How was Hinduism started?

Answer 1

First View:

Hinduism was discovered in India in the early Harappan period by the Vedas. They had migrated to India with the religion and it has since grown to be the worlds third largest religion.

Second View:

Hinduism was started or founded by an institution of Seven Sages called Saptarishis. Just as we have Pope for Christianity today, Hinduism, from the beginning, had an institution of seven sages who were the patriarchs of the Vedic religion. They very strictly guarded the Vedic body of knowledge, and the copy of the Vedas available to them was considered to be the final copy. They were considered as God's manifestation on earth, and their word was the final authority in religious matters.

Any changes to the Vedas were needed to be approved by this elite group of sages. If the reasons were justified, they approved the changes and incorporated them into the Vedas. Otherwise, they rejected it and kept the Vedas intact without any contamination. From what appears, they were extremely strict about changes to the Vedas. Even to this day of Hinduism, a word in Veda is normally considered as the final authority to the literal T. And this faith in Vedas was built upon a tradition where the Vedas were very strictly and jealously guarded from any changes whatsoever, unless the change really justified it. Some super human justification was required to have them changed. Any changes, to the extent possible, were always added as appendages rather than their being incorporated into the Vedas. So we have Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and Upanishads as appendages to the Vedas. As more and more philosophy developed, all of them got incorporated into this body as appendages.

It is this institution of seven sages that expended large amount of effort over thousands of years in unifying a large number of traditions from across continents and civilizations into one universal religion of Hinduism that we see today. The Hindu trinity, the Hindu divine hierarchy, the Hindu festivals, and everything else that we see today was formulated by them. It is they who declared Ram and Krishna to be the incarnations of Vishnu. It is they who inserted Purusha Sukta, Narayana Sukta, and Sri Sukta into the Vedas.

The names of the SaptaRishis carried over from one generation to the next. For example, if Kasyap dies, his son would take on the name of Kasyap and get inducted into the SaptaRishis. Once in a while, for some reason, like one of the seven rishis dying without having any children, the names of the one or more of the rishis changed, giving us a different set of SaptaRishis.

The religion got so excessively dependent on these sages that they started being considered as the representatives of the creator on earth. This slowly led to their deification and they started being mythicized. They were declared as the mind born sons of Brahma. Subsequently, they were equated with the most evolved light beings in the creation and the guardians of divine laws. Further deification of their attributes lead to the addition of more and more myths and halo around them. This sort of excessive mythicization finally lead to the relegation of this institution from the purview of the real world into the realm of mythology.

This institution got destroyed at the time of the three hundred year severe drought of 2200 BC. At that time, most of the Indians, devastated by the drought, left India for foreign shores, especially to European lands. Because of the severe suffering that people underwent because of the drought, people lost faith in a useless God who did not answer their prayers, leading to the rise of atheistic cults on the subcontinent. The institution of seven sages got destroyed in this religious upheaval, as a result of which, the origins of Hinduism have once and for all become lost in the dungeons of time.

(Excerpts from book "19000 Years of World History")

For more on Hinduism: #1

THE FACTUAL ORIGIN OF HINDUISM

There is no historical evidence for the origin of Hinduism. Therefore, any one who wants to know about how it started, must look for it in the oldest Hindu scripture, the Rig Veda.

THE RIG VEDA

1. Rig Veda was composed between 1700 to 1100 BC in the north western India.

2. It has no mention of idols, temples, rituals, beliefs and code of conduct.

3. Rig Vedic mantras are based on Vedic meditation, which are nothing but isometric exercises.

4. Indra, the Hindu god of dreaming is the most important god of Rig Veda.

PRINCIPLE OF HINDUISM

Hinduism is based on the fact that life would be ideal if all activities of life are interlinked and any new activity is accepted if and only if it is compatible with the interlinked giant activity.

1. Yajna was this isometric experimentation of compatibility testing.

2. Karma was incompatibility of an activity with rest of the activities of life.

3. Reincarnation was the transformation that occurred in the activity every time it was repeated, to make it compatible with rest of the activities.

4. Moksha was the state at which all activities of life were mutually compatible, and would result in unimaginable freedom

THE VIRTUAL AND ETERNAL HINDU CODE OF CONDUCT:

Since all activities of life were interlinked it was not possible to tell lies, cheat, steal, etc. because that would adversely affected all the activities of life.

The interlinking of all activities of life was done through Vedic meditation, which were isometric exercises.

Thus, the Brahmana Varna and Krita Yuga started.

1. It is the golden era of Hinduism.

2. In this stage Hinduism was a way of life rather than a religion, with no god, temple, rituals, beliefs or code of conduct

3. Appeasing god within was through Vedic meditation.

4. It is also known as Sanathana Dharma.

5. This stage of Hinduism can't be understood by a layman.

6. Hinduism, at this stage was suitable for people leading an ideal life only.

To make Hinduism acceptable to all, it was modified in every Yuga, which resulted in deterioration of the quality of life.

Answer 2

Hinduism was founded by an institution of Seven Sages called Saptarishis. Just as we have Pope for Christianity today, Hinduism, from the beginning, had an institution of seven sages who were the patriarchs of the Vedic religion. They very strictly guarded the Vedic body of knowledge, and the copy of the Vedas available to them was considered to be the final copy. They were considered as God's manifestation on earth, and their word was the final authority in religious matters.

Any changes to the Vedas were needed to be approved by this elite group of sages. If the reasons were justified, they approved the changes and incorporated them into the Vedas. Otherwise, they rejected it and kept the Vedas intact without any contamination. From what appears, they were extremely strict about changes to the Vedas. Even to this day of Hinduism, a word in Veda is normally considered as the final authority to the literal T. And this faith in Vedas was built upon a tradition where the Vedas were very strictly and jealously guarded from any changes whatsoever, unless the change really justified it. Some super human justification was required to have them changed. Any changes, to the extent possible, were always added as appendages rather than their being incorporated into the Vedas. So we have Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and Upanishads as appendages to the Vedas. As more and more philosophy developed, all of them got incorporated into this body as appendages.

It is this institution of seven sages that expended large amount of effort over thousands of years in unifying a large number of traditions from across continents and civilizations into one universal religion of Hinduism that we see today. The Hindu trinity, the Hindu divine hierarchy, the Hindu festivals, and everything else that we see today was formulated by them. It is they who declared Ram and Krishna to be the incarnations of Vishnu. It is they who inserted Purusha Sukta, Narayana Sukta, and Sri Sukta into the Vedas.

The names of the SaptaRishis carried over from one generation to the next. For example, if Kasyap dies, his son would take on the name of Kasyap and get inducted into the SaptaRishis. Once in a while, for some reason, like one of the seven rishis dying without having any children, the names of the one or more of the rishis changed, giving us a different set of SaptaRishis.

The religion got so excessively dependent on these sages that they started being considered as the representatives of the creator on earth. This slowly led to their deification and they started being mythicized. They were declared as the mind born sons of Brahma. Subsequently, they were equated with the most evolved light beings in the creation and the guardians of divine laws. Further deification of their attributes lead to the addition of more and more myths and halo around them. This sort of excessive mythicization finally lead to the relegation of this institution from the purview of the real world into the realm of mythology.

This institution got destroyed at the time of the three hundred year severe drought of 2200 BC. At that time, most of the Indians, devastated by the drought, left India for foreign shores, especially to European lands. Because of the severe suffering that people underwent because of the drought, people lost faith in a useless God who did not answer their prayers, leading to the rise of atheistic cults on the subcontinent. The institution of seven sages got destroyed in this religious upheaval, as a result of which, the origins of Hinduism have once and for all become lost in the dungeons of time.

(excerpts from book "19000 Years of World History")
Hinduism began when people started asking questions about the world and the universe.

Answer 3

Hinduism isn't the Original name of this religion, or rather "way of life".The words "Hindu" and "Hinduism" are in fact, Persian. When the Persians travelled to the Indian Subcontinent, they gave them these names. The original name of Hinduism is 'Sanatan Dharma', in which 'Sanatan' means eternal, and 'Dharma' means religion. Therefore, the real name of Hinduism - Sanatan Dharma - means "eternal religion". It began in India (Bharat) around 5000-7000 years ago. The true time of origin however, remains unknown.

Answer 4

Hinduism came into being when people started asking questions abotu the world and the universe. Nobody knows when Hinduism started but we have relics that are proven to be Hindu dated back to 10,000 b.c.e. so it is at least that old, but probably older.

Answer 5

Um...This can probably be open to debate, it exactly how it started but I'm just going to type the way I was taught.

Apparently the Hindu religion was started by a group in I think, southeast Russia called Brahmanists, or something along those lines.

So yeah, they traveled down to India and spread their religious beliefs.

The End.

And Like I said, this can be opened up for debate, so if you don't want people getting pissed off at you for saying this, use some other website.

Answer 6

Hinduism is known to have no beginning nor ending.