A Survey of Hinduism: Second Edition

If you are looking for a gentle introduction to Hinduism, I cannot stress enough that you should look at Meeting God: Elements of Hindu Devotion before you read this. This is a fine book, but I just can't say it's a good introduction. I disagree with the reviewers who say that Klostermeier assumes no prior familiarity with Hinduism. He assumes no prior significant study, but he just doesn't explain things at an introductory level. The general problem is that the information is not organized the way it ought to be in an introductory book. To be frank, it's almost as though the author assumes you already know pretty much what he's saying. In fact, it's not too hard to deal with if you already know, but if you don't, a lot of the text will be opaque. For instance, you'd better realize that Nyaya, Vaisesika, Samkhya, Yoga, Purva Mimamsa and Vedanta are schools of philosophy, and that advaita, visistadvaita, and dvaita are schools of Vedanta before you pick up the book. Now to be fair, you can figure this out if you read the book very closely, as though it were a puzzle to be decoded. For instance, we are told that Sankara is the great advaita theologian on page 413; that's the 16th mention of Sankara, and the 6th of advaita. It's certainly basic information, but it would be pretty confusing to read all those references to Sankara and advaita if you didn't know what they are. That's an example; just about every topic in the book suffers from the same problem. However, if you've read two or three books on Hinduism before, this is not a bad book at all. It actually has a lot of detail. The most interesting aspect, perhaps the main reason it's famous, is that most people believe the author succeeds in presenting Hinduism on its own terms, not in terms of Western religion or "orientalist" scholarship. Let me describe the contents. It starts with a nice but very brief introduction to Western perspectives on Hinduism. Next, an extremely brief introduction to the history of Hinduism, though you'd better know already about the Aryan invasion theory and the fact that it's become quite controversial. If you do, then Klostermeier's information is very interesting. Then he considers the issues of "orthodoxy" and "heresy" within Hinduism, essentially a consideration of the boundaries of Hinduism, and disagreements about them. Next he covers the scriptures, a very complex topic and this is one of the better explanations of it that I've read. He also looks at the idea of "revelation" and "sacred word," though I'd say too briefly. The next chapter, on the two great epics and the Puranas is excellent; the chapter on the Bhagavad-Gita (read it!) is ok. The cosmology chapter is ok. The next chapter introduces the Hindu deities from the Vedas to the present time. In some aspects, this is a very good chapter; but if you want to know how the deities are/were worshiped, there is nothing here. It is all mythology and theology. Next, a couple chapters on "karmam

This book is a very thorough description of many aspects of Hinduism. The book is written for a Western audience, so the author assumes no prior familiarity with Hinduism on the part of the reader. The book is organized into four sections: development and essence of Hinduism, the three Hindu paths to liberation, the structural supports of Hinduism, and the meeting of East and West in modern India. Each section contains a number of chapters addressing specific topics that fall within the general topic of the section. The end material, which comprises over 200 pages, contains a chronology, endnotes, a glossary, a bibliography, and the index.The style of writing is extremely dense and detailed, yet the vocabulary and presentation are still quite accessible to non-Indian audiences. The extensive footnoting, use of primary and secondary source material, and lengthy quotations make this a remarkable work of scholarship. The text itself is more like an encyclopedia in nature; the chapters are independent articles in themselves, so there is little cohesion from one chapter to the next. Some of the chapters are quite interesting and illuminating- -others cover material that is of more marginal interest. I almost put the book down after struggling through chapter 1, which provides a rather detailed history of Western scholarship on Hinduism, and might have made a better appendix than an introduction. But fortunately, I kept slogging through the material, and learned quite a bit about the core Hindu beliefs from subsequent chapters. The book would make a good textbook for classes on comparative religion or South Asian cultures. It may also provide some answers for independent readers with a burning curiosity about Hinduism.

The second edition of the book is a much more substantial edition and it has corrected the errors of the first. The book is definitely the best general resource the reader will find on Hinduism. Unlike other texts that present an Orientalist view of Hinduism, Klostermaier lets the tradition speaks for itself. For a book of this size, dealing with a tradition as rich and complex as Hinduism, it is natural that the reader will not always agree with the author. But Professor Klostermaier tries to be as fair in his presentation as is possible.The book should be a successful textbook to teach Hinduism at the college level.

Still the best introduction to Hinduism on the market. Klostermaier has consciously tried to move away from the straitjacket of Orientalist writing that has marred academic books on Hinduism.

The book traces philosophical background of Hinduism with references to ancient literature- Bhagvat Gita, Mahabharata, Ramayana, Upanishads as basis for research.An analysis of religious life of the Hindus, its social impact is given too.