The Sanatan Dharma the World's Oldest Religion?

[Riverwolf]

How would we know? It just becomes speculation then. Is there any indication at all of who would otherwise have built them?

That's really the point. It's more likely that they were constructed according to the Vedas, but I wouldn't say it's 100% likely.

 

[Riverwolf]

Becasue it's your own camp doing it.

I'm not part of a "camp." Though we're all Hindu, my religion is not the same as those of Wannabe Yogi and Madhuri.

I can recognize parochialism when I see it, and I don't see it here.

(again) The oldest examples of writtings we have are Carved On Stone.

I don't recall you saying that earlier...

Okay, and I assume you're talking about the Epic of Gilgamesh. (Correct me if not.) But I don't believe for one minute that stories, poetry, and hymns didn't exist before writing. Part of human nature is to express itself artistically, so I will believe that art in whatever form has existed since we first evolved. Therefore, I don't think it's unreasonable to make the conjecture that many Vedic hymns are so old. They didn't necessarily need writing.

Becasue without the solid evidence of a dated piece of writting, anything befoe is pure conjecture. One can easily make the argument that the Vedas were a rough draft and the start, and not a culmination of oral history.

We've got solid evidence through tradition: that the Vedas aren't even written down that much nowadays, nor were they ever. Like I said earlier, the Vedas aren't books. They are hymns, that is, collections of mantras and slokas, to be chanted and remembered.

Tell the other Hindu then.

Which Hindu here is suggesting the AIT is true?

 

[Riverwolf]

-I do not see these two comments as being the same thing. Oldest don't equal truth. Islam says that Mohammed was the last prophet. Islam is the most complete truth. In this case oldest could mean the least true.

Well, in all fairness, Islam also teaches that it was the first religion: that of Abraham, etc.

 

[Riverwolf]

Implied by claiming yours is the oldest religion.

It's been stated over and over and over, with many different wordings, that modern Hinduism DID NOT EXIST until relatively recently. I, for one, do not follow any of the old Vedic religions; I follow a personal variant/combination of Vaishnavism, Shaivism, and Vedanta. (I'm still growing, too, starting to lean towards the religion that worships Rama.)

 

[Wannabe Yogi]

It's been stated over and over and over, with many different wordings, that modern Hinduism DID NOT EXIST until relatively recently.

I agree, the term Hinduism did not exist until recently. Many parts of Hinduism is very old like the Gayatri Mantra. Some parts are newer additions. Saints who have realized God are always making additions to the body of Hinduism. Practices go in and out of popularity. So Hinduism is always changing. A good example of this in earlier times the Lakshmi was related to cow dung she gave wealth of good crops. Today she is seen more with gold coins.

 

[Wannabe Yogi]

Well, in all fairness, Islam also teaches that it was the first religion: that of Abraham, etc.

True but the early faiths became corrupted so God had to give the last prophet the Koran. This is also seen as the last revelation of a religion for mankind. Thus the Koran is the most perfect expression of God because it is pure from God.

 

[Madhuri]

You've been doing a pretty lousy job of forwarding that ideal until called out for it.

No Axis, this idea of truth in all religions is one that is repeated in many, many threads on these forums. I've never in my life said that Hinduism is the only true religion. It is simply the right path for me.

Again, if you look back to earlier pages my first post notes that religion seems to stem from south East Asia, which is where the Australian aboriginals passed through to get to Australia.

Then Riverwolf replied with:

'It's possible that the aboriginal religions of Australia and India both stem from the same root.'

Do you see that there are no claims here about Hinduism being the one true religion? We are drawing comparisons, noting similarities and roots. In fact, we are saying that modern Hinduism is evolved from something older. What I continued to pursue was the idea that the origins start in Asia, which is a continent, not a religion!

Like i said, maybe you see what you want to see.

 

[iamfact]

I've often heard this claim repeated, which I admit, it likely is true. Hinduism is very old. Does anyone really have evidence Hinduism is the oldest? Like I've also seen Hindus claim that their religion influenced all the Pagan and Abrahamic traditions of the world as well. I can see the influence in Christianity, but not really Judaism and Islam, which I consider adharmic. Also I can sort of see it in Pagan circles as well, but to what extent did the Sanatan Dharma influence these religions? Like I can look at the concept of Ma'at in ancient Egypt and the brand of asceticism that existed among certain poets like Ptah-hotep and such, but does this mean that Hindus influenced ancient Egypt?

It is the oldest surviving major world religion. We know that Vedic Hinduism started as distinguishably separate religion anywhere from 3800 - 4500 years ago, according to modern calculations, or 7000+ years ago, according to traditional Hindu dating. Before then, there were probably at least two older proto-Dharmic religions: one from the Indo-European region, and the other from the Harrapans. Vedic Hinduism is likely the mixture of these two older religions, which is why it contains many similarities with Prehistoric India, and other Ancient European religions.