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We have been familiar with the tales of Hinduism since our bed time stories, to realizing the largest religious belief followed in India. We are proud of our rich culture that is popular across the continents and are happy to define the same through a medley of celebrations. We come across words such as “karma”, “Veda”, “Yoga” in a common place. We log into our daily registers beginning from the sun and end with every other star that made our day. We are pious, selfless and courageous. We have been so since the origin of the world’s oldest religion.
But, how often have we stumbled upon the inception of our religion? Where have we read about the law makers of this ideology or what do we know regarding the back story of Hinduism?
It’s our duty to diligently go through early years of the civilizations and the little glitch in their syllabary that led to the term “Hindu”.
It would be surprising to note that the word itself has no religious meaning at all. It is derived from the word “Sindhu” which is the geographical name of the seven tributaries of the Indus River. Persians who invaded India in early 600 BC had no “S” in their alphabets. Thus “Sindhu” changed to “Hindu” subsequently Hindustan, Hinduism etc.
There was no single god or a single founder responsible for the creation of our religion. Neither does Hinduism follow a single path. It is a fusion of various Indian traditions and cultures. Hinduism believes that the Supreme Being may be approached through several paths such as Knowledge (Dhyana), Devotion (Shakti), Action (Karma), and Yoga (Psychical Control), depending on the choice of the individual in consonance with his temperament aptitude and attitude.
It started as the collective philosophy of seer intuitions, mystic knowledge and confluence of many thoughts into which all religious ideas flow. It is an intricate weaving of the Indus valley civilization and the Dravidian culture. Both these races themselves are immigrants to India at different points of time.
Let us think of this concept in terms of a movie characterized by two lead roles . So,this is how the flash back reels.
The first human ever, to set foot in India is closely related to the aboriginal Australians. The primitive Australians arrived at south India around 70000 to 65000 years back, during the Paleolithic age. They were the side kicks.
The lead entry was marked by immigration of the Elamo-Dravidians from Elam, the present day Iran around 2000 BC. They lived to shine as the primary tribes of south India. The Tamil speaking Dravidians had developed a sophisticated language and culture. Thus Tamil became the first form of communication and Saivism the first religious intuition in India. They believed in the benign and malignant forms assumed by Parvati and Shiva. In simpler terms the creator and the destroyer.
Saivism in itself is a synthesis of different forms and objects of worship of the Australian and Dravidian cluster. The Proto-Australians practiced agriculture and worshiped their instrument of plough as Linga, the lord of fertility and fecundity. While the Dravidians gained over the main land and worshiped the mother earth who gave them food.
The excavations led by Sir John Marshall in 1924 discovered various forms of Pashupati or Linga and figurines of the mother goddess that dated to 2750 BC, concluding Saivism as the most ancient living faith in the world.
The third race and the second lead to enter was the Indo Aryan clan. Here is their chip of narration.
The early cities of India developed along the regions of the Indus and Saraswati rivers around 3500 BC. They came to be known as the popular Indus valley civilization or the Harappan culture which was the largest and the most advanced civilization in the world. It was then that the word “Sindhu” acquired a sacred meaning when it became the birth place of the four Vedas.
The Vedas described a powerful and spiritual clan. Their society was complex and their economy included agriculture, economy, trade and commerce. The Vedas contained thousands of hymns in praise of god. They were rising in power and fame. But, the Vedas were not written. They were memorized.
The written form of Vedas came into existence apace with the theory of the Aryan invasion. This perfected the twist in their tale.
The assumption of the invasion states that the Aryans came from the central Asia in 1500 BC and conquered the indigenous Indus valley civilization. It was these foreigners who wrote the Rig Veda in Sanskrit. This theory was proposed on contexts of the language studies that try to explain the relationship between Sanskrit and European languages, including English. Hence, the amalgam Indo-Aryans became functional.
This cult believed in the celestial gods and considered themselves the descendants of the sky. They discovered Indra, the god of rain whose permanent abode was the sky and in gratitude they sang hymns in praise of Indra.
This is where the plot begins.
The Aryans decided to vacate the Sapta Sindhu region when the river Saraswati dried up around 1100 BC. They migrated to the Gangetic plain, without measuring the quality of resistance from the Dravidians.
Battles were fought between Sindhu and Yamuna. The Aryans were at loss when they decided to come up with two new war plans. They invoked Indra as their leader attributing demonic powers to the Dravidians. They described the original inhabitants as celestial foes of Indra, who then destroyed the fortifications and castles of the Dravidians.
The second strategy was to separate themselves into two castes – Brahmins to take charge of the altar, sacrifices and Kshastriyas as the warrior class to concentrate solely on the wars. The Dravidians who were designated as the Sudras were eventually defeated at the battle of Yamuna.
By now India had established a common culture. The social, religious and philosophical practices central to Hinduism are completely evident. These are in continuity with the Indus valley culture, the Vedas, the Dravidian culture and elements of the trial religions.
This does not end here. The spot light just shifted from the characters to the story itself.
Around 700 BC we enter an area of smoke, incense and intensified sacrificial fire and evolving rituals. The Brahmins said “when the heart becomes purified by performance of sacrifices, there arises hunger for the knowledge of Brahma.” The priests made thriving business from the religious profession. They further assumed powers over the Khastriyas with their spells and magic.
The Kshastriyas revolted and turned their back on the yagnavidya, the sacrificial prayers and took to atmavidya, the art of meditation. This marked the origin of Upanishads based on Vedanta, or the end of Vedas.
Upanishads began with the exposition of the significance of the spirit of man and meditation
By this time the Aryans had reached the forest, surrounding the Ganges and found it to be just the place for them to meditate. Upanishads came from Upa (closely), Ni (devotedly) and shad (sit) which meant sacred meetings. The kings, commoners, sages, etc. all went into “tapas” meaning meditation. It was mainly a Kshastriya movement which was later followed by the Brahmins. The syllable “Om “meaning yes, was coined and assigned as the symbol of spirit of man. Repetition of this syllable is said to have the same effect on the human brain as the vibration of ether in space, a figurative expression in the dance of Nataraja. It is a sequence that controls the sound and the rythm that accomplish concentration of the mind.
The dialogues of these secret councils stated that “Nature of Brahman is indefinable and unpredictable. Identification of Brahman and atman as such and their mutual relationship is the supreme discover of Upanishads seers, through meditation.”
Man is born with a religious feeling but did not arrive at this existence with a tailor made religion. He was born helpless and had to depend on someone greater than himself for his survival, thus stumbled upon the necessity of deities. He had to carve his own path to attain knowledge of God. He was sure handicapped, with limited mental resources. Faults were bound to creep in the process of construction of his religion. But there were no objections as long as the efforts were a result of honest work and sincere purpose. Belief in spirit is the definition of the Hindu religion.
