Hindu religion is the prevalent religion in most parts of South Asia and indeed, the third largest religion after Islam and Christianity. The faith has more than a billion followers, but a billion of such followers are said to be residing in India.
There are currently many versions of Hindu (with a significant number of deities), but despite the dynamism, Hinduism can still not be traced to one single follower. This factor makes the Hindu religion a unique faith.
These factors withstanding, this study seeks to trace the origin of Hinduism and how it has evolved from the influences that characterized its formation during its early origins.
History
Like widely believed in most societies across the globe, Hinduism traces its roots to early India, but more specifically, during the Harappan period.
This was a pre-classical era, and most of its followers normally practiced the historic Vedic religion which has been identified by most researchers as the roots of Hinduism.
This period can be traced to the 1700 – 110 BCE. Early admirers of the belief practiced several rituals which included Indra, Varuna, Agni, and Soma; however, fire practices were the final seal of how they worshipped God.
Contrary to conventional beliefs, Hinduism never started with the worshiping of idols at the time. As a matter of fact, in the initial stages of its development, Hinduism greatly resembled the Zoroastrianism religion and other religions quite similar to Indo-European religions.
The faith’s Sanskrit epics at the time were Ramayana and Mahabharata, although they were combined over a long period (stretching from one century to the other) to accommodate past Indian rulers and warriors celebrated by the religion to date.
Hinduism after that grew in terms of the ideological composition after its followers were affected by influences from Hispanic, Jaina, and Buddhist philosophies (which were quickly gaining root in India at the time).
In essence, these foreign religious influences brought with them new philosophies which relaxed Hinduism practices because unlike previous periods, close attention to the caste system or the Vedas (where the religion traces its origin) were never followed.
With the coming of Arabs in India, Hinduism took a different form because there was a strong influence of philosophical thought from influential Hindu teachers namely Ramanuja, Madhva and Chaitanya. The religion after that took a new version, close to what we perceive the religion to be today.
Nonetheless, even though Hindu took several forms during its early beginning, certain basic practices never vanished.
For example, the observance of daily rituals among Hindu followers never disappeared because to date, most Hindu followers offer daily prayers to God and still, a large majority of them observe Hindu scriptures (namely the Shruti and Smriti).
At the same time, there were certain aspects of the faith’s religious practices that disappeared, like the observance of the spirit and the belief in God. These philosophical influences contributed to the shaping of the faith as it is presently constituted.
Conclusion
Hindu remains a unique religion, in the sense that, it does not trace its roots to one individual. However, its early beginnings show that the religion underwent a lot of changes, brought about by other religious influences. This can be said to be the reason why faith is very dynamic.
The dynamism is one of its strengths because it has been able to live on for centuries, despite the momentum. Collectively, these variables characterize the early beginnings of Hinduism.