I would argue that Hinduism is polytheistic, but with one influential reinterpretation of it, dating to the 7th or 8th century CE, recasting it as monistic (rather than monotheistic) -- there may be multiple gods, multiple articulations of the world and everything in it, but that they are all manifestations of one essence at its heart.
So Monism as one influential tradition of interpreting plurality within Hindu traditions.
So Monism as one influential tradition of interpreting plurality within Hindu traditions.
I once had a person (herself from the Hindu tradition) say that the question itself is faulty. Hinduism, she said, takes issue with the "theistic" aspect of those choices as well as the "poly" and "mono" bits. I'm not sure I agree, but thought it an interesting statement.
ReplyDeleteWhen she said Hinduism, she was privileging the Upanishad tradition, and the later commentary on the Vedas and the Upanishads, called the Advaita theory of monism (circa eighth century CE), as somehow more fundamental to Hinduism than the multiple gods.
ReplyDeleteMetropolitan, English-language educated Hindus tend to do this.