Textbook "Indian Customs and Practices" by author Do Thu Ha (Associate Professor, PhD, Faculty of Oriental Studies) published by Hanoi National University Publishing House in 2012.
India is a country with 5000 years of history with a civilization that shines brightly not only to the East but also to all of humanity. The important factor that contributes to the unity and diversity of this country is culture. However, to know and understand thoroughly one of the oldest cultures in the world like India is not easy, it requires effort and intelligence for research. This section only presents one aspect of that massive culture, which is the customs and practices in the daily life of the Indian people.
Customs are things that become customary law, deeply rooted and firmly rooted in the people, more powerful than laws. In the cultural traditions of ethnic groups, there are many good customs and practices necessary for human morality and social discipline. A revolution can quickly change the political system, followed by a series of changes in the legal system. Customs also constantly change according to the trend of cultural and social change, but they are more persistent and have their own rules, not easily followed by everyone, every family, every class overnight. Good customs will be imitated by many people, bad customs will be gradually abandoned by many people.(1).
Customs themselves are also part of that social struggle, which is and will continue to be between the old and the new. Concepts of aesthetics are also constantly changing.(2)For example, the tufted hair of men in Vietnam is clearly outdated but it took a long struggle to disappear, but the black teeth of women in the past were praised as beautiful and graceful in Vietnam, but a few years after the August Revolution, no one forced them to, but they naturally disappeared to make way for white teeth.
The movement to build a new cultural lifestyle in Vietnam or other Eastern countries today, is not simply based on subjective thoughts but must know how to apply good customs to the way of life, thinking, actions, and ways of dealing with others, in accordance with the evolutionary trend. There are traditional customs originating from practical experiences in ancient life, which are no longer suitable for the times, becoming depraved customs. We also need to study to know the reasons, from there apply them appropriately to the present and the future, or find good customs to supplement and gradually eliminate the bad ones. Of course, the nature of each individual is to live, communicate, and integrate with the social community, fake styles, contrary to customs, national identity, contrary to the eyes of the masses will be self-eliminated and gradually eliminated. The same goes for customs, restoring and promoting good customs will certainly be supported and welcomed by all classes of people; Restoring and reviving the depraved customs will be condemned by society. Before delving into the specific issues of customs and practices of the Indian people in everyday life, we will review some basic concepts of instrumental nature.
Purpose and meaning of the subject
The Department of Indology of the Faculty of Oriental Studies has just been opened, so the teaching and research materials of the department are still very limited. Even domestic books and newspapers in Vietnamese written about Indology are very lacking and not systematic. This is a real difficulty for teachers and students of our Department. To contribute to solving these difficulties and helping students have initial materials, we are trying to compile textbooks for the Department of Indology in general and for the subject of Indian Culture in particular.
In studying Indology, our Department teaches a number of topics, of which Indian Customs and Practices is a three-credit subject. We intend to outline the main features of Indian customs and practices in funerals, weddings, house building, childbirth, pilgrimages, ancestor worship, etc. in order of the life cycle. To help students absorb the lecture more easily, we will outline some general features of Indian culture before going into details.
We raise the above issue because there are other subjects in the Department that teach in parallel other aspects of Indology such as Indian Religion, Indian History, Indian Literature, Indian Ethnicity and Language, Indian Political Institutions and International Relations, Indian Cultural History Process, etc. We do not want to repeat the information that has been given in depth and breadth on each topic, so we will only focus on customs, traditional rituals and cultural changes in the period of modernization and globalization that are taking place strongly in the daily lives of Indian people.
When going into the introduction of Indian customs and rituals, we would like to focus on the customs and rituals of Hindus because they account for nearly 82% of the Indian population (BBC's 2004 figure). However, to clarify the characteristics of Indian customs through specific examples, we will also compare the issues raised in the relationship with the ethnic groups in India, which are very large in number, very complex and rich in diversity, so that students can have a more general view.
Another aspect that we also pay close attention to is that in India, customs and practices are closely linked to religion. Customs and practices in India are so closely intertwined with religious rituals and ceremonies that we are forced to present the problems and phenomena of Indian customs and practices in a religious context. Certainly, the customs of Hindus or Muslims… cannot be separated from the ideology, rituals and ceremonies of these religions. Religious rituals and ceremonies have become an inseparable part of Indian customs and practices. Therefore, we are forced to present Indian customs and practices together with their rituals and ceremonies.
Research methods
In this course, we will try to explain cultural phenomena in the direction of “All history, all culture” as proposed by Indian researcher Bhagwat Saran Upadhyaya. This means that we will seek the origin of each cultural characteristic or phenomenon based on the foundation of religion, history, ethnicity, thinking… of the Indian people. We will try to apply interdisciplinary research methods, comparison, listing… to clarify our arguments.
Problem history
Up to now, there are not many books and newspapers about Indian culture in general and Indian customs in particular in Vietnam. Looking back, we see that there are some works as follows:
In 1986, researcher Nguyen Thua Hi wrote two books: Understanding Indian Culture (printed by Culture Publishing House) and Understanding Indian Culture (Education Publishing House, Hanoi), which mentioned many aspects of Indian culture with very interesting and accurate comments, aimed at a wide range of readers and those interested in Indian culture in general. However, these two books did not mention anything about the customs and practices of the ethnic groups in India but only focused on aspects such as literature, history, religion, etc.
In 1993, the talented researcher Cao Huy Dinh, after studying in India, published a series of works and articles about India, including the book Indian Culture (Culture Publishing House, Hanoi, 1993). Associate Professor, Dr. Dinh Trung Kien introduced India in general through the book India, Yesterday and Today (National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 1995). The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies also published the book India Past and Present published by the Social Sciences Publishing House in 1997 with 350 pages. In particular, Professor Nguyen Tan Dac published a monograph on Indian Culture published by Ho Chi Minh City Publishing House in 2000 - 342 pages with a lot of valuable information.
From another perspective of comparing and contrasting Indian culture with other cultures, researcher Cao Xuan Huy wrote the book Eastern Thought Suggests Reference Points (Literature Publishing House, 1995) and the research group of Professor Luong Duy Thu published the book Outline of Eastern Culture (Education Publishing House, 1997).
In particular, there is also a long work by researcher Nguyen Duc Dan on Philosophical Thought and Indian Literary and Cultural Life, Literature Publishing House, Hanoi, 1996. This is a relatively elaborate work, going into detail about aspects of Indian culture such as philosophy, religion, society, literature, etc.
Works by world researchers on Indian culture were also selected to be translated in Vietnam, such as History of Indian Civilization by W. Durant, translated by Nguyen Hien Le, published by the Information Center of Ho Chi Minh City University of Education in 1992 (republished by the Culture and Information Publishing House in the first quarter of 2004) or Discovery of India by J. Nehru, translated by Pham Thuy Ba, Le Ngoc, Hoang Tuy and Nguyen Tam in 1990, published by the Literature Publishing House, Hanoi; Mysterious India by P. Pruton (Literature Publishing House, Hanoi, 1993)...
Besides, there are also a number of in-depth articles on aspects of Indian culture such as Ancient Indian Art (Fine Arts Magazine, No. 1, 1989)...
However, we have compiled this textbook only to introduce Indian customs and practices as a monograph, not to go into a broad scope and spread out on all aspects like other authors. Regarding this approach, we find that a section of about 15 pages in the book India, Yesterday and Today by Associate Professor, Dr. Dinh Trung Kien seems to be closest to our point of view.
While teaching this course, we will use some other documents that we have compiled, namely the section on Symbolism of Ancient India in the 2001 school-level scientific research work on Symbolism in the epics Mahabharata and Ramayana, the introduction to Indian culture in the work The Influence of Indian Culture on the Region - a lecture for graduate students at the Faculty of Oriental Studies in 2001 and the Textbook on the Historical Process of Indian Culture in 2010 to serve as a basis for a deeper understanding of the origins of Indian culture.
Course requirements
When studying this subject, students must master the main customs of India, their origins, and changes over time; what are the similarities and differences between Hindu customs and practices with other ethnic groups and religions, and finally, how to compare them with the reality in Vietnam.
To obtain this research result, we would like to express our sincere and deep gratitude to the Faculty of Oriental Studies, the Board of Directors of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (under the Vietnam National University, Hanoi); the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR); the Asian Scholarship Foundation, the Ford Foundation, etc. In particular, I would like to express my gratitude to Associate Professor, Dr. Ngo Van Doanh, who has given extremely valuable comments. It is thanks to the support and enthusiastic help, both material and spiritual, from all relevant parties that I have completed this textbook after nearly 10 years of research.
Although we have tried our best, due to time and limited level, the textbook certainly still has many errors and shortcomings. We look forward to receiving guidance and contributions from readers near and far so that the next printing will have better quality.
Thanks a lot.
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1Becker, Howard S, 1982, “Culture: A Sociological View,” Yale Review , 71(4): 513-27.
2Boyd, Robert and Peter J. Richerson, 1985, Culture and the Evolutionary Process, Chicago: University of Chicago Press .