What Is hInduIsm Hinduism is one of the world’s oldest religions Some Hindu traditions date back more than three thousand years Over the centuries however its followers called Hindus have accepted many new ideas and combined This map shows the world distribution of Hindus India has the world’s largest population of Hindus 4
A group of Hindus celebrate a festival along the Ganges River in India them with the old ones More than nine hundred million people practice Hinduism worldwide Most of them live in India where Hinduism began Think About It Hinduism has no single founder Can you think of the founders of other world religions How does having a founder make religious worship different Hinduism is different from other major religions because it has no founder Its origins are lost in the distant past It has several religious texts rather than one major text No one has set down a list of beliefs for all Hindus to follow Hinduism is diverse in belief and practice Many sects and schools of philosophy coexist within Hinduism 5
BelIefs and sacred texts All Hindus revere the Veda an ancient body of sacred writings The word Veda means knowledge Hindus composed these texts in what is now India over hundreds of years beginning in about 1500 BCE For a long time people passed down the texts of the Veda by reciting them Eventually they wrote the texts down Hindus today still study the Veda Hindus believe in a spiritual power called Brahman Brahman is the source of all life and is present in every thing and every place The human soul called atman is part of the universal Brahman Vocabulary Reciting something means repeating it out loud from memory This is how many ancient people passed down stories 6
Hindus generally believe that when someone dies the atman is reborn in another body A soul may return many times in human animal or even plant form This idea is known as reincarnation The idea of karma says that what a person does in the present life will Devout Hindus read and study the ancient body of writings called the Veda or knowledge 7
