Hindu life and practice

Introducing Hinduism is an invaluable resource for those seeking an authoritative and comprehensive academic overview of the key tenets and diverse practices of Hinduism, past and present.

The Kanwar is India's largest annual religious pilgrimage.

This book focuses on dual belonging within Hindu-Christian contexts.

This book, first published in 1933, was the first text on the general Hindu attitude to art.

Originally published in 1977, The Hindu Religious Tradition provides a detailed exploration into the different doctrines regarding the nature of Religious Reality and the many paths of search for this Reality within the Hindu religion.

This book, first published in 1968, comprises five articles on the immortality of the soul.

Sarasvati assumes different roles, a physical river and a river goddess, then as a goddess of speech and finally that of a goddess of learning, knowledge, arts and music.

'Hinduism' is a term often used to summarize the aspirations of the majority of the Indian people.

This book offers an in-depth study of right-wing politics in India by analysing the shifting ideologies of Hindu nationalism and its evolution in the late nineteenth century through to twenty-first century.

Tantric yantras are precise geometric forms that have been used for centuries as tools for self-realization and the attainment of mystical powers.

This book presents an original and comprehensive reading of the contemporary Mauritian society where Hinduism is practised by more than half of the population.

Hindu Customs and their Origins (1937) primarily examines the topic of caste in India, looking at the ancient ideas of the origins of caste and testing modern theories through a critical examination.

The historical interplay of Hinduism as an ancient Indian religion and Christianity as a religion associated (in India, at least) with foreign power and colonialism, continues to animate Hindu-Christian relations today.

This book, first published in 1962, is an analysis of the history of the philosophy of a country that has never distinguished philosophy from religion.

At first sight the lives of hermits, living in solitude and committed to a life of prayer and contemplation seems to be a world apart of the active practice of interfaith dialogue.

This volume is a systematic and comprehensive introduction to one of the most read texts in South Asia, the Bhagavad-gita.

This handbook is a comprehensive study of the archaeology, social history and the cultural landscape of the Hindu temple.

The idea that there is a truth within the person linked to the discovery of a deeper, more fundamental, more authentic self, has been a common theme in many religions throughout history and an idea that is still with us today.

Devotional Spaces of a Global Saint focuses on the presence and contemporaneity of Shirdi Sai Baba (d.

This book, first published in 1957, was the first in English to provide a full and clear introduction to one of the most significant of Indian gods, and stresses his supreme role in Indian religion and art.

Hinduism in America: An Introduction is a concise introduction to the long history of religion in the encounter between America and India.

How do text, performance, and rhetoric simultaneously reflect and challenge notions of distinct community and religious identities?

This book asks us to consider what is absent, rather than what is present, when studying religions.

This book, first published in 1933, was the first text on the general Hindu attitude to art.

This book explores the contribution of Gaudiya Vaisnava theology to polity and public engagement during the reign of Jaisingh II in the early eighteenth century in North India.

In recent years, changes in religious studies in general and the study of Hinduism in particular have drawn more scholarly attention to other forms of the Hindu faith that are concretely embodied in temples, icons, artworks, rituals, and pilgrimage practices.

Indian culture relies greatly on visual expression, and this book uses both classical Indian and contemporary Western philosophies and current studies on cognitive sciences, and applies them to contextualize Tantric visual culture.

Modern Hindu Traditionalism addresses Hindu traditions that resisted contact with both Neo-Hindu thought and views of "e;classical"e; Hinduism perceived to be outmoded.

This book explores the cross- and trans-cultural dialectic between Tantra and intersecting 'magical' and 'shamanic' practices associated with vernacular religions across Monsoon Asia.

Provincial Hinduism explores intersecting religious worlds in an ordinary Indian city that remains close to its traditional roots, while bearing witness to the impact of globalization.

Tauchen Sie ein in die spirituelle Tiefe und Weisheit der Bhagavad Gita – eines der bedeutendsten Werke der hinduistischen Literatur.

Religious procession is a significant dimension of religion in South Asia.

Hinduism cannot be understood without the Great Goddess and the goddess-orientated Sakta traditions.

The Great Goddess, in her various puranic and tantric forms, is often figured as sitting on a corpse which is identified as Shiva-as-shava (God Shiva, the consort of the Devi and an iconic representation of the Absolute without attributes, the Nirguna Brahman).

The mythology, rituals, meditations, and practices used in Tantric worship of the goddess Kali in the tradition of Kashmiri Shaivism *; Reveals the practices of Vamachara, known as the Left-hand Path but more accurately translated as the Path of Shakti *; Includes a Kali ritual from the Nirrutara Tantra, translated here for the first time *; Presents devotional chants, meditations, and mudras specific to Tantric worship of Kali According to traditions going back to pre-Vedic times, Kali sprang from the third eye of the Goddess Durga as a destructive and terrifying manifestation of feminine power sent to lay waste to the forces of evil.

Lethal Spots, Vital Secrets provides an ethnographic study of varmakkalai, or "e;the art of the vital spots,"e; a South Indian esoteric tradition that combines medical practice and martial arts.

*; Revised and expanded edition of the classic work on chakras by the renowned Indian scholar and tantra practitioner.

*; Explains the basic techniques of the practice, detailing proper posture, breathwork exercises (pranayama), bandhas, third-eye gazing, and the use of mantra *; Presents advanced, yet simple, techniques that accelerate a contemplative practice by micro-modulations related to posture, respiration, visualization, and sound *; Includes wisdom from the author's teacher Ganesh Baba on the importance of the spine in Kriya yoga and the Cycle of Synthesis, a model of the human experience Kriya yoga is an ancient meditation technique that focuses on breathing and the spine to unlock deep states of awareness, self-realization, and spiritual growth.

In late 20th-century India, Christian-Hindu dialogue was forever transformed following the opening of Shantivanam, the first Christian ashram in the country.

The first step-by-step guide to the techniques of Kaula Tantra, the practical yogini path to enlightenment*; Details the erotic and magical practices of Kaula Tantra as well as the arcane principles to activate each technique*; Includes a complete translation of the Kaulajnananirnaya Tantra from Sanskrit*; Explores Kaula techniques for acquiring siddhismagical powersas well as sacred protection and black magic practicesWritten in the 8th century by the sage Matsyendranatha, the Kaulajnananirnaya Tantra records the secret erotic and magical practices of the Yogini Kaula tradition, a tradition focused on practical methods for attaining enlightenment.

Traditions of asceticism, yoga, and devotion (bhakti), including dance and music, developed in Hinduism over long periods of time.

This Element explores the nature of a Hindu monotheism, not as one God but as a transcendent, ultimate source.

In recent years, India's "e;sacred groves,"e; small forests or stands of trees set aside for a deity's exclusive use, have attracted the attention of NGOs, botanists, specialists in traditional medicine, and anthropologists.

Drawing on Tibetan, Hindu, Taoist, Christian and Kabbalistic traditions, Andrew Harvey shows why he believes the direct path is now essential to the future survival of humanity - and how the truth and vibrancy of this radical vision depends on reclamation of the Sacred Feminine.

This book explores the cross- and trans-cultural dialectic between Tantra and intersecting 'magical' and 'shamanic' practices associated with vernacular religions across Monsoon Asia.

Before the passage of the Hindu Widow's Re-marriage Act of 1856, Hindu tradition required a woman to live as a virtual outcast after her husband's death.

At first sight the lives of hermits, living in solitude and committed to a life of prayer and contemplation seems to be a world apart of the active practice of interfaith dialogue.

This book presents a collection of original research about every day, innovative, interactive, and multiple religiosities among Sri Lankan Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and devotees of New Religious Movements in post-war Sri Lanka.

This volume makes a contribution to understanding pilgrimage, not as a transient activity at the margins of daily life, but as an event grounded firmly in the physical, symbolic and social experience of the everyday world.