REASSEMBLING THE GIANT: THE DEVELOPMENT OF MONOTHEISM IN VAIÍNAVA THEOLOGY. : Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

It is always risky to apply terms developed in one set of religious traditions to another set of religious traditions with its own insights, history, and way of thinking. Such risk attaches especially to the use of the word “monotheism” in connection with the religious traditions of India. There is no comparable word or conception in any of the Indic languages. The idea of there being one and only one god would seem strange and even perverse to religious people nurtured in the rich, diverse, and densely populated religious world that has flourished in India for thousands of years. Even the terms that are used for the supreme god indicate a sense of the plurality of cosmic powers: god of gods (deva-deva), lord of gods (deveΩa), master of the moving (jagannåtha), the fortunate one (bhagavån), etc. Each of these indicate the singling out of one god from among many gods. This on the surface has more of the feel of monolatry than anything like monotheism.
Of course, genuine monotheism emerges late in the biblical religion, too, Yahweh at first pitting himself against other tribal gods until the period of Kings (if any credence can be given to biblical “history”) when he is finally promoted as the one and only.