We have talked about the beliefs, legends, and iconographies of Vaishnavism, the worship of Vishnu; of Shaivism, the worship of Shiva, and finally Shaktism, the worship of the great Goddess. It is however, very interesting that below the various differences among these traditions on the surfa...
This development resulted from the desire of lower-class groups to rise on the social ladder by adopting the ways and beliefs of the higher castes. Further, many local deities were identified with the gods and goddesses of the Puranas. The process, sometimes called “Sanskritization,” began ...
Hinduism - Rituals, Beliefs, Traditions: The second strand in the fabric of Hinduism is practice. Many Hindus, in fact, would place this first. Despite India’s enormous diversity, a common grammar of ritual behavior connects various places, strata, and
One of the major problems of ethnology during the latter half of the 19th and the early decades of the 20th centuries was the question “How are cultural similarities in noncontiguous regions to be explained?” Did the concepts of pyramid building, mummification, and sun worship originate indepen...