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We may approach the topic “Education and Hinduism” through two overlapping perspectives. In the first, we would take “Hinduism” to be the subject, and see what kinds of education Hinduism proposed and constructed. In the second, we would take “education” to be the subject, and ask what schools, colleges, and educators sought to do with their proposed or constructed understanding of Hinduism. In our first perspective, we find that Hinduism has used certain teaching methods that are often difficult to notice or categorize as “education,” since the term “education” seems to refer to a formal phenomenon that we judge by modern norms of space and time. If we view education as a crucial instrument used by the leaders of society to reproduce their privileges and power and transfer preferred bodies of knowledge to new generations, while reproducing the marginalization of some other groups, we see that in different periods of Indian history, education was responsible for the reproduction of Brahmans and Brahmanism, which in turn shaped Hinduism to a large extent and spilled over into the shaping of Indian polities and societies. If we also understand education to be an epistemological relationship between truth, power, teacher, text, and student—we take education to have both epistemological and political power—we must inquire for different periods of history, and for different communities and spaces, not only how the cultural reproduction worked, but also what these categories—“knowledge,” “text,” “teacher,” and so on—stand for. Since “Hinduism” consists of diverse systems of belief and practice, this is a vast undertaking. Specialists of a region, time period, or community will find some specific studies missing in the following essay. The attempt is to be suggestive rather than all-inclusive. In our second perspective, we focus on the colonial and contemporary periods. Over the last two hundred years, there have been efforts to construct institutions that are either directly “Hindu” in nature or that try to have a “Hindu” component to their curricula or mission. They are based on competing definitions of identity and “Hinduism” that derive from readings of colonial historiography, missionary diatribes, European and Indian discoveries of India’s past, and nationalist imaginings. While it would be impossible to look at the whole range of these, we discuss some sample ones, including their model philosophies and their founders or leaders.
Mathura is one of the most important ancient settlements and one among the seven most sacred cities in India along with Ayodhya, Haridwar (Maya), Kasi, Kanchi, Ujjain (Avantika), and Dvarka. The city is situated about eighty-seven miles south of Delhi and thirty-one miles north of Agra on National Highway No. 2 and once served as the junction of the Western, Northern, Central, and Northeastern Railways, making it the biggest junction point of the Indian Railways until restructuring in 2003. The city is also the district headquarter, and the area of the modern Mathura district is 2075 square miles with a population of over 2.5 million people as per the 2011 census. Mathura is most famous for being considered the birthplace of Krishna, the most popular incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. The surrounding area of Mathura forms part of Vraja kshetra (popularly known as Braj), considered sacred as being the location of Krishna’s childhood activities. Historically and archaeologically, the town was one of the most important trade centers of ancient India and the epicenter of the famous school of sculptural art known in popular parlance as the Mathura school, which gave form to many Brahmanical, Jaina, and Buddhist deities including the earliest imagery of the buddha. Prior to becoming a great center of art, Mathura was one of the biggest settlements during the Painted Grey Ware period, generally dated between 1200 and 500 bce, and one of the sixteen Mahajanapadas during the Northern Black Polished Ware period, c. 6th to 4th centuries bce. The archaeological evidence for the early periods at Mathura is limited due to a lack of large-scale excavations but with the increasing evidence of epigraphical and sculptural activities dating from 200 bce and later, the archaeology and culture of the area is better understood. Key factors that led to the evolution of Mathura as an important city and cultural center are its strategic location on trade routes and the religious/sectarian environment where most early Indian sects and cults developed. Buddhism and Jainism along with the prevalent local and Brahmanical cults gained popularity in the Mathura region from the early historical period of c. 3rd century bce, if not earlier. Most of the early religious art related to these sects first evolved in the environs of Mathura during the Sunga-Kushan periods. There is enough good evidence for the popularity of the cult of Vasudeva-Krishna at Mathura during the Kushan period, but the popular Krishna cult for which Mathura is renowned became more prevalent and visible during the late medieval period only, particularly with the development of the Vallabhite and Gaudiya sects. The role of Mathura in the intermediary period between the Gupta and late medieval periods is not well known due to lack of information and archaeological evidence, but it seems that the Mathura region lost its political importance during this period and yet the religious importance somehow survived until its revival as the greatest center of Krishna bhakti in late medieval or premodern times.
Believed to have been founded by the saint-poet Svāmī Haridās (d. 1601?) in the late 16th or early 17th century, the Nirañjanī Sampradāy is one of the bhakti communities associated with the so-called nirguṇ sant movement that began in northern India sometime in the 15th century. The Sampradāy, which consists of both monastic initiates and lay followers, flourished during the 17th and 18th centuries in what is now Rajasthan, during which time it also established monastic outposts at locations as distant as Aurangabad and the Narmada River valley. Nirañjanī hagiographical traditions acknowledge the community’s early connections with the Nāth Sampradāya and with the Dādū Panth, another nirguṇ sant tradition that arose at roughly the same time as the Nirañjanī Sampradāy. These close connections are also reflected in the literature, theology, and practices of the sect, which combine Vaishnava bhakti with aspects of yoga as well as elements adapted from Sufi traditions. After the passing of Haridās, the monastic order expanded quickly in a decentralized fashion, with several of Haridās’s direct disciples founding monastic centers and lineages in different parts of Rajasthan (and eventually in Hyderabad as well). Among the later monastic disciples were several prominent saint-poets, including Santadās, Turasīdās, Manoharadās, Bhagavānadās, Dhyānadās, and Harirāmadās. Importantly, the Nirañjanīs also give prominence to Pannājī, an 18th-century female saint, and recognize several other female saints as being part of the tradition. Although the Nirañjanīs themselves were prolific writers, very little material by or about the Nirañjanīs is available in published form. This article lists the few original works of scholarship that have been produced on the Sampradāy in Hindi and in English along with any relevant primary sources that have been published.
Disagreements about ethics, morality, or dharma (as described in the South Asian tradition) are disagreements about the right or the good. There are four basic theories. The teleological options are Virtue Ethics (the Good character causes the Right action), and Consequentialism (the Good outcome justifies the Right action). These options are teleological because they prioritize the Good (the end) over the Right (the means). The commonly known procedural option that prioritizes the Right over the Good is Deontology (the Right considerations justify the Good action). However there is a fourth option unique to the South Asian tradition that is also procedural. This is Bhakti/Yoga (the right action which consists in devotion to the procedural ideal of the Right—the Lord/Sovereignty—causes a Good outcome, namely the perfection of this devotion). This is a theory defended systematically (likely for the first time) in Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra (YS). There the procedural ideal of being a person, Sovereignty (Īśvara), is defined by the traits of being untouched by past choices (karma) and unimpeded (without afflictions or kleśa-s) (YS I.23–25): and this is approximated by the practice of Unconservativism (Tapas) and Self-Governance (Svādhyāya) (YS II.1). The theory is also explored dialectically in the great Sanskrit epic, the Mahābhārata, and especially in its chapter 18, the Bhagavad Gītā (Gītā). Here Arjuna (the protagonist) is faced with the prospects of a fratricidal war and articulates three reasons to avoid the conflict. Consequentialism: if he were to fight the war, it would result in sorrowful outcomes for all concerned (Gītā 1.34–36). Virtue Ethics: though the enemy is evil, fighting would render him (Arjuna) no better than the opponent rendering it the wrong, virtue destroying choice (Gītā 1.38–39). Deontology: war undermines good social practice that, among other things, protects women and children, and war, hence, constitutes a wrong consideration in justifying practice (Gītā 1.41). The three approaches to ethics share a commonality: they define Right action in some way by way of the Good, and they constitute Conventional Morality, which gives rise to Moral Parasites (those who wish others to be bound by Conventional Moral expectations, but do not intend to do so themselves). In response, Krishna, who is Arjuna’s charioteer, teaches Arjuna two procedural responses that prioritize the Right over the Good: karma yoga, a form of Deontology that emphasizes the rightness of duty, and bhakti yoga, known as “Īśvara Praṇidhāna” in the Yoga Sūtra. Yoga/Bhakti is unique among the four ethical theories in defining the right by way of the procedural ideal (Īśvara), and not the Good. This allows Yoga/Bhakti to play an instrumental role in resetting the moral order, by abandoning Conventional Morality. Krishna as the figure of Īśvara in the Mahābhārata subsequently leads Arjuna and his brothers (the Pāṇḍava) to victory over Moral Parasites (the Kauravas). Conventional approaches to bhakti that interpret it by way of familiar beliefs of the Western tradition (such as Theism, a version of Virtue Ethics) do not reveal the philosophical controversies that motivate Bhakti/Yoga or its contribution to philosophy.
Bāuls live in the Bengali-speaking region in West Bengal and Bangladesh. Admired for their enigmatic songs performed to the rhythm of a small drum and a one-string droning instrument, Bāuls are widely viewed as icons of Bengali regional identity. Many singers with a Muslim orientation call themselves Fakirs; most live in Bangladesh, while the majority of singers with a Hindu orientation self-identify as Vaiṣṇava, and some as Śāktas, and are found mainly in West Bengal. Bāuls are householders or renouncers; they tend to be poor and to have a lower caste identity. A number of Bāuls support themselves through singing songs for alms on passing trains, but many supplement this income through part-time work, while still others work full time. Very few earn their living as professional performers. They sing at festivals and fairs and are summoned to perform at ashrams to honor the demise of holy persons. When performing at religious celebrations in villages, or secular events in towns (arranged by the middle classes), Bāuls usually band together as a troupe and are accompanied by lay musicians. Male Bāuls are particularly easy to identify. They dress in white or ocher garments, patchwork vests, and coats when singing for a larger audience and when they beg for alms. Men often wind their hair into a topknot and wrap a turban round their head. Bāul women likewise dress in white or ocher clothes, but, stressing modesty, they tie their hair into a bun when collecting alms and let it loose when they perform on stage. Yet, despite their visibility and popularity, opinions are divided among scholars as to how Bāuls should be defined. These disparate views may in part be traced to colonial Bengal, during which time the educated classes elevated Bāuls as carriers of Bengali tradition in their attempt to fashion a sanitized, unique, and authentic sense of self, stripped of elements that they regarded as problematic. Evidence suggests, however, that most but not all Bāuls learn body-centered practices from murśids or Vaiṣṇava gurus, who belong to different lineages, and who teach esoteric knowledge, not just to Bāuls but a range of other followers, including lay householders and mendicants. From a scholarly viewpoint, given that the body constitutes the main instrument for worship and that the larger universe exists within the human frame, which also harbors the divine in humans, these body-centered practices may be broadly classified as tantric. In 2005, Bāul songs were included in UNESCO’s established Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Vraja is an old Sanskrit word that is now used to denote “Braj,” or the Braj region. Vraja/Braj/Brij presently denotes a particular geographical area in and around Mathura that is related to the childhood activities of Krishna (Skt. Kṛṣṇa), the most popular incarnation (avatar) of Lord Vishnu (Skt.Viṣṇu)—so important, in fact, that some of his most influential devotees consider that he is “God himself” (bhagavān svayam), as the Bhāgavata Purāṇa declares. The word vraja is derived from the Sanskrit verbal root dhātu (vraj), which means “go, walk, proceed,” implying “motion and movement.” In its early forms it can be used to designate areas where cows graze, but it may also refer to a cow pen or cattle shed. More broadly, it has to do with the culture of a semi-nomadic pastoral encampment. The modern-day term Braj, building on these meanings, denotes a conceptual as well as a geographic entity—the former related to the childhood of Krishna, the latter to the area on the banks of the River Yamuna where he is considered to have spent his childhood and youth. The language associated with this region is Brajbhasha [Skt.Brajbhāṣā], which came to have an almost canonical weight—along with Persian and Sanskrit—in Mughal times; for that reason, along with others, it came to be well known far beyond the geographical area of Braj itself. By no means is every usage of Brajbhasha to be associated with Krishna, although his imprint is often to be felt. Over the long course of time, then, we have, on the one hand, a sedimentation and localization of the term vraja (its geographical usage), and, on the other, an expansion of the term (its conceptual breadth and linguistic weight). Acknowledgement: Dr. John Stratton Hawley helped edit this article.
Sree Narayana Guru (b. 1856?–d. 1928), a member of the Īzhava caste, a low-caste group in the fourfold caste system of Kerala, and a pioneer in socioreligious reform in early-20th-century Kerala, was born in Chempazhanthi, Kerala, possibly on August 20, 1856. A learned man, he was fluent in Malayalam, Sanskrit, and Tamil. From 1876 to 1879 he studied Sanskrit at Puthupalli in Karunagapally taluk, and was broadly trained in various traditions, including vyākarṇa (grammar), nyāya (logic), Vedānta, kāvya (poetry), nātaka (drama), and alaṁkāra (rhetoric), in addition to Ayurveda and astrology. After his formal education, he was more interested in finding the truth about the self and its relation to the Ultimate Reality. Once he had attained aṟivu (self-knowledge), he returned to his village and became an itinerant sanyāsin, recognized as a saint, and people from all strata of the caste-oriented Kerala society—Nāyars, Īzhavas, Christians, and Muslims—sought his teachings and blessings. In his teachings Guru emphasized the knowledge of self as essential to his notion of oneness. He claimed that oneness depends on consciousness of the self in relation to others and plays a significant role in spiritual and social emancipation. Guru, who at one point in life was a devotee of Viṣṇu, after attaining self-realization, emphasized the concept of “one God” and the unity of all being in a singular divinity. This oneness was not confined to his concept of God, but he considered the whole world to be of one family—vasudhaiva kudumbakam. In 1903 Guru founded the Śrī Nārāyaṇa Dharma Paripālana Yōgam (SNDP), with its manifesto, “One Caste, One Religion, One God for Mankind,” which directed the many Hindus of Kerala from belief in many gods to belief in one God. Narayana Guru had the support of Dr. Palpu, a medical doctor and social revolutionary, and Kumaran Asan, a disciple and poet, and founding secretary of the SNDP. The oneness of God and unity of all humankind became apparent when Narayana Guru propelled religious and social reforms in Kerala. More importantly, his exposure to the inhumane condition of people in the lower castes and his education in the various philosophical schools, especially Advaita Vedānta, or nondualism, served as a foundation for his literary works and social and religious reforms in Kerala. On September 20, 1928, Guru attained samādhi (liberation upon death). Since his death, the SNDP organization has continued to function, propelled by those who follow Guru’s teachings, who hold regular meetings and worship services affirming Guru as a divine being.
Both bhakti and Christian missions have a long history in India, dating back to the beginning of the Common Era (or perhaps before, in the case of bhakti). The earliest text that uses bhakti as a technical term, describing it as a path for salvation, is the Bhagavad Gita, which many scholars date to the 1st century ce. On the other side, the most ancient Indian Christian traditions date their origins to the arrival of the missionary St. Thomas in 52 ce, although historians are more confident assigning a somewhat later date, perhaps the 3rd century, to the genesis of Indian Christianity. The St. Thomas or Syrian Christian communities were nourished for well over a millennium by fellow believers from Mesopotamia. The Roman Catholic Church commenced the first Western (as opposed to Middle Eastern) Christian missions to India around the year 1500. Protestants began missions to India around 1700, sponsored by the king of Denmark. The advent of Pentecostal and Charismatic missions, which were initiated by Indian Christians, can be dated to approximately 1900. While the first Western Christian missionaries were Europeans, Indians have always been deeply involved in the missionary movement, and were actually more effective and successful than Europeans in mission work. Almost all contemporary Christian missionaries in the subcontinent are Indian. Due to the nature of scholarly literature on bhakti and Christianity, this bibliography focuses on the interaction between bhakti and Western Christian missions: Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Pentecostal/Charismatic. Definitional problems immediately present themselves when one starts to delve into this literature: How are bhakti and Christian missions to be identified? Indeed, the understanding of neither has been static for the past five centuries; both have been variously interpreted by those who have practiced and studied them. The multiplicity of definitions and perceptions continues, and even proliferates, today. For the purposes of this article, bhakti will be understood as devotional movements with origins in Hinduism, but permeating—and being influenced by—other religious traditions in India. Bhakti places an emphasis on the affective dimensions of religious devotion, and on popular religiosity. Christian missions will be understood as the many and diverse attempts—with varying degrees of success and a variety of positive, negative, and mixed results—to spread Christian beliefs, practices, and benevolence in every human culture and language. Both bhakti and Christian missions involve practices of body, mind, and emotions. This bibliography is restricted to English-language materials. Moreover, it does not employ diacritical marks except when they are included in titles of works.
Some may ponder the relevance of an entry on “Kolkata” in a bibliography on Hinduism. By official accounts, this is not a Hindu city. Nor is it a city with ties to a Hindu kingdom. It is instead a modern city made famous for being the first capital of the British Empire in India. Kolkata is, however, the largest city in the region of Bengal that is home to long-standing and distinctive Hindu traditions. Hindus furthermore make up about 75 percent of the city’s population. As such, Kolkata is home to some of the most well-known and well-frequented temples in the region and also hosts some of the most elaborate celebrations of Bengali Hindu festivals. As a major metropolis, it is also home to vibrant non-Bengali Hindu traditions. Hindus in Kolkata furthermore live alongside a very large Muslim minority as well as smaller religious and ethnic minority communities—leading at times to catholic and hybrid manifestations of Hinduism, and at other times to more defensive ones. Another reason Kolkata is an important site for the study of Hinduism is that it was the center of major Hindu reform and revival movements in the 19th century that went on to shape nationalist movements across India, and continue to influence the way Hinduism is understood around the world today. The first half of this bibliography addresses Hindu sites, practices, and communities in the city, while the second half focuses on major Hindu debates, movements, and leaders that emerged in the city during the colonial era. A short note on scope: This is a bibliography on Kolkata, and yet—much like the category “Hinduism” itself—this is not a bounded entity that lends itself to easy demarcation. It refers to a territory that originally included only three villages on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River: Sutāṇuṭi, Kalikātā, and Govindapur. Yet the Kolkata metropolitan area today includes over 700 square miles of territory that includes towns as far north as Barrackpore, as far south as Joka, and that extends eastward to new developments such as Salt Lake and New Town. This bibliography takes the term “Kolkata” (and “Calcutta” when referring to the city prior to its official name change in 2001) quite liberally. It includes studies dealing with sites close to the city as well as those that hearken to the city as their major locus of authority.
Goddesses known as yoginīs (feminine of the Sanskrit yogin, “practitioner of yoga” or “possessed of yoga”) were prominent in the esoteric or “tantric” religious traditions of premodern India, beginning from around the 7th century ce. They feature especially in tantric Śaiva cults of Bhairava and allied goddesses, as well as within the Vajrayāna Buddhist Yoginītantras or Yoganiruttaratantras. In fact yoginī cults form a significant shared dimension of these tantric traditions. This bibliography is primarily concerned with yoginīs in premodern Hindu traditions, especially Tantric Śaivism, while nonetheless including some representative works on Buddhist and other traditions. While sharing characteristics with several other deity types, yoginīs have particularly deep connections with mātṛs or “mother-goddesses,” ancient deities associated with fertility, motherhood, disease, and warfare. Several key aspects of yoginīs are shared with the earlier mātṛs, such as the ability to fly, the high frequency of animal faces, occurrence in groups, martial prowess, and their simultaneous beauty and dangerous power. Yoginīs have particularly strong connections with the Gupta-era Seven Mothers (saptamātṛs or saptamātṛkās), who are often included in yoginī sets. Within Tantric Śaivism, yoginīs surface first in the Vidyāpīṭha division of Bhairavatantras, such as the extant Siddhayogeśvarīmata and Brahmayāmala, remaining prominent in Kaula traditions of the late 1st and early 2nd millennia. This literature depicts yoginīs as powerful, potentially dangerous flying goddesses who embody the numinous powers of yoga, powers sought by tantric practitioners through visionary, transactional encounters. Organized into clans (kula), yoginīs were regarded as both guardians and potential sources for the transmission of tantric revelation. While quintessentially tantric goddesses, the veneration of yoginīs took on more public forms by the 10th century. Temples dedicated to groups of yoginīs were constructed across India, mainly from the 10th to 12th centuries, and yoginīs also left their mark in non-tantric religious and narrative literatures. Although yoginī worship waned in the latermedieval period, these goddesses remained important in some tantric traditions, and have received renewed attention in the modern world. Distinctive to the figure of the yoginī is the blurring of boundaries between goddesses and women: in many contexts, the word yoginī simply refers to a female yogi or tantric initiate, and female adepts were viewed as potentially becoming divine yoginīs through sudden gnosis or ritual perfection. For this reason, while the bibliography is mainly devoted to scholarship on tantric goddesses, rather than yoginī in the more general sense of “female practitioner of yoga,” it also necessarily concerns female tantric adepts, gender and sexuality in the tantric traditions, and the impact of belief in yoginīs upon women. Indeed, one of many meanings of yoginī and closely related terms is “tantric sorceress” or “witch,” a notion carried into the modern world, sometimes with tragic consequences.
