FOR STUDENTS OF LL.B. 1 YEAR , 5 Years, Semester Program" "Read with the Name of they Lord who created man with a clot of blood" Surah Iqra!

1. Hinduism is one of the oldest religions in the world. It began in India during the Vedic age in a
form known as Brahmanism.
For more than 2,500 years, Hinduism has been the major religion of India. In fact the word
Hinduism means the religion of the people of India.
The Vedas are India’s oldest religious texts. Priests in the Vedic age memorized these works
and passed them on orally. Later, they were written down.
The Vedas continued hymns to many gods and rituals designed to keep the gods happy.
These rituals often included sacrifices to the gods, such as Agni. the god of fire. Agni was seen
in three ways:
(a) He was the fiery sun in the sky.
(b) He was lightening in the air.
(c) On Earth, Agni was the fire that “ate” the sacrifices offered to the gods.
Scholars call this Vedic age religion Brahmanism. The name comes from Brahman, a word that
refers to a single spiritual power that lives in everything. Later, this word would involve much
larger meanings.
Brahmanism was a religion ruled by priests and rituals. Only Brahmins, or priests form the
highest caste, could perform the rituals described in the Vedas. People believed that any
mistake in pronouncing the ritual words from the texts would angerthe gods. Their “sacred
knowledge” gave the Brahmins great power and influence in the Indian society.

2. Beginning about 500 B.C. , Indian ways of worship began to change. The old gods became less
important. Some people began to doubt the carrying out precise rituals was as important as
the priests claimed. Other people began asking questions such as :
(a) Why are we born?
(b) How should we live?
(c) What happens to us when we die?
Hinduism evolved from Indians’ efforts to answer these challenging questions.
To find those answers, thinkers and teachers known as gurus left their homes to live in
nature. The gurus spent their days thinking and talking about religious ideas. Some of their
conversations were written in sacred or holy, Hindu scriptures known as the Upanishads [oo
PAN ih shadz]. The word Upanishad means “sitting down near a teacher”
The Upanishads introduced two beliefs that lie at the heart of Hinduism. The first is the belief
that there is one supreme God known as Brahman. The Upanishads described Brahman as “
He who constantly rules the word”. Brahman is the creator and soul of all things. People
might worship Brahman in the form of many different gods, but those gods are just aspects of
“the one”
The second belief that lies at the heart of Hinduism is that every person is born with a soul
that is part of Brahman. This soul, or inner self is known as atman

3. According to the Upanishads:
“This soul of mine within the heart is smaller than a grain of rice….This soul of mine within
heart is greater than the earth….. greater than the sky…. This soul of mine within the heart,
this is Brahman.” The Thirteen Principles of Upanishads.
Although only priests were supposed to interpret the Vedas, Indians of all castes could read
and study the Upanishads.
These new ideas also found their way into Hinduism’s two great epic poems…. The
Mahabharata [ muh HAH bahr AH tuh) and the Ramayana [ rah mah YAH nuh]. An epic poem
is a long story of heros and history told in verse. These poems helped explain Hindu religious
ideas to all people. They also set standards for how people should live their lives as Hindus.
With 100,000 standzas, or verses, the Mahabharata may be the world’s longest poem. Maha
means “greatness”; barata means “victory or Triumph”. It tells the story of two related
families at war. The best-loved section of the Mahabharata is the Bhagavad Gita [ BAH gah
vuhd GEET ah], or “Song of the Lord”. It contains a conversation between the warrior Arjuna
and the god Krishna. Arujuna tells Krishna that he cannot bring himself to spill the blood of
his relatives. Krishna assures Arjuna that he cannot kill what never dies.---a person’s soul. The
Bhagavad-Gita has played an important role in the lives of Hindus for many hundreds of
years.