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History of Hinduism

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. It has thus been called the "oldest religion" in the world.[note 1] Scholars regard Hinduism as a synthesis[11][12][13] of various Indian cultures and traditions,[11][12][14] with diverse roots[15] and no single founder.[16][note 2] This Hindu synthesis emerged after the Vedic period, between ca. 500[12]–200[22] BCE and ca. 300 CE,[12] in or after the period of the Second Urbanisation, and during the early classical period of Hinduism (200 BCE-300 CE).[12][22] It flourished in the medieval period, with the decline of Buddhism in India.[23]

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, ending at about 1750 BCE. This period was followed in northern India by the Vedic period, which saw the introduction of the historical Vedic religion with the Indo-Aryan migrations, starting somewhere between 1900 BCE and 1400 BCE.[24][note 3] The subsequent period, between 800 BCE and 200 BCE, is "a turning point between the Vedic religion and Hindu religions",[27] and a formative period for Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. During the Epic and Early Puranic period, from c. 200 BCE to 500 CE, the Epics and the first Purānas were composed.[12][22] It was followed by the classical "Golden Age" of Hinduism (c. 320-650 CE), which coincides with the Gupta Empire. In this period the six branches of Hindu philosophy evolved, namely Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mīmāṃsā, and Vedānta. Monotheistic sects like Shaivism and Vaishnavism developed during this same period through the Bhakti movement. The period from roughly 650 to 1100 CE forms the late Classical period[28] or early Middle Ages, in which classical Puranic Hinduism is established, and Adi Shankara's influential consolidation of Advaita Vedanta.

Hinduism under both Hindu and Islamic rulers from c. 1200 to 1750 CE,[29][30] saw the increasing prominence of the Bhakti movement, which remains influential today. The colonial period saw the emergence of various Hindu reform movements partly inspired by western movements, such as Unitarianism and Theosophy. The Partition of India in 1947 was along religious lines, with the Republic of India emerging with a Hindu majority. During the 20th century, due to the Indian diaspora, Hindu minorities have formed in all continents, with the largest communities in absolute numbers in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Roots of Hinduism

While the Puranic chronology presents a genealogy of thousands of years, scholars regard Hinduism as a fusion[11][note 4] or synthesis[12][note 5] of various Indian cultures and traditions.[12][note 6] Among its roots are the historical Vedic religion,[14][33] itself already the product of "a composite of the Indo-Aryan and Harappan cultures and civilizations",[34][note 7] which evolved into the Brahmanical religion and ideology of the Kuru Kingdom of Iron Age northern India; but also the Śramaṇa[21] or renouncer traditions[14] of northeast India,[21] and mesolithic[35] and neolithic[36] cultures of India, such as the religions of the Indus Valley Civilisation,[37] Dravidian traditions,[38] and the local traditions[14] and tribal religions.[39]

This Hindu synthesis emerged after the Vedic period, between 500[12]-200[22] BCE and c. 300 CE,[12] in the period of the Second Urbanisation and the early classical period of Hinduism, when the Epics and the first Puranas were composed.[12][22] This Brahmanical synthesis incorporated śramaṇic[22][40] and Buddhist influences[22][41] and the emerging bhakti tradition into the Brahmanical fold via the smriti literature.[42][22] This synthesis emerged under the pressure of the success of Buddhism and Jainism.[43] During the Gupta reign the first Puranas were written,[44][note 8] which were used to disseminate "mainstream religious ideology amongst pre-literate and tribal groups undergoing acculturation."[44] The resulting Puranic Hinduism differed markedly from the earlier Brahmanism of the Dharmasutras and the smritis.[44][note 9] Hinduism co-existed for several centuries with Buddhism,[45] to finally gain the upper hand at all levels in the 8th century.[46][web 1][note 10]

From northern India this "Hindu synthesis", and its societal divisions, spread to southern India and parts of Southeast Asia, as courts and rulers adopted the Brahmanical culture.[47][note 11][note 12][note 13] It was aided by the settlement of Brahmins on land granted by local rulers,[48][49] the incorporation and assimilation of popular non-Vedic gods,[web 2][50][note 14] and the process of Sanskritization, in which "people from many strata of society throughout the subcontinent tended to adapt their religious and social life to Brahmanic norms".[web 2][note 15][51] This process of assimilation explains the wide diversity of local cultures in India "half shrouded in a taddered cloak of conceptual unity."[52]

According to Eliot Deutsch, Brahmins played an essential role in the development of this synthesis. They were bilingual and bicultural, speaking both their local language, and popular Sanskrit, which transcended regional differences in culture and language. They were able to "translate the mainstream of the large culture in terms of the village and the culture of the village in terms of the mainstream," thereby integrating the local culture into a larger whole.[53] While vaidikas and, to a lesser degree, smartas, remained faithful to the traditional Vedic lore, a new brahminism arose which composed litanies for the local and regional gods, and became the ministers of these local traditions.[53]

Periodisation

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 civilisations. This periodisation has been criticised, for the misconceptions it has given rise to. Another periodisation is the division into "ancient, classical, medieval and modern periods", although this periodization has also received criticism.[54]

Romila Thapar notes that the division of Hindu-Muslim-British periods of Indian history gives too much weight to "ruling dynasties and foreign invasions,"[55] neglecting the social-economic history which often showed a strong continuity.[55] The division in Ancient-Medieval-Modern overlooks the fact that the Muslim-conquests took place between the eighth and the fourteenth century, while the south was never completely conquered.[55] According to Thapar, a periodisation could also be based on "significant social and economic changes," which are not strictly related to a change of ruling powers.[56][note 16]

Smart and Michaels seem to follow Mill's periodisation, while Flood and Muesse follow the "ancient, classical, medieval and modern periods" periodisation. An elaborate periodisation may be as follows:[28]

  • Pre-history and Indus Valley Civilisation (until c. 1750 BCE);
  • Vedic period (c. 1750-500 BCE);
  • "Second Urbanisation" (c. 600-200 BCE);
  • Classical Period (c. 200 BCE-1200 CE);[note 17]
  • Pre-classical period (c. 200 BCE – 300 CE);
  • "Golden Age" of India (Gupta Empire) (c. 320–650 CE);
  • Late-Classical period (c. 650–1200 CE);
  • Medieval Period (c. 1200–1500 CE);
  • Early Modern Period (c. 1500–1850);
  • Modern period (British Raj and independence) (from c. 1850).
History of Hinduism
James Mill (1773–1836), in his The History of British India (1817),[A] distinguished three phases in the history of India, namely Hindu, Muslim and British civilisations.[A][B] This periodisation has been influential, but has also been criticised, for the misconceptions it has given rise to.[C] Another influential periodisation is the division into "ancient, classical, mediaeval and modern periods".[D]
Smart[E] Michaels
(overall)[F]
Michaels
(detailed)[F]
Muesse[G] Flood[H]
Indus Valley civilisation and Vedic period
(c. 3000–1000 BCE)
Prevedic religions
(until c. 1750 BCE)[I]
Prevedic religions
(until c. 1750 BCE)[I]
Indus Valley civilisation
(3300–1400 BCE)
Indus Valley civilisation
(c. 2500 to 1500 BCE)
Vedic religion
(c. 1750–500 BCE)
Early Vedic Period
(c. 1750–1200 BCE)
Vedic period
(1600–800 BCE)
Vedic period
(c. 1500–500 BCE)
Middle Vedic Period
(from 1200 BCE)
Pre-classical period
(c. 1000 BCE – 100 CE)
Late Vedic period
(from 850 BCE)
Classical Period
(800–200 BCE)
Ascetic reformism
(c. 500–200 BCE)
Ascetic reformism
(c. 500–200 BCE)
Epic and Puranic period
(c. 500 BCE to 500 CE)
Classical Hinduism
(c. 200 BCE – 1100 CE)[J]
Preclassical Hinduism
(c. 200 BCE – 300 CE)[K]
Epic and Puranic period
(200 BCE – 500 CE)
Classical period
(c. 100 – 1000 CE)
"Golden Age" (Gupta Empire)
(c. 320–650 CE)[L]
Late-Classical Hinduism
(c. 650–1100 CE)[M]
Medieval and Late Puranic Period
(500–1500 CE)
Medieval and Late Puranic Period
(500–1500 CE)
Hindu-Islamic civilisation
(c. 1000–1750 CE)
Islamic rule and "Sects of Hinduism"
(c. 1100–1850 CE)[N]
Islamic rule and "Sects of Hinduism"
(c. 1100–1850 CE)[N]
Modern Age
(1500–present)
Modern period
(c. 1500 CE to present)
Modern period
(c. 1750 CE – present)
Modern Hinduism
(from c. 1850)[O]
Modern Hinduism
(from c. 1850)[O]

Pre-Vedic religions (until c. 1750 BCE)

Prehistory

Hinduism may have roots in Mesolithic prehistoric religion, such as evidenced in the rock paintings of Bhimbetka rock shelters,[note 18] which are about 10,000 years old (c. 8,000 BCE),[57][58][59][60][61] as well as neolithic times. At least some of these shelters were occupied over 100,000 years ago.[62][note 19] Several tribal religions still exist, though their practices may not resemble those of prehistoric religions.[web 3]

Indus Valley Civilization (c. 3300–1700 BCE)

Some Indus valley seals show swastikas, which are found in other religions worldwide. Phallic symbols interpreted as the much later Hindu linga have been found in the Harappan remains.[63][64] Many Indus valley seals show animals. One seal shows a horned figure seated in a posture reminiscent of the Lotus position and surrounded by animals was named by early excavators "Pashupati", an epithet of the later Hindu gods Shiva and Rudra.[65][66][67] Writing in 1997, Doris Meth Srinivasan said, "Not too many recent studies continue to call the seal's figure a "Proto-Siva," rejecting thereby Marshall's package of proto-Shiva features, including that of three heads. She interprets what John Marshall interpreted as facial as not human but more bovine, possibly a divine buffalo-man.[68] According to Iravatham Mahadevan, symbols 47 and 48 of his Indus script glossary The Indus Script: Texts, Concordance and Tables (1977), representing seated human-like figures, could describe the South Indian deity Murugan.[69]

In view of the large number of figurines found in the Indus valley, some scholars believe that the Harappan people worshipped a mother goddess symbolizing fertility, a common practice among rural Hindus even today.[70] However, this view has been disputed by S. Clark who sees it as an inadequate explanation of the function and construction of many of the figurines.[71]

There are no religious buildings or evidence of elaborate burials... If there were temples, they have not been identified.[72] However, House – 1 in HR-A area in Mohenjadaro's Lower Town has been identified as a possible temple.[73]

Vedic period (c. 1750–500 BCE)

The commonly proposed period of earlier Vedic age is dated back to 2nd millennium BCE.[80] Vedism was the sacrificial religion of the early Indo-Aryans, speakers of early Old Indic dialects, ultimately deriving from the Proto-Indo-Iranian peoples of the Bronze Age who lived on the Central Asian steppes.[note 20]

Origins

 
A map of tribes and rivers mentioned in the Rigveda.

The Vedic period, named after the Vedic religion of the Indo-Aryans of the Kuru Kingdom 1200 BCE–525 BCE,[81][note 21] lasted from c. 1750 to 500 BCE.[82][note 22] The Indo-Aryans were a branch of the Indo-European language family, which many scholars believe originated in Kurgan culture of the Central Asian steppes.[83][84][note 23][note 24] Indeed, the Vedic religion, including the names of certain deities, was in essence a branch of the same religious tradition as the ancient Greeks, Romans, Persians, and Germanic peoples. For example, the Vedic god Dyaus is a variant of the Proto-Indo-European god *Dyēus ph2ter (or simply *Dyēus), from which also derive the Greek Zeus and the Roman Jupiter. Similarly the Vedic Manu and Yama derive from the Proto-Indo-European *Manu and *Yemo, from which also derive the Germanic Mannus and Ymir.

According to the Indo-European migration theory, the Indo-Iranians were the common ancestor of the Indo-Aryans and the Proto-Iranians. The Indo-Iranians split into the Indo-Aryans and Iranians around 1800-1600 BC.[85]

The Indo-Aryans were pastoralists[86] who migrated into north-western India after the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization,[87][88][89][note 25] The Indo-Aryans were a branch of the Indo-Iranians, which originated in the Andronovo culture[90] in the Bactria-Margiana era, in present northern Afghanistan.[91] The roots of this culture go back further to the Sintashta culture, with funeral sacrifices which show close parallels to the sacrificial funeral rites of the Rigveda.[92]

Although some early depictions of deities seem to appear in the art of the Indus Valley Civilisation, very few religious artifacts from the period corresponding to the Indo-Aryan migration during the Vedic period remains.[93] It has been suggested that the early Vedic religion focused exclusively on the worship of purely "elementary forces of nature by means of elaborate sacrifices", which did not lend themselves easily to anthropomorphological representations.[93][94] Various artefacts may belong to the Copper Hoard culture (2nd millennium CE), some of them suggesting anthropomorphological characteristics.[95] Interpretations vary as to the exact signification of these artifacts, or even the culture and the periodization to which they belonged.[95]

During the Early Vedic period (c. 1500 – 1100 BCE[86]) Indo-Aryan tribes were pastoralists in north-west India.[96] After 1100 BCE, with the introduction of iron, the Indo-Aryan tribes moved into the western Ganges Plain, adapting an agrarian lifestyle.[86][97][98] Rudimentary state-forms appeared, of which the Kuru-tribe and realm was the most influential.[86][99] It was a tribal union, which developed into the first recorded state-level society in South Asia around 1000 BCE.[86] It decisively changed their religious heritage of the early Vedic period, collecting their ritual hymns into the Veda-collections, and developing new rituals which gained their position in Indian civilization as the orthodox Śrauta rituals,[86] which contributed to the so-called "classical synthesis"[100] or "Hindu synthesis".[12]

Rigvedic religion

Who really knows?
Who will here proclaim it?
Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation?
The gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe.
Who then knows whence it has arisen?

 
Rigveda manuscript page, Mandala 1, Hymn 1 (Sukta 1), lines 1.1.1 to 1.1.9 (Sanskrit, Devanagari script)

The Indo-Aryans brought with them their language[104] and religion.[105][106] The Indo-Aryan and Vedic beliefs and practices of the pre-classical era were closely related to the hypothesised Proto-Indo-European religion,[107] and the Indo-Iranian religion.[108] According to Anthony, the Old Indic religion probably emerged among Indo-European immigrants in the contact zone between the Zeravshan River (present-day Uzbekistan) and (present-day) Iran.[109] It was "a syncretic mixture of old Central Asian and new Indo-European elements",[109] which borrowed "distinctive religious beliefs and practices"[108] from the Bactria–Margiana culture.[108] At least 383 non-Indo-European words were borrowed from this culture, including the god Indra and the ritual drink Soma.[110] According to Anthony,

Many of the qualities of Indo-Iranian god of might/victory, Verethragna, were transferred to the adopted god Indra, who became the central deity of the developing Old Indic culture. Indra was the subject of 250 hymns, a quarter of the Rig Veda. He was associated more than any other deity with Soma, a stimulant drug (perhaps derived from Ephedra) probably borrowed from the BMAC religion. His rise to prominence was a peculiar trait of the Old Indic speakers.[91]

The oldest inscriptions in Old Indic, the language of the Rig Veda, are found not in northwestern India and Pakistan, but in northern Syria, the location of the Mitanni kingdom.[111] The Mitanni kings took Old Indic throne names, and Old Indic technical terms were used for horse-riding and chariot-driving.[111] The Old Indic term r'ta, meaning "cosmic order and truth", the central concept of the Rig Veda, was also employed in the Mitanni kingdom.[111] And Old Indic gods, including Indra, were also known in the Mitanni kingdom.[112][113][114]

Their religion was further developed when they migrated into the Ganges Plain after c. 1100 BCE and became settled farmers,[86][115][116] further syncretising with the native cultures of northern India.[100] The Vedic religion of the later Vedic period co-existed with local religions, such as the Yaksha cults,[100][117][web 5] and was itself the product of "a composite of the Indo-Aryan and Harappan cultures and civilizations".[34][note 7] David Gordon White cites three other mainstream scholars who "have emphatically demonstrated" that Vedic religion is partially derived from the Indus Valley Civilisation.[118][note 7]

Vedas

 
A Yūpa (यूप) sacrificial pillar, one of the most important elements of the Vedic ritual. Mathura Museum.[119][120]

Its liturgy is preserved in the three Vedic Samhitas: the Rigveda, Samaveda and the Yajurveda. The Vedic texts were the texts of the elite, and do not necessarily represent popular ideas or practices.[121] Of these, the Rig-Veda is the oldest, a collection of hymns composed between ca. 1500-1200 BCE.[122][123][91] The other two add ceremonial detail for the performance of the actual sacrifice. The Atharvaveda may also contain compositions dating to before 1000 BCE. It contains material pertinent to domestic ritual and folk magic of the period.

These texts, as well as the voluminous commentary on orthopraxy collected in the Brahmanas compiled during the early 1st millennium BCE, were transmitted by oral tradition alone until the advent, in the 4th century AD, of the Pallava and Gupta period and by a combination of written and oral tradition since then.

The Hindu samskaras

...go back to a hoary antiquity. The Vedas, the Brahmanas, the Grhyasutras, the Dharmasutras, the Smritis and other treatises describe the rites, ceremonies and customs.[124]

The earliest text of the Vedas is the Rigveda,[125] a collection of poetic hymns used in the sacrificial rites of Vedic priesthood. Many Rigvedic hymns concern the fire ritual (Agnihotra) and especially the offering of Soma to the gods (Somayajna). Soma is both an intoxicant and a god itself, as is the sacrificial fire, Agni. The royal horse sacrifice (Ashvamedha) is a central rite in the Yajurveda.

The gods in the Rig-Veda are mostly personified concepts, who fall into two categories: the devas – who were gods of nature – such as the weather deity Indra (who is also the King of the gods), Agni ("fire"), Usha ("dawn"), Surya ("sun") and Apas ("waters") on the one hand, and on the other hand the asuras – gods of moral concepts – such as Mitra ("contract"), Aryaman (guardian of guest, friendship and marriage), Bhaga ("share") or Varuna, the supreme Asura (or Aditya). While Rigvedic deva is variously applied to most gods, including many of the Asuras, the Devas are characterised as Younger Gods while Asuras are the Older Gods (pūrve devāḥ). In later Vedic texts, "Asura" comes to mean demon.

The Rigveda has 10 Mandalas ('books'). There is significant variation in the language and style between the family books (RV books 2–7), book 8, the "Soma Mandala" (RV 9), and the more recent books 1 and 10. The older books share many aspects of common Indo-Iranian religion, and is an important source for the reconstruction of earlier common Indo-European traditions. Especially RV 8 has striking similarity to the Avesta,[126] containing allusions to Afghan Flora and Fauna,[127] e.g. to camels (úṣṭra- = Avestan uštra). Many of the central religious terms in Vedic Sanskrit have cognates in the religious vocabulary of other Indo-European languages (deva: Latin deus; hotar: Germanic god; asura: Germanic ansuz; yajna: Greek hagios; brahman: Norse Bragi or perhaps Latin flamen etc.). In the Avesta, Asura (Ahura) is considered good and Devas (Daevas) are considered evil entities, quite the opposite of the Rig Veda.

Cosmic order

Ethics in the Vedas are based on the concepts of Satya and Ṛta. Satya is the principle of integration rooted in the Absolute.[128] Ṛta is the expression of Satya, which regulates and coordinates the operation of the universe and everything within it.[129] Conformity with Ṛta would enable progress whereas its violation would lead to punishment. Panikkar remarks:

Ṛta is the ultimate foundation of everything; it is "the supreme", although this is not to be understood in a static sense. [...] It is the expression of the primordial dynamism that is inherent in everything...."[130]

The term "dharma" was already used in Brahmanical thought, where it was conceived as an aspect of Rta.[131] The term rta is also known from the Proto-Indo-Iranian religion, the religion of the Indo-Iranian peoples prior to the earliest Vedic (Indo-Aryan) and Zoroastrian (Iranian) scriptures. Asha[pronunciation?] (aša) is the Avestan language term corresponding to Vedic language ṛta.[132]

Upanishads

 
A page of Isha Upanishad manuscript

The 9th and 8th centuries BCE witnessed the composition of the earliest Upanishads.[133] Upanishads form the theoretical basis of classical Hinduism and are known as Vedanta (conclusion of the Veda).[134] The older Upanishads launched attacks of increasing intensity on the rituals, however, a philosophical and allegorical meaning is also given to these rituals. In some later Upanishads there is a spirit of accommodation towards rituals. The tendency which appears in the philosophical hymns of the Vedas to reduce the number of gods to one principle becomes prominent in the Upanishads.[135] The diverse monistic speculations of the Upanishads were synthesised into a theistic framework by the sacred Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita.[136]

Brahmanism

Brahmanism, also called Brahminism, developed out of the Vedic religion, incorporating non-Vedic religious ideas, and expanding to a region stretching from the northwest Indian subcontinent to the Ganges valley.[137] Brahmanism included the Vedic corpus, but also post-Vedic texts such as the Dharmasutras and Dharmasastras, which gave prominence to the priestly (Brahmin) class of the society.[137] The emphasis on ritual and the dominant position of Brahmans developed as an ideology developed in the Kuru-Pancala realm, and expanded into a wider realm after the demise of the Kuru-Pancala realm.[86] It co-existed with local religions, such as the Yaksha cults.[100][117][web 5]

In Iron Age India, during a period roughly spanning the 10th to 6th centuries BCE, the Mahajanapadas arise from the earlier kingdoms of the various Indo-Aryan tribes, and the remnants of the Late Harappan culture. In this period the mantra portions of the Vedas are largely completed, and a flowering industry of Vedic priesthood organised in numerous schools (shakha) develops exegetical literature, viz. the Brahmanas. These schools also edited the Vedic mantra portions into fixed recensions, that were to be preserved purely by oral tradition over the following two millennia.

 
A page of the Jaiminiya Aranyaka Gana found embedded in the Samaveda palm leaf manuscript (Sanskrit, Grantha script).

Second Urbanisation and decline of Brahmanism (c. 600–200 BCE)

Upanishads and Śramaṇa movements

 
City of Kushinagar in the 5th century BCE, according to a 1st-century BCE relief in Sanchi.
 
 
Buddhism and Jainism are two of many Indian philosophies considered as Śramaṇic traditions.

Vedism, with its orthodox rituals, may have been challenged as a consequence of the increasing urbanisation of India in the 7th and 6th centuries BCE, and the influx of foreign stimuli initiated with the Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley (circa 535 BCE).[93][138] New ascetic or sramana movements arose, which challenged established religious orthodoxy, such as Buddhism, Jainism and local popular cults.[93][138] The anthropomorphic depiction of various deities apparently resumed in the middle of the 1st millennium BCE, also as the consequence of the reduced authority of Vedism.[93]

Mahavira (c. 549–477 BCE), proponent of Jainism, and Buddha (c. 563-483 BCE), founder of Buddhism, were the most prominent icons of this movement.[139] According to Heinrich Zimmer, Jainism and Buddhism are part of the pre-Vedic heritage, which also includes Samkhya and Yoga:

[Jainism] does not derive from Brahman-Aryan sources, but reflects the cosmology and anthropology of a much older pre-Aryan upper class of northeastern India – being rooted in the same subsoil of archaic metaphysical speculation as Yoga, Sankhya, and Buddhism, the other non-Vedic Indian systems.[140][note 26]

The Sramana tradition in part created the concept of the cycle of birth and death, the concept of Saṃsāra, and the concept of liberation, which became characteristic for Hinduism.[note 27]

Pratt notes that Oldenberg (1854–1920), Neumann (1865–1915) and Radhakrishnan (1888–1975) believed that the Buddhist canon had been influenced by Upanishads, while la Vallee Poussin thinks the influence was nihil, and "Eliot and several others insist that on some points the Buddha was directly antithetical to the Upanishads".[142][note 28]

Mauryan Empire

The Mauryan period saw an early flowering of classical Sanskrit Sutra and Shastra literature and the scholarly exposition of the "circum-Vedic" fields of the Vedanga. However, during this time Buddhism was patronised by Ashoka, who ruled large parts of India, and Buddhism was also the mainstream religion until the Gupta period.

Decline of Brahmanism

Decline

 
Nambūdiri Brahmin performing śrauta rites

The post-Vedic period of the Second Urbanisation saw a decline of Brahmanism.[144][145][note 29] At the end of the Vedic period, the meaning of the words of the Vedas had become obscure, and was perceived as "a fixed sequence of sounds"[146][note 30] with a magical power, "means to an end."[note 31] With the growth of cities, which threatened the income and patronage of the rural Brahmins; the rise of Buddhism; and the Indian campaign of Alexander the Great (327-325 BCE), the expansion of the Maurya Empire (322-185 BCE) with its embrace of Buddhism, and the Saka invasions and rule of northwestern India (2nd c. BC – 4th c. CE), Brahmanism faced a grave threat to its existence.[147][148] In some later texts, Northwest-India (which earlier texts consider as part of "Aryavarta") is even seen as "impure", probably due to invasions.

Survival of Vedic ritual

Vedism as the religious tradition of a priestly elite was marginalised by other traditions such as Jainism and Buddhism in the later Iron Age, but in the Middle Ages would rise to renewed prestige with the Mimamsa school, which as well as all other astika traditions of Hinduism, considered them authorless (apaurusheyatva) and eternal. A last surviving elements of the Historical Vedic religion or Vedism is Śrauta tradition, following many major elements of Vedic religion and is prominent in South India, with communities in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, but also in some pockets of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and other states; the best known of these groups are the Nambudiri of Kerala, whose traditions were notably documented by Frits Staal.[149][150][151]

Hindu synthesis and Classical Hinduism (c. 200 BCE – 1200 CE)

Early Hinduism (c. 200 BCE – 320 CE)

Hindu synthesis

 
Vāsudeva-Krishna on a coin of Agathocles of Bactria, circa 190-180 BCE.[152][153] This is "the earliest unambiguous image" of the deity.[154]
 
The Heliodorus pillar, commissioned by Indo-Greek ambassador Heliodorus around 113 BCE, is the first known inscription related to Vaishnavism in the Indian subcontinent.[155] Heliodurus was one of the earliest recorded foreign converts to Hinduism.[156]

The decline of Brahmanism was overcome by providing new services[157] and incorporating the non-Vedic Indo-Aryan religious heritage of the eastern Ganges plain and local religious traditions, giving rise to contemporary Hinduism.[147][web 6][100][158][86][137] Between 500[12]–200[22] BCE and c. 300 CE the "Hindu synthesis" developed,[12][22] which incorporated Sramanic and Buddhist influences[22][41] and the emerging Bhakti tradition into the Brahmanical fold via the smriti literature.[42][22] This synthesis emerged under the pressure of the success of Buddhism and Jainism.[43]

According to Embree, several other religious traditions had existed side by side with the Vedic religion. These indigenous religions "eventually found a place under the broad mantle of the Vedic religion".[159] When Brahmanism was declining[note 29] and had to compete with Buddhism and Jainism,[note 32] the popular religions had the opportunity to assert themselves.[159] According to Embree,

[T]he Brahmanists themselves seem to have encouraged this development to some extent as a means of meeting the challenge of the heterodox movements. At the same time, among the indigenous religions, a common allegiance to the authority of the Vedas provided a thin, but nonetheless significant, thread of unity amid their variety of gods and religious practices.[159]

This "new Brahmanism" appealed to rulers, who were attracted to the supernatural powers and the practical advice Brahmins could provide,[157] and resulted in a resurgence of Brahmanical influence, dominating Indian society since the classical Age of Hinduism in the early centuries CE.[147][148] It is reflected in the process of Sanskritization, a process in which "people from many strata of society throughout the subcontinent tended to adapt their religious and social life to Brahmanic norms".[web 2] It is reflected in the tendency to identify local deities with the gods of the Sanskrit texts.[web 2]

Smriti

The Brahmins response of assimilation and consolidation is reflected in the smriti literature which took shape in this period.[160] The smriti texts of the period between 200 BCE and 100 CE proclaim the authority of the Vedas, and acceptance of the Vedas became a central criterium for defining Hinduism over and against the heterodoxies, which rejected the Vedas.[161] Most of the basic ideas and practices of classical Hinduism derive from the new smriti literature.[note 33]

Of the six Hindu darsanas, the Mimamsa and the Vedanta "are rooted primarily in the Vedic sruti tradition and are sometimes called smarta schools in the sense that they develop smarta orthodox current of thoughts that are based, like smriti, directly on sruti".[162][verify] According to Hiltebeitel, "the consolidation of Hinduism takes place under the sign of bhakti".[162] It is the Bhagavadgita that seals this achievement.[162] The result is a "universal achievement" that may be called smarta.[162] It views Shiva and Vishnu as "complementary in their functions but ontologically identical".[162]

The major Sanskrit epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata, which belong to the smriti, were compiled over a protracted period during the late centuries BCE and the early centuries CE.[web 7] They contain mythological stories about the rulers and wars of ancient India, and are interspersed with religious and philosophical treatises. The later Puranas recount tales about devas and devis, their interactions with humans and their battles against rakshasa. The Bhagavad Gita "seals the achievement"[163] of the "consolidation of Hinduism",[163] integrating Brahmanic and sramanic ideas with theistic devotion.[163][164][165][web 8]

Schools of Hindu philosophy

In early centuries CE several schools of Hindu philosophy were formally codified, including Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Purva-Mimamsa and Vedanta.[166]

Sangam literature

The Sangam literature (300 BCE – 400 CE), written in the Sangam period, is a mostly secular body of classical literature in the Tamil language. Nonetheless, there are some works, significantly Pattupathu and Paripaatal, wherein the personal devotion to God was written in the form of devotional poems. Vishnu, Shiva and Murugan were mentioned gods. These works are therefore the earliest evidence of monotheistic Bhakti traditions, preceding the large bhakti movement, which was given great attention in later times.

Indian trade with Africa

During the time of the Roman Empire, trade took place between India and east Africa, and there is archaeological evidence of small Indian presence in Zanzibar, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, and the coastal parts of Kenya along with the Swahili coast,[167][168] but no conversion to Hinduism took place.[168][169]

Hindu Colony in the Middle East (The Levant)

Armenian historian Zenob Glak (300-350 CE) said "there was an Indian colony in the canton of Taron on the upper Euphrates, to the west of Lake Van, as early as the second century B.C.[170] The Indians had built there two temples containing images of gods about 18 and 22 feet high."[170]

"Golden Age" of India (Gupta and Pallava period) (c. 320–650 CE)

 
Dashavatara Temple is a Vishnu Hindu temple build during the Gupta period.

During this period, power was centralised, along with a growth of near distance trade, standardization of legal procedures, and general spread of literacy.[171] Mahayana Buddhism flourished, but orthodox Brahmana culture began to be rejuvenated by the patronage of the Gupta Dynasty,[172] who were Vaishnavas.[173] The position of the Brahmans was reinforced,[171] the first Hindu temples dedicated to the gods of the Hindu deities, emerged during the late Gupta age.[171][note 34] During the Gupta reign the first Puranas were written,[44][note 8] which were used to disseminate "mainstream religious ideology amongst pre-literate and tribal groups undergoing acculturation".[44] The Guptas patronised the newly emerging Puranic religion, seeking legitimacy for their dynasty.[173] The resulting Puranic Hinduism, differed markedly from the earlier Brahmanism of the Dharmasastras and the smritis.[44]

According to P. S. Sharma, "the Gupta and Harsha periods form really, from the strictly intellectual standpoint, the most brilliant epocha in the development of Indian philosophy", as Hindu and Buddhist philosophies flourished side by side.[174] Charvaka, the atheistic materialist school, came to the fore in North India before the 8th century CE.[175]

Gupta and Pallava Empires

The Gupta period (4th to 6th centuries) saw a flowering of scholarship, the emergence of the classical schools of Hindu philosophy, and of classical Sanskrit literature in general on topics ranging from medicine, veterinary science, mathematics, to astrology and astronomy and astrophysics. The famous Aryabhata and Varāhamihira belong to this age. The Gupta established a strong central government which also allowed a degree of local control. Gupta society was ordered in accordance with Hindu beliefs. This included a strict caste system, or class system. The peace and prosperity created under Gupta leadership enabled the pursuit of scientific and artistic endeavors.

The Pallavas (4th to 9th centuries) were, alongside the Guptas of the North, patronisers of Sanskrit in the South of the Indian subcontinent. The Pallava reign saw the first Sanskrit inscriptions in a script called Grantha. The Pallavas used Dravidian architecture to build some very important Hindu temples and academies in Mahabalipuram, Kanchipuram and other places; their rule saw the rise of great poets, who are as famous as Kalidasa.

During early Pallavas period, there are different connexions to Southeast Asian and other countries. Due to it, in the Middle Ages, Hinduism became the state religion in many kingdoms of Asia, the so-called Greater India—from Afghanistan (Kabul) in the West and including almost all of Southeast Asia in the East (Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines)—and only by the 15th century was near everywhere supplanted by Buddhism and Islam.[176][177][178]

The practice of dedicating temples to different deities came into vogue followed by fine artistic temple architecture and sculpture (see Vastu shastra).

Bhakti

This period saw the emergence of the Bhakti movement. The Bhakti movement was a rapid growth of bhakti beginning in Tamil Nadu in Southern India with the Saiva Nayanars (4th to 10th centuries CE)[179] and the Vaisnava Alvars (3rd to 9th centuries CE) who spread bhakti poetry and devotion throughout India by the 12th to 18th centuries CE.[180][179]

Expansion in South-East Asia

Hindu influences reached the Indonesian Archipelago as early as the first century.[181] At this time, India started to strongly influence Southeast Asian countries. Trade routes linked India with southern Burma, central and southern Siam, lower Cambodia and southern Vietnam and numerous urbanised coastal settlements were established there.

For more than a thousand years, Indian Hindu/Buddhist influence was, therefore, the major factor that brought a certain level of cultural unity to the various countries of the region. The Pali and Sanskrit languages and the Indian script, together with Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, Brahmanism and Hinduism, were transmitted from direct contact as well as through sacred texts and Indian literature, such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata epics.

From the 5th to the 13th century, South-East Asia had very powerful Indian colonial empires and became extremely active in Hindu and Buddhist architectural and artistic creation. The Sri Vijaya Empire to the south and the Khmer Empire to the north competed for influence.

Langkasuka (-langkha Sanskrit for "resplendent land" -sukkha of "bliss") was an ancient Hindu kingdom located in the Malay Peninsula. The kingdom, along with Old Kedah settlement, are probably the earliest territorial footholds founded on the Malay Peninsula. According to tradition, the founding of the kingdom happened in the 2nd century; Malay legends claim that Langkasuka was founded at Kedah, and later moved to Pattani.

From the 5th to 15th centuries Sri Vijayan empire, a maritime empire centred on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, had adopted Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism under a line of rulers named the Sailendras. The Empire of Sri Vijaya declined due to conflicts with the Chola rulers of India. The Majapahit Empire succeeded the Singhasari empire. It was one of the last and greatest Hindu empires in maritime Southeast Asia.

Funan was a pre-Angkor Cambodian kingdom, located around the Mekong delta, probably established by Mon-Khmer settlers speaking an Austroasiatic language. According to reports by two Chinese envoys, K'ang T'ai and Chu Ying, the state was established by an Indian Brahmin named Kaundinya, who in the 1st century CE was given instruction in a dream to take a magic bow from a temple and defeat a Khmer queen, Soma. Soma, the daughter of the king of the Nagas, married Kaundinya and their lineage became the royal dynasty of Funan. The myth had the advantage of providing the legitimacy of both an Indian Brahmin and the divinity of the cobras, who at that time were held in religious regard by the inhabitants of the region.

The kingdom of Champa (or Lin-yi in Chinese records) controlled what is now south and central Vietnam from approximately 192 through 1697. The dominant religion of the Cham people was Hinduism and the culture was heavily influenced by India.

Later, from the 9th to the 13th century, the Mahayana Buddhist and Hindu Khmer Empire dominated much of the South-East Asian peninsula. Under the Khmer, more than 900 temples were built in Cambodia and in neighboring Thailand. Angkor was at the centre of this development, with a temple complex and urban organisation able to support around one million urban dwellers. The largest temple complex of the world, Angkor Wat, stands here; built by the king Vishnuvardhan.

Late-Classical Hinduism – Puranic Hinduism (c. 650–1200 CE)

 
One of the four entrances of the Teli ka Mandir. This Hindu temple was built by the Gurjara-Pratihara emperor Mihira Bhoja.[182]

After the end of the Gupta Empire and the collapse of the Harsha Empire, power became decentralised in India. Several larger kingdoms emerged, with "countless vasal states".[183][note 35] The kingdoms were ruled via a feudal system. Smaller kingdoms were dependent on the protection of the larger kingdoms. "The great king was remote, was exalted and deified",[183] as reflected in the Tantric Mandala, which could also depict the king as the centre of the mandala.[184]

The disintegration of central power also lead to regionalisation of religiosity, and religious rivalry.[185][note 36] Local cults and languages were enhanced, and the influence of "Brahmanic ritualistic Hinduism"[185] was diminished.[185] Rural and devotional movements arose, along with Shaivism, Vaisnavism, Bhakti and Tantra,[185] though "sectarian groupings were only at the beginning of their development".[185] Religious movements had to compete for recognition by the local lords.[185] Buddhism lost its position after the 8th century, and began to disappear in India.[185] This was reflected in the change of puja-ceremonies at the courts in the 8th century, where Hindu gods replaced the Buddha as the "supreme, imperial deity".[note 37]

Puranic Hinduism

 
The mythology in the Puranas has inspired many reliefs and sculptures found in Hindu temples.[186] The legend behind the Krishna and Gopis relief above is described in the Bhagavata Purana.[187]

The Brahmanism of the Dharmaśāstra and the smritis underwent a radical transformation at the hands of the Purana composers, resulting in the rise of Puranic Hinduism,[44] "which like a colossus striding across the religious firmanent soon came to overshadow all existing religions".[188] Puranic Hinduism was a "multiplex belief-system which grew and expanded as it absorbed and synthesised polaristic ideas and cultic traditions".[188] It was distinguished from its Vedic Smarta roots by its popular base, its theological and sectarian pluralism, its Tantric veneer, and the central place of bhakti.[188][note 9]

The early mediaeval Puranas were composed to disseminate religious mainstream ideology among the pre-literate tribal societies undergoing acculturation.[44] With the breakdown of the Gupta empire, gifts of virgin waste-land were heaped on brahmanas,[49][189] to ensure profitable agrarian exploitation of land owned by the kings,[49] but also to provide status to the new ruling classes.[49] Brahmanas spread further over India, interacting with local clans with different religions and ideologies.[49] The Brahmanas used the Puranas to incorporate those clans into the agrarian society and its accompanying religion and ideology.[49] According to Flood, "[t]he Brahmans who followed the puranic religion became known as smarta, those whose worship was based on the smriti, or pauranika, those based on the Puranas."[190] Local chiefs and peasants were absorbed into the varna, which was used to keep "control over the new kshatriyas and shudras."[191]

 
The Gardez Ganesha, a statue of the Hindu deity Ganesha, consecrated in the mid-8th century CE, during the Turk Shahi era, in Gardez, Afghanistan.[192]

The Brahmanic group was enlarged by incorporating local subgroups, such as local priests.[49] This also lead to stratification within the Brahmins, with some Brahmins having a lower status than other Brahmins.[49] The use of caste worked better with the new Puranic Hinduism than with the Sramanic sects.[191] The Puranic texts provided extensive genealogies which gave status to the new kshatriyas.[191] Buddhist myths pictured government as a contract between an elected ruler and the people.[191] And the Buddhist chakkavatti[note 38] "was a distinct concept from the models of conquest held up to the kshatriyas and the Rajputs".[191]

Many local religions and traditions were assimilated into puranic Hinduism. Vishnu and Shiva emerged as the main deities, together with Sakti/Deva.[193] Vishnu subsumed the cults of Narayana, Jagannaths, Venkateswara "and many others".[193] Nath:

[S]ome incarnations of Vishnu such as Matsya, Kurma, Varaha and perhaps even Nrsimha helped to incorporate certain popular totem symbols and creation myths, especially those related to wild boar, which commonly permeate preliterate mythology, others such as Krsna and Balarama became instrumental in assimilating local cults and myths centering around two popular pastoral and agricultural gods.[194]

The transformation of Brahmanism into Pauranic Hinduism in post-Gupta India was due to a process of acculturation. The Puranas helped establish a religious mainstream among the pre-literate tribal societies undergoing acculturation. The tenets of Brahmanism and of the Dharmashastras underwent a radical transformation at the hands of the Purana composers, resulting in the rise of a mainstream "Hinduism" that overshadowed all earlier traditions.[49]

Bhakti movement

 
The Child Saint Sambandar, Chola dynasty, Tamil Nadu. He is one of the most prominent of the 63 Nayanars of the Saiva Bhakti movement.

Rama and Krishna became the focus of a strong bhakti tradition, which found expression particularly in the Bhagavata Purana. The Krishna tradition subsumed numerous Naga, yaksa and hill and tree-based cults.[195] Siva absorbed local cults by the suffixing of Isa or Isvara to the name of the local deity, for example, Bhutesvara, Hatakesvara, Chandesvara.[193] In 8th-century royal circles, the Buddha started to be replaced by Hindu gods in pujas.[note 39] This also was the same period of time the Buddha was made into an avatar of Vishnu.[197]

The first documented bhakti movement was founded by Karaikkal Ammaiyar. She wrote poems in Tamil about her love for Shiva and probably lived around the 6th century CE. The twelve Alvars who were Vaishnavite devotees and the sixty-three Nayanars who were Shaivite devotees nurtured the incipient bhakti movement in Tamil Nadu.

During the 12th century CE in Karnataka, the Bhakti movement took the form of the Virashaiva movement. It was inspired by Basavanna, a Hindu reformer who created the sect of Lingayats or Shiva bhaktas. During this time, a unique and native form of Kannada literature-poetry called Vachanas was born.

Advaita Vedanta

 
Adi Shankara is credited with unifying and establishing the main currents of thought in Hinduism.[198]

The early Advaitin Gaudapada (6th-7th c. CE) was influenced by Buddhism.[199][200][201][202] Gaudapda took over the Buddhist doctrines that ultimate reality is pure consciousness (vijñapti-mātra)[203] and "that the nature of the world is the four-cornered negation".[203] Gaudapada "wove [both doctrines] into a philosophy of the Mandukya Upanishad, which was further developed by Shankara".[200] Gaudapada also took over the Buddhist concept of "ajāta" from Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka philosophy.[201][202] Shankara succeeded in reading Gaudapada's mayavada[204][note 40] into Badarayana's Brahma Sutras, "and give it a locus classicus",[204] against the realistic strain of the Brahma Sutras.[204]

Shankara (8th century CE) was a scholar who synthesized and systematized Advaita Vedanta views which already existed at his lifetime.[205][206][207][web 13] Shankara propounded a unified reality, in which the innermost self of a person (atman) and the supernatural power of the entire world (brahman) are one and the same. Perceiving the changing multiplicity of forms and objects as the final reality is regarded as maya, "illusion," obscuring the unchanging ultimate reality of brahman.[208][209][210][211]

While Shankara has an unparalleled status in the history of Advaita Vedanta, Shankara's early influence in India is doubtful.[212] Until the 11th century, Vedanta itself was a peripheral school of thought,[213] and until the 10th century Shankara himself was overshadowed by his older contemporary Maṇḍana Miśra, who was considered to be the major representative of Advaita.[214][215]

Several scholars suggest that the historical fame and cultural influence of Shankara and Advaita Vedanta grew only centuries later, during the era of the Muslim invasions and consequent devastation of India,[212][216][217] due to the efforts of Vidyaranya (14th c.), who created legends to turn Shankara into a "divine folk-hero who spread his teaching through his digvijaya ("universal conquest") all over India like a victorious conqueror."[218][219]

Shankara's position was further established in the 19th an 20th-century, when neo-Vedantins and western Orientalists elevated Advaita Vedanta "as the connecting theological thread that united Hinduism into a single religious tradition."[220] Advaita Vedanta has acquired a broad acceptance in Indian culture and beyond as the paradigmatic example of Hindu spirituality,[143] Shankara became "an iconic representation of Hindu religion and culture," despite the fact that most Hindus do not adhere to Advaita Vedanta.[221]

Contact with Persia and Mesopotamia

 
An inscribed invocation to Lord Shiva in Sanskrit at the Ateshgah of Baku, west of the Caspian Sea

Hindu and also Buddhist religious and secular learning had first reached Persia in an organised manner in the 6th century, when the Sassanid Emperor Khosrow I (531–579) deputed Borzuya the physician as his envoy, to invite Indian and Chinese scholars to the Academy of Gondishapur. Burzoe had translated the Sanskrit Panchatantra. His Pahlavi version was translated into Arabic by Ibn al-Muqaffa' under the title of Kalila and Dimna or The Fables of Bidpai.[222]

Under the Abbasid caliphate, Baghdad had replaced Gundeshapur as the most important centre of learning in the then vast Islamic Empire, wherein the traditions, as well as scholars of the latter, flourished. Hindu scholars were invited to the conferences on sciences and mathematics held in Baghdad.[223]

Medieval and early modern periods (c. 1200–1850 CE)

Muslim rule

Though Islam came to the Indian subcontinent in the early 7th century with the advent of Arab traders, it started impacting Indian religions after the 10th century, and particularly after the 12th century with the establishment and then expansion of Islamic rule.[224][225] Will Durant calls the Muslim conquest of India "probably the bloodiest story in history".[226] During this period, Buddhism declined rapidly while Hinduism faced military-led and Sultanates-sponsored religious violence.[226][227] There was a widespread practice of raids, seizure and enslavement of families of Hindus, who were then sold in Sultanate cities or exported to Central Asia.[228][229] Some texts suggest a number of Hindus were forcibly converted to Islam.[230][231] Starting with the 13th century, for a period of some 500 years, very few texts, from the numerous written by Muslim court historians, mention any "voluntary conversions of Hindus to Islam", suggesting the insignificance and perhaps rarity of such conversions.[231] Typically enslaved Hindus converted to Islam to gain their freedom.[232] There were occasional exceptions to religious violence against Hinduism. Akbar, for example, recognized Hinduism, banned enslavement of the families of Hindu war captives, protected Hindu temples, and abolished discriminatory Jizya (head taxes) against Hindus.[228][233] However, many Muslim rulers of Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire, before and after Akbar, from the 12th to 18th centuries, destroyed Hindu temples[web 14][234][web 15][note 41] and persecuted non-Muslims. As noted by Alain Daniélou:

From the time Muslims started arriving, around 632 AD, the history of India becomes a long, monotonous series of murders, massacres, spoliations, and destructions. It is, as usual, in the name of 'a holy war' of their faith, of their sole God, that the barbarians have destroyed civilizations, wiped out entire races.[235]

Bhakti Vedanta

Teachers such as Ramanuja, Madhva, and Chaitanya aligned the Bhakti movement with the textual tradition of Vedanta, which until the 11th century was only a peripheral school of thought,[213] while rejecting and opposing the abstract notions of Advaita. Instead, they promoted emotional, passionate devotion towards the more accessible Avatars, especially Krishna and Rama.[224][238]

Unifying Hinduism

According to Nicholson, already between the 12th and the 16th century, "certain thinkers began to treat as a single whole the diverse philosophical teachings of the Upanishads, epics, Puranas, and the schools known retrospectively as the 'six systems' (saddarsana) of mainstream Hindu philosophy."[241][note 42] Michaels notes that a historicization emerged which preceded later nationalism, articulating ideas which glorified Hinduism and the past.[242]

Several scholars suggest that the historical fame and cultural influence of Shankara and Advaita Vedanta was inetentionally established during this period.[212][216][217] Vidyaranya (14th c.), also known as Madhava and a follower of Shankara, created legends to turn Shankara, whose elevated philosophy had no appeal to gain widespread popularity, into a "divine folk-hero who spread his teaching through his digvijaya ("universal conquest") all over India like a victorious conqueror."[218][219] In his Savadarsanasamgraha ("Summary of all views") Vidyaranya presented Shankara's teachings as the summit of all darsanas, presenting the other darsanas as partial truths which converged in Shankara's teachings.[218] Vidyaranya enjoyed royal support,[243] and his sponsorship and methodical efforts helped establish Shankara as a rallying symbol of values, spread historical and cultural influence of Shankara's Vedānta philosophies, and establish monasteries (mathas) to expand the cultural influence of Shankara and Advaita Vedānta.[212]

Eastern Ganga and Surya States

Eastern Ganga and Surya were Hindu polities, which ruled much of present-day Odisha (historically known as Kalinga) from the 11th century until the mid-16th century CE. During the 13th and 14th centuries, when large parts of India were under the rule of Muslim powers, an independent Kalinga became a stronghold of Hindu religion, philosophy, art, and architecture. The Eastern Ganga rulers were great patrons of religion and the arts, and the temples they built are considered among the masterpieces of Hindu architecture.[web 17][web 18]

Early Modern period (c. 1500–1850 CE)

The fall of Vijayanagara Empire to Muslim rulers had marked the end of Hindu imperial defences in the Deccan. But, taking advantage of an over-stretched Mughal Empire (1526–1857), Hinduism once again rose to political prestige, under the Maratha Empire, from 1674 to 1818.

Vijayanagara Empire

The Vijayanagara Empire was established in 1336 by Harihara I and his brother Bukka Raya I of Sangama dynasty,[244] which originated as a political heir of the Hoysala Empire, Kakatiya Empire,[245] and the Pandyan Empire.[246] The empire rose to prominence as a culmination of attempts by the south Indian powers to ward off Islamic invasions by the end of the 13th century. According to one narrative, the empire's founders Harihara I and Bukka Raya I were two brothers in the service of the Kampili chief. After Kampili fell to the Muslim invasion, they were taken to Delhi and converted to Islam. They were sent back to Kampili as the Delhi Sultan's vassals. After gaining power in the region, they approached Vidyaranya, who converted them back to the Hindu faith.[247]

The Vijayanagara Emperors were tolerant of all religions and sects, as writings by foreign visitors show.[248] The kings used titles such as Gobrahamana Pratipalanacharya (literally, "protector of cows and Brahmins") and Hindurayasuratrana (lit. "upholder of Hindu faith") that testified to their intention of protecting Hinduism and yet were at the same time staunchly Islamicate in their court ceremonials and dress.[249] The empire's founders, Harihara I and Bukka Raya I, were devout Shaivas (worshippers of Shiva), but made grants to the Vaishnava order of Sringeri with Vidyaranya as their patron saint, and designated Varaha (the boar, an avatar of Vishnu) as their emblem.[250] Over one-fourth of the archaeological dig found an "Islamic Quarter" not far from the "Royal Quarter". Nobles from Central Asia's Timurid kingdoms also came to Vijayanagara. The later Saluva and Tuluva kings were Vaishnava by faith, but worshipped at the feet of Lord Virupaksha (Shiva) at Hampi as well as Lord Venkateswara (Vishnu) at Tirupati. A Sanskrit work, Jambavati Kalyanam by King Krishnadevaraya, called Lord Virupaksha Karnata Rajya Raksha Mani ("protective jewel of Karnata Empire").[251] The kings patronised the saints of the dvaita order (philosophy of dualism) of Madhvacharya at Udupi.[252]

The Bhakti (devotional) movement was active during this time, and involved well known Haridasas (devotee saints) of that time. Like the Virashaiva movement of the 12th century, this movement presented another strong current of devotion, pervading the lives of millions. The haridasas represented two groups, the Vyasakuta and Dasakuta, the former being required to be proficient in the Vedas, Upanishads and other Darshanas, while the Dasakuta merely conveyed the message of Madhvacharya through the Kannada language to the people in the form of devotional songs (Devaranamas and Kirthanas). The philosophy of Madhvacharya was spread by eminent disciples such as Naraharitirtha, Jayatirtha, Sripadaraya, Vyasatirtha, Vadirajatirtha and others.[253] Vyasatirtha, the guru (teacher) of Vadirajatirtha, Purandaradasa (Father of Carnatic music[254][note 43]) and Kanakadasa[255] earned the devotion of King Krishnadevaraya.[256][257][258] The king considered the saint his Kuladevata (family deity) and honoured him in his writings.[web 19] During this time, another great composer of early carnatic music, Annamacharya composed hundreds of Kirthanas in Telugu at Tirumala – Tirupati, in present-day Andhra Pradesh.[259]

The Vijayanagara Empire created an epoch in South Indian history that transcended regionalism by promoting Hinduism as a unifying factor. The empire reached its peak during the rule of Sri Krishnadevaraya when Vijayanagara armies were consistently victorious. The empire annexed areas formerly under the Sultanates in the northern Deccan and the territories in the eastern Deccan, including Kalinga, while simultaneously maintaining control over all its subordinates in the south.[260] Many important monuments were either completed or commissioned during the time of Krishna Deva Raya.

Vijayanagara went into decline after the defeat in the Battle of Talikota (1565). After the death of Aliya Rama Raya in the Battle of Talikota, Tirumala Deva Raya started the Aravidu dynasty, moved and founded a new capital of Penukonda to replace the destroyed Hampi, and attempted to reconstitute the remains of Vijayanagara Empire.[261] Tirumala abdicated in 1572, dividing the remains of his kingdom to his three sons, and pursued a religious life until his death in 1578. The Aravidu dynasty successors ruled the region but the empire collapsed in 1614, and the final remains ended in 1646, from continued wars with the Bijapur Sultanate and others.[262][263][264] During this period, more kingdoms in South India became independent and separate from Vijayanagara. These include the Mysore Kingdom, Keladi Nayaka, Nayaks of Madurai, Nayaks of Tanjore, Nayakas of Chitradurga and Nayak Kingdom of Gingee – all of which declared independence and went on to have a significant impact on the history of South India in the coming centuries.[265]

 
An aerial view of the Meenakshi Temple from the top of the southern gopuram, looking north. The temple was rebuilt by the Vijayanagara Empire.

Mughal period

 
 
Lakshmi Temple, dedicated to Lakshmi
Chaturbhuj and Lakshmi temples, located in Orchha, were built by Hindu Rajput Orchha State, who were vassal of the Mughal Empire.

The official state religion of Mughal India was Islam, with the preference to the jurisprudence of the Hanafi Madhhab (Mazhab). Hinduism remained under strain during Babur and Humanyun's reigns. Sher Shah Suri, the Afghan ruler of North India was comparatively non-repressive. Hinduism came to fore during the three-year rule of Hindu ruler Hemu Vikramaditya during 1553–1556 when he had defeated Akbar at Agra and Delhi and had taken up the reign from Delhi as a Hindu 'Vikramaditya' after his 'Rajyabhishake' or coronation at Purana Quila in Delhi. However, during Mughal history, at times, subjects had the freedom to practise any religion of their choice, though kafir able-bodied adult males with income were obliged to pay the jizya, which signified their status as dhimmis.

 
Akbar the Great holds a religious assembly of different faiths, including Hindus, in the Ibadat Khana in Fatehpur Sikri.

Akbar, the Mughal emperor Humayun's son and heir from his Sindhi queen Hameeda Banu Begum, had a broad vision of Indian and Islamic traditions. One of Emperor Akbar's most unusual ideas regarding religion was Din-i-Ilahi (Faith of God), which was an eclectic mix of Islam, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Jainism and Christianity. It was proclaimed the state religion until his death. These actions, however, met with stiff opposition from the Muslim clergy, especially the Sufi Shaykh Alf Sani Ahmad Sirhindi. Akbar's abolition of poll-tax on non-Muslims, acceptance of ideas from other religious philosophies, toleration of public worship by all religions and his interest in other faiths showed an attitude of considerable religious tolerance, which, in the minds of his orthodox Muslim opponents, were tantamount to apostasy. Akbar's imperial expansion acquired many Hindu states, many of whom were Hindu Rajputs, through vassalage. The Rajput vassals maintained semi-autonomy in running religious affairs. Many Hindu Rajput vassals built monumental Hindu temples during the period, such as Chaturbhuj Temple and Lakshmi Temple at Orchha, by the Mughal vassal, the Hindu Rajput Orchha State.[266]

Akbar's son, Jahangir, half Rajput, was also a religious moderate, his mother being Hindu. The influence of his two Hindu queens (the Maharani Maanbai and Maharani Jagat) kept religious moderation as a centre-piece of state policy which was extended under his son, Emperor Shah Jahan, who was by blood 75% Rajput and less than 25% Moghul.

Somnath temple in ruins, 1869
Front view of the present Somnath Temple
The Somnath temple was first attacked by Muslim Turkic invader Mahmud of Ghazni and repeatedly rebuilt after being demolished by successive Muslim rulers, including the Mughals under Aurangzeb.

Religious orthodoxy would only play an important role during the reign of Shah Jahan's son and successor, Aurangzeb, a devout Sunni Muslim. Aurangzeb was comparatively less tolerant of other faiths than his predecessors had been; and has been subject to controversy and criticism for his policies that abandoned his predecessors' legacy of pluralism, citing his introduction of the jizya tax, doubling of custom duties on Hindus while abolishing it for Muslims, destruction of Hindu temples, forbidding construction and repairs of some non-Muslim temples, and the executions of Maratha ruler Sambhaji[267][268] and the ninth Sikh guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur,[269] and his reign saw an increase in the number and importance of Islamic institutions and scholars. He led many military campaigns against the remaining non-Muslim powers of the Indian subcontinent – the Sikh states of Punjab, the last independent Hindu Rajputs and the Maratha rebels – as also against the Shia Muslim kingdoms of the Deccan. He also virtually stamped out, from his empire, open proselytisation of Hindus and Muslims by foreign Christian missionaries, who remained successfully active, however, in the adjoining regions: the present day Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Goa. The Hindus in Konkan were helped by Marathas, Hindus in Punjab, Kashmir and North India were helped by Sikhs and Hindus in Rajasthan and Central India were helped by Rajputs.

Maratha Empire

The Hindu Marathas had resisted incursions into the region by the Muslim Mughal rulers of northern India. Under their ambitious leader Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the Maratha freed themselves from the Muslim sultans of Bijapur to the southeast and, becoming much more aggressive, began to frequently raid Mughal territory. The Marathas had spread and conquered much of central India by Shivaji's death in 1680. Subsequently, under the able leadership of Brahmin prime ministers (Peshwas), the Maratha Empire reached its zenith; Pune, the seat of Peshwas, flowered as a centre of Hindu learning and traditions. The empire at its peak stretched from Tamil Nadu[270] in the south, to Peshawar, present day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa[271] [note 44]) in the north, and Bengal in the east.[web 20]

Kingdom of Nepal

King Prithvi Narayan Shah, the last Gorkhali monarch, self-proclaimed the newly unified Kingdom of Nepal as Asal Hindustan ("Real Land of Hindus") due to North India being ruled by the Islamic Mughal rulers. The proclamation was done to enforce Hindu social code Dharmaśāstra over his reign and refer to his country as being inhabitable for Hindus. He also referred Northern India as Mughlan (Country of Mughals) and called the region infiltrated by Muslim foreigners.[274]

After the Gorkhali conquest of Kathmandu valley, King Prithvi Narayan Shah expelled the Christian Capuchin missionaries from Patan and revisioned Nepal as Asal Hindustan ("real land of Hindus").[275] The Hindu Tagadharis, a Nepalese Hindu socio-religious group, were given the privileged status in the Nepalese capital thereafter.[276][277] Since then Hinduisation became the significant policy of the Kingdom of Nepal.[275] Professor Harka Gurung speculates that the presence of Islamic Mughal rule and Christian British rule in India had compelled the foundation of Brahmin Orthodoxy in Nepal for the purpose building a haven for Hindus in the Kingdom of Nepal.[275]

Early colonialism

 
The Auto-da-fé procession of the Inquisition at Goa.[278] An annual event to publicly humiliate and punish the heretics, it shows the Chief Inquisitor, Dominican friars, Portuguese soldiers, as well as religious criminals condemned to be burnt in the procession.

Portuguese missionaries had reached the Malabar Coast in the late 15th century, made contact with the St Thomas Christians in Kerala and sought to introduce the Latin Rite among them. Since the priests for St Thomas Christians were served by the Eastern Christian Churches, they were following Eastern Christian practices at that time. Throughout this period, foreign missionaries also made many new converts to Christianity. This led to the formation of the Latin Catholics in Kerala.

The Goa Inquisition was the office of the Christian Inquisition acting in the Indian city of Goa and the rest of the Portuguese empire in Asia. Francis Xavier, in a 1545 letter to John III, requested for an Inquisition to be installed in Goa. It was installed eight years after the death of Francis Xavier in 1552. Established in 1560 and operating until 1774, this highly controversial institution was aimed primarily at Hindus and wayward new converts.

The Battle of Plassey would see the emergence of the British as a political power; their rule later expanded to cover much of India over the next hundred years, conquering all of the Hindu states on the Indian subcontinent,[279] with the exception of the Kingdom of Nepal. While the Maratha Empire remained the preeminent power in India, making it the last remaining Hindu empire,[280] until their defeat in the Third Anglo-Maratha War which left the East India Company in control of most of India; as noted by acting Governor-General Charles Metcalfe, after surveying and analyzing the conditions in India, in 1806 wrote: "India contains no more than two great powers, British and Mahratta."[281][282] During this period, Northeastern India was divided into many kingdoms, most notable being the Kingdom of Manipur, which ruled from their seat of power at Kangla Palace and developed a sophisticated Hindu Gaudiya Vaishnavism culture, later the kingdom became a princely state of the British.[283][284][285] The Kingdom of Mysore was defeated in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War by the British East India Company, leading to the reinstatement of the Hindu Wadiyar dynasty in Mysore as a princely states.[286] In 1817, the British went to war with the Pindaris, raiders who were based in Maratha territory, which quickly became the Third Anglo-Maratha War, and the British government offered its protection to the mainly Hindu Rajput rulers of Rajputana from the Pindaris and the Marathas.[287] The mainly Hindu Palaiyakkarar states emerged from the fall of the Vijayanagara Empire, and were a bastion of Hindu resistance; and managed to weather invasions and survive till the advent of the British.[web 21] From 1799 to 1849, the Sikh Empire, ruled by members of the Sikh religion, emerged as the last major indigenous power in the Northwest of the Indian subcontinent under the leadership of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.[288][289] After the death of Ranjit Singh, the empire weakened, alienating Hindu vassals and Wazirs, and leading to the conflict with the British East India Company, marked the downfall of the Sikh Empire, making it the last area of the Indian subcontinent to be conquered by the British. The entire subcontinent fell under British rule (partly indirectly, via princely states) following the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

Modern Hinduism (after c. 1850 CE)

 
Swami Vivekananda was a key figure in introducing Vedanta and Yoga in the Western world,[290] raising interfaith awareness and making Hinduism a world religion.[291]

With the onset of the British Raj, the colonization of India by the British, there also started a Hindu Renaissance in the 19th century, which profoundly changed the understanding of Hinduism in both India and the west.[292] Indology as an academic discipline of studying Indian culture from a European perspective was established in the 19th century, led by scholars such as Max Müller and John Woodroffe. They brought Vedic, Puranic and Tantric literature and philosophy to Europe and the United States. Western orientalist searched for the "essence" of the Indian religions, discerning this in the Vedas,[293] and meanwhile creating the notion of "Hinduism" as a unified body of religious praxis[143] and the popular picture of 'mystical India'.[143][292] This idea of a Vedic essence was taken over by Hindu reform movements as the Brahmo Samaj, which was supported for a while by the Unitarian Church,[294] together with the ideas of Universalism and Perennialism, the idea that all religions share a common mystic ground.[295] This "Hindu modernism", with proponents like Vivekananda, Aurobindo, Rabindranath and Radhakrishnan, became central in the popular understanding of Hinduism.[296][297][298][299][143]

Hindu revivalism

 
1909 Prevailing Religions, map of British Indian Empire, 1909, showing the prevailing majority religions of the population for different districts

During the 19th century, Hinduism developed a large number of new religious movements, partly inspired by the European Romanticism, nationalism, scientific racism and esotericism (Theosophy) popular at the time (while conversely and contemporaneously, India had a similar effect on European culture with Orientalism, "Hindoo style" architecture, reception of Buddhism in the West and similar). According to Paul Hacker, "the ethcial values of Neo-Hinduism stem from Western philosophy and Christianity, although they are expressed in Hindu terms."[300]

These reform movements are summarised under Hindu revivalism and continue into the present.

Reception in the West

An important development during the British colonial period was the influence Hindu traditions began to form on Western thought and new religious movements. An early champion of Indian-inspired thought in the West was Arthur Schopenhauer who in the 1850s advocated ethics based on an "Aryan-Vedic theme of spiritual self-conquest", as opposed to the ignorant drive toward earthly utopianism of the superficially this-worldly "Jewish" spirit.[307] Helena Blavatsky moved to India in 1879, and her Theosophical Society, founded in New York in 1875, evolved into a peculiar mixture of Western occultism and Hindu mysticism over the last years of her life.

The sojourn of Swami Vivekananda to the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 had a lasting effect. Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Mission, a Hindu missionary organisation still active today.

In the early 20th century, Western occultists influenced by Hinduism include Maximiani Portaz – an advocate of "Aryan Paganism" – who styled herself Savitri Devi and Jakob Wilhelm Hauer, founder of the German Faith Movement. It was in this period, and until the 1920s, that the swastika became a ubiquitous symbol of good luck in the West before its association with the Nazi Party became dominant in the 1930s.

Hinduism-inspired elements in Theosophy were also inherited by the spin-off movements of Ariosophy and Anthroposophy and ultimately contributed to the renewed New Age boom of the 1960s to 1980s, the term New Age itself deriving from Blavatsky's 1888 The Secret Doctrine.

Influential 20th-century Hindus were Ramana Maharshi, B. K. S. Iyengar, Paramahansa Yogananda, Prabhupada (founder of ISKCON), Sri Chinmoy, Swami Rama and others who translated, reformulated and presented Hinduism's foundational texts for contemporary audiences in new iterations, raising the profiles of Yoga and Vedanta in the West and attracting followers and attention in India and abroad.

Contemporary Hinduism

Hinduism is followed by around 1.1 billion people in India.[web 22] Other significant populations are found in Nepal (21.5 million), Bangladesh (13.1 million) and the Indonesian island of Bali (3.9 million).[web 23] The majority of the Vietnamese Cham people also follow Hinduism, with the largest proportion in Ninh Thuận province.[web 24]

Neo-Hindu movements in the West

In modern times Smarta-views have been highly influential in both the Indian[web 25] and western[web 26] understanding of Hinduism via Neo-Vedanta. Vivekananda was an advocate of Smarta-views,[web 26] and Radhakrishnan was himself a Smarta-Brahman.[308][309] According to iskcon.org,

Many Hindus may not strictly identify themselves as Smartas but, by adhering to Advaita Vedanta as a foundation for non-sectarianism, are indirect followers.[web 25]

Influential in spreading Hinduism to a western audience were Swami Vivekananda, Paramahansa Yogananda, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (Hare Krishna movement), Sri Aurobindo, Meher Baba, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (Transcendental Meditation), Jiddu Krishnamurti, Sathya Sai Baba, Mother Meera, among others.

Hindutva

In the 20th century, Hinduism also gained prominence as a political force and a source for national identity in India. With origins traced back to the establishment of the Hindu Mahasabha in the 1910s, the movement grew with the formulation and development of the Hindutva ideology in the following decades; the establishment of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in 1925; and the entry, and later success, of RSS offshoots Jana Sangha and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in electoral politics in post-independence India.[310] Hindu religiosity plays an important role in the nationalist movement.[311][note 45][note 46]

Besides India, the idea of Hindu nationalism and Hindutva can also be seen in the other areas with good population of Hindus, such as in Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.[web 27][312][313] In the modern world, the Hindu identity and nationalism is encouraged by many organisations as per their areas and territories. In India, Sangh Parivar is the umbrella organisation for most of the Hindu nationalist organisations, including that of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Bharatiya Janata Party, Vishva Hindu Parishad, etc.[314][315] The other nationalist organisations include Siva Senai (Sri Lanka), Nepal Shivsena, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Hindu Prajatantrik Party, (Nepal) Bangabhumi (Bangladesh) and HINDRAF (Malaysia).

See also

Notes

  1. ^ See:
    • "Oldest religion":
      • Fowler: "probably the oldest religion in the world"[2]
      • Gellman & Hartman: "Hinduism, the world's oldest religion"[3]
      • Stevens: "Hinduism, the oldest religion in the world",[4]
    • The "oldest living religion"[5]
    • The "oldest living major religion" in the world.[6][7]
      • Laderman: "world's oldest living civilisation and religion"[8]
      • Turner: "It is also recognized as the oldest major religion in the world"[9]
    Smart, on the other hand, calls it also one of the youngest religions: "Hinduism could be seen to be much more recent, though with various ancient roots: in a sense it was formed in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century."[10] See also:
  2. ^ Among its roots are the Vedic religion[14] of the late Vedic period and its emphasis on the status of Brahmans,[17] but also the religions of the Indus Valley civilisation,[15][18][19][20] the Sramana[21] or renouncer traditions[14] of east India,[21] and "popular or local traditions".[14]
  3. ^ There is no exact dating possible for the beginning of the Vedic period. Witzel mentions a range between 1900 and 1400 BCE.[25] Flood mentions 1500 BCE.[26]
  4. ^ Lockard (2007, p. 50): "The encounters that resulted from Aryan migration brought together several very different peoples and cultures, reconfiguring Indian society. Over many centuries a fusion of Aryan and Dravidian occurred, a complex process that historians have labeled the Indo-Aryan synthesis." Lockard: "Hinduism can be seen historically as a synthesis of Aryan beliefs with Harappan and other Dravidian traditions that developed over many centuries."
  5. ^ Hiltebeitel (2007, p. 12): "A period of consolidation, sometimes identified as one of "Hindu synthesis," Brahmanic synthesis," or "orthodox synthesis," takes place between the time of the late Vedic Upanishads (c. 500 BCE) and the period of Gupta imperial ascendency" (c. 320-467 CE)."
  6. ^ See also:
  7. ^ a b c See:
    • White (2006, p. 28): "[T]he religion of the Vedas was already a composite of the indo-Aryan and Harappan cultures and civilizations."
    • Gombrich (1996, pp. 35–36): "It is important to bear in mind that the Indo-Aryans did not enter an uninhabited land. For nearly two millennia they and their culture gradually penetrated India, moving east and south from their original seat in the Punjab. They mixed with people who spoke Munda or Dravidian languages, who have left no traces of their culture beyond some archaeological remains; we know as little about them as we would about the Indo-Aryans if they had left no texts. In fact we cannot even be sure whether some of the archaeological finds belong to Indo-Aryans, autochthonous populations, or a mixture.
      It is to be assumed – though this is not fashionable in Indian historiography – that the clash of cultures between Indo-Aryans and autochtones was responsible for many of the changes in Indo-Aryan society. We can also assume that many – perhaps most – of the indigenous population came to be assimilated into Indo-Aryan culture.
  8. ^ a b The date of the production of the written texts does not define the date of origin of the Puranas (Johnson 2009, p. 247). They may have existed in some oral form before being written down (Johnson 2009, p. 247).
  9. ^ a b Michaels (2004, p. 38): "The legacy of the Vedic religion in Hinduism is generally overestimated. The influence of the mythology is indeed great, but the religious terminology changed considerably: all the key terms of Hinduism either do not exist in Vedic or have a completely different meaning. The religion of the Veda does not know the ethicised migration of the soul with retribution for acts (karma), the cyclical destruction of the world, or the idea of salvation during one's lifetime (jivanmukti; moksa; nirvana); the idea of the world as illusion (maya) must have gone against the grain of ancient India, and an omnipotent creator god emerges only in the late hymns of the rgveda. Nor did the Vedic religion know a caste system, the burning of widows, the ban on remarriage, images of gods and temples, Puja worship, Yoga, pilgrimages, vegetarianism, the holiness of cows, the doctrine of stages of life (asrama), or knew them only at their inception. Thus, it is justified to see a turning point between the Vedic religion and Hindu religions." See also Halbfass 1991, pp. 1–2
  10. ^ University of Oslo: "During the period following Ashoka, until the end of the 7th century AD, the great gift ceremonies honoring the Buddha remained the central cult of Indian imperial kingdoms".[web 1]
  11. ^ Samuel (2010, p. 76): "Certainly, there is substantial textual evidence for the outward expansion of Vedic-Brahmanical culture."
    Samuel (2010, p. 77): "[T]he Buddhist sutras describe what was in later periods a standard mechanism for the expansion of Vedic-Brahmanical culture: the settlement of Brahmins on land granted by local rulers." See also Vijay Nath (2001).

    Samuel (2010, p. 199): "By the first and second centuries CE, the Dravidian-speaking regions of the south were also increasingly being incorporated into the general North and Central Indian cultural pattern, as were parts at least of Southeast Asia. The Pallava kingdom in South India was largely Brahmanical in orientation although it included a substantial Jain and Buddhist population, while Indic states were also beginning to develop in Southeast Asia."

  12. ^ Larson (1995, p. 81): "Also, the spread of the culture of North India to the South was accomplished in many instances by the spread of Buddhist and Jain institutions (monasteries, lay communities, and so forth). The Pallavas of Kanci appear to have been one of the main vehicles for the spread of specifically Indo-Brahmanical or Hindu institutions in the South, a process that was largely completed after the Gupta Age. As Basham has noted, "the contact of Aryan and Dravidian produced a vigorous cultural synthesis, which in turn had an immense influence on Indian civilization as a whole."
  13. ^ Flood (1996, p. 129): "The process of Sanskritization only began to significantly influence the south after the first two centuries CE and Tamil deities and forms of worship became adapted to northern Sanskrit forms."
  14. ^ Wendy Doniger: "If Sanskritization has been the main means of connecting the various local traditions throughout the subcontinent, the converse process, which has no convenient label, has been one of the means whereby Hinduism has changed and developed over the centuries. Many features of Hindu mythology and several popular gods—such as Ganesha, an elephant-headed god, and Hanuman, the monkey god—were incorporated into Hinduism and assimilated into the appropriate Vedic gods by this means. Similarly, the worship of many goddesses who are now regarded as the consorts of the great male Hindu gods, as well as the worship of individual unmarried goddesses, may have arisen from the worship of non-Vedic local goddesses. Thus, the history of Hinduism can be interpreted as the interplay between orthoprax custom and the practices of wider ranges of people and, complementarily, as the survival of features of local traditions that gained strength steadily until they were adapted by the Brahmans."[web 2]
    Vijay Nath (2001, p. 31): "Visnu and Siva, on the other hand, as integral components of the Triad while continuing to be a subject of theological speculation, however, in their subsequent "avataras" began to absorb countless local cults and deities within their folds. The latter were either taken to represent the multiple facets of the same god or else were supposed to denote different forms and appellations by which the god came to be known and worshipped. Thus, whereas Visnu came to subsume the cults of Narayana, Jagannatha, Venkateswara and many others, Siva became identified with countless local cults by the sheer suffixing of Isa or Isvarato the name of the local deity, e.g., Bhutesvara, Hatakesvara, Chandesvara."
  15. ^ Wendy Doniger: "The process, sometimes called "Sanskritization," began in Vedic times and was probably the principal method by which the Hinduism of the Sanskrit texts spread through the subcontinent and into Southeast Asia. Sanskritization still continues in the form of the conversion of tribal groups, and it is reflected in the persistence of the tendency among some Hindus to identify rural and local deities with the gods of the Sanskrit texts."[web 2]
  16. ^ See also Tanvir Anjum, Temporal Divides: A Critical Review of the Major Schemes of Periodization in Indian History.
  17. ^ Different periods are designated as "classical Hinduism":
    • Smart (2003, p. 52) calls the period between 1000 BCE and 100 CE "pre-classical". It is the formative period for the Upanishads and Brahmanism[subnote 4] 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 (2004, pp. 36, 38), 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 (2003, p. 14) discerns a longer period of change, namely between 800 BCE and 200 BCE, which he calls the "Classical 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.
    • Stein (2010, p. 107) The Indian History Congress, formally adopted 1206 CE as the date medieval India began.
  18. ^ Doniger 2010, p. 66: "Much of what we now call Hinduism may have had roots in cultures that thrived in South Asia long before the creation of textual evidence that we can decipher with any confidence. Remarkable cave paintings have been preserved from Mesolithic sites dating from c. 30,000 BCE in Bhimbetka, near present-day Bhopal, in the Vindhya Mountains in the province of Madhya Pradesh."[subnote 5]
  19. ^ Jones & Ryan 2006, p. xvii: "Some practices of Hinduism must have originated in Neolithic times (c. 4000 BCE). The worship of certain plants and animals as sacred, for instance, could very likely have very great antiquity. The worship of goddesses, too, a part of Hinduism today, may be a feature that originated in the Neolithic."
  20. ^ Mallory 1989, p. 38f. The separation of the early Indo-Aryans from the Proto-Indo-Iranian stage is dated to roughly 1800 BCE in scholarship.
  21. ^ Michaels (2004, p. 33): "They called themselves arya ("Aryans," literally "the hospitable," from the Vedic arya, "homey, the hospitable") but even in the Rgveda, arya denotes a cultural and linguistic boundary and not only a racial one."
  22. ^ There is no exact dating possible for the beginning of the Vedic period. Witzel (1995, pp. 3–4) mentions a range between 1900 and 1400 BCE. Flood (1996, p. 21) mentions 1500 BCE.
  23. ^ Allchin & Erdosy (1995): "There has also been a fairly general agreement that the Proto-Indoaryan speakers at one time lived on the steppes of Central Asia and that at a certain time they moved southwards through Bactria and Afghanistan, and perhaps the Caucasus, into Iran and India-Pakistan (Burrow 1973; Harmatta 1992)."
  24. ^ Kulke & Rothermund (1998): "During the last decades intensive archaeological research in Russia and the Central Asian Republics of the former Soviet Union as well as in Pakistan and northern India has considerably enlarged our knowledge about the potential ancestors of the Indo-Aryans and their relationship with cultures in west, central and south Asia. Previous excavations in southern Russia and Central Asia could not confirm that the Eurasian steppes had once been the original home of the speakers of Indo-European language."
  25. ^ The Aryan migration theory has been challenged by some researchers (Michaels 2004, p. 33, Singh 2008, p. 186), due to a lack of archaeological evidence and signs of cultural continuity (Michaels 2004, p. 33), hypothesizing instead a slow process of acculturation or transformation (Michaels 2004, p. 33, Flood 1996, pp. 30–35). Nevertheless, linguistic and archaeological data clearly show a cultural change after 1750 BCE (Michaels 2004, p. 33), with the linguistic and religious data clearly showing links with Indo-European languages and religion (Flood 1996, p. 33). According to Singh 2008, p. 186, "The dominant view is that the Indo-Aryans came to the subcontinent as immigrants."
  26. ^ Zimmer's point of view is supported by other scholars, such as:
     • Niniam Smart (1964). Doctrine and argument in Indian Philosophy. pp. 27–32, 76.[141]
     • S.K. Belvakar & R.D. Ranade (1974) [1927]. History of Indian philosophy. pp. 81, 303–409.[141]
  27. ^ Flood (2008, pp. 273–274): "The second half of the first millennium BCE was the period that created many of the ideological and institutional elements that characterise later Indian religions. The renouncer tradition played a central role during this formative period of Indian religious history [...] Some of the fundamental values and beliefs that we generally associate with Indian religions in general and Hinduism, in particular, were in part the creation of the renouncer tradition. These include the two pillars of Indian theologies: samsara – the belief that life in this world is one of suffering and subject to repeated deaths and births (rebirth); moksa/nirvana – the goal of human existence."
  28. ^ King (1999) notes that Radhakrishnan was a representative of Neo-Vedanta,[143] which had a specific understanding of Indian religions: "The inclusivist appropriation of other traditions, so characteristic of neo-Vedanta ideology, appears on three basic levels. First, it is apparent in the suggestion that the (Advaita) Vedanta philosophy of Sankara (c. eighth century CE) constitutes the central philosophy of Hinduism. Second, in an Indian context, neo-Vedanta philosophy subsumes Buddhist philosophies in terms of its own Vedantic ideology. The Buddha becomes a member of the Vedanta tradition, merely attempting to reform it from within. Finally, at a global level, neo-Vedanta colonises the religious traditions of the world by arguing for the centrality of a non-dualistic position as the philosophia perennis underlying all cultural differences."
  29. ^ a b Michaels (2004, p. 38): "At the time of upheaval [500–200 BCE], many elements of the Vedic religion were lost".
  30. ^ Klostermaier 2007, p. 55: "Kautas, a teacher mentioned in the Nirukta by Yāska (ca. 500 BCE), a work devoted to an etymology of Vedic words that were no longer understood by ordinary people, held that the word of the Veda was no longer perceived as meaningful "normal" speech but as a fixed sequence of sounds, whose meaning was obscure beyond recovery."
  31. ^ Klostermaier: "Brahman, derived from the root bŗh = to grow, to become great, was originally identical with the Vedic word, that makes people prosper: words were the principal means to approach the gods who dwelled in a different sphere. It was not a big step from this notion of "reified speech-act" to that "of the speech-act being looked at implicitly and explicitly as a means to an end." Klostermaier 2007, p. 55 quotes Madhav M. Deshpande (1990), Changing Conceptions of the Veda: From Speech-Acts to Magical Sounds, p. 4.
  32. ^ Hiltebeitel (2007, p. 13): "The emerging self-definitions of Hinduism were forged in the context of continuous interaction with heterodox religions (Buddhists, Jains, Ajivikas) throughout this whole period, and with foreign people (Yavanas, or Greeks; Sakas, or Scythians; Pahlavas, or Parthians; and Kusanas, or Kushans) from the third phase on [between the Mauryan empire and the rise of the Guptas].
  33. ^ Larson (2009, p. 185): "[I]n contrast to the sruti, which Hindus, for the most part, pay little more than lip service to."
  34. ^ Michaels (2004, p. 40) mentions the Durga temple in Aihole and the Visnu Temple in Deogarh. Michell (1977, p. 18) notes that earlier temples were built of timber, brick and plaster, while the first stone temples appeared during the period of Gupta rule.
  35. ^ Michaels (2004, p. 41):
  36. ^ McRae (2003): This resembles the development of Chinese Chán during the An Lu-shan rebellion and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period (907–960/979), during which power became decentralised end new Chán-schools emerged.
  37. ^ Inden (1998, p. 67): "Before the eighth century, the Buddha was accorded the position of universal deity and ceremonies by which a king attained to imperial status were elaborate donative ceremonies entailing gifts to Buddhist monks and the installation of a symbolic Buddha in a stupa ... This pattern changed in the eighth century. The Buddha was replaced as the supreme, imperial deity by one of the Hindu gods (except under the Palas of eastern India, the Buddha's homeland) ... Previously the Buddha had been accorded imperial-style worship (puja). Now as one of the Hindu gods replaced the Buddha at the imperial centre and pinnacle of the cosmo-political system, the image or symbol of the Hindu god comes to be housed in a monumental temple and given increasingly elaborate imperial-style puja worship."
  38. ^ Thapar (2003, p. 325): The king who ruled not by conquest but by setting in motion the wheel of law.
  39. ^ Inden: "before the eighth century, the Buddha was accorded the position of universal deity and ceremonies by which a king attained to imperial status were elaborate donative ceremonies entailing gifts to Buddhist monks and the installation of a symbolic Buddha in a stupa ... This pattern changed in the eighth century. The Buddha was replaced as the supreme, imperial deity by one of the Hindu gods (except under the Palas of eastern India, the Buddha's homeland) ... Previously the Buddha had been accorded imperial-style worship (puja). Now as one of the Hindu gods replaced the Buddha at the imperial centre and pinnacle of the cosmo-political system, the image or symbol of the Hindu god comes to be housed in a monumental temple and given increasingly elaborate imperial-style puja worship."[196]
  40. ^ The term "mayavada" is still being used, in a critical way, by the Hare Krshnas. See[web 9][web 10][web 11][web 12]
  41. ^ See also "Aurangzeb, as he was according to Mughal Records"; more links at the bottom of that page; for Muslim historian's record on major Hindu temple destruction campaigns, from 1193 to 1729 AD, see Eaton (2000)
  42. ^ The tendency of "a blurring of philosophical distinctions" has also been noted by Burley (2007, p. 34). Lorenzen locates the origins of a distinct Hindu identity in the interaction between Muslims and Hindus (Lorenzen 2006, pp. 24–33), and a process of "mutual self-definition with a contrasting Muslim other" which started well before 1800 (Lorenzen 2006, pp. 26–27). Both the Indian and the European thinkers who developed the term "Hinduism" in the 19th century were influenced by these philosophers (Nicholson 2010, p. 2)
  43. ^ Owing to his contributions to carnatic music, Purandaradasa is known as Karnataka Sangita Pitamaha. (Kamat, Saint Purandaradasa)
  44. ^ Many historians consider Attock to be the final frontier of the Maratha Empire.[272]
  45. ^ This conjunction of nationalism and religion is not unique to India. The complexities of Asian nationalism are to be seen and understood in the context of colonialism, modernization and nation-building. See, for example, Anagarika Dharmapala, for the role of Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lankese struggle for independence (McMahan 2008), and D.T. Suzuki, who conjuncted Zen to Japanese nationalism and militarism, in defense against both western hegemony and the pressure on Japanese Zen during the Meiji Restoration to conform to Shinbutsu Bunri (Sharf 1993, Sharf 1995).
  46. ^ Rinehart (2004, p. 198): Neo-Vedanta also contributed to Hindutva ideology, Hindu politics and communalism. Yet, Rinehart emphasises that it is "clear that there isn't a neat line of causation that leads from the philosophies of Rammohan Roy, Vivekananda and Radhakrishnan to the agenda of [...] militant Hindus."

Subnotes

  1. ^ Ghurye: He [Hutton] considers modern Hinduism to be the result of an amalgam between pre-Aryan Indian beliefs of Mediterranean inspiration and the religion of the Rigveda. "The Tribal religions present, as it were, surplus material not yet built into the temple of Hinduism".[31]
  2. ^ Tyler, in India: An Anthropological Perspective (1973), p. 68, as quoted by Sjoberg, calls Hinduism a "synthesis" in which the Dravidian elements prevail: "The Hindu synthesis was less the dialectical reduction of orthodoxy and heterodoxy than the resurgence of the ancient, aboriginal Indus civilization. In this process the rude, barbaric Aryan tribes were gradually civilised and eventually merged with the autochthonous Dravidians. Although elements of their domestic cult and ritualism were jealously preserved by Brahman priests, the body of their culture survived only in fragmentary tales and allegories embedded in vast, syncretistic compendia. On the whole, the Aryan contribution to Indian culture is insignificant. The essential pattern of Indian culture was already established in the third millennium B.C., and ... the form of Indian civilization perdured and eventually reasserted itself.[32]
  3. ^ Hopfe & Woodward (2008, p. 79): "The religion that the Aryans brought with them mingled with the religion of the native people, and the culture that developed between them became classical Hinduism."
  4. ^ Smart (2003, pp. 52, 83–86) distinguishes "Brahmanism" from the Vedic religion, connecting "Brahmanism" with the Upanishads.
  5. ^ 30,000 BCE is incorrect; this must be 8,000 BCE.[57][58][59][60][61]

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history, hinduism, history, hinduism, covers, wide, variety, related, religious, traditions, native, indian, subcontinent, overlaps, coincides, with, development, religion, indian, subcontinent, since, iron, with, some, traditions, tracing, back, prehistoric, . 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 It has thus been called the oldest religion in the world note 1 Scholars regard Hinduism as a synthesis 11 12 13 of various Indian cultures and traditions 11 12 14 with diverse roots 15 and no single founder 16 note 2 This Hindu synthesis emerged after the Vedic period between ca 500 12 200 22 BCE and ca 300 CE 12 in or after the period of the Second Urbanisation and during the early classical period of Hinduism 200 BCE 300 CE 12 22 It flourished in the medieval period with the decline of Buddhism in India 23 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 ending at about 1750 BCE This period was followed in northern India by the Vedic period which saw the introduction of the historical Vedic religion with the Indo Aryan migrations starting somewhere between 1900 BCE and 1400 BCE 24 note 3 The subsequent period between 800 BCE and 200 BCE is a turning point between the Vedic religion and Hindu religions 27 and a formative period for Hinduism Jainism and Buddhism During the Epic and Early Puranic period from c 200 BCE to 500 CE the Epics and the first Puranas were composed 12 22 It was followed by the classical Golden Age of Hinduism c 320 650 CE which coincides with the Gupta Empire In this period the six branches of Hindu philosophy evolved namely Samkhya Yoga Nyaya Vaisheshika Mimaṃsa and Vedanta Monotheistic sects like Shaivism and Vaishnavism developed during this same period through the Bhakti movement The period from roughly 650 to 1100 CE forms the late Classical period 28 or early Middle Ages in which classical Puranic Hinduism is established and Adi Shankara s influential consolidation of Advaita Vedanta Hinduism under both Hindu and Islamic rulers from c 1200 to 1750 CE 29 30 saw the increasing prominence of the Bhakti movement which remains influential today The colonial period saw the emergence of various Hindu reform movements partly inspired by western movements such as Unitarianism and Theosophy The Partition of India in 1947 was along religious lines with the Republic of India emerging with a Hindu majority During the 20th century due to the Indian diaspora Hindu minorities have formed in all continents with the largest communities in absolute numbers in the United States and the United Kingdom Contents 1 Roots of Hinduism 2 Periodisation 3 Pre Vedic religions until c 1750 BCE 3 1 Prehistory 3 2 Indus Valley Civilization c 3300 1700 BCE 4 Vedic period c 1750 500 BCE 4 1 Origins 4 2 Rigvedic religion 4 2 1 Vedas 4 2 2 Cosmic order 4 2 3 Upanishads 4 3 Brahmanism 5 Second Urbanisation and decline of Brahmanism c 600 200 BCE 5 1 Upanishads and Sramaṇa movements 5 2 Mauryan Empire 5 3 Decline of Brahmanism 5 3 1 Decline 5 3 2 Survival of Vedic ritual 6 Hindu synthesis and Classical Hinduism c 200 BCE 1200 CE 6 1 Early Hinduism c 200 BCE 320 CE 6 1 1 Hindu synthesis 6 1 2 Smriti 6 1 3 Schools of Hindu philosophy 6 1 4 Sangam literature 6 1 5 Indian trade with Africa 6 1 6 Hindu Colony in the Middle East The Levant 6 2 Golden Age of India Gupta and Pallava period c 320 650 CE 6 2 1 Gupta and Pallava Empires 6 2 2 Bhakti 6 2 3 Expansion in South East Asia 6 3 Late Classical Hinduism Puranic Hinduism c 650 1200 CE 6 3 1 Puranic Hinduism 6 3 2 Bhakti movement 6 3 3 Advaita Vedanta 6 3 4 Contact with Persia and Mesopotamia 7 Medieval and early modern periods c 1200 1850 CE 7 1 Muslim rule 7 2 Bhakti Vedanta 7 3 Unifying Hinduism 7 4 Eastern Ganga and Surya States 7 5 Early Modern period c 1500 1850 CE 7 5 1 Vijayanagara Empire 7 5 2 Mughal period 7 5 3 Maratha Empire 7 5 4 Kingdom of Nepal 7 5 5 Early colonialism 8 Modern Hinduism after c 1850 CE 8 1 Hindu revivalism 8 2 Reception in the West 9 Contemporary Hinduism 9 1 Neo Hindu movements in the West 9 2 Hindutva 10 See also 11 Notes 12 References 12 1 Citations 12 2 Sources 12 2 1 Printed sources 12 2 2 Web sources 13 Further reading 14 External linksRoots of Hinduism EditWhile the Puranic chronology presents a genealogy of thousands of years scholars regard Hinduism as a fusion 11 note 4 or synthesis 12 note 5 of various Indian cultures and traditions 12 note 6 Among its roots are the historical Vedic religion 14 33 itself already the product of a composite of the Indo Aryan and Harappan cultures and civilizations 34 note 7 which evolved into the Brahmanical religion and ideology of the Kuru Kingdom of Iron Age northern India but also the Sramaṇa 21 or renouncer traditions 14 of northeast India 21 and mesolithic 35 and neolithic 36 cultures of India such as the religions of the Indus Valley Civilisation 37 Dravidian traditions 38 and the local traditions 14 and tribal religions 39 This Hindu synthesis emerged after the Vedic period between 500 12 200 22 BCE and c 300 CE 12 in the period of the Second Urbanisation and the early classical period of Hinduism when the Epics and the first Puranas were composed 12 22 This Brahmanical synthesis incorporated sramaṇic 22 40 and Buddhist influences 22 41 and the emerging bhakti tradition into the Brahmanical fold via the smriti literature 42 22 This synthesis emerged under the pressure of the success of Buddhism and Jainism 43 During the Gupta reign the first Puranas were written 44 note 8 which were used to disseminate mainstream religious ideology amongst pre literate and tribal groups undergoing acculturation 44 The resulting Puranic Hinduism differed markedly from the earlier Brahmanism of the Dharmasutras and the smritis 44 note 9 Hinduism co existed for several centuries with Buddhism 45 to finally gain the upper hand at all levels in the 8th century 46 web 1 note 10 From northern India this Hindu synthesis and its societal divisions spread to southern India and parts of Southeast Asia as courts and rulers adopted the Brahmanical culture 47 note 11 note 12 note 13 It was aided by the settlement of Brahmins on land granted by local rulers 48 49 the incorporation and assimilation of popular non Vedic gods web 2 50 note 14 and the process of Sanskritization in which people from many strata of society throughout the subcontinent tended to adapt their religious and social life to Brahmanic norms web 2 note 15 51 This process of assimilation explains the wide diversity of local cultures in India half shrouded in a taddered cloak of conceptual unity 52 According to Eliot Deutsch Brahmins played an essential role in the development of this synthesis They were bilingual and bicultural speaking both their local language and popular Sanskrit which transcended regional differences in culture and language They were able to translate the mainstream of the large culture in terms of the village and the culture of the village in terms of the mainstream thereby integrating the local culture into a larger whole 53 While vaidikas and to a lesser degree smartas remained faithful to the traditional Vedic lore a new brahminism arose which composed litanies for the local and regional gods and became the ministers of these local traditions 53 Periodisation EditSee also Outline of South Asian historyJames Mill 1773 1836 in his The History of British India 1817 distinguished three phases in the history of India namely Hindu Muslim and British civilisations This periodisation has been criticised for the misconceptions it has given rise to Another periodisation is the division into ancient classical medieval and modern periods although this periodization has also received criticism 54 Romila Thapar notes that the division of Hindu Muslim British periods of Indian history gives too much weight to ruling dynasties and foreign invasions 55 neglecting the social economic history which often showed a strong continuity 55 The division in Ancient Medieval Modern overlooks the fact that the Muslim conquests took place between the eighth and the fourteenth century while the south was never completely conquered 55 According to Thapar a periodisation could also be based on significant social and economic changes which are not strictly related to a change of ruling powers 56 note 16 Smart and Michaels seem to follow Mill s periodisation while Flood and Muesse follow the ancient classical medieval and modern periods periodisation An elaborate periodisation may be as follows 28 Pre history and Indus Valley Civilisation until c 1750 BCE Vedic period c 1750 500 BCE Second Urbanisation c 600 200 BCE Classical Period c 200 BCE 1200 CE note 17 Pre classical period c 200 BCE 300 CE Golden Age of India Gupta Empire c 320 650 CE Late Classical period c 650 1200 CE Medieval Period c 1200 1500 CE Early Modern Period c 1500 1850 Modern period British Raj and independence from c 1850 History of HinduismJames Mill 1773 1836 in his The History of British India 1817 A distinguished three phases in the history of India namely Hindu Muslim and British civilisations A B This periodisation has been influential but has also been criticised for the misconceptions it has given rise to C Another influential periodisation is the division into ancient classical mediaeval and modern periods D Smart E Michaels overall F Michaels detailed F Muesse G Flood H Indus Valley civilisation and Vedic period c 3000 1000 BCE Prevedic religions until c 1750 BCE I Prevedic religions until c 1750 BCE I Indus Valley civilisation 3300 1400 BCE Indus Valley civilisation c 2500 to 1500 BCE Vedic religion c 1750 500 BCE Early Vedic Period c 1750 1200 BCE Vedic period 1600 800 BCE Vedic period c 1500 500 BCE Middle Vedic Period from 1200 BCE Pre classical period c 1000 BCE 100 CE Late Vedic period from 850 BCE Classical Period 800 200 BCE Ascetic reformism c 500 200 BCE Ascetic reformism c 500 200 BCE Epic and Puranic period c 500 BCE to 500 CE Classical Hinduism c 200 BCE 1100 CE J Preclassical Hinduism c 200 BCE 300 CE K Epic and Puranic period 200 BCE 500 CE Classical period c 100 1000 CE Golden Age Gupta Empire c 320 650 CE L Late Classical Hinduism c 650 1100 CE M Medieval and Late Puranic Period 500 1500 CE Medieval and Late Puranic Period 500 1500 CE Hindu Islamic civilisation c 1000 1750 CE Islamic rule and Sects of Hinduism c 1100 1850 CE N Islamic rule and Sects of Hinduism c 1100 1850 CE N Modern Age 1500 present Modern period c 1500 CE to present Modern period c 1750 CE present Modern Hinduism from c 1850 O Modern Hinduism from c 1850 O Notes and references for tableNotes Smart E and Michaels I seem to follow Mill s periodisation Michaels mentions Flood 1996 as a source for Prevedic Religions P while Flood Q and Muesse R G follow the ancient classical mediaeval and modern periods periodisation S 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 Smart distinguishes Brahmanism from the Vedic religion connecting Brahmanism with the Upanishads T 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 U For Michaels the period between 500 BCE and 200 BCE is a time of Ascetic reformism V 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 J Muesse discerns a longer period of change namely between 800 BCE and 200 BCE which he calls the Classical 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 W References a b Khanna 2007 p xvii Misra 2004 p 194 Kulke amp Rothermund 2004 p 7 Flood 1996 p 21 a b Smart 2003 pp 52 53 a b Michaels 2004 a b Muesse 2011 Flood 1996 pp 21 22 a b c Michaels 2004 p 32 a b Michaels 2004 p 38 Michaels 2004 p 39 Michaels 2004 p 40 Michaels 2004 p 41 a b Michaels 2004 p 43 a b Michaels 2004 p 45 Michaels 2004 pp 31 348 Flood 1996 Muesse 2003 Muesse 2011 p 16 Smart 2003 pp 52 83 86 Smart 2003 p 52 Michaels 2004 p 36 Muesse 2003 p 14 SourcesBentley Jerry H 1996 Cross Cultural Interaction and Periodization in World History The American Historical Review 101 3 749 770 doi 10 2307 2169422 JSTOR 2169422 Flood Gavin D 1996 An Introduction to Hinduism Cambridge University Press Khanna Meenakshi 2007 Cultural History of Medieval India Berghahn Books Kulke Hermann Rothermund Dietmar 2004 A History of India Routledge Michaels Axel 2004 Hinduism Past and present Princeton New Jersey Princeton University Press Misra Amalendu 2004 Identity and Religion Foundations of Anti Islamism in India SAGE Muesse Mark William 2003 Great World Religions Hinduism Muesse Mark W 2011 The Hindu Traditions A Concise Introduction Fortress Press ISBN 9780800697907 Smart Ninian 2003 Godsdiensten van de wereld The World s religions Kampen Uitgeverij Kok Pre Vedic religions until c 1750 BCE EditPrehistory Edit Hinduism may have roots in Mesolithic prehistoric religion such as evidenced in the rock paintings of Bhimbetka rock shelters note 18 which are about 10 000 years old c 8 000 BCE 57 58 59 60 61 as well as neolithic times At least some of these shelters were occupied over 100 000 years ago 62 note 19 Several tribal religions still exist though their practices may not resemble those of prehistoric religions web 3 Indus Valley Civilization c 3300 1700 BCE Edit Main article Religion of the Indus Valley Civilization Further information Prehistoric religion and History of Jainism Some Indus valley seals show swastikas which are found in other religions worldwide Phallic symbols interpreted as the much later Hindu linga have been found in the Harappan remains 63 64 Many Indus valley seals show animals One seal shows a horned figure seated in a posture reminiscent of the Lotus position and surrounded by animals was named by early excavators Pashupati an epithet of the later Hindu gods Shiva and Rudra 65 66 67 Writing in 1997 Doris Meth Srinivasan said Not too many recent studies continue to call the seal s figure a Proto Siva rejecting thereby Marshall s package of proto Shiva features including that of three heads She interprets what John Marshall interpreted as facial as not human but more bovine possibly a divine buffalo man 68 According to Iravatham Mahadevan symbols 47 and 48 of his Indus script glossary The Indus Script Texts Concordance and Tables 1977 representing seated human like figures could describe the South Indian deity Murugan 69 In view of the large number of figurines found in the Indus valley some scholars believe that the Harappan people worshipped a mother goddess symbolizing fertility a common practice among rural Hindus even today 70 However this view has been disputed by S Clark who sees it as an inadequate explanation of the function and construction of many of the figurines 71 There are no religious buildings or evidence of elaborate burials If there were temples they have not been identified 72 However House 1 in HR A area in Mohenjadaro s Lower Town has been identified as a possible temple 73 The so called Shiva Pashupati Shiva Lord of the animals seal from the Indus Valley Civilisation Horned deity with one horned attendants on an Indus Valley seal Horned deities are a standard Mesopotamian theme 2000 1900 BCE Islamabad Museum 74 web 4 75 76 Fighting scene between a beast and a man with horns hooves and a tail who has been compared to the Mesopotamian bull man Enkidu 77 78 79 Indus Valley Civilisation seal Swastika Seals from the Indus Valley Civilization preserved at the British MuseumVedic period c 1750 500 BCE EditSpread of IE languages Indo European languages ca 3500 BC Indo European languages ca 2500 BC Indo European languages ca 1500 BC Indo European languages ca 500 BC Indo European languages ca 500 ADIndo Aryan migration The Yamnaya culture 3500 2000 BC Scheme of Indo European migrations from ca 4000 to 1000 BCE according to the Kurgan hypothesis The magenta area corresponds to the assumed Urheimat Samara culture Sredny Stog culture The red area corresponds to the area which may have been settled by Indo European speaking peoples up to ca 2500 BCE the orange area to 1000 BCE Christopher I Beckwith 2009 Empires of the Silk Road Oxford University Press p 30 Map of the approximate maximal extent of the Andronovo culture The formative Sintashta Petrovka culture is shown in darker red The location of the earliest spoke wheeled chariot finds is indicated in purple Adjacent and overlapping cultures Afanasevo culture Srubna culture BMAC are shown in green Archaeological cultures associated with Indo Iranian migrations after EIEC The Andronovo BMAC and Yaz cultures have often been associated with Indo Iranian migrations The GGC Cemetery H Copper Hoard and PGW cultures are candidates for cultures associated with Indo Aryan movements Early Vedic PeriodMain articles Vedic period Historical Vedic religion and Vedic Sanskrit Further information Iron Age in India The commonly proposed period of earlier Vedic age is dated back to 2nd millennium BCE 80 Vedism was the sacrificial religion of the early Indo Aryans speakers of early Old Indic dialects ultimately deriving from the Proto Indo Iranian peoples of the Bronze Age who lived on the Central Asian steppes note 20 Origins Edit Main articles Indo Aryan peoples and Indo Aryan migrations See also Proto Indo Europeans Proto Indo European religion Indo Iranians and Proto Indo Iranian religion A map of tribes and rivers mentioned in the Rigveda The Vedic period named after the Vedic religion of the Indo Aryans of the Kuru Kingdom 1200 BCE 525 BCE 81 note 21 lasted from c 1750 to 500 BCE 82 note 22 The Indo Aryans were a branch of the Indo European language family which many scholars believe originated in Kurgan culture of the Central Asian steppes 83 84 note 23 note 24 Indeed the Vedic religion including the names of certain deities was in essence a branch of the same religious tradition as the ancient Greeks Romans Persians and Germanic peoples For example the Vedic god Dyaus is a variant of the Proto Indo European god Dyeus ph2ter or simply Dyeus from which also derive the Greek Zeus and the Roman Jupiter Similarly the Vedic Manu and Yama derive from the Proto Indo European Manu and Yemo from which also derive the Germanic Mannus and Ymir According to the Indo European migration theory the Indo Iranians were the common ancestor of the Indo Aryans and the Proto Iranians The Indo Iranians split into the Indo Aryans and Iranians around 1800 1600 BC 85 The Indo Aryans were pastoralists 86 who migrated into north western India after the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization 87 88 89 note 25 The Indo Aryans were a branch of the Indo Iranians which originated in the Andronovo culture 90 in the Bactria Margiana era in present northern Afghanistan 91 The roots of this culture go back further to the Sintashta culture with funeral sacrifices which show close parallels to the sacrificial funeral rites of the Rigveda 92 Although some early depictions of deities seem to appear in the art of the Indus Valley Civilisation very few religious artifacts from the period corresponding to the Indo Aryan migration during the Vedic period remains 93 It has been suggested that the early Vedic religion focused exclusively on the worship of purely elementary forces of nature by means of elaborate sacrifices which did not lend themselves easily to anthropomorphological representations 93 94 Various artefacts may belong to the Copper Hoard culture 2nd millennium CE some of them suggesting anthropomorphological characteristics 95 Interpretations vary as to the exact signification of these artifacts or even the culture and the periodization to which they belonged 95 During the Early Vedic period c 1500 1100 BCE 86 Indo Aryan tribes were pastoralists in north west India 96 After 1100 BCE with the introduction of iron the Indo Aryan tribes moved into the western Ganges Plain adapting an agrarian lifestyle 86 97 98 Rudimentary state forms appeared of which the Kuru tribe and realm was the most influential 86 99 It was a tribal union which developed into the first recorded state level society in South Asia around 1000 BCE 86 It decisively changed their religious heritage of the early Vedic period collecting their ritual hymns into the Veda collections and developing new rituals which gained their position in Indian civilization as the orthodox Srauta rituals 86 which contributed to the so called classical synthesis 100 or Hindu synthesis 12 Rigvedic religion Edit Who really knows Who will here proclaim it Whence was it produced Whence is this creation The gods came afterwards with the creation of this universe Who then knows whence it has arisen Nasadiya Sukta concerns the origin of the universe Rigveda 10 129 6 101 102 103 Rigveda manuscript page Mandala 1 Hymn 1 Sukta 1 lines 1 1 1 to 1 1 9 Sanskrit Devanagari script The Indo Aryans brought with them their language 104 and religion 105 106 The Indo Aryan and Vedic beliefs and practices of the pre classical era were closely related to the hypothesised Proto Indo European religion 107 and the Indo Iranian religion 108 According to Anthony the Old Indic religion probably emerged among Indo European immigrants in the contact zone between the Zeravshan River present day Uzbekistan and present day Iran 109 It was a syncretic mixture of old Central Asian and new Indo European elements 109 which borrowed distinctive religious beliefs and practices 108 from the Bactria Margiana culture 108 At least 383 non Indo European words were borrowed from this culture including the god Indra and the ritual drink Soma 110 According to Anthony Many of the qualities of Indo Iranian god of might victory Verethragna were transferred to the adopted god Indra who became the central deity of the developing Old Indic culture Indra was the subject of 250 hymns a quarter of the Rig Veda He was associated more than any other deity with Soma a stimulant drug perhaps derived from Ephedra probably borrowed from the BMAC religion His rise to prominence was a peculiar trait of the Old Indic speakers 91 The oldest inscriptions in Old Indic the language of the Rig Veda are found not in northwestern India and Pakistan but in northern Syria the location of the Mitanni kingdom 111 The Mitanni kings took Old Indic throne names and Old Indic technical terms were used for horse riding and chariot driving 111 The Old Indic term r ta meaning cosmic order and truth the central concept of the Rig Veda was also employed in the Mitanni kingdom 111 And Old Indic gods including Indra were also known in the Mitanni kingdom 112 113 114 Their religion was further developed when they migrated into the Ganges Plain after c 1100 BCE and became settled farmers 86 115 116 further syncretising with the native cultures of northern India 100 The Vedic religion of the later Vedic period co existed with local religions such as the Yaksha cults 100 117 web 5 and was itself the product of a composite of the Indo Aryan and Harappan cultures and civilizations 34 note 7 David Gordon White cites three other mainstream scholars who have emphatically demonstrated that Vedic religion is partially derived from the Indus Valley Civilisation 118 note 7 Vedas Edit A Yupa य प sacrificial pillar one of the most important elements of the Vedic ritual Mathura Museum 119 120 Its liturgy is preserved in the three Vedic Samhitas the Rigveda Samaveda and the Yajurveda The Vedic texts were the texts of the elite and do not necessarily represent popular ideas or practices 121 Of these the Rig Veda is the oldest a collection of hymns composed between ca 1500 1200 BCE 122 123 91 The other two add ceremonial detail for the performance of the actual sacrifice The Atharvaveda may also contain compositions dating to before 1000 BCE It contains material pertinent to domestic ritual and folk magic of the period These texts as well as the voluminous commentary on orthopraxy collected in the Brahmanas compiled during the early 1st millennium BCE were transmitted by oral tradition alone until the advent in the 4th century AD of the Pallava and Gupta period and by a combination of written and oral tradition since then The Hindu samskaras go back to a hoary antiquity The Vedas the Brahmanas the Grhyasutras the Dharmasutras the Smritis and other treatises describe the rites ceremonies and customs 124 The earliest text of the Vedas is the Rigveda 125 a collection of poetic hymns used in the sacrificial rites of Vedic priesthood Many Rigvedic hymns concern the fire ritual Agnihotra and especially the offering of Soma to the gods Somayajna Soma is both an intoxicant and a god itself as is the sacrificial fire Agni The royal horse sacrifice Ashvamedha is a central rite in the Yajurveda The gods in the Rig Veda are mostly personified concepts who fall into two categories the devas who were gods of nature such as the weather deity Indra who is also the King of the gods Agni fire Usha dawn Surya sun and Apas waters on the one hand and on the other hand the asuras gods of moral concepts such as Mitra contract Aryaman guardian of guest friendship and marriage Bhaga share or Varuna the supreme Asura or Aditya While Rigvedic deva is variously applied to most gods including many of the Asuras the Devas are characterised as Younger Gods while Asuras are the Older Gods purve devaḥ In later Vedic texts Asura comes to mean demon The Rigveda has 10 Mandalas books There is significant variation in the language and style between the family books RV books 2 7 book 8 the Soma Mandala RV 9 and the more recent books 1 and 10 The older books share many aspects of common Indo Iranian religion and is an important source for the reconstruction of earlier common Indo European traditions Especially RV 8 has striking similarity to the Avesta 126 containing allusions to Afghan Flora and Fauna 127 e g to camels uṣṭra Avestan ustra Many of the central religious terms in Vedic Sanskrit have cognates in the religious vocabulary of other Indo European languages deva Latin deus hotar Germanic god asura Germanic ansuz yajna Greek hagios brahman Norse Bragi or perhaps Latin flamen etc In the Avesta Asura Ahura is considered good and Devas Daevas are considered evil entities quite the opposite of the Rig Veda Cosmic order Edit Ethics in the Vedas are based on the concepts of Satya and Ṛta Satya is the principle of integration rooted in the Absolute 128 Ṛta is the expression of Satya which regulates and coordinates the operation of the universe and everything within it 129 Conformity with Ṛta would enable progress whereas its violation would lead to punishment Panikkar remarks Ṛta is the ultimate foundation of everything it is the supreme although this is not to be understood in a static sense It is the expression of the primordial dynamism that is inherent in everything 130 The term dharma was already used in Brahmanical thought where it was conceived as an aspect of Rta 131 The term rta is also known from the Proto Indo Iranian religion the religion of the Indo Iranian peoples prior to the earliest Vedic Indo Aryan and Zoroastrian Iranian scriptures Asha pronunciation asa is the Avestan language term corresponding to Vedic language ṛta 132 Upanishads Edit A page of Isha Upanishad manuscript The 9th and 8th centuries BCE witnessed the composition of the earliest Upanishads 133 Upanishads form the theoretical basis of classical Hinduism and are known as Vedanta conclusion of the Veda 134 The older Upanishads launched attacks of increasing intensity on the rituals however a philosophical and allegorical meaning is also given to these rituals In some later Upanishads there is a spirit of accommodation towards rituals The tendency which appears in the philosophical hymns of the Vedas to reduce the number of gods to one principle becomes prominent in the Upanishads 135 The diverse monistic speculations of the Upanishads were synthesised into a theistic framework by the sacred Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita 136 Brahmanism Edit Further information Brahmana Aranyaka and Shrauta Sutra Brahmanism also called Brahminism developed out of the Vedic religion incorporating non Vedic religious ideas and expanding to a region stretching from the northwest Indian subcontinent to the Ganges valley 137 Brahmanism included the Vedic corpus but also post Vedic texts such as the Dharmasutras and Dharmasastras which gave prominence to the priestly Brahmin class of the society 137 The emphasis on ritual and the dominant position of Brahmans developed as an ideology developed in the Kuru Pancala realm and expanded into a wider realm after the demise of the Kuru Pancala realm 86 It co existed with local religions such as the Yaksha cults 100 117 web 5 In Iron Age India during a period roughly spanning the 10th to 6th centuries BCE the Mahajanapadas arise from the earlier kingdoms of the various Indo Aryan tribes and the remnants of the Late Harappan culture In this period the mantra portions of the Vedas are largely completed and a flowering industry of Vedic priesthood organised in numerous schools shakha develops exegetical literature viz the Brahmanas These schools also edited the Vedic mantra portions into fixed recensions that were to be preserved purely by oral tradition over the following two millennia A page of the Jaiminiya Aranyaka Gana found embedded in the Samaveda palm leaf manuscript Sanskrit Grantha script Second Urbanisation and decline of Brahmanism c 600 200 BCE EditUpanishads and Sramaṇa movements Edit Main articles Upanishads and Sramaṇa City of Kushinagar in the 5th century BCE according to a 1st century BCE relief in Sanchi Buddhism and Jainism are two of many Indian philosophies considered as Sramaṇic traditions Vedism with its orthodox rituals may have been challenged as a consequence of the increasing urbanisation of India in the 7th and 6th centuries BCE and the influx of foreign stimuli initiated with the Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley circa 535 BCE 93 138 New ascetic or sramana movements arose which challenged established religious orthodoxy such as Buddhism Jainism and local popular cults 93 138 The anthropomorphic depiction of various deities apparently resumed in the middle of the 1st millennium BCE also as the consequence of the reduced authority of Vedism 93 Mahavira c 549 477 BCE proponent of Jainism and Buddha c 563 483 BCE founder of Buddhism were the most prominent icons of this movement 139 According to Heinrich Zimmer Jainism and Buddhism are part of the pre Vedic heritage which also includes Samkhya and Yoga Jainism does not derive from Brahman Aryan sources but reflects the cosmology and anthropology of a much older pre Aryan upper class of northeastern India being rooted in the same subsoil of archaic metaphysical speculation as Yoga Sankhya and Buddhism the other non Vedic Indian systems 140 note 26 The Sramana tradition in part created the concept of the cycle of birth and death the concept of Saṃsara and the concept of liberation which became characteristic for Hinduism note 27 Pratt notes that Oldenberg 1854 1920 Neumann 1865 1915 and Radhakrishnan 1888 1975 believed that the Buddhist canon had been influenced by Upanishads while la Vallee Poussin thinks the influence was nihil and Eliot and several others insist that on some points the Buddha was directly antithetical to the Upanishads 142 note 28 Mauryan Empire Edit Main article Maurya Empire The Mauryan period saw an early flowering of classical Sanskrit Sutra and Shastra literature and the scholarly exposition of the circum Vedic fields of the Vedanga However during this time Buddhism was patronised by Ashoka who ruled large parts of India and Buddhism was also the mainstream religion until the Gupta period Decline of Brahmanism Edit Decline Edit Nambudiri Brahmin performing srauta rites The post Vedic period of the Second Urbanisation saw a decline of Brahmanism 144 145 note 29 At the end of the Vedic period the meaning of the words of the Vedas had become obscure and was perceived as a fixed sequence of sounds 146 note 30 with a magical power means to an end note 31 With the growth of cities which threatened the income and patronage of the rural Brahmins the rise of Buddhism and the Indian campaign of Alexander the Great 327 325 BCE the expansion of the Maurya Empire 322 185 BCE with its embrace of Buddhism and the Saka invasions and rule of northwestern India 2nd c BC 4th c CE Brahmanism faced a grave threat to its existence 147 148 In some later texts Northwest India which earlier texts consider as part of Aryavarta is even seen as impure probably due to invasions Survival of Vedic ritual Edit Main article Srauta Vedism as the religious tradition of a priestly elite was marginalised by other traditions such as Jainism and Buddhism in the later Iron Age but in the Middle Ages would rise to renewed prestige with the Mimamsa school which as well as all other astika traditions of Hinduism considered them authorless apaurusheyatva and eternal A last surviving elements of the Historical Vedic religion or Vedism is Srauta tradition following many major elements of Vedic religion and is prominent in South India with communities in Tamil Nadu Kerala Karnataka Andhra Pradesh but also in some pockets of Uttar Pradesh Maharashtra and other states the best known of these groups are the Nambudiri of Kerala whose traditions were notably documented by Frits Staal 149 150 151 Hindu synthesis and Classical Hinduism c 200 BCE 1200 CE EditEarly Hinduism c 200 BCE 320 CE Edit See also Buddhism and Hinduism Vedanga Dharmasastra Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Nyaya Sutras and Brahma Sutras Hindu synthesis Edit Vasudeva Krishna on a coin of Agathocles of Bactria circa 190 180 BCE 152 153 This is the earliest unambiguous image of the deity 154 The Heliodorus pillar commissioned by Indo Greek ambassador Heliodorus around 113 BCE is the first known inscription related to Vaishnavism in the Indian subcontinent 155 Heliodurus was one of the earliest recorded foreign converts to Hinduism 156 The decline of Brahmanism was overcome by providing new services 157 and incorporating the non Vedic Indo Aryan religious heritage of the eastern Ganges plain and local religious traditions giving rise to contemporary Hinduism 147 web 6 100 158 86 137 Between 500 12 200 22 BCE and c 300 CE the Hindu synthesis developed 12 22 which incorporated Sramanic and Buddhist influences 22 41 and the emerging Bhakti tradition into the Brahmanical fold via the smriti literature 42 22 This synthesis emerged under the pressure of the success of Buddhism and Jainism 43 According to Embree several other religious traditions had existed side by side with the Vedic religion These indigenous religions eventually found a place under the broad mantle of the Vedic religion 159 When Brahmanism was declining note 29 and had to compete with Buddhism and Jainism note 32 the popular religions had the opportunity to assert themselves 159 According to Embree T he Brahmanists themselves seem to have encouraged this development to some extent as a means of meeting the challenge of the heterodox movements At the same time among the indigenous religions a common allegiance to the authority of the Vedas provided a thin but nonetheless significant thread of unity amid their variety of gods and religious practices 159 This new Brahmanism appealed to rulers who were attracted to the supernatural powers and the practical advice Brahmins could provide 157 and resulted in a resurgence of Brahmanical influence dominating Indian society since the classical Age of Hinduism in the early centuries CE 147 148 It is reflected in the process of Sanskritization a process in which people from many strata of society throughout the subcontinent tended to adapt their religious and social life to Brahmanic norms web 2 It is reflected in the tendency to identify local deities with the gods of the Sanskrit texts web 2 Smriti Edit The Brahmins response of assimilation and consolidation is reflected in the smriti literature which took shape in this period 160 The smriti texts of the period between 200 BCE and 100 CE proclaim the authority of the Vedas and acceptance of the Vedas became a central criterium for defining Hinduism over and against the heterodoxies which rejected the Vedas 161 Most of the basic ideas and practices of classical Hinduism derive from the new smriti literature note 33 Of the six Hindu darsanas the Mimamsa and the Vedanta are rooted primarily in the Vedic sruti tradition and are sometimes called smarta schools in the sense that they develop smarta orthodox current of thoughts that are based like smriti directly on sruti 162 verify According to Hiltebeitel the consolidation of Hinduism takes place under the sign of bhakti 162 It is the Bhagavadgita that seals this achievement 162 The result is a universal achievement that may be called smarta 162 It views Shiva and Vishnu as complementary in their functions but ontologically identical 162 The major Sanskrit epics Ramayana and Mahabharata which belong to the smriti were compiled over a protracted period during the late centuries BCE and the early centuries CE web 7 They contain mythological stories about the rulers and wars of ancient India and are interspersed with religious and philosophical treatises The later Puranas recount tales about devas and devis their interactions with humans and their battles against rakshasa The Bhagavad Gita seals the achievement 163 of the consolidation of Hinduism 163 integrating Brahmanic and sramanic ideas with theistic devotion 163 164 165 web 8 Schools of Hindu philosophy Edit In early centuries CE several schools of Hindu philosophy were formally codified including Samkhya Yoga Nyaya Vaisheshika Purva Mimamsa and Vedanta 166 Sangam literature Edit The Sangam literature 300 BCE 400 CE written in the Sangam period is a mostly secular body of classical literature in the Tamil language Nonetheless there are some works significantly Pattupathu and Paripaatal wherein the personal devotion to God was written in the form of devotional poems Vishnu Shiva and Murugan were mentioned gods These works are therefore the earliest evidence of monotheistic Bhakti traditions preceding the large bhakti movement which was given great attention in later times Indian trade with Africa Edit During the time of the Roman Empire trade took place between India and east Africa and there is archaeological evidence of small Indian presence in Zanzibar Zimbabwe Madagascar and the coastal parts of Kenya along with the Swahili coast 167 168 but no conversion to Hinduism took place 168 169 Hindu Colony in the Middle East The Levant Edit Armenian historian Zenob Glak 300 350 CE said there was an Indian colony in the canton of Taron on the upper Euphrates to the west of Lake Van as early as the second century B C 170 The Indians had built there two temples containing images of gods about 18 and 22 feet high 170 Golden Age of India Gupta and Pallava period c 320 650 CE Edit Further information Hindu philosophy Mimaṃsa and Samkhya Dashavatara Temple is a Vishnu Hindu temple build during the Gupta period During this period power was centralised along with a growth of near distance trade standardization of legal procedures and general spread of literacy 171 Mahayana Buddhism flourished but orthodox Brahmana culture began to be rejuvenated by the patronage of the Gupta Dynasty 172 who were Vaishnavas 173 The position of the Brahmans was reinforced 171 the first Hindu temples dedicated to the gods of the Hindu deities emerged during the late Gupta age 171 note 34 During the Gupta reign the first Puranas were written 44 note 8 which were used to disseminate mainstream religious ideology amongst pre literate and tribal groups undergoing acculturation 44 The Guptas patronised the newly emerging Puranic religion seeking legitimacy for their dynasty 173 The resulting Puranic Hinduism differed markedly from the earlier Brahmanism of the Dharmasastras and the smritis 44 According to P S Sharma the Gupta and Harsha periods form really from the strictly intellectual standpoint the most brilliant epocha in the development of Indian philosophy as Hindu and Buddhist philosophies flourished side by side 174 Charvaka the atheistic materialist school came to the fore in North India before the 8th century CE 175 Gupta and Pallava Empires Edit Main articles Pallava dynasty and Gupta Empire The Gupta period 4th to 6th centuries saw a flowering of scholarship the emergence of the classical schools of Hindu philosophy and of classical Sanskrit literature in general on topics ranging from medicine veterinary science mathematics to astrology and astronomy and astrophysics The famous Aryabhata and Varahamihira belong to this age The Gupta established a strong central government which also allowed a degree of local control Gupta society was ordered in accordance with Hindu beliefs This included a strict caste system or class system The peace and prosperity created under Gupta leadership enabled the pursuit of scientific and artistic endeavors The Pallavas 4th to 9th centuries were alongside the Guptas of the North patronisers of Sanskrit in the South of the Indian subcontinent The Pallava reign saw the first Sanskrit inscriptions in a script called Grantha The Pallavas used Dravidian architecture to build some very important Hindu temples and academies in Mahabalipuram Kanchipuram and other places their rule saw the rise of great poets who are as famous as Kalidasa During early Pallavas period there are different connexions to Southeast Asian and other countries Due to it in the Middle Ages Hinduism became the state religion in many kingdoms of Asia the so called Greater India from Afghanistan Kabul in the West and including almost all of Southeast Asia in the East Cambodia Vietnam Indonesia Philippines and only by the 15th century was near everywhere supplanted by Buddhism and Islam 176 177 178 The practice of dedicating temples to different deities came into vogue followed by fine artistic temple architecture and sculpture see Vastu shastra The Hindu Shore Temple a UNESCO World Heritage Site at Mamallapuram built by Narasimhavarman II The Descent of the Ganges also known as Arjuna s Penance at Mahabalipuram is one of the largest rock reliefs in Asia and features in several Hindu myths Bhakti Edit This period saw the emergence of the Bhakti movement The Bhakti movement was a rapid growth of bhakti beginning in Tamil Nadu in Southern India with the Saiva Nayanars 4th to 10th centuries CE 179 and the Vaisnava Alvars 3rd to 9th centuries CE who spread bhakti poetry and devotion throughout India by the 12th to 18th centuries CE 180 179 Expansion in South East Asia Edit Further information Hinduism in Southeast Asia Sanskritisation and Greater India Expansion of Hinduism in Southeast Asia Angkor Wat in Cambodia is one of the largest Hindu monuments in the world It is one of hundreds of ancient Hindu temples in Southeast Asia Prambanan in Java is a Hindu temple complex dedicated to Trimurti It was built during the Sanjaya dynasty of Mataram Kingdom Hoa Lai Towers in Ninh Thuận Vietnam a Hindu temple complex built in the 9th century by the Champa Kingdom of Panduranga Pura Besakih the holiest temple of Hindu religion in Bali Hindu influences reached the Indonesian Archipelago as early as the first century 181 At this time India started to strongly influence Southeast Asian countries Trade routes linked India with southern Burma central and southern Siam lower Cambodia and southern Vietnam and numerous urbanised coastal settlements were established there For more than a thousand years Indian Hindu Buddhist influence was therefore the major factor that brought a certain level of cultural unity to the various countries of the region The Pali and Sanskrit languages and the Indian script together with Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism Brahmanism and Hinduism were transmitted from direct contact as well as through sacred texts and Indian literature such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata epics From the 5th to the 13th century South East Asia had very powerful Indian colonial empires and became extremely active in Hindu and Buddhist architectural and artistic creation The Sri Vijaya Empire to the south and the Khmer Empire to the north competed for influence Langkasuka langkha Sanskrit for resplendent land sukkha of bliss was an ancient Hindu kingdom located in the Malay Peninsula The kingdom along with Old Kedah settlement are probably the earliest territorial footholds founded on the Malay Peninsula According to tradition the founding of the kingdom happened in the 2nd century Malay legends claim that Langkasuka was founded at Kedah and later moved to Pattani From the 5th to 15th centuries Sri Vijayan empire a maritime empire centred on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia had adopted Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism under a line of rulers named the Sailendras The Empire of Sri Vijaya declined due to conflicts with the Chola rulers of India The Majapahit Empire succeeded the Singhasari empire It was one of the last and greatest Hindu empires in maritime Southeast Asia Funan was a pre Angkor Cambodian kingdom located around the Mekong delta probably established by Mon Khmer settlers speaking an Austroasiatic language According to reports by two Chinese envoys K ang T ai and Chu Ying the state was established by an Indian Brahmin named Kaundinya who in the 1st century CE was given instruction in a dream to take a magic bow from a temple and defeat a Khmer queen Soma Soma the daughter of the king of the Nagas married Kaundinya and their lineage became the royal dynasty of Funan The myth had the advantage of providing the legitimacy of both an Indian Brahmin and the divinity of the cobras who at that time were held in religious regard by the inhabitants of the region The kingdom of Champa or Lin yi in Chinese records controlled what is now south and central Vietnam from approximately 192 through 1697 The dominant religion of the Cham people was Hinduism and the culture was heavily influenced by India Later from the 9th to the 13th century the Mahayana Buddhist and Hindu Khmer Empire dominated much of the South East Asian peninsula Under the Khmer more than 900 temples were built in Cambodia and in neighboring Thailand Angkor was at the centre of this development with a temple complex and urban organisation able to support around one million urban dwellers The largest temple complex of the world Angkor Wat stands here built by the king Vishnuvardhan Late Classical Hinduism Puranic Hinduism c 650 1200 CE Edit See also History of India Classical and early medieval periods c 200 BCE c 1200 CE One of the four entrances of the Teli ka Mandir This Hindu temple was built by the Gurjara Pratihara emperor Mihira Bhoja 182 After the end of the Gupta Empire and the collapse of the Harsha Empire power became decentralised in India Several larger kingdoms emerged with countless vasal states 183 note 35 The kingdoms were ruled via a feudal system Smaller kingdoms were dependent on the protection of the larger kingdoms The great king was remote was exalted and deified 183 as reflected in the Tantric Mandala which could also depict the king as the centre of the mandala 184 The disintegration of central power also lead to regionalisation of religiosity and religious rivalry 185 note 36 Local cults and languages were enhanced and the influence of Brahmanic ritualistic Hinduism 185 was diminished 185 Rural and devotional movements arose along with Shaivism Vaisnavism Bhakti and Tantra 185 though sectarian groupings were only at the beginning of their development 185 Religious movements had to compete for recognition by the local lords 185 Buddhism lost its position after the 8th century and began to disappear in India 185 This was reflected in the change of puja ceremonies at the courts in the 8th century where Hindu gods replaced the Buddha as the supreme imperial deity note 37 Puranic Hinduism Edit Further information Puranas The mythology in the Puranas has inspired many reliefs and sculptures found in Hindu temples 186 The legend behind the Krishna and Gopis relief above is described in the Bhagavata Purana 187 The Brahmanism of the Dharmasastra and the smritis underwent a radical transformation at the hands of the Purana composers resulting in the rise of Puranic Hinduism 44 which like a colossus striding across the religious firmanent soon came to overshadow all existing religions 188 Puranic Hinduism was a multiplex belief system which grew and expanded as it absorbed and synthesised polaristic ideas and cultic traditions 188 It was distinguished from its Vedic Smarta roots by its popular base its theological and sectarian pluralism its Tantric veneer and the central place of bhakti 188 note 9 The early mediaeval Puranas were composed to disseminate religious mainstream ideology among the pre literate tribal societies undergoing acculturation 44 With the breakdown of the Gupta empire gifts of virgin waste land were heaped on brahmanas 49 189 to ensure profitable agrarian exploitation of land owned by the kings 49 but also to provide status to the new ruling classes 49 Brahmanas spread further over India interacting with local clans with different religions and ideologies 49 The Brahmanas used the Puranas to incorporate those clans into the agrarian society and its accompanying religion and ideology 49 According to Flood t he Brahmans who followed the puranic religion became known as smarta those whose worship was based on the smriti or pauranika those based on the Puranas 190 Local chiefs and peasants were absorbed into the varna which was used to keep control over the new kshatriyas and shudras 191 The Gardez Ganesha a statue of the Hindu deity Ganesha consecrated in the mid 8th century CE during the Turk Shahi era in Gardez Afghanistan 192 The Brahmanic group was enlarged by incorporating local subgroups such as local priests 49 This also lead to stratification within the Brahmins with some Brahmins having a lower status than other Brahmins 49 The use of caste worked better with the new Puranic Hinduism than with the Sramanic sects 191 The Puranic texts provided extensive genealogies which gave status to the new kshatriyas 191 Buddhist myths pictured government as a contract between an elected ruler and the people 191 And the Buddhist chakkavatti note 38 was a distinct concept from the models of conquest held up to the kshatriyas and the Rajputs 191 Many local religions and traditions were assimilated into puranic Hinduism Vishnu and Shiva emerged as the main deities together with Sakti Deva 193 Vishnu subsumed the cults of Narayana Jagannaths Venkateswara and many others 193 Nath S ome incarnations of Vishnu such as Matsya Kurma Varaha and perhaps even Nrsimha helped to incorporate certain popular totem symbols and creation myths especially those related to wild boar which commonly permeate preliterate mythology others such as Krsna and Balarama became instrumental in assimilating local cults and myths centering around two popular pastoral and agricultural gods 194 The transformation of Brahmanism into Pauranic Hinduism in post Gupta India was due to a process of acculturation The Puranas helped establish a religious mainstream among the pre literate tribal societies undergoing acculturation The tenets of Brahmanism and of the Dharmashastras underwent a radical transformation at the hands of the Purana composers resulting in the rise of a mainstream Hinduism that overshadowed all earlier traditions 49 Bhakti movement Edit Main article Bhakti movement See also Tulsidas Kabir Mirabai and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu The Child Saint Sambandar Chola dynasty Tamil Nadu He is one of the most prominent of the 63 Nayanars of the Saiva Bhakti movement Rama and Krishna became the focus of a strong bhakti tradition which found expression particularly in the Bhagavata Purana The Krishna tradition subsumed numerous Naga yaksa and hill and tree based cults 195 Siva absorbed local cults by the suffixing of Isa or Isvara to the name of the local deity for example Bhutesvara Hatakesvara Chandesvara 193 In 8th century royal circles the Buddha started to be replaced by Hindu gods in pujas note 39 This also was the same period of time the Buddha was made into an avatar of Vishnu 197 The first documented bhakti movement was founded by Karaikkal Ammaiyar She wrote poems in Tamil about her love for Shiva and probably lived around the 6th century CE The twelve Alvars who were Vaishnavite devotees and the sixty three Nayanars who were Shaivite devotees nurtured the incipient bhakti movement in Tamil Nadu During the 12th century CE in Karnataka the Bhakti movement took the form of the Virashaiva movement It was inspired by Basavanna a Hindu reformer who created the sect of Lingayats or Shiva bhaktas During this time a unique and native form of Kannada literature poetry called Vachanas was born Advaita Vedanta Edit Main articles Advaita Vedanta and Adi Shankara Adi Shankara is credited with unifying and establishing the main currents of thought in Hinduism 198 The early Advaitin Gaudapada 6th 7th c CE was influenced by Buddhism 199 200 201 202 Gaudapda took over the Buddhist doctrines that ultimate reality is pure consciousness vijnapti matra 203 and that the nature of the world is the four cornered negation 203 Gaudapada wove both doctrines into a philosophy of the Mandukya Upanishad which was further developed by Shankara 200 Gaudapada also took over the Buddhist concept of ajata from Nagarjuna s Madhyamaka philosophy 201 202 Shankara succeeded in reading Gaudapada s mayavada 204 note 40 into Badarayana s Brahma Sutras and give it a locus classicus 204 against the realistic strain of the Brahma Sutras 204 Shankara 8th century CE was a scholar who synthesized and systematized Advaita Vedanta views which already existed at his lifetime 205 206 207 web 13 Shankara propounded a unified reality in which the innermost self of a person atman and the supernatural power of the entire world brahman are one and the same Perceiving the changing multiplicity of forms and objects as the final reality is regarded as maya illusion obscuring the unchanging ultimate reality of brahman 208 209 210 211 While Shankara has an unparalleled status in the history of Advaita Vedanta Shankara s early influence in India is doubtful 212 Until the 11th century Vedanta itself was a peripheral school of thought 213 and until the 10th century Shankara himself was overshadowed by his older contemporary Maṇḍana Misra who was considered to be the major representative of Advaita 214 215 Several scholars suggest that the historical fame and cultural influence of Shankara and Advaita Vedanta grew only centuries later during the era of the Muslim invasions and consequent devastation of India 212 216 217 due to the efforts of Vidyaranya 14th c who created legends to turn Shankara into a divine folk hero who spread his teaching through his digvijaya universal conquest all over India like a victorious conqueror 218 219 Shankara s position was further established in the 19th an 20th century when neo Vedantins and western Orientalists elevated Advaita Vedanta as the connecting theological thread that united Hinduism into a single religious tradition 220 Advaita Vedanta has acquired a broad acceptance in Indian culture and beyond as the paradigmatic example of Hindu spirituality 143 Shankara became an iconic representation of Hindu religion and culture despite the fact that most Hindus do not adhere to Advaita Vedanta 221 Contact with Persia and Mesopotamia Edit An inscribed invocation to Lord Shiva in Sanskrit at the Ateshgah of Baku west of the Caspian Sea Hindu and also Buddhist religious and secular learning had first reached Persia in an organised manner in the 6th century when the Sassanid Emperor Khosrow I 531 579 deputed Borzuya the physician as his envoy to invite Indian and Chinese scholars to the Academy of Gondishapur Burzoe had translated the Sanskrit Panchatantra His Pahlavi version was translated into Arabic by Ibn al Muqaffa under the title of Kalila and Dimna or The Fables of Bidpai 222 Under the Abbasid caliphate Baghdad had replaced Gundeshapur as the most important centre of learning in the then vast Islamic Empire wherein the traditions as well as scholars of the latter flourished Hindu scholars were invited to the conferences on sciences and mathematics held in Baghdad 223 Medieval and early modern periods c 1200 1850 CE EditMuslim rule Edit Main articles Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent and Islam in India Though Islam came to the Indian subcontinent in the early 7th century with the advent of Arab traders it started impacting Indian religions after the 10th century and particularly after the 12th century with the establishment and then expansion of Islamic rule 224 225 Will Durant calls the Muslim conquest of India probably the bloodiest story in history 226 During this period Buddhism declined rapidly while Hinduism faced military led and Sultanates sponsored religious violence 226 227 There was a widespread practice of raids seizure and enslavement of families of Hindus who were then sold in Sultanate cities or exported to Central Asia 228 229 Some texts suggest a number of Hindus were forcibly converted to Islam 230 231 Starting with the 13th century for a period of some 500 years very few texts from the numerous written by Muslim court historians mention any voluntary conversions of Hindus to Islam suggesting the insignificance and perhaps rarity of such conversions 231 Typically enslaved Hindus converted to Islam to gain their freedom 232 There were occasional exceptions to religious violence against Hinduism Akbar for example recognized Hinduism banned enslavement of the families of Hindu war captives protected Hindu temples and abolished discriminatory Jizya head taxes against Hindus 228 233 However many Muslim rulers of Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire before and after Akbar from the 12th to 18th centuries destroyed Hindu temples web 14 234 web 15 note 41 and persecuted non Muslims As noted by Alain Danielou From the time Muslims started arriving around 632 AD the history of India becomes a long monotonous series of murders massacres spoliations and destructions It is as usual in the name of a holy war of their faith of their sole God that the barbarians have destroyed civilizations wiped out entire races 235 The image in the chapter on India in Hutchison s Story of the Nations edited by James Meston depicts the Muslim Turkic general Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji s massacre of Buddhist monks in Bihar India Khaliji destroyed the Nalanda and Vikramshila universities during his raids across North Indian plains massacring many Buddhist and Brahmin scholars 236 The Kashi Vishwanath Temple was destroyed by the army of Delhi Sultan Qutb ud Din Aibak 237 Kakatiya Kala Thoranam Warangal Gate built by the Kakatiya dynasty in ruins one of the many temple complexes destroyed by the Delhi Sultanate 237 Bhakti Vedanta Edit Teachers such as Ramanuja Madhva and Chaitanya aligned the Bhakti movement with the textual tradition of Vedanta which until the 11th century was only a peripheral school of thought 213 while rejecting and opposing the abstract notions of Advaita Instead they promoted emotional passionate devotion towards the more accessible Avatars especially Krishna and Rama 224 238 Ramanuja is one of the most important exponents of the Sri Vaishnavism tradition within Hinduism depicted with Vaishnava Tilaka and Varadraja Vishnu statue 239 Madhvacharya is chief proponent of Sadh Vaishnavism tradition and Tattvavada Dvaita school of Vedanta within Hinduism depicted with Vaishnava Gopichandana Urdhva Pundra and Gnana Mudra or Jnana Mudra or Jana Mudra a symbol of knowledge and wisdom 240 Chaitanya Mahaprabhu chief proponent of the Achintya Bheda Abheda and Gaudiya Vaishnavism tradition within Hinduism and Nityananda is shown performing a kirtan in the streets of Nabadwip Bengal web 16 Unifying Hinduism Edit According to Nicholson already between the 12th and the 16th century certain thinkers began to treat as a single whole the diverse philosophical teachings of the Upanishads epics Puranas and the schools known retrospectively as the six systems saddarsana of mainstream Hindu philosophy 241 note 42 Michaels notes that a historicization emerged which preceded later nationalism articulating ideas which glorified Hinduism and the past 242 Several scholars suggest that the historical fame and cultural influence of Shankara and Advaita Vedanta was inetentionally established during this period 212 216 217 Vidyaranya 14th c also known as Madhava and a follower of Shankara created legends to turn Shankara whose elevated philosophy had no appeal to gain widespread popularity into a divine folk hero who spread his teaching through his digvijaya universal conquest all over India like a victorious conqueror 218 219 In his Savadarsanasamgraha Summary of all views Vidyaranya presented Shankara s teachings as the summit of all darsanas presenting the other darsanas as partial truths which converged in Shankara s teachings 218 Vidyaranya enjoyed royal support 243 and his sponsorship and methodical efforts helped establish Shankara as a rallying symbol of values spread historical and cultural influence of Shankara s Vedanta philosophies and establish monasteries mathas to expand the cultural influence of Shankara and Advaita Vedanta 212 Eastern Ganga and Surya States Edit Konark Sun Temple at Konark Odisha built by Narasimhadeva I 1238 1264 CE of the Eastern Ganga dynasty Jagannath Temple Puri built by Anantavarman Chodaganga Deva Eastern Ganga and Surya were Hindu polities which ruled much of present day Odisha historically known as Kalinga from the 11th century until the mid 16th century CE During the 13th and 14th centuries when large parts of India were under the rule of Muslim powers an independent Kalinga became a stronghold of Hindu religion philosophy art and architecture The Eastern Ganga rulers were great patrons of religion and the arts and the temples they built are considered among the masterpieces of Hindu architecture web 17 web 18 Early Modern period c 1500 1850 CE Edit The fall of Vijayanagara Empire to Muslim rulers had marked the end of Hindu imperial defences in the Deccan But taking advantage of an over stretched Mughal Empire 1526 1857 Hinduism once again rose to political prestige under the Maratha Empire from 1674 to 1818 Vijayanagara Empire Edit The Vijayanagara Empire was established in 1336 by Harihara I and his brother Bukka Raya I of Sangama dynasty 244 which originated as a political heir of the Hoysala Empire Kakatiya Empire 245 and the Pandyan Empire 246 The empire rose to prominence as a culmination of attempts by the south Indian powers to ward off Islamic invasions by the end of the 13th century According to one narrative the empire s founders Harihara I and Bukka Raya I were two brothers in the service of the Kampili chief After Kampili fell to the Muslim invasion they were taken to Delhi and converted to Islam They were sent back to Kampili as the Delhi Sultan s vassals After gaining power in the region they approached Vidyaranya who converted them back to the Hindu faith 247 The Vijayanagara Emperors were tolerant of all religions and sects as writings by foreign visitors show 248 The kings used titles such as Gobrahamana Pratipalanacharya literally protector of cows and Brahmins and Hindurayasuratrana lit upholder of Hindu faith that testified to their intention of protecting Hinduism and yet were at the same time staunchly Islamicate in their court ceremonials and dress 249 The empire s founders Harihara I and Bukka Raya I were devout Shaivas worshippers of Shiva but made grants to the Vaishnava order of Sringeri with Vidyaranya as their patron saint and designated Varaha the boar an avatar of Vishnu as their emblem 250 Over one fourth of the archaeological dig found an Islamic Quarter not far from the Royal Quarter Nobles from Central Asia s Timurid kingdoms also came to Vijayanagara The later Saluva and Tuluva kings were Vaishnava by faith but worshipped at the feet of Lord Virupaksha Shiva at Hampi as well as Lord Venkateswara Vishnu at Tirupati A Sanskrit work Jambavati Kalyanam by King Krishnadevaraya called Lord Virupaksha Karnata Rajya Raksha Mani protective jewel of Karnata Empire 251 The kings patronised the saints of the dvaita order philosophy of dualism of Madhvacharya at Udupi 252 Market place at Hampi and the sacred tank located near the Krishna temple Stone temple car in the Vitthala Temple at Hampi Virupaksha Temple is dedicated to Lord Virupaksha a form of Shiva An open mantapa with yali columns at the Vittala temple in Hampi The Bhakti devotional movement was active during this time and involved well known Haridasas devotee saints of that time Like the Virashaiva movement of the 12th century this movement presented another strong current of devotion pervading the lives of millions The haridasas represented two groups the Vyasakuta and Dasakuta the former being required to be proficient in the Vedas Upanishads and other Darshanas while the Dasakuta merely conveyed the message of Madhvacharya through the Kannada language to the people in the form of devotional songs Devaranamas and Kirthanas The philosophy of Madhvacharya was spread by eminent disciples such as Naraharitirtha Jayatirtha Sripadaraya Vyasatirtha Vadirajatirtha and others 253 Vyasatirtha the guru teacher of Vadirajatirtha Purandaradasa Father of Carnatic music 254 note 43 and Kanakadasa 255 earned the devotion of King Krishnadevaraya 256 257 258 The king considered the saint his Kuladevata family deity and honoured him in his writings web 19 During this time another great composer of early carnatic music Annamacharya composed hundreds of Kirthanas in Telugu at Tirumala Tirupati in present day Andhra Pradesh 259 The Vijayanagara Empire created an epoch in South Indian history that transcended regionalism by promoting Hinduism as a unifying factor The empire reached its peak during the rule of Sri Krishnadevaraya when Vijayanagara armies were consistently victorious The empire annexed areas formerly under the Sultanates in the northern Deccan and the territories in the eastern Deccan including Kalinga while simultaneously maintaining control over all its subordinates in the south 260 Many important monuments were either completed or commissioned during the time of Krishna Deva Raya Vijayanagara went into decline after the defeat in the Battle of Talikota 1565 After the death of Aliya Rama Raya in the Battle of Talikota Tirumala Deva Raya started the Aravidu dynasty moved and founded a new capital of Penukonda to replace the destroyed Hampi and attempted to reconstitute the remains of Vijayanagara Empire 261 Tirumala abdicated in 1572 dividing the remains of his kingdom to his three sons and pursued a religious life until his death in 1578 The Aravidu dynasty successors ruled the region but the empire collapsed in 1614 and the final remains ended in 1646 from continued wars with the Bijapur Sultanate and others 262 263 264 During this period more kingdoms in South India became independent and separate from Vijayanagara These include the Mysore Kingdom Keladi Nayaka Nayaks of Madurai Nayaks of Tanjore Nayakas of Chitradurga and Nayak Kingdom of Gingee all of which declared independence and went on to have a significant impact on the history of South India in the coming centuries 265 An aerial view of the Meenakshi Temple from the top of the southern gopuram looking north The temple was rebuilt by the Vijayanagara Empire Mughal period Edit Chaturbhuj Temple dedicated to Vishnu Lakshmi Temple dedicated to LakshmiChaturbhuj and Lakshmi temples located in Orchha were built by Hindu Rajput Orchha State who were vassal of the Mughal Empire The official state religion of Mughal India was Islam with the preference to the jurisprudence of the Hanafi Madhhab Mazhab Hinduism remained under strain during Babur and Humanyun s reigns Sher Shah Suri the Afghan ruler of North India was comparatively non repressive Hinduism came to fore during the three year rule of Hindu ruler Hemu Vikramaditya during 1553 1556 when he had defeated Akbar at Agra and Delhi and had taken up the reign from Delhi as a Hindu Vikramaditya after his Rajyabhishake or coronation at Purana Quila in Delhi However during Mughal history at times subjects had the freedom to practise any religion of their choice though kafir able bodied adult males with income were obliged to pay the jizya which signified their status as dhimmis Akbar the Great holds a religious assembly of different faiths including Hindus in the Ibadat Khana in Fatehpur Sikri Akbar the Mughal emperor Humayun s son and heir from his Sindhi queen Hameeda Banu Begum had a broad vision of Indian and Islamic traditions One of Emperor Akbar s most unusual ideas regarding religion was Din i Ilahi Faith of God which was an eclectic mix of Islam Zoroastrianism Hinduism Jainism and Christianity It was proclaimed the state religion until his death These actions however met with stiff opposition from the Muslim clergy especially the Sufi Shaykh Alf Sani Ahmad Sirhindi Akbar s abolition of poll tax on non Muslims acceptance of ideas from other religious philosophies toleration of public worship by all religions and his interest in other faiths showed an attitude of considerable religious tolerance which in the minds of his orthodox Muslim opponents were tantamount to apostasy Akbar s imperial expansion acquired many Hindu states many of whom were Hindu Rajputs through vassalage The Rajput vassals maintained semi autonomy in running religious affairs Many Hindu Rajput vassals built monumental Hindu temples during the period such as Chaturbhuj Temple and Lakshmi Temple at Orchha by the Mughal vassal the Hindu Rajput Orchha State 266 Akbar s son Jahangir half Rajput was also a religious moderate his mother being Hindu The influence of his two Hindu queens the Maharani Maanbai and Maharani Jagat kept religious moderation as a centre piece of state policy which was extended under his son Emperor Shah Jahan who was by blood 75 Rajput and less than 25 Moghul Somnath temple in ruins 1869 Front view of the present Somnath TempleThe Somnath temple was first attacked by Muslim Turkic invader Mahmud of Ghazni and repeatedly rebuilt after being demolished by successive Muslim rulers including the Mughals under Aurangzeb Religious orthodoxy would only play an important role during the reign of Shah Jahan s son and successor Aurangzeb a devout Sunni Muslim Aurangzeb was comparatively less tolerant of other faiths than his predecessors had been and has been subject to controversy and criticism for his policies that abandoned his predecessors legacy of pluralism citing his introduction of the jizya tax doubling of custom duties on Hindus while abolishing it for Muslims destruction of Hindu temples forbidding construction and repairs of some non Muslim temples and the executions of Maratha ruler Sambhaji 267 268 and the ninth Sikh guru Guru Tegh Bahadur 269 and his reign saw an increase in the number and importance of Islamic institutions and scholars He led many military campaigns against the remaining non Muslim powers of the Indian subcontinent the Sikh states of Punjab the last independent Hindu Rajputs and the Maratha rebels as also against the Shia Muslim kingdoms of the Deccan He also virtually stamped out from his empire open proselytisation of Hindus and Muslims by foreign Christian missionaries who remained successfully active however in the adjoining regions the present day Kerala Tamil Nadu and Goa The Hindus in Konkan were helped by Marathas Hindus in Punjab Kashmir and North India were helped by Sikhs and Hindus in Rajasthan and Central India were helped by Rajputs Maratha Empire Edit Main article Maratha Empire The Hindu Marathas had resisted incursions into the region by the Muslim Mughal rulers of northern India Under their ambitious leader Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj the Maratha freed themselves from the Muslim sultans of Bijapur to the southeast and becoming much more aggressive began to frequently raid Mughal territory The Marathas had spread and conquered much of central India by Shivaji s death in 1680 Subsequently under the able leadership of Brahmin prime ministers Peshwas the Maratha Empire reached its zenith Pune the seat of Peshwas flowered as a centre of Hindu learning and traditions The empire at its peak stretched from Tamil Nadu 270 in the south to Peshawar present day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 271 note 44 in the north and Bengal in the east web 20 The last Hindu empire of India the Maratha Empire in 1760 CE Ahilya Ghat part of the Ghats in Varanasi many of which were built by the Marathas 273 Kingdom of Nepal Edit Main article Kingdom of Nepal Further information Hinduism in Nepal King Prithvi Narayan Shah the last Gorkhali monarch self proclaimed the newly unified Kingdom of Nepal as Asal Hindustan Real Land of Hindus due to North India being ruled by the Islamic Mughal rulers The proclamation was done to enforce Hindu social code Dharmasastra over his reign and refer to his country as being inhabitable for Hindus He also referred Northern India as Mughlan Country of Mughals and called the region infiltrated by Muslim foreigners 274 After the Gorkhali conquest of Kathmandu valley King Prithvi Narayan Shah expelled the Christian Capuchin missionaries from Patan and revisioned Nepal as Asal Hindustan real land of Hindus 275 The Hindu Tagadharis a Nepalese Hindu socio religious group were given the privileged status in the Nepalese capital thereafter 276 277 Since then Hinduisation became the significant policy of the Kingdom of Nepal 275 Professor Harka Gurung speculates that the presence of Islamic Mughal rule and Christian British rule in India had compelled the foundation of Brahmin Orthodoxy in Nepal for the purpose building a haven for Hindus in the Kingdom of Nepal 275 Early colonialism Edit Further information Christianity in India and Goa Inquisition The Auto da fe procession of the Inquisition at Goa 278 An annual event to publicly humiliate and punish the heretics it shows the Chief Inquisitor Dominican friars Portuguese soldiers as well as religious criminals condemned to be burnt in the procession Portuguese missionaries had reached the Malabar Coast in the late 15th century made contact with the St Thomas Christians in Kerala and sought to introduce the Latin Rite among them Since the priests for St Thomas Christians were served by the Eastern Christian Churches they were following Eastern Christian practices at that time Throughout this period foreign missionaries also made many new converts to Christianity This led to the formation of the Latin Catholics in Kerala The Goa Inquisition was the office of the Christian Inquisition acting in the Indian city of Goa and the rest of the Portuguese empire in Asia Francis Xavier in a 1545 letter to John III requested for an Inquisition to be installed in Goa It was installed eight years after the death of Francis Xavier in 1552 Established in 1560 and operating until 1774 this highly controversial institution was aimed primarily at Hindus and wayward new converts The Battle of Plassey would see the emergence of the British as a political power their rule later expanded to cover much of India over the next hundred years conquering all of the Hindu states on the Indian subcontinent 279 with the exception of the Kingdom of Nepal While the Maratha Empire remained the preeminent power in India making it the last remaining Hindu empire 280 until their defeat in the Third Anglo Maratha War which left the East India Company in control of most of India as noted by acting Governor General Charles Metcalfe after surveying and analyzing the conditions in India in 1806 wrote India contains no more than two great powers British and Mahratta 281 282 During this period Northeastern India was divided into many kingdoms most notable being the Kingdom of Manipur which ruled from their seat of power at Kangla Palace and developed a sophisticated Hindu Gaudiya Vaishnavism culture later the kingdom became a princely state of the British 283 284 285 The Kingdom of Mysore was defeated in the Fourth Anglo Mysore War by the British East India Company leading to the reinstatement of the Hindu Wadiyar dynasty in Mysore as a princely states 286 In 1817 the British went to war with the Pindaris raiders who were based in Maratha territory which quickly became the Third Anglo Maratha War and the British government offered its protection to the mainly Hindu Rajput rulers of Rajputana from the Pindaris and the Marathas 287 The mainly Hindu Palaiyakkarar states emerged from the fall of the Vijayanagara Empire and were a bastion of Hindu resistance and managed to weather invasions and survive till the advent of the British web 21 From 1799 to 1849 the Sikh Empire ruled by members of the Sikh religion emerged as the last major indigenous power in the Northwest of the Indian subcontinent under the leadership of Maharaja Ranjit Singh 288 289 After the death of Ranjit Singh the empire weakened alienating Hindu vassals and Wazirs and leading to the conflict with the British East India Company marked the downfall of the Sikh Empire making it the last area of the Indian subcontinent to be conquered by the British The entire subcontinent fell under British rule partly indirectly via princely states following the Indian Rebellion of 1857 Modern Hinduism after c 1850 CE Edit Swami Vivekananda was a key figure in introducing Vedanta and Yoga in the Western world 290 raising interfaith awareness and making Hinduism a world religion 291 With the onset of the British Raj the colonization of India by the British there also started a Hindu Renaissance in the 19th century which profoundly changed the understanding of Hinduism in both India and the west 292 Indology as an academic discipline of studying Indian culture from a European perspective was established in the 19th century led by scholars such as Max Muller and John Woodroffe They brought Vedic Puranic and Tantric literature and philosophy to Europe and the United States Western orientalist searched for the essence of the Indian religions discerning this in the Vedas 293 and meanwhile creating the notion of Hinduism as a unified body of religious praxis 143 and the popular picture of mystical India 143 292 This idea of a Vedic essence was taken over by Hindu reform movements as the Brahmo Samaj which was supported for a while by the Unitarian Church 294 together with the ideas of Universalism and Perennialism the idea that all religions share a common mystic ground 295 This Hindu modernism with proponents like Vivekananda Aurobindo Rabindranath and Radhakrishnan became central in the popular understanding of Hinduism 296 297 298 299 143 Hindu revivalism Edit This section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section Unsourced material may be challenged and removed August 2019 Learn how and when to remove this template message Main article Hindu revivalism Further information Bengali Renaissance Brahmo Samaj Arya Samaj and Ramakrishna Math 1909 Prevailing Religions map of British Indian Empire 1909 showing the prevailing majority religions of the population for different districts During the 19th century Hinduism developed a large number of new religious movements partly inspired by the European Romanticism nationalism scientific racism and esotericism Theosophy popular at the time while conversely and contemporaneously India had a similar effect on European culture with Orientalism Hindoo style architecture reception of Buddhism in the West and similar According to Paul Hacker the ethcial values of Neo Hinduism stem from Western philosophy and Christianity although they are expressed in Hindu terms 300 These reform movements are summarised under Hindu revivalism and continue into the present Swaminarayan establishes the Swaminarayan Sampradaya sect around 1800 301 Brahmo Samaj is a social and religious movement founded in Kolkata in 1828 by Raja Ram Mohan Roy He was one of the first Indians to visit Europe and was influenced by western thought He died in Bristol England The Brahmo Samaj movement thereafter resulted in the Brahmo religion in 1850 founded by Debendranath Tagore better known as the father of Rabindranath Tagore 302 Ramakrishna and his pupil Swami Vivekananda led reform in Hinduism in the late 19th century Their ideals and sayings have inspired numerous Indians as well as non Indians Hindus as well as non Hindus 303 Arya Samaj Society of Nobles is a Hindu reform movement in India that was founded by Swami Dayananda in 1875 He was a sannyasin renouncer who believed in the infallible authority of the Vedas Dayananda advocated the doctrine of karma and reincarnation and emphasised the ideals of brahmacharya chastity and sanyasa renunciation Dayananda claimed to be rejecting all non Vedic beliefs altogether Hence the Arya Samaj unequivocally condemned idolatry animal sacrifices ancestor worship pilgrimages priestcraft offerings made in temples the caste system untouchability and child marriages on the grounds that all these lacked Vedic sanction It aimed to be a universal church based on the authority of the Vedas Dayananda stated that he wanted to make the whole world Aryan i e he wanted to develop missionary Hinduism based on the universality of the Vedas To this end the Arya Samaj started Shuddhi movement in the early 20th century to bring back to Hinduism people converted to Islam and Christianity set up schools and missionary organisations and extended its activities outside India 304 305 306 Reception in the West Edit Main article Hinduism in the West An important development during the British colonial period was the influence Hindu traditions began to form on Western thought and new religious movements An early champion of Indian inspired thought in the West was Arthur Schopenhauer who in the 1850s advocated ethics based on an Aryan Vedic theme of spiritual self conquest as opposed to the ignorant drive toward earthly utopianism of the superficially this worldly Jewish spirit 307 Helena Blavatsky moved to India in 1879 and her Theosophical Society founded in New York in 1875 evolved into a peculiar mixture of Western occultism and Hindu mysticism over the last years of her life The sojourn of Swami Vivekananda to the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 had a lasting effect Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Mission a Hindu missionary organisation still active today In the early 20th century Western occultists influenced by Hinduism include Maximiani Portaz an advocate of Aryan Paganism who styled herself Savitri Devi and Jakob Wilhelm Hauer founder of the German Faith Movement It was in this period and until the 1920s that the swastika became a ubiquitous symbol of good luck in the West before its association with the Nazi Party became dominant in the 1930s Hinduism inspired elements in Theosophy were also inherited by the spin off movements of Ariosophy and Anthroposophy and ultimately contributed to the renewed New Age boom of the 1960s to 1980s the term New Age itself deriving from Blavatsky s 1888 The Secret Doctrine Influential 20th century Hindus were Ramana Maharshi B K S Iyengar Paramahansa Yogananda Prabhupada founder of ISKCON Sri Chinmoy Swami Rama and others who translated reformulated and presented Hinduism s foundational texts for contemporary audiences in new iterations raising the profiles of Yoga and Vedanta in the West and attracting followers and attention in India and abroad Contemporary Hinduism EditMain articles Hindu reform movements Hindu denominations Contemporary Sant Mat movements List of Hindu organisations and Hinduism by country Hinduism is followed by around 1 1 billion people in India web 22 Other significant populations are found in Nepal 21 5 million Bangladesh 13 1 million and the Indonesian island of Bali 3 9 million web 23 The majority of the Vietnamese Cham people also follow Hinduism with the largest proportion in Ninh Thuận province web 24 Neo Hindu movements in the West Edit Further information Hinduism in the West In modern times Smarta views have been highly influential in both the Indian web 25 and western web 26 understanding of Hinduism via Neo Vedanta Vivekananda was an advocate of Smarta views web 26 and Radhakrishnan was himself a Smarta Brahman 308 309 According to iskcon org Many Hindus may not strictly identify themselves as Smartas but by adhering to Advaita Vedanta as a foundation for non sectarianism are indirect followers web 25 Influential in spreading Hinduism to a western audience were Swami Vivekananda Paramahansa Yogananda A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada Hare Krishna movement Sri Aurobindo Meher Baba Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Transcendental Meditation Jiddu Krishnamurti Sathya Sai Baba Mother Meera among others Hindutva Edit Main article Hindutva In the 20th century Hinduism also gained prominence as a political force and a source for national identity in India With origins traced back to the establishment of the Hindu Mahasabha in the 1910s the movement grew with the formulation and development of the Hindutva ideology in the following decades the establishment of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh RSS in 1925 and the entry and later success of RSS offshoots Jana Sangha and Bharatiya Janata Party BJP in electoral politics in post independence India 310 Hindu religiosity plays an important role in the nationalist movement 311 note 45 note 46 Besides India the idea of Hindu nationalism and Hindutva can also be seen in the other areas with good population of Hindus such as in Nepal Bangladesh Sri Lanka and Malaysia web 27 312 313 In the modern world the Hindu identity and nationalism is encouraged by many organisations as per their areas and territories In India Sangh Parivar is the umbrella organisation for most of the Hindu nationalist organisations including that of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Bharatiya Janata Party Vishva Hindu Parishad etc 314 315 The other nationalist organisations include Siva Senai Sri Lanka Nepal Shivsena Rastriya Prajatantra Party Hindu Prajatantrik Party Nepal Bangabhumi Bangladesh and HINDRAF Malaysia Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in India Saffron Flag of Hinduism in IndiaSee also EditIndianisation Greater India Indomania Indosphere Sanskritisation List of Hindu empires and dynasties India as major ancient great power Hinduism by country Central Asians in Ancient Indian literature Hinduism in Southeast Asia Hinduism in Arab states Balinese Hinduism Indianization of Southeast Asia Indianized kingdom History of Indian influence on Southeast Asia South East Asia campaign of Rajendra Chola I Chola invasion of Srivijaya Indian influences in early Philippine polities History of India Indian religions Religion in India History of Yoga History of Shaivism History of Buddhism Historicity of the MahabharataNotes Edit See Oldest religion Fowler probably the oldest religion in the world 2 Gellman amp Hartman Hinduism the world s oldest religion 3 Stevens Hinduism the oldest religion in the world 4 The oldest living religion 5 The oldest living major religion in the world 6 7 Laderman world s oldest living civilisation and religion 8 Turner It is also recognized as the oldest major religion in the world 9 Smart on the other hand calls it also one of the youngest religions Hinduism could be seen to be much more recent though with various ancient roots in a sense it was formed in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century 10 See also Urreligion Shamanism Animism Ancestor worship for some of the oldest forms of religion Sarnaism and Sanamahism Indian Tribal religions connected to the earliest migrations into India Australian Aboriginal mythology one of the oldest surviving religions in the world Among its roots are the Vedic religion 14 of the late Vedic period and its emphasis on the status of Brahmans 17 but also the religions of the Indus Valley civilisation 15 18 19 20 the Sramana 21 or renouncer traditions 14 of east India 21 and popular or local traditions 14 There is no exact dating possible for the beginning of the Vedic period Witzel mentions a range between 1900 and 1400 BCE 25 Flood mentions 1500 BCE 26 Lockard 2007 p 50 The encounters that resulted from Aryan migration brought together several very different peoples and cultures reconfiguring Indian society Over many centuries a fusion of Aryan and Dravidian occurred a complex process that historians have labeled the Indo Aryan synthesis Lockard Hinduism can be seen historically as a synthesis of Aryan beliefs with Harappan and other Dravidian traditions that developed over many centuries Hiltebeitel 2007 p 12 A period of consolidation sometimes identified as one of Hindu synthesis Brahmanic synthesis or orthodox synthesis takes place between the time of the late Vedic Upanishads c 500 BCE and the period of Gupta imperial ascendency c 320 467 CE See also J H Hutton 1931 in Ghurye 1980 pp 3 4 subnote 1 Zimmer 1951 pp 218 219 Tyler 1973 India An Anthropological Perspective Goodyear Publishing Company In Sjoberg 1990 p 43 subnote 2 Sjoberg 1990 Flood 1996 p 16 Vijay Nath 2001 Werner 2005 pp 8 9 Lockard 2007 p 50 Hiltebeitel 2007 Hopfe amp Woodward 2008 p 79 subnote 3 Samuel 2010 a b c See White 2006 p 28 T he religion of the Vedas was already a composite of the indo Aryan and Harappan cultures and civilizations Gombrich 1996 pp 35 36 It is important to bear in mind that the Indo Aryans did not enter an uninhabited land For nearly two millennia they and their culture gradually penetrated India moving east and south from their original seat in the Punjab They mixed with people who spoke Munda or Dravidian languages who have left no traces of their culture beyond some archaeological remains we know as little about them as we would about the Indo Aryans if they had left no texts In fact we cannot even be sure whether some of the archaeological finds belong to Indo Aryans autochthonous populations or a mixture It is to be assumed though this is not fashionable in Indian historiography that the clash of cultures between Indo Aryans and autochtones was responsible for many of the changes in Indo Aryan society We can also assume that many perhaps most of the indigenous population came to be assimilated into Indo Aryan culture a b The date of the production of the written texts does not define the date of origin of the Puranas Johnson 2009 p 247 They may have existed in some oral form before being written down Johnson 2009 p 247 a b Michaels 2004 p 38 The legacy of the Vedic religion in Hinduism is generally overestimated The influence of the mythology is indeed great but the religious terminology changed considerably all the key terms of Hinduism either do not exist in Vedic or have a completely different meaning The religion of the Veda does not know the ethicised migration of the soul with retribution for acts karma the cyclical destruction of the world or the idea of salvation during one s lifetime jivanmukti moksa nirvana the idea of the world as illusion maya must have gone against the grain of ancient India and an omnipotent creator god emerges only in the late hymns of the rgveda Nor did the Vedic religion know a caste system the burning of widows the ban on remarriage images of gods and temples Puja worship Yoga pilgrimages vegetarianism the holiness of cows the doctrine of stages of life asrama or knew them only at their inception Thus it is justified to see a turning point between the Vedic religion and Hindu religions See also Halbfass 1991 pp 1 2 University of Oslo During the period following Ashoka until the end of the 7th century AD the great gift ceremonies honoring the Buddha remained the central cult of Indian imperial kingdoms web 1 Samuel 2010 p 76 Certainly there is substantial textual evidence for the outward expansion of Vedic Brahmanical culture Samuel 2010 p 77 T he Buddhist sutras describe what was in later periods a standard mechanism for the expansion of Vedic Brahmanical culture the settlement of Brahmins on land granted by local rulers See also Vijay Nath 2001 Samuel 2010 p 199 By the first and second centuries CE the Dravidian speaking regions of the south were also increasingly being incorporated into the general North and Central Indian cultural pattern as were parts at least of Southeast Asia The Pallava kingdom in South India was largely Brahmanical in orientation although it included a substantial Jain and Buddhist population while Indic states were also beginning to develop in Southeast Asia Larson 1995 p 81 Also the spread of the culture of North India to the South was accomplished in many instances by the spread of Buddhist and Jain institutions monasteries lay communities and so forth The Pallavas of Kanci appear to have been one of the main vehicles for the spread of specifically Indo Brahmanical or Hindu institutions in the South a process that was largely completed after the Gupta Age As Basham has noted the contact of Aryan and Dravidian produced a vigorous cultural synthesis which in turn had an immense influence on Indian civilization as a whole Flood 1996 p 129 The process of Sanskritization only began to significantly influence the south after the first two centuries CE and Tamil deities and forms of worship became adapted to northern Sanskrit forms Wendy Doniger If Sanskritization has been the main means of connecting the various local traditions throughout the subcontinent the converse process which has no convenient label has been one of the means whereby Hinduism has changed and developed over the centuries Many features of Hindu mythology and several popular gods such as Ganesha an elephant headed god and Hanuman the monkey god were incorporated into Hinduism and assimilated into the appropriate Vedic gods by this means Similarly the worship of many goddesses who are now regarded as the consorts of the great male Hindu gods as well as the worship of individual unmarried goddesses may have arisen from the worship of non Vedic local goddesses Thus the history of Hinduism can be interpreted as the interplay between orthoprax custom and the practices of wider ranges of people and complementarily as the survival of features of local traditions that gained strength steadily until they were adapted by the Brahmans web 2 Vijay Nath 2001 p 31 Visnu and Siva on the other hand as integral components of the Triad while continuing to be a subject of theological speculation however in their subsequent avataras began to absorb countless local cults and deities within their folds The latter were either taken to represent the multiple facets of the same god or else were supposed to denote different forms and appellations by which the god came to be known and worshipped Thus whereas Visnu came to subsume the cults of Narayana Jagannatha Venkateswara and many others Siva became identified with countless local cults by the sheer suffixing of Isa or Isvarato the name of the local deity e g Bhutesvara Hatakesvara Chandesvara Wendy Doniger The process sometimes called Sanskritization began in Vedic times and was probably the principal method by which the Hinduism of the Sanskrit texts spread through the subcontinent and into Southeast Asia Sanskritization still continues in the form of the conversion of tribal groups and it is reflected in the persistence of the tendency among some Hindus to identify rural and local deities with the gods of the Sanskrit texts web 2 See also Tanvir Anjum Temporal Divides A Critical Review of the Major Schemes of Periodization in Indian History Different periods are designated as classical Hinduism Smart 2003 p 52 calls the period between 1000 BCE and 100 CE pre classical It is the formative period for the Upanishads and Brahmanism subnote 4 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 2004 pp 36 38 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 2003 p 14 discerns a longer period of change namely between 800 BCE and 200 BCE which he calls the Classical 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 Stein 2010 p 107 The Indian History Congress formally adopted 1206 CE as the date medieval India began Doniger 2010 p 66 Much of what we now call Hinduism may have had roots in cultures that thrived in South Asia long before the creation of textual evidence that we can decipher with any confidence Remarkable cave paintings have been preserved from Mesolithic sites dating from c 30 000 BCE in Bhimbetka near present day Bhopal in the Vindhya Mountains in the province of Madhya Pradesh subnote 5 Jones amp Ryan 2006 p xvii Some practices of Hinduism must have originated in Neolithic times c 4000 BCE The worship of certain plants and animals as sacred for instance could very likely have very great antiquity The worship of goddesses too a part of Hinduism today may be a feature that originated in the Neolithic Mallory 1989 p 38f The separation of the early Indo Aryans from the Proto Indo Iranian stage is dated to roughly 1800 BCE in scholarship Michaels 2004 p 33 They called themselves arya Aryans literally the hospitable from the Vedic arya homey the hospitable but even in the Rgveda arya denotes a cultural and linguistic boundary and not only a racial one There is no exact dating possible for the beginning of the Vedic period Witzel 1995 pp 3 4 mentions a range between 1900 and 1400 BCE Flood 1996 p 21 mentions 1500 BCE Allchin amp Erdosy 1995 There has also been a fairly general agreement that the Proto Indoaryan speakers at one time lived on the steppes of Central Asia and that at a certain time they moved southwards through Bactria and Afghanistan and perhaps the Caucasus into Iran and India Pakistan Burrow 1973 Harmatta 1992 Kulke amp Rothermund 1998 During the last decades intensive archaeological research in Russia and the Central Asian Republics of the former Soviet Union as well as in Pakistan and northern India has considerably enlarged our knowledge about the potential ancestors of the Indo Aryans and their relationship with cultures in west central and south Asia Previous excavations in southern Russia and Central Asia could not confirm that the Eurasian steppes had once been the original home of the speakers of Indo European language The Aryan migration theory has been challenged by some researchers Michaels 2004 p 33 Singh 2008 p 186 due to a lack of archaeological evidence and signs of cultural continuity Michaels 2004 p 33 hypothesizing instead a slow process of acculturation or transformation Michaels 2004 p 33 Flood 1996 pp 30 35 Nevertheless linguistic and archaeological data clearly show a cultural change after 1750 BCE Michaels 2004 p 33 with the linguistic and religious data clearly showing links with Indo European languages and religion Flood 1996 p 33 According to Singh 2008 p 186 The dominant view is that the Indo Aryans came to the subcontinent as immigrants Zimmer s point of view is supported by other scholars such as Niniam Smart 1964 Doctrine and argument in Indian Philosophy pp 27 32 76 141 S K Belvakar amp R D Ranade 1974 1927 History of Indian philosophy pp 81 303 409 141 Flood 2008 pp 273 274 The second half of the first millennium BCE was the period that created many of the ideological and institutional elements that characterise later Indian religions The renouncer tradition played a central role during this formative period of Indian religious history Some of the fundamental values and beliefs that we generally associate with Indian religions in general and Hinduism in particular were in part the creation of the renouncer tradition These include the two pillars of Indian theologies samsara the belief that life in this world is one of suffering and subject to repeated deaths and births rebirth moksa nirvana the goal of human existence King 1999 notes that Radhakrishnan was a representative of Neo Vedanta 143 which had a specific understanding of Indian religions The inclusivist appropriation of other traditions so characteristic of neo Vedanta ideology appears on three basic levels First it is apparent in the suggestion that the Advaita Vedanta philosophy of Sankara c eighth century CE constitutes the central philosophy of Hinduism Second in an Indian context neo Vedanta philosophy subsumes Buddhist philosophies in terms of its own Vedantic ideology The Buddha becomes a member of the Vedanta tradition merely attempting to reform it from within Finally at a global level neo Vedanta colonises the religious traditions of the world by arguing for the centrality of a non dualistic position as the philosophia perennis underlying all cultural differences a b Michaels 2004 p 38 At the time of upheaval 500 200 BCE many elements of the Vedic religion were lost Klostermaier 2007 p 55 Kautas a teacher mentioned in the Nirukta by Yaska ca 500 BCE a work devoted to an etymology of Vedic words that were no longer understood by ordinary people held that the word of the Veda was no longer perceived as meaningful normal speech but as a fixed sequence of sounds whose meaning was obscure beyond recovery Klostermaier Brahman derived from the root bŗh to grow to become great was originally identical with the Vedic word that makes people prosper words were the principal means to approach the gods who dwelled in a different sphere It was not a big step from this notion of reified speech act to that of the speech act being looked at implicitly and explicitly as a means to an end Klostermaier 2007 p 55 quotes Madhav M Deshpande 1990 Changing Conceptions of the Veda From Speech Acts to Magical Sounds p 4 Hiltebeitel 2007 p 13 The emerging self definitions of Hinduism were forged in the context of continuous interaction with heterodox religions Buddhists Jains Ajivikas throughout this whole period and with foreign people Yavanas or Greeks Sakas or Scythians Pahlavas or Parthians and Kusanas or Kushans from the third phase on between the Mauryan empire and the rise of the Guptas Larson 2009 p 185 I n contrast to the sruti which Hindus for the most part pay little more than lip service to Michaels 2004 p 40 mentions the Durga temple in Aihole and the Visnu Temple in Deogarh Michell 1977 p 18 notes that earlier temples were built of timber brick and plaster while the first stone temples appeared during the period of Gupta rule Michaels 2004 p 41 In the east the Pala Empire 770 1125 CE in the west and north the Gurjara Pratihara 7th 10th century in the southwest the Rashtrakuta Dynasty 752 973 in the Dekkhan the Chalukya dynasty 7th 8th century and in the south the Pallava dynasty 7th 9th century and the Chola dynasty 9th century McRae 2003 This resembles the development of Chinese Chan during the An Lu shan rebellion and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period 907 960 979 during which power became decentralised end new Chan schools emerged Inden 1998 p 67 Before the eighth century the Buddha was accorded the position of universal deity and ceremonies by which a king attained to imperial status were elaborate donative ceremonies entailing gifts to Buddhist monks and the installation of a symbolic Buddha in a stupa This pattern changed in the eighth century The Buddha was replaced as the supreme imperial deity by one of the Hindu gods except under the Palas of eastern India the Buddha s homeland Previously the Buddha had been accorded imperial style worship puja Now as one of the Hindu gods replaced the Buddha at the imperial centre and pinnacle of the cosmo political system the image or symbol of the Hindu god comes to be housed in a monumental temple and given increasingly elaborate imperial style puja worship Thapar 2003 p 325 The king who ruled not by conquest but by setting in motion the wheel of law Inden before the eighth century the Buddha was accorded the position of universal deity and ceremonies by which a king attained to imperial status were elaborate donative ceremonies entailing gifts to Buddhist monks and the installation of a symbolic Buddha in a stupa This pattern changed in the eighth century The Buddha was replaced as the supreme imperial deity by one of the Hindu gods except under the Palas of eastern India the Buddha s homeland Previously the Buddha had been accorded imperial style worship puja Now as one of the Hindu gods replaced the Buddha at the imperial centre and pinnacle of the cosmo political system the image or symbol of the Hindu god comes to be housed in a monumental temple and given increasingly elaborate imperial style puja worship 196 The term mayavada is still being used in a critical way by the Hare Krshnas See web 9 web 10 web 11 web 12 See also Aurangzeb as he was according to Mughal Records more links at the bottom of that page for Muslim historian s record on major Hindu temple destruction campaigns from 1193 to 1729 AD see Eaton 2000 The tendency of a blurring of philosophical distinctions has also been noted by Burley 2007 p 34 Lorenzen locates the origins of a distinct Hindu identity in the interaction between Muslims and Hindus Lorenzen 2006 pp 24 33 and a process of mutual self definition with a contrasting Muslim other which started well before 1800 Lorenzen 2006 pp 26 27 Both the Indian and the European thinkers who developed the term Hinduism in the 19th century were influenced by these philosophers Nicholson 2010 p 2 Owing to his contributions to carnatic music Purandaradasa is known as Karnataka Sangita Pitamaha Kamat Saint Purandaradasa Many historians consider Attock to be the final frontier of the Maratha Empire 272 This conjunction of nationalism and religion is not unique to India The complexities of Asian nationalism are to be seen and understood in the context of colonialism modernization and nation building See for example Anagarika Dharmapala for the role of Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lankese struggle for independence McMahan 2008 and D T Suzuki who conjuncted Zen to Japanese nationalism and militarism in defense against both western hegemony and the pressure on Japanese Zen during the Meiji Restoration to conform to Shinbutsu Bunri Sharf 1993 Sharf 1995 Rinehart 2004 p 198 Neo Vedanta also contributed to Hindutva ideology Hindu politics and communalism Yet Rinehart emphasises that it is clear that there isn t a neat line of causation that leads from the philosophies of Rammohan Roy Vivekananda and Radhakrishnan to the agenda of militant Hindus Subnotes Ghurye He Hutton considers modern Hinduism to be the result of an amalgam between pre Aryan Indian beliefs of Mediterranean inspiration and the religion of the Rigveda The Tribal religions present as it were surplus material not yet built into the temple of Hinduism 31 Tyler in India An Anthropological Perspective 1973 p 68 as quoted by Sjoberg calls Hinduism a synthesis in which the Dravidian elements prevail The Hindu synthesis was less the dialectical reduction of orthodoxy and heterodoxy than the resurgence of the ancient aboriginal Indus civilization In this process the rude barbaric Aryan tribes were gradually civilised and eventually merged with the autochthonous Dravidians Although elements of their domestic cult and ritualism were jealously preserved by Brahman priests the body of their culture survived only in fragmentary tales and allegories embedded in vast syncretistic compendia On the whole the Aryan contribution to Indian culture is insignificant The essential pattern of Indian culture was already established in the third millennium B C and the form of Indian civilization perdured and eventually reasserted itself 32 Hopfe amp Woodward 2008 p 79 The religion that the Aryans brought with them mingled with the religion of the native people and the culture that developed between them became classical Hinduism Smart 2003 pp 52 83 86 distinguishes Brahmanism from the Vedic religion connecting Brahmanism with the Upanishads 30 000 BCE is incorrect this must be 8 000 BCE 57 58 59 60 61 References EditCitations Edit Brodd 2003 Fowler 1997 p 1 Gellman amp Hartman 2011 Stevens 2001 p 191 Sarma 1987 p page needed Merriam Webster 2000 Merriam Webster s Collegiate Encyclopedia Merriam Webster p 751 Klostermaier 2007 p 1 Laderman 2003 p 119 Turner amp 1996 B p 359 Smart 1993 p 1 a b c Lockard 2007 p 50 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Hiltebeitel 2007 p 12 Samuel 2010 p 193 a b c d e f g Flood 1996 p 16 a b Narayanan 2009 p 11 Osborne 2005 p 9 Samuel 2010 pp 48 53 Lockard 2007 p 52 Hiltebeitel 2007 p 3 Jones amp Ryan 2006 p xviii a b c d Gomez 2013 p 42 a b c d e f g h i j k l Larson 2009 Larson 1995 pp 109 111 Michaels 2004 pp 32 36 Witzel 1995 pp 3 4 Flood 1996 p 21 Michaels 2004 p 38 a b Michaels 2004 Blackwell s History of India Stein 2002 p 107harvnb error no target CITEREFStein2002 help Some Aspects of Muslim Administration Tripathi 1956 p 24harvnb error no target CITEREFTripathi1956 help Ghurye 1980 p 4 Sjoberg 1990 p 43 Samuel 2010 pp 41 42 a b White 2006 p 28 Doniger 2010 p 66 Jones amp Ryan 2006 p xvii Narayanan 2009 p 11 Lockard 2007 p 52 Hiltebeitel 2007 p 3 Jones amp Ryan 2006 p xviii Tiwari 2002 p v Lockard 2007 p 52 Zimmer 1951 pp 218 219 Larson 1995 p 81 Tiwari 2002 p v Fuller 2004 p 88 a b Cousins 2010 a b Hiltebeitel 2007 p 13 a b Vijay Nath 2001 p 21 a b c d e f g h Vijay Nath 2001 p 19 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Making of India A Historical Survey M E Sharpe p 15 Grigoriĭ Maksimovich Bongard Levin 1985 Ancient Indian Civilization Arnold Heinemann p 45 Rosen 2006 p 45 Srinivasan 1997 p page needed Mahadevan Iravatham 2006 A Note on the Muruku Sign of the Indus Script in light of the Mayiladuthurai Stone Axe Discovery harappa com Archived from the original on 4 September 2006 Feuerstein Georg Kak Subhash Frawley David 2001 In Search of the Cradle of Civilization New Light on Ancient India Quest Books p 121 ISBN 0 8356 0741 0 Clark Sharri R 2007 The social lives of figurines recontextualizing the third millennium BC terracotta figurines from Harappa Pakistan PhD Harvard Thapar Romila Early India From the Origins to 1300 London Penguin Books 2002 McIntosh Jane 2008 The Ancient Indus Valley New Perspectives ABC CLIO p 84 276 Catherine Jarrige John P Gerry Richard H Meadow eds 1992 South Asian Archaeology 1989 Papers from the Tenth International Conference of South Asian Archaeologists in Western Europe Musee National Des Arts Asiatiques Guimet Paris France 3 7 July 1989 Prehistory Press p 227 ISBN 978 1 881094 03 6 An anthropomorphic figure has knelt in front of a fig tree with hands raised in respectful salutation prayer or worship This reverence suggests the divinity of its object another anthropomorphic figure standing inside the fig tree In the ancient Near East the gods and goddesses as well as their earthly representatives the divine kings and queens functioning as high priests and priestesses were distinguished by a horned crown A similar crown is worn by the two anthropomorphic figures in the fig deity seal Among various tribal people of India horned head dresses are worn by priests on sacrificial occasions Art of the First Cities The Third Millennium B C from the Mediterranean to the Indus Metropolitan Museum of Art 2003 ISBN 978 1 58839 043 1 The Indus Script Text Concordance And Tables Iravathan Mahadevan p 139 Littleton C Scott 2005 Gods Goddesses and Mythology Marshall Cavendish p 732 ISBN 978 0 7614 7565 1 Marshall 1996 p 389 Singh The Pearson Indian History Manual for the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination Pearson Education India p 35 ISBN 9788131717530 Pletcher Kenneth 2010 The History of India Britannica Educational Publishing p 60 Singh 2008 p 185 Michaels 2004 p 32 Anthony 2007 Mukherjee et al 2011 Anthony 2007 p 408 a b c d e f g h i Witzel 1995 Michaels 2004 p 33 Flood 1996 pp 30 35 Hiltebeitel 2007 p 5 Anthony 2007 pp 410 411 a b c Anthony 2007 p 454 Anthony 2007 pp 375 408 411 a b c d e Paul Pran Gopal Paul Debjani 1989 Brahmanical Imagery in the Kuṣaṇa Art of Mathura Tradition and Innovations East and West 39 1 4 111 143 especially 112 114 115 125 JSTOR 29756891 Krishan Yuvraj Tadikonda Kalpana K 1996 The Buddha Image Its Origin and Development Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan pp ix x ISBN 978 81 215 0565 9 a b Shaw Ian Jameson Robert 2008 A Dictionary of Archaeology John Wiley amp Sons p 248 ISBN 978 0 470 75196 1 Samuel 2010 pp 41 48 Samuel 2010 pp 41 93 Stein 2010 pp 48 49 Samuel 2010 pp 61 93 a b c d e Samuel 2010 Kramer 1986 pp 34 David Christian 1 September 2011 Maps of Time An Introduction to Big History University of California Press pp 18 ISBN 978 0 520 95067 2 Singh 2008 pp 206 Samuel 2010 pp 53 56 Flood 1996 p 30 Hiltebeitel 2007 pp 5 7 Roger D Woodard 18 August 2006 Indo European Sacred Space Vedic and Roman Cult University of Illinois Press pp 242 ISBN 978 0 252 09295 4 a b c Beckwith 2009 p 32 a b Anthony 2007 p 462 Anthony 2007 pp 454 455 a b c Anthony 2007 p 49 Anthony 2007 p 50 Flood 2008 p 68 Melton amp Baumann 2010 p 1412 Samuel 2010 pp 48 51 61 93 Hiltebeitel 2007 pp 8 10 a b Basham 1989 pp 74 75 White 2003 p 28 Sahoo P C 1994 On the Yṻpa in the Brahmaṇa Texts Bulletin of the Deccan College Research Institute 54 55 175 183 ISSN 0045 9801 JSTOR 42930469 Bonnefoy Yves 1993 Asian Mythologies University of Chicago Press pp 37 39 ISBN 978 0 226 06456 7 Singh 2008 p 184 Flood 1996 p 37 Witzel 1995 p 4 Pandey Rajbali Hindu Samskaras Motilal Banarasidass Publ 1969 Fisher Mary Pat 2008 Living Religions 7th ed Upper Saddle River Pearson Education Inc p 77 Indo Iranian Studies I by J C Tavadia Vishva Bharati Santiniketan 1950 RV 8 5 8 46 8 56 Krishnananda Swami A Short History of Religious and Philosophic Thought in India Divine Life Society p 21 Holdrege 2004 p 215 sfn error no target CITEREFHoldrege2004 help Panikkar 2001 pp 350 351 sfn error no target CITEREFPanikkar2001 help Day Terence P 1982 The Conception of Punishment in Early Indian Literature Ontario Wilfrid Laurier University Press pp 42 45 ISBN 0 919812 15 5 Duchesne Guillemin 1963 p 46 Neusner 2009 p 183 Melton amp Baumann 2010 p 1324 Mahadevan T M P 1956 Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan ed History of Philosophy Eastern and Western George Allen amp Unwin Ltd p 57 Fowler Jeaneane D 1 February 2012 The Bhagavad Gita A Text and Commentary for Students Sussex Academic Press pp xxii xxiii ISBN 978 1 84519 346 1 a b c Heesterman 2005 pp 9552 9553 a b Flood 1996 p 82 Neusner 2009 p 184 Zimmer 1989 p 217 a b Crangle 1994 p 7 Pratt James Bissett 1996 The Pilgrimage of Buddhism and a Buddhist Pilgrimage Asian Educational Services p 90 ISBN 978 81 206 1196 2 a b c d e King 1999 Michaels 2004 pp 37 39 Bronkhorst 2017 p 363 Klostermaier 2007 p 55 a b c Bronkhorst 2016 pp 9 10 a b Michaels 2014 sfn error no target CITEREFMichaels2014 help Staal J F 1961 Nambudiri Veda Recitations Gravenhage Staal J F 1983 Agni The Vedic ritual of the fire altar 2 vols Berkeley Staal Frits 1988 Universals studies in Indian logic and linguistics Chicago University of Chicago Press ISBN 0 226 76999 2 Singh 2008 pp 436 438 Osmund Bopearachchi Emergence of Viṣṇu and Siva Images in India Numismatic and Sculptural Evidence 2016 Srinivasan 1997 p 215 Osmund Bopearachchi 2016 Emergence of Viṣṇu and Siva Images in India Numismatic and Sculptural Evidence Kulke amp Rothermund 2004 p 73 a b Bronkhorst 2015 p 2 Bronkhorst 2007 a b c Embree 1988 p 277 Larson 2009 p 185 Hiltebeitel 2007 p 14 a b c d e Hiltebeitel 2002 a b c Hiltebeitel 2007 p 20 Scheepers 2000 Raju 1992 p 211 Radhakrishnan amp Moore 1967 p xviii xxi Jones amp Ryan 2008 pp 10 12 a b W H Ingrams 1967 Zanzibar Its History and Its People ISBN 978 0714611020 Routledge pp 33 35 Prabha Bhardwaj Hindus Stand Strong In Ancient Tanzania Hinduism Today 1996 a b Majumdar R C 1968 The History and Culture of the Indian People Vol II The Age of Imperial Unity pp 633 634 a b c Michaels 2004 p 40 Nakamura 2004 p 687 a b Thapar 2003 p 325 Sharma Peri Sarveswara 1980 Anthology of Kumarilabhaṭṭa s Works Delhi Motilal Banarsidass p 5 Bhattacharya 2011 p 65 Cœdes 1968 Pande 2006 The spread of Hinduism in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Encyclopaedia Britannica Online a b Embree 1988 p 342 Flood 1996 p 131 Jan Gonda The Indian Religions in Pre Islamic Indonesia and their survival in Bali in Handbook of Oriental Studies Section 3 Southeast Asia Religions p 1 at Google Books pp 1 54 K D Bajpai 2006 History of Gopachala Bharatiya Jnanpith p 31 ISBN 978 81 263 1155 2 a b Michaels 2004 p 41 White 2000 pp 25 28 a b c d e f g Michaels 2004 p 42 Sara Schastok 1997 The Samalaji Sculptures and 6th Century Art in Western India BRILL ISBN 978 9004069411 pp 77 79 88 Bryant 2007 pp 111 119 a b c Vijay Nath 2001 p 20 Thapar 2003 pp 325 487 Flood 1996 p 113 a b c d e Thapar 2003 p 487 Kuwayama 1976 p 405 It is not therefore possible to attribute these pieces to the Hindu Shahi period They should be attributed to the Shahi period before the Hindu Shahis originated by the Brahman wazir Kallar that is the Turki Shahis Kuwayama 1976 p 407 According to the above sources Brahmanism and Buddhism are properly supposed to have coexisted especially during the 7th 8th centuries A D just before the Muslim hegemony The marble sculptures from eastern Afghanistan should not be attributed to the period of the Hindu Shahis but to that of the Turki Shahis a b c Vijay Nath 2001 p 31 Vijay Nath 2001 pp 31 32 Vijay Nath 2001 p 32 Inden 1998 pp 55 67 Holt John The Buddhist Visnu Columbia University Press 2004 p 12 15 The replacement of the Buddha as the cosmic person within the mythic ideology of Indian kingship as we shall see shortly occurred at about the same time the Buddha was incorporated and subordinated within the Brahmanical cult of Visnu Johannes de Kruijf and Ajaya Sahoo 2014 Indian Transnationalism Online New Perspectives on Diaspora ISBN 978 1472419132 p 105 Quote In other words according to Adi Shankara s argument the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta stood over and above all other forms of Hinduism and encapsulated them This then united Hinduism Another of Adi Shankara s important undertakings which contributed to the unification of Hinduism was his founding of a number of monastic centers Sharma 2000 pp 60 64 a b Raju 1992 pp 177 178 a b Renard 2010 p 157 a b Comans 2000 pp 35 36 a b Raju 1992 p 177 a b c Sharma 2000 p 64 Nakamura 2004 p 678 Sharma 1962 p vi Comans 2000 p 163 Menon Y K January 2004 The Mind of Adi Shankaracharya Repro Knowledgcast Ltd ISBN 817224214X Campagna Federico Technic and Magic The Reconstruction of Reality Bloomsbury p 124 ISBN 1 350 04402 4 Shankara Adi Nirguna Manasa Puja Worship of the Attributeless Society of Abidance in Truth p vii Paranjpe Anand C 2006 Self and Identity in Modern Psychology and Indian Thought Springer Science amp Business Media p 214 ISBN 978 0 306 47151 3 a b c d Hacker 1995 p 29 30 a b Nicholson 2010 p 157 229 note 57 King 2002 p 128 Roodurmum 2002 pp 33 34 a b Blake Michael 1992 p 60 62 with notes 6 7 and 8 a b Nicholson 2010 pp 178 183 a b c Hacker 1995 p 29 a b Kulke amp Rothermund 1998 p 177 King 2001 p 129 King 2001 p 129 130 Francisco Rodriguez Adrados Lukas de Blois Gert Jan van Dijk 2006 Mnemosyne Bibliotheca Classica Batava Supplementum BRILL pp 707 708 ISBN 978 90 04 11454 8 O Malley Charles Donald 1970 The History of Medical Education An International Symposium Held February 5 9 1968 University of California Press p 352 ISBN 978 0 520 01578 4 a b Basham 1999 Smith 1999 pp 381 384 a b Will Durant 1976 The Story of Civilization Our Oriental Heritage Simon amp Schuster ISBN 978 0671548001 pp 458 472 The Mohammedan Conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history It is a discouraging tale for its evident moral is that civilization is a precarious thing whose delicate complex of order and liberty culture and peace may at any time be overthrown by barbarians invading from without or multiplying within The Hindus had allowed their strength to be wasted in internal division and war they had adopted religions like Buddhism and Jainism which unnerved them for the tasks of life they had failed to organize their forces for the protection of their frontiers and their capitals Gaborieau 1985 a b Eaton 2006 p 11 In 1562 Akbar abolished the practice of enslaving the families of war captives his son Jahangir banned sending of slaves from Bengal as tribute in lieu of cash which had been the custom since the 14th century These measures notwithstanding the Mughals actively participated in slave trade with Central Asia deporting Hindu rebels and subjects who had defaulted on revenue payments following precedents inherited from Delhi Sultanate emphasis added Wink 1991 pp 14 16 172 174 etc Sharma Hari 1991 The real Tipu a brief history of Tipu Sultan Rishi publications p 112 a b P Hardy 1977 Modern European and Muslim explanations of conversion to Islam in South Asia A preliminary survey of the literature Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain amp Ireland Volume 109 Issue 02 pp 177 206 Burjor Avari 2013 Islamic Civilization in South Asia Routledge ISBN 978 0415580618 pp 66 70 Many Hindu slaves converted to Islam and gained their liberty Grapperhaus 2009 p 118 David Ayalon 1986 Studies in Islamic History and Civilisation BRILL p 271 ISBN 965 264 014 X Dipak Basu Victoria Miroshnik 7 August 2017 India as an Organization Volume One A Strategic Risk Analysis of Ideals Heritage and Vision Springer pp 52ff ISBN 978 3 319 53372 8 Sanyal Sanjeev 15 November 2012 Land of seven rivers History of India s Geography Penguin Books pp 130 131 ISBN 978 81 8475 671 5 a b Eaton 2000 J T F Jordens Medieval Hindu Devotionalism in Basham 1999 Mishra Patit Paban 2012 Ramanuja ca 1077 ca 1157 In Mark Juergensmeyer Wade Clark Roof eds Encyclopedia of Global Religion doi 10 4135 9781412997898 n598 ISBN 9780761927297 Stoker 2011 sfn error no target CITEREFStoker2011 help Nicholson 2010 p 2 Michaels 2004 p 44 Cynthia Talbot 2001 Precolonial India in Practice Society Region and Identity in Medieval Andhra Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 513661 6 pp 185 187 199 201 M Srinivasachariar History of Classical Sanskrit Literature p 211 Eaton 2006 pp 28 29 Nilakanta Sastri K A 2002 1955 A history of South India from prehistoric times to the fall of Vijayanagar New Delhi Indian Branch Oxford University Press p 239 ISBN 0 19 560686 8 Blake Michael 1992 p 26 From the notes of Duarte Barbosa Kamath 2001 p 178 Wagoner Phillip B November 1996 Sultan among Hindu Kings Dress Titles and the Islamicization of Hindu Culture at Vijayanagara The Journal of Asian Studies 55 4 851 880 doi 10 2307 2646526 JSTOR 2646526 S2CID 163090404 Kamath 2001 p 177 Fritz amp Michell 2001 p 14 Kamath 2001 pp 177 178 Shiva Prakash Kannada In Ayyappapanicker 1997 pp 192 194 196 Iyer 2006 p 93 sfn error no target CITEREFIyer2006 help Shiva Prakash 1997 p 196 Shiva Prakash 1997 p 195 Kamath 2001 p 178 Nilakanta Sastri 1955 p 324 sfn error no target CITEREFNilakanta Sastri1955 help Kamath 2001 p 185 World and Its Peoples Eastern and Southern Asia Marshall Cavendish Corporation p 337 Chatterjee amp Eaton 2006 pp 100 101 Kamath 2001 p 174 Vijaya Ramaswamy 2007 Historical Dictionary of the Tamils Scarecrow Press pp Li Lii ISBN 978 0 8108 6445 0 Chatterjee amp Eaton 2006 pp 101 115 Kamath 2001 pp 220 226 234 Busch Allison 2011 Poetry of Kings The Classical Hindi Literature of Mughal India Oxford University Press p 29 ISBN 978 0 19 976592 8 J L Mehta 1 January 2005 Advanced Study in the History of Modern India Volume One 1707 1813 Sterling Publishers Pvt Ltd p 47 ISBN 978 1 932705 54 6 Retrieved 7 April 2016 S B Bhattacherje 1 May 2009 Encyclopaedia of Indian Events amp Dates Sterling Publishers Pvt Ltd pp A80 A81 ISBN 978 81 207 4074 7 Retrieved 6 March 2012 Ayalon David 1986 Studies in Islamic History and Civilisation Brill p 271 ISBN 978 965 264 014 7 Mehta 2005 p 204 sfn error no target CITEREFMehta2005 help Sen Sailendra Nath 24 January 2019 An Advanced History of Modern India Macmillan India ISBN 978 0 230 32885 3 via Google Books Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Bharatiya Itihasa Samiti Ramesh Chandra Majumdar The History and Culture of the Indian People The Maratha supremacy page needed Diana Eck Banaras CITY OF LIGHT ISBN 978 0691020235 Princeton University Press Naraharinath Yogi Acharya Baburam 2014 Badamaharaj Prithivi Narayan Shah ko Divya Upadesh 2014 Reprint ed Kathmandu Shree Krishna Acharya pp 4 5 ISBN 978 99933 912 1 0 a b c Harka Gurung The Dalit context Dharam Vir 1988 Education and Polity in Nepal An Asian Experiment Northern Book Centre p 65 ISBN 978 81 85119 39 7 Borgstrom Bengt Erik 1980 The patron and the panca village values and pancayat democracy in Nepal Vikas House p 11 ISBN 978 0 7069 0997 5 Bethencourt Francisco 1992 The Auto da Fe Ritual and Imagery Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes The Warburg Institute 55 155 168 doi 10 2307 751421 JSTOR 751421 S2CID 192167324 Naravane 2014 p 38 J N Sarkar 1919 Shivaji and his Times John William Kaye ed 1855 Selections from the papers of Lord Metcalfe late governor general of India governor of Jamaica and governor general of Canada London Smith Elder and Co Panigrahi D N Charles Metcalfe In India Ideas And Administration 1806 35 Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers ISBN 978 81 215 0365 5 Williams 2004 pp 83 84 the other major classical Indian dances are Bharatanatyam Kathak Odissi Kathakali Kuchipudi Chau Satriya Yaksagana and Bhagavata Melasfn error no target CITEREFWilliams2004 help Reginald Massey 2004 p 177 sfn error no target CITEREFReginald Massey2004 help Ragini Devi 1990 pp 175 180 sfn error no target CITEREFRagini Devi1990 help Naravane 2014 pp 178 181 Black 2006 p 78 sfn error no target CITEREFBlack2006 help Gulcharan Singh Maharaja Ranjit Singh and the Principles of War USI Journal July 1981 Vol 111 Issue 465 pp 184 192 Grewal J S 1990 Chapter 6 The Sikh empire 1799 1849 The Sikhs of the Punjab The New Cambridge History of India Cambridge University Press Archived from the original on 16 February 2012 Retrieved 26 December 2018 Georg Feuerstein 2002 The Yoga Tradition Delhi Motilal Banarsidass p 600 Clarke 2006 p 209 a b King 2002 King 2002 p 118 Jones amp Ryan 2006 p 114 King 2002 pp 119 120 King 2002 p 123 Muesse 2011 pp 3 4 Doniger 2010 p 18 Jouhki 2006 pp 10 11 Woodhead Linda 2016 Religions of the Modern World Routledge pp 57 58 ISBN 978 0 415 85881 6 The term Neo Hinduism has been applied to reformed Hinduism by Paul Hacker and others According to Hacker the ethical values of Neo Hinduism stem from Western philosophy and Christianity although they are expressed in Hindu terms Williams Raymond Brady 2001 An introduction to Swaminarayan Hinduism Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press ISBN 0 521 65422 X OCLC 43615520 Farquhar J N John Nicol 1915 Modern religious movements in India Robarts University of Toronto New York The Macmillan Banhatti G S Gopal Shrinivas 1995 Life and philosophy of Swami Vivekananda New Delhi Atlantic ISBN 81 7156 291 4 OCLC 499226506 Saxena Gulshan Swarup 1990 Arya Samaj movement in India 1875 1947 1st ed New Delhi India Commonwealth Publishers ISBN 81 7169 045 9 OCLC 21563139 Barrier Norman G May 1967 The Arya Samaj and Congress Politics in the Punjab 1894 1908 The Journal of Asian Studies 26 3 363 379 doi 10 2307 2051414 ISSN 0021 9118 JSTOR 2051414 S2CID a, 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