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How old is Hinduism

Cosmos

Member
As a Baha'i I am more than confident that Hinduism itself is approximately 3,000 years old with the Advent of Krishna in c. 1200 BC and Vedanta as a spiritual core or root preceding by several, several millennia.

I agree entirely with Yogi that the Hindu Faith is a comprising of Dharmic religious traditions!

Note that it is entirely possible that there have been sources influencing Vedic scriptures throughout time, for example, many of the Vedic texts have origins of around 4,000 years old (c. 2000 BC) which would exactly align with the Advent of Abraham in Ur of the Chaldeas.
 

zenzero

Its only a Label
Friends,

Once again we are getting more involved with history and geography which are merely having some utility value but what is important to understand is that since the mind evolved so did humans on earth who felt that they too are part of existence itself and everything in existence is tuned or in harmony including humans when the mind [thoughts] are stilled. Any effort by anyone towards stilling the mind is a religion or a path and as there are numerous individuals so are the number of paths.
Establishing any path to be the first or in any way superior will be misplacing the still mind with a noise filled mind which is the only barrier to tuning oneself and living in harmony in existence.

Love & rgds
 
Seyorni is right. This discussion is already 5 pages long, and nobody has yet bothered to actually define what Hinduism is, and what they mean by "Hinduism" when they use the term.

Is Hinduism a single "monolithic structure" or is it an "umbrella term" for several related memeplexes?

I found an interesting site: Nirmukta
 

Harsh

Member
I think you are right that this whole conversation is very hard one. I also feel that this has very little to do with the spiritual path we call Hinduism. It is important because the old Euro centered views that White men came down from the north and brought the vedas with them to teach the Indigenous peoples of India religion is not only bad history but its also borders on racism.

Please don't think I am calling any one racist I am not. The Aryan Invasion theory comes from a time when Indigenous people were never given there due.

I agree that the bias claim that the religion of the indus valley natives was "taught" to them by greeks, is yet another attempt for white men to claim something because it is now seen as more viable and valid that most other "worships" seeing that they completely hated and opposed it claiming it to be devil worship. (when the british invaded india) I would also like to point out that if the greeks didi "reach" india and teach them the religion, why were they unable to reach when alexander had tried, it also fails to explain how they all of the sudden lost this "connection" to there so called "students".
 

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
Is Hinduism a single "monolithic structure" or is it an "umbrella term" for several related memeplexes?
Hinduism is not a monolithic structure. It is construed as a free form religion where differences in opinion are permissible. It is something like Linux with many distributions bound in one by 'dharma'. And 'Nirmukt' seems to be a wiser-than-you anti-Hindu site.

As for the age of Hinduism, it is eternal. By that I mean it was always there in India since humans came from Africa. Parts of Vedas, which form a part of Hinduism are 8,000 years old.
 

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
I agree that the bias claim that the religion of the indus valley natives was "taught" to them by Greeks, is yet another attempt for white men to claim something because it is now seen as more viable and valid that most other "worships" seeing that they completely hated and opposed it claiming it to be devil worship.
Which white man said that?
 

ShivaFan

Satyameva Jayate
Premium Member
Things were heard and spoken to the next in the lineage long before it was written down. Hinduism is basically that, and very diverse, you cannot put a date on it like some "religions" which have specific "founders" or a set of prophets. Because what Hinduism is doing is taking the insights and "revelations" passed down by word of mouth and rites from one to the next from the very foundations of human "existence", at some point what was passed down was put to written script but it was heard and memorized and passed down long before it was written down. Along the way, yes certain "historical figures" or Divines appear that you could try and attribute a date/time/century/eon/yuga to. But that Figure or Divine may have a time frame but Hinduism existed before that appearance and the appearance continues what we call the "tradition" but really what Hinduism is doing is conserving those things, the knowledge, and most important PROTECTING it as much as possible on and on from past into the future into the next.

For example Krishna was mentioned. It doesn't matter the date/eon/yuga etc as far as "pinpointing the beginning of Hinduism" because Krishna didn't create Hinduism or "found it" at the time He appeared. It already existed before. Now He may have REFORMED it in some manner as required to PROTECT IT based on the circumstances OF THE TIME such as the danger from demonic governments or rulers or powers etc., but also this "reform" still contains the things that came from long before, passed down, into the future and onward. "When Krishna came" is NOT the same as "when Hinduism came".

I will tell you, the oldest City (what we think of as a city today) is Kashi in India. This is the humans first City. Now, in the modern era (though I consider the "modern" era much, much older than likely some others), those who have forgotten the past because their father and mother and teacher did not VERBALLY pass it to them who needed to listen, they will try to discover the past. That is good. But their only way, typically if they do not have spiritual powers, is to dig something up from the ground, try to figure it out and then date it.

The problem here is the nature of the Earth itself. One thing from long, long ago, a stone or gold for example, may have been picked up by ice, by weather, by wind, by humans, by birds, eaten and then cast off, many times over. It is not even in it's original place. And one area due to tropic damp climate, what was there was blown away, taken down or even totally eaten by termites, or picked away by birds, many things, while another place it was very dry, put under sand, preserved, and so on. And even more important to understand, that one place that is not wet may have been dry, and the place now dry may have been wet, and the earth moved under your feet, and what was under the sea is now not or what was not under the sea now is, and the stars once navigated by are not in the same position, and the rivers reverse direction, or the magnetic force reverses, or Brahma's Fifth Head is cut off, or a bridge is built from India to Lanka, or worlds collide.

I have no doubt, that what you may think of as "ancient civilization" - such as just use ancient Egypt as the example - that type of Civilization existed all over the entire world where humans (though perhaps less in number) congregated in any numbers. All over the world simultaneously. Because your achievements are much older than you think. It doesn't matter where you find your broken clay cups. In one place, they did not disolve - by circumstance- but mostly they did.

One other mistake is to only think in terms of Bhumi Mother Earth. Hinduism existed and exists on many other planets, universes, lokas, realms.

It is also a part of DNA.
 
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Harsh

Member
Things were heard and spoken to the next in the lineage long before it was written down. Hinduism is basically that, and very diverse, you cannot put a date on it like some "religions" which have specific "founders" or a set of prophets. Because what Hinduism is doing is taking the insights and "revelations" passed down by word of mouth and rites from one to the next from the very foundations of human "existence", at some point what was passed down was put to written script but it was heard and memorized and passed down long before it was written down. Along the way, yes certain "historical figures" or Divines appear that you could try and attribute a date/time/century/eon/yuga to. But that Figure or Divine may have a time frame but Hinduism existed before that appearance and the appearance continues what we call the "tradition" but really what Hinduism is doing is conserving those things, the knowledge, and most important PROTECTING it as much as possible on and on from past into the future into the next.

For example Krishna was mentioned. It doesn't matter the date/eon/yuga etc as far as "pinpointing the beginning of Hinduism" because Krishna didn't create Hinduism or "found it" at the time He appeared. It already existed before. Now He may have REFORMED it in some manner as required to PROTECT IT based on the circumstances OF THE TIME such as the danger from demonic governments or rulers or powers etc., but also this "reform" still contains the things that came from long before, passed down, into the future and onward. "When Krishna came" is NOT the same as "when Hinduism came".

I will tell you, the oldest City (what we think of as a city today) is Kashi in India. This is the humans first City. Now, in the modern era (though I consider the "modern" era much, much older than likely some others), those who have forgotten the past because their father and mother and teacher did not VERBALLY pass it to them who needed to listen, they will try to discover the past. That is good. But their only way, typically if they do not have spiritual powers, is to dig something up from the ground, try to figure it out and then date it.

The problem here is the nature of the Earth itself. One thing from long, long ago, a stone or gold for example, may have been picked up by ice, by weather, by wind, by humans, by birds, eaten and then cast off, many times over. It is not even in it's original place. And one area due to tropic damp climate, what was there was blown away, taken down or even totally eaten by termites, or picked away by birds, many things, while another place it was very dry, put under sand, preserved, and so on. And even more important to understand, that one place that is not wet may have been dry, and the place now dry may have been wet, and the earth moved under your feet, and what was under the sea is now not or what was not under the sea now is, and the stars once navigated by are not in the same position, and the rivers reverse direction, or the magnetic force reverses, or Brahma's Fifth Head is cut off, or a bridge is built from India to Lanka, or worlds collide.

I have no doubt, that what you may think of as "ancient civilization" - such as just use ancient Egypt as the example - that type of Civilization existed all over the entire world where humans (though perhaps less in number) congregated in any numbers. All over the world simultaneously. Because your achievements are much older than you think. It doesn't matter where you find your broken clay cups. In one place, they did not disolve - by circumstance- but mostly they did.

One other mistake is to only think in terms of Bhumi Mother Earth. Hinduism existed and exists on many other planets, universes, lokas, realms.

It is also a part of DNA.


This is one of the best, most well versed responses/explanations I've ever read
 

Harsh

Member
Can you kindly provide any link?
Mx Muller did excellent work on Sanskrit literature. We should be thankful to him.

Max Mueler did do work on Sanskrit but often tried to convince Indians it's origins were from Ancient Aryans and that it was all primitive worship.
 

Poeticus

| abhyAvartin |
@Harsh

I offer two suggestions with all due respect:

1. Instead of resurrecting old threads, it would be better to create a new thread.
2. Desist and disengage from Operation Aupmanyav. For the love of the gods, trust me on this.
 

Harsh

Member
@Harsh

I offer two suggestions with all due respect:

1. Instead of resurrecting old threads, it would be better to create a new thread.
2. Desist and disengage from Operation Aupmanyav. For the love of the gods, trust me on this.

1. Why? (Just want to know, not trying to be rude)
2. Why? (TRUST ME?)
[something fishy going down?]
 

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
1. Why? (Just want to know, not trying to be rude)
2. Why? (TRUST ME?)
[something fishy going down?]

Over the years we have watched several people (and some of us are included in this group) take on Aup over AIT and/or his atheism. I suspect some people have left the forum in frustration over it. HE WILL NOT CHANGE HIS MIND. There could be 100 000 of the greatest scholars explain how AIT has long since been debunked. That's why, in a nutshell. P is just trying to be helpful to you to save you from wasting time, like so many have already done.
 
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