[kahljorn]

from the university of virginia.



The Indus Valley Civilization thrived in Northwest India from the middle of the third milleniumB.C. to the middle of the second millenium B.C. The civilization was a well developed culture centered aroundtwo major cities, Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa. 6 Indo-Aryans, a nomadic tribe, began to migrate into this area around 1500 B.C., roughly the same time as the mysterious disappearance of the Indus Valley civilization. The religious scriptures of the Indo-Aryans, the Vedas , serve as the most widely aknowledged basis forHinduism. The Vedas are said to be the eternal truths of the religion and are upheld as the supreme authority for Hinduism. 7
The Vedic Period (2000 B.C. - 400 B.C.)
The Vedic literature of this period shows four consecutive stages in which they were recorded: Samhitas or Mantras , Brahmanas, Aranyakas , and Upanishads . 8 The Samhitas were hymns in praiseof the dieties. The Hindu ideas of dharma and karma were derived from the Vedic Mantras conception of rita , or cosmic order.The gods were guardians of this cosmic order and so they had to be propitiated by means of sacrifice. 9 Thus, the age of the Samhitas was suceeded by the age of the Brahmanas , texts dealing with the meaning and technicalities of these sacrificial rituals. 10 During this age, priesthood became all powerful, the four stages of life were formulated, and new doctrines began to appear. 11 Most important of these new doctrines was that of transmigration and caste. Itwas originally believed that one was liable to death, even in heaven. Now, the Brahmanas had declared that all beings must be reborn over and over again, in an endless cycle. From transmigration arouse the need to be released ( moksha ) from the earthly and heavenly existence. 12
The age of the Brahmanas was followed by the age of the Aranyakas and Upanishads , philosophical and mystical texts dealing with the quest for atman , the knowledge of the self. It was during this period that the foundations of Hinduism were solidly laid. Gods and sacrifices receded into the background and the quest to realize ultimate reality became essential. The Upanishads contain one main theme, the unity of the individual soul or atman and the one impersonal and absolute univeral spirit or Brahman .

See? you're stupid.