Hinduism has been around for a very long time in one guise or another. It is one of the most popular religions in the world with approximately 900+million practitioners. It is a diverse faith with no point of origin and no founder. It simply appeared organically and evolved over thousands of years. It is closely associated with Sikhism, Jainism and Buddhism.

There are some scholars who claim that Hinduism existed in the Indus Valley (in modern day Pakistan) more than 2000 years ago. As ‘Aryan’ people emigrated from the Asian Steppes into the region, they brought with them the concept of Brahmanism and the caste system. It was this influx of new arrivals that is said to have caused the decline of the ancient Harappan civilization in the Indus Valley. The migrants then moved east across the Indian sub-continent. They brought with them Sanskrit, an Indo-European language, which competed with the Dravidian languages extant in that land. Sanskrit became the holy language of Hinduism, much as Latin was for Catholicism. Hinduism is a fascinating faith that is almost impossible to box into a single descriptor.

One thing, though, that can be said about Hinduism is that it is colourful. It is also vibrant. The following presentation gives us some further insight into this complex, mystical and much misunderstood system of religious beliefs.

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