Hindu Philosophy

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Sages Call It by Different Names

Hinduism , considered to be the world 's oldest , does not have a single founder , an exact system of theology , a unified structure of morality or a central religious institution but has grown to be the 3rd largest religion and claims 13 of the world 's population , numbering about 920 million followers , of which 30 million are scattered around the globe and a dominant religion in three Asian countries : India , Nepal , and Sri Lanka (Dhalpale and Thite 82 p

There is still unclear specific definition of what Hinduism or who or what a Hindu really is . Indian Supreme Court Chief Justice

. B Gajendragadkar asserts that

When we think of the Hindu religion , Unlike other religions in the world , the Hindu religion does not claim any one prophet it does not worship any one god it does not subscribe to any one dogma it does not believe in any one philosophic concept it does not follow any one set of religious rites or performances in fact , it does not appear to satisfy the narrow traditional features of any religion of creed . It may broadly be described as a way of life and nothing more (Holt 52

Thus , in this , Hinduism will not be treated as a religion but as a philosophical foundation of a culturally and historically enriched way of life (Hayler 129

This way of life is sometimes called Sanata Darma (eternal religion ) or Vaidika Dharma (religion of the Vedas , but the most commonly used name is Hinduism , invented by the British colonizers in the 19th century Brought to the Indus Valley by Aryan tribes migrating or invading

from central and west Asia , a set of philosophical and religious practices and merged with the

Harappan view of the sanctity of fertility , Hinduism , through adaptations of beliefs from the

Vedas generated multiple religions based primarily of Aryan polytheism and henotheism

The history of Hindu philosophy dates three thousand years and since its inception to the Indian society , various writings , texts , and other philosophical literatures with a very wide array of content emerged clutched through every aspect of Indian society for thousands of years Hindu beliefs were derived from Vedic , Puranic and Upanishad , and epics written by many ancient and classical Hindu philosophers traversing centuries of Indian history (Dasgupta et al . 441

Hindu or Indian philosophical precepts first appeared in India at around 900-500 B .C . during the Upanishad period , though these were not as detailed as what would appear several centuries later , and were conferred in the form of sutras or concise aphorisms intended for oral elaboration , that characteristic gave way for successive written and oral commentaries . Schools of thought were founded radiating from different varieties of interpretation or cognition of the original similarly voluminous , philosophical literatures . These factors gave birth to the emancipation of a unitary set of beliefs to diffuse into countless Hindu religions (Chaterjee 335

Hinduism has been known to the western world through...