Concept

Hinduism

Also known as: Sanātana Dharma, the Eternal Way, the Hindu tradition

The vast family of religious-philosophical-contemplative traditions originating in the Indian subcontinent, encompassing some of the oldest continuously-practiced religious traditions in human history (the Vedic tradition reaches back at least 3,500 years) and roughly one billion contemporary practitioners worldwide. Many Hindus prefer the term ***Sanātana Dharma*** — *the eternal way* — over *Hinduism*, which is a term of European-colonial origin that consolidated genuinely diverse traditions under one heading. The tradition includes the Vedic and Upanishadic textual heritage; the six classical *darśanas* (philosophical schools — Sāṃkhya, Yoga, Nyāya, Vaiśeṣika, Pūrva Mīmāṃsā, Vedānta); the Bhakti devotional traditions across regional languages (Tamil, Marathi, Bengali, Hindi, and many more); the great theological streams of Vedānta (Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Dvaita, Acintya-Bheda-Abheda); the Tantric traditions; the Śaiva, Vaiṣṇava, and Śākta sectarian families; and a continuous popular religious life integrating temple practice, festival, family ritual, pilgrimage, and household devotion.

Hinduism is unusual among the world’s major religions in that it has no single founder, no single canonical text, no single creed, no single institutional structure. The contemporary tradition is the result of three to four millennia of accumulation, refinement, regional variation, and cross-fertilization. Its internal diversity is enormous; what holds it together is a family of shared practices, shared sources, and shared horizons of concern, more than any single doctrine.

The major textual layers

A rough chronological map of the foundational texts:

Vedas (c. 1500–500 BCE). The four foundational scriptural collections (Ṛg, Sāma, Yajur, Atharva); ritual hymns, mantras, sacrificial formulae. Central in their original ritual context; less directly read today than [[the-upanishads|the Upanishads]], though still recited and studied.
Brāhmaṇas and Āraṇyakas (c. 900–500 BCE). Ritual commentaries and forest-treatises — texts of priestly and contemplative reflection on the meaning of the sacrifices.
[[the-upanishads|Upaniṣads]] (c. 800–200 BCE; the principal ones earlier). The contemplative-philosophical heart of the early tradition; texts that develop the doctrines of brahman (the absolute), ātman (the self), and the relation between them. See [[the-upanishads]].
Bhagavad Gītā (c. 200 BCE – 200 CE). A short text of 700 verses inserted into the much longer Mahābhārata epic; widely treated as a foundational scripture in its own right. See [[bhagavad-gita]].
Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali (c. 200 BCE – 400 CE). The foundational text of the Yoga darśana; practical-philosophical treatise on the eight-limbed path. See [[yoga-sutras]].
Brahma Sūtras of Bādarāyaṇa (c. 200 BCE – 400 CE). The foundational text of the [[the-upanishads|Vedānta]] darśana; condenses the Upanishadic teaching into aphorisms.
Purāṇas (c. 300–1500 CE). Vast narrative-mythological texts of regional and sectarian provenance; the principal source of the popular mythology and the sectarian theological traditions.
Tantras (c. 600–1500 CE). The textual basis of the Tantric streams — Śaiva, Śākta, Vaiṣṇava — with distinctive ritual, contemplative, and yogic methodologies.
Bhakti poetry (c. 600 CE onward). The vast vernacular devotional poetry of the regional Bhakti traditions — Tamil Āḻvārs and Nāyaṉmārs; Marathi Tukaram and Jñāneśvar; Hindi Kabir, [[mirabai|Mirabai]], Tulsidas; Bengali Caitanya; Gujarati Narsinh Mehta; Punjabi [[guru-nanak|Guru Nanak]] (whose tradition became Sikhism); and many more.
The classical commentaries of the [[the-upanishads|Vedānta]] tradition — [[adi-shankara|Śaṅkara]] (c. 700 CE), Rāmānuja (c. 1100), Madhva (c. 1200), and others — and the modern reformulations of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The six classical philosophical schools

Indian philosophy has historically distinguished six āstika (Vedic-affirming) darśanas — schools of seeing:

Sāṃkhya — dualistic; distinguishes puruṣa (consciousness) from prakṛti (manifest nature).
Yoga — closely related to Sāṃkhya; the practical-contemplative path of Patañjali. See [[yoga-philosophy]].
Nyāya — analytic logic and epistemology.
Vaiśeṣika — atomistic ontology and natural philosophy.
Pūrva Mīmāṃsā — the school of the early ritual portion of the Vedas.
[[the-upanishads|Vedānta]] — the school developing from the Upanishads. See [[vedanta]].

In the second millennium CE, [[the-upanishads|Vedānta]] became the principal philosophical-theological tradition for most Hindu thought, with internal sub-schools (Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Dvaita, etc.) carrying forward distinct positions on the relation of brahman, ātman, and the manifest world.

The major sectarian streams

Most Hindus identify with one of three major sectarian families:

Vaiṣṇava — devotion centered on Viṣṇu and his avatars (especially Rāma and Kṛṣṇa).
Śaiva — devotion centered on Śiva.
Śākta — devotion centered on the Goddess (Devī, Durgā, Kālī, Tripurasundarī, etc.).

Many Hindus also venerate Gaṇeśa, Hanumān, Sūrya, Murugan, regional deities, ancestors, and the natural-divine in rivers, mountains, and trees. The “polytheism” of Hindu practice is, on most theological readings, an apophatic-cataphatic structure: the one absolute (brahman) is approachable through many forms.

Honest about the tradition

A few notes for clarity:

“Hinduism” as a term consolidating diverse traditions is colonial in origin; many practitioners and scholars now use Sanātana Dharma or speak of specific traditions (Vaiṣṇava, Śaiva, Śākta, regional Bhakti) rather than the general term.
Caste. The historical association of Hindu social organization with the varṇa and jāti systems of caste has produced enormous suffering. Contemporary Hindu reform movements (going back to the 19th c. with Rammohan Roy and continuing through Ambedkar’s complex relation with the tradition into the present) have substantially engaged this. [[0mn1one|The platform]] takes seriously both the depth of the tradition and the seriousness of its historical injustices.
Politics. Contemporary Hindu nationalist (Hindutva) political movements claim allegiance to Hindu tradition while making particular political claims that many practitioners and scholars contest. [[0mn1one|The platform]] engages the contemplative tradition without endorsing its political instrumentalizations.

Sources

Wendy Doniger. The Hindus: An Alternative History. Penguin, 2009. Source class: book / scholarly survey.
Gavin Flood. An Introduction to Hinduism. Cambridge, 1996. Source class: book / scholarly introduction.
Klaus K. Klostermaier. A Survey of Hinduism. SUNY, 1994. Source class: book / scholarly survey.
Patrick Olivelle. The Early Upanisads: Annotated Text and Translation. Oxford, 1998. Source class: primary text + scholarly apparatus.
Wm. Theodore de Bary et al. (eds.). Sources of Indian Tradition. Columbia, 1958. Source class: anthology / scholarly survey.

Lenses still to grow

Vaiṣṇava, Śaiva, and Śākta as the three major sectarian streams in detail.
The Bhakti movement — the vernacular devotional traditions across Indian languages.
Tantra — the Śaiva and Śākta tantric traditions.
Modern Hindu reform — Rammohan Roy, [[swami-vivekananda|Vivekananda]], [[sri-aurobindo|Aurobindo]], Gandhi, and the early-20th-c. recasting of the tradition.
Hinduism in the diaspora — North American, British, Caribbean, East African, Southeast Asian Hindu communities and their distinctive developments.
Caste, Ambedkar, and the continuing reckoning.
Hindu ecological theology — [[vandana-shiva|Vandana Shiva]] and others reading back through the tradition for environmental resources.

What links here, and how

Inbound connections from across the wiki, grouped by lens and by relationship. These appear automatically — every entity page declares what it links to, and that data populates here on the targets.

Spiritual

subset of

Advaita Vedanta the principal post-Vedic philosophical school; one of the three classical Vedānta sub-schools alongside Rāmānuja's Viśiṣṭādvaita and Madhva's Dvaita
Mahatma Gandhi 20th-century Hindu political ethicist whose life integrated *ahiṃsā*, *karma yoga* (drawing centrally on the *Bhagavad Gītā*), and political action; one of the major figures of modern Hindu thought-in-practice
Samkhya one of the six classical *darśanas*
Sri Aurobindo 20th-century Hindu philosopher whose Integral Yoga and evolutionary cosmology constitute one of the most original syntheses of modern Hindu thought
Vedanta the principal Hindu philosophical-theological tradition for most of the second millennium CE; the dominant frame within which much subsequent Hindu thought has operated
Yoga one of the six classical philosophical schools (*darśanas*) of Hinduism; the principal contemplative-practical tradition codified in the Yoga Sūtras

part of

Bhagavad Gita one of the most influential Hindu scriptures; the principal narrative-poetic articulation of Vedāntic teaching
The Upanishads the philosophical-contemplative heart of the late Vedic tradition; foundational scripture across the Hindu philosophical schools

parallels

Bhakti Yoga the Bhakti movement (c. 7th–17th c.) is the most populous and culturally generative current of post-Vedic Hindu life
Jnana Yoga Advaita Vedānta — jñāna yoga's philosophical home — is the dominant philosophical school of post-Śaṅkara Hindu thought

Cultural