Editing Hinduism (section)

=== ''Vaidika dharma'' ===
{{See also|Historical Vedic religion|Vedic period}}
Some have referred to Hinduism as the ''Vaidika dharma'',{{sfn|Sharma|Sharma|2004|pp=1–2}} bypassing the Tanttric revelations. The word 'Vaidika' in Sanskrit means 'derived from or conformable to the Veda' or 'relating to the Veda'.<ref name="MW_Vaidika dharma" group="web">{{Cite web|last=Monier-Williams|first=Monier|author-link=Monier Monier-Williams|year=1988|title=Sanskrit English Dictionary|url=http://sanskritdictionary.com/scans/?col=1&img=mw1022.jpg|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201229174152/http://sanskritdictionary.com/scans/?col=1&img=mw1022.jpg|archive-date=29 December 2020|access-date=24 July 2018|website=sanskritdictionary.com}}</ref> Traditional scholars employed the terms Vaidika and Avaidika, those who accept the Vedas as a source of authoritative knowledge and those who do not, to differentiate various Indian schools from Jainism, Buddhism and Charvaka. According to Klaus Klostermaier, the term Vaidika dharma is the earliest self-designation of Hinduism.{{sfn|Klostermaier|2014|p=2}}{{sfn|Klostermaier|2007b|p=7}} According to [[Arvind Sharma]], the historical evidence suggests that "the Hindus were referring to their religion by the term ''vaidika dharma'' or a variant thereof" by the 4th-century CE.<ref name="Sharma1985a">{{Cite journal|last=Sharma|first=A|author-link=Arvind Sharma|year=1985|title=Did the Hindus have a name for their own religion?|url=https://josa-publications.sydney.edu.au/chronological-index-1960-2002/|journal=The Journal of the Oriental Society of Australia|volume=17|issue=1|pages=94–98 [95]|access-date=17 March 2021|archive-date=4 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210304042137/https://josa-publications.sydney.edu.au/chronological-index-1960-2002/|url-status=live}}</ref> According to Brian K. Smith, "[i]t is 'debatable at the very least' as to whether the term ''Vaidika Dharma'' cannot, with the proper concessions to historical, cultural, and ideological specificity, be comparable to and translated as 'Hinduism' or 'Hindu religion'."{{sfn|Smith|1998}}

Whatever the case, many Hindu religious sources see persons or groups which they consider as non-Vedic (and which reject Vedic [[Varnasrama Dharma|varṇāśrama]] – 'caste and life stage' orthodoxy) as being heretics (pāṣaṇḍa/pākhaṇḍa). For example, the ''[[Bhagavata Purana|Bhāgavata Purāṇa]]'' considers Buddhists, Jains as well as some [[Shaivism|Shaiva]] groups like the [[Pashupata Shaivism|Paśupatas]] and [[Kapalika|Kāpālins]] to be pāṣaṇḍas (heretics).<ref>Valpey, Kenneth Russell; Gupta, Ravi Mohan (2013). ''The Bhāgavata Purāṇa, sacred text and living tradition'', p. 146. Columbia University Press.</ref>

According to [[Alexis Sanderson]], the early Sanskrit texts differentiate between Vaidika, Vaishnava, Shaiva, Shakta, Saura, Buddhist and Jaina traditions. However, the late 1st-millennium CE Indic consensus had "indeed come to conceptualize a complex entity corresponding to Hinduism as opposed to Buddhism and Jainism excluding only certain forms of [[Antinomianism|antinomian]] Shakta-Shaiva" from its fold.<ref group=web name=sandersonpart1 /> Some in the [[Mimamsa]] school of Hindu philosophy considered the ''[[Āgama (Hinduism)|Agamas]]'' such as the Pancaratrika to be invalid because it did not conform to the Vedas. Some Kashmiri scholars rejected the esoteric tantric traditions to be a part of Vaidika dharma.<ref group=web name="sandersonpart1">{{Cite web |last=Sanderson |first=Alexis |date=March 2016 |title=Tolerance, Exclusivity, Inclusivity, and Persecution in Indian Religion During the Early Mediaeval Period – Part One |url=http://www.sutrajournal.com/tolerance-exclusivity-inclusivity-and-persecution-by-alexis-sanderson |website=Sutra Journal |access-date=13 March 2018 |archive-date=29 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201229174134/http://www.sutrajournal.com/tolerance-exclusivity-inclusivity-and-persecution-by-alexis-sanderson |url-status=live }}</ref><ref group=web>{{Cite web |last=Sanderson |first=Alexis |date=May 2016 |title=Tolerance, Exclusivity, Inclusivity, and Persecution in Indian Religion During the Early Mediaeval Period – Part Two |url=http://www.sutrajournal.com/tolerance-exclusivity-inclusivity-and-persecution-part-two-by-alexis-sanderson |website=Sutra Journal |access-date=13 March 2018 |archive-date=29 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201229174151/http://www.sutrajournal.com/tolerance-exclusivity-inclusivity-and-persecution-part-two-by-alexis-sanderson |url-status=live }}</ref> The Atimarga Shaivism ascetic tradition, datable to about 500 CE, challenged the Vaidika frame and insisted that their Agamas and practices were not only valid, they were superior than those of the Vaidikas.<ref group=web name="sandersonpart3">{{Cite web |last=Sanderson |first=Alexis |date=July 2016 |title=Tolerance, Exclusivity, Inclusivity, and Persecution in Indian Religion During the Early Mediaeval Period – Part Three |url=http://www.sutrajournal.com/tolerance-exclusivity-inclusivity-and-persecution-part-three-by-alexis-sanderson |website=Sutra Journal |access-date=13 March 2018 |archive-date=29 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201229174219/http://www.sutrajournal.com/tolerance-exclusivity-inclusivity-and-persecution-part-three-by-alexis-sanderson |url-status=live }}</ref> However, adds Sanderson, this Shaiva ascetic tradition viewed themselves as being genuinely true to the Vedic tradition and "held unanimously that the Śruti and Smṛti of Brahmanism are universally and uniquely valid in their own sphere, [...] and that as such they [Vedas] are man's sole means of valid knowledge [...]".<ref group=web name="sandersonpart3" />

The term Vaidika dharma means a code of practice that is "based on the Vedas", but it is unclear what "based on the Vedas" really implies, states Julius Lipner.{{sfn|Lipner|2009|pp=15–17}} The Vaidika dharma or "Vedic way of life", states Lipner, does not mean "Hinduism is necessarily religious" or that Hindus have a universally accepted "conventional or institutional meaning" for that term.{{sfn|Lipner|2009|pp=15–17}} To many, it is as much a cultural term. Many Hindus do not have a copy of the Vedas nor have they ever seen or personally read parts of a Veda, like a Christian, might relate to the Bible or a Muslim might to the Quran. Yet, states Lipner, "this does not mean that their [Hindus] whole life's orientation cannot be traced to the Vedas or that it does not in some way derive from it".{{sfn|Lipner|2009|pp=15–17}}

Though many religious Hindus implicitly acknowledge the authority of the Vedas, this acknowledgment is often "no more than a declaration that someone considers himself [or herself] a Hindu,"{{sfn|Lipner|2009|p=16}}{{refn|group=note|Lipner quotes Brockington (1981), ''The sacred tread'', p. 5.}} and "most Indians today pay lip service to the Veda and have no regard for the contents of the text."<ref>{{harvnb|Michaels|2004|p=18}}; see also {{harvnb|Lipner|2009|p=77}}; and {{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Brian K. |title=Sacred Texts and Authority |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |year=2008 |editor-last=Neusner |editor-first=Jacob |page=101 |chapter=Hinduism}}</ref> Some Hindus challenge the authority of the Vedas, thereby implicitly acknowledging its importance to the history of Hinduism, states Lipner.{{sfn|Lipner|2009|pp=15–17}}