TY - BOOK AU - Michaels, Axel TI - Hinduism: past and present SN - 9780691089539 U1 - 294.5 PY - 2004/// CY - Princeton PB - Princeton University Press KW - Hinduism KW - Religion N1 - Theoretical and historical foundations. 1. Theoretical foundations -- Is India different? -- The identificatory habitus -- What is Hinduism? -- Hinduism and Hindu-ness -- Religion and Dharma -- Hindu religions and Hindu religiosity -- Great and little Hinduism -- Continuity and change -- 2. Historical foundations -- Epochs in the history of religions -- First epoch : Prevedic religions -- Second epoch : Vedic religion -- Third epoch : ascetic reformism -- Fourth epoch : classical Hinduism -- Fifth epoch : sects of Hinduism -- Sixth epoch : modern Hinduism -- Religious literature -- Vedic literature -- The literature of the ascetic reformation -- The literature of classical Hinduism -- The literatures of the Hindu sects -- Literatures of modern Hinduism. Religion and society. 3. Stages of life and rites of passage -- Initiation -- The salvational goal of initiation -- The second birth -- Pre-rites -- Tonsure -- Natural birth, ritual birth, new birth -- The sacred thread -- Consecration of the ascetic, consecration of the student, consecration of the man -- Childhood and socialization -- The early years -- Parentage and the "Oceanic feeling" -- Sacred fatherhood -- Wedding and matrimony -- The wedding -- The daughter as gift -- Kinship, alliance, and descent -- The situation of the woman -- Death and life after death -- The Brahmanic ritual of dying and death -- Ancestor worship -- Widow-burning and religiously motivated suicide -- The ban on killing and Ahiṃsā -- Karma and rebirth -- Mortality and immortality -- 4. The social system -- Social stratification -- The caste society -- Segmentation -- Social contacts -- Greeting -- Touching -- Eating -- Purity and impurity -- Religious and social hierarchy -- Priests and the supremacy of the Brahmans -- Religious and economic centrality -- Hierarchies of the gift -- 5. Religiosity -- The idea of god and the pantheon -- Equitheism and homotheism -- Viṣṇu, Kṛṣṇa and the centrality of the gods -- Śiva in the great and little traditions -- Gan̜eśa and the miracle -- Wild and mild goddesses -- Elements of religiosity -- Prayer -- Looks -- Ritual acts -- Ritualism -- The Brahmanic-Sanskritic morning ritual -- Divine worship (pūjā) -- Sacrifice -- Devotionalism and theistic traditions -- Bhakti movements -- The grace of the gods -- Spiritualism and mysticism -- The identification doctrine of the Upaniṣads -- The psycho-physical identifications of Sāṃkhya and yoga -- Śaṃkara's doctrine of nonduality -- Special features of Indian mysticism -- Heroism and kingship -- Ākhāṛās : religious centers of strength -- Power and authority of the king -- King and ascetic. From descent to transcendence. 6. Religious ideas of space and time -- Religious awareness of space -- Spaces and directions as sacred powers -- Pilgrimage sites and their hierarchy -- Astrology and the cosmic place of man -- Religious and scientific concepts of space -- Religious awareness of time -- Ancient Indian cosmogonies -- Creation in classical mythology -- The doctrine of the ages of the world -- Cyclical and linear time : the calendar -- Unity of space and time : festivals -- Religious and scientific ideas of time -- 7. Immortality in life -- Asceticism : life in transcendence -- Ascetic practice and sects -- Asceticism and sacrifice -- The salvation of identifications -- The socioreligious function of norms of purity -- Descent and autonomy -- The logic of the identifications -- The "theology" of the Hindu religions : identity of god and man ER -