Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world...eternal way....The word Hindu is derived (through Persian) from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, the historic local name for the Indus River in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent (modern day Pakistan and Northern India).[55][note 22] According to Gavin Flood, The actual term hindu first occurs as a Persian geographical term for the people who lived beyond the river Indus (Sanskrit: Sindhu).[55] The term Hindu then was a geographical term and did not refer to a religion.[note 23] The word Hindu was taken by European languages from the Arabic term al-Hind, which referred to the people who live across the River Indus.[58] This Arabic term was itself taken from the Persian term Hindū, which refers to all Indians. By the 13th century, Hindustan emerged as a popular alternative name of India, meaning the land of Hindus.[59][note 24] The term Hinduism was later used occasionally in some Sanskrit texts such as the later Rajataranginis of Kashmir (Hinduka, c. 1450) and some 16th- to 18th-century Bengali Gaudiya Vaishnava texts including Chaitanya Charitamrita and Chaitanya Bhagavata. It was usually used to contrast Hindus with Yavanas or Mlecchas.[61] It was only towards the end of the 18th century that European merchants and colonists began to refer to the followers of Indian religions collectively as Hindus. The term Hinduism was introduced into the English language in the 19th century to denote the religious, philosophical, and cultural traditions native to India.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 17:24:24 +0000
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