The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (991 page)

, in the mode of personal disciple).

 
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Hinduism
.

The major continuing and connected religions of India, which have now spread throughout the world. About 80 per cent of India's approx. one billion people regard themselves as Hindu, and there are about 30 million Hindus elsewhere in the world. The word ‘Hinduism’ derives from the Persian
hindu
(
Skt.
,
sindhu
, ‘river’), belonging to the Indus Valley, hence ‘Indian’. The term is misleading if it gives the impression of a unified system of belief and practice: it was replaced for a time in academic circles by ‘Indian religion’, but even that has now become ‘Indian religions’ in the plural (though that too is ambiguous, since Jains, Sikhs, and Christians are also religions of India, as for many centuries was Buddhism). The term ‘Hinduism’ is used here and throughout this work as a convenient shorthand. A name for the tradition which is in common use among Hindus is
san
tana
dharma
, everlasting dharma; another with more specific focus on the
brahmanical
system is
var
a
ramadharma
(see
VARNA
;
RAMA
).
Historically, Hinduism is seen as unfolding through successive stages, but this again is misleading, since many beliefs and practices from earlier stages persist through to the present, often little affected by subsequent developments. The roots are set down in the traditions of the original stone-age inhabitants of India; the
Indus Valley civilization
; the more developed Dravidian culture, related to the Indus Valley, and persisting especially among the
Tamils
; and the
ryan
invasion leading to
Vedic
religion (the religions based on the
Vedas
).
The Vedas (eternal truth) are believed to be eternal (san
tana). They are made known through
is
, who received them by a kind of intuition (
d
ti
). The revealed scriptures are known as
ruti
(revelation, that which has been perceived through hearing; for details see
VEDA
).
gama