My current read is Karen Armstrong’s History of God .

Theogony has always fascinated me. So has how Gods are born, grow unfashionable and then die out. . It is almost a peek back into society and figuring out how society evolved and with it evolved faith – especially organised faith.

I know a bit about the Semetic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – and reading Armstrong’s account of how cultures essentially polytheistic cultures adopted rigid monotheism is fascinating. Her opening lines hook you:

In the begining, human beings created a God who was the First Cause of all things and the Ruler of heaven and earth. He was not represented by images and had no temple or priests in his service. He was too exalted for an inadequate human cult. Gradually he faded from the consciousness of his people. He had become so remote that they decided that did not want him anymore. Eventually he was said to have disappeared.

And then she starts with the origin of religion in the ancient world – Babylon, Assyria, Persia ,- how they began as polytheistic religons that focussed on agriculture, fertility and the like. And, how over a centuries they moved on to being something quite different. How Yahweh – the god of the Jews – claimed supermacy over all other Gods. How Christianity took root, and how Islam came in to fill a need gap. In his beahviour God is not very nice. He throws tantrums, bullies the devout into worship, blackmails them for their loyalty – Forsake all other Gods for me, and I will help you. The period Armstrong describes also sees the end of the mother goddess worship in the region.

From me ‘Hindu’ gods and godesses have fascinated me far more than the distant monotheistic God of the Semetic religions. For obvious reasons, I have grown up with the mythologies, the stories, and feel a certain closeness to them But, Hindu gods are not what they were many millenia ago.

I am sure that the earliest Indian – the Adi Dravida – worshipped some tree somewhere. But, Dravidian Gods were far more in human form. Skanda, Shankara, Amman.
The Rigvedic gods – were Indra, Varuna, Vayu, Agni and Mitra. They were like the Greek Gods – not really nice. Angry, Selfish, coveting other men’s wives, generally badly behaved. A bit like football hooligans. It is no surprise that we dumped them enmasse. Apart from Agni in front of whom we do our havan – we really don’t have much truck with that lot. So, though we say we are an “aryan” culture – what ever that means – the Gods that we worship are not. They are much more animistic, personal and probably ‘Dravidian’ gods – Krishna, Shankara, Skanda, Uma, Kali, Vithala, Ganesha and the lot. Hindu fundamentalists may argue that Rudra was Shiva and Indra became Vishnu/Krishna – but that is more because they like this unified concept of Hinduism – that started at one point and continued rather than a confluence of wars, cultures, people, thoughts etal. And they would rather be nomads from the Volga than of African origin 🙂

There is a fascinating story that I had read about Jaganatha at the Jaganath Puri Temple. He is worshipped there along with his siblings – Balarama and Subadhra. And the gods claim kinship with the local tribals. It is the tribals who make the main offerings to this temple and the Brahmins consume that.

I had earlier read a book by Sandhya Jain called Adi Deo Arya Devata – A Panoramic View of Tribal Hindu Cultural Interface. It is a fairly easy read on how there is a close link between Tribal and Aryan Gods. She blames the British – they are an effective scapegoat – for creating a chasm between the ancient tribes – Adi Dravida – and the much more modern settlers – Aryans 🙂 – in terms of being different cultures. It is a slightly light book and i am not really sure of its scholarship. Yet, it did give me a lot of triggers for thinking about.

But, by far the most engrossing book that i had read on this topic was The Indian Theogony: A Comparative Study of Indian Mythology from the Vedas to the Puranas. It was also the most difficult of all my reads. It is aslo an extemely good starting point if sociology and society interest you.

Society and History and who wins makes such an impact on who is finally worshipped. But the Hindu system has been a bit like the Borg – assimilating everyone in their path and adding their uniqueness to the over all system. So it is a bit difficult if not impossible to untangle where which God began his/her journey. And for me the fascination with Gods is a fascination with history and society. Who were these people. Why did they worship these Gods – with their unique properties? When did they stop ? Was their a war? Was there something else? Given the lack of written history it is a fascinating what if scenario- who knows

For the record I am a theist. Mostly a rampant Polytheist – I adore all my Gods with all their innate weaknesses. And in my pantheon Christ, and Allah and Yahweh can fit without any issues. Afterall, when you have a few million Gods – 3 more is not going to break the bank. But at the most fundamental level my faith is in the nirguna bhraman – the most incredible concept ever. A god without shape or form. without atributes. and who is beyond space and time. Try and visualise this on a rainy day adn it becomes very apparent why we go back to our cuddly idols.