Religion

India is the birthplace of some of the world's major religious traditions; namely Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism.

Throughout India's history, religion has been an important part of the country's culture. Religious diversity and religious tolerance are both established in the country by the law and custom. A vast majority of Indians, (over 93%), associate themselves with a religion.

Hinduism is often regarded as the oldest religion in the world,with roots tracing back to prehistoric times,or 5000 years. Over time, Brahmanism gradually became Hinduism. Hinduism was spread through parts of Southeastern Asia, China, Korea, and Japan. Hindus worship a god with different forms.

Evidence attesting to prehistoric religion in the Indian "subcontinent" derives from scattered Mesolithic rock paintings depicting dances and rituals.Neolithic pastoralists inhabiting the Indus River Valley buried their dead in a manner suggestive of spiritual practices that incorporated notions of an afterlife and belief in magic.Other South Asian Stone Age sites, such as the Bhimbetka rock shelters in central Madhya Pradesh and the Kupgal petroglyphs of eastern Karnataka, contain rock art portraying religious rites and evidence of possible ritualized music.

Hinduism

Hinduism's origins include cultural elements of the Indus Valley Civilization and other Indian civilizations. The oldest surviving text of Hinduism is the Rigveda, produced during the Vedic period and dated to 1700–1100 BCE.During the Epic and Puranic periods, the earliest versions of the epic poems Ramayana and Mahabharata were written roughly from 500–100 BCE,although these were orally transmitted for centuries prior to this period.

After 200 BC, several schools of thought were formally codified in Indian philosophy, including Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Purva-Mimamsa and Vedanta.Hinduism, otherwise a highly theistic religion, hosted atheistic schools; the thoroughly materialistic and anti-religious philosophical Cārvāka school that originated in India around the 6th century BCE is probably the most explicitly atheistic school of Indian philosophy. Cārvāka is classified as a nastika ("heterodox") system; it is not included among the six schools of Hinduism generally regarded as orthodox. It is noteworthy as evidence of a materialistic movement within Hinduism. Our understanding of Cārvāka philosophy is fragmentary, based largely on criticism of the ideas by other schools, and it is no longer a living tradition.Other Indian philosophies generally regarded as orthodox include Classical Samkhya and Purva Mimamsa.

The Harappan people

The Harappan people of the Indus Valley Civilization, which lasted from 3300 to 1700 BCE and was centered around the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra river valleys, may have worshiped an important mother goddess symbolizing fertility.Excavations of Indus Valley Civilization sites show seals with animals and "fire‑altars", indicating rituals associated with fire. A linga-yoni of a type similar to that which is now worshiped by Hindus has also been found.