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The history of Hinduism covers a wide variety of related religious traditions native to the Indian subcontinent. [1] It overlaps or coincides with the development of religion in the Indian subcontinent since the Iron Age, with some of its traditions tracing back to prehistoric religions such as those of the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilisation.
The history of India up to (and including) the times of the Buddha, with his life generally placed into the 6th or 5th century BCE, is a subject of a major scholarly debate. The vast majority of historians in the Western world accept the theory of Aryan Migration with c. 1500-1200 BCE dates for the displacement of Indus civilization by Aryans ...
Hinduism – predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. [1] Its followers are called Hindus , who refer to it as Sanātana Dharma [ 2 ] ( Sanskrit : सनातनधर्मः , lit.
Vedantic Hinduism, including Advaita Vedanta , based on the philosophical approach of the Upanishads. Yogic Hinduism, especially the sect 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 devotionalist practices
In Indian historian DN Jha's essay "Looking for a Hindu identity", he writes: "No Indians described themselves as Hindus before the fourteenth century" and that "The British borrowed the word 'Hindu' from India, gave it a new meaning and significance, [and] reimported it into India as a reified phenomenon called Hinduism."
Villages had their own assemblies under their local chiefs called Gramakas. Their administrations were divided into executive, judicial, and military functions. Early sources, from the Buddhist Pāli Canon , the Jain Agamas and the Hindu Puranas , mention Magadha being ruled by the Pradyota dynasty and Haryanka dynasty ( c. 544–413 BCE) for ...
The word Hindu is an exonym, and while Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world, it has also been described by the modern term Sanātana Dharma (lit. ' eternal dharma ') emphasizing its eternal nature. Another endonym for Hinduism is Vaidika Dharma (lit. ' Vedic dharma ').
Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism. There are four Vedas, and these constitute the Hindu canon (but they are largely religious scriptures, some telling it to be God's words). Each Veda has four subdivisions – the Samhitas (mantras and benedictions ...