The Origin of Hinduism

Hinduism is the world’s oldest living religious tradition. It is unlikely that there was a single founder of Hinduism, but if there were such an individual, he or she is unknown to us today. Although we don’t know the name of individuals, we do know several cultures that contributed to the development of Hinduism.

Of these contributing sources, two are specially important for our understanding of the history of the Hindu tradition. The first is the Indus Valley civilization. The second source is a group called the Aryans, a nomadic group of people who might have migrated to India from Central Asia.

It may be fair to say that Hinduism is not only the world’s oldest religion, it is also the most pluralistic. Its great diversity is what makes the concept of Hinduism problematic. Determining what all Hindus have in common is exceedingly difficult.

This pluralism has produced an attitude that denies the possibility of ever completely knowing the whole truth. It is the viewpoint that maintains that there are many valid viewpoint. Each perspective is partially correct. A famous passage from the oldest Hindu scripture, the Vedas, makes this point: “The truth is one but the sages call it by different names”.

Hinduism is a tradition that honors all seekers after the truth and recognizes that different persons require different ways of relating to divine reality. That’s one of the great strengths of Hinduism: its ability to absorb ideas and practices from different sources without giving up its fundamental orientation.

The Hindu tradition emerged from the confluence of several cultures, the most important of which were the Indus Valley civilization and the Aryans. The relationship between this cultures is not altogether certain but the evidence does suggest that they were quite different from one another.

Each culture seems to have contributed distinctive elements to the emergence of Hinduism. From the Indus Valley, Hinduism may have gained a concern with ritual purity and spiritual discipline. Perhaps also a proclivity towards the worship of the goddess. From the Aryans received its priestly language, Sanskrit; and its most sacred scripture, the Vedas. We shall see in other articles that the Aryans’ contribution was much more than this.

In this series of articles I will try to unravel the origin of what we now call Hinduism:

• The Indus Valley Civilization: About 150 years ago, a discovery was made that has caused scholars to revise their understanding of the early history of India. The Indus Valley civilization, as it is now known is considered one of the great cultures of the ancient world. Although Hindus would not regard the Indus Valley civilization as part of their sacred history, there is evidence that elements from this culture contributed to the great amalgam of Hinduism.
  
  
• The Indus Valley Seals: The excavation of the Indus Valley civilization has revealed many intriguing artifacts. The most interesting of these relics are seals used to stamp designs in soft clay. Anthropologists believe that these seals probably have deep religious significance. 
  
  
• The Aryan Civilization: Who were these Aryans? Most historians believe that the Aryans related to people who migrated into Iran, Irak, Ireland and other parts of Europe. In many ways, the Aryans were different from what we know about the Indus Valley dwellers. It is clear that the Aryans brought with them to India different gods, different rituals and a different language. The Aryan language evolved into Sanskrit, the official language of the Hindu tradition.
  
  
• Hinduism’s Holy Book: The Aryans gave Hinduism its priestly language, Sanskrit; and what could be called Hinduism’s holy book: The Veda. The Veda is a rather unusual collection of literature. It is not narrative like the Bible. It tells no grand story of gods and humans. The Vedas are more like a liturgy manual.

The Indus Valley Civilization

About 150 years ago, a discovery was made that has caused scholars to revise their understanding of the early history of India. In 1850’s, while excavating for a railroad system in Northern India, workers discovered the existence of an ancient and sophisticated civilization that had long been forgotten.

The Indus Valley civilization, as it is now known is considered one of the great cultures of the ancient world. What came to light since the first excavation suggests that the Indus Valley civilization was as great as ancient Egypt. Although Hindus would not regard the Indus Valley civilization as part of their sacred history, there is evidence that elements from this culture contributed to the great amalgam of Hinduism.

A Well Organized Urban Society

What is known about the Indus Valley culture comes exclusively from archaeological evidence, since its cryptic language has never been completely deciphered. In fact, we do not know what the inhabitants of this civilization called themselves.

The archeological evidence suggests that the Indus Valley culture flourished between 3000 and 1500 B.C. About 17 different cities have been unearthed so far and they display remarkably similar features, suggesting a social and political unity. Indus Valley civilization may have expanded over one million square kilometers.

The cities were well organized and carefully planned. The Indus Valley was relatively peaceful culture, as very few weapons have been discovered. The residences were specially impressive. Many were equipped with inner bathrooms and plumbing. In fact, great concern with cleanliness is evidenced throughout the civilization.

Not only homes features sophisticated toilet facilities, but municipalities did as well. The cities Mohenjo-daro and Harappa each had large central baths with public access.

The prominence of these baths in homes and cities suggests that the dwellers of the Indus Valley civilization were concerned with more than simple hygiene. They seem to be greatly interested in matters of ritual purity. Ritual purity is not a concept that is familiar to modern Westerners. It might be helpful to clarify this concept.

All societies maintain structures of order, what we might call simply a sense of what is right and appropriate. The structures are not always explicit or written out as laws. Taboos are often given to those areas of life were one may run the risk of violating order. For the structures to be maintained many cultures reinforce taboos with harsh punishments.

One of the most common ways for societies to maintain order is with the opposition of cleanliness and dirt. More technically purity and pollution. Essentially, all societies have things that they regard as clean and dirty. These things might be food, people or kinds of activities.

Purity and Pollution

Accounts of what is clean and dirty varies greatly from culture to culture and time to time. This has nothing to do with hygiene as such, but it has a great deal to do with social and religious order.

Frequently, cleanliness and dirtiness are functions of context rather than the intrinsic nature of things. For example, suppose that I’m at a restaurant enjoying a green salad. As long as I observe proper attitude and politely convey my food to my mouth with the fork all is well, but at the moment I drop a piece of lettuce on my tie I’m dirty. On the plate, on the fork and in my mouth the lettuce is nice and clean. On my tie, it is dirt. Nothing about the lettuce changes but its context has. A sense of order has been violated.

Some people would not drink water drawn from the bathroom tap because they regard it as somehow dirty. It is not really unhygienic because it is the same water that comes from the kitchen tap and it is the same water you use to brush your teeth. However, to some people drinking water from a bathroom tap seems out of place and inappropriate.

Understanding the dynamics of purity and pollution helps us to grasp what is probably the central purpose of the great baths in the Indus Valley civilization: to remove the ritual dirt incurred by everyday living. Today, many Hindu temples have tanks that function as ritual baths. Many bodies of water, such as the Ganges, serve this purpose.

In these baths, people came to restore the pristine order that may have been disrupted by inappropriate behavior or simply by coming into contact with a person that is seen as unclean.

What we see in the Indus Valley civilization is the earliest expression of a religious practice that runs throughout all of the Hindu history.

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India and Religion

Unlike other great religions like Christianity, Islam and Buddhism; Hinduism has not as yet taken root in a natural way outside the land of its origins. This geographical immobility is due in part to Hinduism’s decided lack of proselytizing impulses. In part is also due to the importance of India itself for the Hindu traditions.

India as a Western Construct

What do we mean when we use the term India? Winston Churchill once said that India wasn’t a nation but an abstraction. I’m not sure wether Churchill intended that comment as a criticism but it certainly calls attention to the fact that India is an idea. Perhaps a problematic one.

Historically, India was an idea in the Western mind long before it was an idea in the Indian mind. The name India was first used by outsiders to refer to the land surrounding the Indus river. Although the name India has gained wide currency among the English speaking population of the subcontinent, the older indigenous term for India, Bharat, is still very common.

As a Western concept, India has meant many things. It is interesting to recall that the Americas were discovered by Europeans in their search for India. Even today the indigenous people of the Americas are referred to by many as Indians.

The Exotic and Mystical India

In the Western construction, India has been seen as exotic, rich and different. It was the land the land of great resources and fabulous things not found in the West. For many it has also been a place of deep spirituality and mysticism.

India has drawn many Westerners in search of the meaning of life. In the 1960’s India was a magnet for hippies from the West, seeking mystical experience as well as substances.

In my first trip to India I had my head full with romantic notions. I was astounded with how different India was from the image that I carried in my mind.

What makes the concept of India problematic? It might suggest greater cohesiveness and unity than actually exists. India is a land of great diversity, socially, economically and geographically.

India is one of the few places on Earth were diversity is preserved and appreciated. It has been said that the only thing Indians have in common is their diversity. John Kenneth Galbraith, a former U.S. ambassador to India once called it a functioning anarchy.

With over one billion people, India is the second most populous country in the world next to China. Indians derive from a host of racial and ethnic stocks. Accordingly, there isn’t an standard of Indian appearance. Indian manifest many different colors of skin and different physical characteristics.

There are also many different languages spoken in India. There are over sixteen major languages and hundreds of dialects. Languages do not always derive from the same language groups. Consequently, simple communication between Indians from different regions is often difficult at best. Increasingly, English is used as the lingua franca among the educated.

The Religions of India

When it comes to religion itself, India is one of the most pluralistic places in the world. Besides Hindus that make up the great majority, Indians profess a wide variety of religious traditions and practices. Each of these non-Hindu traditions has a historical relationship with Hinduism. Sometimes that relationship involves tension and conflict. Sometimes it is one of competition. Sometimes it is a relationship of mutual enrichment.

Islam

Muslims make up about 10% of the Indian population. In many ways Islam is diametrically opposed to Hinduism. This difference has been the source of much conflict. Most Muslims live in Northern India.

Christianity

Many persons are unaware that Christianity has a long established tradition in India, specially in the South. Legend has it that the Christian faith was brought to India by doubting Thomas, one of Jesus twelve apostles. He was murdered and buried near Madras.

Other legends suggest that Jesus himself studied in India with Hindu and Buddhist sages before his public ministry in Palestine. After his crucifixion Jesus returned to India with his mother Mary and died there.

Presently Christians comprise about 2% of the total Indian population.

Buddhism

Although founded in India, Buddhism has only a small following there today. However, in the Medieval period of India Buddhism flourished and even threatened to eclipse Hinduism as the dominant religion of the country.

With the advent of Islam, Buddhism’s presence on the subcontinent was greatly diminished. Although Indian Buddhists today number around two or three million, there has been always a strong relationship between Buddhism and Hinduism, such as distinguishing the two is not always easy. Many Buddhist in Asia pray to Hindu gods. Many Hindus see the Buddha as a manifestation of god.

Jainism is not as widely known as Buddhism in the Western world but it has much in common with it and Hinduism. Buddhism and Jainism began about at the same time in Northern India and they share some features.

Although numerically small, around two million, the Jains have had a profound influence on the life of India in general, and on Hindus in particular. The Jain practice of absolute non-violence gave rise to the custom of vegetarianism in Hinduism. It also had a profound effect on Gandhi’s philosophy.

Conclusion

To round up this picture of religious diversity in India let me mention the presence of the Jews and the Parsis, who are the practitioners of the ancient Persian religion Zoroastranicism. There are a few hundred thousand Indians who belong to these communities.

My intention in outlined these varied religions is to call attention to the deeply pluralistic context in which Hinduism is rooted. India is not an easy concept to grasp. Even this sketch is over-simplified. I’ve said very little about the tremendous diversity within Hinduism itself.

To conclude, let’s return to the meaning of the word India. This word is a Western construction that tries to name a reality far more diverse and complex than we might assume. At times, it might even be difficult to say what these realities have in common beyond a simple concept that holds them together in our minds.

Return from India and Religion to Introduction to Hinduism

Introduction to Hinduism

One of the first things people want to know is what Hindus, or for that matter, Buddhists or Jains believe. It is important to recognize that belief and doctrine are extremely important for practitioners of Western religious traditions. This is not always the case with the traditions originated in India.

Hindus not only believe many different and sometimes contradictory things, the importance that they assign to belief itself widely varies. When we assume that the central aspect of a religion is its doctrine or theology we are imposing our own ways of understanding our religious phenomena.

There are ways of seeing the world and that they are largely determined by gender, ethnicity, nationality, class and social location. There is no way to escape this fact. However, we can at least recognize its potential hazards.

As Westerners we interpret Hinduism through Western ways of understanding. These ways are often different from Hindu ways of knowing. Indian thought is based on different assumptions about the nature of life. It comprises a different kind of logic.

For example, Hindus think about time very differently than Westerners do. The Hindu approach is to neglect chronology. In contrast, I’d like to follow a historical scheme to see how different ideas and practices developed in time and context. This would not be a characteristic Hindu approach.

Taking a Western approach to Hinduism is limited but it is not for that reason wrong. The insider knows things that the outsider will never know. The outsider knows things that the insider doesn’t and perhaps cannot know. The outsider sees patterns within and among traditions in ways that those who practice the religion do not.

How can one adequately describe and discuss the lived reality of nearly a billion people? We may deal with ideas and concepts, but Hinduism is so much more than that. To understand Hinduism it should not only be thought about but also it should be seen and felt.

These are some articles that may help you start to understand this complex tradition:

• Facts About Hinduism: Some facts about Hinduism and India.
  

• What is Hinduism?: What does the word Hinduism mean? What is its origin? Is it right to call it that way?
  

• Hinduism Religion: Is Hinduism really a religion? Hindus don't see themselves as religious or even as Hindus. Is it right to call them that way?
  
  
• India and Religion: Unlike other great religions like Christianity, Islam and Buddhism; Hinduism has not as yet taken root in a natural way outside the land of its origins. This is in part due to the importance of India itself for the Hindu traditions. Let's take a look at the environment in which Hinduism emerged.

Facts About Hinduism

Here are some fast facts about Hinduism:

• Hinduism is the dominant religion of India, about 85% of the over one billion persons living in India are known to the world as Hindus.
  
  
• Hinduism is often thought of not as a single religion, but as a family of religions.
  
  
• About 95% of all Hindus in the world live in India. Most of the remaining five percent live in areas immediately adjacent to India. Approximately18 million Hindus live in the kingdom of Nepal, which is the only nation where Hinduism is the state religion.
  
  
• Although Indians are perhaps the most religious people on earth, India is officially a secular nation and it prides itself of being the world’s largest democracy.
  
  
• There are about 15 million Hindus living in the Muslim states of Pakistan and Bangladesh, which were part of India prior to its independence of Great Britain.
  
  
• At the end of 20th century, the Hindu population in the United States and Europe were estimated at 2 million. The vast majority of these were Indian immigrants.

These facts make apparent the importance of the Indian subcontinent for Hinduism. Unlike other great religions like Christianity, Islam and Buddhism; Hinduism has not as yet taken root in a natural way outside the land of its origins. These geographical immobility is due in part to Hinduism’s decided lack of proselytizing impulses. In part is also due to the importance of India itself for the Hindu traditions.

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Hinduism Religion: Is it Really?

Is Hinduism a religion? First of all, what is religion? Many people find it surprising to learn that the word religion is a Western construct of relatively recent origin. Like the concept of Hinduism, scholars have questioned its appropriateness and value.

The word religion derives from the Latin religio, a term that Romans and later Christians initially used with infrequency and imprecision. Interestingly, Hebrew and Greek, the languages of the Bible, do not have words that accurately translate into the English word religion.

The meaning of the word has changed significantly. Early in European history the word was used to name piety or faith in God. A Christian, for example, might be said to have true or false religion. Sometimes the word was used to designate rituals ceremony, specially the practices whose believes where different from one’s own.

A stable meaning for the idea of religion didn’t appear until around the 17th century, when it came to mean “a system of believes or doctrines”. Even in the 21th century, the word religion lacks precision of usage. Scholars of religion now universally agree that there is not universal agreement of what constitutes religion.

Maybe we think of religion as belief in God or gods. Well, there are traditions ordinarily considered religions that do not prescribe belief in God or gods. There are traditions ordinarily considered religious that consider belief in God or any kind of belief at all as an obstruction to the higher human good.

Maybe we think of religion as something involving ceremony and ritual. Again, there are traditions considered religious where ceremony is seeing as something to be transcended. The point is that we should be cautious of how we make use of the concept of religion. We need clear awareness of its limitations.

Let me mention what I think some of those limitations are. First, if we regard religion merely as a department of life or human culture, we are apt to misinterpret key aspects of Hinduism. In the West, we frequently think of religion as something having to do with the explicitly religious institutions like churches or synagogues. It places religion on a level akin to theater, medicine, sports and other departments of life.

Hinduism doesn’t comprise a part of life for Hindus. It is not something practiced only in a particular place or at a particular time. Hinduism is far more pervasive and foundational than that. It certainly has rituals and other activities identifiably religious but it encompasses much more than this.

It structures and influences every aspect of Hindu life, including theater, music, medicine and occupation. This is maybe why Hindus don’t feel compelled to have a specific name to indicate Hinduism. As I said earlier, it might be better to think of Hinduism not as a single religion, but as a family of beliefs.

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What is Hinduism

What is Hinduism? Hinduism is characterized as the dominant religion of India. You might think this is a simple and uncontroversial statement. About 85% of the over one billion persons living in India are known to the world as Hindus. This apparently simple factual statement is far more complex and problematic that it might seem on first glance.

A Word Coined by Outsiders

The difficulties arise when we carefully examine the meaning of the words "Hinduism" and "Hindu". Before we begin our exploration of Hinduism proper, it is wise to reflect on what exactly these terms mean.

We must observe that these are not words from indigenous languages of India. These concepts are linguistic constructions that emerged from the vocabulary of people outside of that land. Often these outsiders sought to conquer and subdue the land and its inhabitants. The fact that these concepts arise from national powers with colonial interest may make them downright suspicious.

What makes these concepts problematic is that each of them suggests a uniformity and consistency that is not applied to the reality they name. Consequently, these words may lead us to assume homogeneity and unity where there is not.

When we begin to study Hinduism and religion in India, we must accustom ourselves to diversity. Applying these words assuming that they mean the same thing to Indians may prevent us from seeing something essential.

What we call in the Western world Hinduism has not been called by this name for most of its history. It was only recently that Indians themselves began to use this word. The words Hindu and Hinduism are of Persian origin from around the 12th century of the current era. It was originally alien to India. The word Hindu originally meant Indian, it was not intended specifically to designate Indian religion.

Its meaning has changed profoundly over time as not all Indian are Hindu today. As strange as it may sound, most Hindus don’t think of themselves as practicing something called Hinduism. The phrase that most closely applies to what Westerners call Hinduism is Sanatana Dharma, which might be translated as “eternal religion”. Even this translation isn't completely satisfying because the world religion is not an equivalent to the word Dharma.

Really a Unified Religion?

Indigenous languages of India lack a word for what Westerners call religion. Rather that viewing themselves of participants of a religion called Hinduism, most Hindus see themselves as devotees of a particular god or goddess. They also see themselves as members of a particular community dedicated to the devotion of a specific deity.

Devotion to a specific god is symbolized by the forehead markings called Tilaks. They are one of the first things Westerners think of when they hear the name Hindu. For instance, persons who worship the god Shiva might indicate their allegiance with white horizontal stripes across the forehand. Devotees of Vishnu might make thin vertical markings to designate the object of their faith.

It might be better to think of Hinduism not as a single religion, but as a family of religions. Then, why use the word Hindu or Hinduism at all?

An Upsurge of “Hinduism”

In the last several years, some scholars have argued that there is absolutely not such thing as Hinduism. Because of the great complexity of religious practices in India many have wondered if there is anything as sufficient commonality for one to use the word Hinduism.

Scholars have suggested that the term Hinduism is a Western construction reflecting colonial interest of imperialist nations and for that reason should be discarded. I think that the idea of Hinduism is a useful one. It should be kept for no other reason than that many Hindus have now adopted the term and use it with increasing frequency.

This often happens in the history of religions. Christians, for instance, did not coin that term to describe themselves. Eventually, as others outside the Christian movement increasingly used that name, those in the movement started to use it also.

Today it would not be uncommon to enter a temple in India and see a sing proclaiming “For Hindus Only”. Not long ago, though, such a sign would have been unnecessary. In the last several decades even there has been an increase on the use of the word Hindutva, a word translated as “Hinduness”.

We may call this a rise in Hindu consciousness. It has been accompanied by an upsurge of participation in Hindu festivals, rituals and pilgrimages.

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