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Klaus K. Klostermaier | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1933 (age 90–91) |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Education | PhD in philosophy from the Gregorian University in Rome (1961), PhD in Ancient Indian History and Culture from the University of Bombay (1969). |
| Known for | Sanskrit and Hindu scholar |
| Title | University Distinguished Professor Emeritus |
Klaus K. Klostermaier (born 1933) is a Catholic priest and scholar of Hinduism, Indian history and culture. [1] [2]
Klostermaier obtained a PhD in philosophy from the Gregorian University in Rome in 1961, and another in "Ancient Indian History and Culture" from the University of Bombay in 1969.[ citation needed ]
An ordained Catholic priest, Klostermaier was a missionary and theology teacher for nine years in India in the 1960s. [3] His study of Hindu texts and scholarship, while living with practicing Vaishnava Hindus there, resulted in his Der Hinduismus published in 1965. [3] The expertise he gained then, led to him being appointed advisor to the Papal office, in the Vatican, on non-Christian religions. [3]
He joined the Department of Religion at the University of Manitoba (Canada) in 1970. He received a Rh-Institute Award for "Excellence in the Humanities", of a Templeton Course Award in Science and Religion and an Award for Excellence in Graduate teaching from the University of Manitoba. He was the University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Manitoba in Canada. [4] [5] He served as the Head of its Center for Religion and Culture from 1986 to 1995. [5]
In 1998, for his scholarship on Hinduism, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, [5] [4] [6] and was Head of the Department of Religion at the University of Manitoba (Canada) from 1986 to 1997, and director of an "Asian Studies Center", 1990–1995.[ citation needed ]
He was the Director of Academic Affairs at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies from 1997 to 1998. A festschrift in his honour was published in 2004. [7] He has spent ten years in India and has researched primary sources in various languages, including Sanskrit, Hindi, Pali, Latin, Classical Greek, German, Italian and French. [8]
He is the author of 53 works in seven languages listed at worldCat [9]
In a 1991 review of the 1st edition of Klostermaier's Survey of Hinduism (the book is now in its 3rd edition), Joel Brereton states that the book's "methodological eclecticism and emphasis on indigenous interpretation are reasonable strategies", but Klostermaier in his attempt to bring forward "Hindu voices to explain Hinduism, occasionally offers views that have little currency in modern scholarship". Brereton adds, "the book has a number of unique virtues, includes recent developments in Hinduism, and shows an intimacy with Hindus and the present realities of Hindu life. Best of all, it is grounded in the practice and sights of Hinduism, not just on the great ideas of literary Hinduism" [10] Like Brereton, Knut Jacobsen states that Klostermaier's discussion of the Vedic era is weak and questionable. For instance, Klostermaier considers the Indus Valley civilization as Vedic-Indian, which pushes back the Vedic period by several thousand years beyond the accepted chronology. [11] Jacobsen adds that Klostermaeir's 2nd edition includes examples of Jain and Buddhist influences on Hinduism and the South Asian history, is especially valuable to students and it is "the most thorough introduction to Hinduism as a living religion in English". [11] [12]
Harold Coward describes the 2nd edition of A Survey of Hinduism as "This book offers the most comprehensive, balanced, accessible and yet deeply scholarly presentation of Hinduism in English," [13] and that, "Thomas Hopkins's, The Hindu Religious Tradition, the standard work when it was published some twenty-five years ago, looks rather primitive when compared with Klaus Klostermaier's A Survey of Hinduism, already in second edition by 1994". [14]
George M. Williams has described Klostermaier's Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism as an "excellent resource by top scholar featuring concise entries." [15] According to Patricia Greer, Klostermaier's encyclopedic articles are useful, but finds Klostermaier's chronology in need of an explanation and one that leaves unresolved "the complexities of an issue that so vexes the field". [16]
In 1998, Klostermaier published his paper 'Questioning the Aryan Invasion Theory and Revisiting Ancient Indian History' in which he pointed out that the source of the Aryan Invasion Theory lay in the belief that the entire world is populated by one of the sons of Noah. [17] Michael Witzel, proponent of the Aryan Invasion Theory, has called him a "recent convert to a Frawleyan view of the world" for questioning the Aryan Invasion Theory. Noting that David Frawley pictures India as the unique cradle of civilization at 10,000 BCE, Witzel expressed dismay that Kostermaier had written an appreciative introduction to one of Frawley books, and included some of Frawleyan views in his own Survey of Hinduism. Such inclusion of unscientific views in college textbooks would have a "detrimental effect", states Witzel. [18] : 126
Hinduism is an umbrella-term for a broad range of Indian religious and spiritual traditions (sampradayas) that are unified by the concept of dharma, a universal order maintained by its followers through rituals and righteous living. 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 for Hinduism is Vaidika Dharma.
Indian religions, sometimes also termed Dharmic religions or Indic religions, are the religions that originated in the Indian subcontinent. These religions, which include Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism, are also classified as Eastern religions. Although Indian religions are connected through the history of India, they constitute a wide range of religious communities, and are not confined to the Indian subcontinent.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Hinduism:
The historical Vedic religion, also called Vedicism or Vedism, and sometimes ancient Hinduism or Vedic Hinduism, constituted the religious ideas and practices prevalent amongst some of the Indo-Aryan peoples of the northwest Indian subcontinent during the Vedic period. These ideas and practices are found in the Vedic texts, and some Vedic rituals are still practiced today. The Vedic religion is one of the major traditions which shaped modern Hinduism, though present-day Hinduism is significantly different from the historical Vedic religion.
David Frawley, also known as Vamadeva Shastri, is an American Hindu writer, astrologer, acharya, ayurvedic practitioner, and Hindutva activist.
Subhash Kak is an Indian-American computer scientist and historical revisionist. He is the Regents Professor of Computer Science Department at Oklahoma State University–Stillwater, an honorary visiting professor of engineering at Jawaharlal Nehru University, and a member of the Indian Prime Minister's Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC).
Purusha is a complex concept whose meaning evolved in Vedic and Upanishadic times. Depending on source and historical timeline, it means the cosmic being or self, awareness, and universal principle.
Śruti or shruti in Sanskrit means "that which is heard" and refers to the body of most authoritative, ancient religious texts comprising the central canon of Hinduism. Manusmriti states: Śrutistu vedo vijñeyaḥ meaning, "Know that Vedas are Śruti". Thus, it includes the four Vedas including its four types of embedded texts—the Samhitas, the Upanishads, the Brahmanas and the Aranyakas.
Jaimini was an ancient Indian scholar who founded the Mīmāṃsā school of Hindu philosophy. He is the son of Parāśara and is considered to be a disciple of sage Vyasa. Traditionally attributed to be the author of the Mimamsa Sutras and the Jaimini Sutras, he is estimated to have lived around 4th to 2nd century BCE. Some scholars place him between 250 BCE and 50 CE. His school is considered non-theistic, but emphasizes ritual parts of the Vedas as essential to dharma. Jaimini is known for his studies of the older Vedic rituals.
The Vedas are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism.
The history of Hinduism covers a wide variety of related religious traditions native to the Indian subcontinent. It overlaps or coincides with the development of religion in the Indian subcontinent since the Iron Age, with some of its traditions tracing back to prehistoric religions such as those of the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilisation. Hinduism has been called the "oldest religion" in the world, but scholars regard Hinduism as a relatively recent synthesis of various Indian cultures and traditions, with diverse roots and no single founder, which emerged around the beginning of the Common Era.
Śrauta is a Sanskrit word that means "belonging to śruti", that is, anything based on the Vedas of Hinduism. It is an adjective and prefix for texts, ceremonies or person associated with śruti. The term, for example, refers to Brahmins who specialise in the śruti corpus of texts, and Śrauta Brahmin traditions in modern times can be seen in Kerala and Coastal Andhra.
The Poureai alias Purus were an Indo aryan tribal alliance or a confederation of tribes that existed between c. 1700–1400 BCE. There were several factions of Purus, one being the Bharatas. The Purus and the Bharatas were the two most prominent tribes in most of the Rigveda. The chief of tribe was called Rajan The Purus rallied many other groups against King Sudas of the Bharata, but were defeated in the Battle of the Ten Kings.
Vasishtha is one of the oldest and revered Vedic rishis or sages, and one of the Saptarishis. Vasishtha is credited as the chief author of Mandala 7 of the Rigveda. Vasishtha and his family are mentioned in Rigvedic verse 10.167.4, other Rigvedic mandalas and in many Vedic texts. His ideas have been influential and he was called the first sage of the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy by Adi Shankara.
The Bharatas were an early Vedic tribe that existed in the latter half of the second millennium B.C.E. The earliest mentioned location of the Bharatas was on the Sarasvatī River. Led by the tribal king Divodāsa, the Bharatas moved through the Hindu Kush mountains and defeated Śambara. Divodāsa's descendant, Sudās, won the Battle of the Ten Kings against a Pūru-led coalition, after which the initial compilation of hymns of the R̥gveda was carried out. After the battle, the Bharatas and other Pūru clans eventually formed the Kuru kingdom, which was the first attested state in Indian history.
Buddhism and Hinduism have common origins in the culture of Ancient India. Buddhism arose in the Gangetic plains of Eastern India in the 5th century BCE during the Second Urbanisation. Hinduism developed as a fusion or synthesis of practices and ideas from the ancient Vedic religion and elements and deities from other local Indian traditions.
Indigenous Aryanism, also known as the Indigenous Aryans theory (IAT) and the Out of India theory (OIT), is the conviction that the Aryans are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent, and that the Indo-European languages radiated out from a homeland in India into their present locations. It is a "religio-nationalistic" view on Indian history, and propagated as an alternative to the established migration model, which considers the Pontic–Caspian steppe to be the area of origin of the Indo-European languages.
The Vedic period, or the Vedic age, is the period in the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age of the history of India when the Vedic literature, including the Vedas, was composed in the northern Indian subcontinent, between the end of the urban Indus Valley Civilisation and a second urbanisation, which began in the central Indo-Gangetic Plain c. 600 BCE. The Vedas are liturgical texts which formed the basis of the influential Brahmanical ideology, which developed in the Kuru Kingdom, a tribal union of several Indo-Aryan tribes. The Vedas contain details of life during this period that have been interpreted to be historical and constitute the primary sources for understanding the period. These documents, alongside the corresponding archaeological record, allow for the evolution of the Indo-Aryan and Vedic culture to be traced and inferred.
The early Dravidian religion constituted a non-Vedic, pre-Indo-Aryan, indigenous religion practiced by Dravidian peoples in the Indian subcontinent that they were either historically or are at present Āgamic. The Agamas are non-Vedic in origin, and have been dated either as post-Vedic texts, or as pre-Vedic compositions. The Agamas are a collection of Tamil and Sanskrit scriptures chiefly constituting the methods of temple construction and creation of murti, worship means of deities, philosophical doctrines, meditative practices, attainment of sixfold desires and four kinds of yoga. The worship of tutelary deities and sacred flora and fauna in Hinduism is also recognized as a survival of the pre-Vedic Dravidian religion. Dravidian linguistic influence on early Vedic religion is evident; many of these features are already present in the oldest known Indo-Aryan language, the language of the Rigveda, which also includes over a dozen words borrowed from Dravidian. The linguistic evidence for Dravidian impact grows increasingly strong as one moves from the Samhitas down through the later Vedic works and into the classical post-Vedic literature. This represents an early religious and cultural fusion or synthesis between ancient Dravidians and Indo-Aryans that went on to influence Indian civilisation.
The Rigveda or Rig Veda is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (sūktas). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts (śruti) known as the Vedas. Only one Shakha of the many survive today, namely the Śakalya Shakha. Much of the contents contained in the remaining Shakhas are now lost or are not available in the public forum.
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