Moro-bhatt Dandekar [lower-alpha 1] was a Hindu pandit and apologist from Bombay, British India. In response to Christian missionary activities, he wrote the Marathi-language Hindu apologetic work Shri-hindu-dharma-sthapana (1831) and published the monthly magazine Upadesha-Chandrika (1844).
Author | Morobhatt Dandekar |
---|---|
Original title | श्री हिन्दू धर्म स्थापना |
Country | British India |
Language | Marathi |
Subject | Criticism of Christianity, Hindu apologetics |
Genre | non-fiction |
Publication date | 1831 |
In February 1831, Dandekar debated with Christian missionary John Wilson for six successive evenings, each man aiming to defend his religion. Dandekar's 1831 Marathi-language text Shri-hindu-dharma-sthapana [lower-alpha 2] summarizes his objections to Christianity. [1]
In the book, Dandekar responds to several Christian criticisms of Hinduism. For example, he argues:
If you ask why Rama, Krishna, and other incarnations, accomplished the salvation of men in this or that particular manner, we ask you in return why God sent his Son into the world, and why, for the salvation of men, he brought him into a state so reproachful and so appalling. What! Had he no other way of saving the world?
English translation of Shri-hindu-dharma-sthapana in Wilson's An Exposure of the Hindu Religion [9]
According to Dandekar, the people who see something objectionable in Hinduism must have committed sins in their former births, which explains their "unhappy circumstance". [8]
Balshastri Jambhekar, in the 13 April 1832 issue of The Bombay Durpun , described the work as "the first instance of a Brahmin coming forward publicly to vindicate the Hindu Religion, and entering the field of public discussion by publishing a work in defence of it." [4]
An English translation of the text appears in Wilson's An Exposure of the Hindu Religion, along with Wilson's response to these objections. [1] Narayan Rao of Satara responded to Wilson's text in a pamphlet edited by Dandekar, and Wilson repsonded to it with A Second Exposure of the Hindoo Religion (1834). [5]
In 1843, Narayan Sheshadri, a Deshastha Brahmin educated in a mission school, adopted Christianity, leading to a controversy in Bombay. [3] In response, Morobhat Dandekar published the Marathi monthly magazine Upadesha Chandrika [lower-alpha 3] , which featured anti-Christianity religious polemic. [11] [12] The publication ran for one year, during 1844; the 12th issue - dated December 1844 - was published in January 1845. [4]
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Hinduism:
Avatar is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means 'descent'. It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearance" is sometimes used to refer to any guru or revered human being.
Apologetics is the religious discipline of defending religious doctrines through systematic argumentation and discourse. Early Christian writers who defended their beliefs against critics and recommended their faith to outsiders were called Christian apologists. In 21st-century usage, apologetics is often identified with debates over religion and theology.
Hindu texts or Hindu scriptures are manuscripts and voluminous historical literature which are related to any of the diverse traditions within Hinduism. Some of the major Hindu texts include the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Itihasa. Scholars hesitate in defining the term "Hindu scriptures" given the diverse nature of Hinduism, but many list the Agamas as Hindu scriptures, and Dominic Goodall includes Bhagavata Purana and Yajnavalkya Smriti in the list of Hindu scriptures as well.
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.
The Buddha is considered the ninth avatar among the ten major avatars of the god Vishnu, according to the Vaishnava tradition of Hinduism.
Vaishnavism is one of the major Hindu denominations along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. It is also called Vishnuism since it considers Vishnu as the sole supreme being leading all other Hindu deities, that is, Mahavishnu. Its followers are called Vaishnavites or Vaishnavas, and it includes sub-sects like Krishnaism and Ramaism, which consider Krishna and Rama as the supreme beings respectively. According to a 2010 estimate by Johnson and Grim, Vaishnavism is the largest Hindu sect, constituting about 641 million or 67.6% of Hindus.
Hinduism is a minority faith in Zimbabwe.
Krishnaism is a term used in scholarly circles to describe large group of independent Hindu traditions—sampradayas related to Vaishnavism—that center on the devotion to Krishna as Svayam Bhagavan, Ishvara, Para Brahman, who is the source of all reality, not an avatar of Vishnu. This is its difference from such Vaishnavite groupings as Sri Vaishnavism, Sadh Vaishnavism, Ramaism, Radhaism, Sitaism etc. There is also a personal Krishnaism, that is devotion to Krishna outside of any tradition and community, as in the case of the saint-poet Meera Bai. Leading scholars do not define Krishnaism as a suborder or offshoot of Vaishnavism, considering it at least a parallel and no less ancient current of Hinduism.
The Dashavatara are the ten primary avatars of Vishnu, a principal Hindu god. Vishnu is said to descend in the form of an avatar to restore cosmic order. The word Dashavatara derives from daśa, meaning "ten", and avatāra, roughly equivalent to "incarnation".
Lakshman Shastri Joshi was an Indian scholar, of Sanskrit, Hindu Dharma, and a Marathi literary critic, and supporter of Indian independence. Mahatma Gandhi chose him to be his principal advisor in his campaign against untouchability. Joshi was the first recipient of Sahitya Akademi Award in year 1955. He was also awarded with two of the India's highest civilian honours Padma Bhushan in 1973 and Padma Vibhushan in 1992
Hindu denominations, sampradayas, traditions, movements, and sects are traditions and sub-traditions within Hinduism centered on one or more gods or goddesses, such as Vishnu, Shiva, Shakti and so on. The term sampradaya is used for branches with a particular founder-guru with a particular philosophy.
John Wilson FRS was a Scottish Christian missionary, orientalist and educator in the Bombay presidency, British India.
Chakradhar(a) (Marathi: चक्रधर), also known as (Sarvajna Shri) Chakradhar(a) Swami or Kunwar Haripaladeva was an Indian Hindu saint and philosopher, who was the founder of Mahanubhava sect of Krishnaism. Chakradhar advocated worship of the god Krishna and preached a distinct philosophy based on Bhakti. He was an exponent of the Dvaita philosophy within Hinduism.
Being Different: An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism is a 2011 book by Rajiv Malhotra, an Indian-American author, philanthropist and public speaker, published by HarperCollins. The book reverts the gaze of the western cultures on India, repositioning India from being the observed to the observer, by looking at the West from a Dharmic point of view.
Mata-parīkṣā is a Sanskrit-language text by the Christian author John Muir. It criticizes Hinduism, and portrays Christianity as the true faith. It was written in British India in 1839, and revised twice.
Mataparīkṣottara, also called Mataparīkṣottaram, is an 1840 Sanskrit-language text by Harachandra Tarkapanchanan of Calcutta, British India. It is a Hindu apologist response to the Christian writer John Muir's Mataparīkṣā.
Svadesha-dharmabhimani is an 1834 Marathi-language Hindu apologetic text by Narayan Rao of Satara, British India.