Folk Hinduism

Folk Hinduism or Popular Hinduism is the aspect of Hinduism as a folk religion or ethnic religion, i.e. nominal Hinduism mixed with Animist practice, as opposed to its scholastic or mystical aspects (Brahmanism, Vedanta, Hindu philosophy). Folk Hinduism is emphatically polytheistic, as opposed to Brahmanism or Vedantic Hinduism, which emphasize Monism or Monotheism.

References

• Vineeta Sinha, Problematizing Received Categories: Revisiting ‘Folk Hinduism’ and ‘Sanskritization’, Current Sociology, Vol. 54, No. 1, 98-111 (2006)
• Vineeta Sinha , Persistence of ‘Folk Hinduism’ in Malaysia and Singapore, Australian Religion Studies Review Vol. 18 No. 2 (Nov 2005):211-234
• Stuart H. Blackburn, Inside the Drama-House: Rama Stories and Shadow Puppets in South India, UCP (1996), ch. 3: " Ambivalent Accommodations: Bhakti and Folk Hinduism".
• Stuart H. Blackburn, Death and Deification: Folk Cults in Hinduism, History of Religions (1985).
• David N. Gellner, Hinduism. None, one or many?, Social Anthropology (2004), 12: 367-371 Cambridge University
• L. E. Nelson (ed.), Purifying the Earthly Body of God: Religion and Ecology in Hindu India, New York (1998).

See also

• Hindu mythology
• Hindu deities
• Hindu views on monotheism
• Hinduism in Malaysia
• Vedda people