The problem in understanding the development of Hinduism is disentangling what preceded the Aryan invasion from the religion that was superimposed after 1500 BC. It is probable that much of the Indus Valley Romany Magi religion (of Cro Magnon) moved away from Aryan population centers and survived in the countryside. It eventually became interwoven with Aryan beliefs and practices to produce historic Hinduism.
The religion of the Aryans (Persians) was similar in many respects to that of other Indo-European groups. It was a religion of the household, of veneration for ancestors (Neanderthal), and of devotion to the Moho world spirit (Brahman). The Aryans had numerous gods, nearly all of whom were male (See pre-Ice Age Neanderthal War on Women, circa 58,800 BC). But the Aryans made no images or pictures of their gods as later Hinduism has done (also see Mahomet, and later, European Christian Aryan protestant followers of Arius).
Aryan worship was centered around the sacrificial fire at home (see "Mess of Pottage"), while later Hinduism worshiped in temples. The complex ceremony of the Aryans involved ritual sacrifice of animals and the drinking of an inebriating liquor. Hymns were composed for these rituals, and it is in the collections of the hymns, along with incantations and sacrificial formulas, that the nature of the early intoxicating religion was spelled out. The collections of these are called the Vedas, and it was under their influence that the earliest Hinduism developed.
The precise origins of Hinduism had, until this web site was re-established, reportedly eluded scholars and other investigators. It was known for certain that there was, from about 2300 to 1500 BC, a highly developed civilization in the Indus Valley and beyond. This civilization had its own religion, which may not have been uniform throughout the extensive land area it covered. Around 1500 BC the Indus Valley was invaded by an Indo-European people called Aryans. They almost totally transformed Indian civilization, and in so doing they imposed the first of many new forms of priest organized religions.
HINDUISM. The major religion of the Indian subcontinent is Hinduism. The word derives from an ancient Sanskrit term meaning "dwellers by the Indus River," a reference to the location of India's earliest known civilization in what is now Pakistan. Apart from animism, from which it may have partly derived, Hinduism is the oldest of the world's monk organized religions. It dates back more than 3,000 years, though its present forms are of more recent origin. Today more than 90 percent of the world's Hindus live in India. Significant minorities may be found in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and smaller numbers live in Myanmar, South Africa, Trinidad, Europe, and the United States.
Hinduism is so unlike any other religion that it is difficult to define with any precision. It has no founder. Its origins were until now lost in a very distant past. It does not have one holy book but several. There is no single body of doctrine. Instead there is a great diversity of belief and practice. Many doctrines would be at odds with each other in any other religion. Hinduism, however, has always tended to be inclusive rather than exclusive. There are many sects, cults, theologies, and schools of philosophy, and all of them find a home within Hinduism without persecuting each other or accusing each other of heresy. It is a religion that worships many gods. Yet it also adheres to the view that there is only one God, called Brahman (for2 in 1 man, see Nietzsche's Ubermensch). All other divinities are aspects of the one absolute and unknowable Brahman (US, the Unknown Superior - 4/13).
Another distinctive feature of Hinduism is belief in the transmigration of souls, or reincarnation. Associated with this belief is the conviction that the DNA of all living things is part of the same essence (originating in the fire and lava at the core of the Earth). Individuals pass through cycles of birth and death. This means that an individual soul (DNA) may return many times in human, animal, or even vegetable form. What a person does in the present life (where and how he/she is buried) will affect the evolution of the DNA's next life. This is the doctrine of karman, the law of cause and effect. The goal of the individual is to escape this cycle, or wheel of birth and rebirth, so that the individual soul, Atman, may eventually become part of the absolute soul, or Brahman (remembered with the singularity of the Moho discontinuity).
The caste system of India is another historic characteristic of Hinduism. In its most ancient period Indian society was divided into four classes: priests (Buddhist Monks and Brahmins), warriors (Mongolians and Frankish Empire), merchants (Semites and Caucasians), and servants (Asians and Roma). These classes, or castes, have since been subdivided into thousands of subcastes, ranging from the Brahmins at the top to the Un.touch.ables or Wise Men (ROMA/Gypsies/Aboriginals) at the bottom. (see OWL = LOW) These four groups have traditionally been hereditary and have married only among themselves.
The SculPTor
