important to Shakta devotion? (pp. 82-84) Note that Tantric movements have greatly influenced goddess worship in India. Where is goddess devotion strongest in India? Note the connection between the term shakta, meaning a goddess devotee, and shakti, encountered earlier (p. 34). 18. Trace the references to female saints made throughout this chapter. Although women have been important to many devotional movements, this fact has done little to alter women s status in India. Why? (p. 86) 19. Devotional paths remain highly popular in today s India; in fact, their popularity seems to be spreading. What do you think might draw people to such paths today? Topics for Photo Searches: Hindu deities; Hindu saints; Hindu kirtan. Searches under the names of specific saints will often pull up sectarian drawings of those saints: for example Andal; Ramanuja; Akka Mahadevi; Kabir; Chaitanya Mahaprabhu; Guru Nanak; Vallabhacharya Chapter 4 1. The scene on page 89 introduces a woman who became first a teacher, then a college head, then an officer in a world-wide religious organization. While telling you this, what does this scene also let you know about the projects and leadership of this organization? What does it tell you about options for women when this woman was young? 2. If you were traveling in India, and came across an organization that had the word samaj as part of its name, what would you expect to discover about its leadership and organization? What kinds of people joined samaj-style groups in 19 th century India? (p. 90) 3. When did the British first become a major colonial presence in India? What three steps taken by them set off major changes in India? How did these three steps change India? (pp. 91-94) 4. Page 94 identifies two disagreements about priorities and preferred methods that gave rise to the principal differences between samaj movements. Identify and explain those two disagreements. (pp. 94-95). As you go through this chapter, note which priorities and methods
were stressed by each movement described. 5. Who was Rammohan Roy? What region of India did he come from? What was his family s religious heritage? What social issues did he work to solve? What change or changes did he wish to see in religion? (Pp. 95-98) 6. What was the Brahmo Samaj? When and where was it founded? What did it try to accomplish? During what time period did it have its greatest impact? This organization eventually split twice. What caused these splits? (Pp. 101-3) 7. What was the Prarthana Samaj? Where was it based? During what time period did it have its greatest impact? Note the role played by Brahmins in its membership. Why did its members choose to found a new society rather than just becoming a branch of the Brahmo Samaj? (p. 103) 8. What factors changed Indian perceptions of the British during the later 19 th century? How did nationalists use religion to gain support for anti-british protests? (pp. 104-5) 9. When, where, and how did the Arya Samaj get started? What leader first inspired it and how did he differ from leaders of the Brahmo Samaj and Prarthana Samaj? To what part of India s religious heritage did he look to justify the reforms he advocated? How did he approach rival religious teachings? (pp. 106-7) 10. Why is the last group studied in this chapter called AVivekananda s Ramakrishna Mission? Who were Vivekananda and Ramakrishna? What did each contribute to the Mission s founding? How did the Ramakrishna Mission change prior models of samaj organization and goals? (pp. 108-9) 11. List the changes in Indian social practice brought about via the efforts of samajists. (You will have to look throughout the chapter for this.) The last five chapters of your book will describe the extensive religious changes that the samajists set in motion. 12. Imagine yourself in the shoes of a young Hindu college student of the later 19 th century. Another student, a friend, has become an enthusiastic supporter of a local chapter of one of the samaj groups described in this chapter. (You choose the group.) Now he is urging you to attend samaj meetings with him. What might draw you to attend? What would hold you back? (see p. 100) Suggested Topics for Photo Searches: Unfortunately no single search will turn up images for this chapter. Collections of visuals do exist, however, for Ram Mohan Roy, Swami Vivekananda, and Ramakrishna. Searches for Swami Dayananda Sarasvati will produce photos of a more recent teacher of the same name; the topic Dayanand, however, yields a few images of the Arya Samaj founder. Brahmo Samaj yields a few views of meeting houses, and Arya Samaj brings glimpses of Arya Samaj chapters outside India. Belur Math assembles photos of the Ramakrishna Mission headquarters north of Kolkata, India, and Dakshineswar portrays
the Kali temple made famous by Ramakrishna. Introduction to Part II 1. List at least one type of space special to each of the four types of teaching traditions that were described in Part I of your book. How do these differ from the three kinds of space to be examined in Part II? (p. 113) 2. Page 115 notes that the kind of Hindu practice described in Part II is usually characterized as traditional. But it also warns that using this word can easily lead to misunderstanding. Why? What do you usually assume about a practice labeled traditional? What do you assume when a practice is called modern? Chapter 5 1. The opening scene for this chapter on page 117 describes a woman who is cooking. Why would cooking -- or things done while cooking -- be described in a religion textbook? 2. What kind of family organization is most usual in India? What variations can be found? (p. 118) 3. List four basic types of religious practice found in high-caste Hindu homes. (p. 118) 4. Why is pollution important to Hindus? What causes pollution? What harm does it cause? How does one get rid of it? Can everybody do this? (pp. 115; also 122-23) 5. If your Hindu friend tells you that some thing or event or person is auspicious, what could you assume about it? Give an example of an auspicious time, according to most Hindus. What sorts of places would you expect to be auspicious? (pp. 120-121) 6. Be able to define the following words or phrases: puja, mandir, puja room, prasad. What kinds of actions would you expect to see in a household puja? (p. 122) 7. What is a samskara? For what purpose is a samskara done? Who is entitled to undergo one? Who is entitled to officiate (i.e. take the lead) in a samskara? List at least four common Hindu samskaras. (pp. 123-127) What religious rites in other traditions are most like Hindu samskaras? 8. When a fire is lit and fed during a Hindu household ritual, what can be assumed about that ritual s origin? (p. 125)
9. Why are the rites described on pp. 127-30 often called calendrical rituals? For what purpose are these rites performed? What do they assume about the qualities of time? (pp. 127-29) 10. What is a vrat? Why do women have a special interest in vrats? What kinds of ritual actions are usually included in a vrat? (pp. 129-31) 11. What is a kirtan? A jagran? An arti? Name two additional kinds of special religious observances that might occur occasionally in a Hindu home. (pp. 132-33) 12. Page 134 asserts that ritual practice in Hindu homes instills qualities that are prized in family members...often without a single word having to be spoken about what these qualities are or why family members should prize them. Give at least five examples of qualities instilled by the rituals this chapter describes. How can such things be taught if no words are spoken about them? Can you think of any practices in your own culture that instill desired qualities without talking about them? By whom are these qualities desired? Topics for Photo Searches: Hindu marriage; Hindu cremation; upanayana. Most pujas on net photos are temple rites rather than home rites; however, www.hindunet.org offers extensive instructions for performing home pujas and samskaras. Chapter 6 1. Page 137 asserts that a Hindu temple is not just a place but an experience. It is designed to have an effect on those who arrive at it to worship. What kind of effect would you expect from the temple experience described in the opening scene for this chapter (pp. 136-37): is it meditative and quieting? Stimulating? Humbling? Note that the visitors wash before entering the temple. Why? Why might someone wish to sit down briefly after visiting an important deity? 2. The local Hindu community of your city somewhere in the world wants to build itself an authentic Hindu temple. What steps will it have to go through to accomplish this? (p. 138) 3. What three important ideas do Hindu temples express? What aspects of temple structure and design communicate these ideas? Does every Hindu temple communicate all of these ideas? (pp. 138-39) 4. During your visit in India with a Hindu friend, he tells you: Our local temple has a famous svayambhu (self-revealed) image. What do you understand him to mean? What might you expect about the appearance of that image? (p. 139) 5. Judging from the descriptions given on pages 139-40, is a Hindu divine image more like a photograph or a map? More like a logo or an antenna for a radio or TV? Explain your answers. Then describe the three levels of potency that an image can achieve. How are these levels
activated? (p. 139) 6. If a Hindu says, I am going to the temple for darshan, what does she or he mean? (p. 141) 7. What is puja? On pages 120-22 of the previous chapter, you were told that pujas are patterned after ancient rites used to honor guests. Why honor a temple deity by means of a guest ritual? Who honors temple deities via pujas? What variations exist in temple pujas? (pp. 141-2) 8. Who can build a Hindu temple? What sorts of people most often build them? Why might a Hindu want to build one? (pp. 143-end) 9. What sorts of persons or groups build sectarian temples? What kinds of deities are installed in sectarian temples? What sorts of rituals are performed there? (pp. 144-46) 10. Who would build, maintain, and worship at a lineage temple? What kinds of deities are installed there? Are lineage temples more likely to be large or inconspicuous? On what occasions would people pay their respects at such a temple? (pp. 147-49) 11. How does a settlement deity differ from a kul deity? Who honors such a deity? In what kind of shrine is it be housed? On what kind of occasions is it honored? (pp. 149-54) 12. When you read the description of Maraiyamman s festival on pp. 151-54, try to imagine that you are a villager participating in this festival. How would you feel during each of the festival s four stages? Can you think of any occasion that might provoke a similar experience for someone of your own culture? 13. Why did Hindu kings of the past build temples and take the lead in temple festivals? What benefit might such temples and festivals bring to a king s subjects? What benefit would they have brought to the king himself? (p. 154; also 157-58) 14. Note that the royal festival described on pp. 155-58 is celebrated as a variation on India s popular Nine Nights festival. What story does this festival recall? (See page 148) What part of this story does the part of this festival done at the king s temple evoke? Note that the actions taken during this ritual tend to parallel the written versions of this story rather than simply reenacting it. Nonetheless they, like the devas of the story, pull a mighty goddess together by assembling her various elements. What parts of the goddess are brought together in this ritual version of her creation? (pp. 156-57) 15. Pages 158-59 of this chapter contain an epilogue, titled A Temple Revisited. What does the author suggest in this epilogue about a possible hidden purpose of the temple visited in the chapter s opening scene? 16. Every town must have a temple is a common Hindu saying. Even among Hindu immigrants to America, temple building is a high priority after enough potential supporters have settled within a given city. (Examples of this are given in Chapter 12.) Given what you have learned about Hindu temples in this chapter, why are they so important to Hindu communities?
What benefits does a temple bring to its community? 17. One theme appearing throughout Chapter 6 is the ability of temple festivals to unify a community. Can you think of examples from your own culture of occasions that unify in similar ways? For Photo Searches: Photos of Hindu temples from many regions can be found at http://www.hindu.net.org/hindu_pictures/temples. Two Vastumandala diagrams are included with photos under the topic purusha. Try puja and Hindu festivals for temple practice. The topic rath-yatra will pull up many photos of the Jagannath chariot festival. Chapter 7 1. What is the author trying to make you understand about the Vaishnodevi pilgrimage described on p. 161: In what kind of setting does it occur? How difficult is it? What is its destination? Why did she call attention to the sadhvi encountered during this pilgrim journey? 2. What is pilgrimage, according to the author? How old is this practice in India? (p. 162) 3. What is a tirtha? Why would a pilgrim site be called a tirtha? Why would people want to visit such sites? (pp. 162-163) 4. The author tells you that pilgrim destinations in India are often located in places where boundaries dissolve: where rivers come together, land stretches into sea, or mountains thrust into the sky though clouds. Why are such places important to pilgrims? (pp. 163-64) What do you think of the claim made on page 163: to be redone, one must be undone? Can you think of occasions within you own culture when people undo or loosen themselves before attempting something new? 5. In what ways do the actions and dress of a pilgrim resemble those of the sadhus examined in Chapter 2? What is tapas? Why would the difficulty of a pilgrimage enhance its benefit to the pilgrim? (p. 164) 6. Who makes a pilgrim journey? Why do Hindu pilgrims make such journeys? (p. 165) 7. What three kinds of pilgrim journeys did the villagers described by Ann Gold make? To what sorts of shrines did they go to help them gain healing and children? What did they try to accomplish by sinking flowers? Where did they go and what did they do to accomplish this? Where did they go and what did they do on their very long bus pilgrimage? (pp. 166-69) Have you ever known anyone who went on a pilgrimage resembling any one of theirs? What did they tell you about their experience? 8. Note that Gold s themes of loosening, thinning, and emptying (p. 169) can all be considered forms of the undoing stressed on p. 163. Explain in your own words the quote
from the woman pilgrim cited on p. 169: Sweeping the road ahead, then Brother, moksha happens well. 9. According to anthropologist Alan Morinis, Hindus in India have developed two quite separate understandings of pilgrimage. One is derived from the school of thought called Advaita Vedanta, a tradition strongly rooted in Vedic and Brahmin teachings. The second is derived from teachings of devotional saints. What is the difference between these two understandings? Which of the two was reflected in expectations of the villagers described by Gold? Which of the two lies behind the next two examples to be taken up? (p. 170) 10. What is a Warkari? Where and when do Warkaris go on pilgrimage? What reasons do they give for doing this? Which aspect of their pilgrimage seems more important: its destination or its journey? Note that this journey is closed to no one; non-hindus can make it. If a Hindu friend invited you to come along on such a pilgrimage, would you want to try it? Why or why not? What would you expect to see and experience? (.pp. 174-75) 11. What is a Ban Yatra? Where and when does this pilgrimage take place? What kind of people make it? What is the significance of the lands that it traverses? What do pilgrims hope to accomplish by making this journey? What aspects of it might help them do this? Once again, if a friend invited you to come along on this journey, would you want to try it? Why or why not? (pp. 174-75) 12. What is a permanent pilgrim? What kind of Hindus become permanent pilgrims? Note that the two swamis described in the section on permanent pilgrims belonged to the same sampradaya, and that the earlier of the two taught the later one s teacher. Both were furthermore born and raised in the same region in India. One would expect them to have a great deal in common. What differences do you nonetheless see in their travels and motivations for making these? What had happened in India between the times of their two sets of journeyings that can account, at least in part, for this difference? (pp. 178-83) Topics for photo searches: Hindu yatra; Hindu pilgrimage. The topic Vaishodevi includes photos of the pilgrim path; Vithoba includes at least one of the Vithoba temple at Pandharpur; Vrindavan ( Brindaban) portrays many sites of the town where the Ban Yatra begins and ends; see also photos under Krishna. Photos of the two swamis described can be found via Swami Tapovan and Swami Bodhananda. The mountains loved by Swami Tapovan can be viewed via Himalaya. At the site www.colorado.edu/conferences/pilgrimages/3.jpg there is a single photo of the palkhi pilgrimage in motion. Introduction to Part III 1. Among what groups has religious change been most evident in today s India? What social factors contribute to such change? (p. 188) 2. What was the original, literal, meaning of the term hegemony? How did writings of
Antonio Gramsci modify scholarly uses of this term? Why would it be hard to dislodge from power a group that has achieved his kind of hegemony? What group or groups achieved it in pre-colonial India? What has happened to them since then? (pp. 188-89) 3. Explain the difference between caste and class? Are all low-caste people necessarily of low class? Are all high-caste people necessarily of high class? (p. 191) Chapter 8 1. Reread the opening scene for this chapter on p. 93. If the woman described there can be taken in some way as typical of India s former untouchables, what does this description suggest about their usual types of employment, their incomes, and the challenges facing them? What does it suggest about relationships between them and other higher-caste Hindus? (p. 163; and remember, please, that no one can truly be typical of such a huge number of people, as the remainder of this chapter should show you) 2. Note the list of ritual exclusions once practiced against untouchables, but now forbidden by India s constitution. What, by law, can former untouchables now do in India that they could not do before? Do they always manage to do what is granted to them by law? (p. 193) What groups in your own culture come closest to their status? Keep watch, as you go through this chapter, to learn who chaired the committee to draft the constitution that banished these ritual exclusions. (p. 212) 3. What is jajmani? What is jati? Explain the relationship between the two. According to French sociologist Louis Dumont, why did some jatis rise to the top of Hindu social ladders while others fell to the bottom? P. 195 asserts that certain low-caste groups are included in the Hindu ritual system only to carry out functions that exclude them. Explain this statement in your own words. As you go through this chapter, look for examples of groups that are included in Hindu communities so they can do things that will exclude them. (See especially pp. 196-97.) 4. Who were the people commonly known as untouchables? What made them untouchable? Could this status be changed by rituals or pilgrimage? Why or why not? How did it affect their day-to-day living conditions within an Indian village? (p. 196) 5. What jatis within the Tamil villages described by Moffat performed ritual functions important to those villages? What were those functions? Which ones raised caste status? Which lowered it? Did all villagers of these jatis perform these functions? (p. 197) 6. What data that he gathered led Moffat to believe that bottom-caste Hindus of the villages he studied accepted the values underlying the high-caste social system? Why have some scholars challenged this conclusion? After reading the summary of Moffat s work given in this book, what do you think about this issue? Does anything in this summary make you think that Moffat s subjects might have objected to the social and religious system within which they lived? (pp. 197-201)
7. Who were the Satnamis? How did this group begin? Did they assume that pollution caused their low status? Which of their actions and decisions show that this was the case? What did they expect to gain by changing their behavior? What happened instead? How would you explain this? (pp. 202-205) 8. Satnamis finally did make some real change in their caste standing. How did they do this? To what extent did they improve their lives? (pp. 204-5) 9. According to Kancha Ilaiah, why is he not a Hindu? How did his jati s belief and practice differ from those usually labeled Hindu? Why did he not want to be called a Hindu? What purpose was he trying to accomplish by writing his book? (pp. 206-8) Note that Ilaiah is a university professor. What does this fact suggest about changing opportunities for low-caste people in today s India? 10. Who was Jyotirao Phule? When and where did he live? How was he educated? How did European scholarship affect his understanding of his people s past? (pp. 208-09) Why might a new understanding of the past change an oppressed group s attitudes towards the present? 11. Who was Bhimrao Ambedkar? Where and when did he live? How was he educated? What did Ambedkar want the British to do to change the status of untouchables? What did the British do about this? Explain the difference between separate electorates and reservations. (pp. 210-211) 12. Why did Ambedkar and his supporters convert to Buddhism? Why did they wait for fifteen years to do this after their initial declaration of intent? Are Mahars still Buddhist? Have other former untouchables converted? What difference has conversion made in their lives? (pp. 213-14) 13. What does the term dalit mean? Why do many former untouchables now call themselves dalits? (p. 214) 14. If you were a low-caste leader in India, how would you go about trying to increase social acceptance and economic opportunity for your people? What problems would you have to tackle to do this? Topics for Photo Searches: dalit; Ambedkar; Jotirao Phule Chapter 9 1. What aspects of the chapter s opening scene on p. 217 might lead one to realize that the gathering described is taking place in a high-caste, high-class context? Note that the speaker is a swami. What have you learned earlier about changing practice among swamis that can help you to understand what is occurring in this scene? (Hint: see pp. 176-82)
2. Why might it be desirable for a textbook on today s Hindus to talk about well-to-do Hindus in a chapter all of their own? Apart from wealth and power, what sets them apart from most of India s masses? What group of teachers discussed previously has strongly influenced their attitudes and values? (pp. 218-219) 3. Why pay special attention to women s practice when looking at the religion of well-to-do and privileged Hindus? What changes have occurred in the last two centuries in expectations about women s relationship to religion? (p. 220) 4. What kinds of people live in Defence Colony, New Delhi? What religious groups are active there? (p. 222) 5. What was the author trying to learn when she first stayed in New Delhi? What did she discover about women s attitudes towards old Brahmin-taught rules about proper behavior for women? (pp. 223-24) What kinds of practices did her neighbors observe? In what sorts of religious groups did they participate? (pp. 225-30) 6. Why does the author call her Defence Colony neighbors and friends seekers? What were they seeking? How? What kinds of teachers were helping them do this? (pp. 227-30) Do you get the impression that they have engaged in these kinds of activities for a long time? Or is this something new in their lives? 7. What united the group of women that Mary Hancock studied in Chennai? Why did she choose to study these women? What was she trying to learn? (pp. 231-32) 8. Hancock suggests that Adi-Dravida movements have played an important role in shaping the recent experience of Brahmins in Chennai. Who were these Adi-Dravidas? ((p. 232; see also pp. 208-9) Why are Brahmins in particular being challenged by these low-caste movements? 9. Hancock presents her study as a follow-up to work done earlier by anthropologist Milton Singer. Trying to learn how the high-caste men of his study dealt with pressures to modernize, he found that they used two strategies that he called compartmentalizing and delegating. Explain what Singer meant by these terms. What effect would strategies of this sort have upon the religious activities of women? (p. 232) 10. What did Hancock discover about Smarta Brahmin women s values in Madras? What kind of women did they aspire to be? What kinds of behavior would they have thought was most appropriate for them? (pp. 233) This chapter calls these women keepers. Why? (See also p. 191) 11. Despite the apparent conservatism of women studied by Hancock, she also found important changes in their practice. What were these? (pp. 233-34) Such changes in practice suggest that the women studied were also changing their own ideas about what sorts of religious roles were appropriate for them. As proper women of Brahmin caste, what did they think they could and should be doing to promote religion? (pp. 234-38)
12. Who is the Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram? What did he and his predecessor do to cause religious change among Smarta Brahmin women? Why does he have so much influence upon them? (pp. 234-35) 13. What changes reflected in this chapter and others suggest that a Hindu revival is occurring today in India? (pp. 236-37; but also give this some thought of your own) Topics for Photo Searches: Little is available for this chapter except for general photos of New Delhi and Chennai. Mary Hancock has posted a few photos from her Chennai research on her University of California at Santa Barbara website: www.anth.ucsb.edu/faculty/hancock. Look under the headings Research and Publications. A search for Shanakaracharya of Kanchipuram will turn up several photos of this religious leader. Shortly after Living Hinduisms went to press, this same Shankaracharya was arrested and jailed under charges deeply embroiled in political intrigue. Most of the photos listed are embedded in news reports and discussion of this court case. Introduction to Part IV 1. If a person tells you that she or he is contesting something, what would you think that person is doing? (p. 241) If you read in a scholarly article that Jotirao Phule contested Brahmin hegemony during the later nineteenth century, to which of his initiatives would this assertion be referring? (Phule is discussed on pp. 208-9.) 2. If, while searching a library data base, you find an article titled New Religions of India, what kind of movements would you expect to find discussed upon its pages? (pp. 241-2) 3. The author says she will discuss spiritual movements in Chapter 10 and nationalist movements in Chapter 11. How do spiritual and nationalist movements differ? Is it possible for an organization to be spiritual and nationalist at the same time? (pp. 242-3) 4. What does the term secular mean in India? (p. 242) If you are from the United States or Canada, what do you understand this term to mean in America? Watch for this term as you read the following chapters. Often the difference between its Indian and American connotations confuses American readers when they come across it in an Indian context. Chapter 10 1. What is darshan? In Chapter 6 (p. 41) this word was introduced in the context of visits to a temple deity. What does this explanation add to your understanding of the gathering described at this chapter s opening? Why would people wait for hours and sit uncomfortably on cold stone floors just to have ten minutes darshan of a popular guru? (pp. 245-6)
2. When new movements of India say they are spiritual, not religious, what point are they trying to make? What ancient traditions serve as their models and inspiration? What have they added to those traditions? (p. 246; see also p. 268) Watch carefully as you go through this chapter. Do all of the groups discussed initiate sadhus to be their leaders? 3. What was the ancient understanding of the term guru? What is a parampara? What is diksha? When people are called gurus today, what does this term mean? (p. 247) 4. What was an ashram in ancient India? What is an ashram today? What kinds of facilities can one find there? Do ashrams always house large numbers of people? (pp. 248-49) 5. The three movements examined on pages 249-56 are classed by your author as revival movements. Given what you have read about all three, what does she mean by revival? What are they reviving? How would adopting sadhu vows and dress and connections to old sadhu lineages help enhance the success of such revivals? 6. According to the author, revival-style movements often teach and publish their literature in English. How would this help such movements attract supporters? What sorts of supporters would they attract? What limits would teaching and publishing in English impose on the movements outreach? (p. 249) 7. Be able to identify the following teachers and the organizations that now carry on their work: Swami Sivananda; Swami Chinmayananda; Swami Bhaktivedanta (Shrila Prabhupada). What form of practice or teaching was stressed by each of their movements? (pp. 249-56) 8. Note that founders of Hindu revival movements often have educations very much like your own, have worked as businessmen or professionals, and have gone through periods of alienation from religion during their youths. What kind of followers would you expect such leaders to attract? How might their life-experiences help them build successful organizations? Such leaders are clearly highly intelligent and creative. Why might such people turn to religion to help them put their own lives together? 9. Suppose someone from your own culture said to you: My teacher is a living god. How would you react to such a statement? What older Hindu teachings have prepared Hindus to accept the idea that living gods can be walking around in their country, during their own lifetimes? Do these gurus themselves believe that they are living deities? (pp. 256-59) 10. What levels of education did the three living gods discussed in this chapter have? Many highly sophisticated, English-educated Hindus are devotees of these three leaders. What would draw such people to a leader such as this? (pp. 257-60, but also think about this one yourself) 11. Be able to identify the three living gods described in this chapter, together with the characteristics that made them famous. (pp. 256-60) 12. According to page 259, Sai Baba has said that the difference between himself and other