1 of 33 Million
We did not have to look far to find signs of the Hindu religion. Small shrines were at the side of the road, sometimes seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
This statue of Ganesha was maybe 30 - 50 km north of Udaipur.
We were curious about the Hindu religion, and asked questions whenever we could. We started to get the idea that there were as many different answers as there were people, so we got in the habit of cross-referencing our questions, often by asking the same thing of different people.
How many gods in the Hindu religion? We were quite shocked to receive the same answer from 2 different Indians; 33 million!
So when I got home I had to do some research. In the Vedas (the oldest scriptures of Hinduism), there are mention of 33 dieties, followed by a Sanskrit word that is apparently open to interpretation. Thousand? Hundred-thousand? Million?
So at least we know where the "33" comes from.
Hindusm is extremely complex (and I find quite beautiful), and I will have more to comment on later in the series.
Here is the Wikipedia link on Hindu Dieties, not a bad starting point:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_deities
By the way, Ganesha is widely revered as the Remover of Obstacles. No wonder he is liked so much beyond the borders of India.
1 of 33 Million
We did not have to look far to find signs of the Hindu religion. Small shrines were at the side of the road, sometimes seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
This statue of Ganesha was maybe 30 - 50 km north of Udaipur.
We were curious about the Hindu religion, and asked questions whenever we could. We started to get the idea that there were as many different answers as there were people, so we got in the habit of cross-referencing our questions, often by asking the same thing of different people.
How many gods in the Hindu religion? We were quite shocked to receive the same answer from 2 different Indians; 33 million!
So when I got home I had to do some research. In the Vedas (the oldest scriptures of Hinduism), there are mention of 33 dieties, followed by a Sanskrit word that is apparently open to interpretation. Thousand? Hundred-thousand? Million?
So at least we know where the "33" comes from.
Hindusm is extremely complex (and I find quite beautiful), and I will have more to comment on later in the series.
Here is the Wikipedia link on Hindu Dieties, not a bad starting point:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_deities
By the way, Ganesha is widely revered as the Remover of Obstacles. No wonder he is liked so much beyond the borders of India.