What is Hinduism?

from Hinduism: Ancient and Modern

Before dealing with some of the chief institutions of our society it may perhaps be of some use to show what is meant by the terms "Hindu" and "Hinduism." The word Hindu is not found in the Vedas, the Smritis, the ltihasas or the older Puranas, nor is it of Sanskrit origin. In the Sastras the word Arya is used to denote the five tribes who lived in the early home of our ancestors who chanted the hymns and performed the sacrifices mentioned in the Vedas.

The Land of Ancient India

In Manu, the country between the Saraswati and the Drishadwati rivers was said to be the Brahmavarta-desha, the land of the gods, and the practices prevailing there, were described by him as the practices of the good. The country known as Kurukshetra, the Matsya, the Panchala (Punjab) and Sursena (about Mathura), was known as the Brahmarshi-desha and one less sacred than the Brahmavarta. From the people of these parts the other people of the earth learnt their practices. From the Himalaya to the Vindhya Mountains, to the east of Kurukshetra and west of Prayaga (Allahabad), the country was known as the Madhya-desha (middle region). From sea in the east to the sea in the west and between the Himalaya and the Vindhya Mountains, the country was known as Aryavarta. This was the India of those days, forming a part of the Bharat-khand, probably the continent of Asia, which in its turn was comprised in the Jambudwipa, the world of that period. (Manu, Chapter II. 17-22.)

The word Hindu is apparently a corruption of Sindhu, the name of the Indus River in the Punjab, and Sapta Sindhu, the country of the seven rivers of the Vedic literature was known as the Hapta Hindu in the Zend, and the Hindavas in the old Persian literature and the Punjab of today. Later Persian writers use the word Hindu as signifying black. It would, therefore, be a dual mistake, first to call the whole of the Aryan people as described by the Vedic and subsequent writers to be Hindus, and then to attempt to trace back all that now goes under the name of Hinduism to the purer sources of the Aryan religion. Manu called the practices of the good by the name of dharma, without any addition whatever, and it may be nearer the mark to trace to ancient times so much of the modern practices as can be traced and try to purify them in the light of what ancient lawgivers laid down as the indications of dharma.

They were not only the Vedas and the Smritis, but also the practices of the good, righteous behavior, and satisfaction of one's own conscience. Hindu, Hinduism, Hindustan can, however, no longer be discarded without creating much confusion and giving rise to much misunderstanding. But if we keep in mind the fact that Hinduism is the name given to a vast social organization composed of divergent elements by foreigners, and that the ideal to be aimed at is the purification of our society, we may keep the name and explain some of our institutions with reference to our ancient books. Both foreign and Indian thinkers who have attempted to construct from observed facts one definition, which would be applicable to the Hindu society of to-day, have failed in their attempts to do so. The elements are too complex and diversified to admit of such a definition.

Descriptions if Hinduism

Sir Alfred Lyall describes "Hinduism to be the religion of all the people who accept the Brahminical scriptures, as a tangled jungle of disorderly superstitions, as a collection of rites, worships, beliefs, traditions, mythologies, that are sanctioned by the sacred books and ordinances of the Brahmins, and are promulgated by Brahminic teaching." Sir Denzil Ibbetson describes it to be "a hereditary sacerdotalism, with Brahmins for its Levites, the vitality of which is preserved by the social institution of caste, and which may include all shades and diversities of religion native to India, as distinct from the foreign importation of Christianity and Islam, and from the later outgrowths of Buddhism, more doubtfully of Sikhism, and still more doubtfully of Jainism"

Mr. Risley, Census Commissioner for India, at page 351, Volume I. of his Census Report for 1901, describes it to be "Animism more or less transformed by philosophy, or, to condense the epigram still further, as magic tempered by metaphysics." The fact is, he says, "that within the enormous range of beliefs and practices which are included in the term Hinduism, there are comprised two entirely different sets of ideas, or one may say two widely different conceptions of the world and of life. At one end, at the lower end of the series, is animism, an essentially materialistic theory of things which seeks by means of magic to ward off or to forestall physical disasters, which looks no further than the world of sense, and seeks to make that as tolerable as the conditions permit. At the other end is pantheism combined with a system of transcendental metaphysics."

On the other hand, one Indian writer describes "Hinduism to be that which the major portion of the Hindus follow," and another calls the Hindus "to be those who accept the Vedas, the Smritis, the Puranas and the Tantras as the basis of religion and the rule of conduct who believe in reincarnation, in one Supreme God Brahma and in the law of retributive justice." Each of these definitions is correct, but only partially. The Census Commissioner's would have approached nearest to the mark so far as modern Hindu society is concerned, if he had omitted the word two, both from the sets of ideas and the conceptions of the world and of life. To say that Hinduism is that which the majority of Hindus believe or follow, or that it is that which is not Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Mazdaism or Judaism, or that it is a tangled jungle of superstition or beliefs, rites, traditions and mythologies found in Brahminical books, does not help us in knowing what it is.

There are, however, some basic ideas which are common to all who are now known as Hindus. These are:

1. distinction of caste;
2. the supremacy of Brahmins, at least in theory;
3. the sacredness of the Vedas and the cow;
4. the law of Karma and re-incarnation and a belief in God.

Sanatana Dharma

These beliefs are more or less current in all Hindu society wherever it may be found. If you call the holders of these beliefs to be followers of the Sanatana Dharma, you will have to use the term in a wider sense than that in which it is now used. Dharma is that which supports and holds together, and Sanatana is ancient. Therefore the principles of a healthy and pure life, both in social and religious matters, would go more under the name of Sanatana Dharma than dogma. Paradoxical as it may seem, dharma is eternal and therefore there is no necessity of calling it Sanatana. In ancient India, also, the difficulty of defining dharma was felt as much as it is now. Says Yudhisthira in the Mahabharata in reply to the Yaksha's question as to what was the path, "Argument leads to no certain conclusion, the Srutis (Vedic texts) are different from one another, there is not even one Rishi whose opinion can be accepted as infallible – the truth about religion and duty is therefore hidden in the cave of the heart, that alone is the path along which the great have trodden." (Vana Parva, Chapter 312.)

The only thing, therefore, possible is, to take those of our institutions which form the basis of our society and describe them as they were in times past and as they are now, and show how they could be reformed or remodeled to suit existing conditions. The task is one of great magnitude requiring both time and knowledge more than I can command. But if I succeed in directing attention to the salient features of our society, I shall not have written in vain.

Source: Nath, Rai Bahadur. Hinduism: Ancient and Modern. Vaishya Hitkari, Meerut. 1905.