HINDUISM

What is Hinduism?

Hinduism is the major religion of the Indian subcontinent, particularly of Nepal and India. Hinduism includes Shaivism, Vaishnavism and Śrautaamong numerous other traditions. Among other practices and philosophies, Hinduism includes a wide spectrum of laws and prescriptions of "daily morality" based on karma, dharma, and societal norms. Hinduism is a categorization of distinct intellectual or philosophical points of view, rather than a rigid, common set of beliefs.

Hinduism consists of many diverse traditions and has no single founder. Among its direct roots is the historical Vedic religion of Iron Age India and, as such, Hinduism is often called the "oldest living religion" or the "oldest living major religion" in the world. Since Vedic times, "people from many strata of society throughout the subcontinent tended to adapt their religious and social life to Brahmanism norms", a process sometimes called Sanskritization.
One orthodox classification of Hindu texts is to divide into Śruti ("revealed") and Smriti ("remembered") texts. These texts discuss theology, philosophy, mythology, rituals and temple building among other topics.
Major scriptures include the Vedas, Upanishads, Purāṇas, Mahabharata, Rāmāyaṇa, Manusmriti, Bhagavad Gītā and Agamas.
Hinduism, with about one billion followers (950 million estimated in India), is the world's third largest religion, after Christianity and Islam.

Etymology:(Hinduism)

The word Hindu is derived (through Persian) from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, the historic local appellation for the Indus River in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. The word Sindhu is first mentioned in the Rig Veda.
The word Hindu was borrowed by European languages from the Arabic term al-Hind, referring to the land of the people who live across the River Indus, itself from the Persian term Hindu, which refers to all Indians. By the 13th century, Hindustan emerged as a popular alternative name of India, meaning the "land of Hindus".

The term Hinduism later found mention sporadically in certain Sanskrit texts such as the later Rajataranginis of Kashmir (Hinduka, c. 1450), some 16th- to 18th-century Bengali Gaudiya Vaishnava texts, including Chaitanya Charitamrita and Chaitanya Bhagavata, usually to contrast Hindus with Yavanas or Mlecchas. It was only towards the end of the 18th century that European merchants and colonists began to refer to the followers of Indian religions collectively as Hindus. The term Hinduism was introduced into the English language in the 19th century to denote the religious, philosophical, and cultural traditions native to India.

History Of Hinduism:

Periodisation:(Hinduism)

James Mill (1773-1836), in his The History of British India (1817), distinguished three phases in the history of India, namely Hindu, Muslim and British civilizations. This Periodisation has been criticized, for the misconceptions it has given rise to. Another Periodisation is the division into "ancient, classical, mediaeval and modern periods". Smart and Michaels seem to follow Mill's Periodisation, while Flood and Muesse follow the "ancient, classical, mediaeval and modern periods" Periodisation. 

Different periods are designated as "classical Hinduism":
• Smart calls the period between 1000 BCE and 100 CE "pre-classical". It's the formative period for the Upanishads and Brahmanism, Jainism and Buddhism. For Smart, the "classical period" lasts from 100 to 1000 CE, and coincides with the flowering of "classical Hinduism" and the flowering and deterioration of Mahayana-Buddhism in India.
• For Michaels, the period between 500 BCE and 200 BCE is a time of "Ascetic reformism", whereas the period between 200 BCE and 1100 CE is the time of "classical Hinduism", since there is "a turning point between the Vedic religion and Hindu religions".
• Muesse discerns a longer period of change, namely between 800 BCE and 200 BCE, which he calls the "Classical Period":

...this was a time when traditional religious practices and beliefs were reassessed. The Brahmins and the rituals they performed no longer enjoyed the same prestige they had in the Vedic period".
According to Muesse, some of the fundamental concepts of Hinduism, namely karma, reincarnation and "personal enlightenment and transformation", which did not exist in the Vedic religion, developed in this time:
Indian philosophers came to regard the human as an immortal soul encased in a perishable body and bound by action, or karma, to a cycle of endless existences.
According to Muesse, reincarnation is "a fundamental principle of virtually all religions formed in India".
The period of the ascetic reforms saw the rise of Buddhism and Jainism, while Sikhism originated during the time of Islamic rule.

Typology:(Hinduism)

Hinduism as it is commonly known can be subdivided into a number of major currents. Of the historical division into six darsanas, only two schools, Vedanta and Yoga, survive. The main divisions of Hinduism today are Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism and Smartism. Hinduism also recognizes numerous divine beings subordinate to the Supreme Being or regards them as lower manifestations of it. Other notable characteristics include a belief in reincarnation and karma, as well as in personal duty, or dharma.
McDaniel (2007) distinguishes six generic "types" of Hinduism, in an attempt to accommodate a variety of views on a rather complex subject:
• Folk Hinduism, as based on local traditions and cults of local deities at a communal level and spanning back to prehistoric times or at least prior to written Vedas.
• Shrauta or "Vedic" Hinduism as practiced by traditionalist Brahmins (Shrautins).
• Vedantic Hinduism, for example Advaita Vedanta (Smartism), as based on the philosophical approach of the Upanishads.
• Yogic Hinduism, especially that based on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
• "Dharmic" Hinduism or "daily morality", based on Karma, and upon societal norms such as Vivāha (Hindu marriage customs).
• Bhakti or devotion list practices.

Definitions:

Pluralism:(Hinduism)

Hinduism is not only one of the numerically largest faiths, but is also the oldest living major tradition on earth, with roots reaching back into prehistory. It is described as both the oldest of the world's religions, and the most diverse.

While sometimes referred to as a religion, Hinduism is more often defined as a religious tradition.
Hinduism does not have a "unified system of belief encoded in declaration of faith or a creed", but is rather an umbrella term comprising the plurality of religious phenomena originating and based on the Vedic traditions.
Problems with the single definition of what is actually meant by the term 'Hinduism' are often attributed to the fact that Hinduism does not have a single or common historical founder. Hinduism, or as some say 'Hinduisms,' does not have a single system of salvation and has different goals according to each sector denomination. According to Supreme court of India "unlike other religions in the World, the Hindu religion does not claim any one Prophet, it does not worship any one God, it does not believe in any one philosophic concept, it does not follow any one act of religious rites or performances, in fact, it does not satisfy the traditional features of a religion or creed. It is a way of life and nothing more".

Commonalities:(Hinduism)

Most Hindu traditions revere a body of religious or sacred literature, the Vedas, although there are exceptions. Some Hindu religious traditions regard particular rituals as essential for salvation, but a variety of views on this co-exists. Some Hindu philosophies postulate a theistic ontology of creation, of sustenance, and of destruction of the universe, yet some Hindus are atheists. Hinduism is sometimes characterized by the belief in reincarnation (samsara), determined by the law of karma, and the idea that salvation is freedom from this cycle of repeated birth and death. However, other religions of the region, such as Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, also believe in karma, outside the scope of Hinduism. Hinduism is therefore viewed as the most complex of all of the living, historical world religions.

Indigenous understanding:(Hinduism)

A definition of Hinduism is further complicated by the frequent use of the term "faith" as a synonym for "religion". Some academics and many practitioners refer to Hinduism using a native definition, as Sanātana Dharma, a Sanskrit phrase meaning "the eternal law", or the "eternal way".

To its adherents, Hinduism is the traditional way of life and because of the wide range of traditions and ideas incorporated within or covered by it, arriving at a comprehensive definition of the term is problematic.
A definition of Hinduism, given by the first Vice President of India, who was also a prominent theologian, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, states that Hinduism is not "just a faith", but in itself is related to the union of reason and intuition. Radhakrishnan explicitly states that Hinduism cannot be defined, but is only to be experienced.