History of Hinduism

When you consider the History of Hinduism you will find that it is unique and different than all the other religions of the world. It neither has one particular founder for the religion that preached and spread it and neither is the exact date of the inception of this religion is known. Every well known religion in the world has had a great prophet who has been born in this world and has spread it around. However, Hinduism is called the religion that has been formulated by the people who are its followers and as time goes by more things are added to it. The History of Hinduism goes back to thousands of years and can, in fact, trace its roots almost four thousand years ago.

The religion that is followed now is different than what it was in the olden days and the starting pahse which was as far back as 2000 BC. This makes Hinduism one of the oldest religions in the world and still growing strong with so many followers. The oldest of writings and inscriptions have been found with mention of the History of Hinduism.

There is without doubt that the first traces of the religion came about with the advent of the Aryans, who came to the northwest of India in the year 1500 BC. The Aryans had divided the society into castes and the Brahmins were considered to be the most important people as they were the only ones who souls perform the rites and ceremonies that are linked with the religion. They were the ones who had to have all the sacrifices made and the yajnas performed and hymns chanted. This was also the History of Hinduism as the chants and hymns that the Brahmins said were passed down from one generation to another by word of mouth. Although scholars have been trying really hard to find out more about the History of Hinduism, they haven’t been able to gain great insights into what the inscription is all about and what do they say. The History of Hinduism stems from the Aryan culture.

The first discovery about the ancient Indus Valley Civilization that came about in the year 1921 was evidence enough to prove that there was a civilization that existed in the northwest of India and parts of Pakistan. This civilization is also referred to as the Harappan Civilisation. This civilization flourished from around 7000 BC to 2300 BC and was spread over a vast region of about 750,000 square miles. They were so advanced that they even had trade links with people as far away as Mesopotamia.

The religion that these people followed not much can be known about that. This means that although they did follow a religion based on what has been found there in the form of an altar, the bathing ghats and the evidence of animal sacrifice. There were also seals that were found of the Pasupati that resembled Shiva and the horned bull which is very like the Nandi.

The Indus Valley Civilization began to decline around 1800 BC and the possible reasons for this could be drought or floods. The scholars until recently thought that the History of Hinduism was linked with the Aryans, who was an Indo-European tribe and the name means noble in Sanskrit. The scholars believe that the original inhabitants of the Indus Valley Civilization are the Dravidians, who were later on pushed towards the interior of the country and further south by the invading tribes. Aryans have been found to have horses and chariots, which were not to be found in India before this.

Although a lot of scholars do not agree with this theory of the Aryans and the Dravidians they do agree that there was an invasion from the outside of India and this changed the way things are looked at. The first theory was supposed to be quite racist and derogatory.

The two main Gods that were worshiped by the Aryans were Agni and Soma. Agni was the God of fire and soma was the God of intoxication. Although these Gods do not figure in the History of Hinduism this lay the foundation for two other Gods, which are Vishnu, who is in the Rigveda and is also called the sun God and Shiva, who are linked with causing and curing of diseases.

Thus the History of Hinduism gave birth to the Vedas and the other religious books along with the two main epics of the Ramayana and Mahabharata.

Along with the History of Hinduism, there is also linked the theory of karma. This states that a total of good work and action will result in the accumulation of good karma. This in turn will bring about an end to the cycle of birth and death and help one to achieve moksha or freedom from rebirth.