Page:An Essay On Hinduism.pdf/40



HE words, Hinduism, Hindu religion, Brahmanism, etc., are of European coinage. In Sanskrit there is no word which can convey the exact meaning or the exact number of meanings which the word "religion" conveys to the Western world. At present, the word "religion" is translated in the modern Indian languages like Marathi and Hindi by the word "dharma"; but the latter word, taken as it is from Sanskrit, with a traditional meaning of its own, conveys to a Hindu mind a set of ideas entirely different from those which are conveyed to Christians by the word "religion." "Religion" is, in fact, a word extremely abused, and it is of questionable value as a term in the comparative study of civilizations, or in a general social science; though it may be useful in the study of European civilization. What I propose to do here is to state the different conceptions that are involved in the word "religion" in the popular mind, so far as I can understand them. I shall then discuss whether the term "religion" can be applied to Hinduism.

When a Christian thinks of religion he generally conceives of a system characterized by the following ideas. He first of all thinks, that a religion should explain questions like, what is God? what becomes of man after

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