Swami Vivekananda himself says the word ‘Hindu’ is a misnomer.+

        

British created Hinduism did not exist at Sage Sankara time. It is necessary to go to the root of the annals of religious history to realize the adulteration of the foreign looters and invaders of our great India.

As we peep into the annals with deeper self-search: ~

Almost 1000 (1500bc 500BC) years history of Indian was completely removed or destroyed by historians to impress rulers of the British Raj.

It is time to rewrite history to revive the truth destroyed by the British raj and past political ruled by the selfish political class.

India not only lost its treasure of wealth but also suffered by losing the ancient Santana culture and tradition.

Advaitic wisdom of Sage Sankara makes you remember the lost treasure of the Indian wealth of the highest wisdom: 

Swami Vivekananda himself says the word ‘Hindu’ is a misnomer.

Religion is regarded by the ignorant populace as sacred and real, by the wise as false, and by the politicians as useful.

The Indians are more attached to the word Hindu.  It is time to know basically the word Hindu used to identify the people of India,  not their religion. The word Hinduism is a misnomer.

Swami Vivekananda himself says: ~ The word Hindu is a misnomer; the correct word should be a Vedantins, a person who follows the Vedas.

Hinduism does not have a long ancestry as is often presumed or propagated by the Hindu ideologues. In fact, historically, religions like Buddhism and Jainism can claim greater antiquity than the Hinduism of today. Hinduism began to take a systematic form from the time of Sage Sri, Sankara (8^th century A.D). In this sense, he may be considered as the ‘founder’ of Hinduism.

Dr. S, Radhakrishnan has observed: ~The Hindu civilization is so-called since its original founders or earliest followers occupied the territory drained by the Sindhu (the Indus) river system corresponding to the North-West Frontier Province and Punjab. This is recorded in the Rig Veda, the oldest of the Vedas, the Hindu scriptures which give their name to this period of Indian history.

The people on the Indian side of the Sindhu were called Hindu by the Persian and the later western invaders. That is the genesis of the word `Hindu'. (The Hindu View of Life by Dr. Radhakrishan, p.12).

Confronted by this difficulty, Dr. Radhakrishan realized that Hinduism seems to be a name without any content. Is it a museum of beliefs, a medley or rites, or a mere map, a geographical expression? (The Hindu View of Life by Dr. Radhakrishan, p.11)

Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru: ~ The word Hindu can be earliest traced to a source a tantric in the 8th century and it was used initially to describe the people, it was never used to describe religion. (The discovery of India” on pages -74 and -75) 

According to Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru,  Its connection with religion is of late occurrence. The word Hinduism is derived from the word Hindu.

The word Hinduism was first used by English writers in the 19th century to describe the multiplicity of faiths of the people of India.

In Encyclopaedia Britannica it says: ~The word Hinduism was first used by the British writers in the year 1830 to describe the multiplicity of the faiths of the people of India excluding the converted Christians. (Volume -20, Reference -581)

The term ‘Hindu’ is originally a geographical nomenclature. In the Arabic texts where the term ‘Hindu’ is initially used, refers to the inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent, the land across the Sindhu or Indus River. Al-Hind was, therefore, a geographical identity, and the Hindus were all the people who lived on this land.

Thus, the term ‘Hindu’ was used to describe those who professed a religion other than Islam and Christianity. It is also noteworthy that the use of the word ‘Hindu’ in non-Islamic sources is known probably only from the 15^TH century A.D.

The term ‘Hindu’ became a term of administrative convenience when the rulers of Arab, Turkish, Afghan, and Mughal origin ~ all Muslims ~ had to differentiate between ‘the believers’ and the rest.

As one peeps into the annals of the Indian religious history he finds that some saints in the past introduced the concept of God with attributes but the   Yajur Veda says: -   those who worship visible things, born of the Prakriti, such as the earth, trees, bodies (human and the like), in place of God are enveloped in still greater darkness. Therefore, all these adulterated add-ons prove that the form and attribute-based concepts are introduced by some sages of the past with a new belief system and code of conduct in the name of Vedas. 

Thus, the present version of Hinduism came into existence with its own code of conduct beliefs, rituals from the 8^th century onwards.  There are diverse beliefs, diverse God and Goddesses, ideologies, customs rituals introduced by diverse founders of diverse caste and creeds. Everyone identifies with his inherited caste.

 Vedas say: ~ Rig-Veda 1-164-46 and Y.V 32-1 clearly mention that God is “One”.

The religion of the Veda knows no idols, then why so many Gods and Goddesses with different forms and name are being propagated as Vedic Gods. Why these conceptual Gods are introduced when the Vedic concept of God is free from form and attributes.

The Vedas confirm God is Atman (Spirit), the Self.

Rig Veda: ~ The Atman is the cause; Atman is the support of all that exists in this universe. May ye never turn away from the Atman, the Self. May ye never accept another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman?" (10:48, 5)

In Yajurveda says: ~ 

Translation 1.

They enter darkness, those who worship natural things (for example air, water, sun, moon, animals, fire, stone, etc).

They sink deeper in darkness those who worship sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things, for example, table, chair, idol, etc.) (Yajurveda 40:9)

Translation 2.

"Deep into the shade of blinding gloom fall asambhuti's worshippers. They sink to darkness deeper yet who on sambhuti are intent." (Yajurveda Samhita by Ralph T. H. Giffith pg 538)

Translation 3.

"They are enveloped in darkness, in other words, are steeped in ignorance and sunk in the greatest depths of misery who worship the uncreated, eternal Prakriti -- the material cause of the world -- in place of the All-pervading God, But those who worship visible things born of the Prakriti, such as the earth, trees, bodies (human and the like) in place of God are enveloped in still greater darkness, in other words, they are extremely foolish, fall into an awful hell of pain and sorrow, and suffer terribly for a long time." (Yajur Veda 40:9.)

So, Yajur Veda indicates that: ~

They sink deeper in darkness than those who worship sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things, for example, table, chair, idol, etc (Yajurved 40:9)

Those who worship visible things born of the prakrti, such as the earth, trees, bodies (human and the like) in place of God are enveloped in still greater darkness, in other words, they are extremely foolish, fall into an awful hell of pain and sorrow, and suffer terribly for a long time." (Yajur Veda 40:9.)

The religion of the Veda knows no idols, then why so many Gods and Goddesses with different forms and names are being propagated as Vedic Gods. Why these conceptual Gods are introduced when the Vedic concept of God is free from form and attributes.

The Hindus believed in polytheism, believing all of their Gods to be separate individuals, which were introduced much later by the founders of Hinduism which contains diverse beliefs caste, and creed.  

Hinduism as one knows it today is of recent origin. He states: “Hinduism did not really achieve its status as a coherent, though still baffling, religious complex until after the establishment of the British rule in indie.

It is a well-known fact that the Vedic people not only did not identify themselves as Hindus but also did not possess the essential characteristics of Hinduism. However, to legitimize the antiquity of Hinduism, Maharishi Sri, Dayananda Saraswati (1824-1883) founder of Arya Samaj insisted on ‘going back to the Vedas’.

Aurobindo Ghose (1872-1950) believed that the Vedas are the foundation of the Santana Dharma.:~Santthosh Kumaar