Founder of Hinduism

Hinduism is the oldest religion of all world religions. For hundreds of years, it has been searched for some evidence about its founder, but no one could point a finger at a specific founder or its date of origin. Even the authors of its sacred texts are largely unknown. The system exists from time immemorial and there is no exact beginning of this religion. It has no particular fonder but has many Rishis, Saints, Gurus, and leaders who reformed and revived the existing culture and traditions. It has developed out of Brahmanism.

Ancient Hindu works talk about things that happened between periods of time more than the period well known to history scholars of current time. Even scientific excavations show the existence of ceremonious worship, at the early periods.

Many philosophers came up with new systems in the Hindu religion. Because of the wide spectrum of Hinduism, it accommodated a lot of new ideas and philosophies. Because of its innovative nature it is a healthy religion that does not get stagnant. People who followed the religion had the discretion to find their suitable path through the propagation of one or more philosophers that was a real diverse system.

In other words, there is no single founder of Hinduism and it existed from time unexplored, as a religion. Hinduism, is open to interpretation, and is a collection of a path to wisdom, which is based on reasoning more than a divine authority and does not have any specific founder.

The temples that have been found in the Indus valley civilization have no indication of a deity. But there were many 'gods' and 'goddesses' as symbols of nature. People of the Indus valley civilization worshipped forces of nature. Each village had its own unique statue to worship. The aspect of politics was also mixed with the religion models in ancient culture where the ruler was considered the 'son' of the mother-goddess.

Thus, Hinduism was subject to new philosophies that changed it over time. It consists of a wide range of beliefs, which are not interrelated sometimes. There is no known founder as such for Hinduism, no creed, or single source of authority. All the Hindu philosophies share just a thin connection with each other.

Origin of the word ‘Hindu’

The word ‘Hindu’ is not a Sanskrit word or nor mentioned in any of the ancient major texts of India. It is believed to be originated from the ancient Persians. The Persians who were shared some common culture with the people of Indian sub-continent used to call the Indus River as ‘Sindhu.’ Due to some linguistic problems, they could not pronounce the letter ‘S’ in their language and started mispronouncing it as ‘H’. Thus they started pronouncing the word Sindhu as Hindu. The ancient Greeks, American and the rest of the world followed the same word and started calling the Indus river valley people as Hindus and gradually the word stuck.

Origin of the word ‘Hindustan’

Even the word ‘Hindustan’ is not originated from the mouth of any Indian. The Muslim travelers and rulers who came to India during the medieval period called the Indian subcontinent as ‘Hindustan’ and its people as ‘Hindus.’ The British too followed the same words and later they used this name religiously to distinguish Hindus from Muslims and Christians.