Hinduism

Roots in the Indus Valley and Vedic period

The Encyclopedia.com Hinduism entry describes the Indus Valley civilization as growing from village settlements around the middle of the third millennium BCE, peaking near 2000 BCE and declining by about 1600 BCE, which it says was apparently before the Aryans arrived. It lists features that later Hindu traditions may echo, such as ritual bathing, a figure on seals read as a proto-Shiva, and female figurines, but stresses that these links are conjectural because the Indus script is undeciphered. It also notes that critics dismiss the idea that non-Aryan currents fed Hinduism as the substratum theory.

The same entry places the arrival of the Aryans in northwest India at about 1500 BCE, in tribal waves over several centuries, and dates the Vedic literature to roughly 1400 to 400 BCE, with the four Samhitas probably complete by about 1000 BCE. Scholars disagree about how to read this movement. A 2019 ancient-DNA study reports that steppe-related ancestry reached South Asia in the first half of the second millennium BCE and contributes up to about 30 percent of ancestry in some modern groups, while its authors describe the link to Indo-European languages as likely rather than demonstrated. World History Encyclopedia rejects the older idea of an Aryan invasion as a product of nineteenth-century scholarship.

Upanishads, epics and philosophical schools

The Encyclopedia.com entry dates the earliest prose Upanishads, including the Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya, to about 700 to 500 BCE, and later Vedic Upanishads to about 600 to 400 BCE. It dates the Mahabharata to roughly 500 BCE to 400 CE and the Ramayana to about 400 to 200 BCE, describing the epics as works in progress during the formative period. It places the Bhagavad Gita no later than the first or second century BCE. Other sources on this page cover bhakti movements and branches.

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes Vedanta as a label for interpretations of the Upanishads, systematized in the Brahma Sutra. Within it, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states that Shankara systematized rather than founded the nondualist Advaita tradition. Scholars disagree about when he lived: early scholars proposed 788 to 820 CE, while other scholars argue for roughly 700 to 750 CE. Reliable records beyond his writings are lacking, and the hagiographies were composed centuries after his death.

Later devotional and theistic schools

Ramanuja is the chief proponent of Vishishtadvaita, one of three main Vedanta traditions. He is traditionally dated to about 1017 to 1137 CE, although recent scholarship cited in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy proposes about 1077 to 1157. He argued that individual selves are real rather than illusory, and he placed devotion (bhakti) at the center of liberation. After his death, the Sri Vaishnava tradition divided into Northern and Southern schools over the role of divine grace and surrender. The sources reviewed here do not cover other devotional movements or reform movements of the colonial period.

The word Hindu

World History Encyclopedia states that the name Hindu derives from a Persian term for people who lived across the Indus River and describes Hinduism as an exonym, a name given by outsiders. This page does not rely on it for dates of the word's religious use, and the sources reviewed do not settle when Hindu and Hinduism became common self-descriptions. Scholars have debated that question, so the article makes no claim about it.

Insider names and the plural framing

The Hindu American Foundation, a community advocacy and education organization, glosses Sanatana Dharma as the eternal way and also uses the plural phrase Hindu dharmas for the set of paths. A page attributed to material by a Shaiva teacher, published by Himalayan Academy, likewise treats Sanatana Dharma as a family of religions with four principal denominations. Both are organizational explainers, not neutral surveys, and the sources reviewed do not establish how many Hindus prefer each term.

Distinctions between schools and neighboring traditions

Advaita is usually translated as non-dualism and holds that Brahman alone is ultimate reality and the individual self is not other than Brahman. Vishishtadvaita, associated with Ramanuja, is often rendered qualified non-dualism, although the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy article prefers a translation meaning the non-duality of a qualified whole. The two schools differ on whether consciousness is Brahman's nature or a property, and on whether individual selves are ultimately real. The sources reviewed here do not compare Hinduism with Buddhism or Jainism.

Organization without a single authority

The Himalayan Academy text describes four principal denominations: Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism and Smartism, centered respectively on Vishnu, Shiva, the Goddess Shakti, and a devotee's choice of deity. It says each has its own guru lineages, priesthoods, scriptures, monastic communities, pilgrimage centers and temples. The Hindu American Foundation page treats interpretation as dependent on tradition, rather than settled by one authority, and says scripture is sorted into realized and remembered works. These are insider framings, and other communities may divide the field differently.

Shared practices reported by adherents and surveys

Adherents describe worship (puja), prayer, temple visits, bathing in holy waters, and the guru-disciple relationship as shared features, according to the Himalayan Academy text. A Pew Research Center face-to-face survey of 29,999 Indian adults, fielded from late 2019 to early 2020, found that 59 percent of Hindus pray daily, 57 percent perform puja daily at home or at a temple, and 14 percent go to a temple every day. It also reported that 65 percent had bathed in holy waters such as the Ganges, and 81 percent believed in the Ganges' purifying power.

Philosophical paths within Vedanta

In Advaita, the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes knowledge of Brahman as dependent on scripture, supported by reason and personal experience, with the fourfold qualifications of discrimination, dispassion, mental control and longing for liberation. Action is said to purify the mind for knowledge. In Ramanuja's school, liberation comes through bhakti yoga combining dutiful action with devotion. Practices that have their own Machipedia pages and are associated with the tradition include Namakaran, Prayer, Karma, Reincarnation, Soul and Awareness.

Liberation and the purposes the traditions describe

The Himalayan Academy text frames the common purpose as the soul's unfoldment toward its divine destiny, and the Hindu American Foundation page describes a shared goal of liberation across many paths. In Advaita, moksha is described as the knowledge that one is Brahman, replacing the belief that one is limited. In Ramanuja's school, devotion is held to give direct knowledge of Brahman. These are statements of what the traditions teach, not findings about outcomes.

Associated systems of health and well-being

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) describes Ayurveda as an ancient Indian medical system that remains one of India's traditional health care systems, combining plant-derived products, diet, exercise and lifestyle. It describes yoga as an ancient and complex practice rooted in Indian philosophy that began as a spiritual practice and later became popular for physical and mental well-being. Practitioners and the tradition associate these with health, while the sections below summarize what research says.

What surveys show about belief and practice

Pew Research Center estimated about 1.2 billion Hindus in 2020, roughly 14.9 percent of the world's population, with a stable global share since 2010. About 95 percent of Hindus live in India, and about 97 percent live in India or Nepal, the world's two Hindu-majority countries. In the 2019 to 2020 India survey, 82 percent said they were raised Hindu, and 77 percent of Hindus said they believe in karma. The survey excluded some regions, including the Kashmir Valley, and the page did not report a Hindu figure for belief in reincarnation.

Clinical research on yoga

Clinical studies test practices drawn from the tradition, not the tradition's religious claims. NCCIH states that for low-back pain the evidence suggests a slight benefit, with unclear advantage over other exercise. It reports that yoga may add small benefits for depression symptoms alongside other treatment, that a 2019 review of 38 studies found a substantial effect on anxiety while little evidence supports benefit for anxiety disorders, and that for post-traumatic stress disorder only low-quality evidence of possible benefit exists. Findings for yoga should not be carried over to other practices.

Clinical research on Ayurveda

NCCIH reports that few well-designed trials and systematic reviews support Ayurvedic effectiveness and that only a small number of trials have appeared in Western medical journals. Evidence is described as strongest for osteoarthritis and diabetes, but studies are small or poorly designed. It cites a 2013 knee osteoarthritis trial of 440 people in which four products, including two Ayurvedic formulations, gave similar pain relief, and an 89-person diabetes trial whose design prevents firm conclusions.

No clinical trials of Hinduism as a whole were identified, because it is a religious and cultural tradition, not an intervention. Searches of the sources reviewed for scholarship on health outcomes of Hindu religious practice, such as puja or pilgrimage, returned nothing that could be opened and verified for this page.

Toxic metals in some Ayurvedic preparations

NCCIH states that some Ayurvedic preparations may contain lead, mercury or arsenic in amounts that can be toxic, and it advises against using Ayurvedic medicine to delay seeing a conventional health care provider. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report described a 64-year-old woman with anemia and a blood lead level of 85.8 micrograms per deciliter after taking two Ayurvedic products bought online. Laboratory analysis found lead, arsenic and thallium in both products. She was treated with chelation therapy and reported improvement after one month. A single case report does not show how common such exposure is.

Physical practices and care boundaries

NCCIH reports that yoga is generally considered a safe form of physical activity for healthy people when practiced properly under a qualified instructor, that injuries occur and are most commonly sprains and strains, and that older adults have higher rates of yoga-related emergency visits. It notes that hot yoga carries special risks of overheating and dehydration, and it advises pregnant people, older adults and people with health conditions to consult providers. Religious observance and medical care are separate matters, and the sources reviewed here do not suggest that either should replace the other.

Teachers, groups and cultural attribution

The sources reviewed here do not report data on harms from coercive teachers or groups in Hindu-derived movements, and no scholarly source on that topic could be opened and verified for this page, so none is claimed. On who speaks for the tradition, the Hindu American Foundation presents its own explainer as an authentic narrative from within the Hindu community, while describing the tradition as lacking a single authority. Readers should note that organizations such as the Hindu American Foundation and Himalayan Academy each speak from particular perspectives, and sacred or restricted teachings are not described here.