What is the traditional religion of the peoples of the Hindustan Peninsula?

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

Hindostan is a peninsula in southern Asia, which is part of the Indian subcontinent. The peninsula is home to a large number of people belonging to different peoples and tribes, having different languages and professing different religious doctrines.

The traditional religion of the peoples of the Hindustan Peninsula is rather a religion, since during the existence of this territory and over five thousand years of history, paganism, animism, polytheistic and monotheistic beliefs have changed and mixed with each other.

From the civilization of Mohenjo-daro to the colony of Great Britain

The territory of the peninsula has long been inhabited by people - the history of the change of eras and civilizations can be traced back to the Neolithic. The earliest settlement here has an age, presumably, of 20 thousand years BC. We are talking about Mohenjo-daro, one of the oldest open settlements.

According to some scientists, the lowerthe layers of this city appeared in the region of 20-15 millennium BC, although the official date of the appearance of this place is 2600 years before the birth of Christ. What is the traditional religion of the peoples of the Hindustan Peninsula of that period? That was the time of the emergence of Hinduism, which was formed on the basis of the Harappan civilization and the Dravidians.

From then until our time, various peoples lived in Hindustan, belonging to the Dravidians, speaking the languages of the Dravidian group, Vedda (they may be the oldest population of South India), Kusunda. In addition to those named, there were also representatives of the Mundian and Tibeto-Burmese language families and others.

Later, after the arrival of the Aryans in the region, the caste system gradually began to form. Based on the doctrine of karma, it divided the population into levels, gradually becoming more orderly and rigid.

In political terms, many kingdoms and empires spread their influence in the region at different times, including the Indo-Greek, Indo-Saka, Kushan kingdoms, the Gupta and Harsha empires, Magandha and others. The traditional religion of the peoples of the Hindustan Peninsula at that time was Hinduism, Buddhism, and in some places paganism.

Gradually, the territory of the peninsula, having passed through the period of conquests by Alexander the Great, the formation and development of Islamic states and the time of the Mughal Empire, turned into a colony of Great Britain.

After gaining independence from Britain, the Hindustan peninsula was divided into three independent states: here is the territory of Pakistan, Bangladesh and partly India.

Traditional religion of the peoples of the Hindustan Peninsula

The three largest religious doctrines in this territory are Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism. In addition to them, quite a lot of followers have Jainism, Sikhism, animism. Hinduism is the most traditional religion of the peoples of the Hindustan Peninsula: it arose around the 3rd millennium BC. on the foundation of even more ancient beliefs. Since this belief system is rooted in the Vedic, Harappan and Dravidian civilizations, it is considered the oldest in the world.

No single source or founder of Hinduism is known, not even a common doctrine or tradition. In fact, this is a family of views, in its various versions, taking into account mono-, poly- and pantheism, monism and even atheism.

Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism

Two other religions that are also traditional for this region are Buddhism and Jainism. None of them is dominant in any of the modern states of the peninsula, however, both the first and the second have many followers.

Buddhism originated around the 6th century BC. The development of one of its currents, the Mahayana, was greatly influenced by the Greco-Buddhist culture. Thus, this is a completely traditional religion of the peoples of the Hindustan peninsula, who lived in the territory of modern northwestern Pakistan (Greek-Buddhist culture appeared as a result of a mixture of Indian, Central Asian, Persian and Greek and developed until the 5th century AD in the lands of the eastern Afghanistan and NorthwestPakistan).

Jainism and Sikhism arose in the 9th-6th centuries BC. e. and 15th century AD, respectively. Although the former is much older, both have played a significant role in the history of the region.

Islam

Which religion of the peoples of the Hindustan Peninsula can compete with Hinduism? There is only one answer - Islam. It is this monotheistic belief system that has been brought to the region by conquest since the 8th century.

Muslim is the dominant belief system in Pakistan and Bangladesh. It is relatively young, but has been among the major religions for several centuries.