Hinduism
Hinduism is an Indian religion and dharma, or way of life. It is the world’s third-largest religion with over 1.25 billion followers. The four largest denominations of Hinduism are the Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism and Smartism. Hinduism is the most widely professed faith in India and Nepal.
About Hinduism in brief
Hinduism is an Indian religion and dharma, or way of life. It is the world’s third-largest religion with over 1.25 billion followers. The four largest denominations of Hinduism are the Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism and Smartism. Hinduism is the most widely professed faith in India, Nepal and Mauritius. Significant numbers of Hindu communities are found in Bali, Indonesia, the Caribbean, North America, Europe, Oceania, Africa, and other regions. The word Hindu is an exonym, and while Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world, many practitioners refer to their religion as Sanātana Dharma, which refers to the idea that its origins lie beyond human history, as revealed in the Hindu texts. There are six āstika schools of Hindu philosophy, who recognise the authority of the Vedas, namely Sānkhya, Yoga, Nyāya, Vaisheshika, Mimāmsā and Vedānta. Some Hindus leave their social world and material possessions and engage in lifelong Sannyasa in order to achieve Moksha. There is a strong Hindu tradition of questioning authority to deepen the understanding of these truths and to further develop the tradition. The use of the English term ‘Hindu’ to describe a collection of practices and beliefs is a fairly recent construction: it was first used by Raja Ram Mohun Roy in 1816–17. The term Hinduism was coined in around 1830 by those Indians who opposed British colonialism, and who wanted to distinguish themselves from other religious groups.
Before the British began to categorise communities strictly by religion, Indians did not define themselves exclusively through their religious beliefs; instead identities were largely segmented on the basis of occupation, occupation and sect. The earliest records of the term Hindu with connotations of religion may be in the 7th-century Chinese text of Xuanzang. The first recorded use of Hindu in these ancient records is a geographical term for the people who lived beyond the Indus River, more specifically in the 6th century BCE inscription of Darius I. The Proto-Iranian sound change *s > h occurred between 850 and 600 BCE, according to Asko Parpola. The word Hindū is derived from Indo-AryanSanskrit root Sindhu, and it is believed that it was used as the name for the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. According to Gavin Flood, the actual term Hindu occurs as a Persian term for people who live beyond the river Indus in 6th century BCE of Darius I. The term is more specifically used in the Persian record of Darius I, and does not refer to a religion, but to a geographical group of people who did not live in the region at the time of Darius’ death. Hinduism prescribes the eternal duties, such as honesty, refraining from injuring living beings, patience, forbearance, self-restraint, virtue, and compassion, among others.
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This page is based on the article Hinduism published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 29, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
