Early History

Hinduism today is the synthesis of various cultures . The oldest was the Indo Aryan religion of the worship of the powers of nature through fire sacrifices . This culture composed the Vedas which are the oldest scriptures in the world , and were composed approximately between 2000 BC to 200 BC . The vedas are known as the "Shruti " or "that which is heard" and were heard by the ancient Rishis or sages by divine revelation . The Vedas are "anadi" ie without beginning or end ..ie eternal .There are four Vedas- Rig , Sama, Yajur and Atharva. Each is further divided into 4 parts - the Mantra Samhitas or ( sacred verses ) , the brahmanas or ( ritual texts ) the Aranyakas or (meta physical dscussions in the isolation of forests ) and the Upanishads ( about philosophy and God).
When the indo aryans interacted with dravidian cultures and their local beliefs ,hinduism further changed ,absorbed and evolved .
Hinduism also was influenced by buddhism and Jainism during the period 400 BC to 200 AD.
Today hinduism is more about a way of life , and devotion or Bhakti towards personal deities , who in turn help one to progress spiritually, and achieve liberation and freedom from the cycle of birth and death , by a union with the supreme all encompassing spirit or Brahman .

to begin- intro

Sanathana Dharma which means in sanskrit" the ancient path of noble and righteous living " is the correct name for hinduism ."Hinduism " itself is a term that evolved from the word Sindhu meaning the river indus . It was first used by people living in the middle east etc to refer to all people living to the east of the indus , ie in India .India is home to one of the world earliest civilizations .The land south of the hindukush and the himalaya mountains , upto the indian ocean , ie ,the indian subcontinent , consists of traditional India . The Sanathana Dharma is the worlds oldest religion having its roots 5000 years ago .It is followed by nearly one billion people out of the world's 6.5 billion people . 80% or 800 million live in india . India is also the spiritual home of the offshoot or closely related religions of buddhism , Jainism , Sikhism , etc .Together , they constitute over 1.5 billion people , over a quarter of the world's population .Hinduism has no formal founder , church or organisation . It evolved and continues to evolve change and adapt out of a synthesis of of various cultures , beliefs customs and ways of living over centuries ...Traditional Hinduism does not attempt to convert others . The hindu view is that all religions are true . Hinduism believes that the faith one is born in is good for you .

Broad aim of this blog

Some time ago , a non Hindu friend of mine asked me to give a brief summary of hinduism or the Sanathana Dharma , and I suddenly realised I was tongue tied and at a loss for words ( which most hindus are , when it comes to their own dharma ) . Therefore my broad aim in this blog will be to collect titbits of information about the Sanathana Dharma .This will be a sort of online diary for me to refer to , a mirror of stuff in my head .I make no claims of being thorough , systematic , comprehensive, organised or regular in my posts , however they will be reasonably accurate .I have often found than when I need information I dont find it easily , hopefully this will help . A collection of stuff I feel I should know and remember . Perhaps this will be useful to others also. A sort of basic guide .