Wikipedia talk:Hinduism-related topics notice board/Archive 5

Islam has an outline in the OOK, but Hinduism does not
See Outline of Islam.

For instructions, see Outlines.

Also see WP:WPOOK.

Thank you.

Good luck.

Have fun.

The Transhumanist 23:59, 15 June 2009 (UTC)


 * FYI – currently, the project has a list of Hinduism-related topics. Cheers, [ sd ] 03:13, 16 June 2009 (UTC)


 * The outline is still lacking. I'll work on it... --Shruti14 talk • sign 02:47, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

Changes to popular pages lists
There are a few important changes to the popular pages system. A quick summary: -- Mr.Z-man 00:01, 12 July 2009 (UTC)
 * The "importance" ranking (for projects that use it) will be included in the lists along with assessment.
 * The default list size has been lowered to 500 entries (from 1000)
 * I've set up a project on the Toolserver for the popular pages - ~alexz/pop/.
 * This includes a page to view the results for projects, including the in-progress results from the current month. Currently this can only show the results from a single project in one month. Features to see multiple projects or multiple months may be added later.
 * This includes a new interface for making requests to add a new project to the list.
 * There is also a form to request a change to the configuration for a project. Currently the configurable options are the size of the on-wiki list and the project subpage used for the list.
 * The on-wiki list should be generated and posted in a more timely and consistent manner than before.
 * The data is now retained indefinitely.
 * The script used to generate the pages has changed. The output should be the same. Please report any apparent inconsistencies (see below).
 * Bugs and feature requests should be reported using the Toolserver's bug tracker for "alexz's tools" -

Template help?
I'm trying to disambiguate links, and I'm wondering if you can help me. In Template:Caitanya sampradaya, there are two ambiguous links that I can't figure out the correct targets for. One is a link to Padmanabha. The other is a link where the text is Mādhava that's piped to the disambiguation page Madhva. This is confusing to me because to the left of it there's a link where the text is Madhva, and it's piped to Madhvacharya. Is that one a duplicate? If so, which one should be left behind? Dekimasu よ! 00:46, 24 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Bump. Dekimasu よ! 14:48, 21 July 2009 (UTC)
 * FYI, I'm guessing the template is based on this. This edit makes it seem like Madhva and Mādhava are duplicates, but in the link, they appear twice like that. I think some new articles need to be created, or Brahma Sampradaya needs to be expanded – could someone knowledgeable in this subject explain why many names are piped to Madhva? [ sd ] 16:31, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

Talk:Mahābhārata
A move is requested. Please give your views. -- Redtigerxyz Talk 06:22, 14 July 2009 (UTC)


 * I think this move request brings up a good point. Like Mahābhārata, several Hinduism-related articles use IAST names as titles and throughout the article, and I really think they should be moved to the English titles.  It is customary on Wikipedia that titles using characters from non-Latin alphabets (such as Arabic or Sanskrit) to use an English/Latin-based title and text throughout the article, with the IPA/IAST pronunciation referred to in the lead.  It would be more consistent with this to move articles such as Mahābhārata and Jyotiṣa to Mahabharata and Jyotisha, respectively.  I'd like to hear what other people think about this. --Shruti14 talk • sign 14:56, 19 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Proper place Shruti is to discuss it at Naming conventions (Indic), since it should be the same across the board. Wikid as&#169; 01:28, 21 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Discussion moved. --Shruti14 talk • sign 19:31, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

Article Hinduism and Islam really "Islam's view of Hinduism"
The Article Hinduism and Islam is really written as Islam's view of Hinduism; it gives the impression that Hinduism is a consistant point of view and "quickly absorbed all the good cultural things from Hinduism", where as "anything and everything is acceptable in Hinduism so it is just a social construct not a religion".

It does not give any Hindu opinions on Muslim views such as exclusivity. If anyone has the time there is a lot of POV, weasel-words and one-sided criticism that needs addressing. -- Q Chris (talk) 19:48, 20 July 2009 (UTC)
 * (Quick comment) I'm not sure where that article's going, but to all editors, remember Wikipedia's policy of NOR. [ sd ] 23:08, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

Hindu teachings on incest
Forgive an outsider who knows next to nothing about Hinduism bringing up a potentially unpleasant subject. In the main article in incest, we have a section for the views of the major world religions. The section for Hinduism was never particularly well-written and there was a recent suspicious rewrite by a user with no other edits. Because I don't know much about it, I have no practical way to contest this. Can someone contribute their knowledge to this article section?

One clarification that seems to be an ongoing problem when people edit incest: the label of incest is based on culture and regional law, and is defined by that culture. The purpose of covering the views of religions is to demonstrate what those religions consider to be incest (prohibited) and what they consider to be permitted. Note also there is a separate article for government-imposed laws.Legitimus (talk) 13:02, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

Hindu deities
&thinsp;—&thinsp;Currently, this project has no featured lists, so I started working on the list of Hindu deities. I've finished the deities whose names begin with A, so I've come here to request feedback and also alert members who may be interested on working on it as well. said, "Each God should have a rudimentary description beside it," so I've tried to add sourced one-line descriptions, such as "god of ..." and "incarnation of ..." I also converted the bulleted list into a table, which seems to popular among FLs. → Draft. Again, the draft is in my user space; it shouldn't be moved to the main namespace until it is complete (in my opinion), so that the list will look uniform for the reader. After the list is complete, a well-written and comprehensive lead will need to be added, with a relevant image. Thank you, [ sd ] 01:24, 25 July 2009 (UTC)
 * 1) Which deities are missing from the draft? What should be the criteria for inclusion?
 * 2) * I first took the deities from the original list, and then checked Chandra 1998 and Friedrichs 1994 for completeness, but I'm only human.
 * 3) * The current standard is just deities with existing articles (on Wikipedia).
 * 4) How should the list be organized?
 * 5) * Right now, there are three columns: deity, description, and references.
 * 6) Which references are not reliable?
 * 7) * With the exception of Friedrichs 1994, all references were found with the help of Google Book Search.
 * 8) The list already has many items – 25 more letters to go. Should the list eventually be split up?
 * 9) * Examples of lists that were split up and went through the FLC process individually: numerous television shows by season, Florida hurricanes, and LGB people.
 * 10) Any other suggestions?
 * Since Sanskrit is Hinduism's liturgical language, there could be columns for the deity's name in Sanskrit and its literal meaning. Unfortunately, I can't read or write in Sanskrit, and the books won't have those pieces of information for all the deities. Cheers, [ sd ] 04:48, 25 July 2009 (UTC)
 * I don't want to sound pessimistic, but the completeness of the list can not be guaranteed. There are numerous regional deities which may not be present in the list. e.g Aravan a Tamil village god. Also, Hindus have 33 crore deities according to a legend that's a big no. -- Redtigerxyz Talk 14:43, 27 July 2009 (UTC)
 * To restrict deities, a list can be improved. -- Redtigerxyz  Talk 14:47, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

"Cult" / "Sect"
(Brought up at Talk:Iravan.) I think all Hinduism articles that use the words "cult" or "sect" must be careful to clarify the terms — they often have negative connotations in the West, especially in Christianity, while they are merely value-free descriptions in Hinduism. For example, the OED and Merriam-Webster have the following definitions, among others:
 * cult: (OED) "A relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister"
 * cult: (MW) "a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious"
 * sect: (MW) "a dissenting religious body; especially: one that is heretical in the eyes of other members within the same communion"

Whereas what we actually mean is something like the following meanings:
 * cult: (OED) "A particular form or system of religious worship; esp. in reference to its external rites and ceremonies."
 * cult: (MW) "religious practice" / "a system of beliefs and ritual connected with the worship of a deity, a spirit, or a group of deities or spirits" / "the rites, ceremonies, and practices of a religion : the formal aspect of religious experience"
 * sect: (OED) "b. A religious order. Obs." / "A religious following; adherence to a particular religious teacher or faith."
 * sect: (MW) "a group within an organized religion whose adherents recognize a special set of teachings or practices" / "a separate group adhering to a distinctive doctrine or way of thinking or to a particular leader."

It is important not to mislead readers into thinking that a particular religious following is somehow "strange or sinister", "spurious", or "heretical". Perhaps the first mention (in the lead) of 'cult' or 'sect' could have a footnote clarifying the meaning? Any suggestions for the wording? Shreevatsa (talk) 16:36, 28 July 2009 (UTC)


 * The eternal dispute crops up again. It is already discussed at FA Vithoba. see Talk:Vithoba/Archive_2. Cult (religious practice) is an expectable use of the word "cult". See Words_to_avoid. The word "cult" is used in numerous scholarly books. Sects usually have formal names like the Varkari sect or Vaishnava sect, but what about "sects" or "cults" which do not have formal names? like Khandoba cult or Kuttantavar cult, here Khandoba or Kuttantavar are names of deities and NOT formal names of the sect. Saying, "Khandoba sect" will be not proper. As a basic rule, I follow: use sect wherever possible, but use "cult" when needed to be accurate. -- Redtigerxyz  Talk 13:55, 29 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Perhaps an eternal dispute, but there's no dispute in this case (yet). :-) I agree that cult is used in scholarly books. There is also perhaps no other alternative sometimes. But you must admit that cult is usually used with negative connotations, and as Words to avoid says, "Cult has several different meanings, but usually with negative connotations. Its use should be avoided...". I agree that "Khandoba cult" or "Draupadi cult" might be the best available names, but we must point out at the first mention that we don't mean cult with any negative connotation. Just linking to cult (religious practice) might have been sufficient, but that article is in somewhat bad shape, and calls it "the original and typically ancient sense", and "traditional usage", not scholarly / academic usage. Shreevatsa (talk) 16:24, 29 July 2009 (UTC)


 * In some cases you might be able to rephrase and say something like "followers of Draupadi" -- Q Chris (talk) 18:49, 29 July 2009 (UTC)


 * May I suggest worshippers of Khandoba?--Nemonoman (talk) 19:03, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

Any hindus here who could comment/revert back to my edit on the page creationism?
I am not a hindu. However, I did about 3 hours of research and synthesized what I could understand about the Hindu ideas of creation into a small section of this article creationism at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creationism, which user:Hrafn deleted as unsourced material. I am not a hindu and am hoping to find some help from here. If you agree with my edits, please help me revert to version 305397409 of the main page.

Here is what I wrote. You can see the much smaller current version of creationism, which mostly talks only about the christian point of view. Thanks for revisions.

Hinduism and creationism
- 	A variety of theories exist regarding the universe, but in general the Hindu view of the cosmos is both eternal and cyclic. An account is recorded in the scriptures according to which the universe, the Earth, along with humans and other creatures undergo repeated cycles of creation and destruction (pralaya) depending on whether it is the day or night for the creator god Brahma of the Hindu Trinity. Put simply, creation occurs when Brahma is awake as his lila (amusement) and the universe is destroyed when he sleeps. The time scales of the Hindu creation cycle correspond roughly to the modern cosmology. According to Carl Sagan, "A day of Brahma is 8.64 billion years long, longer than the age of the Earth or the Sun and about half the time since the Big Bang". + 	According to Carl Sagan, "A day of Brahma is 8.64 billion years long, longer than the age of the Earth or the Sun and about half the time since the Big Bang". - 		 - 	In general, many Hindus also believe in evolution due to the serial progression of avatars, which are similar to the scientific concept of evolution. When Brahma is awake, in addition to all life, the god also creates "avatars" which are (manifestations) of the second god in the trinity, Vishnu. There are several stages and avatars of several gods, (25 in some texts, but the 10 attributed to Vishnu, called Dasavatara of Vishnu), are important in maintaining life. Among the ten major avatars, nine have already appeared and the final one will appear in the future (at the end of the Brahma's day when all time ends). The 8.4 billion years is divided into four epochs or yugas, named in reverse order (4 or Sathya, 3 or treta, 2 or dwapara and 1 or Kali) of progression in time. The avatars of Vishnu start with the non human: the first is a fish (Matsya), then a tortoise (Kurma), then a boar (Varaha) and finally a half-man/half-lion (Narasimha); all of which appeared in the Satya Yuga (or the "pure age or true age"). The first humanoid, a dwarf man (Vamana), then appears, followed by an axe bearing man (Parashurama), and then appears a fully human avatar (Ramachandra), all described in the Treta Yuga (third epoch). More human avatars appear in the next, Dwapara Yuga (or second epoch), with Krishna (meaning 'dark colored' or 'very attractive') avatar, along with his brother Balarama (or Buddha in other texts). When Krishna disappeared from the earth, the final epoch or Kali Yuga (the "foul" age or the "age of Anger") started. We are now living in the Kali Yuga. The only avatar expected in this epoch is the final avatar Kalki (in some texts Shiva), also called "the destroyer of foulness", or "Eternity", or simply "time"). This is the final of the god trinity, who will bring with him the end of the life and time cycles and all life will be released from Brahma's lila or maya (translates to play or farce or unreality) to rejoin the cosmic consciousness or Brahman to attain (moksha). Then Brahma will sleep until his next day comes, when he wakes up the life cycles and time cycles begin once again.

HrafnTalkStalk(P) 06:56, 1 August 2009 (UTC)
 * 1) WP:Synthesis of material is specifically forbidden.
 * 2) The point of WP:V is to find sources before you make additions to an article.


 * Simply putting together stuff from sources is not WP:Synthesis; it is the core mechanism of all article-writing on Wikipedia. WP:Synthesis only applies when it "advances a new position" or "reach[es] a conclusion not explicitly stated by any of the sources". That said, issues of verifiability are quite another matter. (But most of the material in that paragraph does seem to be true, and it should be possible to find sources. Making the connection between the Daśāvatāra and evolution is the only thing that's "advancing a new position", and subject to WP:SYN.) Shreevatsa (talk) 17:04, 1 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Isn't it that connection that makes it relevant to the article? Dougweller (talk) 18:00, 1 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Depends on what the article is supposed to be. If "creationism" is defined as "the rejection of evolution" or "Bible-literalist Christianity", then obviously nothing about Hinduism is going to be relevant to the article (except for the ISKCON fringe). If it is about creation myths in general, and beliefs about how/when the universe/world was created by a deity, then all the stuff about Brahma's day and night and cycles of creation and destruction is all relevant; the avatara stuff is not (unless some reliable source has made the connection to evolution). Ok, maybe we should stop discussing here and stick to Talk:Creationism. :-) Shreevatsa (talk) 18:37, 1 August 2009 (UTC)


 * The connection of Dashavatara and Darwin's evolution is old. Read -- Redtigerxyz  Talk 06:27, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Need identification of a deity
Are there enough identifying attributes to say what deity this is? I presume it's Hindu (if it's not made up). - Jmabel | Talk 00:27, 23 June 2009 (UTC)


 * I don't know. The lotus is common in Hinduism. However, if the rainbow is associated with the deity, then it belongs to Indra since the rainbow is Indra's bow. [ sd ] 01:45, 23 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Seems like Green Tara (Buddhism). -- Redtigerxyz Talk 06:01, 23 June 2009 (UTC)


 * I think it's a Green Krishna, or something. Looking online, that parade is a wacky wild event that doesn't seem to put much emphasis on encyclopedic accuracy :-) . Priyanath talk 06:15, 23 June 2009 (UTC)


 * I agree about the lack of encyclopedic accuracy. Upright rainbows?! The way the deity is styled, I doubt it's supposed to be Indra. Who is this supposed to be a pic of, and what for? and what article is it for? 24.13.91.63 (talk) 15:04, 19 July 2009 (UTC)
 * It is most certainly Green Tara. Hasn't anyone compared the picture to the photos on Google?  Even the description matches. Viriditas (talk) 10:50, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Sadhvi Ritambhara
Can anybody find reliable sources on her? GizzaDiscuss  &#169; 10:07, 11 August 2009 (UTC)


 * The article is on horrible shape, but she is a very prominent Sangh Parivar leader and certainly notable enough to have a wikipedia article. There should be plenty of news sources especially related to the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri masjid case. Abecedare (talk) 10:39, 11 August 2009 (UTC)

Lila
Hello, everyone. I would like to help expand this article but I was hoping some experts here would be able to provide a to-do list or help out with a roadmap. If anyone can give some pointers for expansion on the talk page, that would be helpful! Thanks. Viriditas (talk) 10:35, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Jambavantha
Hello, I have written on Jambavantha and his role in Ramayan. Could any one reveiw it and give his feedback. Premchanda. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Premchanda (talk • contribs) 04:08, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Aghori
I've posed a request for clarification over on the Aghori page in regards to the word "Aughads". Since I don't know if anyone has this as a watchlist item, I figured I would point it out here. Thanks. --Human.v2.0 (talk) 00:57, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Template:Hinduism
An editor would like to make quite a number of significant changes to Template:Hinduism, an important template which appears on many articles. Please discuss at Template_talk:Hinduism (it's more than a reorganization, as it includes many removals and additions). Priyanath talk 15:08, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Please check out Saptashrangi
As part of an article merger I recently did some cleanup on that page. However, it's very possible that I botched something. Please take a look and improve the article wherever you can. @harej 22:53, 18 September 2009 (UTC)

Call for editors to help manage religion related content
Please see Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Religion. Thank you. John Carter (talk) 19:12, 19 September 2009 (UTC)

Created stub for Tridevi
... because there were already (red) links to it in other articles, thus an obvious need; and because it is the counterpart to existing Trimurti. However, this is a very short article, one paragraph, as I didn't want to make stupid mistakes by overreaching. It would be nice to see it reach even half the length of the Trimurti article, but that will require more knowledgeable writers. — Sizzle Flambé (☎/✍) 18:22, 22 September 2009 (UTC)

Angad kood
I have read about this is my schoolbook. When i was in my 4th or 5th standard there was a lesson in my Hindi textbook on Angad kood. I could not find any reference of this on internet. But the lesson Angad kood i liked so much that i remember it till date. So i request you to anyone please find a reference for this article and please provide your feedback if any one has read about this anywhere. Thanks and Regards. Premchanda (talk) 05:50, 26 September 2009 (UTC)

Recent edits on the page for Swami Shanti Kali Maharaj
I just viewed the page for Swami Shanti Kali, a martyred priest who worked in Tripura. There were a number of recent edits by a single person which are simply inexplicable. First, the link to the organization responsible for his death, NLFT, had been replaced by a link to an unrelated Hindu organization. Second, the entire section on his background had been altered with derogatory phrases being littered around in an essentially arbitrary manner. Finally, this person had edited the section on his death attributing it to a political party in India, apparently having forgotten that he had blamed it on a Hindu organization in the introduction. I went through and basically reverted to the last edit. I don't understand why someone would engage in such a meaningless act. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.187.114.241 (talk) 01:38, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

Photographs of Gods/Goddesses
Most of the articles about Gods/Goddesses have photographs of paintings from different museums. But these paintings often do not portray the popular image of the Gods/Goddesses. They are not as per the iconography. Is it possible to replace these with photographs of Deities of temples. Is there any copyright issue involved here? Any other problem?--Sankarrukku (talk) 09:16, 2 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Most temples do not allow photographs of the deities. So old (out of copyright) photographs need to be used to avoid copyright issues. Paintings from museums are reliable sources and depict accurate iconography pertaining to the era of creation of the paintings. Replacements of such paintings should be considered on case-to-case basis. If you can point out specific articles where iconography is inaccurate in your view, replacements can be found or WP:RS can be consulted to verify iconography. -- Redtigerxyz Talk 15:04, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

LGBT themes in Hindu mythology
This article has been nominated for GA. Please comment on the GA review page here. Thanks. --Nemonoman (talk) 18:02, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

This article has been passed as a GA. Please review your article rating -- it is currently listed as "C-Class". This should probably be changed. --Nemonoman (talk) 13:37, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

Dasara
As per the discussion at User_talk:Fayenatic_london#Dussehra, it was noticed Dasara means So I propose with Fayenatic london, the current content be merged in Navaratri and Vijayadashami, and Dasara be made a disambig. Suggestions? -- Redtigerxyz Talk 12:39, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Navaratri in some states in the South like Mysore Dasara
 * Vijayadashami (Dussehra) elsewhere.
 * Seems like a good idea. (And no one seems to object so far.) Shreevatsa (talk) 00:36, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Kanhopatra GA nomination in progress
The Kanhopatra GA nomination is being considered. Your thoughts are welcomed on the GA review page. --Nemonoman (talk) 12:10, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

new article on the adhyatma ramayana
Reference in the Adhyatma Ramayana to the hunting and gathering community.

8-28 to 8-41 delineates that "In the forest nearby, Rama and Lakshmana hunted a permitted wild animal, cooked it, offered it, and took the meat for the day as meal"

pg 81, Adhyatma Ramayana by swami tapasyananda, Sri Ramakrishna Math.

This verse proves the nature of the vanvas of Sri Rama as hunters and gatherers and proves the non vegetarian nature of the Vishnu and Vishnavite community. In a frank unbiased investigation, is the need to know the switch to vegetarianism and the loss of many or 'permitted' animals with time. This is a call for research into the foods and diets of people in Hinduism and how it has changed with time, like for example are boar and buffalo permitted animals in Sri Ramas time? This would constitute beef and pork or probably not? With the country divided on these lines, maybe the research is useful? Anil.bheemaiah (talk) 06:58, 13 October 2009 (UTC)


 * The article is Adhyatma Ramayana-The Hunting and gathering community; I think the article needs several secondary sources to establish notability, at present looks tough to survive on wikipedia. --Nvineeth (talk) 08:02, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

The article is not yet completed and is primarily on sri rama hridayam or tattsvamasi the non dual nature of jivathma and paramathma that the adyatma ramayan is about, Guha the king of the hunters meets Rama on Rama's way to Dandaka. Rama does not accept anything offered by Guha but gathers fruits and roots himself(proving the purity of hunting gathering) and also hunts himself for food proving beyond doubt that Rama was a non vegetarian, Mata Sita also promises to offer plentifull offerings to Ganga including wine and meat. It proves that we were not vegetarian but became so, we are omnivorous. I am a vegetarian myself and a saint of Shankaracharya order, but after true god realisation much like Buddha realised that meat is also FOOD. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Anil.bheemaiah (talk • contribs) 13:29, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Philadephia art museum
There are several good quality, high resolution, public domain images available at the Philadelphia art museum which can be used in Hinduism related articles. For ex:
 * Bhagavata Purana
 * Rama
 * Durga

To access the high resolution images, use the following format : http://www.philamuseum.org/images/cad/zoomers//.jpg Where manuscript number is usually a set of numbers separated by dashes, for ex: ... and so on --Nvineeth (talk) 18:14, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * 1) For painting Akrura's Mystic Vision of Krishna/Vishnu and Balarama/Adishesha the high resolution image is located at  http://www.philamuseum.org/images/cad/zoomers//1994-148-483.jpg The manuscript number "1994-148-483" exists in the painting details page.
 * 2) For Painting on Durga, the manuscript number is "2004-149-50" and the painting is located at http://www.philamuseum.org/images/cad/zoomers//2004-149-50.jpg

Diwali
This article has seen recent edit-wars and move-wars, and is in real poor state. Could use some more time and attention. Abecedare (talk) 21:27, 15 October 2009 (UTC)
 * The page is protected now, so comments about improvement must be left on talk page. I also have doubts about the File:Divali Diya.jpg that is used in the infobox. It was uploaded in June 2009, but it can be found all over the internet in pages dating to 2008 or earlier (just search images for "Diwali").The uploader's talk page has notices about other now-deleted copyrighted images. Can this be tagged for speedy deletion? Shreevatsa (talk) 00:36, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * I have nominated the image for deletion. It's possible that the original source released it under a free license, but we'l need evidence of that if it is to be retained. I have also asked if the protection can be changed to semi-. Hopefully the article, which is likely to be getting a lot of views, can be improved soon. Abecedare (talk) 04:20, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * The page is editable by auto-confirmed editors now. Abecedare (talk) 04:28, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks. Meanwhile, the other image seems dubious as well :( It seems to be from here and Flickr, where unfortunately it is "All rights reserved". It is possible that if asked nicely and told that it's for Wikipedia the Flickr user might rerelease it under CC-BY[-SA], but until then we must remove it. It also seems to have been uploaded overwriting an unrelated image of an actual office complex; so it needs just a "revert" on the page, not deletion... but I was hesitant to do it since it's still being used in the article prominently. Shreevatsa (talk) 14:10, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Wow! I have deleted the copyrighted version and removed it from the article. With hundreds of million people celebrating Diwali, can't we find one free image of diwali lamps! Abecedare (talk) 14:19, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * I uploaded a freely licensed image from Flickr and added it to the article. There may be other options available at commons:Category:Diwali. Abecedare (talk) 14:43, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * There was already an existing category: commons:Category:Dipavali. Thanks!--Ekabhishektalk 11:55, 24 October 2009 (UTC)

Universal Society of Hinduism needs attention
Somebody started this. The refs are a complete mess, but I have no idea about the topic. Choyoołʼįįhí:Seb az86556 14:53, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Wendy Doniger
There has been some concern about appropriate content in Wendy Doniger. As a result of the dispute, the page has been fully protected. Resolution of the dispute has been encouraged on Talk:Wendy Doniger. Toddst1 (talk) 12:54, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

List of religious organizations
Hi. The article List of religious organizations is in need of serious help. It was in an abandoned state and discussed for deletion, however I feel it has strong potential to become a useful list. But it needs lots of help and collaboration. Is someone of you interested? -- Cycl o pia talk  23:45, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

Criticism of Hinduism
This article should be reviewed. Pollinosisss (talk) 12:48, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Purna avatar
There appears to be more information on this in the article avatar than the stub. It also only refers to Vishnu, whereas it appears the term has application elsewhere as well. I suggest this article is redirected to avatar until such time as it needs to be split from avatar. Does this seem reasonable? --MegaSloth (talk) 01:27, 2 December 2009 (UTC)


 * Purna avatar is a sad stub indeed. I think it should just redirect straight to Avatar. With just a quick search, I couldn't find any reliable sources for "Shaktyavesa" or the variant "Sakshat avatar". So that section in the Avatar article should probably be condensed and renamed Purna Avatar, imo. Priyanath talk 02:12, 2 December 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks you confirmed my suspicions. I've gone ahead and boldly made the redirect you suggest; objectors feel free to revert and discuss. Apart from removing the now-circular link, I've left the avatar article alone for contributors more familiar with the material to alter. Cheers. --MegaSloth (talk) 10:45, 2 December 2009 (UTC)

Sri Kripalvananda

 * This article was/is under siege by at least half-dozen newly and non-registered editors -- all utter devotees of subject guru.


 * These editors seem neither to understand nor care about aims of Wikipedia.


 * Semi protection expires soon, at which point it is sure to become a low-brow advertisment for the guy, plucked from his Web site.


 * Due to non-notability and lack of good sources, perhaps article should be deleted.
 * It's not presently very acceptable.

Calamitybrook (talk) 20:42, 7 December 2009 (UTC)

Mathura, Uttar Pradesh entry
"Mathura is reputed to be the Gaybar of Krishna at the centre of the main gay community in Braja or Brij-bhoomi, called Krishna-janma-bhoomi, literary 'Krishna's Gay bar'." Is this accurate? I question whether this vandalism? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Psyeudonymous Contreras (talk • contribs) 20:49, 13 December 2009 (UTC)
 * It was vandalism and has been reverted. Abecedare (talk) 22:11, 13 December 2009 (UTC)

Sri Chakra
There's a request for moving the article to Sri Yantra. cheers. - Spaceman  Spiff  05:45, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Puru or Porus
There seems to be confusion with the name Puru. The confusion is between Puru who was Yayati's son and Puru (Porus) who battled with Alexander. In many places it has been mentioned that Puru (Porus) was a descendant of Shoorsainis and the reference is "James Tod, Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan". I checked the book and found James Tod is mentioning that Puru son of Yayati was the ancestor of Prasioi. Also another sentence says the following: "Puru became the patronymic of this branch of the Lunar race. Of this Alexander's historians made Porus. The Suraseni of Methoras (descendants of the Sursen of Mathura) were all Purus, the Prasioi of Megasthenes" This only means Sursen of Mathura were descendants of Puru (Yayati's son) not Porus. Gpuri (talk) 06:49, 27 December 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gpuri (talk • contribs) 06:18, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Shrimad Bhagbat Geeta - Sanatan Dharma
First of all there is no religion called Hinduism (this name has no where been mentioned in any of ancient books). It should be described as Sanatan Dharma (ancient/basic religion). The war of Kurukshetra and origine of Shrimad Bhagbat Geeta should be quoted. Moreover the timings in different places are imaginary. Please correct it otherwise delete this topic from wikipedia. I had great respect to this site but after reading this article, i had to believe that this article has been written by amature writers without any proper research. I request the Editor of the site to modify this topic otherwise delete it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.214.173.187 (talk) 00:50, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

Spate of strange-looking IP edits
Recent edits by seem rather strange, however I don't have sufficient expertise in this topic to know whether they are vandalism or simply naive. Could someone in a better position to tell take a look? Thanks, --MegaSloth (talk) 05:38, 19 January 2010 (UTC)
 * This is the IP of, both have been going on and adding copy vios from www.krishna.com all over. I've had to delete many such copy vio articles and revert on many more articles. - Spaceman  Spiff  06:42, 19 January 2010 (UTC)
 * OK it looks like this is something you're aware of. I'm sorry this individual has been causing you issues. --MegaSloth (talk) 21:52, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Swami Sivananda Radha
Help with this article would be appreciated. Thanks! 207.194.70.105 (talk) 19:10, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

WP 1.0 bot announcement
This message is being sent to each WikiProject that participates in the WP 1.0 assessment system. On Saturday, January 23, 2010, the WP 1.0 bot will be upgraded. Your project does not need to take any action, but the appearance of your project's summary table will change. The upgrade will make many new, optional features available to all WikiProjects. Additional information is available at the WP 1.0 project homepage. &mdash; Carl (CBM · talk) 03:24, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

Cultural mutilation of Hinduism
Hinduism contributed many great things to world cultural heritage and I think there are no greater things than the teachings of its Saints. The problem is that many of its values and achievements are not properly valued or referenced. The article of Kundalini Yoga is currently being stolen in the sense that its source and original authentic (Hindu) sources are being deleted. Kundalini Yoga was attractive to many people because it was thought that its practice can result in gaining supernatural powers. For this reasons it was abused in many ways in the West. The consequence was the increase in number of psychiatric cases known as Kundalini Syndrome. There is a tendency to disconnect Kundalini Yoga and Yoga from its true roots and to suppress the original and authentic teachings. It is true that there is only one Yoga and it is true that it belongs to everybody, but proper reference should still be made about where it comes from and what is the original teaching. (The right currently denied) If anybody can help with the protection of Hindu Dharma, that would be great. Thanks! Atmapuri (talk) 10:32, 3 February 2010 (UTC)

Mutt/Muth/Matha
Just a mention here that there is some inconsistent naming of these establishments. Matha seems to be preferred in the article matha, but articles like Kavale mutt use mutt. The actual names vary between articles too. DJ Clayworth (talk) 16:34, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

Talk:Daśāvatāra
Requested move at Talk:Daśāvatāra to Dashavatara/Dashavatar. -- Redtigerxyz Talk 18:03, 22 February 2010 (UTC)
 * As per Talk:Daśāvatāra, The result of the proposal was move to nondiacritic for the article. Several alternatives have been presented for this particular article (Dashavatara, Dasavatara, Dashavatar) so please help pick an appropriate one at Talk:Daśāvatāra. Thanks. -- Redtigerxyz Talk 13:47, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Name Change proposal
I have proposed name change for 2 pages from Jambavantha to Jambavan and from Chiranjivin to Chiranjivi. Please read my message there and do needful. Also, can we fix some standards to name the articles as a part of this project? as I am sure, there must be many more such articles named in weird manner, which only a minority can understand and these are represented incorrectly to the mass.-- DhavalTalk 14:40, 25 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Initiated the first request per instructions at Requested moves. -- Redtigerxyz Talk 16:01, 25 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks Redtigerxyz, following on your path, I've initiated request for the second as well.-- DhavalTalk 22:34, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

Wendy Doniger
Please take a look at the debate on the Talk on Wendy Doniger. Goethan keeps on removing the criticism section. I agree that the current criticism section is not NPOV so I have revised it with counteropposing views. I tried to make it NPOV but it keeps on getting reverted. Please take a look. Raj2004 (talk) 15:52, 28 January 2010 (UTC)
 * The debate is pointless. Not only are you fighting City Hall (Doniger, unfortunately, has all the necessary credentials, so she is verifiably a recognized scholar regardless of the "truth" of her actual worth, and therefore has WP policies on her side) but BLPs should not have "Criticism" sections at all. rudra (talk) 01:40, 29 January 2010 (UTC)


 * I think Rudra aptly summaries the BLP issue above. Apart from this, the "Criticism" part had good deal of OR, complete disregard for neutral word usage, for ex : " In 2003, in response to pressure from conservative Hindu political activists, Microsoft excised an article ..." is not supported by the citation either. So are statements like "One leading antagonist", "a very wealthy man", "...is particularly insightful, highlights the tragic aspects of the epic  and unravels a cliche that Hindus are pacifist." Rudra did a good job by removing this BLP nightmare section. Currently there are very lengthy discussions going on related to BLP...on the lighter note, I would recommend this proposal by Lugnuts .  --TheMandarin (talk) 06:54, 29 January 2010 (UTC)


 * The debate is still continuing on Wendy Doniger. I feel that it would be helpful if more editors would take a look at the talk page and express their views on how the article can be improved.  Neutrality still seems out of reach, but with more eyes on the problem surely it can be attained. Buddhipriya (talk) 06:04, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

Editor needs help
Could someone please take a look at ? I have a vague idea what he was trying to do by creating Bhuu but isn't this seven island/oceans system somewhere else? Another of his, Tatastha has been PRODed as near gibberish. His last edit was to blank a page, for which I've warned him. I think he's editing in good faith but needs a lot of help. Thanks. Dougweller (talk) 22:10, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Help needed to protect a few Hindu Saint Pages From Deletion
Kindly help in preserving these two pages on wiki.

Ramesh Babaji at

Harihar ji Maharaj  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.203.16.50 (talk) 06:19, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Talk:Bṛhaspati
Requested move from Bṛhaspati to Brihaspati. -- Redtigerxyz Talk 02:43, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

Hindu Cosmology
I feel in the Hindu cosmology we need to highlight how the cosmic belief of Hinduism is closest to modern Scientific cosmological belief and much more. We can add something as below:

The Hindu Cosmology and timelines in a way is the closest to modern scientific timelines and even more which might indicate that the big bang is not the beginning of everything but just the start of the present cycle preceded by an infinite number of universes and to be followed by another infinite number of universes. Also in one moment there may consist of an infinite number of Universes each having its own Brahma who is created to create it.

Brahma is initially in the form of a hiranyagarbha or the golden egg which begins to expand as the process of creation starts. There is an alternate belief in Vishnavism where Lord Vishnu is the supreme omnipotent and omnipresent god and each of the Brahmas are born from his navel sitting on a lotus from where the creation of each universe begins by the respective Brahmas. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.167.88.87 (talk) 16:54, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

Req for Comments re Buddhism/Hinduism differences in Personalities
To: Project_Hinduism and Project_Buddhism participants,

There's been a recent conversation at Talk:Buddhism_and_Hinduism about whether that page should have a new subsection that describes major differences between Hindu and Buddhist figures) who have the same name. These might be either humans or devas. For example,
 * Dhritarashtra is
 * a human king in Hinduism (see Dhritarashtra), and
 * a heavenly king/protector in Buddhism (see Dhṛtarāṣṭra)

Similarly,
 * Yama is somewhat different in
 * Hinduism (see Yama_(Hinduism)) and
 * Buddhism (see Yama_(Buddhism_and_Chinese_mythology))

We don't know if enough cases exist to warrant a new subsection, so our primary question is:
 * Q1: Which figures might be most enlightening to examine in such a subsection?

Once we get more of a sense of the differences, then it'll become worthwhile to consider Q2: Does this merit a separate subsection? So if you get a chance, please drop by and post your thoughts at:
 * Talk:Buddhism_and_Hinduism

Regards -- Health Researcher (talk) 14:53, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

Parvati
thumb| There is a dispute on the Parvati page about this image. Please give your comments about it at Talk:Parvati/Archive 1.-- Redtigerxyz Talk 03:21, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Naming convention
How should the titles for temples read? Should the "T" in temple be capitalized? I see that church titles are all capitalized. Reason I ask is that many many temples have been renamed from "T" to "t" over the past couple of days. See Devi temple, Kadampuzha, Sankat Mochan Hanuman temple, Varanasi for examples? cheers. &mdash; Spaceman  Spiff  05:18, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
 * There are no set rules about this. I searched Google for Siddhivinayak temple and found no consistency. -- Redtigerxyz  Talk 14:04, 27 April 2010 (UTC)


 * I haven't checked the wikipedia MOS to see if it has anything to say on this issue, but a common prescription in news/scholarly sources is to capitalize nouns when they are part of a name/title (i.e., "President Parvathi", "Golden Temple" etc), but not otherwise (i.e., "longest serving president", "largest temple" etc. So the above listed examples should be capitalized, both in the article title and article body. Abecedare (talk) 14:06, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
 * MOS and especially MOS are the relevant MOS guidelines and also supports capitalization. Abecedare (talk) 14:08, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
 * My reading of our MOS is that it should be capitalized, just like all the church articles. I was wondering if this is any exception that was discussed, especially given the quantum of changes being made. I'll leave a note for the editor, however, it'll be helpful if others can drop in move back some titles.&mdash; Spaceman  Spiff  14:10, 27 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Are all the moves by ? If so, it should be easy enough to move the incorrectly renamed articles back, although we should wait to hear back from the user to see if there is something we are missing (the cited guideline WP:VERB does not seem to justify the move to the uncapitalized titles; in fact, the Northwestern University example listed there supports capitalization of "Temple" in temple names.) Abecedare (talk) 14:18, 27 April 2010 (UTC)


 * I think it was just some confusion caused by the wording of the guideline (see my talk page). The issue is resolved right now, with just the move backs pending. cheers. &mdash; Spaceman  Spiff  14:25, 27 April 2010 (UTC)


 * (edit conflict) Siddhivinayak Temple: The official temple site uses a "T". I request Abecedare to leave a message on Thaejas's talk explaining the VERB policy and revert all the changes to the "Temple" form. IMO, we have a consensus here. Also there some requested moves started by the user. SpacemanSpiff has moved backed some pages, though he has deleted the page with the "t". I suggest we make it a redirect.Spelling "Siddhivinayak Temple" as "Siddhivinayak temple" is a common error. -- Redtigerxyz  Talk 14:34, 27 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Hi, Thanks for the comments given in my talk page. I would like to know if the word Temple is part of the name of the temple or just an indication that the structure is a temple with an actual name preceding the word "temple". If the word is part of the building name, then I feel it should be capitalized. Other wise it should be marked as "temple". Pls correct my understanding on the subject. And I have done so much work on renaming the articles of Temples for the past few days. If the "Temple" is correct, then it would be a fruitless effort that I had done for the past few days. I suggest that we have stricter naming standards on such matters which would help editors. Also I had suggested for Moving Articles in Requested Moves for Belon temple, which has been successfully done.Thaejas (talk) 14:39, 27 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Yes, the temple is part of the name. Using small-t is not incorrect; it is simply a matter of style adopted by a publication (that is why we will usually find both the capitalized and uncapitalized versions in different sources). Since on wikipedia, we have adopted the style of capitalizing the institution type, when it is used as part of the name, we should capitalize Temple in these article titles.
 * I think all the recent renames have been fixed and there is no harm done. By the way, I think the renaming of templates such as Template:Hindu Temples of Kumbakonam -> Template:Hindu temples of Kumbakonam was indeed correct and other similar templates may need to be renamed accordingly.
 * There may be other temple articles that still use small-t in their title (independent of the recnt moves) and those should be fixed eventually. Also, the article bodies themselves should use the correct capitalization depending upon the context, but that is a huge task, unless someone can design a bot or use AWB to complete it. Abecedare (talk) 14:58, 27 April 2010 (UTC)

For future reference: the capitalization convention should also apply to Mandirs, Maths, Peeths etc. Abecedare (talk) 15:04, 27 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Hi, Thanks. Henceforth, I will be moving any article titled "temple" to "Temple" in the course of my editing. If there is any conflict on the decision, pls do let me know. I have already begun on User:Thaejas/Template:Hindu temples in Kerala with "temple", which I will be changing to "Temple".Thaejas (talk) 15:10, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Lots of red-linked potential articles in your state-wise temple templates! Abecedare (talk) 15:18, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Thaejas, valiant effort, but no need to be so comprehensiveness. No need to include every other minor/small temple in the template. Please limit the template to 15-20 most important temples, else it becomes no cumbersome to navigate. No red links please. I suggest you change Hindu temples in Uttarakhand accordingly too, or permit me to do so. -- Redtigerxyz Talk 16:01, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Hi Redtigerxyz, thanks. You are welcome. Regarding the comprehensive details, I have taken all the temples from the List of Hindu temples in India and its sub-articles. And as it requires some research to find the important temples, I am trying my best to have as many correct links as possible, the rest I will remove. Gradually, from other templates also.Thaejas (talk) 16:12, 27 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Be a little careful about using List of Hindu temples in India. We have many people adding names to the list to promote particular temples, which are not so important in a larger context. I will work on Hindu temples in Uttarakhand in a few days. If you need any help in Hinduism-related issues, please let me know. Will be glad to help. -- Redtigerxyz Talk 16:31, 27 April 2010 (UTC)

The Hinduism Template
I have modified the Hinduism template to an all inclusive one. I hope most of you will like the new look. Can we use this template in every Hinduism related article instead of using separate templates for Hindu scriptures and Hindu philosophy - Naveen Sankar (talk) 04:46, 1 May 2010 (UTC)


 * I think it would be preferable to keep these templates separate, so that can cover the subject on a coarse scale, while templates like, , etc contain more in-depth coverage of the specialized area. Secondly, by having such large number of links as in the current Hinduism template, we fail to provide a general reader guidance about what are the most prominent aspects of the religion. For example, listing all the 16 samskaras seems undue in this high-level template, though it would be justifiable to create a  template, which links among the the samskara articles. Keeping the main Hinduism template concise seems consistent with (the idea behind) summary style and roughly hierarchical organization of wikipedia articles. Other comments ? Abecedare (talk) 05:13, 1 May 2010 (UTC)


 * I agree that the other specialized templates are better kept as they are and should be not replaced in articles by this one. Though this huge template can be used in only in general topics about Hinduism like Hinduism, Hindu, History of Hinduism.-- Redtigerxyz Talk 06:01, 1 May 2010 (UTC)

Replacement of the word "Hindus" in Wikipedia Categories
There is currently a proposal to change the category: Category:Hindus to Category:Hindu people, which is part of the batch of changes being proposed in this discussion. If successful, it will probably be followed by moves to replace the word "Hindus" through the Wikipedia categories by the words "Hindu people". Davshul (talk) 20:32, 1 May 2010 (UTC)

Temple names
Hi, The temple Shiva temple in Kannur is actually knownn as Sree Chovva Shiva temple as per the article. Can the title be moved to Sree Chovva Shiva Temple or Shiva Temple in Kannur? Thaejas (talk) 06:06, 28 April 2010 (UTC)


 * The page is not move protected, so you should be able to move it if you wish. However, are there any reliable sources for the name of this temple ? A google book search shows that there is a Sree Siva Temple in Chovva, Kannur district (see the snippet from Temples of Kaṇṇoor District); is that the same ? Also will need to consider if the temple meets WP:ORG or other relevant notability guidelines. Abecedare (talk) 15:07, 29 April 2010 (UTC)

Hi, Can someone explain which is the correct format for the temple names? For eg. Mahalaxmi Temple (Mumbai) has the Mumbai in brackets, while the temple Siddhivinayak Temple, Mumbai has Mumbai after a comma. — Thaejas (talk) 16:46, 4 May 2010 (UTC)
 * The second format, Siddhivinayak Temple, Mumbai is more apt. The format with details in bracket is used mainly during disambiguation. For ex : Avatar (computing), Avatar (2004 film), Avatar (2009 film). Hope this helps. --TheMandarin (talk) 17:22, 4 May 2010 (UTC)


 * I second Mandarin's comment. To wit: if, say, Mumbai had two Sri temples dedicated to Lakshmi and Ganesha respectively, then the names of the articles would be Sri Temple (Lakshmi) and Sri Temple (Ganesha) (or, even Sri Temple, Mumbai (Ganesha), if needed) since the temple would never be known as "Sri Temple, Lakshmi" and the parenthetical deity name is just a wikipedia construct, purely for disambiguation purposes. In contrast, "Sri Temple, Mumbai" would be a legitimate name that is liable to be found in non-wikipedia sources. Hope that makes sense! Abecedare (talk) 23:09, 4 May 2010 (UTC)
 * In that case, can I change Mahalaxmi Temple (Mumbai) to Mahalaxmi Temple, Mumbai and similarly Mahalakshmi Temple (Kolhapur) to Mahalakshmi Temple, Kolhapur? — Thaejas (talk) 00:12, 5 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Yes. That would be correct. The correct spelling is Mahalakshmi and not Mahalaxmi. I think we can go by the spelling given in the official web site(if there is one).--Sankarrukku (talk) 07:21, 5 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Second Mandarin's comment. Also Mahalakshmi is better. A formal request (Uncontroversial moves) should be initiated at WP:RM. -- Redtigerxyz Talk 15:17, 6 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Hi, Redtigerxyz, thanks for the confirmation. I have moved the Mahalaxmi Temple (Mumbai) to Mahalakshmi Temple, Mumbai — Thaejas (talk) 17:00, 6 May 2010 (UTC)

Hindu theology
I believe a composite article on Hindu theology now needs to be created, presently it is a redirect, though it has its own category. This article would be able to guide us to various parts of it, as does the Christian theology article. Thanks! --Ekabhishektalk 03:11, 23 May 2010 (UTC)

Rana Chandra Singh
Help needed with this article. Feel free. '''yousaf465'

Karna:

The meaning of Karna is not ears or Cutter of his own kavacha and kundala. Karna is KARANA. Meaning Reason. He was the prince of light. His arrogance was misconstrued. He was a Kshyatria and hence proud of his attributes. All his gifts and reputation as a great giver comes from his understanding of Vedas and Vedangas he knew that every one has a limited time on earth and every one comes to earth with empty hands and leaves empty handed, every thing on earth is borrowed and has to be left behind. He was wisest of all and still maintained a farce while he lived. Krishna knew of his relationship with Karna, so did Kunti( mother), Vidura( found out when Kunti Fainted on seeing Karna enter the contest), Bheeshma ( Vidura told him all the news). Karna is a victim of politics amongst the Kuru. All of the so called warriors and princes were of mixed parentage, none were blood decendents of the true lineage other than Bheeshma. THe reason why Kuru Kingdom was respected was due to presence of Bheeshma as protector of the rulers. The Brahmin priests were already corrupting kshatriya order and Bheeshma was happy to have Karna in the fold as employee that would over a period of time take over from him as protector of the Kuru Kingdom. Hence Karna was appointed king of Anga. Anga is not a place, but ANGHAM or war. He was crowned king of ANGHAM since he was declared as the best warrior in the contest. He was ruler of what is now called China. China was 4 kingdoms ( chi, na, cha, ra.) Karna assembled these kingdoms into one. Karna was a warrior of a different order. He used his immaculate gifts of weapons in the opposite way not to cause harm instead use them to bring life where there was none. As a Kshatriya he was master of all elements since he was already master of the weapons of all kinds, he could make rain where there was none. make desert into forest. hence his subjects loved him much ( to make a heaven on earth ) hence he is also wisdom. He has two parts a bipolar person, one side was the expertise in warfare , the other side was use of the wisdom of the gods that control the power of these weapons. Hence the name Middle Kingdom. Karna was ridiculed and called brash, but he was a Kshatriya ( finest warrior in all the worlds). If his mother were not to marry, were to look after him and bring him up in her father's kingdom, he would be a Nagavamsham Kshatriya. He was a Vrishni ( he was called vrusha like a life giving tree that shades all and provides them comfort from the elements.)same as Satyaki. Krishna was a politician that knew yet, he offered Karna a kingdom that was properly his own. Karna wanted to know the KARANA. Having lived a pure life, he was trikalaghyani same as his Guru Parashurama. Parashurama did not get angry with Karna because some insect bit his thigh. Parashurama found Karna meditating and could not fathom the power and concentration. Karna divined his Guru's origin hence defeated him. Parashurama gifted him the bow Vijaya as well as his own weapon to compensate for his anger. Anger of a Guru is considered as demotion hence defined as a curse. Without a high soul, the body of a warrior cannot bear the strength of celestial weapons. Another way of looking at Karna is this: 5 pandavas were the 5 elements. Karna was the will of the brothers. The unknown quantum. He could not be killed and was not killed, when the greatest warrior on earth takes to battle, he cannot be killed by deceit, the particles in matter around would become ignited since the energies contained within them would be released to stop such an event. Kaliyuga came into being because the greatest warrior on earth left the earth. A soul does not die, it does not attain moksha permanently, it keeps returning time after time resurrecting to bring another age. For Karna to come back , —Preceding unsigned comment added by 113.199.252.109 (talk) 10:24, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Hinduism Scriptures related Userboxes
Please check this discussion -- Wikipedia_talk:Userboxes/Ideas. Maybe you would add a few suggestions there. Thanks! -- Nazar (talk) 11:46, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

AFD: Hindu views of gender of Brahman, Shiva, and Vishnu
At Articles for deletion/Hindu views of gender of Brahman, Shiva, and Vishnu. East of Borschov (talk) 13:11, 31 May 2010 (UTC)

Hoax?
see —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.204.89.149 (talk) 04:51, 1 June 2010 (UTC)
 * Soma has been categorised as a historical alcoholic beverage. Was it an alcoholic beverage? The article doesn't say anything on that. --117.204.89.149 (talk) 04:54, 1 June 2010 (UTC)
 * It does look like at least a distorted account of something, yes. Hopefully someone else will look at it. Soma has been put in Category:Historical beverages, not Category:Historical alcoholic beverages — from the descriptions, it couldn't have been alcoholic. Thanks for noticing it and pointing it out, and hopefully someone else will follow this up, Shreevatsa (talk) 06:17, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

hoax like?
Kinnara Kingdom is almost.--117.204.81.44 (talk) 04:57, 3 June 2010 (UTC)
 * Not a hoax at all; it's just in-universe, sort of like In-universe/Tolkien. I think such articles can be kept in principle. I believe the frequent numbers in the article are references, albeit to primary sources (the Mahabharata). Note that there is an entire category of Category:Kingdoms in the Mahābhārata. They seem quite extensive, and I see no compelling reason to delete them all. BTW, if they are going to be deleted as inappropriate for Wikipedia, I feel they should be userfied into someone's namespaces so that they aren't lost forever. Might be good material for a Mahabaratapedia some day :p Shreevatsa (talk) 05:09, 3 June 2010 (UTC)
 * PS: They seem to have been created by User:Jijithnr. Shreevatsa (talk) 05:15, 3 June 2010 (UTC)
 * I agree that it has encyclopedic value but the intro hardly mentions that the entity is mythical and wit all the geography it looks like it is historical. Anyway, I am deprodding it myself. --117.204.80.156 (talk) 23:24, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

Rta
I recently ran across the article Rta, which was in such bad shape that it has been suggested to move the article to Wiktionary. Given the huge importance of the concept, I'd find that a pity. I just added some material, but much, much more needs to be done on this article. If any editors here have access to quality RS on the topic, you're invited to help. Thanks, -- Aryaman (talk) 17:03, 12 July 2010 (UTC)
 * I think the work I've done over the last few days is enough to ensure that Rta won't see the axe. I thought I would need additional input to get the article organized, but it looks fine now, so ignore the above message. Cheers, -- Aryaman (talk) 16:12, 15 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Amazing work, thanks! Shreevatsa (talk) 16:24, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Phonetically incorrect spellings
Why do we keep replacing Ns with Ms in Wikipedia for Hinduism related topics? Sansar or Sansara become Samsara, Ahankar becomes Ahamkara and so on. Is there any method to this madness that I can't see?


 * The inconsistencies that you are noticing are due to differing methods for transliterating the phonetic elements of Sanskrit. Sanskrit has two different types of nasal sounds applied to vowels under some circumstances, anusvāra and anunāsika (cf. Pāṇini I.I.8)  In the Devanāgarī writing system these two types of nasalization are shown by marks above vowels, either a dot or a Chandrabindu.  The correct transliteration of these sounds sometimes depends on the phoneme that follows the nasal sound.  Things are complicated by the fact that there is more than one system for transliteration of Sanskrit, and various Wikipedia editors use different systems, or no system at all.


 * In the examples you give, the words "sansara" and "samsara" are two attempts to transliterate the word संसार which you will notice has a dot above the first character. In the IAST method of transliteration, which is the academic standard, this would be written as "saṃsāra" (with a dot below the m, and a macron above the second a).  If the editor is not using diacrital marks, "samsara" is a simple version.  In the case of "ahankara" and "ahamkara", these are attempts to transliterate अहंकार (IAST = ahaṃkāra).  When anusvāra is followed by k, it may be transliterated either as ṃ (m with dot) or as ṅ (n with dot above) depending on the editorial standard of the text in which it appears.


 * Personally I feel it would be good for editors to use accurate diacritical marks to represent Indic languages in a lossless manner, but there is no consensus on this matter. Some editors feel that since most readers do not understand the diacritics it is better to use simple English versions, using only those letters that appear in the English alphabet.  Use of diacritics on web pages is also complicated by the fact that not all viewers have fonts that can render the Unicode values correctly, resulting in little boxes appearing on the screen.  On Wikipedia some languages that require diacritical marks have developed editorial standards for transliteration.  I maintain a personal collection of links on this topic at User:Buddhipriya/LanguageTransliterationStyleGuides. Buddhipriya (talk) 20:44, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Kanniah yogi
Hello. What do you think about the notability of this person? I can't find any reliable sources. Thanks for help. --Vejvančický (talk | contribs) 16:19, 26 July 2010 (UTC)

Mediation Cabal/Cases/2010-07-29/Hinduism
A dispute about the inclusion of Bali Sacrifice in the article Hinduism is on on Mediation Cabal/Cases/2010-07-29/Hinduism. Please help build a consensus by giving your comments. Thanks. -- Redtigerxyz Talk 16:58, 2 August 2010 (UTC)

Stray Cow "Problem" in India
Please see Reference desk/Humanities (permanent link here, section 6.10). —Wavelength (talk) 02:25, 25 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Just ignore. There is no question there, just a rant. Shreevatsa (talk) 03:12, 25 August 2010 (UTC)


 * I didn't ask anyone to throw a link to this (holy) place. Another user (Wavelength) did this without my approval. This would be the last place I would come to an seek an answer. Jon Ascton    (talk)  04:08, 25 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Oh, it seems related to this recently created article, currently up for AfD: Stray cow problem in India. Most amusing. Shreevatsa (talk) 05:00, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

Temple Workgroup
I want to propose the creation of a Temple articles work-group that will work on improving articles on Hindu temples. We can come up with a common structure for temple articles, and I think the mandir infobox needs improvement. Let me know your thoughts. - Virtualage (talk) 12:03, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

Prahlad Jani
Could someone please check the dispute here, as well as other issues on that talk page (if you have the time for all of them). Thanks. -- Nazar (talk) 18:17, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

Proposed merger
The WikiProject Ayyavazhi seems to be at best stagnant and largely inactive. That being the case, I can think of no particular reason for it not to be merged in some way into this project; doing so might give a bit more attention to the article. Thoughts? John Carter (talk) 17:23, 5 September 2010 (UTC)

Yazidis
Please help with the following Yazidi This edit has been done earlier but met with stonewalling have brought it back. Please help, against anti-Hindu, anti-non-Abrahamic POV Yogesh Khandke (talk) 05:17, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

Hinduism articles have been selected for the Wikipedia 0.8 release
Version 0.8 is a collection of Wikipedia articles selected by the Wikipedia 1.0 team for offline release on USB key, DVD and mobile phone. Articles were selected based on their assessed importance and quality, then article versions (revisionIDs) were chosen for trustworthiness (freedom from vandalism) using an adaptation of the WikiTrust algorithm.

We would like to ask you to review the Hinduism articles and revisionIDs we have chosen. Selected articles are marked with a diamond symbol (♦) to the right of each article, and this symbol links to the selected version of each article. If you believe we have included or excluded articles inappropriately, please contact us at Wikipedia talk:Version 0.8 with the details. You may wish to look at your WikiProject's articles with cleanup tags and try to improve any that need work; if you do, please give us the new revisionID at Wikipedia talk:Version 0.8. We would like to complete this consultation period by midnight UTC on Monday, October 11th.

We have greatly streamlined the process since the Version 0.7 release, so we aim to have the collection ready for distribution by the end of October, 2010. As a result, we are planning to distribute the collection much more widely, while continuing to work with groups such as One Laptop per Child and Wikipedia for Schools to extend the reach of Wikipedia worldwide. Please help us, with your WikiProject's feedback!

For the Wikipedia 1.0 editorial team, SelectionBot 23:07, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

Your help in adding appropriate articles to a category
A CfD discussion was recently closed here that was to determine the fate of Category:Saffron terror. At the point in time of the voting, there was only one article in the category, Saffron terror, with the other articles in the category having been removed prior (I am not commenting or making any assumptions about their removal). The general consensus of the discussion was to rename the category to Category:Hindu Terrorism, which you can find here.

I am requesting assistance from users who know more about Hinduism and Hindu (Hindi?)-related articles than I do, in order to add this category to appropriate articles on Wikipedia. Obviously, this is a very controversial subject, as I know the other religious terrorism categories and articles to be (including Christian, Jewish, and Islamic terrorism categories). I also know that the term Saffron terror and Hindu terrorism in general has been much deprecated by the Indian government, among others, though there are also other groups that wish to use the terms and oppose the government in this.

Regardless of that conflict (which I really don't want to get into), I know that there must still be events, groups, and people that can be said to have something to do with actions that would fit under the label of terrorism and are enacted by those who identify as Hindu (or those who do the actions in the name of Hinduism, ect.). I am asking for NPOV editors to please help me find appropriate articles to add to this category. Silver seren C 00:24, 21 September 2010 (UTC)


 * First off, there was absolutely no such consensus on the CFD, as consensus is measured by arguments, not mere votes, and if the consensus was to rename the closing admin would have commissioned a bot to rename the category and move all the articles. Nobody answered the arguments of those opposing a rename in any way or fashion. At this time, this category serves no purpose, because Saffron terror is the only word used to describe this (alleged) phenomenon in an official context, and also happens to be the more widely used word. Seren's logic for using "Hindu terror" amounts to "this is what I perceive 'Saffron terror' to be".


 * Next, no one has been charged of any crimes related to "saffron" or "Hindu" terror (the latter a misnomer, because as I noted on the CFD lined to by Silver Seren, the "Hindu" in Hindutva refers to natives of Hindustan not Hinduism the religion). Saffron terror is not an example of religious terror at all, it is more akin to political terrorism (terrorism used to promote the Hindutva philosophy, which again, apart from nomenclature is not related to Hinduism). The category should be emptied and deleted without prejudice (until an event actually occurs).Pectoretalk 13:32, 21 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Actually, you're wrong there. The only person "opposing a rename" was you and I believe the other users responded in a satisfactory manner to your arguments. Because, at the time, there was only one article in the category, there really was not much difference in the closing admin saying Delete or Rename. If it had been a category with a lot of articles in it, then moving those categories over by renaming would be better, but it didn't really matter for this category, which is why the closing admin said "The result of the discussion was: Delete. If someone wants to create Category:Hindu terrorism they are free to do so."


 * And it is not "my" logic, it is the consensus of multiple users, who believe that a Hindu terrorism category should exist. You have not changed anyone's mind in that regard.


 * Other users should note that User Pectore has been systematically reverting any additions I try to make to the category. I wait for other users' responses. Silver  seren C 14:03, 21 September 2010 (UTC)

The administrator who closed the conversation did not make judgment on the question of a new category, but there is support for the category in the CfD. The category exists, at Category:Hindu terrorism. Unless users intend to launch a CfD on that category, a more constructive approach might be to help define parameters for article inclusion at the already opened conversation at Category talk:Hindu terrorism to ensure that the category is used properly and fairly. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 14:39, 21 September 2010 (UTC)


 * Is there anyone around to respond to this? Silver  seren C 14:59, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

Babri Mosque and related articles
I guess some vandalism is expected in the near future; could someone watch the article (Babri Mosque) and/or semiprotect it or whatever? Shreevatsa (talk) 15:51, 21 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Ha, I think I was out there protecting, just when you posted this message. Right after the prior protection by MRG expired, new activity started, so it's got a longer semi protection now. &mdash; Spaceman  Spiff  15:58, 21 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I guess Ayodhya debate is the main article on the topic? Note that there might be an WP:ITN item from one of these pages soon. In that case, a lot of work needs to be done on all these articles (Ayodhya debate, Babri Masjid, Ram Janmabhoomi etc.), as they have serious neutrality issues at present. I am trying to work on the former, however, I would appreciate any help as I'm not very familiar with this. Thanks,  S Pat   talk 10:13, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

Renaming of category
I have proposed here to rename Category:Hindu terrorism to Category:Hindutva terrorism, as to be more accurate to the meaning that the terrorism is politically and nationally motivated and not religiously motivated. Please join the discussion. Silver seren C 22:23, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Jaya-Vijaya and Hiranyakashipu merger proposal
An editor has suggested that Jaya-Vijaya be merged into/redirected to Hiranyakashipu. Please give your comments at Talk:Hiranyakashipu to form a consensus. Thanks. -- Redtigerxyz Talk 13:12, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Baba Dhansar
Hello, my friends: A group of us are working on clearing the backlog at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Articles_lacking_sources_from_October_2006. The article in the above header has been without sources for the past four years and may be removed if none are added. I wonder if you can help do so. Sincerely, and all the best to you, GeorgeLouis (talk) 16:05, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

Ganga
It has been proposed to move article Ganges to Ganga please contribute to debate. Yogesh Khandke (talk) 15:18, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Include me in this project also
I would like to write an article about Mahabharat and its Characters. Please include me in this project or help me in including myself in this project. R. Sudarsan 15:41, 19 November 2010 (UTC)R. Sudarsan e-mail : sudarsananush89@gmail.com —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sudarsananush89 (talk • contribs)

Talk:Kāliyā
Kāliyā is proposed to be moved Kaliya. Please give your comments in the discussion at the Talk:Kāliyā. -- Redtigerxyz Talk 15:45, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

Jeeva Samadhi
This article Jeeva Samadhi doesn't really clarify the concept. Anyone interested in cleaning it up? --Deepak D'Souza (talk) 17:44, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Proposed interreligious discussion
I have proposed at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Religion that perhaps we create a central forum for discussion of religious content and matters here at wikipedia for a potential annual discussion. Any input there would be more than welcome. Thank you. John Carter (talk) 19:40, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Newsletter
A periodic newsletter could be started under this project, to draw attention of all the project members. -- Aarem (Talk) 08:24, 9 December 2010 (UTC)

Question about categorizing Gurjar
I don't know if this project is still active at all, but if anyone is still watching this, I have a question over at Talk:Gurjar about Hinduism. Specifically, another editor wants to include Category: Hindu communities on that page, despite both the article and the editor xyrself saying that not all Gurjar people are Hindus. I'd appreciate input from this group if there is, in fact, anyone active in this group. Qwyrxian (talk) 04:39, 17 January 2011 (UTC)

Mantra-Rock Dance rating
FYI, Mantra-Rock Dance, listed under Project:Hinduism, has achieved its WP:GA status, but is yet to be rated on the importance scale. Regards, Cinosaur (talk) 10:34, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

RFC in Ramakrishna article.
Request the interested editors to share their comments : Talk:Ramakrishna. Thanks. --TheMandarin (talk) 16:12, 2 February 2011 (UTC)

Swami as common name or honorific
In the following move discussions: Crossposted from WT:INB. &mdash; Spaceman  Spiff  17:34, 3 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Talk:Rama_Tirtha
 * Talk:Sahajananda
 * Talk:Sivananda_Saraswati
 * Talk:Chinmayananda

Avatar usage under discussion again
See Talk:Avatar_(Hinduism) where it is requested that the move done by 2010 move request be undone, moving the Hindu concept to primary in place of the disambiguation page. 64.229.101.183 (talk) 03:14, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Vital articles
It has been noted at Talk:Avatar (Hinduism) that the "vital articles" listed under Hinduism at WP:VITAL and WP:VA/E don't really reflect the most vital people/topics of Hinduism. I recommend that you (together as a wikiproject) review the Hinduism-related listings and propose adjustments accordingly. ...comments? ~B F izz 17:57, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Merge discussion for Yoga Sutras
An article that you have been involved in editing, Yoga Sutras, has been proposed for a merge with another article. If you are interested in the merge discussion, please participate by going, and adding your comments on the discussion page. Thank you. Zuggernaut (talk) 15:55, 24 February 2011 (UTC)

New template for Yoga Sutras
I've created a new template for the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. If you have better information on the translation/English names of the chapters of the Sutras, please help in improving the template by posting on the talk page of the template. Zuggernaut (talk) 03:58, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Article title
There is currently a discussion for renaming Swami Vivekananda and Acharya Maharajshree Tejendraprasad Pande on their respective talk pages. Around The Globe सत्यमेव जयते 10:46, 10 March 2011 (UTC)

Delhi Akshardham Fire in 2009
There is a ongoing discussion on inclusion of this information at Talk:Akshardham (Delhi). Around The Globe सत्यमेव जयते 07:48, 12 March 2011 (UTC)

Remove the PIE links/references from sanskrit/vedic pages or establish a more unbiased well-formed linkages between all the PIE derivatives.
wikipedia.org lists many Sanskrit words and theories on Hinduism in general. Linguists (and wikipedia pages) argue that Sanskrit, greek, latin and persian are derived from a common source/culture which is the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) languages.

If you look at any Sanskrit word in wikipedia such as vedas, it is almost always accompanied with the mention of (a link to) its proto-indo-european (ueid, ueidos), greek ( Fδέα, idea) and/or latin counterparts. When you click that link and go the the corresponding greek page, there is no mention of either the PIE or its Sanskrit counterpart, why? When two languages/cultures are said to share the same common culture, then the tracing should be made from both the sub-cultures and not only in one side (the indian side).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idea http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedas

This only supports the view that there is a desperate motive to delink vedas from the indian subcontinent rather than to link greek, aryan and sanskrit, etc to a common source such as the PIE (as claimed in sanskrit web-pages). So would like to suggest to...

a) please remove the PIE, greek and latin links in Sanskrit/vedic pages as they are irrelevant b) have a separate page for the linguists interested in PIE and its derivatives (greek, latin, sanskrit, etc) as it is widely and variably debated c) or, put the same links in the corresponding greek, etc pages to establish an unbiased well-formed cross-linkages.

Thank you. Regards, Sandeep. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.241.9.112 (talk) 07:58, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

Question about Hindu holidays
Hi, I'm in the process of arranging the distribution of 400 free Credo Reference accounts to Wikipedians, generously donated by the company and organized by Erik Moeller of the Wikimedia Foundation. See WP:CREDO for more details. The accounts will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis, plus some eligibility requirements, and the application list will open on March 23 at 22:00. I want to make sure that this day doesn't clash with any religious Christian, Hindu, Jewish, or Muslim holidays that would make it less likely, or impossible, for observant Wikipedians to be online. Could you please let me know if there's any such issue with March 23? The list will remain open for a week, but the first day is likely to be the busiest. Many thanks, SlimVirgin  TALK |  CONTRIBS 18:07, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I am not aware of any such religious holidays. But you may want to check the 2011 Cricket World Cup schedule as it enters the knockout/quarter finals stage on the 23rd. If India ends up having a game on the 23rd, the online traffic is likely to be very low. Zuggernaut (talk) 02:13, 20 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Okay, many thanks. I don't think we can take sports fixtures into account, so March 23 it is, 22:00 UTC. See Credo accounts, and if you're applying, good luck. :) SlimVirgin  TALK| CONTRIBS 22:45, 21 March 2011 (UTC)

Malayalappuzha
The page Malayalappuzha describes about the famous Devi temple -Malayalappuzha Devi Temple ,but the history and the description is not proper and not complete.Please coordinate to improve the article.Also the page on List of Hindu Temples in Kerala also needs  a group effort to improve the standard. Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by Shankarr1977 (talk • contribs) 17:10, 22 April 2011 (UTC)

AKSHAYA TRITIYA literal/spiritual meaning
A first-hand information I got about the literal/spiritual of AKSHAYA TRITIYA is: The Third Eye. The Third Eye is spiritually - "That which never diminishes".

Sources: fellow Kriya Yoga devotees, explaining to me the literal meaning of AKSHAYA TRITIYA which I attended on 2007 in Bengal. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.250.149.29 (talk) 22:14, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

Seeking Help to improve the WikiProject India Article, SWAMI NIGAMANANDA
Dear Friends,

Can you help me to improve this article,Swami Nigamananda, according to Wikipedia standard, as I have received the following alerts:


 * This article may require copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone, or spelling. You can assist by editing it. (May 2011)


 * This article may contain wording that merely promotes the subject without imparting verifiable information. Please remove or replace such wording, unless you can cite independent sources that support the characterization.

Dcmpuri (talk) 14:14, 12 May 2011 (UTC)

Help with AfD, Swami sukhabodhananda
We need help with Swami sukhabodhananda, at Articles for deletion/Swami sukhabodhananda. Can anyone more familiar with Indian languages find some reliable sources on this? I believe this person is quite well-known. Also, the article needs rewriting with a more neutral tone.

I see many links to articles at this link on his website, but I can't read some of these languages. http://www.swamisukhabodhananda.net/index.php?file=news

Trilliumz (talk) 00:14, 26 May 2011 (UTC)

Need help expanding articles 'Bawa Bairagi' and Ramanandi
I am looking for help on expanding the articles Ramanandi and Bawa_Bairagi. These casts can be found throughout the India, however they are known by different names in various parts of the india. I myself belongs to the Ramanandi cast and can help on expanding the articles, However I don't have any sources or references at this time. I am trying hard to get some older references on the history of these casts, origins and early life.

Sudhir nimavat (talk) 14:05, 6 June 2011 (UTC) sudhir nimavat

Move discussion on Shikharbaddha Mandir
Currently an ongoing discussion on Talk:Shikharbaddha Mandir. Around The Globe सत्यमेव जयते 06:20, 8 June 2011 (UTC)

Abhinav Bharat
This article needs to be split into two articles, but I'm not sure how and in particular how to title them, can anyone help? Thanks. Dougweller (talk) 12:07, 22 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Also requested help at Wikipedia talk:Noticeboard for India-related topics. Dougweller (talk) 16:43, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

can anybody answer the basic text of a Hindu?
Dear enthusiasts,

Being a Hindu, I questioned many luminaries in this field but none has answered correctly. the question is simple.

what are the basic religious text of a Hindu? what is the relevancy of those text in relation to 21st century Hindu religion? Does any body follows what is according to our text suggests? Have you read any of those?

I am inviting all to answer these before projecting as a Hindu? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vinu raj r (talk • contribs) 17:10, 28 June 2011 (UTC) There is no such Text 117.194.200.141 (talk) 10:05, 16 July 2011 (UTC)

Article Hinduism in Tajikistan in very poor shape
Greetings, if anyone has familiarity with this subject, the stub Hinduism in Tajikistan could really use some work. MatthewVanitas (talk) 19:31, 1 July 2011 (UTC)

Help identifying a temple picture

 * cross-posted from WT:IN

Hello India experts. File:Picture 104.jpg, a photograph of some unidentied gopuram, is up for deletion because it lacks an identification. The upload was the editor's only edit. It seems like a potentially useful picture, if only we knew what it was. Can somebody identify which temple this is? Fut.Perf. ☼ 08:14, 10 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Update: problem solved, it's Thanumalayan Temple. Fut.Perf. ☼ 09:20, 10 July 2011 (UTC)

Vishnudharmottara Purana
The 2. part is probably by a different hand. It is of very strong Tantric flavour. especially visible in the descriptions/attributes of gods and other divine personages. 12.07.2011 Szilagyi — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.209.230.28 (talk) 04:52, 12 July 2011 (UTC)

Ishtabhriti needs to be re-done as a stub
Greetings, Ishtabhriti is quite short, but is very confusing to anyone not already familiar with Hinduism, gives no context, and is generally just not encyclopedic in tone. If someone could drop in, this could be made much better by blanking it and putting in just 2 or 3 sentences with a single footnote, just to start explaining the concept. MatthewVanitas (talk) 16:33, 12 July 2011 (UTC)


 * Ditto Viswamaanava. MatthewVanitas (talk) 16:45, 12 July 2011 (UTC)

New Idea on the Hindu Philosophy of the Yugas.
Yuga (Devanāgari: युग) in Hindu philosophy is the name of an 'epoch' or 'era' within a cycle of four ages. These are the Satya Yuga, the Treta Yuga, the Dvapara Yuga, and finally the Kali Yuga. According to Hindu cosmology, life in the universe is created, destroyed once every 4.1 to 8.2 billion years, which is one full day (day and night) for Brahma. The lifetime of a Brahma himself may be 311 trillion and 40 Billion years.[1] The cycles are said to repeat like the seasons, waxing and waning within a greater time-cycle of the creation and destruction of the universe. Like Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn, each yuga involves stages or gradual changes which the earth and the consciousness of mankind goes through as a whole.

Each season will follow the other season as time progresses hence it would be incorrect to assume that Hindu Philosophy is not aware that knowledge is linear and hence mankind progresses from darkness to enlightenment. That is a baby does not have any knowledge but as it grows older it learns and acquires the knowledge present in the world. Hence the progress of the Yugas would start in Kali Yuga then, Dvapara Yuga, then Treta Yuga and finally Satya Yuga. Kali Yuga would be an age of ignorance which would be man's Stone Age (Men lived to age of 20). Dvapara Yuga would be the Bronze Age (Life expectancy greater than 40), when man started agriculture, religion and started melting simple metals like gold and copper.The Treta Yuga (Life expectancy greater than 60) would be when Civilization started and we acquired the knowledge of Science and became seeker for enlightenment. Finally we will have Satya Yuga (Life expectancy greater than 80) when we acquire Enlightenment and hence Peace.

Looking at Indian History and World History, Agriculture and early civilization started in india around 3900 BC with the Indus Valley Civilization. According to the Laws of Manu, one of the earliest known texts describing the yugas, the length is 4800 years (Satya Yuga) + 3600 years(Treta Yuga) + 2400 years(Dvapara Yuga) + 1200 (Kali Yuga) years for a total of 12,000 years. Around 3900 BC would be the start of the Dvapara Yuga because Kali Yuga was First, hence start of Treta Yuga would fall around 1500 BC which most scholars would agree is time when the Vedas were written and Iron age started in India. Treta Yuga is coming to an end (2100 AD) and the Satya Yuga should start soon.

In the end of Satya Yuga the Universe will be our home not just earth.I would like to add this Idea is a better fit to the Yuga concept than old men's philosophy of the good old days when they were young. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.149.239.123 (talk) 10:33, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

Azhwars pictures needed
Can someone please post the photos of Azhwars? I see pics only for a couple of them. S Sriram 03:52, 10 September 2011 (UTC)ssriram_mt

Divya Desams need re-assessment
The article on Divya Desams in originally classified as stub, but all the links are directed now. Can it be re-assesed? S Sriram 03:55, 10 September 2011 (UTC)Ssriram_mt

Discussion at Talk:International Society for Krishna Consciousness/Archive 1#Request Move
You are invited to join the discussion at Talk:International Society for Krishna Consciousness/Archive 1. Elizium23 (talk) 15:27, 29 September 2011 (UTC) Elizium23 (talk) 15:27, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

Talk:Hindu_deities
A dispute is ongoing on the Hindu deities about the use of the word "deity" and "god" in the article and its replacement "avatar of Brahman". -- Redtigerxyz Talk 17:48, 11 October 2011 (UTC)

Advaita Vedanta
Would someone please review the above talk page as an IP editor is saying that "...a fundamentalist Hindu follower of Ramana Maharishi [is] inserting statements that the Bhagavad Gita dates from 3000 BCE and so on". It is claimed that the article is being used to push some inappropriate line. Johnuniq (talk) 03:09, 7 November 2011 (UTC)

Stuti
The article (really a sub-stub) Stuti has been nominated for deletion; see WP:Articles for deletion/Stuti. If a stuti is a specific kind of prayer in Hinduism, then someone may be interested in expanding the article so it may be kept. If, on the other hand, it doesn't really mean anything that "prayer" doesn't mean, it may be deleted, or redirected to Prayer or Prayer in Hinduism. Please either improve the article and !vote "keep" at the AFD, or !vote "delete" or "redirect" at the AFD if that's the better course of action. Thanks! Angr (talk) 17:51, 16 November 2011 (UTC)

Dasain
The neutrality of the article Dasain is biased and it may not represent a worldwide perspective of the subject matter. Please Review
 * BINEET| 14:25, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

Please unlock the Karna article. It needs substantial editing.
Good day, fellow enthusiasts. I was wondering if anyone could please contact the person who has locked the Karna article. Apparently, there are large areas which are grammatically incorrect, and content-wise inconsistent with either Ganguli's or M.N. Dutt's translation of the Mahabharata. As the administrator himself states, the Kisan Mohan Ganguli version is the best, and should be referenced repeatedly "if someone has the time."

Well, I have the time :) I also have the entire hard copy of the Dutt translation of the text. FYI, Gangul's version has been removed by ww.sacredtexts.com and replaced with the Dutt version, although they have not stated this on their website. I happen to know it was replaced because two years ago I was doing a comparison of the two versions myself when, after having completed almost one parva, the www.sacredtexts.com version and my version's translations all of a sudden became exactly identical. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vaishaliresearch (talk • contribs) 04:53, 3 December 2011 (UTC)

On presentation of the Raja Yoga as an encyclopedia entry
It is quite unfortunate that the article on Raja Yoga does not correctly depict the philosophy of raja yoga from a scholarly point of view. Objections 1. Raja Yoga is described as an integral part of Brahma Kumari religion, which seems to be a deliberate use of the encyclopedia to promote the name of the institution, whereas, contemporary authorities on Yoga do not approve of the methods instituted by Brahama Kumaris which they call Raja Yoga. So, I request the reviewer to take the necessary action on the same. 2. Kriya Yoga's instance and its similarity with Raja Yoga is not adequate, the former is identified as Hatha Yoga. 3. More stress on comments and sectarian aspects of yoga is given whereas the source texts of yoga like Patanjali Yoga Sutras, Yoga Upanishads are not referred. 4. Medical and psychosomatic aspects of Yoga together with experimental evidences, recent claims, etc, are not entered in the encyclopedia;lack of which does not provide a fuller understanding of the subject. 5. Finally, philosophical aspects of Yoga, its affiliation as a sub-school of samkhya, its interpretation in other schools like Vedanta, Mimamsa, Nyaya, Integral Philosophy, Parallelism of Yoga in other schools of thought is not provided in the entry.

I fervently request the reviewer to consider the above points so as to make the encyclopedic entry on yoga more readable, impartial and authentic. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sevenseas (talk • contribs) 14:49, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Images on Krishna
Krishna, WP Hinduism GA seems too have one to many images, some violating MoS. Kindly comment here. Thanks! Around The Globe सत्यमेव जयते 10:57, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Thai Pongal
Thai Pongal is currently tagged for needing more references, and according to the rules at Selected anniversaries, must be omitted from the Main Page on January 15, 2012, unless the issue can be addressed. There are a little over 12 days to go, so hopefully that gives editors enough to time to take care of this. Thanks!  howcheng  {chat} 20:08, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

WikiWomen's History Month
Hi everyone. March is Women's History Month and I'm hoping a few folks here at WP:Hinduism will have interest in putting on events related to women's roles in Hinduism. We've created an event page on English Wikipedia (please translate!) and I hope you'll find the inspiration to participate. These events can take place off wiki, like edit-a-thons, or on wiki, such as themes and translations. Please visit the page here: WikiWomen's History Month. Thanks for your consideration and I look forward to seeing events take place! SarahStierch (talk) 19:10, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Possible slight error in page on Kosha?
I refer to the page on Kosha. Specially Manomaya Kosha. It states "It is the cause of diversity, of I and mine." Later in the page an external link is given to http://www.ramakrishna.org/activities/message/weekly_message40.htm Here you will see that Vijnanamaya Kosha it is said "The sheath of the intellect is the seat of I-consciousness." Other sources I am familiar with also attribute the arising of I-consciousness with the Vijnanamaya kosha. For instance, on http://swamij.com/koshas.htm#vijnanamaya, we find in the description of Vijnanamaya kosha, "It is also the level of ego consciousness, meaning the powerful wave of I-am-ness." I am not an expert on this matter, and I also realise there are different ways of interpreting Vedantic knowledge. I put this forth as a question to the community, is it more commonly accepted that the Manomaya or Vijnanamaya kosha is the seat of "I"? — Preceding unsigned comment added by InspiredLight (talk • contribs) 15:02, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

Upanishads
Hi, Upanishads could use some eyes I believe. It is assessed as a good article, but a new editor seems to have a different opinion about the content. Amalthea 15:34, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

Shrisudharshannathji
I can't find an English sources for this, is there an alternative spelling, or something that would help find sources? Thanks. (I'll add that I found this because the editor was adding stuff to Lingam about a "totally wrong theory told by [Britishers]] in order to convert hindus into christianity easily." Dougweller (talk) 21:43, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

Big Bang
Hello, please see the discussion on the religious interpretations of the Big Bang. A couple users wish to remove the section in its entirety. Your comments on the section would be appreciated. Thank you, AnupamTalk 01:27, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

Merge help
The pages Thirupuraikkal Temple and Valliya Aarattu – Karnaki Amman Temple same to be both about the same temple. However, I don't know much about Hindu temples. Also, the articles need copyedit and are a tough read. I was hoping that someone more knowledgable could tell me if they are the same and clean them up and merge if needed. Please place comments at Talk:Thirupuraikkal Temple. D O N D E groovily  Talk to me  19:47, 5 March 2012 (UTC)

Possible greater cooperation across religion and philosophy projects
Please feel free to make any comments you might wish at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Religion regarding possible more closely coordinated activity between the various religion, philosophy, and mythology WikiProjects. John Carter (talk) 21:29, 11 March 2012 (UTC)
 * See the counter-proposal there at: Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Religion. Thank you, IZAK (talk) 09:38, 14 March 2012 (UTC)

New Volunteer coordinator for WikiProject Hinduism
We have been requesting the community at large in general for Volunteer coordinators for all the task forces/daughter projects of WikiProject India. We have also been requesting suitable editors to volunteer for this post. We have been making this request in those WikiProjects where no one can be seen taking up a clear leadership role to champion the cause of the WikiProject. After a long time, we have found a volunteer for WikiProject Hinduism, User:Redtigerxyz who has agreed to be the volunteer coordinator. We welcome him in this onerous and prestigious venture and request all WikiProject members to cooperate with him. Redtigerxyz is an experienced and balanced editor. He has 38928 edits since 8 December 2006 and has autoreviewer, filemover, reviewer and rollbacker rights. He has a challenging task in front of him. He has 4,279 articles and many more undiscovered ones to steward. Please support him not only with moral support but edits, ideas, engagement and encouragement. AshLin (talk) 16:43, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

More about volunter coordinators
The volunteer coordinator's roles include:
 * Do whatever needs doing in the WikiProject/task force, or getting it done along-with others.
 * Do everything that needs doing in the task force, or getting it done along-with others.
 * Look after the interests of the task force community in general and the articles in specific.
 * Represent the views of the task force wherever representation/participation is sought; to get a consensus where required and put forward the community's viewpoint.
 * Innovate and bring forth new initiatives, continue existing ones and retire defunct ones.
 * Maintain the task force infrastructure of pages.
 * Community development - recruitment, motivation, empowerment.
 * Join the mailing list for Wikipedians working on India related content on English Wikipedia (wikimedia-in-en [at] lists [dot] wikimedia [dot] org)
 * Provide reports, updates to the Community, for the newsleter and keep the community updated in general.

The Volunteer coordinator is a volunteer from the community and is answerable to the community. The volunteer enjoys the informal recognition and full support of the community. A volunteer coordinator is equal in all respects to all other editors except that he/she has the privilege to work on the WikiProject's wide range of interests. We trust him/her to take the best decisions and right actions. It is prestigious to be a volunteer coordinator as it signifies community trust reposed in an editor. However, the volunteer coordinator is open to recall by the community, should the community so decide that this is in the best interests of all concerned.

Any editor of good standing can volunteer or be chosen by the community. There is no rule which says a WikiProject can have only one volunteer coordinator but each should have at least one such person. User:Redtigerxyz has specifically asked for co-coordinators to work alongside with him. We expect responsible editors to take up these volunteer positions as a natural progression of things. We expect them to work together in harmony, with wisdom and with consensus. If they find themselves in COI or unable to carry out their duties in good faith, we expect them to inform the community and surrender their post. In addition, a volunteer is open to recall by the community, should the community so decide. AshLin (talk) 16:43, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

Discussion at Talk:Tirumala Venkateswara Temple
You are invited to join the discussion at Talk:Tirumala Venkateswara Temple. Pavan 01:29, 11 April 2012 (UTC) Please participate in the RFC discussion of whether Thondaiman has built the Tirumala Temple. Pavan 01:29, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

WikiProject Rambhadracharya
Hi guys! I am proposing a new sub-project under WikiProject Hinduism, named WikiProject Rambhadracharya, related to Rambhadracharya. I need consensus regarding this to move ahead with the proposal. All are welcome to give their opinions. Thanks. :) ♛♚★Vaibhav Jain★♚♛  Talk Email 09:33, 26 March 2012 (UTC)
 * There are 2 prerequisites for having a Wikiproject:

-- Redtigerxyz Talk 17:52, 26 March 2012 (UTC)
 * 1) Articles: At least 100 articles to cover
 * 2) People: At least 10-15 volunteers.

Help needed on God the Father
Hi, There is a section called Hinduism in the God the Father article, and people who edit that page may not be totally familiar with the Hinduism approach to the topic. I do not know the topic myself either. If one of you guys could touch that section up with a few sentences, and use WP:RS sources based on WP:Secondary your help will be appreciated. Thanks. History2007 (talk) 08:09, 11 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Redtiger responded to that and his comment was very helpful. Thanks Redtiger. History2007 (talk) 21:55, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

Discussion at Talk:Tirumala Venkateswara Temple
You are invited to join the discussion at [[Talk:Tirumala Venkateswara Temple]]. Pavan 01:27, 11 April 2012 (UTC) Please participate in the discussion of whether Thondaiman has built the Tirumala Temple. Pavan 01:27, 11 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Dear all
 * I am R.Muthusamy from Chennai. I am much interested in contributing in Wikipedia:Wikiproject Hinduism. I can accept tasks from Hinduism Sub-groups also. If acceptable I may please be communicated. Thank you. Iramuthusamy (talk)17:07, 19 April 2012 (UTC)

Big Bang RfC (Part II)
The latest RfC (administratively closed on 18 March) confirmed that there should be a presence of a brief "religious and philosophical implications" section in the Big Bang article. Which draft should be selected to appear in the section? Please participate in the RfC if you feel called to do so. With regards, AnupamTalk 00:11, 24 April 2012 (UTC)

Vadasserikavu Bhagavathi Temple
Another editor has created Vadasserikavu Bhagavathi Temple, an article about a temple in Kerala. Notability is uncertain, and the article is likely to be deleted unless references are added. Eastmain (talk • contribs) 02:22, 27 April 2012 (UTC)

Top-priority articles?
The Lindsay Jones Encyclopedia of Religion, and its earlier edition edited by Mircea Eliade, has been counted as the standard reference work in the field of religion. I have gotten together a list of the articles, all of them of some substantial length and most if not all with individual reference sections, at User:John Carter/Religion articles. I believe that the default idea of a "Top" priority article is an article that any encyclopedia should have. Considering this encyclopedia is allegedly the best in the religion field, I think it makes sense to include the articles they have as "Top" priority. Also, considering most if not all of those articles are directly relevant, in some way, to "religion" as a whole, I believe it would make sense to tag at least those articles with the "WikiProject Religion" banner as well, with top priority assessment. Would that be acceptable to the members of this project? John Carter (talk) 15:36, 6 May 2012 (UTC)
 * At this Hinduism project, there are hardly any Top importance articles. If Top = articles that any encyclopaedia should have, then more articles can be tagged as Top. But there are articles in that list which are not so important. Pandita Ramabai was feminist icon and Christian social reformer. No way much related to Hinduism, a low for Hinduism. Pāṇini was a Hindu, but a grammarian not a Hindu philosopher. Again a low.-- Redtigerxyz Talk 16:18, 6 May 2012 (UTC)
 * You've got a point there about Ramabai and probably Panini, about whom I honestly know nothing. Her main significance might be as a convert from Hinduism, and I'm not sure that necessarily qualifies as being of "Top" priority to Hinduism. I'll have to check to see what Panini is included for, although language has an article there, and is thus presumably Top importance, and he might be included on the basis of his importance to Hindu language, which is of importance to Hinduism. Like I said, I'll check them. And there might be a couple of Hindu academics who studied religion in general, who might be important to Religion, but necessarily so important to Hinduism. There are a few of those in general as well. But, as I get to that section, I will review the articles and try to determine if, based on the content, they are really "about" Hinduism to some degree (Temple should reasonably be tagged for all groups using that term, I think) and only those which are clearly directly relevant would get tagged as Top priority for Hinduism, although they might be tagged as such for Religion in general.
 * I should say, when I finish going over all the lists and ensuring that the spelling is right and such, I am going to try to create some of the missing articles. At this point, it looks like every group is missing at least a few. John Carter (talk) 16:26, 6 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Also, then there are articles like Manikkavacakar, sectarian Shaiva importance as well as regional - South India - importance. Not pan-Indian/pan-Hindu. Certainly a high, but top.. I don't think so. Also, I doubt the comprehensive nature of the list. It misses Shaktism (3rd most popular sect, or may be merged in Goddess worship), Om (the popular symbol of Hinduism), Surya (patron of monotheistic Saura sect, which is mentioned), all Top articles.-- Redtigerxyz Talk 17:27, 6 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Om is actually listed in the section on Indian religion. I don't know about Skatism, particularly related to its relevancy to Goddess worship. And I note that this is an encyclopedia on religion. It may well be possible, I don't know, that Manikkavacakar might have had some particular significance in broader religion. Ultimately, if and when I finish this list, I hope to go to the various other, more focused, reference works on individual religions. I know that there are a few "encyclopedias of Hinduism" out there, as well as other similar works for other faiths, and I hope to go to them when I finish with this one. Religion Past and Present and a few others come to mind. There are also numerous specialist encyclopedias on individual faiths, including Hinduism, and though I don't remember there may even be an "Encyclopedia of Saivism" or similar out there as well. I do hope to get to the "tradition-based" encyclopedias after finishing the broad religion encyclopedias. But it made sense to me to start with the broadest works first.
 * Also, I am going to try to get together for each of the relevant religion projects a list of articles in wikipedia which have articles in various print encyclopedias as well. I think that will make it potentially much easier to improve articles. But that, like I said, is a bit down the road yet. John Carter (talk) 17:44, 6 May 2012 (UTC)

hinduism
Hinduism not belong to a particular religion. Ir is a group of religion. Where hindu, muslims, shiks, crists, jainism, buddism etc religion coagulate and consider the supreme or god. And follow religion and respect another one. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.244.67.152 (talk) 18:33, 17 May 2012 (UTC)

Proposed MOS for Religion
There is now a proposed general Manual of Style for Religion and other articles relating to ethoses or belief systems at WikiProject Religion/Manual of style. Any input would be welcome. I personally believe at least one of the reasons why many articles in this field have been as contentious as they have been is because of lack of such guidelines, and would very much welcome any input from others to help come up with some generally acceptable solutions to some of these problems. John Carter (talk) 22:07, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Related RfC
Please comment at Template talk:Religion topics. Thank you. John Carter (talk) 21:32, 10 July 2012 (UTC)

Doleshwar Mahadev
Please look into this article Wikipedia talk:Articles for creation/Doleshwar Mahadev. Thank you for you help Rjthapa (talk) 04:12, 20 August 2012 (UTC)

Tirumala Venkateswara Temple
On going discussion:[] — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vasanth.Krish pande (talk • contribs) 14:18, 12 January 2013 (UTC)

Merging Samvat into Hindu calendar
Merging Samvat into Hindu calendar has been proposed since October 2010, and no objection has been raised to merge the two. I would merge them myself, but I'm not sure what should be kept, and how exactly they should be merged. Could someone with mor expertise in Hinduism look into doing this? Thank you. Trinitresque (talk) 00:43, 12 July 2012 (UTC)

Amarnath Temple article title
A single article covers the Amarnath Cave, the Amarnath Temple Pilgrimage, and the Amarnath Temple. What should the article's title be? As of right now, the title is Amarnath Temple, but the WP:LEAD says the title is Amarnath Cave Pilgrimage and the article's infobox says the title is Amarnath Cave. I don't know which title best follows WP:TITLE policy. Could someone familiar with the topic take a look at the article and make it more consistent? Thanks. 67.101.5.239 (talk) 17:51, 13 July 2012 (UTC) P.S. If no one is interested in my question I am happy to assume that the current article title is the consensus and I will change the lead section and the infobox accordingly.

Kaurava article
I wish to propose some changes to the article Kaurava, in view of helping improve the style of narration all in keeping the original story intact. (I come from an English background, and as a dedicated Vaishnava myself. I am fascinated by the Mahabharata and other Vedic literature). Below, you will find my alterations of wording only. I feel the improvements to the article, told in the Present tense (see sample below), should prove to be a more exciting read. Should you deem my changes worthy, you may of course use them. And if I can be of further assistance with edition / proof-reading, I'd be only too pleased to do so.

NOTE:
 * Question marks in parentheses (?) indicate unclear parts that I feel need clarifying,
 * (LINK) shows where I feel there could be one,
 * Improved punctuation

The Birth of Kaurava(s)

Gandhari offers her marriage vows to Dhritarashtra and at the same time she vows to remain blindfolded throughout her marriage in keeping 'equal status' with her husband's state of cursed blindness from birth. Gandhari's brother Shakuni (LINK) would join them in Hastinapur (LINK) to look after his sister's needs.

At some point (?) Rishi Vyas (LINK) [proclaimed author of the Mahabharata] COMES to Hastinapur to visit Gandhari, who shows the saint great hospitality. In return, Vyas grants Gandhari any boon she wished. Gandhari's wish, however, is to bear one hundred sons who would be as powerful as her husband. So Vyas grants Gandhari this and in due course Gandhari does become pregnant. Regrettably, after two years of child carriage, Gandhari gives birth, only to 'a solid piece of lifeless flesh' (Reference?). Needless to say, that was nowhere near a newborn child.

[Meanwhile, Kunti (LINK) (or Pṛthā) had given birth to her first son Yudhisthira (LINK), who would later lose everything to a chalenge by Shakuni for the Kaurava throne, through a gamble at dice.]

Gandhari is devastated, since she had been relying on the blessings of the rishi Vyas. She is about to get rid of the worthless piece of flesh when Rishi Vyas suddenly appears and assures her that his blessings would not go unfulfilled, and he asks Gandhari to arrange for one hundred jars to be filled with ghee. Then Vyas proceeds to divide up the piece of flesh into hundred pieces and, placing each piece in a jar, he promises her that each will turn into the sons she so desired. Gandhari then told Vyas that she also wished for a daughter. So Vyasadeva simply cuts off yet another piece of flesh from the same piece and places it in yet another jar.

After two years of patiently waiting, all the sealed jars were ready to be opened. And so the first jar was opened, and Gandhari took the first baby out naming him Duryodhana. But alas! As soon as she did, the baby started wailing so that all the beasts of the jungle began to howl, which was considered to be an ill omen (according to Vidura?), and which meant that the baby was inauspicious and could bring about misfortune for the entire clan of the Kauravas. (including the Pandavas)

Everyone was shocked and disappointed. Vidura (LINK), who is actually the son of Vyasa, [and seen as a personification of death because Vyasa was tricked by Ambalika to copulate with his mother Satyavari to bear a son for the kingdom], suggested the child would have to be abandoned (sacrificed?)

"Our Vedic scriptures," he exclaims, "clearly state that for the good of the clan an individual can be sacrificed, and that for the good of the village a whole clan may be sacrificed, just as for the good of a nation a village may be sacrificed and, for that matter, the development of the soul (Atman?), can the earth also be sacrificed. And so, for the good of the clan and of the country and of humanity, please do sacrifice this son of yours." (which part of which scripture is that?)

Both Gandhari and Dhritrashtra, however, were adamant that a baby could cause no harm and so, much against Vidur's cautioning, they kept Duryodhana anyway. [Meanwhile, in the forest, Kunti gives birth to her second son Bheemsen (Bhima) (LINK).]

The other children of Gandhari were born out of the special jars, and now Gandhari did end up having the one hundred sons, as well as a baby daughter they named Duhshala. And all these children grew to be healthy and strong. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Stjohn1970 (talk • contribs) 13:41, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

RfC on God
There is a request for comment regarding the scope of the article God at Talk:God. Any and all input is welcome. John Carter (talk) 15:34, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

Proposed changes to WP:NOT
Please see the recent notifications at Administrators' noticeboard/Geopolitical, ethnic, and religious conflicts and Village pump (policy) as it effects all religion editors: "There is currently discussion at Wikipedia talk:What Wikipedia is not regarding a proposed addition to that policy page. As topics of this nature tend to spawn some of the most heated and contested discussions we have, any and all informed, neutral opinions are more than welcome. John Carter (talk) 15:33, 6 August 2012 (UTC)" Thank you, IZAK (talk) 08:19, 8 August 2012 (UTC)

Comparison of Hinduism Branches
I would like this article reviewed and moved to Wikipedia main space. Please add where appropriate, and I will try to add the reference. Article could be renamed to Comparison of Branches in Indian Philosophy, if needed. --Ne0 (talk) 08:54, 6 September 2012 (UTC)


 * In the current form, the article is full of original research.

In the current form, the article is suitable for main space. -- Redtigerxyz Talk 11:35, 8 September 2012 (UTC)
 * 1) Buddhism as "Very old religion encompassing 28 eras". This is not based on history, but Buddhist mythology.
 * 2) Buddhism is not a school of Hinduism per se but an independent religion, Hindus regard it as a Nastika school. This should be clearly stated.
 * 3) Bramhaism is again a newly coined term. Again original research
 * 4) There is confusion between Brahma and Brahman. No sect worships Brahma as the Supreme One.
 * 5) Krishna as founder of Vaishnavism. Original research.
 * 6) The philosophy type of Raja Yoga is Advaita Vedanta. Isn't Yoga/Raja Yoga a school of philiosphy?
 * 7) Shaivism's foundation is "1900 AD ?"  Again original research.


 * 1) cited as such
 * 2) Done. Maybe the article should be renamed to Comparison of Branches in Indian Philosophy.
 * 3&4) Bramhaism followers revere Brahma as the God-head. For followers of Bramhaism, Brahma and Brahman/Param Brahma are the same. More information can be found in scriptures like Yoga Vaisistha.
 * 5) cited
 * 6) Saperated the two existing Astika schools into their own sections.
 * 7) Removed dates, as it is a matter of great controversy.
 * Thanks for the criticism. More input would be welcome --Ne0 (talk) 09:02, 10 September 2012 (UTC)

Maha mritunjaya dilemma
I might offend a lot of folks out there. But the concept of death avoiding sounds preposterous to me. Again i am saying my words, no body has to agree to me. But anything that is so misleading to go to the definition of death avoiding is too much dont you think. We know everyone dies, we dont have to read or understand. so why do we do such things, which does not make sense to me. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.46.177.173 (talk) 15:34, 20 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Mahamrityunjaya is conquering of death, not avoiding death. --Ne0 (talk) 07:27, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

Requesting input regarding the goddess Shivai or Shivadevi
Crossposting to get more expert overview. Welcoming your input here: Wikipedia_talk:Noticeboard_for_India-related_topics. Thanks for any support! MatthewVanitas (talk) 02:17, 9 October 2012 (UTC)

Deletion of 4 articles on persecution of Hindus (need improvement)
User:Kmzayeem, without any prior discussion in the talk pages, has nominated 4 articles on persecution of Hindus, Articles for deletion/1992 Bangladesh pogroms 2012 Fatehpur Violence, 2012 Hathazari Violence and 2012 Chirirbandar Violence for deletion. The user has many times been reported because of disruptive edits at and at. In any case the articles in question would need improvement. --Trphierth (talk) 18:13, 29 October 2012 (UTC)

Possible religion related goals for 2013
This is probably more than a bit presumptuous on my part, but I have started a discussion at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Religion asking what if any sort of goals we might be able to reasonably set for the next year, in wikipedia and other WF sites as well. I figured the wikipedia probably gets more attention, which is why I started the discussion there. But I would be very interested in seeing any input regarding what the editors here think might be the areas here most in need or meriting additional attention. Maybe, and at this point it is just a maybe, maybe we might be able to get some input on such topics if we have some idea what it is we really need to work on. Anyway, I would welcome any input anyone here might have. John Carter (talk) 20:07, 4 November 2012 (UTC)

AfD Muhapatti
Please see Articles for deletion/Muhapatti. I added some sources, but I don't think it was a justified AfD in the first place. OttawaAC (talk) 23:27, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

Request at the Diwali article
An editor has raised a request for the Diwali article to be expanded to cover the festival in Africa. Sounds like a good thing to do, so I thought someone here might be able to handle it. Manning (talk) 23:14, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

Improvements to Kagapujandar article needed
Hello,

There is an article in draft stage at User:Arulraja/Kagapujandar that needs attention from people knowledgeable in Hinduism. Please improve it if you can.

Thanks, &mdash; Hex    (❝  ?!  ❞)   20:30, 20 November 2012 (UTC).

Main article on Silas and the article on the topic of the Dvaravati Sila
These article pages for the articles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sila_%28murthi%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvaravati_sila

In the main article on Silas and the article on the topic of the Dvaravati Sila, I have capitalized the various forms of the word Shaligrama, such as Shaligrama, Saligrama, Shaligram, Salagrama, and Salagram. Not all of these forms of the word may have appeared, so I just capitalized as many forms were in the articles. I also capitalized Shila and Sila in these articles as well. I also capitalized the forms off all of the words above if the words had an s at the end indicating multiple. For all of the forms of the words above, I did not capitalize all of them because some my have been quoted from other sources, so I wanted to keep the original source intact. I am not an expert on editing, so I do not know if more of the forms of the words above should be capitalized. I am also not an expert on Shaligramas or Shilas, but I thought these words should be capitalized because the words are Holy. I would like someone to review my edits to make sure what I have done is correct.

For the Dvaravati Sila article, I did not know how to edit the heading, so Sila has not been capitalized there. In this article, it also says Sila, then it has a line, and then it says Saligrama Sila. This is probably an error, but I have not changed it due to not knowing what should be done about it. The section on benefits in this article may have been taken (possibly directly copied) from another source. I did not see a source listed.

The URL for the main Sila article listed above seems to be different than the one listed when you go to the actual page. The page seems to be working alright. I am not an expert on this topic, so someone may want to look into this if this is a problem for any reason.

Please check over these articles and make sure the edits that I made are alright. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sidepost15 (talk • contribs) 21:03, 16 December 2012 (UTC)