With the Indian trade came the Indianization of the culture of Funan and the religion of Hinduism.

Some eastern parts of the country were controlled by the Indian Maurya Empire whose main religion was Hinduism.

Hinduism is the predominant religion of the Indian subcontinent, and one of its indigenous religions.

Among its direct roots is the historical Vedic religion of Iron Age India and, as such, Hinduism is often called the " oldest living religion " or the " oldest living major religion " in the world.

Hinduism includes the Agamic religion, involving Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism, historical groups such as the Ganapatyas, Kaumaras, Sauras, Bhairavas, Kapalikas, Kalamukhas, Pashupatas, and the historical Vedic religion including the Śrautas.

The term ‘ Hindu ’ came to include persons professing any Indian religion ( i. e. Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism or Sikhism ) after India became an independent country

With more than a billion adherents, Hinduism is the world's third largest religion.

During this period, aspects of Indian civilization, administration, culture, and religion ( Hinduism and Buddhism ) spread to much of Asia.

Founded by Maharaja Sri-Gupta, the dynasty was the model of a classical civilization. Maurya and Gupta empires are called as the Golden Age of India and were marked by extensive inventions and discoveries in science, technology, art, religion and philosophy that crystallized the elements of what is generally known as Indian culture. The religions of Hinduism and Buddhism, which began in India, were an important influence on South, East and Southeast Asia

* Relationship between Jainism and Hinduism – According to the Encyclopedia Britannica Article on Hinduism ,"... With Jainism, which always remained an independent Indian religion.

Weber's work in the field of sociology of religion started with the essay The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism and continued with the analysis of The Religion of China: Confucianism and Taoism, The Religion of India: The Sociology of Hinduism and Buddhism and Ancient Judaism.

The Religion of India: The Sociology of Hinduism and Buddhism was Weber's third major work on the sociology of religion.

As an old religion, Hinduism inherits religious concepts spanning monotheism, polytheism, panentheism, pantheism, monism, and atheism among others ; and its concept of God is complex and depends upon each individual and the tradition and philosophy followed.

As with Hinduism and Buddhism before it, the new religion and its accompanying foreign influences were absorbed and reinterpreted, with mosques given a unique Indonesian / Javanese interpretation.

It is also fewer than the adherents Jediism, whose campaign made them the fourth largest religion after Christianity, Islam and Hinduism.

New Age practices and philosophies sometimes draw inspiration from major world religions: Buddhism, Taoism, Chinese folk religion, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam ( especially Sufism ), Judaism ( especially Kabbalah ), Sikhism ; with strong influences from East Asian religions, Gnosticism, Neopaganism, New Thought, Spiritualism, Theosophy, Universalism and Western esotericism.

The five largest religious groups by population, estimated to account for between 5 and 7 billion people, are Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism ( with the relative numbers for Buddhism and Hinduism dependent on the extent of syncretism ) and Chinese folk religion.

Kaharingan, an animist folk religion of the Iban branch of the Dayak people, accepted as a form of Hinduism by the Indonesian government, includes the belief of a supreme deity as well as the rooster and cockfight in relation to that of the spiritual and religious and some with the belief that humans become the fighting cocks of god, with the Iban further believing the rooster and cockfight was introduced to them by god.

Mahayana Buddhism is the first religion in Singapore though not representing a majority, with significant numbers following Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism or no religion at all.

Later, as Islam replaced Hinduism as the majority religion of Java, Yama was demystified by Walisanga, who ruled at that time.

A majority of residents in Kolhapur follow Hinduism.

Balinese Hinduism, (), is a religion practiced by the majority of the population of Bali.

The majority of the people follow Hinduism.

Balinese mythology is the traditional mythology of the people of the Indonesian island of Bali, before the majority adoption of Hinduism.

It was alluded that the chief minister being a Brahmin lady did not heed to the majority non-Brahmin sections in Hinduism.

The majority of Adivasi practice Hinduism and Christianity.

The majority of the Khmer are followers of the Khmer style of Buddhism, a highly syncretic version which blends elements of Theravada Buddhism, Hinduism, animism and ancestor-spirit worship.

In Nepal majority of people identify as Hindu, however, Buddhist influences are pervasive in most aspects of Nepali culture to an extent that Buddhist and Hindu temples are shared places of worship for peoples of both faith so that, unlike, in other countries, the distinction between Hinduism and Buddhism in Nepal is not always clear.

Beef is not taken by the majority of Assamese as they practice Hinduism ; however, beef is popular among Assamese Muslims, although general people also have pork, but that is not taken by the Assamese Muslims.

Although Hinduism is now a minority religion in the country, some of its beliefs still pervade the national psyche ; it is socially and culturally ingrained in Filipinos, most of whom are either part of the Christian majority ( Roman Catholic and Protestant ), or part of a significant Muslim minority.

Hinduism is a minority religion in the United States, American Hindus accounting for an estimated 0. 4 % of total US population .</ ref > The vast majority of American Hindus are Indian Americans, immigrants from India and Nepal and their descendants, besides a much smaller number of converts.

Likewise a popular Hindu ritual form of worship of North Malabar in Kerala, India is the Tabuh Rah blood offering to Theyyam gods, despite being forbidden in the Vedic philosophy of sattvic Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, Theyyam deities are propitiated through the cock sacrifice where the religious cockfight is a religious exercise of offering blood to the Theyyam gods.

The Aghoris of northern India are a splinter sect of Hinduism who practice cannibalism in which they consume the flesh of the dead floated in the Ganges in pursuit of immortality and supernatural powers.

A subject of much scholarship by sociologists and anthropologists, the Hindu caste system is sometimes used as an analogical basis for the study of caste-like social divisions existing outside Hinduism and India.

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.

Islamism can also be described as part of identity politics, specifically the religiously-oriented nationalism that emerged in the Third World in the 1970s: " resurgent Hinduism in India, ultra-Orthodox Judaism in Israel, militant Buddhism in Sri Lanka, resurgent Sikh nationalism in the Punjab, ' Liberation Theology ' of Catholicism in Latin America, and of course, Islamism in the Muslim world.

Like Confucianism in China, for Weber, Hinduism in India was a barrier for capitalism.

Among extant " major religions ", Bonewits would count as Paleopagan Hinduism as it stood prior to the Islamic invasions of India, Shintoism and Taoism.

However, some leftist academics like Nirad C. Chaudhuri still maintain the old-style colonialist narrative that the Aryans were Germannic Europeans who invaded India and conspired to create the " caste system " and " Hinduism " in order to secure their position in the region against the so-called " aboriginals "

Max Weber published four major texts on religion in a context of economic sociology and his rationalization thesis: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism ( 1905 ), The Religion of China: Confucianism and Taoism ( 1915 ), The Religion of India: The Sociology of Hinduism and Buddhism ( 1915 ), and Ancient Judaism ( 1920 ).

Hinduism and Buddhism, which both began in India, were important influences on South and East Asia.

He was a major force in the revival of Hinduism in India and contributed to the notion of nationalism in colonial India.

He represented India and Hinduism.

The first governor general of independent India, Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, said " Vivekananda saved Hinduism, saved India.

It rose to importance in Buddhism during the Mauryan Empire and in Hinduism with the decline of Buddhism in India during the Gupta Empire.

** Lawrence Babb, " The Divine Hierarchy: Popular Hinduism in Central India "

Over time, a great variety of religions developed around the world, with Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism in India, Zoroastrianism in Persia being some of the earliest major faiths.

Hinduism was introduced into Java by travelers from India in ancient times.