Survey of Hinduism - A Great Recollection

INTRODUCTION 7
take sides in controversies dealt with in the text, and argue for a particular
school of thought. While the former would be satisfied with a purely historical
account of religious notions, the latter would internalize them and see their
existential implications. As “Insider-Outsider” I have attempted to pay attention
to both concerns, fully aware of the fact that it is not always possible to
avoid taking sides.
Intentionally I did not choose the framework of any one particular contemporary
Western academic discipline. 9 That made my task at one and the
same time easier and more difficult: easier because I did not have to justify
with the concepts of a particular discipline what obviously does not fit into
its schema, 10 more difficult because the range of phenomena to be dealt with
becomes so much larger, the choice of vocabulary more problematic, the risk
of overreaching one’s competence so much greater.
The study of other cultures is no longer just the hobby of a few leisured academics,
it has become a major component of general education. The world of
today is connected through multiple networks of trade and commerce, political
and military alliances, and through large-scale migrations of populations. If we
consider each other as belonging to one and the same human family we cannot
consider cultures and races eternally immovable barriers between peoples.
Nor can we ignore them. I agree with L. Dumont that “cultures not only can
be made to communicate, they must.” 11 Through that communication we will
doubtlessly also become capable of sharing other cultures’ viewpoints, seeing
their logic from within, and valuing as precious what was merely exotic to us
before. In this particular case: we will not only learn about Hinduism but also
learn from Hinduism.
Hinduism, as a way of life embraces all aspects of Indian culture. This
Survey, while focusing on those expressions of Hinduism that are “religious”
in a more specific sense, cannot leave out other aspects of life and culture
that in the West are no longer connected with religion. Hindu “religion” has
a metaphysical core, and it provides a spiritual interpretation to life in its entirety.
Hinduism always left much freedom to its adherents to choose among
many options, and it exerted—except in matters that had to do with sectarian
discipline and caste rules—little pressure on its followers in matters of faith
and belief. India has at all times accommodated a great variety of races and
cultures within its boundaries, varieties of languages, customs, gods, and traditions
of worship. In spite of the emergence of All-India expressions of Hinduism,
the regional roots of particular branches of each of these are very much
in evidence, and local practices vary markedly from one place to the other. At
all times the flexibility of Hinduism also showed in the very obvious difference
between theory and practice, a difference that makes it all the more unlikely
to understand Hinduism by merely paying attention to its verbalized theory
without having observed its living practice.
Serious Western study of India began as Sanskrit philology with the establishment
of chairs for Sanskrit in major European universities in the early