ABSTRACT

What makes this cultural diversity work is the Hindu religious tradition, shared by one-fifth of the world’s population. The words ‘India’ and ‘Hindu’ derive from the same linguistic root, Sindhu, the Sanskrit name for sea as well as the major river flowing in what is now Pakistan.2 The civilization that grew up around the river and spread throughout the Indian subcontinent was distinct from that of Persia to the west and central Asia to the north, but it incorporated elements from both; it was a composite culture, reflecting the different peoples who settled there. Yet the new did not drive out the old; it merely supplemented it. Historically, both India and the Hindu tradition have assimilated ideas and beliefs from many different parts of the world, and although to a Westerner these may at times seem contradictory, they have all found a place in the whole. It is this ability to absorb and transform ideas that has enabled India, along with China, to remain one of the two primary world civilizations that still exist today.3 Although much of the world, including China, has become secular in its transformation to a modern way of life, an important characteristic of the Hindu tradition is that ‘there is no dividing line between sacred and secular, no area of belief or custom that is alien to religious influence.’4 For this reason, religious institutions such as the temple continue today as living forces for both the village and urban Indian. This chapter is in three parts. It begins by briefly discussing the basic tenets of Hinduism as they relate to the development of the temple. In particular, it focuses on the symbolism and evolution of its traditional form as a metaphor for the religious beliefs of the people in a largely monarchical, agrarian-based society.