Hinduism

Overview

Hinduism is the umbrella name, first used in English in the early nineteenth century, for the family of religious traditions that grew up on the Indian subcontinent and look in some way to the ancient Vedas. Many Hindus prefer to call it Sanātana Dharma, the eternal order. It has no founder, no binding creed and no central authority; it is held together by shared scriptures, stories, rituals and holy places, and by ideas of dharma, karma and rebirth. Hindus honour many deities, and many devote themselves above all to one supreme God, worshipped as Viṣṇu, Śiva or the Goddess. Pew Research Center estimated about 1.2 billion Hindus in 2020, some 15 per cent of humanity, about 95 per cent of them in India.^{[8, 11–14]}

History

Indus cities and Vedic hymns c. 2600–800 BCE

The Indus cities, at their height c. 2600–1900 BCE, left seals, figurines and a great bath that some scholars link to later Hindu practice, but their script is unread and the links are speculative. The oldest Hindu texts are the Vedas, in an early form of Sanskrit. Most of the Ṛgveda was probably composed c. 1500–1200 BCE in the Punjab and was handed down by memory for many centuries before being written. Vedic religion centred on fire sacrifices, offered by priests to gods such as Agni, Indra and Soma.^[15–17]

Upaniṣads, renouncers and epics c. 800 BCE–300 CE

In the Upaniṣads, from about the middle of the first millennium BCE, attention turned from sacrifice to the self (ātman) and ultimate reality (brahman), and karma, rebirth and liberation became central. Wandering ascetics, the Buddha and Mahāvīra among them, rejected the authority of the Vedas and of Brahmin priests. Brahmin teachers answered with codes of duty for each class and stage of life. The Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa took shape, and devotion to personal gods spread: in the late 2nd century BCE a Greek envoy, Heliodorus, raised a pillar at Besnagar to the god Vāsudeva.^[18–22]

Temples, Purāṇas and devotion c. 300–1200 CE

Under the Gupta kings (4th–6th centuries) the earliest surviving stone temples were built, and the Purāṇas began to gather the myths of Viṣṇu, Śiva and the Goddess. From about the 7th century, Tamil poet-saints of many castes, women among them, sang to Śiva and Viṣṇu in their own language, starting the bhakti movement of loving devotion. Śaṅkara (8th century) and Rāmānuja (traditionally 1017–1137) founded rival schools of Vedānta. Hindu gods and Sanskrit kingship also took root in Southeast Asia from about the 4th century.^[23–26]

Sultans, Mughals and poet-saints c. 1200–1800

From the late 12th century much of north India came under Muslim rulers, first the Delhi Sultanate and later the Mughals. Their attitudes varied: some, such as Aurangzeb, were hostile and destroyed many temples, while others, such as Akbar, favoured their Hindu subjects. Devotional poetry in regional languages flourished, from Kabīr in Banaras to Tulsīdās, whose Hindi Rāmcaritmānas retold the Rāma story, and Caitanya in Bengal. In the south the Vijayanagara empire, founded in 1336, became a great patron of Hindu temples and learning.^[27–30]

Reform and nationalism c. 1800–1950

Under British rule Hindus answered missionary criticism by reshaping their tradition. Rammohun Roy's Brahmo Samaj (1828) rejected image worship and caste; Dayananda Sarasvati's Arya Samaj (1875) called for a return to the Vedas alone. Vivekananda presented Vedānta to the West at Chicago in 1893. Gandhi, who translated the Bhagavad Gītā and fought untouchability, led a non-violent mass struggle; in 1948 a Hindu nationalist shot him. In the 1920s V. D. Savarkar had defined Hindutva, Hindu-ness, as a national and cultural identity distinct from the religion. India's 1950 constitution banned untouchability.^[31–35]

A global tradition 1950–today

Indentured labourers and later migrants carried Hinduism to Mauritius, the Caribbean, Fiji, Britain and North America, where temples became community centres, and the Hare Krishna movement drew Western converts from the 1960s. In India, Hindu nationalism became a leading political force: activists demolished the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya in 1992, claiming the site as Rāma's birthplace, and a temple to Rāma was consecrated there in 2024. Discrimination by caste is illegal, yet caste still shapes marriage, friendship and neighbourhoods for many Indians, Hindus and others alike.^[36–38]

Key moments

1. c. 1500 BCEHymns of the Rigveda · Punjab, northwestern South Asia
2. c. 700 BCEThe Upanishads · Northern India
3. c. 400 BCEMahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa · Indian subcontinent
4. c. 400 CETemples of the Gupta age · Northern India
5. c. 650 CEThe Tamil poet-saints · Tamil country, southern India
6. c. 800 CEĀdi Śaṅkara and Advaita · Kerala to the Himalaya
7. c. 1100 CERāmānuja and qualified non-duality · Śrīraṅgam, Tamil Nadu, India
8. c. 1160 CEBasava and the Liṅgāyats · Karnataka, southern India
9. c. 1450 CEKabīr the weaver · Varanasi (Banaras), northern India
10. c. 1530 CEMīrābāī sings to Krishna · Merta and Mewar, Rajasthan, India
11. c. 1575 CEAkbar's House of Worship · Fatehpur Sikri, India
12. 1893 CEParliament of the World's Religions · Chicago
13. 1945 CEPancasila: Indonesia's five principles · Jakarta, Indonesia
14. 1947 CEPartition of India · Punjab and Bengal, India and Pakistan
15. 1992 CEThe Babri Masjid is demolished · Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India
16. 2025 CEThe Maha Kumbh Mela · Prayagraj, India

Beliefs

Dharma · धर्म

order, duty, right conduct

Dharma is the order that upholds the cosmos and society, and the duty each person owes within it. Classical texts tie a person's dharma to class, stage of life and gender, alongside universal virtues such as non-harm. Hindus who call their faith Sanātana Dharma stress this web of obligations over any list of beliefs.^[39]

Karma and saṃsāra · कर्म, संसार

action; the round of rebirth

Most Hindus hold that the self passes through a beginningless cycle of births and deaths, saṃsāra, and that karma, the moral force of one's actions, shapes each new life. Actions driven by desire keep the cycle turning. Buddhists and Jains share these ideas in their own forms; they are largely absent from the oldest Vedic hymns.^[40]

Mokṣa · मोक्ष

release, liberation

For many Hindus the highest goal is release from the cycle of rebirth. The Bhagavad Gītā describes three paths towards it: selfless action, knowledge gained through disciplined meditation, and loving devotion to a personal God. Hindus see the paths as suited to different temperaments but open to all, and many combine them.^[41]

Brahman and ātman · ब्रह्मन्, आत्मन्

ultimate reality; the self

The Upaniṣads call the single principle behind all things brahman, and teach that it dwells in ātman, the unchanging core of each person. Schools of Vedānta read this differently: Śaṅkara's Advaita holds that self and brahman are identical, while Rāmānuja taught that souls and the world are real and form the body of God.^[42]

Deva and Īśvara · देव, ईश्वर

god; the Lord

Hindus honour many gods and goddesses, yet many worship one as the supreme Lord, Viṣṇu for Vaiṣṇavas, Śiva for Śaivas, the Goddess for Śāktas, and regard the others as lesser divine beings or as aspects of that one. Smārtas worship five deities, Śiva, Viṣṇu, the Goddess, Sūrya and Gaṇeśa, side by side.^[43–44]

Puruṣārtha · पुरुषार्थ

aims of human life

Classical Hindu thought names four legitimate aims of life: dharma (right conduct), artha (wealth and success), kāma (love and pleasure) and mokṣa (liberation). An ideal of four life stages, from celibate student to householder, forest-dweller and finally renouncer, was meant to give each aim its proper time, though few people ever followed it in full.^[45]

Varṇa and jāti · वर्ण, जाति

class; birth group

A Ṛgveda hymn names four classes, Brahmins, Kṣatriyas, Vaiśyas and Śūdras, born from the body of a cosmic person. In practice people belong to thousands of hereditary birth groups (jātis), ranked by ritual purity, with those once treated as untouchable at the bottom. Caste has been defended, reinterpreted and fiercely opposed within Hindu tradition itself.^[46–47]

Practice

Worship and seeing the deity · पूजा

Most Hindu worship is personal rather than congregational. At a home shrine or in a temple, pūjā treats an image of the deity as an honoured guest, with water, flowers, incense, food and a waved lamp. Many Hindus regard the consecrated image as a real presence; seeing it (darśan) is a blessing, and food offered to it is shared as prasāda.^[48]

Rites of passage · संस्कार

Life-cycle rites called saṃskāras mark pregnancy, birth, naming, first solid food, the start of learning, marriage and death. In the upanayana, now kept mainly by Brahmins, a boy receives the sacred thread and the Gāyatrī mantra. A wedding centres on seven steps around a sacred fire, and most Hindus are cremated.^[49]

Pilgrimage · तीर्थयात्रा

Hindus travel to tīrthas, literally fords or crossing places, where the divine is felt to be near. Water is central, and bathing in the Ganges and other holy rivers is believed to purify. The Kumbh Mela, which rotates between four river sites, draws ascetics and ordinary pilgrims in crowds of many millions.^[50–51]

Yoga and renunciation · योग, संन्यास

In Hindu tradition yoga is a discipline for freeing the self. Patañjali's Yoga Sūtras describe eight stages, beginning with ethical restraints and ending in meditative absorption (samādhi). Some Hindus become saṃnyāsins, renouncers who leave family and caste behind for a life of religious discipline, usually after initiation by a guru.^[52–53]

Food and non-harm · अहिंसा

Food rules vary by caste, region, family and season, and fasting on set days is common. Non-harm (ahiṃsā) is a widely shared ideal and the cow is revered, so most Hindus avoid beef. Many Hindus are vegetarian, but not most: in a 2021 Pew survey, 44 per cent of Indian Hindus said they were.^[54–55]

Holy days

Diwali · दीपावली

New moon of Kārttika or Āśvina, by regional calendar (October–November)

The festival of lights. Hindus light lamps, honour Lakṣmī, goddess of fortune, and recall Rāma's return to Ayodhyā or Kṛṣṇa's defeat of the demon Naraka. UNESCO added Deepavali to its intangible heritage list in 2025.^[56]

Holi · होली

Full moon of Phālguna (February–March)

A spring festival. Bonfires recall the devotee Prahlāda, saved by Viṣṇu from the fire that burned the demoness Holikā; then people throw coloured powder and water, and the usual rules of caste, age and rank are relaxed.^[57]

Navarātri and Durgā Pūjā · नवरात्रि

First nine nights of bright Āśvina (September–October)

Nine nights in honour of the Goddess. In Bengal this is Durgā Pūjā, celebrating her defeat of the buffalo demon; in much of the north the tenth day, Dussehra, marks Rāma's victory over Rāvaṇa.^[58]

Mahāśivarātri · महाशिवरात्रि

Eve of the new moon in Māgha or Phālguna (February–March)

The "great night of Śiva" and the chief Śaiva festival. Devotees fast during the day and keep vigil through the night, bathing the liṅga with milk, honey and water and making offerings to Śiva.^[59]

People

Viṣṇu · विष्णु

deity

For Vaiṣṇavas, Viṣṇu, "the Pervader", is the supreme God, who sustains the world and descends in avatāras, classically ten, among them Rāma and Kṛṣṇa. He holds conch, discus, club and lotus, and his consort is Lakṣmī, goddess of fortune.^[60]

Śiva · शिव

deity

For Śaivas, Śiva is the supreme God, at once ascetic yogi and family man, linked with both destruction and creation. He is worshipped above all in the liṅga, an abstract emblem, and with his consort Pārvatī and their sons Gaṇeśa and Skanda.^[61]

Devī, the Goddess · देवी

deity

Śāktas worship the Goddess as śakti, the power behind all things, either supreme in her own right or as Śiva's consort. Hindus see many goddesses as her forms: gentle Pārvatī, warrior Durgā, fierce Kālī and Lakṣmī of fortune.^[62]

Śaṅkara · शङ्कर

teacher · 8th century

The great teacher of Advaita (non-dual) Vedānta, by tradition from Kerala, who held that brahman alone is ultimately real. He wrote commentaries on the Upaniṣads, the Brahma Sūtra and the Gītā; later legend has him cross India debating rivals and founding monasteries.^[63]

Swami Vivekananda

teacher · 1863–1902

A Bengali monk and the best-known disciple of the mystic Ramakrishna. His speeches at the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago made him famous; he taught Vedānta in the United States and Britain and founded the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897.^[64]

Mohandas K. Gandhi

other · 1869–1948

Leader of India's non-violent struggle for independence, raised in a Vaiṣṇava family. He made his own translation of the Bhagavad Gītā, called untouchability the greatest blot on Hinduism, and worked for Hindu-Muslim amity until he was assassinated in January 1948.^[65]

Scripture

Ṛgveda · ऋग्वेद

c. 1500–1200 BCE

The oldest of the four Vedas: 1,028 hymns in ten books, praising gods such as Agni, Indra and Soma. Hindus class the Vedas as śruti, "what was heard", revealed rather than composed, and trained reciters still pass them on by memory.^[66]

Upaniṣads · उपनिषद्

mid-1st millennium BCE onward

The closing parts of the Vedic corpus, called Vedānta, "the end of the Veda". These dialogues explore the self, brahman, karma and liberation, and underpin most later Hindu theology. Texts bearing the name were still being written around 1400 CE.^[67]

Mahābhārata · महाभारत

c. 400 BCE–400 CE

An epic of almost 100,000 couplets, often called the longest poem in the world, about a war between two sets of cousins, the Pāṇḍavas and the Kauravas. Tradition names the sage Vyāsa as its author; it grew over centuries.^[68]

Bhagavad Gītā · भगवद्गीता

c. 1st–2nd century CE

Eighteen chapters of the Mahābhārata in which Kṛṣṇa counsels the warrior Arjuna, who hesitates to fight his kin. Its teaching on duty without attachment, on knowledge and on devotion has made it one of the most loved Hindu scriptures.^[69]

Rāmāyaṇa · रामायण

probably after 300 BCE

Ascribed to the poet Vālmīki, it tells of Prince Rāma, exiled from Ayodhyā, whose wife Sītā is seized by Rāvaṇa, demon king of Laṅkā, and won back with the help of the monkey Hanumān. It is retold across India and Southeast Asia.^[70]

Places

Varanasi (Kāśī)

IND

Śiva's city on the Ganges and one of Hinduism's seven sacred cities. Pilgrims bathe from its stone ghats, and many Hindus believe that to die there brings liberation; the dead are cremated beside the river.^[71]

Triveṇī Saṅgam, Prayagraj

IND

Where the Ganges and Yamuna meet, joined by tradition by the unseen Sarasvatī. It hosts the largest Kumbh Mela, held here every 12 years; for 2025 the government reported over 660 million visits.^[72]

Tirumala Venkateswara Temple

IND

A hilltop temple of Viṣṇu as Venkaṭeśvara, Lord of the Seven Hills, above Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. It is one of India's foremost pilgrimage centres and its wealthiest religious institution.^[73]

Angkor Wat

KHM · UNESCO World Heritage, 1992

Built for Viṣṇu by the Khmer king Sūryavarman II in the 12th century and often called the world's largest religious structure, it later became a Buddhist shrine. It stands within the Angkor World Heritage property.^[74]

Where it spread

Art & objects

Public-domain objects from museum collections. Select one to see it at the museum.

Six-Armed God GaneshaNepal, 17th centuryHindu Manuscript Cover with Ganesha, Brahma, Shiva and Parvati, Vishnu, and KarttikeyaNepal, late 15th/early 16th centuryGoddess Durga Slaying the Buffalo Demon (Mahishasuramardini)Mathura, Kushan period, 2nd centuryMan-Lion Incarnation of God Vishnu (Narasimha) Disemboweling King HiranykashipuMadhya Pradesh, 10th/11th centuryPillar Fragment with Gods Shiva and Ganesha and Goddesses Parvati and DurgaMadhya Pradesh, 8th/9th centuryKrishna's Fifth and Sixth Avatars, page from a copy of the Gitagovinda of JayavedaDeccan, Late 17th centuryKarttikeya, Commander of the Divine Army, Seated on a PeacockAndhra Pradesh, Ganga Period, about 12th centuryDouble-Sided Painted Banner (Paubha) with God ShivaNepal, 16th-17th centuryShiva as Lord of the Dance (Nataraja)Tamil Nadu, Chola period, about 10th/11th centuryForehead Pendant with Sun God Surya in a Chariot with AttendantsNepal, Kathmandu Valley, 1600s or 1700sDurgaSouthern Thailand, late 5th–early 6th century

Numbers

Hindus worldwide

c. 1.2 billion (2020)^[8]

Pew Research Center (2025): 14.9% of world population, ~95% in India.

Share of India's population

79.8% (2011 census)^[75]

India's 2011 census (Registrar General); Pew estimated 79% for 2020.

Share of Nepal's population

c. 81% (2021 census)^[76]

Nepal's 2021 census put it at 81.19% (as reported); Pew's 2020 estimate is also about 81%. India and Nepal are the only Hindu-majority countries.

National censuses

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Census of Population and Housing 2021, 'Religious affiliation in Australia' (Table 4), CC BY 4.0. Source: Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India, Census of India 2011, Table C-01 Population by religious community and its appendix, under the Government Open Data License – India. Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0 Adapted from Statistics Canada, Table 98-10-0342-01 Religion by visible minority and generation status: Canada, provinces and territories, census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations with parts, released 2022-10-26. This does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada of this product. Source: Stats NZ, 2018 Census, licensed by Stats NZ for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.

How we know

Dating the Vedas

The Vedas were passed down orally and carry no dates. Scholars place the Ṛgveda around 1500–1200 BCE, chiefly from its language, close to that of the oldest Iranian scripture, the Avesta, and from Near Eastern records: documents of the Mitanni kingdom in the 15th–14th centuries BCE name gods such as Mitra and Varuṇa. Some Hindu writers argue for far earlier dates, and many Hindus hold that the Vedas are eternal and not of human authorship.^[77–78]

Where did Vedic culture come from?

Most linguists hold that speakers of the language of the Vedas entered South Asia from the northwest in the 2nd millennium BCE and mixed with people already there. A 2019 ancient-DNA study found ancestry from the Eurasian steppe spreading into the region after about 2000 BCE, consistent with that view. Some scholars and many Hindus argue instead that Vedic culture arose within the subcontinent, even continuing the Indus civilization. The question is politically charged in India.^[79–80]

Common misconceptions

Glossary

Āśrama · आश्रम

One of the four ideal stages of life: celibate student, householder, forest-dweller and renouncer.^[83]

Bhakti · भक्ति

Loving devotion to a personal God, the dominant form of Hindu religious life since the medieval poet-saints.^[84]

Guru · गुरु

A spiritual teacher who initiates disciples and may be revered as representing God.^[85]

Liṅga · लिङ्ग

The abstract emblem of Śiva, often set in a base (yoni) for the Goddess; most Hindus read the pair as male and female creative energy.^[86]

Mantra · मन्त्र

A sacred word or formula recited in ritual and meditation; Om is held to be the greatest of them.^[87]

Śruti and smṛti · श्रुति, स्मृति

"What was heard": the Vedas, held to be revealed. "What is remembered": epics, Purāṇas and law books of human authorship, in practice often more influential.^[88]

Tantra · तन्त्र

Ritual and meditative traditions, Śaiva, Vaiṣṇava and Śākta, seeking power and liberation through mantras, sacred diagrams and initiation.^[89]

Yuga · युग

One of four ages in each cosmic cycle, each shorter and worse than the last; Hindus traditionally hold that we now live in the last, the Kali Yuga.^[90]