HINDUISM

ORIGINS

Beginnings
Reporter: Sofia Marey N. Yap

The term "Hinduism" derives from a Persian word that refers

to the Sindhu (or Indus) river in northwest India; "Hindu" was
first used in the 14th century by Arabs, Persians, and Afghans
to describe the peoples of the region.
Hinduism can be traced to the ancient Indus Valley
civilization.
The first is really a pre-Hindu period, the Indus Valley
Civilization, which dates to around 2000 B.C.E., and was
located, as the name implies, in the region of the great Indus
(or "Sindhu") river, in northwest India.
Sometime between 2000 and 1500 B.C.E., a new religion
began to emerge in India, the religion of the Vedas.
Some scholars hold that this religion was brought to India by
nomadic, horse-riding warriors, a group known as the
Aryans, from the steppes of central Asia.
The Aryans practiced a sacrifice-based religion that was
centered around the purifying and transformative qualities of
fire, and that was oriented toward influencing a vast array of
powerful gods, called devas.
Many of these gods were personifications of natural elements
—wind, fire, water—while others were warrior-like figures.
The Vedas, a vast corpus of mythological and ritual texts,
describe this divine pantheon, as well as prescribe, sometimes
in great detail, the rituals to be performed to keep these gods
"happy," and thus insure that they benignly interact with the
human realm.

VEDIC TEXTS
1. the Rigveda: hymns
(for the chief priest to recite)
2. the Yajurveda: formulas
(for the priest to recite)
3. the Samaveda: formulas
(for the priest to chant)
4. the Atharvaveda: collection of stories, spells, and charms

The religious realm of the Vedas is centered on the

proper performance of ritual sacrifice, which,
essentially, involves the offering something of value—an
animal or food—in order to receive the favor of the gods; there
are Vedic rituals intended to gain wealth, sons, protection, and
abundant crops.
The ritual priests of the Vedas were a group known as the
Brahmins.
The Upanishads—sometimes referred to as Vedanta, the end
(or completion) of the Vedas—began to emerge.

Unlike the Vedic world of ritual exchange between humans

and gods, the Upanishads present a philosophically
speculative worldview. They put forward the idea that the
material world is not, in fact, "real," but only an illusion that is
created by ignorance.

What is real is an abstract divine principle, Brahman. The

Upanishads focused on how to free oneself from the bonds of
material attachments, and thereby attain a state of oneness
with Brahman.
List of "principal" Upanishads
(there are over 100 others)
1. Aitareya 1. Svetasvatara
2. Brhadaranyaka 2. Katha
3. Taittiriya 3. Mundaka
4. Chandogya 4. Mandukya
5. Kena
 6. Isa 5. Mandukya

What is sometimes called "classical" (or "Epic") Hinduism

emerges sometime after the Upanishads. In this period, which
begins around 500 B.C.E., the major gods and goddesses
of Hinduism—Vishnu, Shiva, Krishna, Parvati, Lakshmi—
develop their "personalities" through a vast corpus of myths.

Devotional traditions also emerge, in which the strictly

ordered world of sacrifice is supplanted by loving devotion to
individual gods and goddesses.
Early periods of Hinduism
Indus Valley Civilization 2500-1500 BCE
Vedic Civilization 1500-500 BCE
Rigvedic period 1500-1000 BCE
Brahmanism 1000-500 BCE
Epic period after 500 BCE

Hinduism is a perpetually evolving collection of an astounding

array of philosophical and ritual and devotional traditions.
There is no founder, and although historians may attempt to
assign an historical "beginning," really there is no moment of
origin. Indeed, Hindus often refer to their religion as
"sanatana dharma"—the timeless, eternal truth.

Founders
A collection of sacred texts is known, as a whole, as Sanatana
Dharma, "The Eternal Teaching." At the beginning of each
new cosmic age, or yuga, the core of these teachings is
(re)revealed to human beings by the gods.
Some texts posit that the first human to receive the sacred
texts is Manu recipient.
The great epic the Mahabharata says that Manu, as the first
human, is thus the progenitor of all future Hindus.
The Advaita Vedanta school of philosophy, for instance,
which for many modern Hindus articulates the core
philosophical principles of Hinduism, is often said to have
been founded by Shankara Acharya in the late 8th century C.E.
Particularly the Upanishads commentaries that later became
the basis for many of the devotional (bhakti) and
meditational (yoga) principles and practices of later
Hinduism
. The core of his teachings is that there is no essential
difference between the divine principle of the cosmos
(Brahman) and the material and human realm. Shankara
argued that what we think of as "the world" is merely an
illusion, and that through knowledge (jnana) we are able to
cut through this illusion and realize union with Brahman
(called moksha).

Six branches of Hindu philosophy

1. Samkhya
2. Yoga
3. Nyaya
4. Vaisheshika
5. Mimamsa
6. Vedanta

Likewise, Ramanuja (1017-1137), another great theological

commentator, is often seen as a "founder" in that he
articulated a complex theological and devotional system
known as Vishishtadvaita Vedanta (qualified non-
dualism).
Shankara's Advaita Vedanta, had a tremendous influence on
later Hindu thought and practice.

Founder: Shankara Acharya Founder: Ramanuja

School: Advaita Vedanta School: Vishishtadvaita Vedanta
Belief: the material realm and the divine Belief: the material world and the divine
cosmos are essentially the same are different
Hinduism is not a single institution, but a vast, complex
collection of schools, subschools, sects, subsects, etc., that
together make up what is known as "Hinduism."