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Arti Dhand | |
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| Occupation | Associate Professor, Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Education | Ph.D. (McGill), M.A. (Calgary), B.A. (Calgary) |
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Arti Dhand is an associate professor at the University of Toronto, Department for the Study of Religion. [1] She specialises in the Mahabharata and the Ramayana Hindu epics, Hindu ethics, gender issues in Hinduism, and religion and sexuality. [2]
She has authored several publications including Woman as Fire, Woman as Sage: Sexual Ideology in the Mahabharata published in 2008 and numerous articles on topics such as "Engendering Brahmanirvanam in the Mahabharata: A Conversation between Suka and Sulabha," "Hinduism and Pedagogy: Teaching Hinduism to Hindus in the Canadian Diaspora," and "The Subversive Nature of Dharma in the Mahabharata: A Tale of Women, Smelly Ascetics, and God."
She was a key speaker at the 2005 conference of the London School of Oriental and African Studies. [3] The SOAS also commends her scholarly works in her chosen field of research. [4]
Arti Dhand has a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Calgary, and a Ph.D. from McGill University.
Dharma ; although no single-word translation exists for dharma in European languages, the term is commonly understood as referring to "order and custom" that sustain life, "virtue", or "religious and moral duties". It is a key concept with multiple meanings in the Indian religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, among others.
Hinduism is an Indian religion or dharma, a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global population, known as Hindus. The word Hindu is an exonym and while Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world, it has also been described as sanātana dharma, a modern usage, based on the belief that its origins lie beyond human history, as revealed in the Hindu texts. Another endonym is Vaidika Dharma, the dharma related to the Vedas.
A yogi is a practitioner of Yoga, including a sannyasin or practitioner of meditation in Indian religions. The feminine form, sometimes used in English, is yogini.
Hindu mythology is the body of myths attributed to, and espoused by, the adherents of the Hindu religion, found in Sanskrit texts such as the Vedic literature, epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana, the Puranas, and mythological stories specific to a particular ethnolinguistic group like the Tamil Periya Puranam and Divya Prabandham, and the Mangal Kavya of Bengal. Hindu myths are also found in widely translated popular texts such as the fables of the Panchatantra and the Hitopadesha, as well as in Southeast Asian texts.
Contemporary groups, collectively termed Hindu reform movements, reform Hinduism, Neo-Hinduism, or Hindu revivalism, strive to introduce regeneration and reform to Hinduism, both in a religious or spiritual and in a societal sense. The movements started appearing during the Bengali Renaissance.
Ethics involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior. A central aspect of ethics is "the good life", the life worth living or life that is simply satisfying, which is held by many philosophers to be more important than traditional moral conduct.
Gṛhastha literally means "being in and occupied with home, family" or "householder". It refers to the second phase of an individual's life in a four age-based stages of the Hindu asrama system. It follows celibacy life stage, and embodies a married life, with the duties of maintaining a home, raising a family, educating one's children, and leading a family-centred and a dharmic social life.
Brahmacharya is a concept within Indian religions that literally means to stay in conduct within one's own Self. In Yoga, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism it generally refers to a lifestyle characterized by sexual continence or complete abstinence.
Hindu texts present diverse views on the position of women, ranging from feminine leadership as the highest goddess, to limiting gender roles. The Devi Sukta hymn of Rigveda, a scripture of Hinduism, declares the feminine energy as the essence of the universe, the one who creates all matter and consciousness, the eternal and infinite, the metaphysical and empirical reality (Brahman), the soul, of everything. The woman is celebrated as the most powerful and the empowering force in some Hindu Upanishads, Sastras and Puranas, particularly the Devi Upanishad, Devi Mahatmya and Devi-Bhagavata Purana.
The Yamas, and their complement, the Niyamas, represent a series of "right living" or ethical rules within Yoga philosophy. It means "reining in" or "control". These are restraints for proper conduct as given in the Vedas and the Yoga Sutras. They are a form of moral imperatives, commandments, rules or goals. The Yamas are the "don't do these" list of self-restraints, typically representing commitments that affect one's relations with others and self. The complementary Niyamas represent the "do these" list of observances, and together Yamas and Niyamas are personal obligations to live well.
Kama is the concept of pleasure, enjoyment and desire in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. It can refer to "desire, wish, longing" in Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, and Sikh literature, however, the term also refers to any sensory enjoyment, emotional attraction and aesthetic pleasure such as from arts, dance, music, painting, sculpture, and nature.
Satya is a Sanskrit word loosely translated as truth or essence. It also refers to a virtue in Indian religions, referring to being truthful in one's thoughts, speech and action. In Yoga, satya is one of five yamas, the virtuous restraint from falsehood and distortion of reality in one's expressions and actions.
Purushartha literally means "object(ive) of men". It is a key concept in Hinduism, and refers to the four proper goals or aims of a human life. The four puruṣārthas are Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha.
The following list consists of notable concepts that are derived from Hindu culture and associated cultures traditions, which are expressed as words in Sanskrit or other Indic languages and Dravidian languages. The main purpose of this list is to disambiguate multiple spellings, to make note of spellings no longer in use for these concepts, to define the concept in one or two lines, to make it easy for one to find and pin down specific concepts, and to provide a guide to unique concepts of Hinduism all in one place.
Shaucha literally means purity, cleanliness, and clearness. It refers to purity of mind, speech and body. Shaucha is one of the niyamas of Yoga. It is discussed in many ancient Indian texts such as the Mahabharata and Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. It is a virtue in Hinduism and Jainism. In Hinduism purity is a part of worship and an important quality for salvation. Purity is a mind pure and free of evil thoughts and behaviors.
Abortion inHinduism, while generally sinful by traditional Hindu scriptures and the guiding precept of non-injury, can be interpreted equivocally within the vast spectrum of Hindu beliefs and texts and ultimately depends on individual context. The Mahanarayana Upanishad lists abortion with actions such as breaking one's vow of chastity. Some Hindu scriptures assert that "abortion is a worse sin than killing one's parents" and another text says that "a woman who aborts her child will lose her status". In general, Hinduism teaches the guiding principle of Ahimsa, abstention from causing harm or injury to all living beings, which serves as the root of the ethic of non-violence.
Hindu studies is the study of the traditions and practices of the Indian subcontinent, and considered as a subfield of Indology. Beginning with British philology in the colonial period, Hindu studies has been practiced largely by Westerners, due in part to the lack of a distinct department for religion in Indian academia. Since the 1990s this has caused some dissent from Hindus, raising questions in academia about the role of Hindu studies in creating postcolonial images of India.
Patrick Olivelle is an Indologist. A philologist and scholar of Sanskrit Literature whose work has focused on asceticism, renunciation and the dharma, Olivelle has been Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Religions in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin since 1991.
Ghritachi is a prominent apsara in Hindu mythology. She is known for her beauty and seduction of many men, both divine and human, and for becoming the mother of their children.
Pankaj Jain is a professor of Philosophy, Religious Studies, Film Studies, Sustainability, and Diaspora Studies. He has authored four books and has co-edited the Hinduism Section of the Encyclopedia of Indian Religions and another volume on Philosophy of Religion. His articles have appeared in multiple academic journals and popular websites.
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