Religion Universe: Hinduism, ORIGIN OF HINDUISM

Religion Universe: Hinduism, ORIGIN OF HINDUISM: "ORIGIN OF HINDUISM

The Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT)
Developed by F. Max Muller in 1848 (Victorian period) and by other research for more than 120 years, it became history of Hinduism, not only in the West but in India."
This theory is stating the beginning of Hinduism, from the time of invasion of India by lighter skinned Aryans around 1500 BCE.

AIT has been challenged by modern historians not only because of its racist and exclusive connotations but also due to other archaeological, linguistic and ethnological evidences, showing the Hinduism continuity.

Why AIT Is Challenged:

The concept of invading hordes of Aryans conquering northern India around 1500 BC arose in the nineteenth century for a variety of reasons.

Linguists had established that the north Indian, Iranian, and most

European languages were structurally related and belonged to the same family, which was given the name Indo-European.

A homeland was postulated and it was assumed that the residents of this homeland spoke a common language, called ``proto-Indo-European'' (PIE), which was the ancestor to the historically known ancient languages such as Sanskrit, Avestan, Greek, Latin, and soon. Based primarily on linguistic considerations, several theories were proposed according to which this homeland was likely to have been in southeastern Europe or Central Asia. By assigning an arbitrary period of 200 years to each of the several layers of the pre-Buddhist

Vedic literature, the period of around 1500 BC was arrived at for the entry of the Aryans into India.

This alleged Aryan invasion was then tied up with the mention of the horse in the Vedic literature by asserting that the invading Aryans brought horses and chariots with them. This hypothesis was considered proven by claiming that the domestication of the horse took place not too much before 1500 BC. It was assumed that the horse provided military advantage to the Aryans, which made it possible for them to conquer the indigenous inhabitants of India.