Willard G Oxtoby

In this week’s reading Willard G. Oxtoby states that Hinduism is a religion that does not have a name or a word to describe itself and also how Harappa and Mohenjo were the roots of Hinduism. Additionally, how veda was considered as Indian’s earliest surviving compositions. Oxtoby mentions that Hindu tradition is called sruti. Hindu believes the importance of uttering and reciting when the prayers declaim their veda. However, early Hinduism does not have a specific name for this religious belief. Hinduism is a name that was made by the outsiders not the Indian believers. According to Oxtoby, he says that Indians do not recognize “Hinduism” as the word the describe their religion. It is because Hinduism does not have a consistent name to represent their faith. In addition, finding a common denomination in Hinduism is also a hard task. Oxtoby writes, “…some texts and some deities are accepted by many but no single text, single deity or single teacher that all Hindu would deem authoritative or supreme” (Oxtoby, 1996). Although the fact that Hinduism concludes several beliefs within themselves, but the authority and supreme are the things that will never be allowed to be accepted within their texts. Therefore, to describe Hinduism, Dharma will be the word that Ocxtoby used to describe this religion. Dharma

However, Vedas are ritual texts which means these knowledge were passed down ritually or orally to the next generation. In fact, after thousands of years, Oxtoby mentions that there was no mistakes while the Hindu passed down the vedas because these texts had been understood by the Hindus eternally. Therefore, this brought interests to me because comparing to other religious text, information will be twisted while passing down orally or ritually as time went