Hinduism

Summary: Hinduism is a very broad term for the religious practices and doctrines of the Indian people. This tradition is believed to have begun in about 1800 BCE with religious poems known as the Vedas. The large Vedic library includes the Samhitas and the Brahmanas; the Upanishads, the last books of the Vedas, began to reject many of ancient India's religious ideas in the early centuries CE. The Upanishads established such basic practices and beliefs as cremation and reincarnation. Buddhism and Jainism had risen in the sixth-century BCE, also in resistance to Vedic religion; each became a separate religion in its own right. While Buddhism would die out within India by the ninth century CE, Jainism continued as a distinct religion, even though over time many of its practices became virtually indistinguishable from Hindu rituals.