Devdutt Pattanaik: God in Indian history

We dont know if the idea of God existed in the cities of the Indus Valley over 5000 years ago The seals with their images and symbols do suggest an awareness of the idea of the sacred Symbols found such as the bull the elephant the tiger and the tree continue to be used to indicate divinity in Hinduism todayThe Vedic hymns that reached final form 3000 years ago refer to many gods deva who inhabit the earth the sky and the atmosphere in between They also speak of one great god a father Prajapati or mother Aditi or maybe an idea such as language or consciousness that binds all gods and the entire world together They also express doubt Who knows Even the gods came laterIllustrationDevdutt PattanaikIn the Upanishads that started being composed 2500 years ago there is increasingly talk of God within atma all living organisms and also God without brahman permeating everything around us even the rocks and the elements This becomes the jivaatma and the paramatma of Vedanta tradition and of the Bhagavad GitaIn the Puranic tradition that starts to bloom 2200 years ago stories communicate the idea of God God now becomes a character in a story as Shiva who needs to get married and Vishnu who strives hard to create peaceful and prosperous societies There is Ram there is Krishna there are the many avatars of Vishnu The tales challenge the monastic orders and inspire temples where the Gods are enshrined and worshipped and celebrated through song and dance and food On the walls of these temples gods and goddesses with their grand entourage go on adventures and enjoy the pleasures of worldly life while bearing the burden of responsibilitiesIn the Tantras which started being written down 1400 years ago though the tradition seem to be far more ancient God is expressed using sexual metaphors with the mind become the masculine Shiva and matter becoming the feminine Shakti Here the feminine form referred to sparsely in earlier traditions but popular amongst village and tribal folk takes centrestage It is she who makes God divineWith the arrival of Islam in India about a thousand years ago by sea in the south and by land in the north by trade in the south and by sword in the north the idea of God as formless nirguna and God revealed through a book becomes important supplementing not substituting the God who has many forms who is revealed through imagery story song and danceIn the Bhakti songs that become increasingly popular in village streets and squares and documented in various regional languages from about 800 years ago an emotional highway is established to create intimacy with God who is visualised as master friend sibling child parent lover even enemyThe British rulers of India tried to box the God of Hinduism So questions are raised is Hinduism polytheistic many gods monotheistic one God pantheistic monistic henotheistic or kathenotheistic Answers depended on what secured the approval of the colonial mind Many chose monotheism with a caveat one who is many Others went out of their way to show Hindus were not pagans or idolaters embarrassed by how Christian missionaries described them Some insisted Hinduism was agnostic with atheistic traditions This awkwardness informs much of our discourse on God today We forget the long and complex history of God in India in our quest for a single homogenous definition of God for all IndiansThe author writes and lectures on the relevance of mythology in modern times Reach him at devduttdevduttcom