Early (Vedic) Hinduism...cont'd

-simple, polytheistic religion
-Soma-refers to a God as well as to a hallucinogenic drink and the rituals that are involved with it
-Hindu's worship many, many gods
-Caste system-system of social classes, still exist today although urban areas of India tend to be more egalitarian while more rural areas tend to be more traditional and see caste system as more important. It is now illegal to discriminate against members of another caste simply because of their caste.
-there were originally four groups in the caste system, now there are five
-Rig Veda: Chapter 10, the Sacrifice of Perusha-the giant human who becomes the four castes.
-castes are primarily determined by blood relationship(you grow up to do what your parents did)
-system derived from the Aryans
-almost like two different societies between
urban and rural areas. Rural areas are more traditional while urban areas are more like industrialized, modern societies.

Transitional Phase in Hinduism

-focus on becoming a forest hermit and gaining enlightenment through solitude and deep meditation
-there is sort of a questioning of the relationship between the gods to one another
-concept that if all gods came from one source than it is important for us to understand the source rather than the individual gods
-speculations of one underlying realities (the gods are just manifestations of whatever created them)
-In the later Hinduism of the Upanishads these ideas of the Brahman are full blown.
A focus on the samsara and karma is seen, and an emphasis on meditation, especially solitary meditation,and obtaining a kind of mystical experiencial knowledge of reality
-today we can see the more mystical ideas of later Hinduism, as well as the traditional simple religion of early Hinduism