Hindu Culture

The Vedas, the sacred text, can also be referred as the Shruti. Veolas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, and Agamas are major scriptures that support Zaehhner R. C. (1992) The Four Puruṣᾱrthas. These four principles can also be seen as the proper goals of one how practices the religion that include Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha, and Samsara. Klostemaier (A Survey of Hinduism 2007) The beginning, or start of the religion is very complex. They had 3 social functions that were shown to them by the Aryans, the priesthood, warriors, agriculture, and slaves.

The Upanishads are believed to have originated in the 1st millennium BCE, they were updated and composed all the way up to 1400 BCE. The Upanishads writings were that of monotheism. They believed god was in everything including ones self. Interestingly enough, westerners have deemed the Upanishads the first “philosophical treaties” of India. “Indeed, the material they contain would not be considered philosophical in the modern, academic sense.” (Britannica Upanishads religion) Furthermore, the Upanishads believe in rebirth or life after death in some form or another.

It basically describes how each individual person should live their life. Following strict and certain rules and instructions created by this “higher power” in which to live a successful life. This is exactly why Religion isn’t highly or 100% thought upon in contemporary society. Yes, religion is just as important then as it is now, it is just not practiced word for word or taken as literally on how our lives should be lived unlike it was in historical times. This novel is set in ancient India at the time of Gotama the Buddha, whose Eightfold Path guides the faithful toward Nirvana, six centuries before the birth of Christ.

Believed to be written by a group of nomads known as the Aryans around the year 1500 BCE, the collection of ancient Sanskrit texts known as the Vedas serves as a guide to discovering the Ultimate Reality and becoming enlightened, according to the religion of Hinduism. Contained in these texts, is the idea of the four Purusharthas, the so called pursuits of life that play a key role in the base of Hindu philosophy. The four Purusharthas include Artha (wealth), Kama (pleasure), Dharma (duty), and Moksha (liberation). Although many have a difficult time grasping these abstract concepts, these same people may actually have already been exposed to the ideas.This is because many Western pieces of literature display evident traces of the four Purusharthas.

The Mughals who ruled India from 1526-1858, emerged as great patrons of architecture. Mughal architectural is a great historical source as it reflects on imperial ideology of the time. The Mughals drew upon various architectural traditions- indigenous Indian traditions, Indo Islamic architecture form the Sultanate period, Persian traditions, European traditions and introduced their own Timurid traditions of Central Asia. Right from Babur to Aurangzeb, architecture was used to assert power and seek legitimacy by the Mughals. Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire, coming from the lush lands of Ferghana and being constantly on the move in India, mainly laid out gardens in Hindustan instead of large buildings.

Joseph answers this debate beautifully with his four functions of Myths. Starting with mystical function, cosmological dimension, sociological and the last pedagogical means to teach humans how to live under any circumstance. Through mythological stories from ancient time through recognition of events of current cult classes like Star Wars, Matrix or stories of living people in current history told as a hero’s journey. Wondering if Mr. Campbell would see if the self-help industry adapting mythology with psychology, philosophy, and religion. Understanding that most people see religion separate from mythology being a belief system.

Which provides a vast opportunity for the privilege to be justified and protected while the poor and wretched are only to accept their place. Thus he argued it “should not only be dismissed, but dismissed with scorn”. Followed by Durkheim who proposed religion is created by the society to make man to put themselves as priority after the needs of the society and to help to maintain the solidarity of the society. He believed in sustaining the law of moral society and support functionalism. Meanwhile Weber stated that religion can be developed into many different and unique ways, causing a breakthrough industrialisation.

Many rulers struggle today to keep control and at the same time have a powerful empire. Asoka was a ruler who mastered this. Asoka was born in India and was like a founding father of India, when he ruled the Mauryan Empire from 268 BCE to 232 BCE. Asoka, as a ruler, decided to form a government based on Buddhist spiritual beliefs and dharma, which helped to create a successful empire. He also sent out missionaries to carve messages in different areas and languages to help communicate through out the Mauryan Empire.

Staying at the Palace of the Alhambra, Irving was accompanied by the guide whose name was Mateo Ximenes. In the “Tales of the Alhambra” Washington Irving called him as a “son of the Alhambra” [2, p. 22]. Mateo being aware of the details about the historical truths, customs and traditions of the Alhambra and its inhabitants encouraged Irving to compose the unexampled work including a series of verbal sketches, stories and essays. The tales with the reflection of real historical truths are centralized in this book. The ruins reflect the traces of the periodical invasions of people with different faiths as well as the traces of natural calamity including

Every religion has fundamental questions about the creation of the world, the man, the immortality and the meaning. This is not new information; however, it will surprise you the fact that the answers to these questions are a lot more alike than we think. Take, for example, Christianity and Hinduism. Hinduism for example has many beliefs and practices so comparing this with Christianity can be a challenging task. Hinduism is more open minded as it embraces other beliefs and teaches that all religions have one goal, regardless of the path in life you may take.