Why Hinduism Has Many Divine Forms

This is the question outsiders ask first and insiders rarely bother with. It deserves a careful answer, because both of the usual answers — "Hinduism is polytheistic" and "Hindus really believe in one God" — are wrong in instructive ways.

Polytheism and monotheism are terms formed in a particular intellectual history, largely to describe and rank religions in relation to the Abrahamic traditions. They ask: how many gods are there, one or many? — and they assume the answer settles something important.