The coastal Karnataka has a different tradition of praying to spirits ( see also Folk Hinduism ).

Allegory has been used widely in ancient sacred texts of Hinduism and all the religions that have sprouted off it ; and throughout the history of art in all forms of artwork.

The Chāndogya Upaniṣad, dated to the 8th or 7th century BCE, one of the oldest Upanishads, has the earliest evidence for the use of the word ahimsa in the sense familiar in Hinduism ( a code of conduct ).

In modern Hinduism slaughter according to the rituals permitted in the Vedic scriptures has become less common, though, the world's largest animal sacrifice occurs at Gadhimai, a Hindu festival which takes place every 5 years.

* Dvija, or twice-born – in Hinduism, a person who has formally taken on the roles of one of the first three castes.

Khmer has been considerably influenced by Sanskrit and Pali, especially in the royal and religious registers, through the vehicles of Hinduism and Buddhism.

Wendy Doniger, who is on the editorial board of Britannica, has been criticised for her negative portrayal of Hinduism.

Britannica's presentation of Hinduism has also been criticised.

Hinduism is formed of diverse traditions and has no single founder.

Hinduism is formed of diverse traditions and has no single founder.

Intellectual historian Peter Watson has summarized this period as the foundation of many of humanity's most influential philosophical traditions, including monotheism in Persia and Canaan, Platonism in Greece, Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism in India, and Confucianism and Taoism in China.

Hinduism has a very rich iconography called murti.

Over several thousand years, Jain influence on Hindu rituals has been observed and similarly the concept of non-violence has been incorporated into Hinduism.

Hinduism has some common concepts and practices that nowadays some Hindus tend to consider Jainism to have derived its roots from Hinduism.

The series has been criticized for its poor depiction of pantheist and universalist beliefs via its fictional Enigma Babylon One World Faith, which has overtones of Hinduism and Buddhism.

The Nyaya school of Hinduism has made several arguments regarding a monotheistic view.

According to the particular tradition, with the experience of nirvana the mind ( Buddhism ) or soul ( Jainism ) or spirit ( Hinduism ) has ended its identity with material phenomena and experiences a sense of great peace.

This is the idea that has become dominant ( with certain modifications ) in modern Hinduism.

In her book, Democracy and Authoritarianism in South Asia, she writes that " As for Hinduism, the hierarchical principles of the Brahmanical social order have always been contested from within Hindu society, suggesting that equality has been and continues to be both valued and practiced.

In Hinduism, Truth is defined as " unchangeable ", " that which has no distortion ", " that which is beyond distinctions of time, space, and person ", " that which pervades the universe in all its constancy ".

* Religious impact: Fishing has had an effect on all major religions, including Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, and the various new age religions.

Hinduism is a combination of secular and sacred beliefs, rituals, daily practices and traditions that has evolved over the course of over two thousand years and embodies complex symbolism combining the natural world with philosophy.

" After long study and experience, I have come to the conclusion that all religions are true ; all religions have some error in them ; all religions are almost as dear to me as my own Hinduism, in as much as all human beings should be as dear to one as one's own close relatives.

In what is now called Hinduism, monks have existed for a long time, and with them, their respective monasteries, called mathas.

Hindus believed the site was the birthplace of the Lord, and there existed a temple long before the Babri mosque was built after demolishing the temple by Babar, and thus qualified as one of the most sacred sites of Hinduism, where a temple should be reconstructed.

According to Hinduism, history is a divine creation, and one may live contentedly within it as long as one maintains a certain degree of detachment from it: " One is devoured by Time, by History, not because one lives in them, but because one thinks them real and, in consequence, one forgets or undervalues eternity.

Hinduism has a long tradition of veneration of saints, expressed toward various gurus and teachers of sanctity, both living and dead.

Hinduism has preached about humility and egoless state through numerous sacred scripts and sages which dates back to 5500 – 2600 BCE. Hinduism has influenced many originating religions like Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism regarding egoless state and nirvana or mukti. Eknath Easwaran writes that the Gita's subject is " the war within, the struggle for self-mastery that every human being must wage if he or she is to emerge from life victorious ", and " The language of battle is often found in the scriptures, for it conveys the strenuous, long, drawn-out campaign we must wage to free ourselves from the tyranny of the ego, the cause of all our suffering and sorrow ".

Later on, Chopra explained yoga as rooted in " consciousness alone " which is a universal, non-sectarian eternal wisdom of life expounded by Vedic rishis long before historic Hinduism ever arose.

Hinduism has a long tradition of aarti songs, simply referred to as ' Aarti ', sung as an accompaniment to the ritual of aarti.

The mantra is an important part of the upanayanam ceremony for young males in Hinduism, and has long been recited by Brahmin males as part of their daily rituals.

Some academics assert that such practices were influenced by Hinduism long ago when Muslims and Hindus co-existed in the sub-continent.

While mendicants are the original type of monks in Buddhism and have a long history in Indian Hinduism and the countries which adapted Indian religious traditions, they didn't become widespread in Christianity until the High Middle Ages.

Without the telephone, one could not have a conversation across long distances ; and without the sanctified image in the temple, one cannot easily talk with the Deity .” Moreover, anthropologist Christopher John Fuller notes that an image in Hinduism cannot be equated with a deity and the object of worship is the divine whose power is inside the image, and the image is not the object of worship itself, Hindus believe everything is worthy of worship as it contains divine energy emanating from the one god.

Within the context of the Indian religions, or dharmas, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, sex is generally either seen as a moral duty of each partner in a long term marriage relationship to the other, or is seen as a desire which hinders spiritual detachment, and so must be renounced.

:" After long study and experience, I have come to the conclusion that all religions are true ; all religions have some error in them ; all religions are almost as dear to me as my own Hinduism, in as much as all human beings should be as dear to one as one's own close relatives.

Within Ancient Hinduism, women have been held in equal honor as men.

While the general concept of a " Spirit " that permeates the cosmos is a general feature of most religions ( e. g. Brahman in Hinduism and Tao in Taoism and Great Spirit among Indigenous peoples of the Americas ), the term Holy Spirit specifically refers to the beliefs held in the Abrahamic religions.

In Hinduism, the perfectly ripe mango is often held by Lord Ganesha as a symbol of attainment, regarding the devotees potential perfection.

* Ashvattha – the world tree of Hinduism, held to be a supernatural F. religiosa

Das have held that Kabir is the first Indian saint to have harmonised Hinduism and Islam by preaching a universal path which both Hindus and Muslims could tread together.

Teachers such as Swami Vivekananda, who brought Hinduism to the West, held beliefs like those found in Smartism, although he usually referred to his religion as Vedanta.

The Vedic period is held to have ended around 500 BC, Vedic religion gradually metamorphosizing into the various schools of Hinduism, which further evolved into Puranic Hinduism.

Vivekananda went on lecture tours and held private discourses on Hinduism and spirituality.

On 21 January 2006 Naik held an inter-religious dialogue with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in Bangalore about the concept of God in Islam and Hinduism.

Though of later date than most of the canonical Buddhist books, avadānas are held in veneration by the orthodox, and occupy much the same position with regard to Buddhism that the Puranas do towards Hinduism.

Islam was introduced by Arab and Indian traders in the 11th century and has been the dominant religion ever since, replacing the Buddhism and Hinduism that had held sway before.