Indian Religions

Indian religions are the religions that originated in the Indian subcontinent; namely Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. These religions are also classified as Eastern religions. Although Indian religions are connected through the history of India, they constitute a wide range of religious communities, and are not confined to the Indian subcontinent.

Evidence attesting to prehistoric religion in the Indian subcontinent derives from scattered Mesolithic rock paintings. The Harappan people of the Indus Valley Civilisation, which lasted from 3300 to 1300 BCE (mature period, 2600–1900 BCE), was an early urbanised culture which predates the Vedic religion. The Dravidian peoples and Dravidian languages of South India also predate the Vedic religion.

The documented history of Indian religions begins with the historical Vedic religion, the religious practices of the early Indo-Iranians, which were collected and later redacted into the Vedas. The period of the composition, redaction and commentary of these texts is known as the Vedic Period, which lasted from roughly 1750 to 500 BCE. This religion was closely related to early Zoroastrianism and its liturgical language, Vedic Sanskrit, was intelligible with Avestan.

The Reform Period between 800–200 BCE marks a "turning point between the Vedic religion and Hindu religions". The Shramana movement, an ancient Indian religious movement parallel to but separate from Vedic tradition, gave rise to Jainism and Buddhism, and was responsible for the related concepts of Yoga, saṃsāra (the cycle of birth and death) and moksha (liberation from that cycle). This period also saw the writing of the Upanishads and the rise of Vedanta.

The Puranic Period (200 BCE – 500 CE) and Early Medieval period (500–1100 CE) gave rise to new configurations of Hinduism, especially bhakti and Shaivism, Shaktism, Vaishnavism, Smarta and much smaller groups like the conservative Shrauta.

The early Islamic period (1100–1500 CE) also gave rise to new movements. Sikhism was founded in the 15th century on the teachings of Guru Nanak and the nine successive Sikh Gurus in Northern India. The vast majority of its adherents originate in the Punjab region.

With the colonial dominance of the British a reinterpretation and synthesis of Hinduism arose, which aided the Indian independence movement.