I would love to see a guide to the deities represented here. We could recognize a few. Parvati and Shiva and Krishna. But, describing the Hindu pantheon is difficult. Hinduism is more doctrinally tolerant than Christianity or Islam. In principle, Hinduism incorporates all forms of belief and worship without requiring the selection or elimination of any. The core of religion does not depend on the existence or nonexistence of God or on whether there is one god or many. Because religious truth is said to transcend all verbal definition, it is not conceived in dogmatic terms. Magic rites, animal worship, and belief in demons are often combined with the worship of more or less personal gods or with mysticism, asceticism, and abstract and profound theological systems or esoteric doctrines. The worship of local deities does not exclude the belief in pan-Indian higher gods or even in a single high God. Local deities are frequently looked upon as manifestations of a high God.

© Monica & Mark Hughes 2000-02