Hindu traditions
Quick overview
Hindu traditions encompass many texts, deities, philosophies, and practices rather than one doctrine. Dharma, karma, liberation, devotion, and yoga are useful doorways, but their meanings depend on school and setting. Yoga is far wider than posture practice.
Read the full article ↓In depth
Hindu traditions encompass many communities, deities, texts, philosophical schools, and forms of worship across South Asia and the diaspora. Dharma, karma, liberation, devotion, and yoga are useful entry points, but their meanings are contested and situated. This page is a map of differences, not a proposal that Hinduism has one scripture or one account of the self.
Many histories, not one origin story
The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes Hindu philosophy through several schools of argument. Religious life also includes household practice, temple worship, festivals, poetry, and regional lineages that no philosophical taxonomy can contain. The Vedas and Upaniṣads are important to many, yet not every community gives them the same role. An atlas should therefore name the particular text, school, or community whenever it moves from a broad term to a specific claim.
Sources for this section: Hindu philosophy · Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy ↗ · Where puja happens · Smithsonian ↗ · Goddess Worship and Bhakti · Oxford Bibliographies in Hinduism ↗
Dharma and karma in context
Dharma can refer to duty, ethical order, teaching, or a way of life depending on a text and setting. Karma concerns action and consequences, but its moral interpretation varies. Neither word should be turned into a claim that suffering is deserved or that social inequality is justified. Historical Hindu debates include conflicting views of obligation, caste, liberation, and the relation between personal choice and inherited roles. Those arguments belong in the account.
Sources for this section: Hindu philosophy · Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy ↗
Liberation and the question of self
Mokṣa names liberation in many traditions, yet schools disagree over what is liberated and what relation a person has to ultimate reality. Advaita Vedānta, especially in Śaṅkara's writings, argues differently from dualist Vedānta and Sāṃkhya. Stanford's article on Śaṅkara shows a worked philosophical system with textual interpretation and argument, not a generic lesson that all religions say consciousness is one. Separate pages should follow these differences closely.
Sources for this section: Hindu philosophy · Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy ↗ · Śaṅkara and Advaita Vedānta · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ↗
Bhakti and relations with the divine
Devotional traditions include relationships to Viṣṇu, Śiva, Devī, and many locally significant forms of the divine. Poetry, song, temple practice, and service can be central. Some communities emphasize a personal deity, others an impersonal ultimate, and many hold complex views that resist either label. A philosophical list of doctrines would miss the embodied and literary life of devotion. The meaning of a name or practice is learned through its lineage and language.
Sources for this section: Hindu philosophy · Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy ↗ · Basic Hindu beliefs · Smithsonian ↗ · Goddess Worship and Bhakti · Oxford Bibliographies in Hinduism ↗ · Bhakti · www.saet.ac.uk ↗
Yoga is wider than posture
Classical Yoga texts discuss disciplined attention and release, while other Hindu traditions use yoga in different ways. Modern global posture practice is another historical development, not the whole tradition. It is misleading to present a single eight-step exercise as the ancient essence of all Hinduism. The school of Yoga also debates metaphysics and ethics with other Indian systems. Any practice-oriented article should identify which textual tradition it describes and avoid claims of medical efficacy without medical evidence.
Sources for this section: Hindu philosophy · Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy ↗ · Sāṃkhya and Yoga on emotion · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ↗ · Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice · Oxford University Press ↗ · Yoga traditions · Oxford Bibliographies ↗
What an umbrella should do
This overview links themes while keeping their histories distinct: Jain and Buddhist traditions have related South Asian histories but are not subdivisions of Hinduism. Hindu communities differ on the authority of texts, deities, social obligations, and paths to liberation. A discussion of dharma in one school cannot stand for every Hindu life. Translation and community interpretation matter because familiar English slogans often hide disagreements about who owes what to whom.
Sources for this section: Hindu philosophy · Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy ↗ · Śaṅkara and Advaita Vedānta · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ↗
Debate is part of continuity
The same inherited term can be argued over by philosophers, poets, reformers, and temple communities. That disagreement is itself part of Hindu intellectual history. Accounts of dharma or liberation should identify who is speaking and whose obligations are being described, especially where caste or gender limits shaped access. A concept can remain valuable to a reader while the historical restrictions around one formulation are named and criticised.
Sources for this section: Hindu philosophy · Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy ↗ · Śaṅkara and Advaita Vedānta · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ↗ · Sāṃkhya and Yoga on emotion · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ↗ · Gender and access in Hindu traditions · Oxford Bibliographies ↗
How modern posture practice acquired its form
Mark Singleton's historical study traces the rise of posture-centred yoga from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. It follows physical culture, image making, and teachers including T. Krishnamacharya, drawing on archives and interviews. This history does not make today's practice inauthentic; it shows that continuity can include invention, exchange, and new bodies of instruction. It also cautions against treating an exercise class as a transparent window onto every earlier yoga tradition, or presenting one modern sequence as what all Hindus have always done. A reader can value a present practice more honestly by learning which parts come from particular teachers and periods, and which questions belong to older philosophical and devotional histories.
Sources for this section: Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice · Oxford University Press ↗
Distilled highlights
Short ideas for orientation; the article and sources provide context.
DharmaA many-sided term concerning duty, order, teaching, and right conduct.
KarmaAction and its consequences, understood differently across schools.
MokṣaLiberation, a major goal in many traditions.
BhaktiDevotional relationship and practice.
YogaA range of disciplined paths, much broader than modern posture classes.