Survey of Hinduism - A Great Recollection

Part I
Hinduism: Sources and Worldview
The long history, the vastness, and the heterogeneity of Hinduism offer enormous
challenges to each and every description of the tradition. The very question
of identifying the beginning of Hinduism has become one of the most
controversial topics in Indian studies. For the time being two irreconcilable
notions are being heatedly discussed in scholarly and popular literature. The
first chapter attempts to weigh the merits of these.
The identity of Hinduism rests primarily on the particular line of verbal
revelation on which the Hindu tradition is grounded. The Vedas and the other
books, which are held sacred as scriptures by Hindus, differentiate Hinduism
from other religions possessing their own specific holy books, and they permit
at least in a negative way a definition of the essentials of Hinduism over against
what is not Hinduism.
While acceptance of the Veda as revealed is certainly the most basic criterion
for declaring oneself a Hindu—the preferred self-designation of Hinduism
in Indian languages is Vaidika dharma, the “Vedic Law”—there is another
genre of literature that has shaped the minds and hearts of present-day Hindus
much more profoundly: the two great epics, Mahābhārata and Rāmāyana, and
the voluminous Purāṇas, the true Bibles of Hinduism. Typical for Hinduism,
it has not just one, but eighteen such scriptures, accepted as revealed by the
followers of the various greater traditions. They exalt Viṣṇu, Śiva, Devī to
the highest position; they contain the colorful myths for which Hinduism is
famous; they instruct their readers in matters of worship and hygiene, promise
health, wealth, and eternal salvation to all who recite them. The itihāsa-purāṇa
literature is enormous—it has hardly any parallel in another culture. While not
all Hindus are fully acquainted with it, many know surprisingly much from it.
There is one book, however, that virtually all Hindus know and many
recite daily by heart: the Bhagavadgītā, the Song of the Lord. It has become a
classic also in the West; there are scores of translations in English and other