Hinduism

What Hinduism covers

One of the six Paper 4 options. Sanatana dharma and the cycle of rebirth, Brahman and the avatars, the Vedic corpus and how its authority is argued about, the four yogas, the Vedanta schools, and Hinduism under colonial rule and in the modern world.

The 16 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Sanatana Dharma, Karma and the Cycle of RebirthRecall questions on Sanatana Dharma and rta, karma and its three kinds, motive and freedom, samsara and rebirth, the subtle body, the accounts of moksha, death rites and the ancestors, and Zaehner's view of Hinduism.Open →
• Brahman, the Avatars and the GoddessRecall questions on nirguna and saguna Brahman, Lipner's banyan tree and Sivananda on the one and the many, Vishnu's avatars, Krishna and ISKCON, Rama and his dharma, and Shakti and the Goddess.Open →
• Dharma, Ahimsa, the Aims of Life and the GunasRecall questions on the two levels of dharma, ahimsa and karma, Bilimoria on Indian ethics, the four aims of life and vairagya, the four ashramas, and the three gunas and their qualities.Open →
• The Origins of Hinduism and Vedic ReligionRecall questions on the Indus valley evidence, the Aryan migration debate, Vedic ritual and deities, and the shift to the Upanishads.Open →
• Shruti, Smriti and the Vedic CorpusRecall questions on the distinction between heard and remembered scripture, the four Vedas, the Upanishads, and the epics.Open →
• Debates about Scriptural AuthorityRecall questions on the variety of Hindu scripture, shruti as timeless and apaurusheya, Vedic authority as a test of orthodoxy, Brockington on continuity and diversity, O'Flaherty on myth, and Dayananda Saraswati's return to the Vedas.Open →
• Varnashrama-dharma, Varna and JatiRecall questions on the four varnas and the ashramas, the difference between varna and jati, and modern debate about caste.Open →
• The Four YogasRecall questions on the meaning of yoga, karma yoga and ordinary work, jnana yoga and its link to raja yoga, bhakti yoga as open to all, hatha yoga and its Western development, and whether the four are one path.Open →
• Debates about YogaRecall questions on whether the yogas are alternatives or stages, Patanjali's eightfold path, and the criticism of yoga's modern export.Open →
• Colonial Rule, Reform Movements and Key FiguresRecall questions on colonial pressures and secularisation, the Brahmo Samaj, Arya Samaj and Ramakrishna Mission, Neo-Vedanta and Hindutva, and Ram Mohan Roy, Ramakrishna, Dayananda Saraswati and Gandhi.Open →
• Hindu Renaissance, Nationalism and Hinduism AbroadRecall questions on the Hindu renaissance, Neo-Vedanta and Hindutva, inclusivism and tolerance, Gandhi's non-violence and swaraj, modern science, whether Hinduism is one religion, and its representation abroad.Open →
• Shankara and Ramanuja: Contexts and Key BeliefsRecall questions on Advaita and Vishishtadvaita, maya, the relation of atman to Brahman in each, and the role of devotion.Open →
• Bhakti, the Gita and Assessing the Two SystemsRecall questions on Shankara and Ramanuja on bhakti and liberation, their readings of the Bhagavad Gita, their influence on later devotion, the cases for and against Advaita and Vishishtadvaita, and Bowes, Hopkins and Smart.Open →
• Pluralism, Diversity and Hindu MigrationRecall questions on Hinduism as a plurality of traditions, religious pluralism, Hindutva as exclusivism, Hindu inclusivism, practice in a multicultural society, migration, Hinduism in the United Kingdom, and diaspora unity.Open →
• Equality, Caste and Gender in HinduismRecall questions on Hindu grounds for equality and for hierarchy, caste discrimination, harijan and Dalit, legal change on caste, positions on women's status, Saivism, the pativrata ideal, brahmacarya, and changing gender roles.Open →
• Feminist and Liberationist ApproachesRecall questions on equality across Hindu traditions, feminist and liberationist approaches, Hardy on Tamil devotion and Flood on Hinduism, feminist appeals to the tradition, the Dalit critique, Ambedkar, and liberationist readings of dharma.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Hinduism further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Shruti vs Smriti

  Shruti: scripture regarded as heard and eternally revealed. Smriti: scripture regarded as remembered and of human authorship.

• Atman vs Brahman

  Atman: the innermost self of a person. Brahman: the one ultimate reality underlying everything.

• Advaita Vedanta vs Vishishtadvaita

  Advaita Vedanta: the school holding the self and ultimate reality to be identical. Vishishtadvaita: the school holding them united but really distinguished.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Many Hindus prefer to call their tradition Sanatana Dharma rather than Hinduism. What are they claiming when they do?

   Model answer

   That what they follow is the eternal, perennial dharma: not one founder's invention with a datable start, but the enduring order of reality itself, which sages perceived and passed on. The phrase also sidesteps 'Hinduism', a label pinned on the tradition from outside, and it presents the teaching as available in principle to anyone rather than as one competing creed among many.

2. 2

   What is rta, and where does the idea come from?

   Model answer

   Rta is the Vedic name for the underlying order that holds the cosmos, the natural world and moral life together: the regularity by which the seasons turn, and by which truth and right conduct are what they are. It appears in the earliest Vedic hymns, where gods such as Varuna guard it rather than invent it. Later Hindu thought largely folds rta into the broader idea of dharma.

3. 3

   How do rta and dharma relate to each other?

   Model answer

   Rta is the older cosmic term; dharma is the word that came to do most of its work. Both express the conviction that order is built into reality, so that human duty means aligning with something already there rather than inventing values. Dharma adds a personal and social edge: it specifies what that order asks of this person, in this role, at this stage of life.

4. 4

   Explain why the link between cosmic order and personal duty shapes what Hindus actually do.

   Model answer

   If order runs as one fabric from the stars to the kitchen, then ritual, ethics and daily routine stop being separate compartments. Performing the samskaras at their proper times, meeting obligations to family and ancestors, and living out one's own dharma are all understood as sustaining a real order, not as expressing private preference. That is a large part of why Hindu practice is so heavily calendrical and domestic rather than congregational.

5. 5

   To what extent can the claim that Hinduism is eternal and unchanging survive historical study?

   Model answer

   There is real continuity to point to: Vedic recitation, the fire ritual, the authority of shruti, and priestly lineages persist across three thousand years. Against that, historians record enormous change: the move from sacrifice to temple and image worship, the rise of bhakti, the emergence of great deities barely present in the earliest hymns, and the reshaping of the tradition under colonial rule. Many Hindus reply that what is eternal is the underlying dharma, not the outward forms it takes at any one time.

6. 6

   Who uses the language of Sanatana Dharma today, and to what end?

   Model answer

   It is used devotionally, to voice the tradition's sense of itself as timeless. It is also used politically: some Hindu nationalist voices deploy it to define an authentic Indian religious identity. Meanwhile many Hindus, especially in diaspora communities, use exactly the same phrase to stress universality and to resist the idea that the tradition is anyone's ethnic property. The wise move is to ask who is speaking and for what purpose.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Hinduism revision questions

What does Hinduism cover in Edexcel A-Level Religious Studies?

16 subtopics: sanatana dharma, karma and the cycle of rebirth, brahman, the avatars and the goddess, dharma, ahimsa, the aims of life and the gunas, the origins of hinduism and vedic religion, shruti, smriti and the vedic corpus, debates about scriptural authority, varnashrama-dharma, varna and jati, the four yogas, debates about yoga, colonial rule, reform movements and key figures, hindu renaissance, nationalism and hinduism abroad, shankara and ramanuja: contexts and key beliefs, bhakti, the gita and assessing the two systems, pluralism, diversity and hindu migration, equality, caste and gender in hinduism and feminist and liberationist approaches. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Hinduism organised?

By the Edexcel 9RS0 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.