The Beginning Of Hinduism.

The first 200 words of this essay...

The Beginning Of Hinduism

Hinduism is the oldest of the major world religions. It began so long ago that no one really knows how old it really is, but it goes back at least 5000 years. The Hindus think it has always existed.

The name 'Hindu' comes from an old name for people who lived in a part of northern India. The word 'Hindu' comes from the River Indus and in the beginning it described where people lived, not their religion. The Persians were the first people to use the name. There were people living near the River Indus about five thousand years ago. They built large cities and one of them was called Mohenjo-daro. Some archaeologists have dug the city up and discovered many things about the Indus people and their civilization. Today, over 800 million people living in India are Hindus, and there are the same number living in other parts of the world.

Hinduism was not begun by any one person but it developed gradually over more than a thousand years. This means that today it has many different 'branches' and its followers have a very wide range of beliefs and ways of