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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 historical Vedic religion, also called Vedicism or Vedism, and sometimes ancient Hinduism or Vedic Hinduism, [a] constituted the religious ideas and practices prevalent amongst some of the Indo-Aryan peoples of the northwest Indian subcontinent (Punjab and the western Ganges plain) during the Vedic period (c. 1500–500 BCE).
Hinduism's variations in belief and its broad range of traditions make it difficult to define as a religion according to traditional Western conceptions. [ 64 ] Hinduism includes a diversity of ideas on spirituality and traditions; Hindus can be polytheistic , pantheistic , panentheistic , pandeistic , henotheistic , monotheistic , monistic ...
Some Hindu families brought up a son as a Sikh, and some Hindus view Sikhism as a tradition within Hinduism, even though the Sikh faith is a distinct religion. [ 154 ] Julius Lipner states that the custom of distinguishing between Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs is a modern phenomena, but one that is a convenient abstraction. [ 80 ]
The Vedic period, or the Vedic age (c. 1500 – c. 500 BCE), is the period in the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age of the history of India when the Vedic literature, including the Vedas (c. 1500 –900 BCE), was composed in the northern Indian subcontinent, between the end of the urban Indus Valley Civilisation and a second urbanisation, which began in the central Indo-Gangetic Plain c. 600 BCE.
The documented history of Indian religions begins with the historical Vedic religion, the religious practices of the early Indo-Aryan peoples, which were collected and later redacted into the Vedas, as well as the Agamas of Dravidian origin.
The Bhagavad Gita (/ ˈ b ʌ ɡ ə v ə d ˈ ɡ iː t ɑː /; [1] Sanskrit: भगवद्गीता, IPA: [ˌbʱɐɡɐʋɐd ˈɡiːtɑː], romanized: bhagavad-gītā, lit. 'God's song'), [a] often referred to as the Gita (IAST: gītā), is a Hindu scripture, dated to the second or first century BCE, [7] which forms part of the epic Mahabharata.
A major factor in the development of Hinduism was the Vedic religion. The Indo-Aryan migration brought their distinct beliefs to the Indian subcontinent, where the Vedas were composed around 1500 BCE. The Indo-Aryans Vedic pantheon of deities included the chief god Indra, the sun deity Surya, Ushas, as well as Agni.