Questions families ask
Short, sourced answers to the questions Hindu families and teenagers ask, with the school behind each reading named.
For children: stories by age · why we celebrate each festival
The samskaras: rites of passage, from naming to the last rites
Gods and goddesses
Hindu gods and goddesses: who each one is, with their prayers, festivals and stories
Who is Ganesha, and why is he worshipped first?
Ganesha, also called Ganapati and Vinayaka, is the elephant-headed god of beginnings, wisdom and the removal of obstacles. He is the son of Shiva and Parvati, and he rides a rat (mushaka). Because he clears the way, most Hindu rites, from a home puja to a wedding, begin by honouring him, and many books open with a salutation to him. The Mahabharata, in the version families know, tells that he wrote down the epic as Vyasa spoke it. His great festival is Ganesh Chaturthi. The Puranas tell the story of his elephant head in different ways.
Who is Hanuman?
Hanuman is the great devotee and messenger of Rama in the Ramayana. Son of the Wind god and of Anjana, he is strong, wise and faithful. He leaps the ocean to Lanka, finds Sita, gives her Rama's ring, and later brings the healing herb that saves Lakshmana. The Hanuman Chalisa opens with two dohas; its forty verses in his praise then begin by hailing him as an ocean of wisdom and virtue. Many people pray to him for strength and courage, often on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Some traditions also see him as a form of Shiva. His birth is kept as Hanuman Jayanti, on different days in different regions.
Who is Krishna?
Krishna is one of the most loved forms of God in Hindu worship. The Puranas tell of his birth in Mathura, his childhood among the cowherds of Vraja, where he lifted the hill Govardhan, and his life in Dvaraka, the city he built for his people, the Yadavas. In the Mahabharata he is Arjuna's charioteer, and his teaching to Arjuna is the Bhagavad Gita. There he says that he takes birth “age after age” to protect the good (4.8). Many traditions see Krishna as an avatar of Vishnu; some see him as the Supreme Lord himself, the source of all avatars. His birth is kept as Janmashtami.
Who is Rama?
Rama is the hero of the Ramayana: a prince of Ayodhya, eldest son of King Dasharatha, who gives up his throne to keep his father's word, spends fourteen years in the forest with Sita and Lakshmana, rescues Sita from Ravana with the help of Hanuman, and returns to rule. Many Hindus honour him as the ideal of a good son, husband and king, and worship him as an avatar of Vishnu. In the Gita, Krishna says that among those who bear weapons he is Rama (10.31). His birth is kept as Ram Navami, his victory at Dussehra, and his homecoming, in many families, at Diwali.
Who is Shiva?
Shiva, “the auspicious one”, is one of the great forms of God in Hindu worship. He is pictured as an ascetic whose home is Mount Kailasa, with a third eye, the crescent moon above it and the river Ganga in his matted hair, and as the husband of Parvati and father of Ganesha and Skanda (Karttikeya). He is worshipped above all in the linga, a form without a human shape. In the Vedas he is Rudra. For Shaiva traditions he is the Supreme Lord, who creates, protects and draws back the world; for others he is one of the great forms of the one God. Maha Shivaratri is his great night.
Who is Vishnu?
Vishnu is the form of God who preserves and protects the world. He is pictured resting on the serpent Shesha in the cosmic ocean, or standing with the conch, discus, mace and lotus, with Lakshmi as his consort. When dharma declines he comes down as an avatar; devotion to him centres above all on two of his avatars, Rama and Krishna. The aarti Om Jai Jagdish Hare praises him as Jagdish, lord of the world, and as Hari. For Vaishnava traditions he is the Supreme Lord; for Smartas he is one of five great forms of the one God. Ekadashi fasts and Vaikuntha Ekadashi are kept in his honour.
Who is Durga?
Durga is the Goddess as protector: the Mother who fights for the world. Her best-known story is told in the Devi Mahatmyam, part of the Markandeya Purana. When the buffalo-demon Mahishasura drove the gods from heaven, the powers of all the gods joined into one blazing light that became the Goddess; armed with their weapons and riding a lion, she defeated him. She is worshipped above all in the nine nights of Navratri and in Bengal's Durga Puja. For Shakta traditions she is the supreme power behind the world; for others she is one of the great forms of the one God.
Who is Lakshmi?
Lakshmi, also called Shri, is the goddess of fortune, prosperity and beauty, and the consort of Vishnu. The Puranas tell that she rose from the ocean of milk when the gods and the asuras churned it, seated on a lotus, and in pictures she is usually shown seated on one. Families worship her on the new-moon night of Diwali, with lamps at every door, and many also on the autumn full moon. In the Gita, Krishna names fortune (shri) among his glories (10.34). For Sri Vaishnavas she is inseparable from Vishnu and the one who brings souls to his grace.
Who is Saraswati?
Saraswati is the goddess of learning, speech, music and the arts. She is one of the oldest names in the tradition: in the Rig Veda, Sarasvati is a great river and a goddess together, praised as “Best mother, best of rivers, best of goddesses”, and asked to further “all our thoughts”. Later she becomes above all the goddess of speech and knowledge, and a Purana says she is worshipped on the day a person begins to learn. Her festival is Vasant Panchami, at the start of spring. Traditions place her beside Brahma, beside Vishnu or among the forms of the Goddess.
Do Hindus believe in one God or in many gods?
Many Hindus would answer: one, seen in many forms. The Rig Veda says, “To what is one, sages give many a title” (1.164.46). In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (3.9), a sage is asked how many gods there are. His answer narrows from 3,306 to thirty-three, and at last to one, Brahman. Most traditions hold one supreme reality and worship it as Vishnu, Shiva, the Goddess, Ganesha or another form. A family often has its own chosen deity (ishta-devata). The traditions differ on which form is supreme, and on how the other gods relate to it.
What is an avatar in Hinduism?
Avatar (avatara) means “descent”: God coming down into the world in a form, to protect the good and to restore dharma. The Gita gives the classic reason: “Whensoever … piety languishes, and impiety is in the ascendant, I create myself. I am born age after age, for the protection of the good, for the destruction of evil-doers, and the establishment of piety” (4.7–8). The best-known list is the ten avatars of Vishnu (dashavatara), which includes Rama and Krishna. Lists differ between texts and regions, and the Bhagavata Purana says the avatars are numberless. Traditions differ on how an avatar's birth and body are real.
What families do, and why
What is a puja?
A puja is an act of worship in which a deity is welcomed and served as an honoured guest. It can be a short daily offering at a home shrine or a long temple rite. The usual steps are to invite the deity, offer water, flowers, incense, a lamp and food, and close with aarti, the waving of a lamp, and with prayer. The food offered then becomes prasada, a gift shared by all. Fuller rites count sixteen services (shodashopachara). The Gita says that even “leaf, flower, fruit, water”, offered with devotion, is accepted (9.26). Families and traditions differ in steps, words and prayers.
Why do Hindus worship a murti, and is it right to call it an idol?
A murti is a sacred image of a deity, made by the rules of tradition. In a temple it is first installed with a rite of consecration (pratishtha, often called prana-pratishtha), through which the deity is held to be present in it. Most Hindus do not take the stone or metal itself to be God. They treat the murti as a form in which God is present and can be served with water, flowers, food and light. The Gita says that even a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water, offered with devotion, is accepted (9.26). The Sanskrit word murti means a form or an image, and this page uses it in place of “idol”. Traditions explain the presence in different ways, and some reform movements use no images.
Why do Hindus fast? What is a vrat?
A vrat is a vow: a religious observance kept for a day or longer, which often includes a fast. People keep vrats out of devotion, as a discipline, in thanks for a wish granted, or with a prayer for their family. A fast can mean no food at all, one meal, fruit and milk only, or no grains. Common vrats are Ekadashi twice a month for Vishnu, Maha Shivaratri and Pradosh for Shiva, the nine nights of Navratri for the Goddess, and Karwa Chauth, kept by many married women. Each vrat has its rule, its story (katha) and its time to end the fast. The Gita warns against extremes (6.16).
Why do families celebrate Diwali in different ways, and sometimes on different days?
Diwali is one festival with several stories, and each region keeps the story and the main day it inherited. In much of North India the lamps welcome Rama home to Ayodhya. Many families, above all merchant families, worship Lakshmi on the new-moon night. In South India the main moment is the dawn before, which celebrates Krishna's victory over Narakasura. In Bengal the same night is Kali Puja. Days can differ too: the rule for Lakshmi Puja depends on sunset in your own city, so a city abroad may keep it a day apart from India. Pujadeep computes the day for your city and names the rule.
What does Om mean?
Om is the most sacred syllable in Hindu practice. It is said before prayers, at the beginning and end of a Veda lesson, and at the head of many mantras, such as Om Namah Shivaya, and of the aarti Om Jai Jagdish Hare. The Upanishads call it the word that all the Vedas record and a name of Brahman. In the Gita, Krishna says he is the syllable Om in all the Vedas (7.8). Patanjali's Yoga Sutras call it the name of the Lord. The texts agree that Om names the highest. Readers differ on what the highest is: the formless Brahman, the Lord (Ishvara) of Patanjali's Yoga, or, for Vaishnavas, the personal Lord, Vishnu or Krishna.
The holy books
What is the Ramayana?
The Ramayana, “Rama's adventures”, is one of the two great Sanskrit epics, told, as tradition holds, by the sage Valmiki in seven books. In Valmiki's telling, Prince Rama is sent into the forest for fourteen years, the demon king Ravana carries off his wife Sita to Lanka, Hanuman finds her, and Rama wins her back and returns to rule Ayodhya. Tradition calls it the first poem (adi-kavya). It has been retold in many languages; Tulsidas's Awadhi Ramcharitmanas is the best known in North India. Families read it for its story and for its picture of duty, loyalty and devotion.
What is the Mahabharata?
The Mahabharata is the longest of the Sanskrit epics, traditionally composed by the sage Vyasa and written down, the story says, by Ganesha. At its centre is the struggle between two branches of one royal family, the five Pandava brothers and their hundred Kaurava cousins, which ends in the great war at Kurukshetra. Around it are hundreds of other stories and long teachings on dharma. The Bhagavad Gita is part of it, spoken by Krishna to Arjuna just before the battle. The epic says of itself that what is not in it is found nowhere else. Families know it through its stories. This page follows the Sanskrit epic as K. M. Ganguli translated it into English (1883–96).
What are the Hindu holy books?
Hindu scripture is not one book but a library. The oldest layer is shruti, “what was heard”: the four Vedas (Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva), each with its hymns, ritual texts and Upanishads. Most traditions hold shruti to be revealed, without a human author. Smriti, “what is remembered”, came later and is held to agree with shruti: the epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata (which contains the Bhagavad Gita), the Puranas, and the law books. Many communities also treasure scripture in their own languages, such as Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas or the Tamil hymns of the Alvars. Which texts carry the most weight differs from one tradition to another.
What are the Vedas?
The Vedas are the oldest sacred texts of the Hindu tradition. There are four: the Rig Veda (hymns of praise), the Yajur Veda (formulas for the rites), the Sama Veda (chants) and the Atharva Veda. Each has hymns, ritual texts and, at its end, the Upanishads, which teach about the self and Brahman. They were handed down by memory, teacher to pupil, long before they were written. Most traditions hold that the Vedas were revealed, “heard” (shruti) by the sages rather than made by them. Historians date them differently, and the schools read them differently.
What does the Gayatri mantra mean?
The Gayatri mantra is a verse of the Rig Veda (3.62.10) addressed to Savitar, the divine power of the sun that rouses and gives life. Griffith translates it: “May we attain that excellent glory of Savitar the God: So may he stimulate our prayers.” It takes its name from its metre, the gayatri, of three lines of eight syllables; it is also called the Savitri, after its god. The law books make it part of daily prayer at dawn and dusk and of the sacred-thread rite. Translators and schools render it in different ways, and traditions differ on who may learn and recite it.
How do you read Sanskrit in English letters (IAST)?
IAST is a way to write Sanskrit in English letters. Each letter has one sound. The marks above and below the letters are part of the spelling, so do not skip them. Vowels. A line above a vowel makes it long: hold it about twice as long as the short vowel. a is short, like the u in "but"; ā is long, like the a in "father". i as in "pin", ī as in "machine"; u as in "pull", ū as in "rule". e as in "they" and o as in "go" are always long. ai is close to the i in "time", and au to the ou in "our". ṛ is an r used as a vowel; most readers today say it "ri" (kṛṣṇa, "krishna"). ṝ is the same sound held longer. ḷ is an l used as a vowel, like the le in "able"; it is very rare. Nasals and breath. ṃ (anusvāra) is a nasal sound after the vowel; before a consonant such as k, t or p it often sounds like the n or m that goes with that consonant (saṃkalpa, "sankalpa"). m̐ (candrabindu) makes the vowel itself nasal, as in the French "bon". ḥ (visarga) is a soft breath, an h, after the vowel (namaḥ). In recitation many people let a faint echo of the vowel follow it ("namaha"). Consonants. c is always the ch in "church"; j is the j in "judge". An h after a consonant is a puff of breath in the same sound, not a new sound: kh as in "backhand", gh as in "doghouse", ch as c with a puff of breath, jh as j with a puff of breath, th as in "hothouse", dh as in "madhouse", ph as in "uphill", bh as in "clubhouse". So th is never the th in "thin", and ph is never the f in "phone". A dot below (ṭ ṭh ḍ ḍh ṇ) means the tip of the tongue turns up and back to the roof of the mouth. With no dot (t th d dh n), the tip of the tongue touches the upper teeth. English t and d are nearer to ṭ and ḍ than to t and d. ṅ is the ng in "sing"; ñ is the n in "pinch". ś is the sh in "shine"; ṣ is also a sh, with the tongue turned back, and many readers say ś and ṣ the same. v is between the English v and w; after most consonants (svāhā, dvāra) it is near w. kṣ is k and ṣ together, "ksh" (kṣetra). jñ is j and ñ together; in Hindi it is said "gy" (jñāna, "gyaan"). The final a. Sanskrit says every short a, also at the end of a word: rāma has two full syllables. In Hindi speech, a final short a is usually silent (Ram). In Hindi and Awadhi poetry, such as Tulsidas' Ramcharitmanas, singers often sound it to fit the metre, but usually not where a line pauses. Pujadeep writes every a, so the IAST line shows the spelling; say it as your tradition recites it. In Hindi and Awadhi texts, ṛ can also be a consonant: a quick r with the tongue turned back (baṛe, "bade"); ṛh is the same sound with a puff of breath. Other marks. ï and ü (aï, aü) show two vowels said one after the other, not ai or au. The mark ’ shows an a that is dropped after e or o. | and || end a half verse and a verse.
Big ideas
What does dharma mean?
Dharma comes from a Sanskrit root that means “to hold” or “to support”; the Mahabharata says that dharma is so called “because it upholds all creatures”. It names what holds a life and a society together: right conduct, duty, law and the order of things. No single English word fits it. The texts speak of duties shared by everyone, such as non-harm and truthfulness, and of duties that belong to a person's own role and stage of life, called svadharma (Gita 2.31). Today the word is also used for “religion”, as in Hindu Dharma. The schools agree that dharma matters. They differ on how dharma is known, and on its place beside the goal of liberation.
What is karma?
Karma is a Sanskrit word that means “action”. In Hindu teaching it also names the link between what a person does and what comes back from it, in this life or in a later birth. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says that as a person acts, so that person becomes. The Bhagavad Gita (2.47) asks people to do their work without making its result their motive. Many teachers say that karma is not fixed fate, because each present choice is a new action; the Mahabharata compares past deeds to the seed and present effort to the soil, and says that without effort “Destiny is of no avail”. The schools agree that actions bear fruit. They differ on how the fruit arrives and on how a person becomes free of karma.
What is ahimsa?
Ahimsa means not harming: not injuring any living being. It is among the most widely shared values in Hindu teaching. Manu's law book lists it first in its summary of the law for all four varnas, the Mahabharata calls it the highest dharma, and in the Gita Krishna names harmlessness among the states of beings that come from him (10.5). Many Hindus see vegetarian food as an expression of it. The texts also discuss when force is a duty, as for a warrior or a king, so readers weigh ahimsa together with other duties; schools and families do so in different ways.
What is bhakti?
Bhakti means loving devotion to God. The word comes from the root bhaj. Monier-Williams's dictionary gives its meanings as “to divide”, “share with” and “partake of”, and also “to serve, honour, revere, love, adore”. Much Hindu prayer is bhakti: singing hymns and aartis, repeating God's name, offering flowers and fruit at home or in the temple, and offering one's work to God (Gita 9.27). Chapter 12 of the Bhagavad Gita, called Bhakti Yoga, describes the devotee who is dear to God: one who hates no being, is friendly and compassionate, and is the same in pain and pleasure (12.13–14). Poet-saints sang of bhakti in many Indian languages. The schools on this page agree that bhakti matters; they differ on whether it prepares the mind for the knowledge that frees, or is itself the way to the Lord.
What is the atman, the self, in Hindu teaching?
Atman means the self: the conscious one who lives in the body, knows and experiences, and is not the body or the mind. The Bhagavad Gita says of it: “It is not born, nor does it ever die … it is not killed when the body is killed” (2.20). It passes from body to body as a person changes clothes (2.22). The Upanishads teach that this self is to be known, and that knowing it frees a person from sorrow. The schools on this page agree that the self is eternal and conscious. They differ on its relation to Brahman, the highest reality: identical with it, a part of it, or for ever distinct.
Do Hindus believe in reincarnation (punarjanma)?
Most Hindu traditions teach punarjanma, “birth again”: the self (atman) does not die with the body but takes another, as a person puts on new clothes after old ones (Gita 2.22). What the next life is like follows from one's deeds and desires, which is the working of karma. The round of birth and death is called samsara, and freedom from it is moksha. The Gita says: “to one that is born, death is certain; and to one that dies, birth is certain” (2.27). The schools on this page agree on rebirth; they differ on what ends it and on what the freed self becomes.
What is moksha?
Moksha means “release” or “freedom”. It is freedom from samsara, the round of birth, death and rebirth that karma keeps turning. Many texts name four aims of human life: dharma (right living), artha (wealth and security), kama (love and enjoyment) and moksha, which many teachers count as the highest. The schools agree that moksha ends sorrow and rebirth. They differ on what the freed self is, on whether it stays distinct from God, and on how freedom is reached: by knowledge, by devotion and grace, or by both. Some teach that a person can be free while still alive.
What does yoga mean in the Bhagavad Gita?
In the Gita, yoga is much more than posture or exercise. The word comes from yuj, “to join” or “to harness”, and in the Gita it names a discipline of mind and action. The Gita gives its own definitions: “equability is called devotion”, in Telang's words (2.48), and yoga is skill in action (2.50). Every chapter ends by naming itself a yoga, such as karma yoga, the yoga of action (chapter 3), and bhakti yoga, the yoga of devotion (chapter 12), and the chapter endings call the whole book a yoga-shastra. The Gita asks for balance, not extremes, even in food and sleep (6.16–17). The schools differ on which yoga leads furthest.
What is Advaita Vedanta, and how does it differ from the other Vedanta schools?
Vedanta, “the end of the Veda”, is the family of schools that explain the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutras. Advaita, “not two”, is one of these schools, best known through Shankara. It teaches that Brahman alone is real in the final sense, that the true self (atman) is not different from Brahman, and that the world of many separate things is an appearance (maya) to those who do not yet know this. Other Vedanta schools read the same texts in other ways, among them Vishishtadvaita (Ramanuja) and Dvaita (Madhva). Each is a living tradition with its own teachers and followers.
What does “Sanatan Dharma” mean, and who uses the term?
Sanatana dharma is Sanskrit for “eternal dharma”: the lasting law, duty or way. In the old texts the words describe a rule or a truth as everlasting; they are not yet the name of a religion. From the nineteenth century, many Hindus began to use Sanatana Dharma as a name for their whole faith: a name from inside the tradition, which holds that its truth is eternal and was revealed to seers, not founded by one person. Today many Hindus, and Hindu teachers, leaders and community bodies, use the term, often as another name for Hinduism. It is also used in political debate in India. This page explains the word and takes no side in that debate.
Rites of passage and family rites
What is namakarana, the Hindu naming ceremony?
Namakarana is the samskara, or rite of passage, in which a baby is given its name. The old household manuals, the Grihya Sutras, set it on the tenth day after birth. Other rules allow the eleventh day (a 1928 record calls it the usual day in South India), the twelfth day, a later auspicious day, or even a hundred nights or a year. The father, or in some families the father's sister or the eldest of the family, says the name aloud, often into the baby's right ear, and the parents are the first to say or hear it. Many families take the first sound of the name from the baby's birth nakshatra.
What is annaprashana, a baby's first rice?
Annaprashana, "the feeding of food", is the samskara in which a baby eats its first solid food. The Grihya Sutras and the Manusmriti set it in the sixth month after birth; some families keep it a little later. The food is usually rice: boiled rice mixed with curds, honey and ghee in the old manuals, milk-rice (kheer) or rice with sugar, honey and ghee in later family records. The old manuals also list other foods, including meat and fish, and different families follow different rules. A parent or an elder gives the first taste, often after prayers and offerings in the sacred fire.
What is mundan, a child's first haircut?
Mundan, called chudakarana or chaula in Sanskrit, is the samskara of a child's first ceremonial haircut. The Manusmriti places it in the first or the third year; other manuals say the third year, and later family records say between the third and the fifth. The father or the priest cuts the first locks with prayers, and a barber then shaves the head. Many families leave a tuft of hair (shikha) in the way their family keeps it. The cut hair is then put in a river, a pond or other water, or in a cow-shed. Some families go to an ancestral home or another set place for the rite.
What is vidyarambha, a child's first letters?
Vidyarambha, "the beginning of learning", is the rite in which a young child writes or traces its first letters. It is also called akshararambha, "the beginning of the letters", and in Telugu-speaking families aksharabhyasam, "the practice of the letters" (aksharabhyasa in the Kannada record). In the records cited here the child is about four or five years old, the rite comes after the first haircut (mundan), and it begins with prayers to Ganesha and to Sarasvati, the goddess of learning. A parent or the priest guides the child's hand, often in rice or on a slate. In the Kerala record the first words are "Hari Sri Ganapataye Namah", a salutation to Vishnu, Lakshmi and Ganesha; in the Mysore record they are "Om Namo Narayanaya", a salutation to Vishnu. Many families choose Vijayadashami, the day after the nine nights of Navaratri; others choose another auspicious day.
What is the sacred thread ceremony (upanayana)?
Upanayana is the samskara in which a boy receives the sacred thread (yajnopavita, janeu) and is taken to a teacher to begin the study of the Veda. The word means "leading near". At its heart the teacher, often the family priest or the father, teaches the boy the Gayatri (Savitri) verse. The texts call this a second birth: in it, Manu says, the Savitri is the mother and the teacher the father. The boy then begs food from his mother and other women, and he begins to say the daily sandhya prayers.
What are the Hindu wedding rituals, from kanyadan to saptapadi?
A Hindu wedding (vivaha) centres on kanyadan, the hand-taking, rounds of the sacred fire and saptapadi, the seven steps that complete the marriage. Vivaha is the samskara that begins family life. It has many parts, but the old household manuals and later family records agree on a few at its centre. In kanyadan, the "gift of the maiden", the bride's father, and in some families her mother with him, gives her to the groom with water poured as a pledge. In panigrahana, the groom takes the bride's hand. The couple walk round the sacred fire, and the bride steps on a stone, asked to be as firm as it. Her brother pours parched grain into her hands for an offering. Then comes saptapadi, the seven steps: with each step the couple name a blessing, and the seventh makes them friends. Manu says the marriage is complete with the seventh step. At night the couple look at the pole star, a sign of being steady.
What are Hindu funeral rites (antyeshti)?
Antyeshti means “the last offering”. It is the last of the samskaras, the rites that mark a life: the body is given to the fire, as a final offering. Families wash the body, dress it in new cloth, and say the name of God beside it. Usually the eldest son or the husband lights the fire. The family bathes, offers water in the name of the one who has died, and keeps a time of mourning, often ten days. Later the family gathers the ashes and gives them to a river. Rites of remembrance (shraddha) follow.
What is shraddha?
Shraddha is the rite of remembrance for parents and ancestors. The word comes from shraddha, “faith”: what is given with faith. The family offers water with sesame seeds, balls of rice or flour (pinda) and food, says the names of the father, grandfather and great-grandfather (and, in many families, of the mothers too), feeds guests and gives to people in need.
What is griha pravesh?
Griha pravesh means “entering the home”. It is the rite a family performs before it starts to live in a new house or flat. The family worships Ganesha first, honours Vastoshpati, the lord of the dwelling, carries in a pot of water (kalasha) and fire, makes offerings into the fire, and then shares a meal with relatives, friends and guests. Many families choose an auspicious time (muhurat) for the entry with their priest, from the panchang for their own city. The rite is also kept on moving into a house that others built, or one rebuilt after a fire or flood; the old muhurat handbooks give that entry a rule of its own.
Society and food
What do Hindu texts say about varna and jati (caste)?
Varna is the fourfold scheme of the texts: Brahmanas (priests and teachers), Kshatriyas (rulers and warriors), Vaishyas (farmers and traders) and Shudras (those who serve). Jati means the many birth-groups that real communities form, each tied to a region, with marriage kept mostly within the group. The two are not the same. The texts disagree on whether varna comes from birth or from a person's qualities and conduct, and the schools read them in different ways. Caste discrimination is against the law in India: the Constitution forbids the State to discriminate on grounds of caste (Article 15) and abolishes untouchability (Article 17). Many Hindu teachers and reformers have opposed it. Readings differ, and quoting a text here does not make its wording this guide's view.
Why do many Hindus not eat beef?
Many Hindus do not eat beef because they hold the cow in deep respect. The cow gives milk and the ox pulls the plough; the Rig Veda already speaks of the cow as one not to be harmed, and the Mahabharata calls cows “the mothers of all creatures”. Krishna, the cowherd, is loved in that role. The texts also teach ahimsa, non-harm, and many praise giving up meat altogether. Practice varies. In a Pew Research Center survey, 44% of Hindus in India said they are vegetarian, with large differences between regions. Many Hindus eat other meat but not beef, and customs differ by community and family. The texts are read in different ways, and quoting a text here does not make its wording this guide's view.