the spread of hinduism?

Question

i was wondering how and to where did the religion hinduism spread.

i have read something about the Indo-Aryans or the Indus Valley Civilizations saying that they may have something to do with spreading the relgion.
is this true, if so what did they do?

Answer 1

Hinduism cannot be stated to have been created/formed on a specific date.

The word "hindu" itself is not an Indian word. Its a word used by the Persians to refer to the people who lived to the east+south of the river "Indus" . as Persians had trouble pronouncing "Indus" correctly they pronounced it as "Hindu". The brits used the same name to refer to the Religion of these people and now the name had stuck.

ok, now to the q

Hinduism is an amalgamation of 2 different traditions; Of the Native religion of the Indus valley civilization-people of India and the Indo-European(aryan) people who later migrated into india.

The earliest evidence for elements of Hinduism dates back as far as the late neolithic, to the early Harappan period (ca. 70000–3300 BCE).This consists of some core concepts of Hinduism that was part of the native religion of the Dravidian people of south asia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehrgarh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_valley_civilization

Many figurines of female deities have been discovered. These most probably signified creativity and the origin and continuity of life, and they may have been worshipped as symbolic embodiments of the female principle of creative Energy and Power. In modern Hinduism, the counterpart of these symbols is called Shakti. These "mother Goddess" figurines may have been worshipped in the home rather than in any major state cult, but scholars have seen ancient Dravidian feminine divinity sculptures in groups of seven that date back to the Harappan era which mirror the Hindu belief in a Mother Goddess (Devi) being represented in seven modes.

The beliefs and practices of the pre-classical era (ca. 1500-500 BCE) are called the "Vedic religion". The oldest surviving text of Hinduism is the Rigveda, which is dated to between 1700–1100 BCE based on linguistic and philological evidence.

Figures of a male deity with elaborate horns (or horned headgear) have also been uncovered. He is typically seen surrounded by cattle and is called Pashupati, (the Protector of Animals), and is seen by some to be the prototype of Hinduism's ascetic God of Destruction, Shiva. Indeed, in modern-day Shaivism, Shiva has absorbed the names, stories and attributes of not only Pashupati, by which name he is still commonly known, but also the Vedic 'Rudra.' Pashupati is seen sitting in the meditative posture of yogis, suggesting that yoga or inner contemplation was one of their modes of discovering the secrets of life and creation. To this day, the Tantric schools of Hinduism know Shiva to be Yogeshwara, Lord of Yoga, and he is said to be the master of Self-knowledge, meditating for centuries at a time.

Siva(also known as Shiva) seems to have been a Indus God who was later merged into the religion of the aryan tribes as both religious traditions merged into whats known today as Hinduism.

Siva In Indus Valley civilization-In Yogic posture
http://www.pitt.edu/~asian/week-1/i-shiva-big.jpg

http://www.indiana.edu/~isp/cd_rom/images/indus/source/10.htm

Later The aryan religion of the Aryan tribes(which moved into india about 1700 bc (they did not come as invaders but as a series of migrations, because by 2000Bc the Indus civilization has collapsed due to the shifting of rivers))

The aryan gods were mostly male. they had Indra, Agni, Vayu ..and so on. The Vedas are an important part of the Aryan religious tradition. Later on when both the Aryan and the Indigenous(Dravidian) religious traditions merged, many of the female godesses/deities of the Dravidian people became to be the goddesses of the merged religion. But So did some of the Core gods of Hinduism: Siva. He was later associated with the Aryan god "Rudra" and was known as Rudra-siva.

Interestingly, the Rigvedic deities, like Indra, Agni, Vayu etc., are not the principal gods of present day Hindus. Those Indo-Aryan gods have equivalents in other Indo-European gods worshiped by other Indo-European speaking peoples. Those gods occupied the highest position until the advent of Christianity in those societies, with little discernible trace remaining of the Pre-Indo-European deities and traditions. However in India the traditions of native groups such as the Dravidians seem to have mingled more fluently with those of the migrants and have taken the pride-of-place.

As Hinduism as we now know it emerged from the merging of the 2 different traditions it began to spread outside of India, through trade routes, mostly.

South east asia was mostly Hindu by the 8th century AD.
and surprisingly, the largest Hindu temple (and the largest Temple of any religion in the world too) is in cambodia. It is the Anghkor wat
http://www.sacredsites.com/asia/cambodia/angkor_wat.html

Buddhism began as a reform movement within Hinduism and was prominent In india for a few centuries, But due to the advent of the bakhti(devotional) movement In southern India and the reforms/teachings of the southern Hindu-apostle of India "Adi Sankara" Hinduism revived In India and again became the religion of the country

We have to keep in mind that Hinduism does not have any central-authoritative figure or even central cannon(religious texts). Each region has its own religious texts /priorities and no Hindu would consider it to be somewhat heretical.It is an "encompassive" religion that takes into itself many different philosophies and ideas into itself without seemingly contradicting itself.

Buddhism and Jainsn got re-absorbed into Hinduism in India.
Its influence is felt as far east as japan, and as far west as the americas; where Yoga is now more popular than ever. So all in all, Hinduism is a Thriving religion

Answer 2

Shri Ramanujacharya and Shri Shankara are diamonds within the crown of Bharat Mata and eye-opener to hinduism, hindus. Both debated with quite a lot of persons and received. Both struggled in spreading Bhakti tradition and centered hinduism in a exceptional position. Shankaracharya and Ramanuja fought false religions, fought for the hindus and we proud for having those Acharyas in our nation. Shri Ramanuja long gone forward a step extra spreading mystery mantras to be identified to all people.

Answer 3

In the US currently, Hinduism is spreading through the popular practices of Transcendental Meditation (TM) and Yoga.

There may be elements of Hinduism (or elements of the original, pre-Hindu faith that was first delivered by the Creator to the earliest humans in The Garden) that were carried by Abraham and Sara into the nascent Hebrew faith of their descendants when they traveled from "the land of Ur" to what would become "the promised land." Some have suggested that Abram is a form of the name Brahmin, and his wife Sarai is a shortened form of a Hindu princess' name.

I think God was working, and always has worked, in hearts looking to him for answers all over the world.

Answer 4

yes Hinduism was founded by the aryans who settled in india more than 5000 years ago. Its the oldest living religon in the world and considered the mother of all religions.It is the faith of the majority of Indians, Nepalese and Balinese. From Hinduism sprung the Buddhist, Jain and Sikh faiths