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Hinduism is the world’s oldest religion, according to many scholars, with roots and customs dating back more than 4,000 years. Today, with more than 1 billion followers, Hinduism is the...
Hinduism is a major world religion originating on the Indian subcontinent and comprising several and varied systems of philosophy, belief, and ritual. If the Indus valley civilization (3rd–2nd millennium BCE) was the earliest source of Hindu traditions, then Hinduism is the oldest living religion on Earth.
Hinduism is the oldest religion in the world, originating in Central Asia and the Indus Valley, still practiced in the present day.
The history of Hinduism is often divided into periods of development. The first period is the pre-Vedic period, which includes the Indus Valley Civilization and local pre-historic religions.
Evidence of Hinduism’s early antecedents is derived from archaeology, comparative philology, and comparative religion. The earliest literary source for the history of Hinduism is the Rigveda, consisting of hymns that were composed chiefly during the last two or three centuries of the 2nd millennium bce.
Main historical periods. Although the early history of Hinduism is difficult to date with certainty, the following list presents a rough chronology. Before 2000 BCE: The Indus Valley...
The first of the five strands of Hinduism is doctrine, as expressed in a vast textual tradition anchored to the Veda (“Knowledge”), the oldest core of Hindu religious utterance, and organized through the centuries primarily by members of the learned Brahman class.
According to Gavin Flood, "The actual term Hindu first occurs as a Persian geographical term for the people who lived beyond the river Indus (Sanskrit: Sindhu)", [31] more specifically in the 6th-century BCE inscription of Darius I (550–486 BCE). [36] The term Hindu in these ancient records is a geographical term and did not refer to a ...
According to historians, the origin of Hinduism dates back to 5,000 years or more. At one time, it was believed that the basic tenets of Hinduism were brought to India by the Aryans who invaded the Indus Valley civilization and settled along the banks of the Indus river about 1600 BCE.
The earliest known sacred texts of Hinduism, the Vedas, date back to at least 3000 BCE, but some date them back even further, to 8000-6000 BCE; and some Hindus themselves believe these texts to be of divine origin, and therefore timeless.