Hindu Values

India is home to more religious systems than any other Asian country, implying that it has a more varied range of ethical principles or cultural values than any other part of the continent. Hinduism itself embraces a multiplicity of beliefs, practices, and peoples that emphatically do not fall under the umbrella of one church, one pope, one liturgical system, or one hierarchy of priests or monks.

The word "Hinduism" and even the concept are English, deriving from the Persian Hindu or the Sanskrit Sindhu, names for the Indus River. Indian languages do not have a word that corresponds with Hinduism, only such words as dharma (social duty) and karma (fate). Cultural values are pervasive yet difficult to pin down, at the same time a part of behavior, a part of culture, and a part of social structure (Hockings, 1988: 39–46). Moreover they are commonly specified in both sacred texts and secular proverbs.

Ethical obedience is the pathway to salvation. Life should be governed by the discharge of accumulated duties or debts. These debts are diffuse: to the gods, to the seers and sages who discovered truth, to ancestors, and to humanity at large. Debts to the gods can be discharged through sacrifice and puja (offering and veneration); to the ancestors by raising good, virtuous children; and to society by acts of hospitality and charity.

Hindu values fall broadly into five categories: moral values (dharma), politico-economic values or concern with worldly affairs (artha), hedonistic values and amorous desires (kama), spiritual values and deliverance (moksa), and absolute reality (brahman). Although categorized thus, values in actual use create a more complex picture altogether. This is readily evident from the corpuses of proverbs, each of which embodies a value: Sebastiao Dalgado (1898) arranged 223 subject headings to present 2,177 Konkani proverbs; Herman Jensen (1897) employed 352 subject headings to present 3,644 Tamil proverbs; and Paul Hockings (1988) used 393 subject headings to analyze some 1,600 Badaga proverbs and 130 other clichés. The Hindu Badagas, for example, have specific cultural values relating to such topics as respect, wealth, exertion, waste, matricide, forgiveness, subjection, and impotence. But just as the complexity of a society based on many hundreds of castes was simplified in ancient times into a model of five varnas, or ranked-caste categories, so too the ancient philosophers simplified the multiplicity of values expressed in proverbs and prayers into the neatly comprehensible idea of the fivefold ends of human life outlined above under the headings of dharma, artha, kama, moksa, and brahman.

The Hindu individual is constrained by his or her position in a caste-organized society. The caste into which he or she was born and where he or she will always remain belongs to one of four ranked varnas unless that individual is of the very low "untouchable" or tribal status. In that case he or she falls outside this system. The Brahmans are the highest of the four varnas, Brahman males traditionally function as priests, teachers, and literati. It is essential that such men and women live in accordance with their dharma and maintain their high level of purity. Kshatriyas are the second-ranking varna; Kshatriya males include rulers and warriors. Their duty is essentially concerned with artha, the material interests. Next are the Vaisyas who should pursue kama, the hedonistic values. These three categories are considered "twice-born" because of their male initiation ceremonies. Sudras, ranked fourth and lowest, are not twice-born. Above the four varnas are the few renouncers who abandon the material world for the pursuit of moksa, which means deliverance from the cycle of rebirths (samsara). Release from rebirth is the highest apiration.

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Gupta, Shanti Nath. (1978) The Indian Concept of Values. Columbia, MO.: South Asia Books.

Hockings, Paul. (1988) Counsel from the Ancients: A Study of Badaga Proverbs, Prayers, Omens, and Curses. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Jensen, Herman. (1897) A Classified Collection of Tamil Proverbs with Translations, Explanations, and Indices. London: Kegan Paul.

Perrett, Roy W. (1998) Hindu Ethics: A Philosophical Study. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press.

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