Religious Studies 242

HINDU THOUGHT AND CULTURE

Study Guide for Quiz #1
Dr. David Gitomer

Suggestion for study plan: The following list is not exhaustive, but can serve as a guide to organizing the material. Using the following guide, go through your class notes, the textbook readings (Flood), "Nothing is Lost," and the ERes/photocopy packet readings, including the Doniger and Hiltebeitel articles and the Vedic material. Collate information on the items given in the Guide. (Hint: if you can fit your identifications/definitions on a printout of this sheet they are far too skimpy.) Make a comprehensive identification, including the significance of the item in Hinduism. Remember you will have an opportunity to ask questions in the review session, so come prepared.

QUIZ #1 WILL CONSIST OF (a) COMPREHENSIVE IDENTIFICATION OF TERMS AND (b) SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS (SEVERAL SENTENCES TO A PARAGRAPH).

THE QUIZ WILL COVER FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE COURSE THROUGH WHERE WE ARE AT THE CLOSE OF THE CLASS BEFORE THE QUIZ. THEREFORE SOME OF THE ITEMS AT THE END OF THIS LIST MIGHT NOT BE INCLUDED. THIS ALSO MEANS THAT THE QUIZ FOR THE TWO SECTIONS WILL PROBABLY BE DIFFERENT.

The quiz will begin promptly at the beginning of the class and last 25 minutes, so be on time. Take care of your bodily needs before you come to class.

Terms and Concepts
If things are not listed here you will not be tested on them. (For example, the material on the Vedic schools in Flood 2) If an item is listed here, however, you will be expected to know what was said about it in class as well as in the textbook, or vice versa. If I specify that you need to know the Sanskrit word for particular terms, you should. Otherwise, you may give English translations, though I encourage you, of course to learn the Sanskrit terms. No points will be taken off for minor errors in spelling Sanskrit terms (diacritics--the lines and the dots, etc.). On the other hand, mistakes are mistakes. You will need to know, for example, the difference between brahmins and Brahman, or between kama and karma.

The Cultural Geography of South Asia and Approaches to Hinduism
· General geography of India (chief divisions, rivers, mountain ranges, seasonal events)
· Cultural/linguistic regions of India; north/south cultural divisions
· The Sacred; mediations of the sacred
· Floods' three primary traditions of Hinduism: brahminical, renunciant, popular
· Polytheism, Henotheism, Monism
· Hiltebeitel: Defining Hinduism through orthopraxy
· Doniger: the recurrent themes model: (a) what does the model mean, and (b) what are the themes?
· Orthogenetic vs. synthetic (or syncretic theories) about the development of Hinduism
· Hindu nationalism: (a) What is it, and (b) What effect has it had on the nature and definition of Hinduism?

The Quartets
· The "3 + 1" notion
· Four castes (including difference of varna vs. jati)
· Four stages of life
· Four goals of life

Indus Valley Civilization
· Its material culture, including religious art
· The chief elements that are understood to have persisted or reappeared in later Hinduism
· Theories about its relation to the Aryan civilization, and its demise

Vedic Culture
· The Aryans before India
· The physical nature of the sacrifice
· The "themes" of the sacrifice (the phenomenology of the sacrifice, i.e. what it's about)
· Yajamana
· Srauta and grhya rites
· Chief Vedic gods and their characteristics; devas and asuras; Indra, Soma and Agni
· "Brahminism"
· The waning of the sacrificial mode; theories of the transition to the Upanisads
· The setting of the Upanisads
· The goals of the Upanisadic seekers
· Karma
· Samsara
· atman
· Brahman
· Jnana
· Moksa
· Theories about states of consciousness (waking and sleeping, etc.)
· Be familiar with the "emphasized" texts and passages in the syllabus (in the Rig Veda and Upanishads), the ones we spent time on in class, and their significance