Hindu in the context of Banana leaf

A temple (from the Latin templum) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship for some religions are commonly called "temples" in English, while those of other religions are not, even though they fulfill very similar functions.

The religions for which the terms are used include the great majority of ancient religions that are now extinct, such as the Ancient Egyptian religion and the Ancient Greek religion. Among religions still active: Hinduism (whose temples are called mandir or kovil), Buddhism (whose temples are called vihara), Sikhism (whose temples are called gurudwara), Jainism (whose temples are sometimes called derasar), Zoroastrianism (whose temples are sometimes called agiary), the Baháʼí Faith (which are often simply referred to as Baháʼí House of Worship), Taoism (which are sometimes called daoguan), Shinto (which are often called jinja), Confucianism (which are sometimes called the Temple of Confucius).

Dewi Sri or Shridevi (Javanese: ꦢꦺꦮꦶꦱꦿꦶ, Balinese: ᬤᬾᬯᬶᬲ᭄ᬭᬶ, Dewi Sri, Sundanese: ᮑᮄ ᮕᮧᮠᮎᮤ ᮞᮀᮠᮡᮀ ᮃᮞᮢᮤ, Nyai Pohaci Sanghyang Asri) is the Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese Hindu Goddess of rice and fertility, still widely worshiped on the islands of Java, Bali and Lombok, Indonesia. She is often associated or equated with the Hindu goddess Lakshmi, the shakti (consort) of Vishnu.

A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or Eid. A festival constitutes typical cases of glocalization, as well as the high culture-low culture interrelationship. Next to religion and folklore, a significant origin is agricultural. Food is such a vital resource that many festivals are associated with harvest time. Religious commemoration and thanksgiving for good harvests are blended in events that take place in autumn, such as Halloween in the northern hemisphere and Easter in the southern.

Festivals often serve to fulfill specific communal purposes, especially in regard to commemoration or thanking to the gods, goddesses or saints: they are called patronal festivals. They may also provide entertainment, which was particularly important to local communities before the advent of mass-produced entertainment. Festivals that focus on cultural or ethnic topics also seek to inform community members of their traditions; the involvement of elders sharing stories and experience provides a means for unity among families. Attendants of festivals are often motivated by a desire for escapism, socialization and camaraderie; the practice has been seen as a means of creating geographical connection, belonging and adaptability.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, thinker, anti-colonial activist, and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule. He inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahātmā (from Sanskrit, meaning great-souled, or venerable), first applied to him in South Africa in 1914, is used worldwide.

Born and raised in a Hindu family in coastal Gujarat, Gandhi was trained in the law at the Inner Temple in London and was called to the bar at the age of 22. After two uncertain years in India, where he was unable to start a successful law practice, Gandhi moved to South Africa in 1893 to represent an Indian merchant in a lawsuit. He went on to live in South Africa for the next 21 years. Here, Gandhi raised a family and first employed nonviolent resistance in a campaign for civil rights. In 1915, aged 45, he returned to India and soon set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest against discrimination and excessive land tax.

Karachi is the capital city of the province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the largest city in Pakistan and 12th largest in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast and formerly served as the country's capital from 1947 to 1959. Ranked as a beta-global city, it is Pakistan's premier industrial and financial centre, with an estimated GDP of over $200 billion (PPP) as of 2021. Karachi is a major metropolitan area and is considered Pakistan's most cosmopolitan city, and among the country's most linguistically, ethnically, and religiously diverse regions, as well as one of the country's most progressive and socially liberal cities.

The region has been inhabited for millennia, but the city was formally founded as the fortified village of Kolachi as recently as 1729. The settlement greatly increased in importance with the arrival of the East India Company in the mid-19th century. British administrators embarked on substantial projects to transform the city into a major seaport, and connect it with the extensive railway network of the Indian subcontinent. At the time of Pakistan's independence in 1947, the city was the largest in Sindh with an estimated population of 400,000 people, and a slim Hindu majority. Following the partition of India, the city experienced a dramatic shift in population and demography with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Muslim immigrants from India, coupled with an exodus of nearly all of its Hindu residents. The city experienced rapid economic growth following Pakistan's independence, attracting migrants from throughout the country and other regions in South Asia. According to the 2023 Census of Pakistan, Karachi's total population was 20.3 million. Karachi is one of the world's fastest-growing cities, and has significant communities representing almost every ethnic group in Pakistan. Karachi holds more than two million Bengali immigrants, a million Afghan refugees, and up to 400,000 Rohingyas from Myanmar.

A community centre, community center, or community hall is a public location where members of a community gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may be open for the whole community or for a specialized subgroup within the greater community. Community centres can be religious in nature, such as Christian churches, Islamic mosques, Jewish synagogues, Hindu temples, or Buddhist temples; though they can also be secular and in some cases government-run, such as youth clubs or Leisure centres.

Vali (Sanskrit: वाली) also known as Bali, was a vanara and the king of Kishkindha in the Hindu epic Ramayana. He was the son of Indra, the husband of Tara, the elder brother of Sugriva, and the father of Angada through his wife, Tara.

Vali obtained a pendant from his father, Indra, that which allowed him to restore his energy even when nearing death, making him a formidable fighter. He banished his brother Sugriva, who had assumed his throne, believing him to be dead. Sugriva sought the assistance of Rama, an avatar of Vishnu, to intervene in their conflict. During a duel between the brothers, Rama shot Vali in the chest with an arrow.

The Devi Mahatmya or Devi Mahatmyam (Sanskrit: देवीमाहात्म्यम्, romanized: devīmāhātmyam, lit. 'Glory of the Goddess') is a Hindu philosophical text describing the Goddess, known as Adi Parashakti or Durga, as the supreme divine ultimate reality and creator of the universe. It is part of the Mārkanḍeya Purāna (chapters 81 to 93).

The Devi Mahatmyam is also known as the Durgā Saptashatī (दुर्गासप्तशती), Śata Chandī (शत् चंडी) and Chandi Path (चंडी पाठ). The text contains 700 verses that are arranged into 13 chapters. It is one of the most important texts in Shaktism, along with Devi-Bhagavata Purana and Devi Upanishad. The text is also one of the earliest extant complete manuscripts from the Hindu traditions which describes reverence and worship of the feminine aspect of God.

A Study of History is a 12-volume universal history by the British historian Arnold J. Toynbee, published from 1934 to 1961. It received enormous popular attention but according to historian Richard J. Evans, "enjoyed only a brief vogue before disappearing into the obscurity in which it has languished". Toynbee's goal was to trace the development and decay of 19 or 21 world civilizations in the historical record, applying his model to each of these civilizations, detailing the stages through which they all pass: genesis, growth, time of troubles, universal state, and disintegration.

The 19 (or 21) major civilizations, as Toynbee sees them, are: Egyptian, Andean, Sumerian, Babylonic, Hittite, Minoan, Indic, Hindu, Syriac, Hellenic, Western, Orthodox Christian (having two branches: the main or Byzantine body and the Russian branch), Far Eastern (having two branches: the main or Chinese body and the Japanese-Korean branch), Islamic (having two branches which later merged: Arabic and Iranic), Mayan, Mexican and Yucatec. Moreover, there are three "abortive civilizations" (Abortive Far Western Christian, Abortive Far Eastern Christian, Abortive Scandinavian) and five "arrested civilizations" (Polynesian, Eskimo, Nomadic, Ottoman, Spartan), for a total of 27 or 29.

Puranas (Sanskrit: पुराण, romanized: Purāṇa, lit. 'Ancients') are a vast genre of Indian literature that include a wide range of topics, especially legends and other traditional lore. The Puranas are known for the intricate layers of symbolism depicted within their stories. Composed originally in Sanskrit and in other Indian languages, several of these texts are named after major Hindu deities such as Vishnu, Shiva, Brahma, and Devi. The Puranic genre of literature is found in both Hinduism and Jainism.

The Puranic literature is encyclopedic, and it includes diverse topics such as cosmogony, cosmology, genealogies of gods, goddesses, kings, queens, heroes, heroines, sages, other gods, other goddesses, folk tales, pilgrimages, temples, medicine, astronomy, grammar, mineralogy, humor, love stories, theology, philosophy, etc. The content is highly inconsistent across the Puranas, and each Purana has survived in numerous manuscripts which are themselves inconsistent. The Hindu Maha Puranas are traditionally attributed to Vyasa, but many scholars consider them likely the work of many authors over the centuries; in contrast, most Jaina Puranas can be dated and their authors assigned.

The Agamas (Devanagari: आगम, IAST: āgama) are a collection of several Tantric literature and scriptures of Hindu schools. The term literally means tradition or "that which has come down", and the Agama texts describe cosmology, epistemology, philosophical doctrines, precepts on meditation and practices, four kinds of yoga, mantras, temple construction, deity worship and ways to attain sixfold desires. These canonical texts are in Sanskrit and Tamil.

The three main branches of Agama texts are Shaiva, Vaishnava and Shakta. The Agamic traditions are sometimes called Tantrism, although the term "Tantra" is usually used specifically to refer to Shakta Agamas. The Agama literature is voluminous, and includes 28 Shaiva Agamas, 64 Shakta Agamas (also called Tantras), and 108 Vaishnava Agamas (also called Pancharatra Samhitas), and numerous Upa-Agamas.

Puja (Sanskrit: पूजा, romanized: pūjā) is a worship ritual performed by Hindus to offer devotional homage and prayer to one or more deities, to host and honour a guest, or to spiritually celebrate an event. It may honour or celebrate the presence of special guests, or their memories after they die. The word puja is roughly translated into English as 'reverence, honour, homage, adoration, or worship'. Puja, the loving offering of light, flowers, and water or food to the divine, is the essential ritual of Hinduism. For the worshipper, the divine is visible in the image, and the divinity sees the worshipper. The interaction between human and deity, between human and guru, is called a Darshanam.

In Hindu practice, puja is done on a variety of occasions, frequencies, and settings. It may include a daily puja done in the home, or occasional temple ceremonies and annual festivals. In other cases, puja is held to mark a few lifetime events such as the birth of a baby, house entering ceremony or grihapravesh, first rice-eating ceremony or annaprasana, wedding, sacred thread ceremony or upanayana ceremony for the Brahmins or to begin a new venture. The two main areas where puja is performed are in the home and at temples to mark certain stages of life, events or some festivals such as Durga Puja, Kali Puja, Janmashtami, and Lakshmi Puja. Puja is not mandatory in Hinduism. It may be a routine daily affair for some Hindus, a periodic ritual for some, and rare for other Hindus. In some temples, various pujas may be performed daily at various times of the day; in other temples, they may be occasional.

The mythology or religion of most cultures incorporate a god of death or, more frequently, a divine being closely associated with death, an afterlife, or an underworld. They are often amongst the most powerful and important entities in a given tradition, reflecting the fact that death, like birth, is central to the human experience. In religions where a single god is the primary object of worship, the representation of death is usually that god's antagonist, and the struggle between the two is central to the folklore of the culture. In such dualistic models, the primary deity usually represents good, and the death god embodies evil. Similarly, death worship is used as a derogatory term to accuse certain groups of morally abhorrent practices which set no value on human life. In monotheistic religions, death is commonly personified by an angel or demon standing in opposition to the god.

A religious festival is a time of special importance marked by adherents to that religion. Religious festivals are commonly celebrated on recurring cycles in a calendar year or lunar calendar. The science of religious rites and festivals is known as heortology.

Within the Evangelical Lutheran branch of Christianity, "festival" is part of the ranking of feast days in the liturgical kalendar.

The Javanese (Javanese: ꦮꦺꦴꦁꦗꦮ, romanized: Wong Jåwå (in the ngoko register), ꦠꦶꦪꦁꦗꦮꦶ, Tiyang Jawi (in the krama register); Indonesian: Orang Jawa) are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the central and eastern part of Java island, which covers most of the administrative areas of the provinces of Central Java, East Java, and Special Region of Yogyakarta. With more than 100 million people, Javanese people are the largest ethnic group in both Indonesia and in Southeast Asia as a whole. Their native language is Javanese, it is the largest of the Austronesian languages in number of native speakers and also the largest regional language in Southeast Asia. As the largest ethnic group in the region, the Javanese have historically dominated the social, political, and cultural landscape of both Indonesia and Southeast Asia.

There are significant numbers of Javanese diaspora outside of central and eastern Java regions, including the other provinces of Indonesia, as well as other countries such as Suriname, Singapore, Malaysia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Yemen and the Netherlands. The Javanese ethnic group has many sub-groups (based on native Javanese community on the island of Java) that can be distinguished based on their characteristics, customs, traditions, dialects, or even their respective ways of life. These include Banyumasan, Cirebonese, Mataram, Osing, and Tenggerese. The majority of the Javanese people identify themselves as Sunni Muslims, with a small minority identifying as Christians and Hindus. With a large global population, the Javanese are considered significant as they are the largest Muslim ethnic group in the Far East and the fifth largest in the world after the Arabs, Bengalis, Punjabis, and Turks.

The history of Indonesia has been shaped by its geographic position, natural resources, a series of human migrations and contacts, wars and conquests, as well as by trade, economics and politics. Indonesia is an archipelagic country of 17,000 to 18,000 islands stretching along the equator in Southeast Asia and Oceania. The country's strategic sea-lane position fostered inter-island and international trade; trade has since fundamentally shaped Indonesian history. The area of Indonesia is populated by peoples of various migrations, creating a diversity of cultures, ethnicities, and languages. The archipelago's landforms and climate significantly influenced agriculture and trade, and the formation of states. The boundaries of the state of Indonesia match the 20th-century borders of the Dutch East Indies.

Fossilised remains of Homo erectus, popularly known as "Java Man", and their tools suggest the Indonesian archipelago was inhabited at least 1.5 million years ago. Austronesian people, who form the majority of the modern population, are thought to have originally been from Taiwan and arrived in Indonesia around 2000 BCE. From the 7th century CE, the powerful Srivijaya naval kingdom flourished, bringing Hindu and Buddhist influences with it. The agricultural Buddhist Sailendra and Hindu Mataram dynasties subsequently thrived in inland Java. The last significant non-Muslim kingdom, the Hindu Majapahit kingdom, flourished from the late 13th century, and its influence stretched over much of Indonesia. The earliest evidence of Islamised populations in Indonesia dates to the 13th century in northern Sumatra; other Indonesian areas gradually adopted Islam, which became the dominant religion in Java and Sumatra by the end of the 16th century. Europeans such as the Portuguese arrived in Indonesia from the 16th century seeking to monopolise the sources of valuable nutmeg, cloves, and cubeb pepper in Maluku. In 1602, the Dutch established the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC) and became the dominant European power by 1610. Following bankruptcy, the VOC was formally dissolved in 1800, and the government of the Netherlands established the Dutch East Indies under government control. By the early 20th century, Dutch dominance extended to the current boundaries. The Japanese invasion and occupation in 1942–1945 during WWII ended Dutch rule, and encouraged the previously suppressed Indonesian independence movement. Two days after the surrender of Japan in August 1945, nationalist leader Sukarno declared independence and became president. The Netherlands tried to reestablish its rule, but a bitter armed and diplomatic struggle ended in December 1949, when in the face of international pressure the Dutch formally recognised Indonesian independence.

Celibacy (from Latin caelibatus) is the state of voluntarily being unmarried, sexually abstinent, or both. It is often in association with the role of a religious official or devotee. In its narrow sense, the term celibacy is applied only to those for whom the unmarried state is the result of a sacred vow, act of renunciation, or religious conviction. In a wider sense, it is commonly understood to only mean abstinence from sexual activity.

Celibacy has existed in one form or another throughout history, in virtually all the major religions of the world, and views on it have varied. The Hindu concept of brahmacharya encourages celibacy during adolescence, to allow one to focus on learning, and in later years, as a way of attaining spiritual liberation. Jainism, on the other hand, preached complete celibacy even for young monks and considered celibacy to be an essential behavior to attain moksha. Buddhism is similar to Jainism in this respect. There were, however, significant cultural differences in the various areas where Buddhism spread, which affected the local attitudes toward celibacy. A somewhat similar situation existed in Japan, where the Shinto tradition also opposed celibacy. In most native African and Native American religious traditions, celibacy has been viewed negatively as well, although there were exceptions like periodic celibacy practiced by some Mesoamerican warriors.