2. Buddhism 128 – 155
Hinduism
Hinduism has also been the source of three other religions. (Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism)
The word Hindu comes from the Sanskrit name for the river Indus, Sindhu.
Hindu may refer to a great variety of religious beliefs and practices, it generally applies to the religion of the people of India.
“Hindus,” Indians who did not convert to Islam
7th to 15th century C.E, Hinduism flourished in much of Southeast Asia and still survives on the Indonesian Island of Bali.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, indian hindus spread throughout the British Empire.
It exists in Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, and North America
The origins of Hinduism
Pre-Aryan India
The history of Hinduism begins with the migratory waves of Aryan people into India during the second millennium BCE.
Vedic literature = religious literature of the Aryans.
Vedas, excavations showed that as early as 2600 BCE.
The Coming of the Aryans
The term Aryan is a Sanskrit word “the noble ones”; this word was applied to a group of migrants who moved into the Indus valley in the second millennium BCE from what is now iran.
The Aryans of this period were organized along tribal lines and were led by chieftains called rajas.
Aryan society began to develop into three basic classes called varnas (Brahmins -> Kshatriyas, vaishyas, shudras.)
Aryan Religion
The collection of gods that the Aryans worshiped seems to have been personifications of various natural forces, such as the storm, the sun, the moon, and the fertility of the soil. -> This indicates that the origins of Hinduism are to be found in an even more ancient animistic religion.
Angi, the god of fire, was the channel through whom offerings were presented to the other gods.
Another liquid apparently used as a libation was the juice of the scared soma plant.
The exact identification of the soma plant is lost to the modern world.
The Vedas include an extravagant formula for sacrificial offerings. Perhaps the most