EARLY HINDU RELIGION

Dr Uday Dokras,Phd Stockholm University,SWEDEN

Origins of Hinduism
INTRODUCTION : Most scholars believe Hinduism started somewhere between
2300 B.C. and 1500 B.C. in the Indus Valley, near modern-day Pakistan. But many
Hindus argue that their faith is timeless and has always existed.
Unlike other religions, Hinduism has no one founder but is instead a fusion of
various beliefs.

Around 1500 B.C., the Indo-Aryan people migrated to the Indus Valley, and their
language and culture blended with that of the indigenous people living in the
region. There’s some debate over who influenced who more during this time.
The period when the Vedas were composed became known as the “Vedic Period”
and lasted from about 1500 B.C. to 500 B.C. Rituals, such as sacrifices and
chanting, were common in the Vedic Period.
The Epic, Puranic and Classic Periods took place between 500 B.C. and 500 A.D.
Hindus began to emphasize the worship of deities, especially Vishnu, Shiva and
Devi.

The concept of dharma was introduced in new texts, and other faiths, such as
Buddhism and Jainism, spread rapidly.
Hinduism vs. Buddhism
Hinduism and Buddhism have many similarities. Buddhism, in fact, arose out of
Hinduism, and both believe in reincarnation, karma and that a life of devotion and
honor is a path to salvation and enlightenment.  
But some key differences exist between the two religions: Buddhism rejects the
caste system of Hinduism, and does away with the rituals, the priesthood and the
gods that are integral to the Hindu faith.  
Medieval and Modern Hindu History

The Medieval Period of Hinduism lasted from about 500 to 1500 A.D. New texts
emerged, and poet-saints recorded their spiritual sentiments during this time.
In the 7th century, Muslim Arabs began invading areas in India. During parts of
the Muslim Period, which lasted from about 1200 to 1757,  Islamic  rulers prevented
Hindus from worshipping their deities, and some temples were destroyed.

The prehistoric period (3rd and 2nd millennia BCE)

Indigenous prehistoric religion

The prehistoric culture of the Indus valley arose in the latter centuries of the 3rd
millennium BCE from the metal-using village cultures of the region. There is considerable
evidence of the material life of the Indus people, but its interpretation remains a matter of
speculation until their writing is deciphered. Enough evidence exists, however, to show that
several features of later Hinduism may have had prehistoric origins.
In most of the village cultures, small terra-cotta figurines of women, found in large quantities,
have been interpreted as icons of a fertility deity whose cult was widespread in the
Mediterranean area and in western Asia from Neolithic times (c. 5000 BCE) onward.
This hypothesis is strengthened by the fact that the goddess was apparently associated with
the bull—a feature also found in the ancient religions farther west.
Religion in the Indus valley civilization
The Harappa culture, located in what is now Pakistan, has produced much evidence of what may
have been a cult of a goddess and a bull. Figurines of both occur, female figures being more
common, while the bull appears more frequently on the many steatite seals. A horned
figure, possibly with three faces, occurs on a few seals, and on one seal he is surrounded by
animals. A few male figurines, one apparently in a dancing posture, may represent deities. No
building has been discovered at any Harappan site that can be positively identified as a temple,
but the Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro may have been used for ritual purposes, as were the ghats
(bathing steps on riverbanks) attached to later Hindu temples. The presence of bathrooms in most
of the houses and the remarkable system of covered drains indicate a strong concern for
cleanliness that may have been related to concepts of ritual purity but perhaps merely to ideas of
hygiene.

The Great Bath, Mohenjo-daro.

Many seals show what may be religious and legendary themes that cannot be interpreted with
certainty, such as seals depicting trees next to figures who may be divinities believed to reside in
them. The bull is often depicted standing before a sort of altar, and the horned figure has been
interpreted overconfidently as a prototype of the Hindu god Shiva. Small conical objects have
been interpreted by some scholars as phallic emblems, though they may have been pieces used in
board games. Other interpretations of the remains of the Harappa culture are even more
speculative and, if accepted, would indicate that many features of later Hinduism were already in
existence 4,000 years ago.
Survival of archaic religious practices
Some elements of the religious life of current and past folk religions—notably sacred animals,
sacred trees (especially the pipal, Ficus religiosa), and the use of small figurines for worship—
are found in all parts of India and may have been borrowed from pre-Vedic civilizations. On the
other hand, these things are also commonly encountered outside India, and therefore they may
have originated independently in Hinduism as well.

The Vedic period (2nd millennium–7th century BCE)

The people of the early Vedic period left few material remains, but they did leave a very
important literary record called the Rigveda. Its 1,028 hymns are distributed throughout 10
books, of which the first and the last are the most recent. A hymn usually consists of three
sections: an exhortation; a main part comprising praise of the deity, prayers, and petition, with
frequent references to the deity’s mythology; and a specific request.
The Rigveda is not a unitary work, and its composition may have taken several centuries. In its
form at the time of its final edition, it reflected a well-developed religious system. The date
commonly given for the final recension of the Rigveda is 1200 BCE. During the next two or
three centuries it was supplemented by three other Vedas and still later by Vedic texts called
the Brahmanas and the Upanishads (see below Vedas).

Challenges to Brahmanism (6th–2nd century BCE)

Indian religious life underwent great changes during the period 550–450 BCE. This century was
marked by the rise of breakaway sects of ascetics who rejected traditional religion, denying the
authority of the Vedas and of the Brahmans and following teachers who claimed to have
discovered the secret of obtaining release from transmigration. By far the most important of
these figures were Siddhartha Gautama, called the Buddha, and Vardhamana,
called Mahavira (“Great Hero”), the founder of Jainism. There were many other heterodox
teachers who organized bands of ascetic followers, and each group adopted a specific code of
conduct. They gained considerable support from ruling families and merchants. The latter were
growing in wealth and influence, and many of them were searching for alternative forms of
religious activity that would give them a more significant role than did orthodox Brahmanism or
that would be less expensive to support.
The scriptures of the new religious movements throw some light on the popular religious life of
the period. The god Prajapati was widely believed to be the highest god and the creator of the
universe; Indra, known chiefly as Shakra (“The Mighty One”), was second to him in importance.

The Brahmans were very influential, but there was opposition to their large-scale animal
sacrifices—on moral, philosophical, and economic grounds—and to their pretensions to
superiority by virtue of their birth. The doctrine of transmigration was by then generally
accepted, though a group of outright materialists—the Charvakas, or Lokayatas—denied the
survival of the soul after death. The ancestor cult, part of the Indo-European heritage, was
retained almost universally, at least by the higher castes. Popular religious life largely centred
around the worship of local fertility divinities (yakshas), cobra spirits (nagas), and other minor
spirits in sacred places such as groves. Although these sacred places were the main centres of
popular religious life, there is no evidence of any buildings or images associated with them, and
it appears that neither temples nor large icons existed at the time.
About 500 BCE asceticism became widespread, and increasing numbers of intelligent young
men “gave up the world” to search for release from transmigration by achieving a state of
psychic security. The orthodox Brahmanical teachers reacted to these tendencies by devising the
doctrine of the four ashramas, which divided the life of the twice-born after initiation into four
stages: the brahmacharin (celibate religious student); the grihastha (married householder);
the vanaprastha (forest dweller); and the sannyasin (wandering ascetic). This attempt to keep
asceticism in check by confining it to men of late middle age was not wholly successful.
Thereafter Hindu social theory centred on the concept of varnashrama dharma, or the duties of
the four classes (varnas) and the four ashramas, which constituted the ideal that Hindus were
encouraged to follow.

The first great empire of India, the Mauryan empire, arose in the 3rd century BCE. Its early
rulers were non-Brahmanic; Ashoka (reigned c. 265–238 BCE), the third and most famous of the
Mauryan emperors, was a professed Buddhist. Although there is no doubt that Ashoka’s
patronage of Buddhism did much to spread that religion, his inscriptions recognize the Brahmans
as worthy of respect. Sentiments in favour of nonviolence (ahimsa) and vegetarianism, much
encouraged by the non-Brahmanic sects, spread during the Mauryan period and were greatly
encouraged by Ashoka. A Brahmanic revival appears to have occurred with the fall of the
Mauryas. The orthodox religion itself, however, was undergoing change at this time, as theistic
tendencies developed around the gods Vishnu and Shiva.
Inscriptions, iconographic evidence, and literary references reveal the emergence of
devotional theism in the 2nd century BCE. Several brief votive inscriptions refer to the
god Vasudeva, who by this time was widely worshipped in western India. At the end of the 2nd
century, Heliodorus, a Greek ambassador of King Antialcidas of Taxila (in Pakistan), erected a
large column in honour of Vasudeva at Besnagar in Madhya Pradesh and recorded that he was
a Bhagavata, a term used specifically for the devotees of Vishnu. The identification of Vasudeva
with the old Vedic god Vishnu and, later, with Vishnu’s incarnation, Krishna, was quickly
accepted.

Near the end of the Mauryan period, the first surviving stone images of Hinduism appear.
Several large, simply carved figures survive, representing not any of the great gods but rather
yakshas, or local chthonic divinities connected with water, fertility, and magic. The original
locations of these images are uncertain, but they were probably erected in the open air in sacred
enclosures. Temples are not clearly attested in this period by either archaeology or literature. A
few fragmentary images thought to be those of Vasudeva and Shiva, the latter
in anthropomorphic form and in the form of a lingam, are found on coins of the 2nd and 1st
centuries BCE.

Early Hinduism (2nd century BCE–4th century CE)

The centuries immediately preceding and following the dawn of the Common Era were marked
by the recension of the two great Sanskrit epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata (the latter
incorporating into it the Bhagavadgita). The worship of Vishnu, incarnate as Krishna in
the Mahabharata and as Rama in the Ramayana, developed significantly during this period (see
below Epics and Puranas), as did the cult of Shiva, who plays an active role in the Mahabharata.
The rise of the major sects: Vaishnavism, Shaivism, and Shaktism
The Vedic god Rudra gained importance from the end of the Rigvedic period. In the
Svetashvatara Upanishad, Rudra is for the first time called Shiva and is described as the creator,
preserver, and destroyer of the universe. His followers are called on to worship him with
devotion (bhakti). The tendency for the laity to form themselves into religious guilds or societies
—evident in the case of the yaksha cults, Buddhism, and Jainism—promoted the growth of
devotional Vaishnavism and Shaivism. These local associations of worshipers appear to have
been a principal factor in the spread of the new cults. Theistic ascetics are less in evidence at this
time, though a community of Shaivite monks, the Pashupatas, existed by the 2nd or 3rd
century CE.
The period between the fall of the Mauryan empire (c. 185 BCE) and the rise of the Gupta
dynasty (c. 320 CE) was one of great change, including the conquest of most of the area of
Pakistan and parts of western India by a succession of invaders. India was opened to influence
from the West as never before, not only by invaders but also through flourishing maritime trade
with the Roman Empire. The effects of the new contacts were most obvious in art and
architecture. One of the oldest freestanding stone temples in the subcontinent has been excavated
at Taxila, near Rawalpindi, Pakistan. During the 1st century BCE the Gandhara school of
sculpture arose in the same region and made use of Hellenistic and Roman prototypes, mainly in
the service of Buddhism. Hindu temples of the period probably were made of wood, because no
remains of them have survived; however, literary evidence shows that they must have existed.
By the time of the early Gupta empire the new theism had been harmonized with the old Vedic
religion, and two of the main branches of Hinduism were fully recognized. The Vaishnavas had
the support of the Gupta emperors, who took the title paramabhagavata (“supreme devotee of
Vishnu”). Vishnu temples were numerous, and the doctrine of Vishnu’s avatars (incarnations)
was widely accepted. Of the 10 incarnations of later Vaishnavism, however, only two seem to
have been much worshipped in the Gupta period (4th–6th century). These were Krishna, the hero
of the Mahabharata, who also begins to appear in his pastoral aspect as the cowherd and flute
player, and Varaha, the divine boar, of whom several impressive images survive from the Gupta
period. A spectacular carving in Udayagiri (Madhya Pradesh) dating from about 400 CE depicts
Varaha rescuing the earth goddess, Vasudha. Temples in Udayagiri (c. 400) and Deogarh
(c. 500) also portray Vishnu reclining on the serpent Ananta (“Without End”).

The Shaivites were also a growing force in the religious life of India. The sect
of Pashupata ascetics, founded by Lakulisha (or Nahulisha), who lived in the 2nd century CE, is
attested by inscriptions from the 5th century; it is among the earliest of the sectarian religious
orders of Hinduism. Representations of the son of Shiva, Skanda (also called Karttikeya, the war
god), appeared as early as 100 BCE on coins from the Kushan dynasty, which ruled northern
India, Afghanistan, and Central Asia in the first three centuries of the Common Era. Shiva’s
other son, the elephant-headed Ganesha, patron deity of commercial and literary enterprises, did
not appear until the 5th century. Very important in this period was Surya, the sun god, in whose
honour temples were built, though in modern times he is little regarded by most Hindus. The
solar cult had Vedic roots but later may have expanded under Iranian influence.
Several goddesses gained importance in this period. Although goddesses had always been
worshipped in local and popular cults, they play comparatively minor roles in Vedic
religion. Lakshmi, or Shri, goddess of fortune and consort of Vishnu, was worshipped before the
beginning of the Common Era, and several lesser goddesses are attested from the Gupta period.
But the cult of Durga, the consort of Shiva, began to gain importance only in the 4th century, and
the large-scale development of Shaktism (devotion to the active, creative principle personified as
the mother goddess) did not take place until medieval times.

Vishnu with his consort Lakshmi, from the temple dedicated to Parsvanatha in the eastern temple
complex at Khajraho, Madhya Pradesh, India, c. 950–970.
© Anthony Cassidy

The development of temples

The Gupta period was marked by the rapid development of temple architecture. Earlier temples
were made of wood, but freestanding stone and brick temples soon appeared in many parts of
India. By the 7th century, stone temples, some of considerable dimensions, were found in many
parts of the country. Originally, the design of the Hindu temples may have borrowed from the
Buddhist precedent, for in some of the oldest temples the image was placed in the centre of the
shrine, which was surrounded by an ambulatory path resembling the path around a stupa (a
religious building containing a Buddhist relic). Nearly all surviving Gupta temples are
comparatively small; they consist of a small cella (central chamber), constructed of thick and
solid masonry, with a veranda either at the entrance or on all sides of the building. The earliest
Gupta temples, such as the Buddhist temples at Sanchi, have flat roofs; however,
the sikhara (spire), typical of the north Indian temple, was developed in this period and with time
was steadily made taller. Tamil literature mentions several temples. The
epic Silappatikaram (c. 3rd–4th centuries), for instance, refers to the temples of Srirangam, near
Tiruchchirappalli, and of Tirumala-Tirupati (known locally as Tiruvenkatam).
The Buddhists and Jains had made use of artificial caves for religious purposes, and these were
adapted by the Hindus. Hindu cave shrines, however, are comparatively rare, and none have been
discovered from earlier than the Gupta period. The Udayagiri complex has cave shrines, but
some of the best examples are in Badami (c. 570), the capital of the Chalukya dynasty in the 6th
century. The Badami caves contain several carvings of Vishnu, Shiva, and Harihara (an
amalgamation of Vishnu and Shiva), as well as depictions of stories connected with Vishnu’s
incarnation, Krishna. Near the Badami caves are the sites of Aihole and Pattadakal, which
contain some of the oldest temples in the south; some temples in Aihole, for example, date to
approximately 450. For this reason these sites are sometimes referred to as the “laboratory” of
Hindu temples. Pattadakal, another capital of the Chalukya empire, was a major site of temple
building by Chalukyan monarchs in the 7th and 8th centuries. These temples incorporated styles
that eventually became distinctive of north and south Indian architecture.
In the Pallava site of Mahabalipuram (Mamallapuram), south of Chennai, a number of small
temples were carved in the 7th century from outcroppings of rock; they represent some of the
best-known religious buildings in the Tamil country. Mamallapuram and Kanchipuram, near
Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu, were major cities in the Pallava empire (4th–9th centuries).
Kanchipuram, the Pallava capital, is sometimes called the “city of a thousand temples.” Some of
its temples date to the 5th century, and many feature magnificent architecture. Dedicated to
local manifestations of Shiva, Vishnu, and various forms of the Great Goddess, the temples
were patronized by royalty and aristocrats but also received donations and endowments from the
larger population.
Evidence for contact between the Pallava empire and Southeast Asia is provided by some of the
earliest inscriptions (c. 6th–7th centuries) of the Khmer empire, which are written in “Pallava
style” characters. There are also several visual connections between temple styles in India and in
Southeast Asia, including similarities in architecture (e.g., the design of temple towers) and
iconography (e.g., the depiction of Hindu deities, epic narratives, and dancers in carvings on
temple walls). Yet there are also differences between them. For example, the Cambodian Shiva
temples in Phnom Bakheng, Bakong, and Koh Ker resemble mountain pyramids in the
architectural idiom of Hindu and Buddhist temples in Borobudur and Prambanan on the island of
Java in present-day Indonesia.

Hinduism and Buddhism exerted an enormous influence on the civilizations of Southeast Asia

and contributed greatly to the development of a written tradition in that area. About the
beginning of the Common Era, Indian merchants may have settled there, bringing Brahmans and
Buddhist monks with them. These religious men were patronized by rulers who converted to
Hinduism or Buddhism. The earliest material evidence of Hinduism in Southeast Asia comes
from Borneo, where late 4th-century Sanskrit inscriptions testify to the performance of Vedic
sacrifices by Brahmans at the behest of local chiefs. Chinese chronicles attest an Indianized
kingdom in Vietnam two centuries earlier. The dominant form of Hinduism exported to
Southeast Asia was Shaivism, though some Vaishnavism was also known there. Later, from the
9th century onward, Tantrism, both Hindu and Buddhist, spread throughout the region.
Beginning in the first half of the 1st millennium CE, many of the early kingdoms in Southeast
Asia adopted and adapted specific Hindu texts, theologies, rituals, architectural styles, and forms
of social organization that suited their historical and social conditions. It is not clear whether this
presence came about primarily through slow immigration and settlement by key personnel
from India or through visits to India by Southeast Asians who took elements of
Indian culture back home. Hindu and Buddhist traders, priests, and, occasionally, princes
traveled to Southeast Asia from India in the first few centuries of the Common Era and
eventually settled there. Enormous temples to Shiva and Vishnu were built in the ancient Khmer
empire, attesting to the power and prestige of Hindu traditions in the region. Angkor Wat, built
in the 12th century in what is now Cambodia, was originally consecrated to Vishnu, although it
was soon converted to (and is still in use as) a Buddhist temple. One of the largest Hindu temples
ever built, it contains the largest bas-relief in the world, depicting the churning of the ocean of
milk, a minor theme of Indian architecture but one of the dominant narratives in Khmer temples.
Despite the existence in Southeast Asia of Hindu temples and iconography as well as Sanskrit
inscriptions, the nature and extent of Hindu influence upon the civilizations of the region is
fiercely debated by contemporary scholars. Whereas early 20th-century scholars wrote about the
Indianization of Southeast Asia, those of the late 20th and early 21st centuries argued that this
influence was very limited and affected only a small cross section of the elite. It is nevertheless
certain that divinity and royalty were closely connected in Southeast Asian civilizations and that
several Hindu rituals were used to valorize the powers of the monarch.
The civilizations of Southeast Asia developed forms of Hinduism and Buddhism that
incorporated distinctive local features and in other respects reflected local cultures, but the
framework of their religious life, at least in the upper classes, was largely Indian. Stories from
the Ramayana and the Mahabharata became widely known in Southeast Asia and are still
popular there in local versions. In Indonesia the people of Bali still follow a form of Hinduism
adapted to their own genius. Versions of the Manu-smriti were taken to Southeast Asia and were
translated and adapted to indigenous cultures until they lost most of their original content.
Claims of early Hindu contacts farther east are more doubtful. There is little evidence of direct
influence of Hinduism on China or Japan, which were primarily affected by Buddhism.

Questions of influence on the Mediterranean world

There is no clear evidence to attest to the influence of Hinduism in the ancient Mediterranean
world. The Greek philosopher Pythagoras (c. 580–c. 500 BCE) may have obtained his doctrine
of metempsychosis (transmigration, or passage of the soul from one body to
another; see reincarnation) from India, mediated by Achaemenian (6th–4th century BCE) Persia,
but similar ideas were known in Egypt and were certainly present in Greece before the time of
Pythagoras. The Pythagorean doctrine of a cyclic universe may also be derived from India, but
the Indian theory of cosmic cycles is not attested in the 6th century BCE.
It is known that Hindu ascetics occasionally visited Greece. Furthermore, Greece and India
conducted not only trade but also cultural, educational, and philosophical exchanges. The most
striking similarity between Greek and Indian thought is the resemblance between the system of
mystical gnosis (esoteric knowledge) described in the Enneads of the Neoplatonic
philosopher Plotinus (205–270) and that of the Yoga-sutra attributed to Patanjali, an Indian
religious teacher sometimes dated in the 2nd century CE. The Patanjali text is the older, and
influence is probable, though the problem of mediation remains difficult because Plotinus gives
no direct evidence of having known anything about Indian mysticism. Several Greek and Latin
writers (an example of the former being Clement of Alexandria) show considerable knowledge
of the externals of Indian religions, but none gives any intimation of understanding their
more recondite aspects.

The rise of devotional Hinduism (4th–11th century)

The medieval period was characterized by the growth of new devotional religious movements
centred on hymnodists who taught in the popular languages of the time. The new movements
probably began with the appearance of hymns in Tamil associated with two groups of poets:
the Nayanars, worshipers of Shiva, and the Alvars, devotees of Vishnu. The oldest of these date
from the early 7th century, though passages of devotional character can be found in earlier Tamil
literature.

The term bhakti, in the sense of devotion to a personal god, appears in the Bhagavadgita and the
Shvetashvatara Upanishad. In these early sources it represents a devotion still somewhat
restrained and unemotional. The new form of bhakti, associated with singing in the languages of
the common people, was highly charged with emotion and mystical fervour, and the relationship
between worshiper and divinity was often described as analogous to that between lover and
beloved. The Tamil saints, south Indian devotees of Vishnu or Shiva from the 6th to the 9th
century, felt an intense love (Tamil: anbu) toward their god. They experienced overwhelming joy
in his presence and deep sorrow when he did not reveal himself. Some of them felt a profound
sense of guilt or inadequacy in the face of the divine. In Tamil poems the supreme being is
addressed as a lover, a parent, or a master. The poets traveled to many temples, many of them
located in southern India, singing the praises of the enshrined deity. The poems have a
strong ethical content and encourage the virtues of love, humility, and brotherhood. The ideas of
these poets, spreading northward, probably were the origin of bhakti in northern India.
The devotional cults further weakened Buddhism, which had long been on the decline. The
philosophers Kumarila and Shankara were strongly opposed to Buddhism. In their journeys
throughout India, their biographies claim, they vehemently debated with Buddhists and tried to
persuade kings and other influential people to withdraw their support from Buddhist monasteries.
Only in Bihar and Bengal, because of the patronage of the Pala dynasty and some lesser kings
and chiefs, did Buddhist monasteries continue to flourish. Buddhism in eastern India, however,
was well on the way to being absorbed into Hinduism when the Muslims invaded the Ganges
valley in the 12th century. The great Buddhist shrine of Bodh Gaya, the site of the Buddha’s
enlightenment, became a Hindu temple and remained as such until recent times.

At the end of its existence in India, Buddhism exhibited certain philosophical and
cultural affinities with Hinduism. Among the Buddhist Tantrists appeared a new school of
preachers, often known as Siddhas (“Those Who Have Achieved”), who sang their verses in the
contemporary languages—early Maithili and Bengali. They taught that giving up the world was
not necessary for release from transmigration and that one could achieve the highest state by
living a life of simplicity in one’s own home. This system, known as Sahajayana (“Vehicle of the
Natural” or “Easy Vehicle”), influenced both Bengali devotional Vaishnavism, which produced a
sect called Vaishnava-Sahajiya with similar doctrines, and the Natha yogis (mentioned below),
whose teachings influenced Kabir and other later bhakti masters.

Rig Veda Manuscript