Hinduism: Texts & Practice

Most of the world's major religions point to a single figure: the Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, Moses. Hinduism does not. There is no founding prophet, no single revelation, no year zero. Hinduism accumulated over millennia — texts, rituals, philosophies, and devotional practices deposited like sediment along a river that has been flowing for more than three thousand years.

This sets it apart from every other major tradition. It is less a religion in the Western sense, a unified creed with a doctrinal boundary, and more a vast civilization of spiritual inquiry containing within itself traditions that are monotheistic, polytheistic, pantheistic, and even atheistic. A Hindu can worship a personal god with flowers and incense, or sit in silence pursuing the dissolution of the self, or do both in the same afternoon. The tradition is large enough to hold all of it.

It all starts with fire, with hymns, and with the arrival of a people who called themselves the Arya.