India and Hinduism

India

• India is in South Asia
• As well as being the most populous country, India is also the seventh-largest country by area
• Modern humans arrived there from Africa at least 55,000 years ago
• Mohenjo Daro and Harappa are situated on the Indus River
• India is known as the cradle of world religions
• Sanskrit was used in early religious texts
• The Maurya and Gupta empires marked by early empires
• In the 1800s India became a British colony
• Rabindranath Tagore, a Nobel Prize winner for literature in 1913, stands out as a foremost Indian writer
• Achieved independence in 1947, partitioning into the Republic of India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
• One has the right to perform their expected duty, But not to the right to the fruits of action
• One should not consider oneself as the doer of the action

Hinduism

• Hinduism is the world's oldest religion
• Presents itself as religious and universal order or way of life
• Also referred to as Sanatana dharma
• Hindu texts are classified as sruti or smriti
• Major scriptures include the Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, Mahabharata, Ramayana, and Agamas

Gods

• Trimurti represents gods
• Brahma is creator
• Vishnu is preserver
• Shiva is destroyer

Prominent Beliefs: Karma

• The four Purusarthas consist of the following:
  • Dharma refers to ethics and duties
  • Artha refers to prosperity and work
  • Kama refers to desire and passion
  • Moksha refers to liberation and freedom from the cycle of death and rebirth
• Samsara is also amongst the four purusharthas
• Sati is a hindu belief where the husband/wife will burn himself/herself along with his/her husband/wife
• Bindi: decorative mark on the forehead

Yoga

• Karma Yoga signifies the path of selfless action
• Bhakti Yoga signifies the path of devotion
• Jnana Yoga signifies the path of knowledge
• Raja Yoga signifies the path of meditation

Vedas

• The Vedas are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India
• Comprise the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism
• "Veda" - knowledge or wisdom
• Four Vedas:
  • The Rigveda
  • The Yajurveda
  • The Samaveda
  • The Atharvaveda
• Each Veda has four subdivisions, consisting of the following:
  • Samhitas
  • Brahmanas
  • Aranyakas
  • Upanishads
• The 5th Veda - Upasanas
• Samhitas entail mantras and benedictions
• Brahmanas feature commentaries on and explanation of rituals, ceremonies and sacrifices - Yajnas
• Aranyakas include text on rituals, ceremonies, sacrifices, and symbolic-sacrifices
• Upanishads are texts discussing meditation, philosophy, and spiritual knowledge

Rig Veda

• This is oldest known Vedic Sanskrit text
• Represents one of the oldest extant texts in any Indo-European language
• Orally transmitted since the 2nd millennium BCE
• Bulk of the Rigveda Samhita was composed in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, most likely between c. 1500 and 1000 ВСЕ
• Early Indian literature can be a sruti and smriti
• Consists of the Samhita, Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads
• The Rigveda Samhita is the core text
• Collection of 10 books (mandalas) with 1,028 hymns (suktas) in about 10,600 verses
• Commonly used in Hindu rites of passage celebrations

Buddhism

• Founded by Buddha (Siddharta Gautama)
• A.k.a. Buddha Dharma
• Dharmavinaya: doctrines and disciplines
• Considered an Indian religion or philosophical tradition

Pre Buddhist Life of Buddha

• A prince from Lupini spent his life in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh
• Gautama was first studied under two teachers of meditation and philosophy, specifically the meditative attainment
• Alara Kalama: "sphere of nothingness"
• Uddaka Ramaputta: "The sphere of neither perception nor non-perception"
• It practiced severe ascetism (abstinence from pleasure) and varying breathing forms
• Dhyana: meditative practice

Buddhahood

• Famously meditated under a Ficus religiosa tree, now called the Bodhi Tree located in the town of Bodh Gaya, and attained "Awakening" (Bodhi)
• Early texts, such as the Mahasaccaka-sutta and the Samaññaphala Sutta, state he gained insight into the workings of karma and his former lives upon awakening
• Also achieved the ending of mental defilements (asavas), the ending of suffering, and the end of rebirth in samsara
• As a fully enlightened Buddha, he attracted followers and founded a Sangha (monastic order)
• Subsequently he spent the rest of his life teaching the Dharma he had discovered, and then died, achieving "final nirvana", at the age of 80 in Kushinagar, India
• Buddhist expansion in Asia: Mahayana Buddhism first entered the Chinese Empire (Han dynasty)
• Spread via the Silk Road during the Kushan Era: the overland and maritime
• "Silk Roads" were interlinked and complementary, forming what scholars have called the "great circle of Buddhism"

Prominent Beliefs

• Four Noble Truths include the following:
  • Dukkha (Suffering)
  • Samudaya (Origin of Suffering)
  • Nirodha (Cessation of Suffering)
  • Marga (Path, Eightfold Path)

Noble Eightfold Path

• Embraces these items:
  • View (Samma Ditthi)
  • Resolve (Samma Sankappa)
  • Speech (Samma Vaca)
  • Action (Samma Kammanta)
  • Livelihood (Samma Ajiva)
  • Effort (Samma Vayama)
  • Mindfulness (Samma Sati)
  • Concentration (Samma Samadhi)
• Nirvana (liberation from suffering and samsara)

Dhammapada

• Represents collection of sayings of the Buddha in verse form
• Stands as of one of the widely read and best known Buddhist scriptures
• Original version of the Dhammapada is in the Khuddaka Nikaya, a division of the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism
• This is a well-known Buddhist scholar and commentator
• Buddhaghosa explains that each saying recorded in the collection was made on a different occasion in response to a unique situation that had arisen in the life of the Buddha and his monastic community
• Dhamma: Buddha's doctrine, or eternal truth
• Pada Foot

Upanishads

• Late Vedic
• Sanskrit texts of religious teaching and ideas still revered in Hinduism
• Deals with meditation, philosophy, and ontological knowledge
• The Spiritual core of Hinduism
• Also referred to as Vedant
• Means "connection" or "equivalence" but came to be understood as "sitting near a teacher
• "Upa" means "by" and "ni-sad" means "sit down"
• Refers to a student sitting down near the teacher to receive spiritual knowledge
• Concepts of Brahman (ultimate reality) and Atman (soul, self) are central ideas in all of the Upanishads
• "Know that you are the Ātman" is their thematic focus
• Around 108 Upanishads are known, and referred to as principal or main (mukhya) Upanishads
• The early Upanishads all predate the Common Era; five of them are in all likelihood pre-Buddhist (6th century BCE)
• 95 Upanishads are part of the Muktika canon, composed from about the last centuries of 1st-millennium BCE through about 15th-century CE

Mahabharata

• One of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India
• Narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kurukshetra War and the fates of the Kaurava and the Pandava princes and their successors
• Among the principal works and stories in the Mahabharata:
  • The Bhagavad Gita
  • Damayanti
  • Shakuntala, Pururava and Urvashi
  • Savitri and Satyavan
  • Kacha and Devayani
  • Rishyasringa
  • A shortened version of the Ramayana
• Mahabharata authorship is attributed to Vyasa
• Longest epic poem known
• Longest version consists of over 100,000 sloka or over 200,000 individual verse lines (each shloka is a couplet/long prose passages)
• There are approximately 1.8 million words total, roughly ten times the length of the lliad and the Odyssey combined, or about four times the length of the Ramayana
• W. J. Johnson compared the Mahabharata's importance in world civilization to that of the Bible, the Quran, works of Homer, Greek drama, or the works of William Shakespeare
• Sometimes within the Indian tradition, is called the fifth Veda
• Employs frame tales (story within a story)
• Unstructured and chaotic
• First recited at Takshashila by the sage Vaisampayana, a disciple of Vyasa, to the King Janamejaya, who was the great-grandson of the Pandava prince Arjuna
• Tells the story of competition for the throne of Hastinapur two sets of cousins: Pandavas and Kauravas
• They are acknowledged as the sons of Pandu, but fathered by different Devas (gods) due to Par inability to naturally conceive children
• The Pandavas married Draupadi, the princess of Panchala, and founded the city of Indraprastha to avoid succession disputes
• After the split, the other part of the kingdom was ruled by their cousins, the Kauravas
• Pandavas lost their kingdom to Duryodhana, the eldest and king of the Kauravas, when Yudhishtira gambled it away in dice
• The bet Yudhishthira agreed to demanded the Pandavas to hand the kingdom to the Kauravas and go into exile for 13 years if Yudishtira lost
• The central theme of the epic is dharma (duty / righteousness) and justice
• The Pandavas face moral dilemmas, and Lord Krishna serves as their guide and charioteer
• Yudhishthira becomes the king, but is haunted by the war's consequences
• A rich source of philosophical ethical teachings, encompassing a vast array of stories, dialogues, and lessons on life, morality, and duty

Ramayana

• A Sanskrit epic of ancient India, the other being the Mahabharata.
• Along with the Mahabharata, it forms the Hindu Itihasa.
• Attributed to the sage Valmiki.
• The epic narrates the life of Rama, a prince of Ayodhya in the kingdom of Kosala.
• Rama went into fourteen-year exile to the forest in order to fulfill his father King Dasharatha's orders due to requests from Rama's stepmother Kaikeyi.
• Includes travels across forests in the Indian subcontinent with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana.
• The kidnapping of Sita by Ravana, the king of Lanka, that resulted in war
• His eventual return to Ayodhya along with Sita to be crowned king
• 24,000 verses
• Divided into five kandas: Ayodhyakanda, Aranyakanda, Kiskindakanda, Sundarakanda, and Lankakanda
• Composed of ~500 sargas (chapters)

Ramayana Plot

• Story begins with the birth of Lord Rama, the seventh avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, to King Dasharatha of Ayodhya and Queen Kaushalya
• Rama grew up as a dutiful and virtuous prince.
• Kaikeyi, Dasharatha's third wife, influenced by her maid Manthara, demanded that her son Bharata be made king instead of Rama
• Dasharatha, bound by his promise to Kaikeyi long ago, reluctantly banished Rama to the forest for fourteen years
• Rama, accompanied by his devoted wife Sita and loyal brother Lakshmana, willingly accepted his exile
• They lived a simple life in the forest, running into sages and creatures
• A demon king Ravana, attracted by Sita's beauty, kidnaps her while Rama and Lakshmana were away
• Sita is taken to Lanka, Ravana's kingdom, against her will
• Rama, his wife and brother, attired in bark, ride-off in a chariot driven by Sumantra surrounded by the townspeople
• Rama and Lakshmana join forces with Hanuman, the monkey warrior, and his army to find Sita
• Hanuman discovers Sita's whereabouts and brings back information about her location in Lanka
• Rama, with the help of Hanuman and his army, builds a bridge (known as "Rama Setu") across the sea to Lanka
• Bridge allows Rama and his army to reach Lanka
• Battle between Rama's forces and Ravana's army
• Rama, with assistance of Hanuman, defeats Ravana and rescues Sita
• After 14 years, Rama, Sita and Lakshmana return to Ayodhya
• Rama is crowned King and fulfilled his destiny
• Doubts from citizens about Sita’s fidelity during captivity results in her trial by fire (Agni Pariksha) to prove her purity
• Rama’s reign as king ushers in prosperity/happiness for Ayodhya
• It Ends with Rama's righteous rule and his eventual departure from the mortal realm, returning to his divine abode

Bhagavad Gita

• Means "The Song of God", occasionally termed as “Gita.”
• A 700-verse Hindu scripture.
• It is dated to the second century BCE.
• Is the primary holy scripture for Hinduism and the world's third largest religion.
• An avatar of Lord Vishnu, The Gita, is set in a narrative framework of a dialogue between Pandava prince Arjuna and his guide and charioteer Krishna
• Arjuna is filled with moral dilemma and despair about the violence and death the war will cause
• Krishna guides Arjuna to "fulfill his Kshatriya (warrior) duty to uphold the Dharma"through"selfless action."
• Per Hindu mythology, the Bhagavad Gita was written by the god Ganesha, as told to him by the sage Vyasa
• Found in the sixth book of the Mahabharata manuscripts - the Bhisma-parvan; therein, in the third section, the Gita forms chapters 23-40
• Is a Krishna and Arjuna dialogue right before the start of the climactic, Kurukshetra War in the Hindu epic Mahabharata
• He turns to Krishna for advice on the rationale for war, his choices and the right-thing to do

Panchatantra (Five Treatises)

• Ancient Indian collection of interrelated animal fables in Sanskrit verse and prose
• Surviving work is dated to roughly 200 BCE to 300 CE, based on older oral tradition
• Attributed to Vishnusharma (recensions) and Vasubhaga

Mitra-Bheda

• The first treatise features a jackal named Damanaka as the unemployed minister in a kingdom ruled by a lion
• Consist of Damanaka's moralizing sidekick named Karataka, conspire to break up alliances and friendships of the lion king
• Fables describe conspiracies lead to close and inseparable friends breaking up
• Consists of more than 30 fables
• Longest of the five treatises, taking up around 45% of the entire Panchatantra

Kakolukiyam

• The third treatise discusses war and peace, presenting a moral about the battle of wits being a strategic means via animal characters
• A battle of wits is a more potent force than a battle of swords
• Animal choice embeds metaphor of a war between good versus evil/light versus darkness
• Owls v Crows:
  • Crows good, weaker, but are creatures of the day (light)
  • While the owls are presented as evil, and are more stronger creatures of the night (darkness)
• Demonstrates how different characters have different needs/motives and addressing these needs can empower peaceful relationships
• It has a story about "An old man and a young wife" where an old man marries a young woman from a penniless family
• Encapsulates 18 fables (26% of entire Panchatantra)

Mrcchakatika

• (The Little Clay Cart) is a ten-act Sanskrit drama
• Attributed to Sudraka, an ancient playwright from 5th century CE
• The play is set in the ancient city of Ujjayini during the reign of the King Palaka near the end of the Pradyota dynasty that made up the first quarter of the fifth century BCE Rife, consisting of romance-comedy-intrigue-political subplot telling of the city's despotic ruler being overthrown by a shepherd Notable as much of its focus on fictional scenario rather than on a classical tale.
• Departed from traditions enumerated in the scripture Natya Shastra for specifying that dramas should focus on the lives of the nobility
• Incorporated many peasant characters
• Derived from Carudatta in Poverty by the playwright Bhasa but that work survives only in fragments

Gitanjali

• Indian/Bengali poem collection
• By Rabindranath Tagore
• Won 1913 Literature Nobel Prize
• Center is devotion, motto is "I am here to sign thee songs"
  • Title from "geet" song, and anjali: offering

Taj Mahal

• It is an ivory-white marble mausoleum
• Fifth Mughal emperor Shah Jahan commissioned the building in 1631 to house his wife's tomb
• Was a UNESCO world heritage site starting in 1983
• Made as a beautiful memorial for Mahal

Narayan

• Born Rasipuram Krishnaswami lyer Narayanaswami during 1906
• And died during Q2 2001
• Indian writer/novelist
• Work is set in South Indian mocktown of Malgudi

ROy

• Suzanna Arundhati Roy, 1961 - Current
• Indian author
• Best known for God of Small Things novel
  • Won Fiction booker for 1997
• Also a Rights & Environmental activist

Early Classical Works: Shijing (Classic of Poetry)

• Oldest collection of Chinese poetry, comprising 305 works from the 11th to 7th centuries BC
  • Traditionally compiled by Confucius
  • Studied for 2 millennia
  • Contains chengyu (idioms) in current use
• Four Great Books of Early Chinese philosophy - The Analeets - Mencius - Doctrine of the Mean - Great Learning
• Five classics - The Book of Changes - The Classic of Poetry - The Record of Rites - The Classic of History - The Spring and Autumn Annals Text: Tao Te Ching - Classic Chinese - By Laozi - Fundemental for Taoism Art or War novel - Ancient Chinese military treatise - By Sun Tzu Collection of sayings and ideas by Confucius - Analects - Moral cultivation and ethical governance Changes - For divination and cosmological text Missing Axe (liezi) -Daoist

Tang Poets

• Li Bai, Du Fo
• Bai - Famous - About friendship and nature
• Du - Known as Poet Sahe and historian - Turned a period of Turmoil into lyrics

Wu Jing-Sandy

• Dreams - Cao Xvegin
• Red Chamber
  • Mirros autor family

2012 Novel List

• Contemporary
• Boy story
• Clan
  • Mo Yan

Dynasties

Xia/Shang/Zhou Qin: standardizied the metrics Han golden age, Silk road Tang: Chang An cosmopolitan Song Yuan foreign dynasty Ming Expansion great wall-Por porcelain Qimg vast the last, decline