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Bansi Pandit (Kashmir, June 1, 1942) [1] is a writer and speaker on Hinduism.
Originally from Kashmir, Pandit is a nuclear engineer and lives in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, USA. [2] He is the author of several books, [3]
Dharma is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others. Although there is no direct single-word translation for dharma in European languages, it is commonly translated as "righteousness", "merit" or "religious and moral duties" governing individual conduct.
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, many practitioners refer to their religion as Sanātana Dharma, a modern usage, which refers to the idea that its origins lie beyond human history, as revealed in the Hindu texts. Another endonym is Vaidika dharma, the dharma related to the Vedas.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Hinduism:
Saraswati is the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, art, speech, wisdom, and learning. She is one of the Tridevi, along with the goddesses Lakshmi and Parvati.
The Kashmiri Pandits are a group of Kashmiri Hindus and a part of the larger Saraswat Brahmin community of India. They belong to the Pancha Gauda Brahmin group from the Kashmir Valley, a mountainous region located within the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Kashmiri Pandits are Hindu Kashmiris native to the Kashmir Valley, and the only remaining Hindu Kashmiris after the large-scale of conversion of the Valley's population to Islam during the medieval times. Prompted by the growth of Islamic militancy in the valley, large numbers left in the exodus of the 1990s. Even so, small numbers remain.
Bansi Kaul was an Indian theatre director and the founder of Rang Vidushak, a theatre group in Bhopal. He was a recipient of the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honor, in 2014, and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1995. Some of his notable plays included Aala Afsar, Kahan Kabir, and Sidhi Dar Sidhi urf Tukke pe Tukka. He was a designer and associate show director for the 2010 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony and also the art director for the 1986 and 1987 Khajuraho Festival.
Hinduism in Indonesia, as of the 2018 census, is practised by about 1.74% of the total population, and almost 87% of the population in Bali. Hinduism is one of the six official religions of Indonesia. Hinduism came to Indonesia in the 1st-century through traders, sailors, scholars and priests. A syncretic fusion of pre-existing Javanese folk religion, culture and Hindu ideas, that from the 6th-century also synthesized Buddhist ideas as well, evolved as the Indonesian version of Hinduism. These ideas continued to develop during the Srivijaya and Majapahit empires. About 1400 CE, these kingdoms were introduced to Islam from coast-based Muslim traders, and thereafter Hinduism mostly vanished from many of the islands of Indonesia.
Kashmiris are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group speaking the Kashmiri language, living mostly, but not exclusively, in the Kashmir Valley of Jammu and Kashmir, India.
Dhar or Dar is a Kashmiri surname. It is native to the Kashmir Valley in India, and common today among Kashmiri Hindus and Kashmiri Muslims of Hindu lineage. Outside Kashmir, it is used by members of the Kashmiri diaspora, in places like Punjab, Bengal, Gujarat, and Maharashtra, and more commonly in recent times by the global Kashmiri Pandit diaspora following the Exodus of Kashmiri Hindus in 1989–1990.
Kashmiriyat is the centuries-old indigenous tradition of communal harmony and religious syncretism in the Kashmir Valley in the Indian-administered union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Emerging around the 16th century, it is characterised by religious and cultural harmony, patriotism and pride for their mountainous homeland of Kashmir.
Kashmiri kinship and descent is one of the major concepts of Kashmiri cultural anthropology. Hindu and Muslim Kashmiri people living in the state of Jammu and Kashmir in India and other parts of the world are from the same ethnicity.
Bhagwan Gopinath, born Gopinath Bhan, also called Bhagwan Gopinath Ji, was a mystic saint of early 20th century Kashmir in India. He has been called a jivanmukta and his spiritual state has been described as Shambhavi avastha. Contemporary saints of his times have also called him an Aghoreshwar. It was sometime during 1946–1956 that he came to be called as Bhagwan by his devotees.
A varamala or a jayamala is a South Asian garland that is most commonly associated with its eponymous ritual during a Hindu wedding ceremony. Traditionally, a varamala is made of roses and other flowers, though modern variations exist, such as garlands made from rupee notes, and other regional traditions.
Sanātana Dharma is an endonym used by Hindus to refer to Hinduism. It refers to the “eternal” truth and teachings of Hinduism. It can also be translated as “the natural and eternal way to live". The term is used in Indian languages alongside the more common Hindu Dharma for Hinduism. Sanatana Dharma can also denote the list of 'eternal' or absolute duties and practices.
Kamandalu or kamandal or kamandalam is an oblong water pot, originating from the Indian subcontinent, made of a dry gourd (pumpkin) or coconut shell, metal, wood of the Kamandalataru tree, or from clay, usually with a handle and sometimes with a spout. Hindu ascetics or yogis often use it for storing drinking water. The water-filled kamandalu, which is invariably carried by ascetics, is stated to represent a simple and self-contained life.
A Pandit is a man with specialised knowledge or a teacher of any field of knowledge whether it is shashtra or shastra (Weapons) in Hinduism, particularly the Vedic scriptures, dharma, or Hindu philosophy; in colonial-era literature, the term generally refers to Brahmins specialized in Hindu law. Pandits (Brahmins) is the highest varna or class of sanatan dharma. Brahmins are both martial and preacher community. This community inculdes many surnames like Tyagi, Bhumihar, Mohyal, Chibber etc. Pandits can do agriculture also as they are among the biggest Zamindar (landlord) communities of India. Whereas, today the title is used for experts in other subjects, such as music. Pundit is an English loanword meaning "an expert in a particular subject or field who is frequently called upon to give their opinions to the public".
Kashmiri Hindus are ethnic Kashmiris who practice Hinduism and are native to the Kashmir Valley of India. With respect to their contributions to Indian philosophy, Kashmiri Hindus developed the tradition of Kashmiri Shaivism. After their exodus from the Kashmir Valley in the wake of the Kashmir insurgency in the 1990s, most Kashmiri Hindus are now settled in the Jammu division of Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of the country. The largest group of Kashmiri Hindus are the Kashmiri Pandits.
The Exodus of Kashmiri Hindus, or Pandits, is their early-1990 forced migration, or flight, from the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley in Indian-administered Kashmir following rising violence in an insurgency. Of a total Pandit population of 120,000–140,000 some 90,000–100,000 left the valley or felt compelled to leave, and about 30 were killed. During the period of substantial migration, the insurgency was being led by a group calling for a secular and independent Kashmir, but there were also growing Islamist factions envisioning an Islamic state. Although their numbers of dead and injured were low, the Pandits, who believed that Kashmir's culture was tied to India's, experienced fear and panic set off by targeted killings of some high-profile officials among their ranks and public calls for independence among the insurgents. The accompanying rumours and uncertainty together with the absence of guarantees for their safety by India's federal government might have been the latent causes of the exodus. The descriptions of the violence as "genocide" or "ethnic cleansing" in some Hindu nationalist publications or among suspicions voiced by some exiled Pandits are widely considered inaccurate, aggressive, or propaganda by scholars.
RajBali Pandey was an Indian writer and author who authored several books on Socio-Religious study of the Hindu sacraments and Vedas.
The 1986 Kashmir Riots, also commonly referred to as the 1986 Anantnag Riots, were a series of attacks targeting Kashmiri Hindus in the Kashmir region of the then Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, particularly in Anantnag district.