Hinduism: A Religion to Live by

by Nirad C. Chaudhuri and Chauduri

Book Overview

This now-classic book provides a description and interpretation of Hinduism, focusing particularly on the religious psychology and behavior of Hindus. Rejecting familiar assumptions about early Hinduism, Chaudhuri provides illuminating insights into its formative influences and examines temple and image worship as well as the three major cults of Siva, Krishna, and the Mother Goddess.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195640136
• ISBN13: 9780195640137
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

An unusual book which makes one reexamine the Hindu religion

If Nirad Chaudhari did not exist it would be necessary to invent him. He is the most unforgiving and uncharitable critic of modern Indian civilization - a role he takes on in order to counterbalance the chauvinistic and jingoistic historical positions often assumed by his countrymen. In this book, he studies the Hindu religion from an unusual point of view - a positivist, objective description free from the myth mongering and spiritual mumbojumbo that often accompanies any account of this very complex human phenomenon. The subtitle "A religion to live by" indicates that he treats the religion purely in its practical aspects - as a set of rules devised by men to make life tolerable and enjoyable in an extremely hostile environment. He denies that there is anything called Hindu spirituality in the usual Western (Christian) use of that term. Hinduism, in his view is merely a way of getting along in the world with the help of metaphysical agencies. Other controversial ideas: that the Bhagavad Gita is only an Indian version of Christianity, that later religious eroticism is a degenerate version of Christian love of God, that Sanskrit is NOT an ancient language but dates only to the 1st century of the common era, and therefore all Indian scriptures other than the Vedas of relatively recent date, that the Vedas themselves originated outside India and hence their divine status etc etc. In spite of these simplistic and sometimes absurd views, the book is useful if only as an antidote to the cliche ridden accounts usually doled out to Western audiences.