Balinese Hinduism and Indian Hinduism share a common Indic heritage, yet they unfold in quite different religious landscapes. In Bali, the tradition is often articulated around a single supreme reality, Ida Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa, with the many gods and goddesses understood as its manifestations, and this theological language is closely tied to the wider social and legal context of Indonesia. Indian Hinduism, by contrast, encompasses multiple well‑developed theological streams—Shaiva, Vaishnava, Shakta, Smarta and others—ranging from nondual philosophies to strongly devotional or ritual schools, without a single, uniformly emphasized formulation of one supreme deity. Both traditions recognize concepts such as karma, samsara, moksha, and the Trimurti, yet the Balinese articulation is generally less textually philosophical and more oriented toward maintaining cosmic and social harmony through practice.

The Balinese religious world is densely populated not only by familiar Hindu deities such as Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, Ganesha, and Durga, but also by a rich array of indigenous spirits and ancestral presences. Local guardian beings of villages, rice fields, mountains, and the sea, as well as more ambivalent forces associated with chaos and disruption, are woven into a tripartite cosmos of upper, middle, and lower realms. Ancestor veneration is especially central, with elaborate cremation rites and ongoing offerings understood as essential to the well‑being of both the living community and the departed. Indian Hinduism also knows ancestor rites and regional or folk deities, yet its mainstream ritual life tends to be more strongly framed by Vedic and Puranic gods and by sectarian devotion to a chosen form such as Shiva, Vishnu, or the Goddess.

In daily practice, Balinese Hinduism is intensely ritual‑centric and communal. Offerings are made not only in temples but at crossroads, homes, shops, and even vehicles, and nearly every phase of social and agricultural life is ritually marked. Temple festivals, life‑cycle ceremonies such as tooth‑filing, and the intricate calendar of rites tied to rice cultivation exemplify a religion in which participation in the shared ritual order is almost synonymous with belonging to the community. Indian Hindu practice, while also rich in temple worship and festivals, more commonly highlights personal devotion, pilgrimage, scriptural recitation, and various yogic or philosophical paths, with considerable variation from region to region.

The physical and textual forms of the two traditions likewise reveal both kinship and divergence. Balinese temples are open‑air compounds oriented to the surrounding landscape, structured by symbolic axes such as mountain and sea, and articulated through distinctive gates and shrines rather than a single enclosed sanctum. Indian temples, though highly diverse, typically center on an inner sanctum housing the primary image, and follow architectural idioms such as Nagara or Dravida. In Bali, religious knowledge is preserved not only through Sanskrit‑derived materials but also through Old Javanese and Balinese lontar manuscripts, which contain ritual, mythological, and ethical teachings specific to the island. Indian Hinduism, for its part, draws on a vast body of Sanskrit and vernacular scriptures and commentarial traditions, often accompanied by formal philosophical lineages, whereas Balinese Hinduism tends to balance inherited ideas with local custom, place, and communal obligation.