Blackwell Reference Online

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[ xvii ] The name given to the highly diverse religious tradition that has evolved in India over the last 3,000 years and is today represented by the beliefs and practices of well over 500 million Hindus, of whom the majority live in India where they constitute 80% of the population. Diversity is the key to understanding the religious life of Hindus since Hinduism is not a unity, having no ‘founder’, no single creed, no single universally accepted scripture, no single moral code or theological system, nor a single concept of god central to it. It is rather a tradition that embraces a wide variety of religious positions, incorporating both small local cults that may be known to only a few villages, to major sects like Vaishnavism ( see V ishnu ), Shaivism ( see S hiva ) and Shaktism ( see S hakti ) that have millions of adherents, rich mythologies, temples, iconographies and theologies, each of which could be considered a ‘religion’ in its own right. There are certain presuppositions that sustain this diversity and constitute, as it were, the given, being universally familiar framework concepts. The first such construct is D harma , a class-linked concept meaning ‘duty’, ‘religion’, ‘the right way of behaviour’ for the particular class to which it is linked. Hinduism is sometimes referred to as Hindu dharma , the dharma of Hindus. At the cosmic level, dharma is sanatana ... log in or subscribe to read full text