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$Pretitle{}
$Title{Nepal
Chapter 9A.   Hinduism}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{George L. Harris}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{hinduism
religious
worship
shiva
hindu
hindus
god
nepal
deities
gods}
$Date{1973}
$Log{}
Title:       Nepal
Book:        Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, An Area Study: Nepal
Author:      George L. Harris
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1973

Chapter 9A.   Hinduism

     According to the 1952-54 national census, 89 percent of the population
was Hindu, 9 percent Buddhist and the remaining 2 percent Moslem; fewer than
1,000 persons were Christian or of other religions. The figures tend to be
misleading, however. No actual count was made along the northern border in the
Himalayas where the Buddhists are most numerous, and the census estimates for
this group are undoubtedly low. There is much intermingling of Hindu and
Buddhist beliefs, and many of the persons regarded as Hindus in the census
could with as much justification be called Buddhists. Neither is an exclusive
faith, and many Nepalese regard the country as being about equally divided
between Hindus and Buddhists.

     Hindus and Buddhists tend to be concentrated in the areas where Indian
and Tibetan cultural influence, respectively, has been dominant. The Katmandu
Valley, where a variant, non-Tibetan form of Buddhism has been preserved by
some of the Newar, is an exception. There, Buddhism has survived largely by
becoming, in regard to philosophical bases and many of its ritual practices,
reabsorbed into Hinduism as a variant sect. In the twentieth century, however,
orthodox Buddhism has been introduced into the Valley.

     Both Hinduism and Buddhism have assimilated many elements of shamanism,
an indigenous folk religion based on a belief in supernatural beings, often
personifications of natural phenomena, and on the ability of certain persons,
called shamans, to communicate with them. In Tibet, by a reverse process,
shamanism took over most of the beliefs and practices of Buddhism and
reorganized itself as Bon. Gradually displaced by Buddhism in most of Tibet,
Bon has survived in some northern areas of Nepal, and in Sikkim and Bhutan.
Shamanism continues to be practiced to some degree by nearly all Nepalese
ethnic groups.

     There have been no overt religious conflicts between adherents of the two
dominant Nepalese religions. The caste system, upon which traditional
Indo-Nepalese society was based, is closely associated with Hinduism, which
spread to communities of the Buddhist Tibeto-Nepalese ethnic groups living
among the Pahari and Newar.

     The Tibeto-Nepalese groups most influenced by Hinduism are the Magar,
Sunwar and Rai. Hindu influence has been less strong among the Gurung and
Limbu, who continue to employ Buddhist monks in their important religious
ceremonies. Although the two largest clans of the Magar-the Rana and
Thapa-also clan names in the Pahari Chetri caste-are relatively orthodox in
their practice of Hinduism, most of the other clans, particularly those living
closer to the Bhote groups in the north, remain Lamaist Buddhists.

Hinduism

     The origins of Hinduism go back to the meeting of pastoral Aryan tribes
spilling over the Hindu Kush from Central Asia with the urban civilization of
the Indus Valley and with the tribal cultures of various hunting and gathering
peoples in the areas. Unlike other world religions, it has no single founder.
In about 1200 B.C. a body of religious texts collectively called the Vedas,
were compiled, and these-elaborated throughout the centuries by the Brahman
priestly castes-form the theological rationale for the religion.

Basic Beliefs

     Hindus have always felt that the absolute (the totality of existence,
including God, man and universe) is too vast to be contained within a single
set of beliefs. Their highly diverse and complex religion embraces a wide
variety of metaphysical systems or viewpoints (darshana), some mutually
contradictory. From the darshana, an individual may select one which is
congenial to him or conduct his worship simply on the level of morality and
observances. Religious practices also differ somewhat from group to group, and
the average Hindu does not need any systematic formal creed in order to
practice his religion. He need only comply with the customs of his family and
social group.

     Some of the sacred Vedic tests are regarded as revealed sacred knowledge
of divine origin (srute). The rest (smriti) are based on tradition handed
down from ancient sages and holy men. Certain Vedic beliefs are common to all
Hindus.

     One basic concept is that of dharma-natural law and the social and
religious obligations it imposes. It holds that every person should play his
proper role in society as determined by his dharma. The system of caste,
though not essential to philosophical Hinduism, has become an integral part of
its social expression. Under this system, each person is born into a
particular caste whose traditional occupation-although members do not
necessarily practice this occupation-is graded according to the degree of
purity or impurity inherent in it. Grouping of the castes into five broad
categories-the four varna: Brahmans, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra; and the
untouchables (achut)-permits drawing broad distinctions of ritual purity (see
ch. 4, Ethnic Groups and Languages).

     Other fundamental ideas common to nearly all Hindus concern the nature
and destiny of the soul and the basic forces of the universe. The souls of men
are seen as separated portions of an all-embracing world soul; man's ultimate
goal is reunion with this absolute.

     Karma (universal justice) is the belief that the consequence of every
good or bad action must be fully realized. Another basic concept is that of
samsara, the transmigration of souls; rebirth is required by karma in order
that the consequences of action be fulfilled. Thus the role an individual must
play throughout his life is fixed by his good and evil actions in his previous
existences. It is only when the individual soul sees beyond the veil of
illusion (maya)-the force leading to belief in the appearances of things-that
it is able to realize its identity with that impersonal, transcendental
reality (brahman) and escape from the otherwise endless cycle of rebirth to be
absorbed into brahman. This release is known as moksha.

     Veneration for the cow has come to be intimately associated with orthodox
Hinduism of all sects. Since the cow is regarded as the symbol of motherhood
and fruitfulness, the killing of a cow, even accidentally, is regarded as one
of the most serious of religious transgressions.

Gods

     Hinduism in polytheistic, but in the most important and widely held
darshana, the Vedanta (End of the Veda), the gods are considered to be merely
manifestations or aspects of a single underlying divinity. The three major
Hindu gods are Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, personifications of creative,
preservative and destructive forces, respectively. Almost all Hindus are
followers of Vishnu or Shiva or of one of their avatars, or incarnations;
followers of Vishnu are called Vaishnavites (Vaisnavas), and followers of
Shiva, Shaivites (Shaivas).

     The majority of Indian Hindus (except those of northern India and Nepal)
are Vaishnavites. Vishnu has ten incarnations in animal and human forms-fish,
crocodile, boar, man-lion, dwarf, Rama-with-anax, the Rama of the Ramayana,
Krishna, and Buddha and, finally, Kalki, or the "incarnation to come." Some
Hindus identify Christ with this tenth avatar of Vishnu. The devotional bhakti
movement, in which a total love and devotion for a personal God suffices for
salvation, is prominent in Vaishnavism.

     The Hinduism of Nepal is basically Shaivite, although Krishna as well as
Shiva is worshiped. Shiva is a more complex divinity than Vishnu. He
personifies the awesome and frightening aspects of faith, such as the struggle
against demons and evil, the potential dangers of knowledge, and the fact of
death and deterioration. But taken as the supreme being, Shiva also has
creative and benevolent aspects. He often appears under male and female
guises.

     Seen as a mother-goddess, Shiva has two aspects, one beneficent as the
goddesses Uma and Parvati; the other aspect, more often stern and terrible, as
the goddesses Durga, Kali and Bhairavi. The name of the last goddess,
Bhairavi, is often loosely used to mean any local community's guardian
demoness and is considered a manifestation of Kali the Destroyer, the reminder
of mortality, famine and pestilence.

     The guardian demons, the Bhairab, are considered to be manifestations of
Shiva in his destructive aspect. These male and female demonic deities are
propitiated by the villagers under their charge who look to them for
protection from all evil chances. They might be regarded as reformed demons
who use their power against the forces of evil, rather than against the
people.

     In his own guise, perhaps Shiva's most venerated forms are Pashupati, who
is the Lord of Animals, and Nataraja (the Dancing King), who symbolizes the
creative as well as the destructive forces in the universe, which is the
product of Shiva's sport. The universe is seen as cyclical, undergoing phases
of formation, dissolution and formation anew from chaos. Creation and
destruction are seen as two sides of the same coin. Thus, Shiva and his
manifestations have both aspects. There are also gods associated with Shiva,
such as Karttikeya, the warrior, and Ganesha, the gentle, elephant-headed
"master of the troupe of Shiva," who removes great obstacles and is a god of
wealth. Ganesha and Karttikeya are Shiva's sons by his wife, Parvati.

Tantrism

     In the Shaivite Hinduism of Nepal, great emphasis is placed on worship
of the goddess, who is regarded as active in the affairs of the world, while
the god is regarded as standing more aloof. This emphasis on female deities
derives from Tantrism, whose roots lie in the ancient popular cults of the
mother-goddess and of the linga (phallic fertility symbol) of pre-Hindu
northern India, particularly Bengal. Tantric influence has always been strong
in Nepal.

     Tantrism began as a movement in the sixth or seventh century A.D. with
the compilation of a group of Sanskrit texts often collectively called Tantra
(literally, "weavings"). These are divided according to subject matter into
four groups-jnana, or knowledge; yoga (literally "union"), or discipline;
kriya, or ritual; and carya, or conduct-which set forth the philosophy, the
regimen of meditation, ceremonial and magical practices, and the code of
morality, of the movement.

     The Tantric yoga is based on the belief that the answer to all religious
questions and mysteries can be found within the human body. It affirms that
there are solar and lunar currents within the nervous system which, when
properly united, make it possible to open the psychic centers (cakra) of the
body, thus setting free psychic powers which can be used to facilitate union
with the absolute, which becomes identified with the world and the cycle of
rebirth.

     Tantrism was originally conceived as a philosophy and spiritual
discipline leading to salvation or liberation which could be followed by
persons of any or no religious faith, but it soon became differentiated along
sectarian lines, according to whether the believers were Vaishnavites,
Shaivites, or simply Tantrists, as well as along religious lines, Hindu and
Buddhist. Both Hindu and Buddhist Tantrists accept 84 traditional great Yogis
as rishi (sage or saint), who are credited with the teaching and spread of the
movement and who are believed to have acquired supernormal powers during the
course of their strivings for union with the absolute. In some cases, they
have acquired the status of divinities. In Nepal, for example, Machendra is
regarded by Hindus as the supernatural being who was the guru (teacher) or
spiritual guide of Gorakhnath, the patron saint of the old Pahari Kingdom of
Gorkha and hence of modern Nepal. The Buddhists consider Machendra a
reincarnation of Avalokiteshvara, one of the Buddhist deities.

     In Hindu Tantrism, the solitary formless transcendental reality (brahman)
is revealed as personified female (Shakti) and male (Shakta) philosophical
principles which are present in all things-gods, spirits, men and material
objects. Whereas Shaivism emphasizes the creative and destructive power of the
god, Tantric Hinduism stresses the activity of the goddess, relegating the god
to a passive role. The goddess is normally the consort of Shiva in one or
another of her aspects-Durga, Kali, Parvati, Uma, Devi, Ambika, Bhavani,
Mahamaya or Lalita.

     While most Tantric Hindus differ little in religious observances from
Shaivite Hindus-except for the emphasis on worship of the goddess, the use of
animal sacrifice and their reliance on certain scriptural texts-a few belong
to a more esoteric type of Tantrism called vamachara or "left-hand" Tantrism
as opposed to the exoteric dakhinachara or "right-hand" Tantrism. It is not
known how many "left-hand" Tantrists there are since their religious doctrines
require secrecy of worship and make ritualistic sexual intercourse the primary
means of achieving liberation for the initiated.

Formal Observances and Practices

     Hinduism has priests but no ecclesiastical organization; temples but no
church. The only authority is supplied by the Vedic scriptures. Its priests,
drawn from the many Brahman castes (jati), act as chaplains to families of
castes of the first three varna. Besides the priests, some persons, who may
belong to any caste, withdraw from the world and devote their lives to
religion; known as sannyasi, they may be independent or may belong to a
religious order.

     The central act of formal religious behavior is public worship (puja),
which consists largely of welcoming the god as an honored guest to the company
of its worshippers. The image of the deity is bathed, dressed, incensed,
worshiped with fire, fed, bedecked with flowers and carried in procession
from the temple amid singing of hymns and sacred dancing. For many, perhaps
most, of the participants, the idol is the actual god or goddess; for others
it is only a symbol of the deity it represents.

     The temple which enshrines the image may be a simple village shrine or a
large complex of buildings, such as Pashupatinath (the temple of Shiva, Lord
of Animals), in the Katmandu Valley, with an elaborate cycle of religious
activities. Whatever its size, the temple is dedicated to a particular deity
and is served by a permanent staff of priests and attendants.

     Worship can be conducted without an idol. Often an icon is substituted,
or some attribute of the deity-such as the wheel (chakra) of Vishnu or the
linga (phallic symbol) or trident of Shiva-is used to represent the deity.
Some sects of Hinduism, such as Tantrism use more or less complex geometrical
patterns (mandala) as well as pictures to symbolize the deities.

     Individuals may prepare themselves for either public or private worship
with such practices as ceremonial ablutions, fasting, abstinences and other
food restrictions, assuming certain postures and gestures of the fingers,
breath control and others. Possession by the god is often an important part of
worship. Prayer consists of the repeated, silent recitation of a sacred
formula (mantra). Often many of the syllables of the mantra have no meaning.
This type of prayer is regarded as an aid to concentration and meditation, as
well as a means of bringing about the desired result of protection, expiation
or fulfillment of a vow.

     Meditation and the study of the sacred srute and smriti texts are also
acts of worship. The only more or less obligatory religious practices are
those performed in the home: thrice-daily prayers and offerings to the gods,
saints and ancestors. Most people, however, considerably abbreviate these
activities. More elaborate periodic ceremonies are held for ancestors back to
great-grandparents on both the paternal and maternal sides of the family in
order to obtain their protection and assistance and to placate their anger
for offenses committed against them.

     There are a number of sacramental rites conducted in the home by the
family chaplain (purohit). They deal with birth, initiation (into the life of
the "twice-born" castes), marriage and death. The life-cycle ceremonies
marking the high points of an individual's passage from birth to death are
observed almost universally in more or less elaborate form. As a general rule,
the tendency among the high castes is to simplify and shorten these
ceremonies. Among the lower castes, however, elaboration of the rituals and
the procurement of a Brahman to officiate at domestic ceremonies are regarded
as marks of prestige and advancement in caste status.

     There are also a large number of agricultural and commemorative rites and
festivals. Some of the more important Hindu festivals (jatra) are: Dussera,
the 9- or 10-day feast of Durga in early October; Diwali, the Festival of
Lights, dedicated to Lakshmi, held in late October; and Holi, usually held in
March, the Spring Festival in honor of Krishna. Machendra-jatra, a festival
peculiar in Nepal and celebrated by Buddhists as well as Hindus, is held in
early June to ensure the monsoon rains.

     Pilgrimage is another important religious activity. The shrines of the
Katmandu Valley, such as Pashupatinath and even the Buddhist Swayambhunath,
and shrines outside the Valley such as Gorakhnath and Muktinath, are
well-known places of Hindu pilgrimage. A pilgrimage is often the result of a
vow taken to obtain some definite goal or simply to obtain merit in the eyes
of the god to whom the vow was made. A vow may also be made to abstain from or
to perform various sorts of activities for a definite period of time.

Popular Hinduism

     Although many high-caste families throughout Nepal tend to conform to the
Hinduism of the Brahman priests and the religious texts, a majority of the
people, particularly among the lower castes, are much less orthodox in the
gods they worship. The ordinary villager knows relatively little about the
concept of the divine unity underlying all things, including the gods. This
philosophical notion is reflected in popular religion chiefly in belief in an
impersonal force that controls fate.

     Each village tends to have its own patron deities. In some cases,
connections between these deities and the great deities of the Hindu pantheon
can be traced, but the village deities are more often personifications of
natural phenomena. Much importance is given to shamanism and to the role of
goddesses. While gods are usually responsible for guarding village land and
resources, goddesses protect the collective health of the group, especially in
respect to epidemics. Both are given public worship under the ministry of the
Brahman village priests of the village shrines.

     In addition to village deities, there are other divinities-usually
ancestral spirits, but sometimes one or another of the great gods of
Hinduism-whose worship tends to be handed down within families of lineages as
their particular responsibility in order to preserve the health and well-being
of the family. The majority of the gods and spirits are worshiped out of fear
of their power and wrath rather than out of love.

     These beings are very much a part of daily life. They are perceived as
bringing difficulty and misfortune in retribution for neglect of the worship
due them or for offenses committed against them. Crop failures, accidents,
disease, barrenness, persistent family quarrels, even the time, place and
manner of death are attributed to their actions. Religion is seen more as a
means of placating and propitiating powerful supernatural beings of uncertain
temper than as being concerned with offering thanks and devotion to deities of
lovable and beneficent guise. There seems to be no feeling that it is
necessary to worship a god who does not cause trouble.