History of Hinduism

The history of Hinduism extends over centuries, and its length and the lack of early documents about it makes it difficult to trace exactly. India's religious history can only be very roughly divided into ancient, medieval, and modern periods.

Ancient Hinduism
Hinduism probably arose in the Indus valley some time after 1500 B.C. The dark-skinned peoples of this region had a highly developed and urbanized civilization and unlike the peoples of surrounding areas, they were literate. They worshiped forces of nature, such as fire, wind, and rain.

About 1500 B.C. the Indus valley was invaded from the east by the Aryans. The Aryans were warlike, illiterate people whose religion was based on three classes of gods–of the heavens, the atmosphere, and the earth. In like manner, the Aryan population was divided into three classes each having special gods. In the highest class were the priests, whose special god was the fire god, Agni. Next came the warriors (including kings or tribal chiefs) whose special god was the warrior god, Indra. Finally, the common people (peasants and craftsmen) worshiped the "all-gods," the divine people. All these gods were worshiped through animal and sometimes human sacrifice.

After conquering the Indus peoples military, the Aryans then set about converting them to their religion. It is ironic that the chief means of this conversion was provided by the conquered peoples. The conquerors learned to read and write from the native population and used these new skills to write religious books, called Vedas, explaining their religion and instructing the people they had conquered in the proper ritual's of worship. The writings claimed to be eternal truths revealed by the gods to the wise men and prophets who wrote them down for the generations to come. They were called "that which is heard" and they are still considered so sacred that only Hindus in the highest classes are permitted to read them.

The Vedas also expanded the three-class or caste system of the Aryans to include the native population. A hymn tells of the primeval man from whom, by means of a sort or original sacrifice, the world was created. From the head of the original man came Brahman, the supreme basis of all existence; from his arms came the warriors; from his body arose the class of merchants and craftsmen. From his feet came the servant class, to which the conquered peoples belonged. Slaves and criminals were not included in this system and were designated by the terms outcaste and untouchable. This was the beginning of the Hindu caste system, which still exists today, although it is being discouraged by most Hindu leaders.

Naturally, it took centuries for this system to be imposed all over the Indus valley, and migration and intermarriage have always prevented absolute caste boundaries. But the freely developed caste system was remarkably strict and governed most aspects of life. Each caste was a self-contained community; members of one caste were not permitted to intermarry or even to eat, drink, or smoke with members of another. Each caste had its own rituals and customs and its members were not permitted to practice those of other castes. Each had certain occupations, those regarded as dirty or "polluting" (such as hair-cutting, delivering babies, and lavatory cleaning) being reserved for low castes. The outcastes or untouchables suffered most from this system. They were forbidden to enter public buildings used by their betters, had to draw water from different wells and often to travel on different paths and had to live in hamlets remote from the villages they served.

The life of each man in the three higher classes was divided by the Vedas into four stages, providing that he went through the ceremony of initiation. After the initiation, when he was a young boy, he became a student. Next he was a householder producing sons and fulfilling his family duties. In later middle age, when he had seen his grandchildren, he retired–ideally to a hut in the forest–and devoted his life to meditation. Finally, as an old man he became a homeless, religious beggar, giving up all earthly comforts. This life plan has always been more of an ideal than in actual practice, as it could never be enforced by law like the caste system.

The religion set forth by the Vedas was fine for the three higher castes. But for the servant caste, the conquered peoples, it contained no hope, no way to better themselves. Seemingly, in answer to their needs, the Upanishads were written about the fifth century B.C. It is the the Upanishads that the influence of the religion of the Indus valley group is first seen, and in fact, it is with the Upanishads that the foundations of Hinduism were truly laid.

The law of karma was first put forth in the Upanishads. It gave hope in the servant caste, for even though they might be servants in this life, if they led charitable and humble lives they could be reborn into higher castes. The idea was also put forth in the Upanishads that if a man led several good lifetimes he could escape the cycle of births and rebirths and unite with Brahman.

The Upanishads gave hope to the servant caste for only a short time, for soon most realized that they faced an endless cycle of rebirths. It would be practically impossible to go through several lifetimes without committing a sin that would cause a setback The idea of striving throughout eternity the soul never knowing peace or rest, was terrifying. At this time arose various sects, notably Buddhism and some of the other sects gained prominence in some of the Indian kingdoms for a while; however, Hinduism was not only a religion but a complete way of life and it had too firm a position to be driven out by other sects.

Hinduism gained additional strength when, beginning about 200 B.C., Indians went abroad and colonized Sumatra, Borneo, Java, Malaya, and Indochina. Colonization and the resulting missionary activity almost always brings new life into religion. Nonbelievers must be wooed into becoming believers. New cultures present new problems and new questions for the missionary religion to answer. New literature must be written to explain the religion in ways the nonbeliever can understand.

The great epics of Hinduism were written at this time. All the deepest values of Hinduism, the individual's duties to himself and to society, are treated in warlike narratives and mythological scenes. The chief value of the epics was that they brought the teachings of the Upanishads to a level that the common man could understand. In fact, they were chiefly for the common man. In contrast to the Vedas, "that which is heard," the epics and all later sacred writings were known as "that which is remembered." Since they were not considered as sacred as the Vedas which were forbidden to all but the three higher castes they were open to all. The Epics carried to the common people the message of the gods' love for all men, regardless of caste.

Hinduism now became more god-centered, and two gods, Vishnu and Shiva, gained prominence over the other gods. Vishnu had been a minor god in earlier times and Shiva was probably a fertility god in the Indus valley religion at the time of the Aryan conquest. By now the universal spirit Brahma, a remote and unapproachable god who created the universe and indeed was considered inseparable from it The three gods were said to represent the three important functions of the Supreme–creation (Brahma), protection (Vishnu), and destruction (Shiva)–and were known together as the Hindu Triad or Trinity. The power that was associated with each of these great gods was also later personified as his female companion.

The common people could feel close to these gods, could feel that the gods knew and cared about them. Devotion to a personal god developed, along with the practice of worshiping these personal gods with prayers, offerings, incense, or music. Images of these gods were made, temples were built to house them, and festivals and pilgrimages to places associated with the various gods became common.

The most important of the epics is the Bhagavad-Gita ("Song of the Lord"). It is a kind of sermon addressed to the hero, Arjuna, by Krishna, a fellow warrior, who reveals himself as none other than an incarnation of the Supreme Being. It was important because it laid the foundation for the idea of divine incarnations, which made it possible for gods worshiped in the form of animals and heroic men to become incarnations of Vishnu. It introduced a completely new aspect of Hinduism, the love of God for man and man for God. Here, for the first time, God separates himself from the universe and meets man face to face on earth.

The epic writings ushered in what is considered the golden age of Hinduism. During this time (A.D. 300-750) the majority of Hindus practiced a strongly personal and devotional religion. Fantastic stories and legends, called the Antiquities, were written in order to bring the traditional doctrines to the Hindu masses.

Female companions of the three gods of the Hindu Triad came into prominence as figures to be worshiped. The companion of Brahma, the creator, was called Sarasvati, the goddess of learning and knowledge. The companion of Vishnu, the protector, was called Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity. And the destroyer Shiva's companion was Sakti, the goddess of power. Sakti was above all a mother goddess, a development of the fertility goddesses who had been worshiped by the conquered peoples. Later, sects devoted to the worship of one or another of these gods and goddesses would arise.
With the increased availability of Hinduism to the masses came the revival of the more primitive practices of worship that had characterized the earlier religion. Among these were animal and sometimes human sacrifices, the burning of widows on their husbands' funeral pyres, and committing suicide in the name of the gods.

In the face of such excesses, many Hindus from the learned classes began to preach against these forms of worship. One philosopher and religious teacher named Sankara traveled all over India urging the people to cease the barbaric practices of widow-burning and sacrifice. He preached a return to the Vedas and Upanishads, and establish four monasteries to continue his work. A man of great magnetism, Sankara was very successful, and toady a majority of Hindus are Sankara's followers.

Midieval Hinduism
By the year 1000, the basic doctrines of Hinduism had been formed, and the ancient period of Hinduism gave way to the medieval period. The most important event of this period was the conquest of parts of India by the Muslims, whose religion was Islam. The Muslims considered it their sacred duty to convert the Hindus and in their zeal for saving souls often resorted to force, although many outcastes or untouchables converted voluntarily. Nevertheless, the Muslims conquest did not bring about any basic destruction of Hindu life and religion.

Islam was absolutely alien to the Hindus; it challenged everything Hinduism had stood for throughout the centuries. In the face of this threat, and unable to assimulate the Muslims into its caste system as it had assimilated all previous invaders, Hinduism drew into itself. Rather than trying to fight the invaders, the Hindus decided instead to make their own religion stronger.

First in the south then in the north, teachers and philosophers appeared, preaching love of God and absolute surrender to God as the quickest way to salvation. Many sects arose, and a mass of devotional poetry was written, in all the regional languages. It stressed simple faith and devotion to a personal god and urged brotherhood and friendship.
But by the end of the seventeenth century the devotional movement had lost much of its popularity, and the old ritualism and rigidity had begun to dominate Hinduism again By the time British rule in India began, little life seemed to be left in Hinduism.

The Modern Period
The modern period of Hinduism began about 1800 with the introduction of British rule into India. These first European conquerors found a sterile religion with a thousand restrictions and customs looked upon as laws of God, including child marriage, no intermarriage between castes, the burning of widows, few rights of women, untouchability, and a ban on travel to foreign countries. It was such a rigid system that when a British broke the isolation of India and brought it into contact with European customs and ways, many Hindus, awed and excited by what seemed to be the complete freedom ways of Bristish ways, began to imitate them. In fact, it was widely expected that India would become Christianized. But in the end, the threat of assimilation into Western culture revitalized Hinduism.

This revitalization was due to the work of several religious philosophers and poets, but it is Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) who is considered the greatest savior of the Hindus and of India. Gandhi saw that his country was slowly being destroyed by the British, who controlled all of India's natural resources and kept all the profits, instead of using them to help the Indian people. He felt India must win its independence, but at the same time he realized that the Indian people would not unite against Britain, divided as they were by strong caste lines. He also realized that the Indians had not the arms or the power to fight the British by force.

Gandhi used the same technique against both the caste system and the British–nonviolence. Nonviolence has long been considered a virtue in Hinduism; it had been preached as one method that would help bring about rebirth into a higher caste. But in the past it had been applied only to individual action. Gandhi preached and practiced it as a collective action. According to Gandhi, truth is God, and nonviolence is the means of attaining truth. He developed a technique which he called "soul force" nonviolent defense of what one considers the truth.

In attacking the rigid lines of the caste system, Gandhi, born of a servant caste, organized the outcastes or untouchables in various towns and led them in nonviolent actions that crossed the rigid caste boundaries, such as using the well or road in a village that was taboo to them. The other castes countered voilently, but under the leadership of Gandhi, the untouchables did not resist, willingly taking beatings and imprisonment. After all, they had nothing to lose. Eventually many in the higher castes could no longer justify their own violence in the face of the willing, even joyful manner in which the outcastes received it.

Against the British, Gandhi had to begin his nonviolent protest alone, for the Indians of the higher castes were fearful of jail and punishment by the British. In 1930 he began a "salt march" to the sea where he intended to make salt, an activity prohibited to anyone except the British. He was arrested and imprisoned, but he called for other Indians to continue his work. Gradually, the people began to answer his call. Within two years it was almost a disgrace for an Indian not to have been arrested and jailed for noncooperation with the British.

Nevertheless, it took seventeen years of nonviolent protest and non- cooperation before India secured its independence from Great Britain.
Nearly all India had united against the British, but many Hindus still resisted the abolishment of the caste system. A year after the independence Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu who believed in the established Hindu doctrines and did not want to see them changed. All his life Gandhi insisted he was a mortal man, but most Indians worship him as a divine incarnation.

Ever since India gained its independence from Britain, its religious leaders have devoted great effort to teaching the basic Hindu doctrines to the masses of illiterate Indians. The Song of the Lord is widely read, and most of the other great books have been published in all the languages of India. The government has introduced many democratic reforms, with the result that the caste system is slowly being abolished. India is becoming a highly industrialized society, and the restrictions that accompany the caste system can no longer survive.

The sterile and ritualized Hinduism that the British found when they first began to rule in India has been found when they first began to rule in India has been discarded. In its place, the earliest from of Hinduism–in which unity with Brahman, the universal spirit, is the ultimate goal, and liberation from time, space, and matter is the means to achieve that goal–is being revived. In addition, Hinduism not only is enjoying renewed strength in India but also has gained much influence in the Western world. Yoga, Indian mysticism, gurus (Hindu spiritual teachers), and the Hare Krishna cult are particularly popular among the youth in the United States and Europe. Hinduism, unlike Western religions, is an individual matter; it is a quest for liberation, a tendency to renounce material and worldly things, and an intensive concentration on problems which in other cultures are more often reserved for religious scholars and philosophers. All these elements attract Western young people who have rejected what they feel is the alienation, materialism, and worldliness of Western society.

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