This paper examines how Hinduism and Buddhism are portrayed in three textbooks for an upper secondary school course in religion and is limited to a selection of books published in 2009. Based on a qualitative content analysis, the paper examines the extent to which there is an intentional division, that is to say a line between ‘them and us’ in the ways in which the religions are described, and to what extent the description of these religions in the textbooks are Eurocentric. The study focuses on whether or not there is a ‘them and us’ perspective in the different books and if so, the ways in which this approach is evident. The result of this study shows that traces of a ‘them and us’ perspective can be found in all three books. In some cases a homogeneous ‘us’ is contrasted with a homogeneous ‘them’; where the ‘us’ represents ‘Europeans’ and the Christian ‘West’ and the ‘them’ represents ‘the other’ that is to say Hindus and Buddhists as well as their religious beliefs. All of the books in the study contain terminology and images that present Hinduism and Buddhism as something ‘different’ and ‘exotic’ and thus reinforce the Eurocentric image of ‘the other’. The textbook’s authors often fail to differentiate between religion and culture which, in many cases, can lead to Hinduism being portrayed as irrational and primitive. In addition to this, the textbooks also ignore the religions individual in favor of a more generalized and collective stereotype of a ‘Hindu’ or a ‘Buddhist’.

This dissertation applies the principles of Worldview apologetics to engage Advaita Vedanta Hinduism with the biblical responses of Christianity. Chapter 1 introduces the biblical mandate for apologetics, reviewing the contemporary apologetic scene. It highlights methodological principles in Worldview apologetics. Chapter 2 introduces Vedanta Hinduism through the teachings of Sankara, Ramanuja, and Madhva. Chapter 3 examines Christian rapprochement and antithesis with Vedanta Hinduism. The apologist applies Worldview apologetics in understanding the access points and biblical dividing lines. Chapter 4 commences the apologetic engagement with proof. The Advaitin presents the monistic worldview and the ultimate reality, otherwise known as Brahman. The foundational Christian worldview is represented with the scriptures, God, man, and his salvation in Jesus Christ. Chapter 5 addresses the offense part of apologetics. The adherents of each worldview contrast their viewpoints against the viewpoint of the other system. Vedanta's monism, impersonal reality, inclusivity, and rationality are contrasted with Christianity's historic self-revelation of God to man. Chapter 6 handles apologetic defense through the lens of experience, epistemology, and correspondence with reality. The Hindu worldview has transcending experience, supra-rational epistemology, and deep coherence. The Christian admits a transitory universe, which has no existence as a contingent creation, apart from God. Chapter 7 reviews Worldview apologetic practice under metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. These deal with the ontology of reality in its manifestations and our understanding of the truth. It concludes with how we live out this knowledge today. Chapter 8 addresses the personal, rather than technical tone of apologetics. Kierkegaard's engagement of the stubborn will helps us understand the radical nature of convictions. After presenting the Gospel worldview, the Vedanta position is shown to be impossible from those very paths that the Hindu trusts. Chapter 9 culminates the study of Gospel-centered apologetics. The Gospel forms the core of the apologetic encounter, in content and methodology. This dissertation opens the venue for more sound arguments to be built around the Gospel and to tear down false worldviews. Chapter 10 makes final recommendations on practical Christian apologetics to Hindus. A biblically self-aware approach is commended to honor God in the defense of the faith.

Journeying to sacred places is an ancient yet contemporarily popular tradition in the Hindu society of India. At the outset of this thesis, the philosophical foundations and general patterns of pilgrimage practice in West Bengal, India, where fieldwork was conducted, are discussed. Case studies of three West Bengali pilgrimage centres — Tarakeswar, Navadvip and Tarapith, which are Śaiva, Vaiṣṇava and Śākta sacred places, respectively — reveal the considerable diversity in the regional pilgrimage tradition. In analysing each of these centres, ethnographic data on the social and economic organisation of specialised religious places, roles of sacred specialists, beliefs regarding the deities, patterns of ritual, and social characteristics and behaviour of pilgrims are presented. The literature on pilgrimage is reviewed in search of theoretical tools for the task of generalising about pilgrimage, inclusive of the evident diversity. Analysis and criticism of existing theories indicates that analysts have focused on limited aspects of pilgrimage practice which conform to disciplinary boundaries rather than seeking the patterned consistencies which define the full institution. Comparison of the three case studies reveals that the variation in religious patterns in the centres relates to wider traditions of religious culture in Bengal: the several strands of pilgrimage tradition generally replicate the sub-traditions of Bengali Hinduism and patterns of belief and practice in any sacred place are closely associated with the religious tradition of the regional cult which dominates that centre. It is possible, however, to identify two levels at which the diversity of the pilgrimage institution is founded in systematic conceptual unity. Both levels concern the meaning of pilgrimage within prevalent patterns of Bengali Hinduism. The explicit meaning of pilgrimage in the conscious thought of participants emphasises the journey to the deity's terrestrial abode in search of interaction with the divine. Implicit within this patterned behaviour are important Hindu metaphysical concepts — the implicit ideology of pilgrimage — which invest pilgrimage with meaning derived from abstract Hindu religious thought.

<p>The use of codified sacred utterances, formulas or hymns called “mantras” is widespread in India. By and large, scholarship over the last few decades studies and explains mantras by resorting to Indian sources from over a millennium ago, and by applying such frameworks especially related to language as speech-act theory, semiotics, structuralism, etc. This research aims to understand mantra, and the visionary experience of mantra, from the perspectives of practitioners engaged in “mantra-sadhana (personal mantra practice).” </p><p>The main fieldwork for this project was conducted at three communities established around “gurus (spiritual teachers)” regarded by their followers as seers, i.e., authoritative sources with visionary experience, especially of deities. The Goddess, in the forms of Kali and Lalita Tripurasundari, is the primary deity at all three locations, and these practitioners may be called tantric or Hindu. Vedic sources (practitioners and texts) have also informed this research as they are a part of the history and context of the informants. Adopting an immersive anthropology and becoming a co-practitioner helped erase boundaries to get under the skin of mantra-practice. Fieldwork shows how the experience of mantras unravels around phenomena, seers, deities, intentionality and results. Practitioners find themselves seers mediating new mantras and practices, shaping tradition. Thus, practitioners are the primary sources of this research. </p><p>This dissertation is structured in three phases: preparation (Chapters One and Two), fieldwork (Chapters Three, Four and Five) and conclusions (Chapter Six). Chapter One discusses the groundwork including a literature review and methodological plan— a step as crucial as the research itself. Chapter Two reviews two seers in recent times who have become role-models for contemporary mantra practitioners in Andhra-Telangana. Ethnographic chapters Three, Four and Five delve into the visionary experience and poetics of mantra-practice at three locations. Chapter Six analyses the fieldwork findings across all three locations to arrive at a number of conclusions.</p><p>Chapter Three takes place in Devipuram, Anakapalle, where a temple in the shape of a three-dimensional “Sriyantra (aniconic Goddess form)” was established by the seer AmritanandaNatha Sarasvati. Chapter Four connects with the community surrounding the seer Swami Siddheswarananda Bharati whose primary location is the Svayam Siddha Kali Pitham in Guntur where the (image of the) deity manifested in front of a group of people. Chapter Five enters the experience of mantras at Nachiketa Tapovan ashram near Kodgal with Paramahamsa Swami Sivananda Puri and her guru, Swami Nachiketananda. </p><p>Across these three locations, which I find akin to “mandalas (groups, circles of influence, chapters),” practitioners describe their experiences including visions of deities and mantras, and how mantras transformed them and brought desired and unexpected results. More significantly, practitioners share their processes of practice, doubts, interpretations and insights into the nature of mantras and deities. Practitioners who begin “mantra-sadhana (mantra-practice)” motivated by some goal are encouraged by phenomena and results, but they develop attachment to deities, and continue absorbed in sadhana. Practitioners care to discriminate between what is imagined and what actually occurred, but they also consider imagination crucial to progress. Deities are sound-forms and powerful other-worldly friends existing both outside and within the practitioner’s (not only material) body. We learn about mantras received from deities, seen and heard mantras, hidden mantras, lost mantras, dormant mantras, mantras given silently, mantras done unconsciously, and even the “no”-mantra. </p><p>Chapter 6, Understanding Mantras Again is an exploration of the fundamental themes of this research and a conceptual analysis of the fieldwork, keeping the mantra-methodologies and insights of practitioners in mind—what are mantras and how do they work in practice, what is visionary experience in mantra-practice, what are deities and how do they relate to mantras, and other questions. I conclude with a list of the primary sources of this research— practitioners.</p> / Dissertation

In an expansive feminist literature on gender and development, scholarly research on widows and widowhood remains limited, particularly within the context of Nepal. While there are some important exceptions, existing work reinforces stereotypes of widows as old and poor victims, and widowhood as essentially a marginalised and vulnerable status. This thesis seeks to confront such homogenous views and to 'rewrite' widowhood. In particular, it explores the diverse experiences of widowhood through the adoption of an intersectional life-course lens, conceptualises well-being from the embedded perspective of widows and examines the complex ways in which widowed women assert agency. This thesis is born out of a longstanding academic engagement with Nepali widows. Based upon ethnographic qualitative research, the study involved two periods of intensive research in the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. The research was operationalised through a triangulation of qualitative methods resulting in a rich evidence base of eighty-one semi-structured interviews, eighteen oral histories, five focus groups and ten key informant interviews. This research shows that that widowhood is more complex than much of the scholarship to date suggests. Key findings include the particular salience of age, caste and the life course in shaping experiences of widowhood. It demonstrates that while widows' understandings of well-being can be categorised as material, perceptual and relational, relationships with children, family and the wider community in which they live underpin all of these. This research also uncovered widows' complicated and contradictory enactments of agency that can be placed on a 'resisting-conforming' continuum, and are shaped by gendered cultural norms, eschatological beliefs, temporality and intersectional identities. This thesis contributes to more nuanced empirical and theoretical understandings of widows and widowhood, intersectionality well-being and agency.

Kastsystemet är en del av det indiska samhället samt religionen hinduismen. Numera är rollerna i kastsystemet inte lika tydliga samtidigt som att religionen fortfarande praktiseras. Därför är det intressant att studera hur den religiösa praxisen kan skilja sig, eller inte, mellan brahmin och harijan kasten. Puja är namnet på religiös hängivenhet till Gud i hinduisk tro. Syftet med studien är att undersöka och analysera hur kvinnor från harijan och brahmin kasten utför sin puja. Forskningsfrågorna är: Vilka skillnader och likheter har kvinnor från harijan och brahmin kasten i praktiken i sin dagliga religiösa ritual på morgonen? Vad ber harijan och brahmin kvinnorna om? Hur utrycker kvinnorna att morgonpuja påverkar dem?  Metoden som användes var kvalitativa observationer och kompletterande intervjuer med kvinnor i områdena Assi och Lanka. Sex kvinnor i harijankastet och sex kvinnor i brahminkastet har observerats när de utförde sin morgonpuja var för sig och intervjuas efteråt. Bilder har tagits för att kunna analysera vad deras altare har för betydelse. Resultatet som presenteras relateras till tidigare forskning och teorierna om: puja, kvinnliga ritualer, Hinduism, kastsystemet, KASAM, Shaktism, Vaishnavism och Shivaism. Kvinnorna i harijankastet visar fler tendenser att tillhöra Shaivism, förutom en person som visade tendenser för att tillhöra Shaktism. I brahminkastet visar de fler tendenser till Vaishnavism. Denna slutsats kommer från artefakter som de har på sina förändringar och vilken gud de ber till först. De i Harijankastet fokuserar mer på rökelse under morgonpuja och kvinnor i brahminkastet, i denna studie, använder flera resurser som att tvätta gudarna med vatten från floden Ganges. Traditionen vidarebefordras av familjen och förändras efteräktenskap. Alla kvinnor i denna studie känner sig lugna efter puja och förklarar känslan som fridfull. De känner att de får sina böner besvarade och får sina önskemål beviljade från gud / gudar. Det är också ett sätt att hantera utmaningar i livet. Detta visar att puja, för alla kvinnor i studien, är en religiös rutin som ger dem lugn och en känsla av sammanhang för deras vardagliga uppgifter och utmaningar, såsom teorin KASAM förklarar som ett slags mentalt immunförsvar. Kvinnorna i brahminkastet ber för att behålla ett stabilt liv, också för saker som världsfred och deras barns framgång i skolan. I harijankastet ber kvinnorna mer mot förändring och hälsa.

The temple of the Goddess Kamakhya in Assam is the pre-eminent site of Hindu Goddess worship. It is revered as the yoni pītha, the place where the generative organ of the Goddess is worshipped. This thesis, centred on Kamakhya, explores the Hindu tradition of Goddess worship, Saktism, and both the possibilities and contradictions it presents for women. The research was undertaken from a feminist standpoint and employed a framework that was collaborative, cross-cultural and inter-disciplinary. Six women co-researchers from India, the U.S. and Australia took part in a pilgrimage that simultaneously explored the Kamakhya site, its history, symbols, myths and customs, alongside our own personal understandings of Saktism and its role in women’s spiritual empowerment. Our aim, in the face of contradictory evidence about the impact of Goddess traditions on the status of Hindu women, was to try to bridge cultural differences of interpretation and develop feminist readings of what may be enabling for women. The thesis establishes the basis of our collective fascination with Sakti, which denotes both the Goddess and the cosmic power she personifies. Through a combination of narrative, exposition of Indian sources and critical cultural analysis, I present our deliberations on the rich tapestry of themes we encountered. From the outset the thesis problematises the cross-cultural encounter and continues this frame throughout. The voices of the principal co-researchers emerge as they co-constitute the research, its methods and its implementation. Their central role is confirmed as the inquiry proceeds. Following the path of my preliminary encounters with the Goddess and with the co-researchers, pilgrimage is established as a traditional means of encountering the Goddess and, in the form we constructed, as a key experiential dimension of the research. In the encounter with Kamakhya, her dual persona as Mother Goddess and Goddess of Love is elaborated. The meanings and origins of both these aspects, their integration through the concept of srsti cosmic creation, and the implications for women of their associated practices of worship are explored at length. Finally, in light of the pilgrimage, I re-consider conjunctions between Saktism, feminist perspectives on women’s empowerment and theological horizons. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>Mitt syfte är att undersöka hur hinduer och hinduism framställs i fem olika läroböcker om religionskunskap avsedda för gymnasieskolan. Med utgångspunkt i Nathan Söderbloms lärobok från 1912 intar undersökningen ett diakront perspektiv. Undersökningen är en kvalitativ studie där metod och teori ryms inom ramen för diskursanalys. Frågan är om en förändring skett över tid i läroböckernas text, och vad de förändringarna i så fall kan bero på – i relation till andra diskurser. Analysen är tematiskt upplagd efter tre teman – orientalism, andrafiering och den protestantiska blicken, vilka i sin tur är förankrade i uppsatsens teoridel. Edward W. Saids inflytelserika verk Orientalism har en central betydelse för uppsatsen. Resultatet visar på att det skett en förändring över tid i läroböckerna. Hinduer framställs i samtliga läroböcker som den ”andre”, och hinduism som underordnad kristendom. Men det är dock inte i framställningen av hinduer och hinduism som den stora förändringen ligger, utan i hur författarna uttrycker sig språkligt.</p>

<p>Uppsatsen bygger på en fältstudie utförd bland 10 gifta, brahminska kvinnor i området Assi i Benares (Varanasi)i Indien. Avsikten med fältstudien var att ta reda på om och i sådana fall vad, hur och varför kvinnorna i undersökningsgruppen utför några dagliga religiösa handlingar. Varje kvinna har intervjuats vid två tillfällen. Intervjuerna har skett med hjälp av tolk som översatt från engelska till hindi och hindi till engelska.</p><p>Uppsatsen besvarar tre inledande frågeställningar:</p><p>1. Utför kvinnorna i undersökningsgruppen några dagliga religiösa handlingar?</p><p>2. (I sådana fall) Vilka religiösa handlingar utför de dagligen? (Tillvägagångssätt? Finns det några likheter/olikheter?)</p><p>3. Varför utför kvinnorna dessa handlingar? (Hur förklarar de ritualerna de utför?)</p><p>Resultatet av undersökningen visar att alla kvinnor i gruppen varje dag utför en puja ("gudstjänst") på morgonen och att en majoritet även utför en puja varje kväll. Fokus kom därmed att hamna på just pujan och dess utförande.</p><p>Vissa små skillnader finns i de olika kvinnornas tillvägagångssätt när de utför sina pujor, men det finns också en tydlig stomme, eller kärna, som återfinns hos alla. När det gäller morgonens puja består denna stomme av sex steg, upacaras, och hos kvällens puja, som</p><p>oftast är mindre, hittas en stomme av två steg. Stegen redovisas och diskuteras utförligt i uppsatsen.</p><p>Kvinnorna förklarar sitt tillvägagångssätt med att de olika stegen utförs för att ta hand om gud och göra gud nöjd. För att förstå detta resonemang bör man ha kunskap om det hinduiska gudsbegreppet, synen på gud som personlig och närvarande. Synen på gud diskuteras ingående i uppsatsen. Kvinnornas tillvägagångssätt är också ett resultat av traditionsförmedling. Ingen i undersökningsgruppen har läst sig till hur hon ska göra utan har lärt sig av sina föräldrar och svärföräldrar och ibland har hon också lagt till egna inslag.</p><p>För kvinnorna i undersökningsgruppen är det viktigt att varje dag utföra sina pujor. Den vanligaste förklaringen till detta är att pujorna skänker dem frid i sinnet, "mann ki shanti".</p><p>Uppsatsen är beskrivande och den är fokuserad på den empiriska undersökningen. Resultatet av fältstudien diskuteras och fördjupas av litteratur med anknytning till innehållet.</p>

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Comparative Religion, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 133-140).