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By The Aryans Blend With Native Religions To Produce Classical Hinduism? The

The passage summarizes the origins and key beliefs of Hinduism. It discusses how Hinduism developed from the blending of the religions of migrating Aryans and the native Indians in ancient times. It outlines three important Hindu religious texts - the Rig Veda, Upanishads, and Law of Manu - and how they establish concepts like Brahman, the stages of life, and social duties. The passage also briefly describes Jainism and Buddhism as religions that originated from Hinduism but rejected aspects like the authority of the Vedas and the caste system, and spread widely beyond India.

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Patrick Wallenberg
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1K views3 pages

By The Aryans Blend With Native Religions To Produce Classical Hinduism? The

The passage summarizes the origins and key beliefs of Hinduism. It discusses how Hinduism developed from the blending of the religions of migrating Aryans and the native Indians in ancient times. It outlines three important Hindu religious texts - the Rig Veda, Upanishads, and Law of Manu - and how they establish concepts like Brahman, the stages of life, and social duties. The passage also briefly describes Jainism and Buddhism as religions that originated from Hinduism but rejected aspects like the authority of the Vedas and the caste system, and spread widely beyond India.

Uploaded by

Patrick Wallenberg
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We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Patrick Wallenberg PHI 205 Religions of the World Mr. Brown 11-12:15pm Mondays/Wednesdays Chapter 4 Hinduism 1.

Outline the early history of Hinduism. How did the gods and rituals brought by the Aryans blend with native religions to produce classical Hinduism? The history of Hinduism begins with the migratory waves of Aryan people into India during the second millennium B.C.E. The religion that the Aryans brought with them mingled with the religion of the native people, and the culture that developed them became classical Hinduism. The term Aryan is a Sanskrit word that means the noble one. This word was applied to a group of migrants who moved into the Indus Valley in the second millennium B.C.E. from what is now Iran. According to early sources, Aryan society began to develop into three basic classes called Vernas. The chief manner of worship of the Aryan gods was apparently sacrifice. These gods and rituals that were presented were truly blended with other native religions and eventually produced Hinduism as we know it today. 2. Define the Rig-Veda, the Upanishads, and the Law of Manu. Show how these three bodies of literature demonstrate basic Hindu religious concepts. RigaVeda means knowledge or sacred lore and is the first and most important book, which is a collection of over 1,000 hymns to the Aryan gods all containing the basic mythology of these gods. The fourth section of each of the Vedas is the Upanishads. Within these materials, one finds the early philosophical statements that became the basis for later Hindu philosophy. Scholars tend to see the

Upanishads as the philosophical expression of what one finds in the rest of the Vedas. The Upanishads assume that there is only one reality, the impersonal godbeing called Brahman. The Law of Manu is of value not only because of its religious teachings but also because of what it reveals about Indian life during the period. Within this book the student finds the ethical and social standards that were held as ideals during the classical era of Indian history and the effects that the religious philosophical teachings of the Vedas had on Indian tradition. Another central teaching of the Law of Manu is the various stages of life through which upper-class men were expected to pass. The first stage of life, the typical upper-class Indian male is supposed to be a student, studying the Vedas and giving careful attention to a teacher. 3. Discuss Jainism and Buddhism as heresies of Hinduism. What was the fate of these two religions in India? Elsewhere in Asia? Both Jainism and Buddhism rejected the sacrifice system taught in the Vedas. Both taught that once achieved release from life not by offering sacrifices to the gods or by any form of worship but through accomplishments in ones own life. Both rejected the Vedas as sacred scripture, and both taught that anyone of any caste who lived properly might find release. Jainism taught that one found release from life through ascestism. The more one denied pleasures and satisfactions to the body, the more likely that person was to achieve freedom from the endless cycle of birth and rebirth. Buddhism grew out of many of the same longings and beliefs that formed the basis of Jainism. It did teach that although one could find release from life without priests and a sacrifice system, the extremes of ascetism were not

necessary. Buddhism became a missionary religion, sending its preachers to other Asian nations.

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