An Introduction to Hinduism

An Introduction to Hinduism
by Gavin Flood
Cambridge University Press, 1996
341 pages
ISBN 0521438780

An Introduction to Hinduism is the best new survey of Hinduism I know of. Well written in a clear and precise style and containing an invaluable bibliography and index, this book is very helpful to teachers who are just entering into a study of Hinduism and useful and informative to those wanting to deepen their knowledge. I often use sections or chapters of the book as a reference guide to historical, literary, or theological developments within Hinduism.

Gavin Flood begins with a chapter that orients readers to how he is going to present the material through the rest of his book. He takes up the problems inherent in the conception of Hinduism as a singular, monolithic unity, and follows this discussion with a short section defining the sacred as that which is simultaneously deeply embedded in culture and as that mysterious power "which is believed to dwell within certain objects, persons, and places and which is opposed to chaos and death( 9 )." Flood moves on to discuss the central concepts that will be addressed in the rest of the book. These concepts are seen as important ideas on their own, but it is misleading for us not to view them also as in a creative and dynamic relationship with each other. He identifies veda, dharma, ritual, salvation (moksa), the tension and simultaneity between the One and the many, meditation, and the sacred as core to this study. He broadly outlines the branches (sampradaya) that develop from the Brahmanical tradition, the renouncer, and popular piety lineages. Here too, he cautions us to look at these traditions as interwoven strands of the larger weave of Hinduism and not as isolated, separate, and competing monolithic entities. Flood finishes the chapter with a short summary of modern Hinduism and a broad chronological framework for understanding the span of its' history.

True to his word, the author sequentially and in detail moves through the topics outlined in the introduction. I was particularly impressed with his chapters, "Narrative traditions and early Vaisnavism," "The love of Visnu," "Saiva and tantric religion," and "The Goddess and Sakta traditions." For so long we have been led to believe that the majority of Hindus were focused on a certain type of Neo-Vedantan urge for liberation and union with the formless Ultimate, Brahman. As it turns out, this is not, and has not been, the religious focus for the majority of Hindus. It is in the literatures (Puranas, Ramayana, Devimahatmya) and theologies of devotion that the majority of Hindus have found salvation. Flood corrects another common misconception. For a wide variety of reasons, the focus of early European study and scholarship of Hinduism was based solely on Sanskrit texts. Most of us are completely unaware of the very large corpus of Tamil language literatures that have consistently influenced the development of the tradition. The invisible language barrier between Sanskrit based North India and Tamil based South Indian turns out to have been much more fluid and interactive than previously thought to be. Gavin Flood's An Introduction to Hinduism is a "must read"for a wide range of secondary school religious studies and history teachers.

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