Dharma

The Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh Traditions of India

Veena R. Howard

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781784532635
• eBook ISBN: 9781786722126
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Eastern Philosophy

Dharma is central to all the major religious traditions which originated on the Indian subcontinent. Such is its importance that these traditions cannot adequately be understood apart from it. Often translated as "ethics, " "religion, " "law, " or "social order, " dharma possesses elements of each of these but is not confined to any single category familiar to Western thought. Neither is it the straightforward equivalent of what many in the West might usually consider to be "a philosophy". This much-needed analysis of the history and heritage of dharma shows that it is instead a multi-faceted religious force, or paradigm, that has defined and that continues to shape the different cultures and civilizations of South Asia in a whole multitude of forms, organizing many aspects of life. Experts in the fields of Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh studies here bring fresh insights to dharma in terms both of its distinctiveness and its commonality as these are expressed across, and between, the several religions of the subcontinent. Exploring ethics, practice, history and social and gender issues, the contributors engage critically with some prevalent and often problematic interpretations of dharma, and point to new ways of appreciating these traditions in a manner that is appropriate to and thoroughly consistent with their varied internal debates, practices and self-representations.

1

Toward an Understanding of Dharma: The Questions of Identity, Hybridity, Fluidity, and Plurality

Veena R. Howard

If the term “religion” is problematic, it is also challenging to name the religion of the other … The term dharma (law, teaching, way of life) is probably the closest to an equivalent in Indian language to the meaning of “religion” in the West.

– Carl Olson (Professor, Allegheny College, PA)

Introduction

This book is about the family of four major religious traditions that originated on the Indian subcontinent: Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, and Sikh. These Religious Traditions are generally studied under the categories of “religions of India” or “South Asian religions.” If one were asked to identify one concept that is broadly shared by India's various religious texts, philosophical pandits (traditional Indian scholars), and popular practices, it would be dharma. It is a concept which has neither been confined to any one religion or philosophy nor defined in any singular way, as will be discussed later in the chapter. The term dharma is derived from its Sanskrit root verb dhr, which means “to hold,” “to support,” or “to sustain,” and while it defies a single definition or interpretation, the term is used generally in Indic traditions to mean “ethics,” “law,” “duty,” “teaching,” and “religion.” Thus, dharma—when indicating religion—encompasses moral principles that guide human conduct, laws that maintain order, and duties that lead to individual fulfillment and social harmony. In short, dharma is a harmonizing principle of the cosmos. Humans, through virtuous and religious disciplines and ritualistic actions, sustain this order. A contemporary scholar of comparative religion, Karen Armstrong, defines religion as such: “I say that religion isn't about believing things. It's about what you do. It's ethical alchemy. It's about behaving in a way that changes you, that gives you intimations of holiness and sacredness.”¹ Armstrong's definition is mostly compatible with Indian traditions’ self-understanding of religion, although India's traditions expand the effects of an individual's actions to the cosmic scale and thus refraining from confining these actions to the purview of the interpersonal. What one individual does affects everything else. Whether it is in the sense of the underlying unity of all beings (Hindu Dharma), understanding all life as imbued with a soul (Jain Dharma), the dependent origination of all life (Buddhist Dhamma), or the essential prerogative to serve all (Sikh Dharam), the emphasis is in all cases on both the individual and the collective. Thus, religion is not simply a relationship between God and humans; it is implicated in all aspects of life. The concept of dharma in each of the Indic traditions is intricately connected to the idea of performing duty, doing good deeds, religious practice, behaving in a certain way, and achieving fulfillment. Nevertheless, each tradition uniquely defines “duty” and “practice.”

In the contemporary world, which is marred with religious tensions, the use of the term dharma in place of religion may generate ambiguity in the minds of some scholars. It may suggest an appropriation of all traditions originating in India into the broader Hindu system of dharma. Some Hindu followers confuse Indian religious systems with Indic civilization, notwithstanding each tradition's self-understanding, original taxonomies, and practices.² Or perhaps the use of the word dharma may instead invoke images of the New Age movement's usage of the term dharma, expressed in idioms such as Jack Kerouac's “Dharma Bums”. But in this book, we use the Indic category of dharma in place of “religion” to depict a system of thought with its imbedded multivalent meanings of duty, righteousness, ethics, law, teachings, and justice.³ The term is used neither to imply that all Dharma traditions are the same due to their common heritage, nor should it suggest they are completely different from religions that did not originate in India.⁴ We use the term to bring attention to the problem of mapping the category of religion—conventionally defined as a structured, exclusive, theological system and social identity—on to India's traditions, whose social and religious identities historically have overlapped. In the Euro-American context, the separation of religion and society arises from the idea that faith and reason are two different things, and that religion is “a matter which lies solely between Man and his God,” to use Thomas Jefferson's words. This thinking was introduced only recently to India by the colonial powers. Contemporary scholar of religion Harjot Oberoi draws attention to the historical fact, saying that religion as “a systematized sociological unit claiming unbridled loyalty from its adherents and opposing an amorphous religious imagination … [is] a recent development in the history of the Indian people.”⁵ Oberoi is referring to the basic world views of Western institutionalized religions, which, prior to the interface of Indian thought with Western notions of religion, had not defined Indian traditions.

Before the nineteenth century, the idea of enclosed spaces around specific religiosity was foreign to Indian systems of spirituality, just as exclusive allegiance to any one religion was alien to the Chinese systems of thought.⁶ Furthermore, the use of the term dharma is meant to draw attention to the many shared presuppositions and principles of these traditions, while also emphasizing their unique approaches and their theological (or lack thereof) and ethical frameworks. We use this prismatic model of dharma in this book, insofar as it is a paradigm that best defines major religious traditions as they originated in India. “But,” the student may inquire, “why not simply employ the more commonly used term ‘religion?’”

Dharma vs. Religion: The Question of Category

An answer to the question posed above can be found in the words of a prominent scholar of Indology, Wilhelm Halbfass:

Just as there is no traditional Indian word which precisely corresponds to “philosophy,” there is also no exact equivalent for “religion.” In modern Indian linguistic usage […] dharma appears as the designation of religion in general as well as in the titles of particular religions.⁷

As Halbfass points out, dharma and “religion” have become synonymous, but the fact remains that there is no Indian terminological equivalent of the term “religion” as a noun. The term dharma is always attached to its lexical verb root, and thus comprises many meanings. According to Oberoi,

It is not without reason that Indian languages do not possess a noun for religion as signifying a single uniform and centralized community of believers. If the work carried out in linguistic cognition is correct, the absence of such a term is most revealing […] From the time of the so-called Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, it has been widely acknowledged that language plays a pivotal role in our construction of reality and the way we act on that reality.⁸

The authors of this book elicit attention to the native Indian concept of dharma in order to draw attention to the ways in which it questions any “universal definition of religion.” This volume invites the reader to consider the historical and cultural context of Indian traditions and to attempt to disrupt the type of thinking that is conditioned by Western cultural ideas “religion.” Specifically, the term “religion” presumes a series of characteristics, including theological claims, religious institutionalization, dogma, authority, exclusive identity, ethical codes of conduct, ritual, and scripture. Comparative religion students might experience some confusion upon encountering the conspicuously non-theistic Buddhist and Jain traditions, or Hindu tradition's clearly pluralistic tendencies. Despite certain shared elements, religion cannot be defined universally across cultures and traditions. According to anthropologist Talal Asad, “[T]here cannot be a universal definition of religion, not only because its constituent elements and relationships are historically specific, but because that definition is itself the historical product of discursive processes.”⁹ Historically, the colonial regime in India introduced the concept of religion, which was a primary reason for the formation of each Indic religion's distinct identity. Thus, the concepts of religion and spirituality—with their specific lexis and underlying meanings—must be reckoned with. It is not simply an issue of whether to use the term dharma or “religion,” but also one of how to convey the self-understanding of a tradition, which is inextricably embedded in the language and the myths of the tradition. In other words, the goal is not simply to use the terms religion and dharma interchangeably, but to bring attention to how religiosity is constructed and viewed within these traditions.

The field of religious studies draws on approaches of prominent thinkers who define religion in terms of, for example, sociology (Emile Durkheim), economics (Karl Marx), anthropology (Claude Lévi-Strauss), and psychology (Sigmund Freud). The field is also founded on a thorough examination of theology, mythology, and ritual. Sthaneshwar Timalsina points out,

The problem in the aforementioned definitions is that these have brought to light various existential issues to the fore while silencing the contemplative domains. This lacuna has encouraged some scholars from within the Dharma tradition to drop the overall identity of religion, suggesting that “religion” fails to address the scope of Dharma.¹⁰

The “contemplative” aspect he refers to includes the individualistic pursuit of truth, which makes the practice of “religion” a personal path that is independent of a religious authority, rather than a communal or institutional affair, as has been the implied interpretation by most academic interpretations of religion. This individualistic pursuit of truth has been termed in our contemporary times as spirituality—a personal, non-institutionalized path. Such individualistic pursuit arises out of reliance on the existential individualism and aversion for institutionalized religion. However, Dharma traditions accommodate the aspect of individualistic spirituality within their fold, but it is always connected to a higher purpose and the telos of collective well-being. Many Indian thinkers have grappled with the issue of communality versus individuality. Mahatma Gandhi, who used various elements of dharma (both in terms of ethics and duty) for his political activism, has commented on this idea: “One's dharma is a personal possession. One is oneself responsible for preserving it.” He categorically adds that, “What can be defended in and through a group is not dharma, it is a dogma.”¹¹ Thus, according to Gandhi, following one's dharma is not conforming to a group ideology, although he defined his dharma as the service of others.

As mentioned earlier, dharma is a concept that is both similar and yet distinct from the term “religion,” as per its normative usages, but it does not adequately correspond to the Western construct of the term. Dharma is a multivalent Indic term that has been interpreted variously within Indian schools of philosophy and tradition. The philosophical systems and theological and ethical points of view expressed within the Dharma traditions share common characteristics. However, there are also significant differences in patterns among traditions. With respect to religion, shared patterns have led scholars to create groupings such as “Abrahamic religions” (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) and “East Asian Traditions” (Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism). But such categorization by no means suggests these traditions are essentially identical. This is evidenced by each of the three traditions’ distinct theologies, exclusive truth claims, and soteriological goals, along with the inevitable tensions that arise from these distinctions.

Because of the shared patterns of the Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, and Sikh traditions, some scholars have begun to characterize them as “Dharmic relig...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• List of Contributors
• 1. Toward an Understanding of Dharma: The Questions of Identity, Hybridity, Fluidity, and Plurality
• 2. Hindu Dharma: Unity in Diversity–A Pluralistic Tradition
• 3. Jain Dharma: The Eternal Law of Ahimsa
• 4. Buddha Dharma (Dhamma): “Reliable Teachings”– According to the Buddha and Buddhism
• 5. Sikh Dharam: Path of the Seeker of Truth
• Appendix: Sufism in India
• Glossary of Terms
• Back Cover