What is the history of Hinduism?
Now, this is perhaps one the most controversial areas of Hinduism and you will find accounts differ from various sources dramatically. If you read a standard Western textbook on Hinduism, The history of Hinduism begins in the iron age around 1500BCE. If you consult a Hindu pundit who accepts the Yugas literally to refer to humans, the history of Hinduism is billions of years old. If you consult an archeaologist, Hindu history is 10,000 years old, beginning around 7000BCE.
The 1500BCE date is an obvious lie. This date was put forward by a colonial Indologist Max Mueller, who also was a Christian missionary bent on destroying the religion of Hinduism. Max Mueller calculated this date by looking at biblical history. He believed(a commonly held belief among biblical scholars then) that the world began in 4004BCE. He then calculated when the biblical figures Adam and Eve lived and Noah and his flood, how long it would have taken for the flood waters to dissipate, for land to become fertile again. Then artbitarily came up with the date of 1500BCE for the arrival of Aryans into India. In his later life, Max Mueller admitted he guessed the date. However, despite this, this date has stuck and is used as a sheet anchor to date every other period in Indian history. Most ancient India history you read in textbooks has wrong dates.
The billions of years old date has scant historical evidence. It relies on a literal interpretation of the Yuga cycles corresponding to humans, even though the Yugas are called divya yugas(divine years or godly years). Not all Hindu scholars agree that the Yugas correspond to human years(Such as Swami Yogananda Paramhansa) It is said that the epic Ramayana took place in the Treta Yuga which happened millions of years ago, evidence offered for this is the so-called Rama’s bridge which is millions of years old. Michael Cremo, the controversial author of Forbidden Archeaology, believes this account is true and has been on a quest to find archeaological evidence for extreme human antiquity. The evidence he has found strongly suggests modern humans have been on this planet for billions of years.
The 10,000 year old date is given by archeaologists who have been able to trace the early stages of Hinduism to the Indus valley civilisation by looking at the geological, textual and astronomical data. The Indus valley is not just Vedic, but post-vedic. The Indus sites are built according to Vedic architecture and engineering, Vedic symbols like swastikas have been found, Vedic fire-altars have been found, Vedic rivers have been found. The first evidence of Yoga has been found. The lost city of Dwarka described in the Mahabharata has also been found. From all the available data we can construct a chronology of Hinduism:
Vedic Age:
Earliest hymns of the Rig Veda 7000BCE
The Vedas are composed during this period consisting of the Samhitas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas and ending with the Upanishads. The Ramayana epic is said to be written during this age as well.
Classical age:
The Mahabharata war 3000BCE
The Mauraya empire: 1500BCE
The Gita, the Darsanas, shastras, Yoga Vasistha and Mahabharata epic are composed.
Post-classical age:
The Gupta empire: 500BCE
The formation of devotional Hinduism(Bhakti Hinduism) and the rise of the four sects of Hinduism: Vaishnavism, Shivaism, Shaktism and ending with Smartism.
Modern age: 1800’s onwards
The formation of neo-Hindu sects such as the Swami Narayana sect, Ramakrishna sect, Kriya Yoga sect, Arya Saamaj sect, Hare Krishna sect, Swami Sivananda sect and the various Hatha Yoga sects.
In this account we can be 100% certain of the history from the classsical age to the modern age. What we cannot be certain of is the Vedic age which at the very earliest has to be 7000BCE because of astronomical data mentioned within it allows us to fix this as the date. However, this data can be be true for prehistoric dates too. Traditional records say the Vedas are millions if not billions of years old.
