Origins of Hinduism

After having seen the origin of us, Indians, it is time now to move on to the origin of Hinduism. Our forefathers came out of Africa, who moved into Indian subcontinent some 65,000 years back, and spread all over the place. The previous occupants of the country, the Neanderthals just vanished once modern man set his foot in the country! Then came the Zagros Iranians with their domesticated cattle and agriculture around 7000 BC to the western India and mingled with the out of African forefathers. This led to the Harappan civilization, which had its high point in 2600 BC, but declined and disappeared around 1900 BC. They moved to the south and to the east. Last came the Aryans from Kazakh steppes of Eurasia around 1600 – 1100 BC through the same western corridors and mixed with the Harappan population. From the east we had admixture of Chinese and Australian tribes as well. This in short is our ancestry! Amazing, isn’t it?

Now the question is how did Hinduism rise out of all these? Origin of Hinduism is shrouded in mystery to say the least. Aryans when they came in confronted the declining Harappan civilization, who had mother-goddess worship, fertility cult, and a proto-Shiva sitting in yoga pose under a peepal tree with a trident. Harappans, who went to the south carried their beliefs. Even today we see a strong tendency of mother worship in the south, with names of goddesses like Kattamma, Madivalamma and so on. Harappans civilization was urban based, with sheep and buffaloes, a settled life with agriculture as the main stay.

Aryans were nomadic pastoral people, who brought into India horse, wheel and Sanskrit language. They had many gods, mainly the natural elements, like Surya the sun-god, Agni the fire-god, Indra the rain-god, Vayu the wind-god and so on. They sacrificed to their gods, which was very important to them. They sacrificed horses – ashvameda sacrifice, humans – purushameda sacrifice, and gifting away one’s property - sarvameda sacrifice.

As the Aryans moved gradually towards the east, the Gangetic valley, by 1500 BC they composed their first liturgy, the Rigveda. It had basically poems, some 1017 hymns grouped into 10 mandalas (books), which were chanted as mantras while performing the sacrifices. By chanting these, they believed that the particular god for whom they conducted the sacrifice, would come and grant their wishes. Their petitions were for victory in the war over the local indigenous leaders, prosperity, and increase in cattle wealth. To please their deities they offered the sacrifices. It was a magical chanting, which was the exclusive preserve of the priests, enhancing their prestige and power in the community.

Sama Veda, which contained some 1000 songs taken from Rigveda and rendered musical came next; Atharva Veda, the next Veda had 50 recensions, spells used by the priests while performing the sacrifices. Finally Yajur Veda which contained ritualistic passages of adoration and worship of gods in prose, and also a good amount of black magic and tantric rites; this is dated 500 BC.  

Thus from 1500 to 500 BC they had composed the four Vedas and this period is called the Vedic period. Each of these Vedas had their own Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads. As they conquered more and more territory and moved into the whole of Indian subcontinent, which happened by 200 AD, they also formulated their own code of conduct and reorganized the society for their advantage. The way of life or ‘Dharma’ as they called it, prescribed on the population was Varnashrama Dharma. It contained four varnas, based on the color of the skin and the level of pollution, as they thought. Brahmins, priestly class, who were the priests, kshatryas, the warriors, vaishya consisting of the traders and the farmers and finally the Sudra, the servile class which was to serve all the other three upper classes. Sudras were mainly the local population, whom they had conquered.

The ashrama dharma contained the stages of a man’s life, the first being the student life, devoted to study, the Brahmacharya; next being the married man whose task was to earn and support all the rest, the Grahastha; then the elders who left everything under the care of their sons and moved to the forests along with their wives, to meditate and live an ascetic life, the Vanaprastha and finally the fully renounced Sunnyasa, who maintained himself by begging till he found his mukti or liberation.  

This classification of people and life sounds admirable, excepting that it worked fully for the enrichment and advantage of the upper classes and the oppression and exploitation of the lower classes. From 1500 BC to 100 AD, the Aryans had mingled with the local population, marrying with whomever they thought attractive or rich enough for them to marry. By 100 AD they brought in caste system with its regulations and restrictions on marriage. Genome studies show that the intermixing stopped precisely at this point and the most unjust practice of caste system started. Sub castes and subgroups emerged into which they accommodated people groups according to their influence, power, position, bargaining power and riches.

The result was India, which was thriving so far having a wider influence, especially after Emperor Ashoka, who sent his son and daughter and others to the nearby eastern countries to spread Buddhism. This grew into a Greater India, as the cultural conquest and influence of India spread to Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, China and even Japan. With the restrictions introduced, India started to look inward and all the initiatives of the population were curbed and there was no innovation or motivation or upward mobility guaranteed by hard work, which a poor or a hardworking man could look forward to. Each one was fossilized in their own caste and sub caste. Birth determined it all. By weaving religious beliefs into the caste system, they nailed the system deep in the psyche of the population.

The priestly class or the Brahmins were all powerful as they controlled the access to gods and prosperity; they kept the kings or warriors in good stead because they wanted security; the kings themselves needed the Brahmins to legitimize their rule; the farmers and traders were tolerated, but the Sudras and the outcastes were oppressed and humiliated and exploited. Outside the caste system existed the primitive tribal communities, who were not even included in the caste system, but were outcastes. They are the Scheduled caste and Scheduled tribes incorporated into our constitution at independence. Gandhi called them Harijans, as if the change in name would alter their condition; now they call themselves Dalits and are still fighting for their rights and economic liberation.

Women were suppressed and put down. Harappan culture gave women importance as they had practiced mother worship. Moreover they practiced matriarchal system, where property passed through the women in the family. Aryans being pastoral were patriarchal and had male gods and gave importance to males. To suppress the independent indigenous women folks, and to keep them subjugated, they brought in child marriage, lowered social status for widows and even introduced sati, where young widows, married to older men, were burnt on the funeral pyre of the dead husbands, which was supposed to bring vimochana (liberation) to the whole family.

They organised settlements into villages, ‘gramma,’ after clearing the forests, where representatives of all the four castes were settled; the Sudras and outcastes were demilitarized, their weapons removed and given no right to carry weapons; they could not buy any piece of land or own land in their names. They were not to learn and recite Vedas, but were kept in ignorance. They were made dependent on the upper castes for their livelihood and survival. Birth in a particular caste became a death warrant. No possibility of improving their fate; it was all written.

All these were happening when in the far distant Israel, Jesus died for the sins of the world and rose on the third day, proving God’s plans worked not through oppression and exploitation, but through love and sacrifice. Jesus Christ liberated human beings from the hold of sin and oppression. By the first century, 100 AD, when India was closing, the New Testament had been written and the disciples of Christ were on their move spreading the teachings of Christ all over the Roman Empire, and dying as martyrs.

Yes, Thomas, the disciple is said to have come to India and thus brought in Christianity to India, but it will take a full 1600 years before missionaries would come to India and spread Christianity in a meaningful way. I am referring to the Tranquebar Mission, which was established in Tharangambadi in today’s Tamil Nadu, by two German missionaries, Ziezenbalg and Plutschau in 1706 in the Danish East India Company premises. 200 years of British rule brought in modernity to India, and the much needed social liberation to the lower castes, outcastes and women in India. Still India is steeped in ignorance, superstition and poverty, especially in the BEMARU states (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and former Uttar Pradesh), which the politicians exploit to come to power.

Well, that is the history of Hinduism’s origin and development. We cannot pinpoint a time or date when the name Hinduism was given to this amalgamated religion. May be the Greek visitors like Magasthenes, who visited India in 303 BC, and Chinese pilgrims like Fahien, who came in 399 AD, referred to Hinduism as the religion practiced by the inhabitants of Hindustan. But one thing is certain, the religion that Aryans brought in and established was Brahminical Hinduism, which ran for a long time above the surface of the common or popular Hinduism practiced by the people, whom they conquered and oppressed. The Brahmins had to accommodate the gods of the local population and Shiva and Shakti (Kali or Parvati) came to be the major deity of Hinduism. No one worships Agni or Indra or Varuna today. It was a gradual process of accommodation and assimilation that went on for 3500 years to produce the mammoth Hinduism of today.

Does it sound a depressing tale to recount? Yes, it does, especially for those who do not fall in the upper two or three castes of Brahminical Hinduism. May be it is so unjust, because it is a code of life prepared by human beings, for their own selfish reasons and to preserve their own position in the society and to exercise power and control. In contrast is the Law commanded by God to Moses, is humane, with concern and care for the poor, the suffering and the downtrodden. One is a man-made religion; the other is God-given religion. May be there lies the difference.