Prof . M. M. Ninan
|
Hinduism as we
know today is the product of syncretic combination of various Philosophical
and religious thoughts of the day.
The major formative force was indeed Christianity. |
When
the Harappa civilization was unearthed, linguists from all over the world were
hard at work to decipher the scripts. I
have met some of them back in 1950 while in school. The baffling thing was those writing were far removed from
“Indo-European” scripts. All attempts
to decipher in terms of Indo-European languages failed while it yielded fair
results even in those days using Kodum
Tamil as base. Evidently there existed
a language system which was far more ancient than Sanskrit.
The
Grantha writing system was developed in the 5th c. AD and was the protolanguage
of the modern Tamil and was used to write Sanskrit. Inscriptions in Early
Grantha, dating from the 5th to 6th c. AD on copper plates and stone monuments
were found dating from the Period of the Pal lavas near Chennai (Madras). Originally Grantha was used for writing
Sanskrit. Nagiri came into use only after the 7th c. AD.
Nirad
Chaudhuri points out that 'the Hindu religious texts with the exception of the
Vedas and their ancillary treatises, are all in classical Sanskrit. He says
that in their present form none would be earlier than the fourth century
A.D'. Though it is often argued that
these epic and philosophical works were in existence long before they were
written down and were handed down through generations by oral transmission, it
is quite unlikely because at some point the translation occurred from Vedic to
Grantha or to Sanskrit. Hence its
original form or content cannot be guaranteed.
It is quite likely that the form and content changed during this period
as it does even today (in spite of the writing)
'The Gita is written in good classical
Sanskrit, and epigraphic evidence clearly shows that the Gita could not have
been written before the second century A.D.’ It is probably of much later
period.
'The
earliest epigraphic evidence on languages employed in India comes from the
inscriptions of Asoka inscribed in third century B.C. Asoka took care that his
messages were intelligible to all and he used a particular kind of Prakrit. He
even translated his messages to Greek and Aramaic. But, there are no
inscriptions in Sanskrit. The first evidence of Sanskrit is seen around A.D.150
and from the fifth century A.D. and classical Sanskrit is seen to be the
dominant language in these inscriptions.'
It is
evident therefore that the early Vedic religion underwent a drastic change
during the period following the 2nd c, which culminated, into the
various vedantic teachings, which we know today as Hinduism.
The
major political influence of the period soon before the period was the
invasions of Greek. Alexander the great
The
invasion did succeed to a certain extent.
Seleucidan kingdom was established in part of India that was
conquered. Subsequently, several Greek
kingdoms came into existence in the Punjab/Multan/Afghan regions. One of the most famous Greek kings was
Menander. Menander was scholar in Buddhism. Greek and Indian art fused and gave rise to
a new art form called Gandara. It was
the Greeks (philosophical form by Plato and the Pythagoreans) who first
introduced the idea of reincarnation to India. It does not appear in the
earliest Hindu scriptures (the Rig Veda) but was developed at a later period in
the Upanishads under the Greek influence.
Among the Indo-Parthian Empire was the Kingdom of Gondophorus in Taxila, which
played an important part in shaping the religious history of India. It was Gondophorus who summoned St.Thomas
into India who arrived in the Malabar Coast in AD 52. St. Thomas’ route of
evangelization can be traced from the Acts of Thomas written around AD
300. Here is the approximate route.
The
culmination of Upanishadic teachings actually came in by the 7th to
10th C AD when these were really crystallized.
Though
each of the schools of Vedanta claim heritage from Godhead himself and claims
its parampara through rshi tradition to manava parampara, the real exposition
are found only in the Acharyas who lived in the period later than 7th c AD. Here are the founders of the Theistic schools of Vedanta and
their approximate times:
Sankara 788 –820 Advaita – Monism (Born in Kaladi,
Kerala)
Ramanuja
1017-1137 Visistadvaita the Modified Non-dualist school. (Ramanuja (also known
as Ilaya Perumal) was born to Kesava Perumal Somayaji Dikhsitar and Kanthimathi
Ammal at Sriperum pudur. He was born in Kaliyuga year 4119 which corresponds
to1017 AD)
Madhva
(Ananda Tirtha) 1197-1273 Dvaita the Dualist school.
Nimbarka
late C13? (Nimbarka was born of Aruna Muni and Jayanti Devi on the banks
of Godavari river) Dvaitadvaita the
Dualist-non-dualist school.
Vallabha
1478-1530 Shudda Advaita- the Pure Advaita school.
Caitanya
1485-1533 followed by Baladeva
early 18thc: AcintyaBhedabheda -
Incomprehensible Distinction-Non-distinctionism.
Here is
the Geographical settings of these teachers.
It will
probably come as a surprise that the two maps overlaps exactly on each
other.
The
only plausible explanation is that Vedic religion was transformed into Hinduism
as we have come to know of by the reaction to two other religio-philosophical
systems – Greek and Christian. We have
very little history of the growth and decay of these religious thoughts in
documentation. However we know that
there was a powerful Christian presence in the Cauvery Area apart from the
Christian Church in Malankara
(Malabar). As the Christian faith became powerful, there had been local
reaction from the religions that were present.
Natural course of events produced
various syncretic form along with direct persecution. We
know that there ensued a persecution to these Christian communities in
the Andhra and Tamil areas, that they
were forced to migrate to Quilon and Thiruvanthapuram in Kerala. We also know that they were perused by the
then leaders of Hinduism. Christian
documentation indicate that a certain sorcerer Manicavachagar actually came down to Quilon and reconverted
70 families back to Hindu fold. Who
actually is this Manicavacagar cannot be posotively identified. It is normally assumed that this was the
famous Gnostic Persian Prince Manicaen.
It could very well have been a Hindu Theosophist of the period. It would be worthwhile to remember that a
Gnostic controversy was at its climax in the Eastern Churches at that
time. Gnostic and Greek influence
syncretised with the Christian doctrines actually produced the present day
Hinduism. We can see exactly the same history repeated in the reconversion of
tribal Christians.
An impassionate analysis will reveal the
underlying syncretic layers.
Thus
Apium Forum remarks ”When we study the
development of religion and worship in India, before and after Christ, we can
see that Christ and Christianity totally transformed religion and worship in
India from the first century AD. Saivism first developed as a monotheistic
doctrine and Siva was first called Isa which is the name for Jesus in the
North. The avatar concept (God coming into the world in the form of a man) in
Vaishnavism is the influence of Christianity.
Hindus
in India consider Christianity as a foreign religion. However they do not
realize how much early Indian Christianity has developed and molded their own
religion, and, the revealed truths in their own faith point to Jesus Christ. I
pray that we the Christians in India would take time to understand where the
heart of every Hindu is, and, help guide them to The Truth in Christ Jesus by
gently removing the barriers and obstacles without
Dr. D
Devakala and Dr. Alexander Harris has
shown this development in the following time line. On this can be added the St.Thomas history when the picture will
be more clear. This is shown below:
1400
Sankara
Vallabha
Caitanya
http://www.geocities.com\Athens\Parthenon\2104\index.html
Evidently
the Hinduism as we know of today was the product of various religious and
philosophical thoughts of the late Christian Era. Among these were the Bhakthi marga and the centrality of the
Ultimate Incarnation in the person of Isa
(Yesu) as preached by the Christians.
In the process, Christians were persecuted and forcefully converted and
most churches in the interior syncretized and became part of Sivite and
Vaishnavite traditions. But Malankara
Church survived the onslaught essentially because of their contact with the
rest of the Christian world particularly of the Eastern churches of
Persia. Most of all Malankara had the
help of the Syrian translation of the Bible, which was earnestly taught, in the
Churches. So Malankara churches
survived the Gnostic and syncretic forces to this day.