Wikipedia

Hinduism is the oldest religion of all world religions. For hundreds of years, it has been searched for some evidence about its founderwas arians even authors couldn't point a finger at a specific founder or its date of origin. Even the authors of its sacred texts are largely unknown. The system exists from time immemorial and there is no exact beginning of this religion. It has no particular fonder but has many Rishis, Saints, Gurus, and leaders who reformed and revived the existing culture and traditions. It has developed out of Brahmanism.

Ancient Hindu works talk about things that happened between periods of time more than the period well known to history scholars of current time. Even scientific excavations show the existence of ceremonious worship, at the early periods.

In other words, there is no single founder of Hinduism and it existed from time unexplored, as a religion. Hinduism, is open to interpretation, and is a collection of a path to wisdom, which is based on reasoning more than a divine authority and does not have any specific founder.

The temples that have been found in the Indus valley civilization have no indication of a deity. But there were many 'gods' and 'goddesses' as symbols of nature. People of the Indus valley civilization worshiped forces of nature. Each village had its own unique statue to worship. The aspect of politics was also mixed with the religion models in ancient culture where the ruler was considered the 'son' of the mother-goddess.

Thus, Hinduism was subject to new philosophies that changed it over time. It consists of a wide range of beliefs, which are not interrelated sometimes. There is no known founder as such for Hinduism, no creed, or single source of authority. All the Hindu philosophies share just a thin connection with each other.

Another view:

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.

Saptarshis are the founders of Hinduism.

Go to www.chicagolandbeerhistory.com for more info.

George Joseph Cooke was my grandfather, but I know little about the brewery. Third-hand hearsay says there was some sort of scandal (a bad batch of beer?).

I believe it became Cooke Cold Storage before financial demise.

I could find no info at chicagolandbeerhistory.com, as someone suggested.

You can see a photograph of the Cooke brewery, circa 1902, at the web site "Photographs from the Chicago Daily News - Chicago Historical Society" at: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpcoop/ichihtml/

enter the search words: Cooke brewery

Since posting my previous reply, I have come upon the obituary of George J Cooke's father, J.S. Cooke. It explains a lot:

Source: Chicago Tribune Date: Monday, March 13, 1899

JOHN S. COOKE IS DEAD

South Side Brewer Succumbs to Attack of Heart Failure

Stricken while attending services in St. James' Catholic Church on March 5 Native of Ireland and resident of Chicago since 1857 Manufacturer of beer and bottler of mineral water Once a democratic candidate for City Treasurer.

John S. Cooke, President of Cooke Brewing company, died at 6:50 o'clock last evening at his residence, 2976 Michigan avenue. He was attacked by heart failure on Sunday, March 5, while attending services in St. James' Catholic Church, and sank gradually until he expired. Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, but the details have not yet been arranged.

John S. Cooke was born in 1838 at Mitchelstown, County Cork, Ireland and when 14 years old came to America. He lived in New York City until 1857, when he came to Chicago, where he reared a family and built up a fortune. His first employment in Chicago was in the service of Sidney Kent, who conducted one of the few packing houses here at that time, but shortly afterwards he went to work for Michael Keeley, who was at that time in the soda-water business.

He married Miss Charlotte Rowland of Rochester, N.Y., in 1864, and the following year he accepted a position with Smith, Schwab & McQuaid, wholesale liquor dealers. When the business was sold later to Monheimer Bros. He remained with the house, and in 1880 bought out one of the partners, and the name was changed to Monheimer & Cooke. Mr. Cooke remained in business with the Monheimers till 1885, when he purchased the plant of the Union Brewing company, twenty-seventh street and the lake, and formed Cooke Brewing company. For the last few months the Cooke Brewing company has enjoyed the distinction of being the only independent brewing concern in Chicago. Mr. Cooke having steadily resisted all efforts to draw him into any of the numerous brewing combines.

Several years ago Mr. Cooke built a handsome summer residence at Lake Geneva, Wis., where he had a steam launch, and in season entertained many friends. He named the place Ara Glen, after a beautiful spot near his birthplace in Ireland. Two years ago he formed a company to bottle and sell mineral spring waters from Wauwatosa, Wis., and Quincy, Ill., and named it the Ara Glen Mineral Water Bottling company. Mr. Cooke was a Democrat, and in 1895 allowed his name to be placed on the Democratic ticket as candidate for City Treasurer in the election which made George B. Swift Mayor.

He left a widow and four children - Charles F., George J., and John R. Cooke, and Charlotte Irene Welch, wife of Dr. P. H. Welch. All reside in Chicago.

In February, 1959, my brother Ed tape recorded some family history from our parents. A portion of it is included below.

Mr. and Mrs. Kerwin were my father (Edward, Mary Kerwin Cooke�s younger brother) and mother (Marie). Ed was my brother Ed.

Mr. Kerwin: The oldest child was Mary Elizabeth, who was born on May the 20th, 1876 - ...

and Mary died in - the date is missing here � Lake Forest, Illinois. [July 25, 1953]

Ed: That was Mary Cooke wasn't it?

Mr. Kerwin: Yes, Mary had married George Cooke. Mary and George Cooke had five children � three girls and two boys. They were married by the way, on June 24th, 1896, in Chicago. George Cooke's family owned and operated the Cooke's Brewing Company, which was located not far from the Keeley Brewing Company previously referred to. The father of the family was John S. Cooke. The five children that Mary and George had were: Catherine, who married George Blow, and now lives in Virginia; - now wait till Mother comes. Mother! Come up a little closer here! Mother can tell us the Blow children.

Mrs. Kerwin: The Blow children were: George, and Tony � (Anthony)- there's one other in between there - and John is the youngest; Michael, there's a Michael. But I don't know whether Michael or Anthony comes second or third, but John. is the youngest. No girls. ...

So there are some of George Cooke's grandchildren.

Paul Kerwin