History of Hinduism

Hinduism (सनातन धर्म; also known as Sanātana Dharma, and Vaidika-Dharma) is a worldwide religious tradition that is based on what is believed to be the revealed knowledge of the Veda and indigenous beliefs and traditions of the various groups of people in India, since the dawn of the Vedic Religion of the Indo-Aryans. Since Hinduism accepts all conclusions of its adherents if arrived in good faith, it has many philosophies, sects, and traditions. It is the world's oldest existing major religion.

Also being the world's largest polytheistic religion and being highly localised within many parts of India, Hinduism has seen many changes throughout the history of the Indian subcontinent. Like the polytheistic culture of ancient Greece or Rome, Hinduism encompasses the worship of multiple gods and goddesses and the performance of numerous rituals.

Historically, the religious texts of Hinduism also give an account of the lives of the Vedic-Aryans, their culture and social practices.

Origins

From a Hindu perspective, Sanatana Dharma is composed of eternal principles and had no beginning and will have no end. There are two contemporary streams of thought regardings its origins:

Current archeaological and literary evidence suggests that Hinduism was formed somewhere between 1500-1300 BCE, based on the composition of the Rig Veda.

Astronomical evidence gives an earlier date of approximately 3102 BCE. It comes from close examination of the Mahabharata, where the exact positions of the stars were noted at Sri Krishna's birth. Hindus believe Krishna was born 5000 years ago, and using the star locations in the Mahabharata, the exact year was 3102 BCE. Sri Rama, according to the Ramayana, lived around 5000-6000 BCE. These dates are seen as being unlikely by secular historians.

The writers of the Vedas, the earliest piece of written Hindu work and the bedrock of the religion, are believed to be different spiritually realized people. Hindus consider these Vedas as Shruti, that which is heard (and written down).

Analyzing the History

Early Hinduism is a term used to designate the religious development of India before the historical period. Two kinds of evidence are available: literary and archeological.

Literature

The earliest literature of Hinduism is made up of the four Vedas, namely the Rig-Veda, Sama-Veda, Yajur-Veda and the Atharva-Veda. Out of these, the Rig-Veda is considered to be the oldest surviving work of literature. Many Hindus believe that the Vedas were transmitted, via an oral tradition, for perhaps 8000 years (Fisher). Western commentators see this as an exaggeration, dating the earliest parts of the Veda, the Rig-Veda Samhita, to oral traditions reaching back to around 1800-1500 BCE.

The earliest stage of the Vedas is the Rig-Veda, a collection of poetic hymns used in the sacrificial rites of the Aryan priests. Most of the Rig-Veda concerns the offering of Soma - which is both an intoxicant and a god itself - to the gods. The gods in the Rig-Veda are mostly personified concepts, who fall into two categories: the devas, who were gods of nature, such as the weather deity Indra, Agni ("fire"), and Ushas ("dawn") and the asuras, gods of moral concepts, such as Mitra ("contract" or "friend"), Bhaga (guardian of marriage) and Varuna ("the coverer").

A rivalry between these two families was already apparent. Asura will come to mean something like "demon" in later Hinduism, and it is already associated with mischief if not actual malice in the Rig-Veda. Compare this with Iranian Aryan religion, where ahura (asura) came to mean "god" and daēva (cognate to deva) came to mean "evil demon". This theme can be found in other Indo-European religions outside of the Indo-Aryan branch, such as in Norse mythology in the war between the Aesir and the Vanir. The emerging deprecation of the asuras led to the creation of new categories of gods, such as the adityas. Indra is the king of the gods in the Rig-Veda, although some of the hymns (perhaps representing an older stage) have Varuna as the chief.

Archaeology

Early Hinduism comprises a period that is hazy in the eyes of archeologists. The Vedic Aryans, although they left a rich body of hymns, left little material culture behind.

The excavations of the pre-Vedic Indus Valley Civilization, has also not yielded much evidence of religious activity, for example communal temples. However, there is sufficient evidence that the civilization was certainly not purely secular. Only one Indus civilization graveyard has been found and excavated, and has yielded no elaborate royal burials, but the personal possessions buried with the bodies may indicate that these people believed in an afterlife in which they would need these things.

Water seems to have played an important part in their social, and possibly their religious, life, judging by the large number of public baths that were constructed. The modern Hindu custom of bathing at the beginning of the day and before the main meals may well have started here.

Many figurines of female deities have been discovered. These most probably signified creativity and the origin and continuity of life, and they may have been worshipped as symbolic embodiments of the female principle of creative Energy and Power. In modern Hinduism, the counterpart of these symbols is called Shakti. These "mother Goddess" figurines may have been worshipped in the home rather than in any major state cult, but scholars have seen ancient Dravidian feminine divinity sculptures in groups of seven that date back to the Harappan era which mirror the Hindu belief in a Mother Goddess (Devi) being represented in seven modes.

Figures of a male deity with elaborate horns (or horned headgear) have also been uncovered. He is typically seen surrounded by cattle and is called Pashupati, (the Protector of Animals), and is seen by some to be the prototype of Hinduism's ascetic God of Destruction, Shiva. Indeed, in modern-day Shaivism, Shiva has absorbed the names, stories and attributes of not only Pashupati, by which name he is still commonly known, but also the Vedic 'Rudra.' Pashupati is seen sitting in the meditative posture of yogis, suggesting that yoga or inner contemplation was one of their modes of discovering the secrets of life and creation. To this day, the Tantric schools of Hinduism know Shiva to be Yogeshwara, Lord of Yoga, and he is said to be the master of Self-knowledge, meditating for centuries at a time. Others see Pashupati as a form of brahma.

It is noted by many that the Pashupati figure is similar to sculptures, paintings and bas-reliefs of horned gods in Europe, stretching as far back as the Paleolithic painting of the "sorcerer" in the cave of Les Trois Frères in France. There exist, in addition, three-headed Pashupati-statues that seem to resemble the Trimurti (Triple Form) of Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva (Creator-Sustainer-Destroyer) in contemporary Hinduism, and if nothing else, intimate the continuity of religious traditions that have morphed into Hinduism as we know it today from periods as far back as five thousand years ago.

Hindu mythology

Apart from religious philosophy, mysticism and spiritualism and tales of superhuman heroes and events, Hindu mythology has a strong historical nature and character. It is perhaps the most extensive, although controversial and largely un-confirmable source for the history of ancient India and its peoples.

For history according to the Hindu epics and scriptures, visit Hindu mythology.

Early Hinduism

Early Hinduism (the historical Vedic religion) consisted not only of aspects inherited from Indo-Iranian religion, but also inherited parts the religious system of the Dravidian peoples, and the Indus Valley Civilization.

Influences of the Indus Valley and Dravidian Peoples

Interestingly, the Rigvedic deities, like Indra, Agni, Vayu etc., are not the principal gods of present day Hindus. Those Indo-Aryan gods have equivalents in other Indo-European gods worshipped by other Indo-European speaking peoples. Those gods occupied the highest position until the advent of Christianity in those societies, with little discernable trace remaining of the Pre-Indo-European deities and traditions. However in India the traditions of native groups such as the Dravidians seem to have mingled more fluently with those of the migrants. One view is that this unique mingling is what resulted in modern Hinduism.

Vedic religion

At the height of the Vedic period, from ca. 800 BC, the inherited mantra texts of the Vedas were extensivelly commented upon in Brahmana literature in many priestly schools (shakhas) throughout Northern India.

Evolution of Hindu Philosophy

From prehistoric times of Vedic civilization up to the Gupta Empire era, Hindu philosophy, theology and mythology were constantly evolving.

Socio-Religious Reform Movements

Many orders for religious reform, moksha and religious transformation arose across India.

Hinduism and Jainism

See Also: Jainism and Hinduism

Jainism is perhaps the third-oldest religion in the world, and the earliest religious transformation of Hindu philosophy. The main conflict today remains over the rejection of the Vedas, although Hindu society has embraced ahimsa and vegetarianism. Over several thousand years, Jain influence on Hindu philosophy and religion have been considerable, while Hindu influence on Jain temple worship and rituals can be observed in certain Jain sects. Jain scriptures are many and varied, yet contrary to parochial Hindu claims, the Jain scripture rejects both the Hindu Vedas and non-Jain writings generally as sources of religious authority and practice. The Hindu Vedic (and generally theistic) concepts of divine creation, preservation and destruction are in fact condemned in certain Jain texts such as the Mahavira Charitam.

Hinduism and the rise of Buddhism

Buddhism in India reached its expansive peak when Mauryan Emperor Ashoka embraced its teachings, sponsored the growth of schools and monasteries, and sent missions propagating Buddhist philosophy to Sri Lanka, South East Asia, West Asia and Europe.

Buddha became the ninth Avatara of Vishnu. With the ascent of the Gupta Dynasty, many Buddhists were returned to the Hindu fold in India, as Hindus adopted many of the teachings of the Buddha such as non-violence to all life, vegetarianism and proper treatment of fellow men. A substantial Buddhist community that rivalled the Hindus would remain in Pakistan until the Islamic conquests.

Hinduism during the Golden Age in Bharat

The Gupta dynasty ruled India (what was India then, the north of the Vindhyas), between fourth and sixth centuries of the common era. Though not as vast as Mauryan empire, Gupta rule has left a deep and wide cultural impact not only in the subcontinent but on the adjacent Asian countries as well. The practice of dedicating temples to different deities came into vogue followed by fine artistic temple architecture and sculpture. Books on medicine, veterinary science, mathematics, astronomy and astrophysics were written. The famous Aryabhata and Varahamihira belong to this age. The Gupta established a strong central government which also allowed a degree of local control. Gupta society was ordered in accordance with Hindu beliefs. This included a strict caste system, or class system. The peace and prosperity created under Gupta leadership enabled the pursuit of scientific and artistic endeavors.

Adi Shankaracharya and the revival of Hinduism

At the time of Shankara's life, Hinduism had lost some of its appeal because of the influence of Buddhism and Jainism. Shankara stressed the importance of the Vedas, and he travelled extensively to restore the study of the Vedas.

He wrote commentaries on the Upanishads, Vishnu sahasranama, Brahma Sutras, and the Bhagavad Gita. He engaged in a series of debates with Buddhist scholars, and with scholars of the Purva Mimamsa school. One of the most famous of these debates was with the famed ritualist Mandana Mishra.

Cultural expansion in South-East Asia

During the 1st century, the trade on the overland Silk Road tended to be restricted by the rise in the Middle-East of the Parthian empire, an unvanquished enemy of Rome, just as Romans were becoming extremely wealthy and their demand for Asian luxury was rising. This demand revived the sea connections between the Mediterranean and China, with India as the intermediary of choice. From that time, through trade connection, commercial settlements, and even political interventions, India started to strongly influence Southeast Asian countries. Trade routes linked India with southern Burma, central and southern Siam, lower Cambodia and southern Vietnam, and numerous urbanized coastal settlements were established there.

For more than a thousand years, Indian influence was therefore the major factor that brought a certain level of cultural unity to the various countries of the region. The Pali and Sanskrit languages and the Indian script, together with Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, Brahmanism, and Hinduism, were transmitted from direct contact and through sacred texts and Indian literature such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

From the 5th to the 13th century, South-East Asia had very powerful empires and became extremely active in Buddhist architectural and artistic creation. The Sri Vijaya Empire to the south and the Khmer Empire to the north competed for influence.

Langkasuka

Langkasuka (-langkha Sanskrit for "resplendent land" -sukkha of "bliss") was an ancient kingdom Hindu located in the Malay Peninsula. The kingdom along with Old Kedah are probably the earliest kingdom founded on the Malay Peninsula. According to tradition the founding of the kingdom happened in the 2nd century. Malay legends claim that Langkasuka was founded at Kedah, and later moved to Pattani.

Pan Pan

Pan Pan is a lost Hindu Kingdom believed to be exist around 3rd-5th Century CE. somewhere in Kelantan or Terengganu, Malaysia.

Gangga Negara

Gangga Negara was believed to be a lost Hindu kingdom somewhere in the state of Perak, Malaysia, ruled by Raja Gangga Shah Johan. Researchers believed that the kingdom collapsed after an attack by King Rajendra Chola I of Coromandel, South India, between 1025 and 1026.

Sri Vijayan empire

From the 5th-15th centuries Sri Vijayan empire, a maritime empire centered on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, had adopted Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism under a line of rulers named the Sailendras. The Empire of Sri Vijaya declined due to conflicts with the Chola rulers of India, before being destabilized by the Islamic invasion of India from the 13th century.

Majapahit Empire

The Majapahit Empire succeeded the Singhasari empire. It was one of the last and greatest Hindu empires in the Malay Archeipeilago.

Funan

Funan was a pre-Angkor Cambodian kingdom located around the Mekong delta, probably established by Mon-Khmer settlers speaking an Austro-Asiatic language. According to reports by two Chinese envoys, K'ang T'ai and Chu Ying, the state was established by an Indian Brahimin named Kaundinya, who in the first century C.E. was given instruction in a dream to take a magic bow from a temple and defeat a Khmer queen, Soma. Soma, the daughter of the king of the Nagas, married Kaundinya and their lineage became the royal dynasty of Funan. The myth had the advantage of providing the legitimacy of both an Indian Brahmin and the divinity of the cobras, who at that time were held in religious regard by the inhabitants of the region.

Champa

The kingdom of Champa (or Lin-yi in Chinese records) controlled what is now south and central Vietnam from approximately 192 through 1697. The dominant religion of the Cham people was Hinduism and the culture was heavily influenced by India. Many Cham towers still stand in central Vietnam. The most significant example of Cham architecture is My Son near the Vietnamese city of Hoi An.

Khmer Empire

Later, from the 9th to the 13th century, the Mahayana Buddhist and Hindu Khmer Empire dominated much of the South-East Asian peninsula. Under the Khmer, more than 900 temples were built in Cambodia and in neighboring Thailand. Angkor was at the center of this development, with a temple complex and urban organization able to support around one million urban dwellers.

Hinduism in Medieval Ages

Islamic Invasion

Islamic rulers began to extend their rule across Hindu populated lands in the 8th century CE and Islam began to spread across the Indian-subcontinent over several centuries. Most converts were from Hinduism or Buddhism; the two dominant local religions. The prime drivers attributed to the conversions are: duress, political expediency, oppressive legal/ legislative climate, oppressive caste structure, jizya, Sufi missionaries, inter-marraige and immigration from other Islamic lands. Many of the new muslim rulers looked down upon Hindu Iconodulistic religious practices. and were to various degrees iconoclastic. In times of conflict they also took also took the liberty to sack Hindu temples, which were repositaries of significant wealth.

Goa Inquisition

The Goa Inquisition was the office of the Inquisition acting in the Indian city of Goa and the rest of the Portuguese empire in Asia. Established in 1560, it was aimed primarily at Hindus and wayward new converts and by the time it was suppressed in 1774, the inquisition had had thousands of people]]d. St. Francis Xavier, in a 1545 letter to John III, requested for an Inquisition to be installed in Goa. It was installed eight years after the death of Francis Xavier in 1552.

Bhakti Movement

Tulsidas, Kabir, Mirabai, Chaitanya, etc.

Bhakti movements are Hindu religious movements in which the main spiritual practice is the fostering of loving devotion to God, called bhakti. They are monotheistic movements generally devoted to worship of Shiva or Vishnu or Shakti.

The first documented bhakti movement was founded by Karaikkal-ammaiyar. She wrote poems in Tamil about her love for Shiva and probably lived around the 6th century AD. ^{1, 2, 3}

The twelve Alvars who were vaishnavite devotees and the sixty-three Nayanars who were shaivite devotees nurtured the incipient bhakti movement in Tamil Nadu. They constitute South India's 75 Apostles of Bhakti.

During the 12th century AD, the bhakti movement took the form of the Virashaiva movement from Karnataka state inspired by Basavanna, a great hindu reformer who created the sect of Lingayats or Shiva bhaktas. During this time, a unique and native form of Kannada literature-poetry called Vachanas was born.

During the 14th - 17th century, the Bhakti movement called the haridasa movement was propagated in Kannada language by great saints of Karnataka like Purandaradasa, Kanakadasa, Vyasatirtha, guru Raghavendra Swami of Mantralaya, Gopaladasa, Vijayadasa, Jagannathadasa, Narahari tirtha, Sri Kamalesha Vitthala and others. During this time, the teachings of Madhvacharya were propogated through out south India, sowing the seeds of carnatic music and instilling a strong Hindu sentiment at a time when north India was ruled by Muslim empires.

The Reign of Shivaji

The Hindu Marathas long had lived in the Desh region around Satara, in the western portion of the Deccan plateau, where the plateau meets the eastern slopes of the Western Ghats mountains. They had resisted incursions into the region by the Muslim Mughal rulers of northern India. Under their leader Shivaji, the Maratha freed themselves from the Muslim sultans of Bijapur to the southeast, and became much more aggressive and began to frequently raid Mughal territory, sacking the Mughal port of Surat in 1664. Shivaji was proclaimed Emperor in 1674. The Maratha had spread and conquered much of central India by Shivaji's death in 1680.

Modern Hinduism

Modern Hinduism is the reflection of continuity and progressive changes that occurred in various traditions and institutions of hinduism during the 19th and 20th centuries. This continuity and adaptation to modern ideas is still a continuing process.

Modern Hinduism has as its values rational thought, modern education and the ideals of humanism, rationalism and religious universalism. This has meant combating the conservative and obscurantist elements, imbibing modernity, modern education compared to classical sanskritic education system, and countering Christian missionary criticism.

The positive consequences of modernity in Hinduism is most visible in the status of women and the dalits. Also, ritualism has declined.

Reform Movements

Brahmo Samaj

Brahmo Samaj is a social and religious movement founded in Kolkata, India in 1828 by Raja Ram Mohan Roy. He was influenced by western thought and was one of the first Indians to visit Europe. He died in Bristol, England. The Brahmo Samaj movement thereafter resulted in the Brahmo religion in 1850 founded by Debendranath Tagore — better known as the father of Rabindranath Tagore.

Arya Samaj

Arya Samaj (Aryan Society or Society of Nobles) is a Hindu reform movement in India that was founded by Swami Dayananda in 1875. He was a sannyasin (renouncer) who believed in the infallible authority of the Vedas. Dayananda advocated the doctrine of karma and reincarnation, and emphasised the ideals of brahmacharya (chastity) and sanyasa (renunciation).

Ramakrishna-Vivekananda movement

Considered as the most important in modern times. Sri Ramakrishna and his pupil Swami Vivekananda led a huge reform in Hinduism in late 19th century. Their ideal and sayings have inspired numerous Indians as well as non-Indians, Hindus as well as non-Hindus to this date . Among the prominent figures whose ideals were very much influenced by them, Rabindranath Tagore, Gandhi, Subhas Bose, Satyendranath Bose, Meghnad Saha, Sister Nivedita, are to name a few.

Converts

Modernity has led to infusion of newer ideas into the Hindu religion, thereby making it more open, so that we find many non-South Asians taking on Hinduism. This is particularly interesting when there is no organised proselytising effort in the Hindu religion.

An important aspect of 20th-century Hinduism has been its spread among non-Indians, who have accepted the religion voluntarily. This perhaps began with the sojourn of Vivekananda to the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893, where he made a huge impact on the people. He founded the Ramakrishna Mission. In our times, Transcendental Meditation has become popular. And the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, inspired by the Vaishnavite strand of Bhakti, has established centers around the world.

Of late, Pandurang Shastri Athavale a social reformer, philosopher, and spiritual teacher from the Western Indian state of Maharashtra, Guru of Swadhyay Movement, is also a modern spiritual teacher of Hinduism.

The resurgence of Hinduism in Indonesia is occurring in all parts of the country. In the early seventies, the Toraja people of Sulawesi were the first to be identified under the umbrella of 'Hinduism', followed by the Karo Batak of Sumatra in 1977 and the Ngaju Dayak of Kalimantan in 1980.

The growth of Hinduism has been driven also by the famous Javanese prophesies of Sabdapalon and Jayabaya. Many recent converts to Hinduism had been members of the families of Sukarno's PNI, and now support Megawati Sukarnoputri. This return return to the 'religion of Majapahit' (Hinduism) is a matter of nationalist pride.

The new Hindu communities in Java tend to be concentrated around recently built temples (pura) or around archaeological temple sites (candi) which are being reclaimed as places of Hindu worship. An important new Hindu temple in eastern Java is Pura Mandaragiri Sumeru Agung, located on the slope of Mt. Semeru, Java's highest mountain. Mass conversions have also occurred in the region around Pura Agung Blambangan, another new temple, built on a site with minor archaeological remnants attributed to the kingdom of Blambangan, the last Hindu polity on Java, and Pura Loka Moksa Jayabaya (in the village of Menang near Kediri), where the Hindu king and prophet Jayabaya is said to have achieved spiritual liberation (moksa). Another site is the new Pura Pucak Raung in East Java, which is mentioned in Balinese literature as the place from where Maharishi Markandeya took Hinduism to Bali in the fifth century CE.

Shuddhi Movement

See also: Contemporary Hindu movements

Started by Arya Samaj in early 20th century to bring back to Hinduism people converted to Islam and Christianity. Dayananda claimed to be rejecting all non-Vedic beliefs altogether. Hence the Arya Samaj unequivocally condemned idolatry, animal sacrifices, ancestor worship, pilgrimages, priestcraft, offerings made in temples, the caste system, untouchability and child marriages, on the grounds that all these lacked Vedic sanction. It aimed to be a universal church based on the authority of the Vedas. Dayananda stated that he wanted ‘to make the whole world Aryan’. That is, he wanted to develop a missionary Hinduism based on the universality of the Vedas.

To this end the Arya Samaj set up schools and missionary organisations, extending its activities outside India. It now has branches around the world. It has a disproportional amount of adherents among people of Indian ancestry in Suriname and the Netherlands, in comparison with India.

References

External links

Hindu history

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