Indology Articles on Sutra Journal

Indology

Piety, Puja, and Visual Images

May, 2016 by Pratapaditya Pal

‘Puja and Piety: Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist Art from the Indian Subcontinent’ is a major new exhibition at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art which opened April 16th, 2016. The exhibition celebrates the complexity of South Asian representation and iconography by examining the relationship between aesthetic expression and the devotional practice, or puja, in the three native religions of the Indian subcontinent. read more

What is Dharma?

August, 2015 by Pankaj Seth

What is Dharma? There is Hindu Dharma. There is Buddha Dharma. The root of Dharma means ‘support’, so Dharma is ‘that which supports’. Dharma refers to teachings and a way of life which support what the Rg Veda calls ‘Rta’ or ‘Rtam’. The words ‘rhythm' and 'ritual' are derived from ‘Rta’. The movement of the stars, the ﬂowing of rivers and seasonal and biological rhythms are all aspects of Rta. Rta is the cosmic order observed with the senses, discerned through reason, and directly known... read more

A History of Indian Art Through Five Masterpieces Part 1: The Splendor of Ajanta

January, 2016 by William Dalrymple

The murals of Ajanta that I saw that winter morning in 1984 embraced subject matter that was at once both profoundly spiritual and strikingly sensuous. Although the images were originally intended for a monastic audience and the occasional passing pilgrim, what puzzled the 19th century Orientalists who first worked on them was this unexpected yet heady mixture of two worlds normally considered incompatible. read more

Tolerance, Exclusivity, Inclusivity, and Persecution in Indian Religion During the Early Mediaeval Period

March, 2016 by Alexis Sanderson

It is generally believed that already in the early mediaeval period from the fifth century of the Christian era onwards, if not earlier, there existed a single Hindu religion, embracing Vaidika orthopraxy in accordance with primary and secondary Vedic revelation (Śruti and Smṛti) together with the sectarian traditions of the worship of Viṣṇu, Śiva, Devī, and the Sun God (Sūrya), to mention only the foremost among the deities that attracted personal devotion. read more

The Gita and Me

August, 2015 by Philip Goldberg

I ﬁrst became aware of the Bhagavad Gita in the mid-1960s. I was in college then, and taking my ﬁrst tentative steps onto the spiritual path that would virtually deﬁne my life ever since. Instead of my assigned textbooks, which not only bored me but irritated me with their lack of profundity, I was reading about Eastern philosophy, mostly from secondary sources. Hindu, Buddhist and Taoist ideas had just entered the counterculture bloodstream, and ... read more

A Thousand Years of Abhinavagupta*

January, 2016 by Dr. Jeffrey S. Lidke

A thousand years ago the world’s most prolific and brilliant literary critics is said to have penned his final work. If our historical estimations on the birth date, the date of Abhinavagupta’s final literary work — his luminous commentary, 'Reflections on the Recognition of the Lord' — and death are accurate, then this brilliant Kashmiri polymath put down his pen around the age of 66 some five years before dying, or as lore would have it, transforming back into his divine, Bhairava self. read more

The Divine Mother Durga

November, 2015 by Laura Amazzone

As we face the many ecological, political, social, and religious crises of these shifting times, a 1500 year old myth, the Devi Mahatmya and the millennia-old ritual worship of the Great Goddess Durga provide philosophical and spiritual insight into the powers that can aid us in the deep process of transformation which we face both globally and personally. read more

The Flowering of Freedom: The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali

December, 2015 by Dr. Richard C. Miller

Dr. Miller has translated several classical Indian texts from Sanskrit into English. In the last issue we published a seminal text of Advaita Vedanta - Drg-Drsya-Viveka: An Inquiry into the Nature of the Seer and the Seen. We now bring you Richard's translation of Patañjali's Yoga Sutras as a four part series along with his rich insights and incisive commentary. read more

Ahiṁsā in the Mahābhārata

February, 2016 by Christopher Key Chapple

Ahiṁsā or nonviolence might seem an unlikely topic for one of the world's greatest war epics. Any student of Indian philosophy or religion undoubtedly associates the Mahābhārata with Lord Krishna urging Arjuna to take up his weapons and fight and the bloodbath that follows. And despite the attempts of Gandhi and many others to make the struggle between the Pāṇḍava brothers and the sons of Dhṛtarāṣṭra metaphorical, no one can deny the reality of carnal savagery in the text, even on the part of the good guys. read more

The Gita: A Healing Revelation

August, 2015 by Dr. Jeffery D. Long

My ﬁrst direct encounter with the Bhagavad Gita was in the parking lot of the Methodist church in Montgomery City, the small Missouri town where I spent most of my growing up years. I was reared Catholic, not Methodist, but was in the church parking lot because a ﬂea market was being held there. I had gone there with my grandmother to sell her handmade arts and crafts. My mission was to ﬁnd old sci-ﬁ paperbacks and comic books. read more

Ṣaḍ Darśanas - Six Views on Reality

October, 2015 by Dr. Jeffery Long

For many centuries, Indian thinkers have spoken of the ṣaḍ darśana, or six views on reality. This article will explore the concept of darśana, the question of precisely which views are intended when the term ṣaḍ darśana is used, and the six views that have come to be accepted as belonging to this group of perspectives. read more

Sanskrit in Croatia: From Sarasvati to Hrvati

November, 2015 by James Cooper

For most of the Croatian people (or as they call themselves, Hrvati) when it comes to defining their origins and tracing their ancient roots they turn towards the land of Iran and Persia. According to academia the name Hrvat comes from Hrovat which comes from the Slavic Horvat which originates from the Indo/Slavic Harvat and which is ultimately traced to Persia and the name Harahvaiti. read more

Shakti, Bhakti, Yoga and Darshan: Practice and Experience in the Religious Art of India (Video)

July, 2016 by Debashish Banerji

Tolerance, Exclusivity, Inclusivity, and Persecution in Indian Religion During the Early Mediaeval Period - Part Two

May, 2016 by Alexis Sanderson

Any claim that tolerance of religious diversity is at the heart of Hinduism must overlook the view of the Vaidikas, whose theoreticians flatly denied the validity of any religious practice that was undertaken on the authority of texts lying outside the Veda (vedabāhyāni), that is to say, outside the Vaidika scriptural corpus of Śruti and such secondary literature (Smṛti) as was accepted to derive from it. read more

The Buddha in Vedic India

October, 2015 by Dr. Koenraad Elst

Orientalists have started treating Buddhism as a separate religion because they discovered it outside India, without any conspicuous link with India, where Buddhism was not in evidence. At first, they didn’t even know that the Buddha had been an Indian. It had at any rate gone through centuries of development unrelated to anything happening in India at the same time. Therefore, it is understandable that Buddhism was already the object of a separate discipline even before any connection... read more

The Dance of Shiva

February, 2016 by Liesbeth Bennink Pankaja

There is only one place that can be called the Home of the Dancing Shiva and that is the sacred city of Chidambaram, in Tamil Nadu. In the large and ancient temple that is the heart of the city, Shiva as Nataraja is the presiding deity and is worshipped here as the Cosmic Dancer dancing in the Golden Hall. All other bronze Natarajas found in temples all over South India have been inspired by the deity of this temple, Nataraja dancing the Ananda Tandava, the Dance of Bliss. read more

Devata: What is Deity Worship?

August, 2015

Hindus grow up on the stories in the epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata, the numerous Puranas, where heros, heroines, Devas and Devis are extolled as to their exploits and virtues. We fall in love with them. They become our role models. We do not grow up in fear of them, and so visit temples and shrines, and participate in kirtans with affection and devotion. Also, some of us don't actively worship deities at all, for there is no social pressure to do so. read more

Tolerance, Exclusivity, Inclusivity, and Persecution in Indian Religion During the Early Mediaeval Period - Part Three

July, 2016 by Alexis Sanderson

It might appear, therefore, that Śaivism was as much distinct from, and opposed to, the religion of the Vaidikas as the latter was to the former and as both were to Buddhism and Jainism. However, while the Śaivas thought their scriptures superior to the Vaidikas’ and the Vaidikas thought their own superior, the two traditions’ views of each other were not symmetrical, not at least where the Śaivas of the Mantramārga were concerned, these alone having left us adequate evidence of their views on this issue. read more

A History of Indian Art Through Five Masterpieces - Part 2: Mahabalipuram

February, 2016 by William Dalrymple

The great Pallava kings of South India were arguably the greatest of these South India dynasties who became rich and powerful from their control of the spice and silk trade. From their great port of Mahabalipuram, near the site of a former Roman trading station, the Pallavas sent naval expeditions to Sri Lanka, Thailand and to South East Asia, where the inscriptions they left still survive as witness to the scale of this first great Indian diaspora. An eighth century Tamil poem speaks of... read more

In Search Of Durga

March, 2016 by Jawhar Sircar

The mother goddess was also quite visible in Europe and Africa since times immemorial, and we see her in plenty in the Indus Valley. But she appears less in the Vedic period, from which we get no figurines or material evidence. The Satapatha and Taittiriya Upanishads, however, refer to "Ambika" but it is only in the Sutras of Boudhayana and Sankhayana that the name 'Durga' appears, for the first time. read more

Lal-Ded: The Mystic of Kashmir

March, 2016 by M.H. Zaffar

Lal-Ded is a rebel saint, a revolutionary mystic of the 14th century Kashmir. We know her only through her verses called 'Vak'; that have come down to us through folk tradition of Kashmir. Lala-vak is not primarily poetry nor is it mere learned discourse. It is a discourse for the practical purpose of sanctifying and divinizing human nature. read more

Pāṇini and Bharata on Grammar and Art

May, 2016 by Subhash Kak

What could Pāṇini, perhaps the greatest grammarian of all time, have to do with Bharata Muni and his theories of art, drama and music? But speaking of grammar in the same breath as art is not as incongruous as one thinks when it is noted that both language and creations of art are governed by rules and conventions. read more

The Asta Matrikas: Mandalic Mothers of Bhaktapur, Nepal - PART 2

March, 2016 by Laura Amazzone

Considering the ritual and spatial significance of ancient sites to goddesses who govern the realms of sex, birth, and death, illness and health, order and chaos within and around Bhaktapur, it seems the city’s geographical organization is rooted in primordial ideologies that conceive of women and earth as sacred. read more

The Asta Matrikas: Mandalic Mothers of Bhaktapur, Nepal Part 1

February, 2016 by Laura Amazzone

The Matrikas are a collective of seven or eight goddesses, whose paradoxical natures express the interrelationship between the cyclical nature of women’s bodies and perennial earth based rituals.They are Mother Goddesses, yet not restricted to the procreative implication of motherhood. The Matrikas are aspects of the Great Goddess in her full power and work together in collective form. read more

The Flowering of Freedom: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - Part Two

January, 2016 by Richard Miller

Dr. Miller has translated several classical Indian texts from Sanskrit into English. In the last issue we published a seminal text of Advaita Vedanta - Drg-Drsya-Viveka: An Inquiry into the Nature of the Seer and the Seen. We now bring you part two of Richard's translation of Patañjali's Yoga Sutras four part series along with his rich insights and incisive commentary. read more

The Role of Yoga in Bengali Shaktism

February, 2016 by June McDaniel

The love of deities may be passionate or obedient, wide-ranging or focused, ordered or wild. As Friedhelm Hardy has shown, there is intellectual bhakti which emphasizes loyalty and obedience, and there is ecstatic, emotional bhakti which is overwhelming and intoxicating. read more

Vedic Cosmology - Integrating God and Physics

February, 2016 by Mauricio Garrido

Even though the explanations found in the texts of the world’s spiritual traditions are admittedly not exhaustive in the details referring to the origin of the universe, they do outline key concepts thereof which are important to the development of the philosophy for spiritual development that they present. The Vedic cosmology of ancient India is incredibly rich and has many points of tangency with modern cosmology which may help in the construction of that common ground between science and religion. read more

Why Believe in Rebirth?

December, 2015 by Dr. Jeffery D. Long

In a now famous conversation between Carl Sagan and the Dalai Lama, Sagan, a scientist and renowned skeptic, asks, Your Holiness, what if we were to prove, scientifically, that there is no such thing as reincarnation? To Sagan’s great astonishment, the Dalai Lama replied without hesitation that if rebirth were to be disproven, then the word would need to be put forth that Buddhists should stop believing in it. The Dalai Lama, however, then stumped Sagan with the question... read more

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Indology

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