Essay on Asia’s Religions and Religious

Unique among the great religions of the Hinduism has no single founder, cover a period of four thousand into a religious-social system. It is more a polytheistic and ritualistic system comprising numerous cults and sects, and is the oldest, and the most durable of the East.

Native to India, where over 95 percent of the world’s 792 million Hindus reside, it reflects in itself the cultural history and social conditions of the Indian society from the time of the Indus Valley civilization (c. 2500-1700 B.C- to our day. Its role has been pervasive in all aspects of the lives of its followers. It has been a unifying force in Indian culture and society. The term ‘Hindu” probably derives from the word “Sindhu,” the Sanskrit name for the chief river in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent, used by the Muslim rulers and popularized by the Europeans in relatively modern times.

Unlike Islam and Christianity it is non-missionary and remains primarily an ethnic religion. Although 81 percent of In­dia’s and nearly 86.5 percent of Nepal’s populations profess the faith, Hindus form significant minorities in the neighboring countries of Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Bangla­desh. Among other Asian countries, Hindus constitute 7 percent of Malaysia’s and 3.3 percent of Singapore’s population. The island of Bah in the predominantly Muslim nation of Indonesia is almost en­tirely Hindu.

The origins of Hinduism are lost in the distant past, and its earliest documentary texts, the Vedas, relate the invasions of northwest India (the present-day Pakistan) and the settling down of the Aryan invad­ers in northern India. Though the Vedas provide the primary source for insight into Hindu philosophy, and are still looked upon for inspiration and guidance by Hin­dus, there accumulated a vast body of subsequent religious and philosophical texts within Hinduism.

Over the centuries it has grown into a highly complex system, consisting of a loosely organized group of diverse religious expressions incorporating beliefs ranging from polytheism to mono­theism to monism to an exalted form of mysticism. It has always been an amor­phous religion, without finite creed or theology, enormously assimilative and tol­erant. It has permitted the pervasiveness of the Supreme Being, the indestructibility and transmigration of the soul, non-vio­lence, reincarnation, and preordained birth in a particular caste.

More than a religion, Hinduism em­braces an entire way of life. The traditional Hindu life is arranged according to the in­tricate socio-religious pattern known as the caste system that mandates a hierarchi­cal division of society. The system dictates family structure and often family occupa­tion, status and position in life, and sanctions regarding marriage observances and indeed most aspects of life.

The castes do not intermarry, and are supposed to ob­serve an elaborate set of prohibitions with regard to inter-dining and other forms of personal contact. In modern India, the pat­ently undemocratic system has been officially abolished and the system’s worst manifestation, untouchability declared ille­gal. In the cities, and among the educated, the system is gradually eroding, but not re­ally crumbling.

A formal expression of Hinduism on the landscape is manifested in the sacred structures. In India or elsewhere where Hindus predominate, streets, passes, bridges, trees and rivers are dotted with the statues or abstract figures of gods, which constantly receive the propitiation of the passers-by.

Hindu architecture is bewilderingly complex and varied. The geography of Hindu holy places is ren­dered complex by the large pantheon of Hindu gods. Several river sources (Manasarowar Lake in Tibet and Badrinath in India), river confluences (Allahabad, Varanasi), mountain peaks and caves have been sanctified by religion.

Large temples have been constructed in several of these locations, which in turn, have favored the growth of cities, like Varanasi, Madurai, and Ujjain in India, Borabudor in Indonesia, and Angkor Wat in Cambodia (the latter two reflect consider­able Hindu-Buddhist influences). Many present-day large urban centers in India originated with a predominantly religious function as sacred places of Hindu pilgrim­age.