Hasan Kanat
This study applies the five-stage model of Retrodictive Structural Hermeneutics (RSH 2.0)-Absolute Center → Delegation of Authority → Functional Representation → Localization → Structural Inflation-to Indian civilization. The model is used as a comparative analytical framework rather than as a necessarily linear historical sequence. In comparison with the bureaucratic pluralization examined in China, the normative/syncretic pluralization identified in Korea, and the network pluralization examined in Japan, the Indian case highlights a distinctive form of Ontological Pluralization. The study examines major configurations of Indian religious thought from the Vedic and Upaniṣadic traditions through the Purāṇic and Epic traditions, Bhakti traditions, and the traditions of Buddhism and Jainism (Flood, 1996; Olivelle, 1998; Jamison & Brereton, 2014).Particular attention is given to the tradition of the thirty-three devas, especially the dialogue in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad (3.9.1-2), where numerical plurality is progressively reduced to thirty-three and ultimately to one. The thirty-three are identified as the eight Vasus, eleven Rudras, twelve Ādityas, Indra, and Prajāpati. A closely related formulation occurs in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (11.6.3.5-10). These passages provide a textual basis for examining the relationship between plurality, functional representation, and cosmological centralization.The study argues that Indian religious history is better understood not as a linear developmental sequence, but as a field of recurrent structural transformations in which conceptions of the Absolute, divine representation, and cosmological plurality undergo processes of ontological compression and expansion. The Indian case consequently provides a test of whether RSH can account for pluralization without presupposing a universal evolutionary trajectory.Keywords: Indian religion; Hinduism; Brahman; Ātman; ṛta; Varuṇa; Prajāpati; Trimūrti; avatāra; bhakti; Veda; Upaniṣad; Purāṇa; Bhagavad Gītā; Buddhism; Jainism; thirty-three devas; 33 koti; Ontological Pluralization; Avataric Functional Representation; Ontological Compression; Ontological Expansion; Ontological Synthesis; Retrodictive Structural Hermeneutics (RSH 2.0).
