document_title: History of Hinduism

question_text: what was the religion in india before hinduism

question_tokens: what was the religion in india before hinduism

text: History of Hinduism

text: Roots of Hinduism[edit]

text:
Western scholars regard Hinduism as a fusion[11][note 4] or synthesis[12][note 5] of various Indian cultures and traditions.[12][note 6]
Among its roots are the historical Vedic religion of Iron Age India [29][14] itself already the product of "a composite of the Indo-Aryan and Harappan cultures and civilizations",[30][note 7] but also the Sramana[21] or renouncer traditions[14] of northeast India,[21] and mesolithic[31] and neolithic[32] cultures of India, such as the religions of the Indus Valley Civilisation,[33] Dravidian traditions,[34] and the local traditions[14] and tribal religions.[35]

text: After the Vedic period, between 500[12]-200[36] BCE and c. 300 CE,[12] at the beginning of the "Epic and Puranic" c.q. "Preclassical" period, the "Hindu synthesis" emerged,[12][36] which incorporated śramaṇic[36][37] and Buddhist influences[36][38] and the emerging bhakti tradition into the Brahmanical fold via the smriti literature.[39][36] This synthesis emerged under the pressure of the success of Buddhism and Jainism.[40] During the Gupta reign the first Puranas were written,[41][note 8] which were used to disseminate "mainstream religious ideology amongst pre-literate and tribal groups undergoing acculturation."[41] The resulting Puranic Hinduism differed markedly from the earlier Brahmanism of the Dharmaśāstras and the smritis.[41][note 9] Hinduism co-existed for several centuries with Buddhism,[42] to finally gain the upper hand at all levels in the 8th century.[43][web 1][note 10]

text: From northern India this "Hindu synthesis", and its societal divisions, spread to southern India and parts of Southeast Asia.[44][note 11][note 12][note 13] It was aided by the settlement of Brahmins on land granted by local rulers,[45][46] the incorporation and assimilation of popular non-Vedic gods,[web 2][47][note 14] and the process of Sanskritization, in which "people from many strata of society throughout the subcontinent tended to adapt their religious and social life to Brahmanic norms".[web 2][note 15][48] This process of assimilation explains the wide diversity of local cultures in India "half shrouded in a taddered cloak of conceptual unity."[49]

text: Periodisation[edit]

text:
Outline of South Asian history
Palaeolithic (2,500,000–250,000 BC)[show] Madrasian Culture Soanian Culture

Neolithic (10,800–3300 BC)[show] Bhirrana Culture (7570–6200 BC) Mehrgarh Culture (7000–3300 BC) Edakkal Culture (5000–3000 BC)

Chalcolithic (3500–1500 BC)[show] Anarta tradition (c. 3950–1900 BC) Ahar-Banas Culture (3000–1500 BC) Pandu Culture (1600–1500 BC) Malwa Culture (1600–1300 BC) Jorwe Culture (1400–700 BC)

Bronze Age (3300–1300 BC)[show] Indus Valley Civilisation(3300–1300 BC)  – Early Harappan Culture(3300–2600 BC)  – Mature Harappan Culture(2600–1900 BC)  – Late Harappan Culture(1900–1300 BC) Vedic Civilisation(2000–500 BC)  – Ochre Coloured Pottery culture(2000–1600 BC)  – Swat culture(1600–500 BC)

Iron Age (1500–200 BC)[show] Vedic Civilisation(1500–500 BC)  – Janapadas (1500–600 BC)  – Black and Red ware culture(1300–1000 BC)  – Painted Grey Ware culture (1200–600 BC)  – Northern Black Polished Ware (700–200 BC) Pradyota Dynasty (799–684 BC) Haryanka Dynasty (684–424 BC) Three Crowned Kingdoms (c. 600 BC – AD 1600) Maha Janapadas (c. 600–300 BC) Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BC) Ror Dynasty (450 BC – AD 489) Shishunaga Dynasty (424–345 BC) Nanda Empire (380–321 BC) Macedonian Empire (330–323 BC) Maurya Empire (321–184 BC) Seleucid India (312–303 BC) Pandya Empire (c. 300 BC – AD 1345) Chera Kingdom (c. 300 BC – AD 1102) Chola Empire (c. 300 BC – AD 1279) Pallava Empire (c. 250 BC – AD 800) Maha-Megha-Vahana Empire (c. 250 BC – c. AD 500) Parthian Empire (247 BC – AD 224)

Middle Kingdoms (230 BC – AD 1206)[show] Satavahana Empire (230 BC – AD 220) Kuninda Kingdom (200 BC – AD 300) Mitra Dynasty (c. 150 – c. 50 BC) Shunga Empire (185–73 BC) Indo-Greek Kingdom (180 BC – AD 10) Kanva Empire (75–26 BC) Indo-Scythian Kingdom (50 BC – AD 400) Indo-Parthian Kingdom (AD 21 – c. 130) Western Satrap Empire (AD 35–405 ) Kushan Empire (AD 60–240) Bharshiva Dynasty (170–350) Nagas of Padmavati (210–340) Sasanian Empire (224–651) Indo-Sassanid Kingdom (230–360) Vakataka Empire (c. 250 – c. 500) Kalabhras Empire (c. 250 – c. 600) Gupta Empire (280–550) Kadamba Empire (345–525) Western Ganga Kingdom (350–1000) Kamarupa Kingdom (350–1100) Vishnukundina Empire (420–624) Maitraka Empire (475–767) Huna Kingdom (475–576) Rai Kingdom (489–632) Kabul Shahi Empire (c. 500 – 1026) Chalukya Empire (543–753) Maukhari Empire (c. 550 – c. 700) Harsha Empire (606–647) Tibetan Empire (618–841) Eastern Chalukya Kingdom (624–1075) Rashidun Caliphate (632–661) Gurjara-Pratihara Empire (650–1036) Umayyad Caliphate (661–750) Pala Empire (750–1174) Rashtrakuta Empire (753–982) Paramara Kingdom (800–1327) Yadava Empire (850–1334) Chaulukya Kingdom (942–1244) Western Chalukya Empire (973–1189) Lohara Kingdom (1003–1320) Hoysala Empire (1040–1346) Sena Empire (1070–1230) Eastern Ganga Empire (1078–1434) Kakatiya Kingdom (1083–1323) Zamorin Kingdom (1102–1766) Kalachuris of Tripuri (675-1210) Kalachuris of Kalyani (1156–1184) Chutiya Kingdom (1187–1673) Deva Kingdom (c. 1200 – c. 1300)

Late medieval period (1206–1526)[show] Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526)  – Mamluk Sultanate (1206–1290)  – Khalji Sultanate (1290–1320)  – Tughlaq Sultanate (1320–1414)  – Sayyid Sultanate (1414–1451)  – Lodi Sultanate (1451–1526) Ahom Kingdom (1228–1826) Chitradurga Kingdom (1300–1779) Reddy Kingdom (1325–1448) Vijayanagara Empire (1336–1646) Bengal Sultanate (1352–1576) Garhwal Kingdom (1358–1803) Mysore Kingdom (1399–1947) Gajapati Kingdom (1434–1541) Deccan Sultanates (1490–1596)  – Ahmadnagar Sultanate (1490–1636)  – Berar Sultanate (1490–1574)  – Bidar Sultanate (1492–1619)  – Bijapur Sultanate (1492–1686)  – Golkonda Sultanate (1518–1687) Keladi Kingdom (1499–1763) Koch Kingdom (1515–1947)

Early modern period (1526–1858)[show] Mughal Empire (1526–1858) Sur Empire (1540–1556) Madurai Kingdom (1559–1736) Thanjavur Kingdom (1572–1918) Bengal Subah (1576–1757) Marava Kingdom (1600–1750) Thondaiman Kingdom (1650–1948) Maratha Empire (1674–1818) Sikh Confederacy (1707–1799) Travancore Kingdom (1729–1947) Sikh Empire (1799–1849)

Colonial states (1510–1961)[show] Portuguese India (1510–1961) Dutch India (1605–1825) Danish India (1620–1869) French India (1759–1954) Company Raj (1757–1858) British Raj (1858–1947)

Periods of Sri Lanka
[show] Prehistory (Until 543 BC) Early kingdoms period (543 BC – 377 BC) Anuradhapura period (377 BC – AD 1017) Polonnaruwa period (1056–1232) Transitional period (1232–1505) Crisis of the Sixteenth Century (1505–1594) Kandyan period (1594–1815) British Ceylon (1815–1948) Contemporary Sri Lanka (1948–present)

National histories[show]AfghanistanBangladeshBhutanIndiaMaldivesNepalPakistanSri Lanka

Regional histories[show]AssamBalochistanBengalBiharGujaratHimachal PradeshKabulKashmirKhyber PakhtunkhwaRajasthanMaharashtraUttar PradeshPunjabOdishaSindhSouth IndiaTamil NaduTibet

Specialised histories[show]AgricultureArchitectureCoinageDemographicsDynastiesEconomyEducationIndologyInfluence on Southeast AsiaLanguageLiteratureMaritimeMetallurgyMilitaryPartition of IndiaPakistan studiesPhilosophyReligionScience & TechnologyTimeline
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text: James Mill (1773–1836), in his The History of British India (1817), distinguished three phases in the history of India, namely Hindu, Muslim and British civilisations. This periodisation has been criticised, for the misconceptions it has given rise to. Another periodisation is the division into "ancient, classical, medieval and modern periods", although this periodization has also received criticism.[50]

text: Romila Thapar notes that the division of Hindu-Muslim-British periods of Indian history gives too much weight to "ruling dynasties and foreign invasions,"[51] neglecting the social-economic history which often showed a strong continuity.[51] The division in Ancient-Medieval-Modern overlooks the fact that the Muslim-conquests took place between the eight and the fourteenth century, while the south was never completely conquered.[51] According to Thapar, a periodisation could also be based on "significant social and economic changes," which are not strictly related to a change of ruling powers.[52][note 16]

text: Smart and Michaels seem to follow Mill's periodisation, while Flood and Muesse follow the "ancient, classical, medieval and modern periods" periodisation. An elaborate periodisation may be as follows:[26]

text:
Pre-history and Indus Valley Civilisation (until c. 1750 BCE);
Vedic period (c. 1750-500 BCE);
"Second Urbanisation" (c. 600-200 BCE);
Classical Period (c. 200 BCE-1200 CE);[note 17]

text:
Pre-classical period (c. 200 BCE-300 CE);
"Golden Age" (Gupta Empire) (c. 320-650 CE);
Late-Classical period (c. 650-1200 CE);

text:
Medieval Period (c. 1200-1500 CE);
Early Modern Period (c. 1500-1850);
Modern period (British Raj and independence) (from c. 1850).

text:
showHistory of Hinduism

James Mill (1773–1836), in his The History of British India (1817),[a] distinguished three phases in the history of India, namely Hindu, Muslim and British civilisations.[b][c] This periodisation has been influential, but has also been criticised, for the misconceptions it has given rise to.[d] Another influential periodisation is the division into "ancient, classical, mediaeval and modern periods".[e]

Smart[f]

Michaels(overall)[g]

Michaels(detailed)[h]

Muesse[i]

Flood[j]

Indus Valley Civilisation and Vedic period(c. 3000–1000 BCE)

Prevedic religions(until c. 1750 BCE)[k]

Prevedic religions(until c. 1750 BCE)[l]

Indus Valley Civilization(3300–1400 BCE)

Indus Valley Civilisation(c. 2500 to 1500 BCE)

Vedic religion(c. 1750–500 BCE)

Early Vedic Period(c. 1750–1200 BCE)

Vedic Period(1600–800 BCE)

Vedic period(c. 1500–500 BCE)

Middle Vedic Period(from 1200 BCE)

Pre-classical period(c. 1000 BCE – 100 CE)

Late Vedic period(from 850 BCE)

Classical Period(800–200 BCE)

Ascetic reformism(c. 500–200 BCE)

Ascetic reformism(c. 500–200 BCE)

Epic and Puranic period(c. 500 BCE to 500 CE)

Classical Hinduism(c. 200 BCE – 1100 CE)[m]

Preclassical Hinduism(c. 200 BCE – 300 CE)[n]

Epic and Puranic period(200 BCE – 500 CE)

Classical period(c. 100 – 1000 CE)

"Golden Age" (Gupta Empire)(c. 320–650 CE)[o]

Late-Classical Hinduism(c. 650–1100 CE)[p]

Medieval and Late Puranic Period(500–1500 CE)

Medieval and Late Puranic Period(500–1500 CE)

Hindu-Islamic civilisation(c. 1000–1750 CE)

Islamic rule and "Sects of Hinduism"(c. 1100–1850 CE)[q]

Islamic rule and "Sects of Hinduism"(c. 1100–1850 CE)[r]

Modern Age(1500–present)

Modern period(c. 1500 CE to present)

Modern period(c. 1750 CE – present)

Modern Hinduism(from c. 1850)[s]

Modern Hinduism(from c. 1850)[t]

showNotes and references for table

Notes
Smart[u] and Michaels[v] seem to follow Mill's periodisation (Michaels mentions Flood 1996 as a source for "Prevedic Religions".[w]), while Flood[x] and Muesse[y][z] follow the "ancient, classical, mediaeval and modern periods" periodisation.[aa]
Different periods are designated as "classical Hinduism":

Smart calls the period between 1000 BCE and 100 CE "pre-classical". It's the formative period for the Upanishads and Brahmanism (Smart distinguishes "Brahmanism" from the Vedic religion, connecting  "Brahmanism" with the Upanishads.[ab]), Jainism and Buddhism. For Smart, the "classical period" lasts from 100 to 1000 CE, and coincides with the flowering of "classical Hinduism" and the flowering and deterioration of Mahayana-buddhism in India.[ac]
For Michaels, the period between 500 BCE and 200 BCE is a time of "Ascetic reformism",[ad] whereas the period between 200 BCE and 1100 CE is the time of "classical Hinduism", since there is "a turning point between the Vedic religion and Hindu religions".[ae]
Muesse discerns a longer period of change, namely between 800 BCE and 200 BCE, which he calls the "Classical Period". According to Muesse, some of the fundamental concepts of Hinduism, namely karma, reincarnation and "personal enlightenment and transformation", which did not exist in the Vedic religion, developed in this time.[af]
References

Jump up ^ Khanna 2007, p.xvii

Jump up ^ Khanna 2007, p.xvii

Jump up ^ Misra 2004, p.194

Jump up ^ Kulke & Rothermund 2004, p.7

Jump up ^ Flood 1996, p.21

Jump up ^ Smart 2003, p.52-53

Jump up ^ Michaels 2004

Jump up ^ Michaels 2004

Jump up ^ Muesse 2011

Jump up ^ Flood 1996, p.21-22

Jump up ^ Michaels 2004, p.32

Jump up ^ Michaels 2004, p.32

Jump up ^ Michaels 2004, p.38

Jump up ^ Michaels 2004, p.39

Jump up ^ Michaels 2004, p.40

Jump up ^ Michaels 2004, p.41

Jump up ^ Michaels 2004, p.43

Jump up ^ Michaels 2004, p.43

Jump up ^ Michaels 2004, p.45

Jump up ^ Michaels 2004, p.45

Jump up ^ Smart 2003, p.52-53

Jump up ^ Michaels 2004, p.32

Jump up ^ Michaels 2004, p. 31, 348

Jump up ^ Flood 1996

Jump up ^ Muesse 2003

Jump up ^ Muesse 2011

Jump up ^ Muesse 2011, p.16

Jump up ^ Smart 2003, p. 52, 83-86

Jump up ^ Smart 2003, p.52

Jump up ^ Michaels 2004, p.36

Jump up ^ Michaels 2004, p.38

Jump up ^ Muesse 2003, p.14

Sources
Bentley, Jerry H. (1996). Cross-Cultural Interaction and Periodization in World History. The American Historical Review. 101. pp. 749–770.
Flood, Gavin D. (1996). An Introduction to Hinduism. Cambridge University Press.
Khanna, Meenakshi (2007). Cultural History Of Medieval India. Berghahn Books.
Kulke, Hermann; Rothermund, Dietmar (2004), A History of India, Routledge
Michaels, Axel (2004). Hinduism. Past and present. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Misra, Amalendu (2004). Identity and Religion: Foundations of Anti-Islamism in India. SAGE.
Muesse, Mark William (2003). Great World Religions: Hinduism.
Muesse, Mark W. (2011). The Hindu Traditions: A Concise Introduction. Fortress Press.
Smart, Ninian (2003). Godsdiensten van de wereld (The World's religions). Kampen: Uitgeverij Kok.

text: Prevedic religions (until c. 1750 BCE)[edit]

text: Prehistory[edit]

text: The earliest prehistoric religion in India that may have left its traces in Hinduism comes from mesolithic as observed in the sites such as the rock paintings of Bhimbetka rock shelters dating to a period of 30,000 BCE or older,[note 18] as well as neolithic times.[note 19] Some of the religious practices can be considered to have originated in 4,000 BCE. Several tribal religions still exist, though "[w]e must not assume that there are many similarities between prehistoric and contemporary tribal communities".[web 3]

text: Indus Valley Civilization (c. 3300–1700 BCE)[edit]

text: Some Indus valley seals show swastikas, which are found in other religions worldwide. Phallic symbols interpreted as the much later Hindu linga have been found in the Harappan remains.[53][54]

text: Many Indus valley seals show animals. One seal shows a horned figure seated in a posture reminiscent of the Lotus position and surrounded by animals was named by early excavators "Pashupati", an epithet of the later Hindu gods Shiva and Rudra.[55][56][57] Writing in 1997, Doris Meth Srinivasan said, "Not too many recent studies continue to call the seal's figure a "Proto-Siva," rejecting thereby Marshall's package of proto-Shiva features, including that of three heads. She interprets what John Marshall interpreted as facial as not human but more bovine, possibly a divine buffalo-man.[58] According to Iravatham Mahadevan, symbols 47 and 48 of his Indus script glossary The Indus Script: Texts, Concordance and Tables (1977), representing seated human-like figures, could describe the South Indian deity Murugan.[59]

text:
In view of the large number of figurines found in the Indus valley, some scholars believe that the Harappan people worshipped a mother goddess symbolizing fertility, a common practice among rural Hindus even today.[60]
However, this view has been disputed by S. Clark who sees it as an inadequate explanation of the function and construction of many of the figurines.[61]

text: There are no religious buildings or evidence of elaborate burials...  If there were temples, they have not been identified.[62] However, House - 1 in HR-A area in Mohenjadaro's Lower Town has been identified as a possible temple.[63]

text: Vedic period (c. 1750–500 BCE)[edit]

text: The commonly proposed period of earlier Vedic age is dated back to 2nd millennium BCE.[64] Vedism was the sacrificial religion of the early Indo-Aryans, speakers of early Old Indic dialects, ultimately deriving from the Proto-Indo-Iranian peoples of the Bronze Age.[note 20]

text: Origins[edit]

text:
showSpread of IE-languages

 Indo-European languages ca. 3500 BC
 Indo-European languages ca. 2500 BC
 Indo-European languages ca. 1500 BC
 Indo-European languages ca. 500 BC
 Indo-European languages ca. 500 AD

showIndo-Aryan migration

 The Yamna culture 3500-2000 BC.
 Scheme of Indo-European migrations from ca. 4000 to 1000 BCE according to the Kurgan hypothesis. The magenta area corresponds to the assumed Urheimat (Samara culture, Sredny Stog culture). The red area corresponds to the area which may have been settled by Indo-European-speaking peoples up to ca. 2500 BCE; the orange area to 1000 BCE. (Christopher I. Beckwith (2009), Empires of the Silk Road, Oxford University Press, p.30)
 Map of the approximate maximal extent of the Andronovo culture. The formative Sintashta-Petrovka culture is shown in darker red. The location of the earliest spoke-wheeled chariot finds is indicated in purple. Adjacent and overlapping cultures (Afanasevo culture, Srubna culture, BMAC) are shown in green.
 Archaeological cultures associated with Indo-Iranian migrations (after EIEC). The Andronovo, BMAC and Yaz cultures have often been associated with Indo-Iranian migrations. The GGC, Cemetery H, Copper Hoard and PGW cultures are candidates for cultures associated with Indo-Aryan movements.
 Early Vedic Period.

text: The Vedic period, named after the Vedic religion of the Indo-Aryans,[65][note 21] lasted from c. 1750 to 500 BCE.[66][note 22] The Indo-Aryans were a branch of the Indo-European language family, which many scholars believe originated in Kurgan culture of the Central Asian steppes.[67][68][note 23][note 24] Indeed, the Vedic religion, including the names of certain deities, was in essence a branch of the same religious tradition as the ancient Greeks, Romans, Persians, and Germanic peoples. For example, the Vedic god Dyaus Pita is a variant of the Proto-Indo-European god *Dyēus ph2ter (or simply *Dyēus), from which also derive the Greek Zeus and the Roman Jupiter. Similarly the Vedic Manu and Yama derive from the PIE *Manu and *Yemo, from which also derive the Germanic Mannus and Ymir.

text: According the Indo-European migration theory, the Indo-Iranians were the common ancestor of the Indo-Aryans and the Proto-Iranians. The Indo-Iranians split into the Indo-Aryans and Iranians around 1800-1600 BC.[69]

text: The Indo-Aryans were pastoralists[70] who migrated into north-western India after the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization,[71][72][73][note 25] The Indo-Aryans were a branch of the Indo-Iranians, which originated in the Andronovo culture[74] in the Bactria-Margiana era, in present northern Afghanistan.[75] The roots of this culture go back further to the Sintashta culture, with funeral sacrifices which show close parallels to the sacrificial funeral rites of the Rig Veda.[76]

text: During the Early Vedic period (c. 1500 - 1100 BCE[70]) Vedic tribes were pastoralists in north-west India.[77] After 1100 BCE, with the introduction of iron, the Vedic tribes moved into the western Ganges Plain, adapting an agrarian lifestyle.[70][78][79] Rudimentary state-forms appeared, of which the Kuru-tribe and realm was the most influential.[70][80] It was a tribal union, which developed into the first recorded state-level society in South Asia around 1000 BCE.[70] It decisively changed the Vedic heritage of the early Vedic period, collecting the Vedic hymns into collections, and developing new rituals which gained their position in Indian civilization as the orthodox srauta rituals,[70] which contributed to the so-called "classical synthesis"[81] or "Hindu synthesis".[12]

text: Rigvedic religion[edit]

text: The Indo-Aryans brought with them their language[82] and religion.[83][84] The Vedic beliefs and practices of the pre-classical era were closely related to the hypothesised Proto-Indo-European religion,[85] and the Indo-Iranian religion.[86] According to Anthony, the Old Indic religion probably emerged among Indo-European immigrants in the contact zone between the Zeravshan River (present-day Uzbekistan) and (present-day) Iran.[87] It was "a syncretic mixture of old Central Asian and new Indo-European elements",[87] which borrowed "distinctive religious beliefs and practices"[86] from the Bactria–Margiana Culture.[86] At least 383 non-Indo-European words were borrowed from this culture, including the god Indra and the ritual drink Soma.[88] According to Anthony,

text: Many of the qualities of Indo-Iranian god of might/victory, Verethraghna, were transferred to the adopted god Indra, who became the central deity of the developing Old Indic culture. Indra was the subject of 250 hymns, a quarter of the Rig Veda. He was associated more than any other deity with Soma, a stimulant drug (perhaps derived from Ephedra) probably borrowed from the BMAC religion. His rise to prominence was a peculiar trait of the Old Indic speakers.[75]

text: The oldest inscriptions in Old Indic, the language of the Rig Veda, are found not in northwestern India and Pakistan, but in northern Syria, the location of the Mitanni kingdom.[89] The Mitanni kings took Old Indic throne names, and used Old Indic technical terms were used for horse-riding and chariot-driving.[89] The Old Indic term r'ta, meaning "cosmic order and truth", the central concept of the Rig Veda, was also employed in the mitanni kingdom.[89] And Old Indic gods, including Indra, were also known in the Mitanni kingdom.[90][91][92]

text: Their religion was further developed when they migrated into the Ganges Plain after c. 1100 BCE and became settled farmers,[70][93][94] further syncretising with the native cultures of northern India.[81] The Vedic religion of the later Vedic period co-existed with local religions, such as the Yaksha cults,[81][95][web 4] and was itself the product of "a composite of the indo-Aryan and Harappan cultures and civilizations".[30][note 7] David Gordon White cites three other mainstream scholars who "have emphatically demonstrated" that Vedic religion is partially derived from the Indus Valley Civilizations.[96] [note 7]

text: Vedas[edit]

text: Its liturgy is preserved in the three Vedic Samhitas: the Rig-Veda, Sama-Veda and the Yajur-Veda. The Vedic texts were the texts of the elite, and do not necessarily represent popular ideas or practices.[97] Of these, the Rig-Veda is the oldest, a collection of hymns composed between ca. 1500-1200 BCE.[98][99][75] The other two add ceremonial detail for the performance of the actual sacrifice. The Atharva-Veda may also contain compositions dating to before 1000 BCE. It contains material pertinent to domestic ritual and folk magic of the period.

text: These texts, as well as the voluminous commentary on orthopraxy collected in the Brahmanas compiled during the early 1st millennium BCE,  were transmitted by oral tradition alone until the advent, in the 4th century AD, of the Pallava and Gupta period and by a combination of written and oral tradition since then.

text: The Hindu samskaras

text: ...go back to a hoary antiquity. The Vedas, the Brahmanas, the Grhyasutras, the Dharmasutras, the Smritis and other treatises describe the rites, ceremonies and customs.[100]

text: The earliest text of the Vedas is the Rigveda,[101] a collection of poetic hymns used in the sacrificial rites of  Vedic priesthood. Many Rigvedic hymns concern the fire ritual (Agnihotra) and especially the offering of Soma to the gods (Somayajna). Soma is both an intoxicant and a god itself, as is the sacrificial fire, Agni. The royal horse sacrifice (Ashvamedha) is a central rite in the Yajurveda.

text: The gods in the Rig-Veda are mostly personified concepts, who fall into two categories: the devas – who were gods of nature – such as the weather deity Indra (who is also the King of the gods), Agni ("fire"), Usha ("dawn"), Surya  ("sun") and Apas ("waters") on the one hand, and on the other hand the asuras – gods of moral concepts – such as Mitra ("contract"),  Aryaman (guardian of guest, friendship and marriage), Bhaga ("share") or Varuna, the supreme Asura (or Aditya). While Rigvedic deva is variously applied to most gods, including many of the Asuras, the Devas are characterised as Younger Gods while Asuras are the Older Gods (pūrve devāḥ). In later Vedic texts, the Asuras become demons.

text: The Rigveda has 10 Mandalas ('books'). There is significant variation in the language and style between the family books (RV books 2–7), book 8, the "Soma Mandala" (RV 9), and the more recent books 1 and 10. The older books share many aspects of common Indo-Iranian religion, and is an important source for the reconstruction of earlier common Indo-European traditions. Especially RV 8 has striking similarity to the Avesta,[102] containing allusions to Afghan Flora and Fauna,[103] e.g. to camels (úṣṭra- = Avestan uštra). Many of the central religious terms in Vedic Sanskrit have cognates in the religious vocabulary of other Indo-European languages (deva: Latin deus; hotar: Germanic god; asura: Germanic ansuz; yajna: Greek hagios; brahman: Norse Bragi or perhaps Latin flamen etc.). In the Avesta, Asura (Ahura) is considered good and Devas (Daevas) are considered evil entities, quite the opposite of the Rig Veda.

text: Cosmic order[edit]

text: Ethics in the Vedas are based on the concepts of Satya and Rta. Satya is the principle of integration rooted in the Absolute.[104] Ṛta is the expression of Satya, which regulates and coordinates the operation of the universe and everything within it.[105] Conformity with Ṛta would enable progress whereas its violation would lead to punishment. Panikkar remarks:

text: Ṛta is the ultimate foundation of everything; it is "the supreme", although this is not to be understood in a static sense. [...] It is the expression of the primordial dynamism that is inherent in everything...."[106]

text: The term "dharma" was already used in Brahmanical thought, where it was conceived as an aspect of Rta.[107] The term rta is also known from the Proto-Indo-Iranian religion, the religion of the Indo-Iranian peoples prior to the earliest Vedic (Indo-Aryan) and Zoroastrian (Iranian) scriptures. Asha[pronunciation?] (aša) is the Avestan language term corresponding to Vedic language ṛta.[108]

text: Upanishads[edit]

text: The 9th and 8th centuries BCE witnessed the composition of the earliest Upanishads.[109]:183 Upanishads form the theoretical basis of classical Hinduism and are known as Vedanta (conclusion of the Veda).[110] The older Upanishads launched attacks of increasing intensity on the rituals, however, a philosophical and allegorical meaning is also given to these rituals. In some later Upanishads there is a spirit of accommodation towards rituals. The tendency which appears in the philosophical hymns of the Vedas to reduce the number of gods to one principle becomes prominent in the Upanishads.[111] The diverse monistic speculations of the Upanishads were synthesised into a theistic framework by the sacred Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita.[112]

text: Brahmanism[edit]

text: In Iron Age India, during a period roughly spanning the 10th to 6th centuries BCE, the Mahajanapadas arise from the earlier petty kingdoms of the various Rigvedic tribes, and the failing remnants of the Late Harappan culture. In this period the mantra portions of the Vedas are largely completed, and a flowering industry of Vedic priesthood organised in numerous schools (shakha) develops exegetical literature, viz. the  Brahmanas. These schools also edited the Vedic mantra portions into fixed recensions, that were to be preserved purely by oral tradition over the following two millennia.

text: Second Urbanisation (c. 600–200 BCE)[edit]

text: Upanishads and shramana movements[edit]

text: Increasing urbanisation of India in the 7th and 6th centuries BCE led to the rise of new ascetic or sramana movements which challenged the orthodoxy of rituals.[113] Mahavira (c. 549–477 BCE), proponent of Jainism, and Buddha (c. 563-483 BCE), founder of Buddhism, were the most prominent icons of this movement.[109]:184  According to Heinrich Zimmer, Jainism and Buddhism are part of the pre-Vedic heritage, which also includes Samkhya and Yoga:

text: [Jainism] does not derive from Brahman-Aryan sources, but reflects the cosmology and anthropology of a much older pre-Aryan upper class of northeastern India - being rooted in the same subsoil of archaic metaphysical speculation as Yoga, Sankhya, and Buddhism, the other non-Vedic Indian systems.[114][note 26]

text: The Sramana tradition in part created the concept of the cycle of birth and death, the concept of samsara, and the concept of liberation, which became characteristic for Hinduism.[note 27]

text: Pratt notes that Oldenberg (1854-1920), Neumann (1865-1915) and Radhakrishnan (1888-1975) believed that the Buddhist canon had been influenced by Upanishads, while la Vallee Poussin thinks the influence was nihil, and "Eliot and several others insist that on some points the Buddha was directly antithetical to the Upanishads".[115][note 28]

text: Survival of Vedic ritual[edit]

text: Vedism as the religious tradition of Hinduism of a priestly elite was marginalised by other traditions such as Jainism and Buddhism in the later Iron Age, but in the Middle Ages would rise to renewed prestige with the Mimamsa school, which as well as all other astika traditions of Hinduism, considered them authorless (apaurusheyatva) and eternal. A last surviving elements of the Historical Vedic religion or Vedism is Śrauta tradition, following many major elements of Vedic religion and is prominent in Southern India, with communities in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, but also in some pockets of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and other states; the best known of these groups are the Nambudiri of Kerala, whose traditions were notably documented by Frits Staal.[117][118][119]

text: Mauryan empire[edit]

text: The Mauryan period saw an early flowering of classical Sanskrit Sutra and Shastra literature and the scholarly exposition of the "circum-Vedic" fields of the Vedanga. However, during this time Buddhism was patronised by Ashoka, who ruled large parts of India, and Buddhism was also the mainstream religion until the Gupta empire period.

text: Sanskritization[edit]

text: Since Vedic times, "people from many strata of society throughout the subcontinent tended to adapt their religious and social life to Brahmanic norms", a process sometimes called Sanskritization.[120] It is reflected in the tendency to identify local deities with the gods of the Sanskrit texts.[120]

text: Classical Hinduism (c. 200 BCE-1200 CE)[edit]

text: Pre-classical Hinduism (c. 200 BCE-320 CE)[edit]

text: Hindu synthesis[edit]

text: Between 500[12]-200[36] BCE and c. 300 CE developed the "Hindu synthesis",[12][36] which incorporated Sramanic and Buddhist influences[36][38] and the emerging bhakti tradition into the Brahmanical fold via the smriti literature.[39][36] This synthesis emerged under the pressure of the success of Buddhism and Jainism.[40]

text: According to Embree, several other religious traditions had existed side by side with the Vedic religion. These indigenous religions "eventually found a place under the broad mantle of the Vedic religion".[121] When Brahmanism was declining[note 29] and had to compete with Buddhism and Jainism,[note 30] the popular religions had the opportunity to assert themselves.[121] According to Embree,

text: [T]he Brahmanists themselves seem to have encouraged this development to some extent as a means of meeting the challenge of the heterodox movements. At the same time, among the indigenous religions, a common allegiance to the authority of the Veda provided a thin, but nonetheless significant, thread of unity amid their variety of gods and religious practices.[121]

text: Smriti[edit]

text: According to Larson, the Brahmins responded with assimilation and consolidation. This is reflected in the smriti literature which took shape in this period.[122] The smriti texts of the period between 200 BCE-100 CE proclaim the authority of the Vedas, and acceptance of the Vedas became a central criterium for defining Hinduism over and against the heterodoxies, which rejected the Vedas.[123] Most of the basic ideas and practices of classical Hinduism derive from the new smriti literature.[note 31]

text: Of the six Hindu darsanas, the Mimamsa and the Vedanta "are rooted primarily in the Vedic sruti tradition and are sometimes called smarta schools in the sense that they develop smarta orthodox current of thoughts that are based, like smriti, directly on sruti.[124] According to Hiltebeitel, "the consolidation of Hinduism takes place under the sign of bhakti".[124] It is the Bhagavadgita that seals this achievement.[124] The result is an "universal achievement" that may be called smarta.[124] It views Shiva and Vishnu as "complementary in their functions but ontologically identical".[124]

text: The major Sanskrit epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata, which belong to the smriti, were compiled over a protracted period during the late centuries BCE and the early centuries CE.[web 5] They contain mythological stories about the rulers and wars of ancient India, and are interspersed with religious and philosophical treatises. The later Puranas recount tales about devas and devis, their interactions with humans and their battles against rakshasa. The Bhagavad Gita "seals the achievement"[125] of the "consolidation of Hinduism",[125] integrating Brahmanic and sramanic ideas with theistic devotion.[125][126][127][web 6]

text: Schools of Hindu philosophy[edit]

text: In early centuries CE several schools of Hindu philosophy were formally codified, including Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Purva-Mimamsa and Vedanta.[128]

text: Sangam literature[edit]

text: The Sangam literature (300 BCE – 300 CE) is a mostly secular body of classical literature in the Tamil language. Nonetheless there are some works, significantly Pattupathu and Paripaatal, wherein the personal devotion to god was written in form of devotional poems. Vishnu, Shiva and Murugan were mentioned gods. These works are therefore the earliest evidences of monotheistic Bhakti traditions, preceding the large bhakti movement, which was given great attention in later times.

text: "Golden Age" (Gupta and Pallava period) (c. 320-650 CE)[edit]

text: During this period, power was centralised, along with a growth of near distance trade, standardization of legal procedures, and general spread of literacy.[129] Mahayana Buddhism flourished, but orthodox Brahmana culture began to be rejuvenated by the patronage of the Gupta Dynasty,[130] who were Vaishnavas.[131] The position of the Brahmans was reinforced,[129] the first Hindu temples dedicated to the gods of the Hindu deities, emerged during the late Gupta age.[129][note 32] During the Gupta reign the first Puranas were written,[41][note 8] which were used to disseminate "mainstream religious ideology amongst pre-literate and tribal groups undergoing acculturation."[41] The Guptas patronised the newly emerging Puranic religion, seeking legitimacy for their dynasty.[131] The resulting Puranic Hinduism, differed markedly from the earlier Brahmanism of the Dharmasastras and the smritis.[41]

text: According to P.S. Sharma "the Gupta and Harsha periods form really, from the strictly intellectual standpoint, the most brilliant epocha in the development of Indian philosophy", as Hindu and Buddhist philosophies flourished side by side.[132] Charvaka, the atheistic materialist school, came to the fore in North India before the 8th century CE.[133]

text: Gupta and Pallava Empires[edit]

text: The Gupta period (4th to 6th centuries) saw a flowering of scholarship, the emergence of the classical schools of Hindu philosophy, and of classical Sanskrit literature in general on topics ranging from medicine, veterinary science, mathematics, to astrology and astronomy and astrophysics. The famous Aryabhata and Varahamihira belong to this age. The Gupta established a strong central government which also allowed a degree of local control. Gupta society was ordered in accordance with Hindu beliefs. This included a strict caste system, or class system. The peace and prosperity created under Gupta leadership enabled the pursuit of scientific and artistic endeavors.

text: The Pallavas (4th to 9th centuries) were, alongside the Guptas of the North, patronisers of Sanskrit in the South of the Indian subcontinent. The Pallava reign saw the first Sanskrit inscriptions in a script called Grantha. Early Pallavas had different connexions to Southeast Asian countries. The Pallavas used Dravidian architecture to build some very important Hindu temples and academies in Mamallapuram, Kanchipuram and other places; their rule saw the rise of great poets, who are as famous as Kalidasa.

text: The practice of dedicating temples to different deities came into vogue followed by fine artistic temple architecture and sculpture (see Vastu Shastra).

text: Bhakti[edit]

text: This period saw the emergence of the Bhakti movement. The Bhakti movement was a rapid growth of bhakti beginning in Tamil Nadu in Southern India with the Saiva Nayanars (4th to 10th centuries CE)[134] and the Vaisnava Alvars (3rd to 9th centuries CE) who spread bhakti poetry and devotion throughout India by the 12th to 18th centuries CE.[135][134]

text: Expansion in South-East Asia[edit]

text: Hindu influences reached the Indonesian Archipelago as early as first century.[136] At this time, India started to strongly influence Southeast Asian countries. Trade routes linked India with southern Burma, central and southern Siam, lower Cambodia and southern Vietnam and numerous urbanised coastal settlements were established there.

text: For more than a thousand years, Indian Hindu/Buddhist influence was therefore the major factor that brought a certain level of cultural unity to the various countries of the region. The Pali and Sanskrit languages and the Indian script, together with Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, Brahmanism and Hinduism, were transmitted from direct contact as well as through sacred texts and Indian literature, such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata epics.

text: From the 5th to the 13th century, South-East Asia had very powerful Indian colonial empires and became extremely active in Hindu and Buddhist architectural and artistic creation. The Sri Vijaya Empire to the south and the Khmer Empire to the north competed for influence.

text: Langkasuka (-langkha Sanskrit for "resplendent land" -sukkha of "bliss") was an ancient Hindu kingdom located in the Malay Peninsula. The kingdom, along with Old Kedah settlement, are probably the earliest territorial footholds founded on the Malay Peninsula. According to tradition, the founding of the kingdom happened in the 2nd century; Malay legends claim that Langkasuka was founded at Kedah, and later moved to Pattani.

text: From the 5th-15th centuries Sri Vijayan empire, a maritime empire centred on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, had adopted Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism under a line of rulers named the Sailendras. The Empire of Sri Vijaya declined due to conflicts with the Chola rulers of India. The Majapahit Empire succeeded the Singhasari empire.  It was one of the last and greatest Hindu empires in Maritime Southeast Asia.

text: Funan was a pre-Angkor Cambodian kingdom, located around the Mekong delta, probably established by Mon-Khmer settlers speaking an Austroasiatic language. According to reports by two Chinese envoys, K'ang T'ai and Chu Ying, the state was established by an Indian Brahmin named Kaundinya, who in the 1st century CE was given instruction in a dream to take a magic bow from a temple and defeat a Khmer queen, Soma. Soma, the daughter of the king of the Nagas, married Kaundinya and their lineage became the royal dynasty of Funan. The myth had the advantage of providing the legitimacy of both an Indian Brahmin and the divinity of the cobras, who at that time were held in religious regard by the inhabitants of the region.

text: The kingdom of Champa (or Lin-yi in Chinese records) controlled what is now south and central Vietnam from approximately 192 through 1697. The dominant religion of the Cham people was Hinduism and the culture was heavily influenced by India.

text: Later, from the 9th to the 13th century, the Mahayana Buddhist and Hindu Khmer Empire dominated much of the South-East Asian peninsula. Under the Khmer, more than 900 temples were built in Cambodia and in neighboring Thailand. Angkor was at the centre of this development, with a temple complex and urban organisation able to support around one million urban dwellers. The largest temple complex of the world, Angkor Wat, stands here; built by the king Vishnuvardhan.

text: Late-Classical Hinduism - Puranic Hinduism (c. 650-1200 CE)[edit]

text: After the end of the Gupta Empire and the collapse of the Harsha Empire, power became decentralised in India. Several larger kingdoms emerged, with "countless vasal states".[137][note 33] The kingdoms were ruled via a feudal system. Smaller kingdoms were dependent on the protection of the larger kingdoms. "The great king was remote, was exalted and deified",[137] as reflected in the Tantric Mandala, which could also depict the king as the centre of the mandala.[138]

text: The disintegration of central power also lead to regionalisation of religiosity, and religious rivalry.[139][note 34] Local cults and languages were enhanced, and the influence of "Brahmanic ritualistic Hinduism"[139] was diminished.[139] Rural and devotional movements arose, along with Shaivism, Vaisnavism, Bhakti and Tantra,[139] though "sectarian groupings were only at the beginning of their development".[139] Religious movements had to compete for recognition by the local lords.[139] Buddhism lost its position after the 8th century, and began to disappear in India.[139] This was reflected in the change of puja-ceremonies at the courts in the 8th century, where Hindu gods replaced the Buddha as the "supreme, imperial deity".[note 35]

text: Puranic Hinduism[edit]

text: The Brahmanism of the Dharmashastras and the smritis underwent a radical transformation at the hands of the Purana composers, resulting in the rise of Puranic Hinduism,[41] "which like a colossus striding across the religious firmanent soon came to overshadow all existing religions".[140] Puranic Hinduism was a "multiplex belief-system which grew and expanded as it absorbed and synthesised polaristic ideas and cultic traditions"[140] It was distinguished from its Vedic Smarta roots by its popular base, its theological and sectarioan pluralism, its Tantric veneer, and the central place of bhakti.[140][note 9]

text: The early mediaeval Puranas were composed to disseminate religious mainstream ideology among the pre-literate tribal societies undergoing acculturation.[41] With the breakdown of the Gupta empire, gifts of virgin waste-land were heaped on brahmanas,[46][141] to ensure provitable agrarical exploitation of land owned by the kings,[46] but also to provide status to the new ruling classes.[46] Brahmanas spread further over India, interacting with local clans with different religions and ideologies.[46] The Brahmanas used the Puranas to incorporate those clans into the agrarical society and its accompanying religion and ideology.[46] According to Flood, "[t]he Brahmans who followed the puranic religion became known as smarta, those whose worship was based on the smriti, or pauranika, those based on the Puranas."[142] Local chiefs and peasants were absorbed into the varna, which was used to keep "control over the new kshatriyas and shudras."[143] The Brahmanic group was enlarged by incorporating local subgroups, such as local priests.[46] This also lead to a stratification within the Brahmins, with some Brahmins having a lower status than other Brahmins.[46] The use of caste worked better with the new Puranic Hinduism than with the sramanic sects.[143] The Puranic texts provided extensive genealogies which gave status to the new kshatriyas.[143] Buddhist myths pictured government as a contract between an elected ruler and the people.[143] And the Buddhist chakkavatti[note 36] "was a distinct concept from the models of conquest held up to the kshatriyas and the Rajputs."[143]

text: Many local religions and traditions were assimilated into puranic Hinduism. Vishnu and Shiva emerged as the main deities, together with Sakti/Deva.[144] Vishnu subsumed the cults of Narayana, Jagannaths, Venkateswara "and many others".[144] Nath:

text: [S]ome incarnations of Vishnu such as Matsya, Kurma, Varaha and perhaps even Nrsimha helped to incorporate certain popular totem symbols and creation myths, specially those related to wild boar, which commonly permeate preliterate mythology, others such as Krsna and Balarama became instrumental in assimilating local cults and myths centering around two popular pastoral and agricultural gods.[145]

text: The transformation of Brahmanism into Pauranic Hinduism in post-Gupta India was due to a process of acculturation. The Puranas helped establish a religious mainstream among the pre-literate tribal societies undergoing acculturation. The tenets of Brahmanism and of the Dharmashastras underwent a radical transformation at the hands of the Purana composers, resulting in the rise of a mainstream "Hinduism" that overshadowed all earlier traditions.[46]

text: Bhakti movement[edit]

text: Rama and Krishna became the focus of a strong bhakti tradition, which found expression particularly in the Bhagavata Purana. The Krishna tradition subsumed numerous Naga, yaksa and hill and tree based cults.[146] Siva absorbed local cults by the suffixing of Isa or Isvara to the name of the local deity, for example Bhutesvara, Hatakesvara, Chandesvara.[144] In 8th-century royal circles, the Buddha started to be replaced by Hindu gods in pujas.[note 37] This also was the same period of time the Buddha was made into an avatar of Vishnu.[148]

text: The first documented bhakti movement was founded by Karaikkal-ammaiyar. She wrote poems in  Tamil about her love for Shiva and probably lived around the 6th century CE. The twelve Alvars who were Vaishnavite devotees and the sixty-three Nayanars  who were Shaivite devotees nurtured the incipient bhakti movement in Tamil Nadu.

text: During the 12th century CE in Karnataka, the Bhakti movement took the form of the Virashaiva movement. It was inspired by Basavanna, a Hindu reformer who created the sect of Lingayats or Shiva bhaktas. During this time, a unique and native form of Kannada literature-poetry called Vachanas was born.

text: Advaita Vedanta[edit]

text: Shankara (8th century CE) is regarded as the greatest exponent of Advaita Vedanta.[citation needed] Shankara himself, and his grand-teacher Gaudapada, were influenced by Buddhism.[149][150][151][152] Gaudapda took over the Buddhist doctrines that ultimate reality is pure consciousness (vijñapti-mātra)[153] and "that the nature of the world is the four-cornered negation".[153] Gaudapada "wove [both doctrines] into a philosophy of the Mandukya Upanishad, which was further developed by Shankara".[150] Gaudapada also took over the Buddhist concept of "ajāta" from Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka philosophy.[151][152] Shankara succeeded in reading Gaudapada's mayavada[154][note 38] into Badarayana's Brahma Sutras, "and give it a locus classicus",[154] against the realistic strain of the Brahma Sutras.[154]

text: Shankara is the founder of the Dashanami Sampradaya of Hindu monasticism and Shanmata tradition of worship. Shankara is also regarded as the greatest teacher[155] and reformer of the Smartha Tradition.[156][155] According to Hinduism-guide.com:

text: Not all Brahmins specialized in this Smriti tradition. Some were influenced by Buddhism, Jainism or Charvaka tradition and philosophy. This did not mean that all these people rejected the authority of Vedas, but only that their tradition of worship and philosophy was based not on smriti texts. In time, Shankaracharya brought all the Vedic communities together. He tried to remove the non-smriti aspects that had crept into the Hindu communities. He also endeavoured to unite them by arguing that any of the different Hindu gods could be worshipped, according to the prescriptions given in the smriti texts. He established that worship of various deities are compatible with Vedas and is not contradictory, since all are different manifestations of one nirguna Brahman. Shankaracharya was instrumental in reviving interest in the smritis.[web 11]

text: In modern times, due to the influence of western Orientalism and Perennialism on Indian Neo-Vedanta and Hindu nationalism,[116] Advaita Vedanta has acquired a broad acceptance in Indian culture and beyond as the paradigmatic example of Hindu spirituality.[116]

text: Contact with Persia and Mesopotamia[edit]

text: Hindu and also Buddhist religious and secular learning had first reached Persia in an organised manner in the 6th century, when the Sassanid Emperor Khosrau I (531–579) deputed Borzuya the physician as his envoy, to invite Indian and Chinese scholars to the Academy of Gundishapur. Burzoe had translated the Sanskrit Panchatantra. His Pahlavi version was translated into Arabic by Ibn al-Moqaffa under the title of  Kalila and Dimna or The Fables of Bidpai.[157]

text: Under the Abbasid caliphate, Baghdad had replaced Gundishapur as the most important centre of learning in the then vast Islamic Empire, wherein the traditions as well as scholars of the latter flourished. Hindu scholars were invited to the conferences on sciences and mathematics held in Baghdad.[158]

text: Medieval and Early Modern Periods (c. 1200-1850 CE)[edit]

text: Muslim rule[edit]

text: Though Islam came to Indian subcontinent in the early 7th century with the advent of Arab traders, it started impacting Indian religions after the 10th century, and particularly after the 12th century with the establishment and then expansion of Islamic rule.[159][160] Will Durant calls the Muslim conquest of India "probably the bloodiest story in history".[161] During this period, Buddhism declined rapidly while Hinduism faced military-led and Sultanates-sponsored religious violence.[161][162] There was a widespread practice of raids, seizure and enslavement of families of Hindus, who were then sold in Sultanate cities or exported to Central Asia.[163][164] Some texts suggest a number of Hindus were forcibly converted to Islam.[165][166] Starting with 13th century, for a period of some 500 years, very few texts, from the numerous written by Muslim court historians, mention any "voluntary conversions of Hindus to Islam", suggesting its insignificance and perhaps rarity of such conversions.[166] Typically enslaved Hindus converted to Islam to gain their freedom.[167] There were occasional exceptions to religious violence against Hinduism. Akbar, for example, recognized Hinduism, banned enslavement of the families of Hindu war captives, protected Hindu temples, and abolished discriminatory Jizya (head taxes) against Hindus.[163][168] However, many Muslim rulers of Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire, before and after Akbar, from 12th century to 18th century, destroyed Hindu temples[web 12][169][web 13][note 39] and persecuted non-Muslims.

text: Unifying Hinduism[edit]

text: Hinduism underwent profound changes, aided in part by teachers such as Ramanuja, Madhva, and Chaitanya.[159] Followers of the Bhakti movement moved away from the abstract concept of Brahman, which the philosopher Adi Shankara consolidated a few centuries before, with emotional, passionate devotion towards the more accessible Avatars, especially Krishna and Rama.[170] According to Nicholson, already between the 12th and the 16th century, "certain thinkers began to treat as a single whole the diverse philosophical teachings of the Upanishads, epics, Puranas, and the schools known retrospectively as the "six systems" (saddarsana) of mainstream Hindu philosophy."[171][note 40] Michaels notes that a historicization emerged which preceded later nationalism, articulating ideas which glorified Hinduism and the past.[172]

text: Early Modern period (c. 1500-1850 CE)[edit]

text: The fall of Vijayanagar Empire to Muslim rulers had marked the end of Hindu imperial assertions in the Deccan. But, taking advantage of an over-stretched Mughal Empire (1526–1857), Hinduism once again rose to political prestige, under the Maratha Empire, from 1674 to 1818.

text: Mughal Empire[edit]

text: After the conquest of Persia by the Mongol Empire, a regional Turko-Persio-Mongol dynasty formed. Just as eastern Mongol dynasties inter-married with locals and adopted the local religion of Buddhism and the Chinese culture, this group adopted the local religion of Islam and the Persian culture; their descendants ruled in India as Mughals.

text: The official State religion of the Mughal Empire was Islam, with the preference to the jurisprudence of the Hanafi Madhhab (Mazhab). Hinduism remained under strain during Babur and Humanyun's reigns. Sher Shah Suri, the Afghan ruler of North India was comparatively non-repressive. Hinduism came to fore during the three-year rule of Hindu king 'Hemu' during 1553-56 when he had defeated Akbar at Agra and Delhi and had taken up the reign from Delhi as a Hindu 'Vikramaditya' king after his 'Rajyabhishake' or coronation at 'Purana Quila' in Delhi. However, during Mughal history, at times, subjects had freedom to practise any religion of their choice, though non-Muslim able-bodied adult males with income were obliged to pay the Jizya, which signified their status as Dhimmis.

text: Akbar, the Mughal emperor Humayun's son and heir from his Sindhi queen Hameeda Banu Begum, had a broad vision of Indian and Islamic traditions. One of Emperor Akbar's most unusual ideas regarding religion was Din-i-Ilahi (Faith of God), which was an eclectic mix of Islam, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Jainism and Christianity. It was proclaimed the state religion until his death. These actions however met with stiff opposition from the Muslim clergy, especially the Sufi Shaykh Alf Sani Ahmad Sirhindi. Akbar's abolition of poll-tax on non-Muslims, acceptance of ideas from other religious philosophies, toleration of public worship by all religions and his interest in other faiths showed an attitude of considerable religious tolerance, which, in the minds of his orthodox Muslim opponents, were tantamount to apostasy.

text: Akbar's son, Jahangir, half Rajput, was also a religious moderate, his mother being Hindu. The influence of his two Hindu queens (the Maharani Maanbai and Maharani Jagat) kept religious moderation as a centre-piece of state policy which was extended under his son, Emperor Shah Jahan, who was by blood 75% Rajput and less than 25% Moghul.

text: Religious orthodoxy would only play an important role during the reign of Shah Jahan's son and successor, Aurangzeb, a devout Sunni Muslim. Aurangzeb was comparatively less tolerant of other faiths than his predecessors had been, and his reign saw an increase in the number and importance of Islamic institutions and scholars. He led many military campaigns against the remaining non-Muslim powers of the Indian subcontinent – the Sikh states of the Punjab, the last independent Hindu Rajputs and the Maratha rebels – as also against the Shia Muslim kingdoms of the Deccan. He also virtually stamped out, from his empire, open proselytisation of Hindus and Muslims by foreign Christian Missionaries, who remained successfully active, however, in the adjoining regions: the present day Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Goa.

text: Maratha Empire[edit]

text: The Hindu Marathas long had lived in the Desh region around Satara, in the western portion of the Deccan plateau, where the plateau meets the eastern slopes of the Western Ghats mountains. They had resisted incursions into the region by the Muslim Mughal rulers of northern India. Under their ambitious leader Shivaji, the Maratha freed themselves from the Muslim sultans of Bijapur to the southeast and, becoming much more aggressive, began to frequently raid Mughal territory, eventually sacking the wealthy Mughal port of Surat in 1664. After substantial territorial gains, Shivaji was proclaimed 'Chhatrapati' (Emperor) in 1674; the Marathas had spread and conquered much of central India by Shivaji's death in 1680. Subsequently, under the able leadership of Brahmin prime ministers (Peshwas), the Maratha Empire reached its zenith; Pune, the seat of Peshwas, flowered as a centre of Hindu learning and traditions. The empire at its peak stretched from Tamil Nadu[173] in the south, to Peshawar (modern-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan[174] [note 41]) in the north, and Bengal and Andaman Islands in the east.[176] In 1761, the Maratha army lost the Third Battle of Panipat to Ahmad Shah Abdali of the Afghan Durrani Empire which halted their imperial expansion into Afghanistan. Ten years after Panipat, the young Peshwa Madhavrao I's Maratha Resurrection reinstated Maratha authority over North India.

text: In 1761, the Maratha army lost the Third Battle of Panipat to Ahmad Shah Abdali of the Afghan Durrani Empire which halted their imperial expansion into Afghanistan. Ten years after Panipat, the Peshwa Madhavrao I's Maratha Resurrection reinstated Maratha authority over North India. In a bid to effectively manage the large empire, he gave semi-autonomy to the strongest of the knights, which created a confederacy of Maratha states. They became known as the Gaekwads of Baroda, the Holkars of Indore and Malwa, the Scindias of Gwalior and Ujjain, the Bhonsales of the Nagpur and the Puars of Dhar & Dewas. In 1775, the East India Company intervened in a Peshwa family succession struggle in Pune, which became the First Anglo-Maratha War. The Marathas remained the preeminent power in India until their defeat in the Second Anglo-Maratha War which left the East India Company in control of most of India.

text: Early colonialism[edit]

text: Portuguese missionaries had reached the Malabar Coast in the late 15th century, made contact with the St Thomas Christians in Kerala and sought to introduce the Latin Rite among them. Since the priests for St Thomas Christians were served by the Eastern Christian Churches, they were following Eastern Christian practices at that time. Throughout this period, foreign missionaries also made many new converts to Christianity. This led to the formation of the Latin Catholics in Kerala.

text: The Goa Inquisition was the office of the Christian Inquisition acting in the Indian city of Goa and the rest of the Portuguese empire in Asia. St. Francis Xavier, in a 1545 letter to John III, requested for an Inquisition to be installed in Goa. It was installed eight years after the death of Francis Xavier in 1552. Established in 1560 and operating until 1774, this highly controversial institution was aimed primarily at Hindus and wayward new converts.

text: In the century from 1760 to 1860, India was once more divided into numerous petty or unstable kingdoms, gradually coming under the paramountcy the British Empire: the "lesser Mughals", the Kingdom of Mysore, Hyderabad State, Maratha Confederacy, Rajput Kingdoms, Palaiyakkarar states, North-Eastern states such as Kingdom of Manipur, Himalayan states, etc. From 1799 to 1849 the only major stable kingdom in India was the Sikh Empire, although it had a syncretic character with a large number of Hindu and Muslim subjects living in peace. It too became unstable after the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The entire subcontinent fell under British rule (partly indirectly, via princely states) following the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

text: Modern Hinduism (after c. 1850 CE)[edit]

text: With the onset of the British Raj, the colonization of India by the British, there also started a Hindu renaissance in the 19th century, which profoundly changed the understanding of Hinduism in both India and the west.[177] Indology as an academic discipline of studying Indian culture from a European perspective was established in the 19th century, led by scholars such as Max Müller and John Woodroffe. They brought Vedic, Puranic and Tantric literature and philosophy to Europe and the United States. Western orientalist searched for the "essence" of the Indian religions, discerning this in the Vedas,[178] and meanwhile creating the notion of "Hinduism" as a unified body of religious praxis[116] and the popular picture of 'mystical India'.[116][177] This idea of a Vedic essence was taken over by Hindu reform movements as the Brahmo Samaj, which was supported for a while by the Unitarian Church,[179] together with the ideas of Universalism and Perennialism, the idea that all religions share a common mystic ground.[180] This "Hindu modernism", with proponents like Vivekananda, Aurobindo and Radhakrishnan, became central in the popular understanding of Hinduism.[181][182][183][184][116]

text: Hindu revivalism[edit]

text: During the 19th century, Hinduism developed a large number of new religious movements, partly inspired by the European Romanticism, nationalism, scientific racism and esotericism (Theosophy) popular at the time (while conversely and contemporaneously, India had a similar effect on European culture with Orientalism, "Hindoo style" architecture, reception of Buddhism in the West and similar). According to Paul Hacker, "the ethcial values of Neo-Hinduism stem from Western philosophy and Christianity, although they are expressed in Hindu terms."[185]

text: These reform movements are summarised under Hindu revivalism and continue into the present.

text:
Sahajanand Swami establishes the Swaminarayan Sampraday sect around 1800.
Brahmo Samaj is a social and religious movement founded in Kolkata in 1828 by Raja Ram Mohan Roy. He was one of the first Indians to visit Europe and was influenced by western thought. He died in Bristol, England. The Brahmo Samaj movement thereafter resulted in the Brahmo religion in 1850 founded by Debendranath Tagore — better known as the father of Rabindranath Tagore.
Sri Ramakrishna and his pupil Swami Vivekananda led a reform in Hinduism in the late 19th century. Their ideals and sayings have inspired numerous Indians as well as non-Indians, Hindus as well as non-Hindus. Among the prominent figures whose ideals were very much influenced by them were Rabindranath Tagore, Gandhi, Subhas Bose, Satyendranath Bose, Megh Nad Saha, and Sister Nivedita.[citation needed]
Arya Samaj ("Society of Nobles") is a Hindu reform movement in India that was founded by Swami Dayananda in 1875. He was a sannyasin (renouncer) who believed in the infallible authority of the Vedas. Dayananda advocated the doctrine of karma and reincarnation, and emphasised the ideals of brahmacharya (chastity) and sanyasa (renunciation). Dayananda claimed to be rejecting all non-Vedic beliefs altogether. Hence the Arya Samaj unequivocally condemned idolatry, animal sacrifices, ancestor worship, pilgrimages, priestcraft, offerings made in temples, the caste system, untouchability and child marriages, on the grounds that all these lacked Vedic sanction. It aimed to be a universal church based on the authority of the Vedas. Dayananda stated that he wanted 'to make the whole world Aryan', i.e. he wanted to develop missionary Hinduism based on the universality of the Vedas. To this end, the Arya Samaj started Shuddhi movement in the early 20th century to bring back to Hinduism people converted to Islam and Christianity, set up schools and missionary organisations, and extended its activities outside India. It now has branches around the world and has a disproportional number of adherents among people of Indian ancestry in Suriname and the Netherlands, in comparison with India.[citation needed]

text: Reception in the West[edit]

text: An important development during the British colonial period was the influence Hindu traditions began to form on Western thought and new religious movements. An early champion of Indian-inspired thought in the West was Arthur Schopenhauer who in the 1850s advocated ethics based on an  "Aryan-Vedic theme of spiritual self-conquest", as opposed to the ignorant drive toward earthly utopianism of the superficially this-worldly "Jewish" spirit.[186] Helena Blavatsky moved to India in 1879, and her Theosophical Society, founded in New York in 1875, evolved into a peculiar mixture of Western occultism and Hindu mysticism over the last years of her life.

text: The sojourn of Vivekananda to the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 had a lasting effect. Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Mission, a Hindu missionary organisation still active today.

text: In the early 20th century, Western occultists influenced by Hinduism include Maximiani Portaz – an advocate of "Aryan Paganism" – who styled herself Savitri Devi and Jakob Wilhelm Hauer, founder of the German Faith Movement. It was in this period, and until the 1920s, that the swastika became a ubiquitous symbol of good luck in the West before its association with the Nazi Party became dominant in the 1930s.

text: Hinduism-inspired elements in Theosophy were also inherited by the spin-off movements of Ariosophy and Anthroposophy and ultimately contributed to the renewed New Age boom of the 1960s to 1980s, the term New Age itself deriving from Blavatsky's 1888  The Secret Doctrine.

text: Influential 20th-century Hindus were Ramana Maharshi, B.K.S. Iyengar, Paramahansa Yogananda, Prabhupada (founder of ISKCON), Sri Chinmoy, Swami Rama and others who translated, reformulated and presented Hinduism's foundational texts for contemporary audiences in new iterations, raising the profiles of Yoga and Vedanta in the West and attracting followers and attention in India and abroad.

text: Contemporary Hinduism[edit]

text: As of 2007, of an estimated 944 million Hindus, 98.5% live in South Asia. Of the remaining 1.5% or 14 million, 6 million live in Southeast Asia (mostly Indonesia),  2 million in Europe, 1.8 million in North America, 1.2 million in Southern Africa.

text: South Asia[edit]

text:
Modern Hinduism is the reflection of continuity and progressive changes that occurred in various traditions and institutions of Hinduism during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Its main divisions are into Vaishnavism (largely influenced by Bhakti), Shaivism, Shaktism and Smartism (Advaita Vedanta).

text: Besides these traditional denominations, movements of Hindu revivalism look to founders such as Swami Vivekananda, Swami Dayananda (Arya Samaj), Rabindranath Tagore, Ramana Maharshi, Aurobindo, Shriram Sharma Acharya, Swami Sivananda, Swami Rama Tirtha, Narayana Guru, Paramhansa Yogananda, Swami Chinmayananda, Shrii Shrii Anandamurti, Pandurang Shastri Athavale (Swadhyay Movement) and others.

text: The Hindutva movement advocating Hindu nationalism originated in the 1920s and has remained a strong political force in India. The major party of the religious right, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), since its foundation in 1980 has won several elections, and after a defeat in 2004 remained the leading force of opposition against the coalition government of the Congress Party. The last national general election, held in early 2014, saw a dramatic victory of BJP; it gained an absolute majority and formed the government, with Narendra Modi as Prime Minister.

text: Southeast Asia[edit]

text: The resurgence of Hinduism in Indonesia is occurring in all parts of the country. In the early seventies, the Toraja people of Sulawesi were the first to be identified under the umbrella of 'Hinduism', followed by the Karo Batak of Sumatra in 1977 and the Ngaju Dayak of Kalimantan in 1980.

text: The growth of Hinduism has been driven also by the famous Javanese prophesies of Sabdapalon and Jayabaya. Many recent converts to Hinduism had been members of the families of Sukarno's PNI, and now support Megawati Sukarnoputri. This return to the 'religion of Majapahit' (Hinduism) is a matter of nationalist pride.

text: The new Hindu communities in Java tend to be concentrated around recently built temples (pura) or around archaeological temple sites (candi) which are being reclaimed as places of Hindu worship. An important new Hindu temple in eastern Java is Pura Mandaragiri Sumeru Agung, located on the slope of Mt. Semeru, Java's highest mountain. Mass conversions have also occurred in the region around Pura Agung Blambangan, another new temple, built on a site with minor archaeological remnants attributed to the kingdom of Blambangan, the last Hindu polity on Java, and Pura Loka Moksa Jayabaya (in the village of Menang near Kediri).

text: Neo-Hindu movements in the west[edit]

text: In modern times Smarta-views have been highly influential in both the Indian[web 14] and western[web 15] understanding of Hinduism via Neo-Vedanta. Vivekananda was an advocate of Smarta-views,[web 15] and Radhakrishnan was himself a Smarta-Brahman.[187][188] According to iskcon.org,

text: Many Hindus may not strictly identify themselves as Smartas but, by adhering to Advaita Vedanta as a foundation for non-sectarianism, are indirect followers.[web 14]

text: Influential in spreading Hinduism to a western audience were Swami Vivekananda, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (Hare Krishna movement), Sri Aurobindo, Meher Baba, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (Transcendental Meditation),  Jiddu Krishnamurti, Sathya Sai Baba, Mother Meera, among others.

text: Hindutva[edit]

text: In the 20th century, Hinduism also gained prominence as a political force and a source for national identity in India. With origins traced back to the establishment of the Hindu Mahasabha in the 1910s, the movement grew with the formulation and development of the Hindutva ideology in the following decades; the establishment of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in 1925; and the entry, and later success, of RSS offshoots Jana Sangha and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in electoral politics in post-independence India.[189] Hindu religiosity plays an important role in the nationalist movement.[190][note 42][note 43]


document_title: History of the motorcycle

question_text: who was the first person to make a motorcycle

root

text: History of the motorcycle

text: Early steam-powered cycles[edit]

text: In the 1860s Pierre Michaux, a blacksmith in Paris, founded 'Michaux et Cie' ("Michaux and company"), the first company to construct bicycles with pedals called a velocipede at the time, or "Michauline".[2] The first steam powered motorcycle, the Michaux-Perreaux steam velocipede, can be traced to 1867, when Pierre's son Ernest Michaux fitted a small steam engine to one of the 'velocipedes'.[3]

tag: p

text: The design went to America when Pierre Lallement, a Michaux employee who also claimed to have developed the prototype in 1863, filed for the first bicycle patent with the US patent office in 1866.[4] In 1868 an American, Sylvester H. Roper of Roxbury, Massachusetts developed a twin-cylinder steam velocipede, with a coal-fired boiler between the wheels. Roper's contribution to motorcycle development ended suddenly when he died demonstrating one of his machines in Cambridge, Massachusetts on June 1, 1896.[3]

text: Also in 1868, a French engineer Louis-Guillaume Perreaux patented a similar steam powered single cylinder machine, the Michaux-Perreaux steam velocipede, with an alcohol burner and twin belt drives, which was possibly invented independently of Roper's. Although the patent is dated 1868, nothing indicates the invention had been operable before 1871.[3]

text: In 1881, Lucius Copeland of Phoenix, Arizona designed a much smaller steam boiler which could drive the large rear wheel of an American Star high-wheeler at 12 mph. In 1887 Copeland formed the Northrop Manufacturing Co. to produce the first successful 'Moto-Cycle' (actually a three-wheeler).[3]

text: Experimentation and invention[edit]

text: The very first commercial design for a self-propelled bicycle was a three-wheel design called the Butler Petrol Cycle, conceived of and built by Edward Butler in England in 1884.[5] He exhibited his plans for the vehicle at the Stanley Cycle Show in London in 1884, two years earlier than Karl Benz invented his first automobile who is generally recognized as the inventor of the modern automobile. Butler's vehicle was also the first design to be shown at the 1885 International Inventions Exhibition in London.

text: The vehicle was built by the Merryweather Fire Engine company in Greenwich, in 1888.[6] the Butler Petrol Cycle (first recorded use of the term)[6] It was a three-wheeled vehicle, with the rear wheel directly driven by a 5/8hp (466W) 600 cc (40 in3; 2¼×5-inch {57×127-mm})[6] flat twin four stroke engine (with magneto ignition replaced by coil and battery),[6] equipped with rotary valves and a float-fed carburettor (five years before Maybach),[6] and Ackermann steering,[7] all of which were state of the art at the time. Starting was by compressed air.[6] The engine was liquid-cooled, with a radiator over the rear driving wheel. Speed was controlled by means of a throttle valve lever. No braking system was fitted; the vehicle was stopped by raising and lowering the rear driving wheel using a foot-operated lever; the weight of the machine was then borne by two small castor wheels. The driver was seated between the front wheels.[6] It wasn't, however, a commercial success, as Butler failed to find sufficient financial backing.

text: Another early internal combustion, petroleum fueled motorcycle was the Petroleum Reitwagen. It was designed and built by the German inventors Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in Bad Cannstatt, Germany in 1885.[8] This vehicle was unlike either the safety bicycles or the boneshaker bicycles of the era in that it had zero degrees of steering axis angle and no fork offset, and thus did not use the principles of bicycle and motorcycle dynamics developed nearly 70 years earlier. Instead, it relied on two outrigger wheels to remain upright while turning.[9] The inventors called their invention the Reitwagen ("riding car"). It was designed as an expedient testbed for their new engine, rather than a true prototype vehicle.[10][11]

text: First commercial products[edit]

text: In the decade from the late 1880s, dozens of designs and machines emerged, particularly in Germany and England, and soon spread to America.[12] During this early period of motorcycle history, there were many manufacturers since bicycle makers were adapting their designs for the new internal combustion engine.

text: In 1894, Hildebrand & Wolfmüller became the first series production motorcycle, and the first to be called a motorcycle (German: Motorrad).[10][11][13][14] However, only a few hundred examples of this motorcycle were ever built. The first instance of the term "motor cycle" also appears in English the same year in materials promoting machines developed by E.J. Pennington,[15] although Pennington's motorcycles never progress past the prototype stage.[16]

text: Excelsior Motor Company, originally a bicycle manufacturing company based in Coventry, England, began production of their first motorcycle model in 1896, available for purchase by the public. The first production motorcycle in the US was the Orient-Aster, built by Charles Metz in 1898 at his factory in Waltham, Massachusetts.

text: In the early period of motorcycle history, many producers of bicycles adapted their designs to accommodate the new internal combustion engine. As the engines became more powerful and designs outgrew the bicycle origins, the number of motorcycle producers increased. Many of the nineteenth century inventors who worked on early motorcycles often moved on to other inventions. Daimler and Roper, for example, both went on to develop automobiles.

text: At the turn of the century the first major mass-production firms were set up.

text: In 1901 English quadricycle and bicycle maker Royal Enfield introduced its first motorcycle, with a 239 cc engine mounted in the front and driving the rear wheel through a belt. In 1898, English bicycle maker Triumph decided to extend its focus to include motorcycles, and by 1902, the company had produced its first motorcycle—a bicycle fitted with a Belgian-built engine. A year later, it was the largest motorcycle manufacturer with an annual production of over 500 units. Other British firms were Norton and Birmingham Small Arms Company who began motorbike production in 1902 and 1910, respectively.[17]

text: In 1901, the Indian Motocycle Manufacturing Company, which had been founded by two former bicycle racers, designed the so-called "diamond framed" Indian Single, whose engine was built by the Aurora Firm in Illinois per Indian's specifications. The Single was made available in the deep blue. Indian's production was up to over 500 bikes by 1902, and would rise to 32,000, its best ever, in 1913.[18][19] producing over 20,000 bikes per year.[20] The American company Harley-Davidson started producing motorcycles in 1903.

text: During this period, experimentation and innovation were driven by the popular new sport of motorcycle racing, with its powerful incentive to produce tough, fast, reliable machines. These enhancements quickly found their way to the public’s machines.[12]

text: Chief August Vollmer of the Berkeley, California Police Department is credited with organizing the first official police motorcycle patrol in the United States in 1911.[21] By 1914, motorcycles were no longer just bicycles with engines; they had their own technologies, although many still maintained bicycle elements, like the seats and suspension.

text: The First World War[edit]

text: During the First World War, motorbike production was greatly ramped up for the war effort to supply effective communications with front line troops. Messengers on horses were replaced with dispatch riders on motorcycles carrying messages, performing reconnaissance personnel and acting as a military police. American company Harley-Davidson was devoting over 50% of its factory output toward military contract by the end of the war. The British company Triumph Motorcycles sold more than 30,000 of its Triumph Type H model to allied forces during the war. With the rear wheel driven by a belt, the Model H was fitted with a 499 cc air-cooled four-stroke single-cylinder engine. It was also the first Triumph not to be fitted with pedals, so was a true motorcycle.[22]

text: The Model H in particular, is regarded by many as having been the first "modern motorcycle".[23] Introduced in 1915 it had a 550cc side-valve four-stroke engine with a three-speed gearbox and belt transmission. It was so popular with its users that it was nicknamed the "Trusty Triumph."[24]

text: Postwar[edit]

text: Postwar[edit]

text: By 1920, Harley-Davidson became the largest manufacturer,[25] with their motorcycles being sold by dealers in 67 countries.[26][27] By the late 1920s or early 1930s, DKW in Germany took over as the largest manufacturer.[28][29][30] BMW motorcycles came on the scene in 1923 with a shaft drive and an opposed-twin or "boxer" engine enclosed with the transmission in a single aluminum housing.

text: By 1931, Indian and Harley-Davidson were the only two American manufacturers producing commercial motorcycles.[31] This two-company rivalry in the United States remained until 1953, when the Indian Motorcycle factory in Springfield, Massachusetts closed and Royal Enfield took over the Indian name.[32]

text: There were over 80 different makes of motorcycle available in Britain in the 1930s, from the familiar marques like Norton, Triumph and AJS to the obscure, with names like New Gerrard, NUT, SOS, Chell and Whitwood,[33] about twice as many motorcycle makes competing in the world market during the early 21st century.

text: In 1937, Joe Petrali set a new land speed record of 136.183 mph (219.165 km/h) on a modified Harley-Davidson 61 cubic inch (1,000 cc) overhead valve-driven motorcycle.[31] The same day, Petrali also broke the speed record for 45 cubic inch (737 cc) engine motorcycles.

text: In Europe, production demands, driven by the buildup to World War II, included motorcycles for military use, and BSA supplied 126,000 BSA M20 motorcycles to the British armed forces, starting in 1937 and continuing until 1950. Royal Enfield also produced motorcycles for the military, including a 125 cc lightweight motorcycle that could be dropped (in a parachute-fitted tube cage) from an aircraft.

text: After World War II[edit]

text: After the World War II, some American veterans found a replacement for the camaraderie, excitement, danger and speed of life at war in motorcycles. Grouped into loosely organized clubs, motorcycle riders in the US created a new social institution—the motorcyclists or "bikers"—which was later skewed by the "outlaw" persona Marlon Brando portrayed in the 1953 film The Wild One.[34]

text: In Europe, on the other hand, post-war motorcycle producers were more concerned with designing practical, economical transportation than the social aspects, or "biker" image.[34] Italian designer Piaggio introduced the Vespa in 1946, which experienced immediate and widespread popularity. Imports from the UK, Italy and Germany, thus found a niche in US markets that American bikes did not fill.

text: The BSA Group purchased Triumph Motorcycles in 1951 to become the largest producer of motorcycles in the world claiming "one in four".[citation needed] The German NSU was the largest manufacturer from 1955[citation needed] until 1959 when Honda became the largest manufacturer.[35][36]

text: British manufacturers Triumph, BSA, and Norton retained a dominant position in some markets until the rise of the Japanese manufacturers, led by Honda, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The role of the motorcycle shifted in the 1960s, from the tool of a life to a toy of a lifestyle. It became part of an image, of status, a cultural icon for individualism, a prop in Hollywood B-movies.[12]

text: The motorcycle also became a recreational machine for sport and leisure, a vehicle for carefree youth, not essential transportation for the mature family man or woman, and the Japanese were able to produce modern designs more quickly, more cheaply, and of better quality than their competitors. Their motorbikes were more stylish and more reliable, so the British manufacturers fell behind as mass-market producers.

text: Honda, which was officially founded in Japan on September 24, 1948, introduced their SOHC inline-four engine CB750 in 1969, which was inexpensive and immediately successful.[citation needed] It established the across-the-frame-four engine configuration as a design with huge potential for power and performance. Shortly after the introduction of the SOHC, Kawasaki demonstrated the potential of the four-stroke four-cylinder engine with the introduction of the KZ900.

text: Suzuki, Kawasaki and the Yamaha each started producing motorcycles in the 1950s. Meanwhile, the sun was setting on British dominion over the big-displacement motorbike market.

text: Japanese dominance[edit]

text: The excellence of Japanese motorcycles caused similar effects in all Western markets: many Italian bike firms either went bust or only just managed to survive. As a result, BMW's worldwide sales sagged in the 1960s, but came back strongly with the introduction of a completely redesigned "slash-5" series for model year 1970.

text: From the 1960s through the 1990s, small two-stroke motorcycles were popular worldwide, partly as a result of the pioneering work of the East German Daniel Zimmermann (rotary disc valve) and MZ's Walter Kaaden who developed the two-stroke expansion chamber in the 1950s. These ideas were taken up by Suzuki when Ernst Degner, the MZ engineer and rider, defected to the West on 13 September 1961 after retiring from the 125cc Swedish Grand Prix at Kristianstad. Degner, an excellent engineer, immediately joined Suzuki and his knowledge became their technology springboard.

text: Harley-Davidson in the US at the time suffered from the same problems as the European firms, but its unique product range, American tariff laws and nationalism-driven customer loyalty allowed it to survive. One alleged flaw, however, was retaining the characteristic Harley-Davidson 45° engine vee-angle, which causes excess vibration as well as the loping Harley-Davidson sound.

text: A factory full fairing was introduced by BMW motorcycle in the R100RS of 1977, the first factory fairing produced in quantity.[37] In 1980, BMW stimulated the "adventure touring" category of motorcycling with its dual-sport model, the R80G/S. In 1988, BMW was the first motorcycle manufacturer to introduce anti-lock-brakes (ABS) on its sporting K100RS-SE and K1 models.[citation needed]

text: The present[edit]

text: Today the Japanese manufacturers, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, and Yamaha dominate the large motorcycle industry, although Harley-Davidson still maintains a high degree of popularity, particularly in the United States.

text: Recent years have seen a resurgence in the popularity around the world of many other motorcycle brands, including BMW, Triumph and Ducati, and the emergence of Victory as a second successful mass-builder of big-twin American cruisers.

text: In November 2006, the Dutch company E.V.A. Products BV Holland announced that the first commercially available diesel-powered motorcycle, its Track T-800CDI, achieved production status.[38] The Track T-800CDI uses an 800 cc three-cylinder Daimler Chrysler diesel engine. However, other manufacturers, including Royal Enfield, had been producing diesel-powered bikes since at least 1965.[39]

text: In the developing world[edit]

text: There is a large demand for small, cheap motorcycles in the developing world, and many of the firms meeting that demand now also compete in mature markets, such as China's Hongdou which makes a version of Honda's venerable CG125.[40]

text: Motorcycle taxis are commonplace in the developing world. Scooters, mopeds and motorcycles offer a fast, cheap and risky way around snarled traffic and scarce mass transit, as they can easily squeeze through jams.[41]

text: The first ethanol flex fuel motorcycle in the world was launched to the Brazilian market by Honda in March 2009, the CG 150 Titan Mix.[42][43][44] During the first eight months after its market launch the CG 150 Titan Mix had captured a 10.6% market share, and ranking second in sales of new motorcycles in the Brazilian market in 2009.[45] In September 2009, Honda launched a second flexible-fuel motorcycle,[46] and by December 2010 both Honda flexible-fuel motorcycles had reached cumulative production of 515,726 units, representing an 18.1% market share of the Brazilian new motorcycle sales in that year.[47][48] As of January 2011 there were four flex-fuel motorcycle models available in the market,[49] and production reached the one million milestone in June 2011.[47][48][50]