Hinduism is one of the oldest religions of the world and one of the major religions in India. It has affected a lot of spheres of life such as culture, art, architecture education not only in India, but also in many countries of the world. Even nowadays it determines the way of life and value system of many people of the world. Later this religion became popular all over the world and now we can find the representatives of Hindu in many countries of the world. Caste system which has influenced and even now does the history of India originates from Hinduism. Nowadays about 80% of population in India is Hindu.

The word Hinduism originates from ancient Persian language. At those ancient times it meant the people who lived on the other side of the Indus river and the system of beliefs of those people. Now those people got the name of Indus Valley Civilization and they are defined as representatives of Indo-Aryan culture. Later the name of the inhabitants of the Sindh province was extended and represented all the inhabitants of the country. There is no certain basic event which could be called the starting point of Hinduism. Traces of this religion can be found in the most ancient civilizations approximately 2500 B.C. Unlike most other religions Hinduism wasn't founded as the teaching of one person. It was gradually developed through the centuries.

Religions heritages of Hinduism is contained in Vedas – collections of scripts written between 1500 and 500 B.C. Vedas contain the description of basic beliefs and the developments of Hinduism. There are a lot of trends and schools originated from Hinduism but most of them believe in a supreme spirit called Brahman and in reincarnation of our immortal soul - Atman. The final step of Atman's development is its unity with the eternal soul – universal energy – Brahman. Hinduism is now just set of customs and beliefs – it's a way of life which must make true your religion. Main life principles of Hinduism include satya and ahimsa. Satya means being truthful to the others and to you and ahimsa claims no injury way of life. To practice ahimsa adepts of Hinduism must avoid by any means any mental, physical and emotional hurt to all living creatures Every individual practicing Hinduism must follow the dharma – religious and social duty and do everything possible to achieve moksha – liberation from the circle of life and death. Dharma is usually seen as a quest of the physical world to the human and the ability to find and follow your way in life. All the events are defined by karma low. This low represents the moral low of cause and effect where every our action causes certain result and we are responsible for all our deeds and even thoughts and everything done comes back to us and makes us work is out again and again. The principle of Brahman is a central notion of Hinduism. It includes the belief that all the parts of the world and the realizations of the highest universal energy – Brahman and seek to come back to it as parts try to join the whole.

There are now definite frames and dates in Hinduism and division for periods is conditional but still there are several stages to be defined in the process of creation and development of this religion. One noticeable thing about the stages is that they are closely related with the external and internal event of the life of India and all the invasion and changes in the life of its people was reflected in the system of beliefs.

First period is called the Vedic and covers the time between 2000 B.C. - 400 B.C. when the secret writings – the Vedas were composed. The teachings we can read in the Vedas existed for centuries in oral form before it was written down. In 1000 B.C. Late Vedic period ends and Post-Vedic period begins. There are four books of the Vedas the Rig-Veda, the Sama-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, and the Atharva-Veda. Each of them contains four parts -Samhitas or Mantras, Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and Upanishads. Samhitas contained the hymns and prayers to the gods, Brahmanas explained technicalities of the rituals, Aranyakas contained the set of rules for hermits and saints and Upanishads are written in the form of the dialog and contain mostly the main concepts of Hinduism. This is the period of formation of Hinduism its basic customs and traditions thought it was changed and modified through the centuries. New historic events brought changes to all spheres of life including religion. These changes were not very rapid ones and took several centuries and new period of Hinduism religion can be called the logical continuation of the previous stage. And also it reflected the graduate change from the polytheism to monotheism in India. By the sixth century B.C the Vedic gods were in decline among the people and monotheism dominated since than thought all the "old" gods were not forgotten of course and appeared in the mythology and tellings.

Starting from the 400 B.C. Indo-Aryans tribes settled down in the towns and villages having changed their nomadic way of life. They have brought their religion to the North India where it has fused with the authentic beliefs of the original inhabitants. This began a new period of Hinduism called Epic or Classical period which lasted between 400B.C. and 600 A.D. Two greatest Hindu Epics were created during this period. They include the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
The Ramayana is a story of noble prince Rama and his attempts to save his wife Sita kidnapped by the demon Ravana. The Mahabharata describes the battle between two families – the Pandavas and the Kauravas. Both epics show the heroes originating from the royal families and show the honor and pride with which the heroes follow their dharma and proving the teachings of Hinduism. Prince Rama was honored as one of Krishna's incarnations and added to the pantheon of gods.

To this period belongs also one of the most popular writings of Hinduism - The Bhagavad Gita, "The Song of the Lord". It's philosophical work, a part of Mahabharata where Krishna and Arjuna discuss the basic questions of existence and religion.
Next period covers the time between 600 A.D. and 1800 A.D. There is no key event that differentiates it and it was distinguished later by the scholars. It continuously develops the previous ideas of Hinduism along with some news. It's the Medieval Period and there are three major characteristics of this period. First of all devotional movements were developed. These movements got the name bhakti and with there development a lot of religious centers of Hinduism and temples appeared.

Another noticeable event of this period is an appearance of different schools of Hindu philosophy. There can be differentiated six most popular ones - Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Purva-mimamsa, Vedanta. Nyaya deals with the logic thinking and gives the explanation through the analyses. Vaisheshika concentrates on the world nature and its characterization. Samkhya surveys the starting point of the existence and the development of the Universe. Yoga is a number of physical and mental exercise which leads to the perfection of the individual and gives the understanding of the world. Mimansa and Vedanta interpret the Vedas. All these schools use different ways to achieve one ultimate goal – to reach moksha and to join Brahman highest spirit.

The sectarian scripts – Tantras have also appeared during this period. They were created by Saktas – people who worshiped the goodness Sakti and contained mantras, mandalas and yoga techniques aiming to obtain the liberation. All the methods of this teaching are collected in the book of The Tantras. The Tantra teaching became popular and nowadays it's regarded sometimes like a separate teaching and got its successors.

About 1800 A.D. a new period of Hinduism began. It lasts till present times and is called Modern. New ideas came to India and have broadened the outlook of the Hinduism successors and of course it has influenced all spheres of life including religion. The changes were rapid and influenced all the spheres of life and the discontinuity in the development of Hinduism can be traced here. It's realized though the mixture of beliefs and religious trends and the change in the consciousness of people. The result was an appearance of new movements inside Hinduism in 1800s.

Ram Mohan Roy founded the Brahmo Samaj--Society of BrahmaSwarup in 1828. He wanted to reform Hindu religious practice as there were a lot of things that he considered odd and even dangerous for the adepts of Hinduism. In his temples there are no images, pictures and statues of the deities as they distress attention from real faith by his mind. He also protested against, caste disabilities, child marriage, women's property and much thanks to his effort reform in legislative system were made.

The Arya Samaj (Society of Aryans) was founded by Swami Dayananda in 1875. He regarded the Vedas as main source of Hinduism and leaned only on those secret scripts in his teachings. He assimilated the ideas of karma and reincarnation but opposed polytheism and sacrifices. Samaj is a democratic organization without regular priests.
Nowadays Hinduism finds a lot of ways of realization and new schools appear along with the classic religion with the traditional set of values and beliefs. The idea of Brahman is a central notion for all the trends and schools and it stands for divine entirety which finds its realizations in the forms of our world and the goal of each creature is to join this entirety finishing the circle of suffering forever. There are several modern examples of sectarian worship such as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (the Hare-Krishna Movement), the Swaminarayan Religion, and the Sathya Sai Baba Movement.

Admission essays
Custom Essays
Buy custom essay