Amrutur V. Srinivasan - Hinduism For Dummies

Hinduism For Dummies

by Dr. Amrutur V. Srinivasan

Hinduism For Dummies

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2011930297

ISBN: 978-0-470-87858-3 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-11075-1 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-11076-8 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-11077-5 (ebk)

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About the Author

Dr. Amrutur Venkatachar Srinivasan was born in India in the village of Amrutur, Kunigal Taluk, in the southern state of Karnataka. He had eight years of formal education in Sanskrit, the liturgical language of Hinduism, followed by many years in the United States performing a wide variety of Hindu religious ceremonies of worship, weddings, housewarmings, and bhajans or kirtans.

His publication The Vedic Wedding: Origins, Tradition and Practice (Periplus Line LLC, 2006, www.periplusbooks.com) is widely acclaimed and won the USA Book News 2007 Best Book Award in the category of Eastern Religions. He has developed a contemporary format for Vedic (Hindu) weddings that retains all essential Vedic rites within a one- to two-hour ceremony, and in practice has blended this approach with those of other creeds in many interfaith weddings. See www.indianweddings.us.com.

He is a popular writer and speaker and has published/presented numerous papers on a variety of cultural, social, and religious issues in the United States and India. He has taught courses on the classical literature of India at the University of Connecticut and Wesleyan University. As the primary founding member of the Connecticut Valley Hindu Temple Society, he conducted pujas in private homes and delivered a series of lectures on the Mahabharata in the 1970s as part of a fundraising campaign for the temple project. He also founded the Raga Club of Connecticut in 2006 aimed at preserving and promoting the classical music of India. His latest publication, Hindu Wedding: The Guide (White River Press, 2010), is available in paperback format. It retains the Vedic ceremony in full detail, with some revision, and a CD with all mantras is included in the book.

Dedication

To the Hindu community in Connecticut whose support, encouragement, and confidence helped in making my commitments to the community deeper in the past four decades. And to my parents and to my village, Amrutur, both of whom provided a firm foundation in Hinduism. And to my dear wife Kamla whose constant and continuous support, encouragement, and guidance over the past four decades have been invaluable. For this project she was the first one who reviewed my drafts and maintained a dialogue that helped shape the submissions to Wiley. And to my daughters Asha and Sandhya whose unconditional love and support made everything possible. And finally to my grandchildren Sunil (3) and Naveen (1), both of whom opened my eyes to the real meaning of divinity in human beings. May God bless them to grow up and thrive within the framework of dharma.

Authors Acknowledgments

It is a pleasure to acknowledge the interest, enthusiasm, and hard work on the part of the Wiley team: Tracy Barr who received, read, and made the much needed modifications on the first drafts; Joan Friedman who copyedited the material with care and led the project to its final shape; and Erin C. Mooney who provided overall direction to the execution of the efforts. These three ladies made sure that the focus was always on you, the reader. Also I must acknowledge Mike Baker at Wiley who was the first to contact me in October of 2009 to inquire about writing this book and helped shape a preliminary version of the contents. This project got on timely track due to the keen interest taken by my agent, Linda Roghaar of Amherst, MA.

My sincere thanks go to Professor Jeffery Long, Chair, Religious Studies, Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania who took time to read a few chapters and offer useful critique and comments. I thank my friends Dr. Suresh Shenoy, Joseph Getter, Gregory Besek, and Dr. Deborah Willard who all readily agreed to read the early versions of some chapters and offered helpful comments. Thanks also to my family friends Priyamvada and Dr. T.S. Sankar, Sushma and Arvind Gupta, and architect Barun Basu for their encouragement and for sharing their knowledge and some photographs for possible use in the book.