Essential Hinduism

By Steven J. Rosen

Book Overview

With its complex nature and many forms and practices, Hinduism is one of the world's most elusive religions for outsiders to understand. In Essential Hinduism, expert Steven Rosen aims to make the facets of this faith clear. Essential Hinduism explores this rich tradition through its history, literature, arts, and people.

This straightforward overview focuses primarily on monotheistic Vaishnavism, the most common form of Hinduism. Beginning with chapters about the foundations of Hinduism, Steven Rosen clearly lays out the religion's otherwise complicated history. Providing Hindu terms alongside English translations, he illuminates the basics of the faith for readers unacquainted with its varieties and tenets and examines commonly held misconceptions. Chapters about practices, including festivals, teachings, chanting, eating habits, and more, bring Hinduism to life in vivid detail.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0742562379
• ISBN13: 9780742562370
• Release Date: May 2008
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Length: 290 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Thoughtful. Solid research.

The cover art is gorgeous! This is an enormously involved topic. Yet the author is straight forward and direct in his writing, making it accessible to the non scholarly reader. Much appreciated!

True presentation

I was born in the faith and I am glad Mr. Rosen did not try to oversimplify 'Hinduism' (the author righly explains that there is no such word as Hindu found in the 'hindu' religious texts) in his presentation, as a lot of other authors do. Even though the author is a practitioner of Vaishnavism, which is probably the most dominant and strict strand among Indian religious practises, he does present other aspects as well. In conclusion, this is a complete and faithful introduction to the sanatan dharmic traditions and is much more than the money's worth.