Sri Kalyanbrata Chakraborty has done wonderful work on the problem of Brahmanism and Hinduism. He has worked on this problem continuously for the last ten years. Although he served the Govt. of West Bengal for 31 years in the field of Tourism Management, he developed remarkable interest in the problems of ancient Indian culture. He took the question of the relation between Hinduism and Brāhmaņism seriously and he consulted all the available sources. Now he has succeeded in producing an insightful book which contains many new ideas. They deserve the attention of all serious scholars.
Johan civilisation is an amalgam of Aryan and diversified non-Aryan cultures. The amalgamation took place in a syncretistic way. As long as there was telling differences in the religious faiths and practices of the different groups there was an air of suspicion and alienation and lives of each group was compartmentalized. It is synthesization of religion that brought the people closer and paved the path for creation of one civilisation. In the process of synthesizing the religious faiths, eventually, Hinduism, as distinct from Brahmanism, emerged. Unfortunately the history of this synthesis, with the impelling dynamic forces behind, remained obscure so long. This gave scope to some scholars to make frevolous comments about the antiquity and sense of Hinduism. The present work is an attempt to construct the sober history of the growth and development of Hinduism.
With tenacious study on the subject for many years the author came to the realisation that three cardinal problems connected with the origin of Hinduism escaped the notice of our historians. The problems are:
i) The transition of Vedic Yajiña to Dravidian Pūjā - under what inspiration or compulsion?
ii) Acceptance of Śālagrāma as an image of Vişnu for Pūjā purpose by the sacrificing Aryans-why and with what rhyme and reason? iii) The transformation of Krsna, a man on earth, to Supreme God -What was its necessity and what is the reality of this apparent doltish act?
The author tried to solve these problems with a realistic explanation utilising evidences as far as available and filling the gap with reasonable speculation based on inductive or deductive logic.
Vedas (1293)
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Goddess (473)
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Journal (144)
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Vedanta (329)
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