A great majority of Hindus are not in contact with their religious history; therefore, they believe their inherited beliefs as the ultimate truth.
That is the reason today, the majority of scholars say that the word Hinduism is a misnomer.
The correct word should be Santana Dharma, the eternal religion, or the Vedic Dharma, the religion of the Vedas.
Swami Vivekananda says: - The word Hindu is a misnomer; the correct word should be a Vedantin, a person who follows the Vedas.
Hinduism is not a Vedic religion or the Santana Dharma. Hindus do idol worship, while the Vedas bar idol worship. Hinduism is not Santana Dharma or the Vedic religion. Hinduism is not a religion. Rather, it is a group of religions found within India that share common beliefs while still remaining very different.
The ancient peoples of India belong to the Vedic religion or the Santana Dharma; therefore, they have nothing to do with present-day Hinduism.
The ancient peoples of the Indus Valley of undivided India were called Hindus by Muslim invaders.
Hindu idols or deities or the temples have nothing to do with the Vedic religion or the Santana Dharma. Vedic people ate beef. The Hindu practices of idol worship, temple worship, and the ban on beef-eating were introduced many centuries later.
As one peeps into the annals of religious history, he finds that Hinduism, which exists today, is not a continuation of the Vedic religion, and it has no real historical foundation. Hinduism is of a much later origin.
As per the researchers, the two faiths, the Hindu belief system, have drifted miles away from the Vedic faith so that the two seem to be two distinct faiths. It is not difficult to discover that there is no noticeable continuity of Hinduism from the Vedic religion or the Santana Dharma.
The distinctive characteristics of the Hindu belief system cannot be traced in the Vedic literature. Besides, although the Vedas are revered as sacred texts, there are many people in India who do not know what ‘belief in the Vedas’ means. In most cases, the acquaintance of the Hindus with the Vedas is limited to the few hymns that are recited in temples and household liturgies.
Max Müller says ~ “The religion of the Veda knows no idols; the worship of idols in India is a secondary formation, a degradation of the more primitive worship of ideal Gods.
Remember:~
Hinduism is not a religion but more a way of life. The term "Hinduism" is used to label the entire Indian people.
Hinduism indulges in non-Vedic beliefs such as idolatry, ancestor worship, pilgrimages, priest craft, offerings made in temples, the caste system, untouchability, and child marriages. All these lack Vedic sanctions; therefore, Hinduism is not the Ancient Vedic religion or Santana Dharma.
All Hindus indulge in non-Vedic practices barred by the Vedas, introduced by the different founders of the different sects of Hinduism at different times, whereas the Vedic religion, or Santana Dharma, is ancient and has no founder.
Hinduism is not Santana Dharma or the Vedic religion. Hinduism is not a religion. Rather, it is a group of religions found within India that share common beliefs while still remaining very different.
The ancient peoples of India belong to the Vedic religion or the Santana Dharma; therefore, they have nothing to do with present-day Hinduism. The ancient peoples of the Indus Valley of Undivided India were called Hindus by Muslim invaders.
Hindu idols or deities or the temples have nothing to do with the Vedic religion or the Santana Dharma. Vedic people ate beef. The Hindu practices of idol worship, temple worship, and the ban on beef-eating were introduced many centuries later.
As one peeps into the annals of religious history, he finds that Hinduism, which exists today, is not a continuation of the Vedic religion, and it has no real historical foundation. Hinduism is of a much later origin.
As per the researchers, the two faiths, the Hindu belief system, have drifted miles away from the Vedic faith so that the two seem to be two distinct faiths. It is not difficult to discover that there is no noticeable continuity of Hinduism from the Vedic religion or the Santana Dharma.
The distinctive characteristics of the Hindu belief system cannot be traced in the Vedic literature. Besides, although the Vedas are revered as sacred texts, there are many people in India who do not know what ‘belief in the Vedas’ means. In most cases, the acquaintance of the Hindus with the Vedas is limited to the few hymns that are recited in temples and household liturgies.
As we peep into the annals of religious History, we find:~
After naming the discriminating principle of casteism of Manu Dharma as Hinduism, the religions of Saivism and Vaishnavism, which were enslaved to the caste discriminating principles, were given a new name as ‘Hinduism’! Thus, the Hindu religion is different from the Santana Dharma or the Vedic religion.
The term Hinduism came into existence during British rule. Hinduism is the caste discriminating principle of Varnashrama Dharma based on the Book of Manu.
After 1750 A.D., Europeans captured certain parts of India and started ruling those areas. The capital of the then British India was Calcutta, the present-day Kolkata.
The Britishers were duty-bound to administer justice to the people living within their dominion. Thus, they set up courts of justice. They needed laws to administer justice through the courts.
To administer justice to the Christian citizens of India living within their dominion, there was Christian Law, based on Biblical principles.
To administer justice to the Muslim citizens of India living within their dominion, there was Islamic Law, based on Quranic principles. But to administer justice to non-Christian and non-Islamic citizens living in British dominion, there was no law book. This created problems for the Britishers.
At this time, Sir William Jones was appointed as the chief justice of the Supreme Court at Calcutta. Local pundits made Sir William Jones believe that the book of Manu was the law book for the people of India.
Sir William Jones believed pundits and translated the book of Manu from Sanskrit to English. Thus, based on the laws of Manu, a law was formed for administering justice to non-Christian and non-Muslim Indians of the British dominion, and this law was called the Hindu law.
The principles of the book of Manu, which was used for drafting the Hindu Law, are called Hinduism. The basic principle of the book of Manu is caste discrimination.
The name coined by Sir William Jones to denote caste discriminating principles is Hinduism. It is not a religion. It is a way of Life. It is the way of life of the Indus people.
In this, a historic false perception crept in. That is when they called the terms Christian Law, Muslim Law, and Hindu Law; both Christian Law and Muslim Law were associated with the Christian religion and the Islamic religion. But in respect of Hindu Law, a false perception of religion was wrongly attributed to it as if it was also associated with a ‘Hindu religion’ which was not there.
This false perception developed a false notion that non-Christian and non-Muslim Indians of the British dominion belonged to the Hindu religion.
Out of the five Indian religions, since Saivism and Vaishnavism were already enslaved to Varnashrama dharma, i.e., caste discrimination or Hindu ideology, the people of India began to use the newly originated common name of ‘Hindu religion’ to denote Saivism and Vaishnavism. The context and substance of the term Hinduism or ‘Hindu ideology ', coined by Sir William Jones, is different from the context and substance of the term ‘Hindu religion’, which was substituted erroneously and used by the people to denote Saivism and Vaishnavism.
The Orthodoxy believes in Varnashrama Dharma or caste discrimination.
People of India wrongly believe that Hinduism is an ancient religion because they are unaware of the fact that Hinduism is not the Santana Dharma or Vedic religion.
People of India have to liberate themselves from the stranglehold of casteism to realize their original religion is not Hinduism, which is full of different castes and creeds, but the Vedic religion or the Santana Dharma. The people should be educated about the historical truth of the Vedic religion or the Santana Dharma.:~ Santthosh Kumaar
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