Hinduism Research Paper

Hinduism is a major religion of India with a long and complex history. It is also a way of life that embraces many aspects of South Asian culture. Its origins date back to the Indus valley civilization of 2500 be.

The word „Hindu‟ was initially, a Persian toponym used for people living beyond the Indus River. The term was later employed by the British to refer to all of the peoples of Hindustan (northwest India), irrespective of their religious practices. Subsequently, it came to denote the culture and religion of high caste priests and was eventually appropriated by Indians to construct a national identity opposing British colonial rule. Hinduism does not have a single historical founder. It also lacks a unified system of belief, a centralized

Although the exact locations of these places are not known they are all thought to be located in Southeast Asia. notes a variety of factors that contributed to the development of Indian settlements in Southeast Asia. One was the invasion of the Kushans into India around the first century A.D. which put pressure on local population. Another pertained to the opportunities open for the high caste Indians to pursue their fortunes in places outside of India. A number of other scholars also suggest that Indian contact with Southeast Asia was largely commercial in origin. The interaction between Mediterranean and the East started with the campaign of Alexander, the establishment of the Asoka Empire, the Seleucid Empire and the Roman Empire. These led to an increase in the trade of luxury goods by the first century. Van Leur (1955: 55) points out that the Indian trade was based more on the handicraft industry and was carried out by small traders who carried the goods, exchanged them and established foreign enclaves on the Southeast Asian ports. Indian settlements in the region, eventually resulted in the formation of Indic kingdoms on the Indochinese Peninsula and pre-modern Indonesia. Migrants brought with them traditional arts, religious beliefs and customs as well as Sanskrit, which was used as a sacral language. They also left behind a significant cultural legacy. From the end of the 19 the century, European scholars studying SEA‟s antiquities realized the extent of the influence of Sanskrit culture on Southeast Asian religion, art, and architecture. As noted by Coedès, other influences include conceptions of royalty characterized by Hindu or Buddhist cults, local literary expression through Sanskrit, local use of mythological elements from the Ramayana and Mahabharata, the Puranas and other Sanskrit texts, and the local observance of laws such as the