India’s Heroic Age
What is the dominant pattern of
Indian cultural history?
India’s heroic age
• The dominant pattern of Indian cultural
history is a many-layered pluralism in
which numerous subcultures defined by
ethnic, religious, and linguistic
differences coexist
• This pluralism pervades the vast body of
literature that India has produced over 3,500
years in more than 20 languages
• What are India’s
languages?
Languages
• The Aryans originated in central Asia and entered
India around 1500 B.C
• They brought with them Sanskrit, a language
that, along with nearly all the major languages of
Europe and many in Asia, belongs to the IndoEuropean family
• In India, Sanskrit has become the principal
language of classical literature up to the 19th c.
• Sanskrit's primary association is with Hinduism,
India’s dominant religious tradition, a direct
descendant of the Vedic religion of the Aryans
Languages
• Gautama Buddha (563-483 B.C.) who founded the Buddhist
religious paths as a radical alternative to the Vedic religion
preached his message in Pali, popular dialect related to Sanskrit
• Hindi descended from this and other dialects
• Classical Tamil, the language of the ancient literature of south India
(100-300 A.D.) is the oldest example of Dravidian, a family of
languages to which all the modern languages in south India belong
• 12th c. – A.D. conquering Muslim dynasties brought to Indian
literature and civilization –not only the sensibility of Islam but also the
heritage of the Arabic and Persian languages and literatures
• 17th c. -British colonial rule: it led to the establishment of Westernstyle education
What is the legacy of the Vedas and
Upanisads?
• The Aryans settled in the Indus valley and left as their legacy the
Vedas, four books of sacred hymns that accompanied the worship of
gods who were personifications of nature
• Preserved in an unbroken oral tradition of memorization and
recitation, the Vedas are Hinduism’s primary scripture
• Hindus regard the hymns as divine revelation: poet-seers recited them
in the form of sacred utterance (mantra)
• Brahmans, priestly transmitters of the Vedic hymns, have commanded
the highest status in the Hindu class hierarchy
• The Vedas were followed by the Upanisads (Mystic Doctrines) 900
B.C. which teach that a single divine essence pervades the universe,
and that the human soul is a manifestation of this divine essence
• -the concepts of the personal spiritual quest, the wise teacher, the
guru, and the transforming power of knowledge remain enduring
motifs of Indian civilization
•What is karma?
Karma
Karma
Karma
• Karma is the premise on which the ancient religions of
India build their doctrines of the ultimate goal of religion
• According to the theory of karma, all creatures are
ultimately responsible for their own existential
conditions, and existence is invariably bound up with
suffering
• To exist is to be perpetually engaged in action (the basic
meaning of the word karma is “a deed, that which is done’)
• All deeds, good and bad, have inevitable results, which
must be borne by the doer in an existential state.
• The soul is trapped in an endless cycle of birth and death
karma
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The thinkers of the Upanisads put forward a theory that the soul or self is a
pure entity, untouched by karma, and the liberation from the cycle of rebirth
can be achieved by identifying oneself with this pure self
Buddha rejected the concept of the immortal soul, concentrating instead
on the suffering that was thought to result from karma and on the urgent
need of all creatures to be freed from this burden of suffering
In the form of animal fables, the Jataka stories illustrate the Buddha’s
teaching regarding the path to liberation from rebirth
-a unique combination of radical detachment from desire, the root cause of
karma, and an ethic of action directed only toward the welfare of one's fellow
creatures.
Every person could follow the Buddha’s path (the Dharma) with the ultimate
aim of becoming liberated from karma rebirth by becoming a buddha, or ‘an
enlightened one’
Dharma
Buddha in Dharma
The Jataka
Bodhisattva
Buddha
Jataka
Jataka
Jataka tales
Jataka