Introduction
SO The outsiders mostly find it difficult to properly understand the nature of Hinduism. There is great a diversity of beliefs and rituals, that a person, who makes his first contact with the Indian people, is likely to be bewildered by the complexity and motley character of what goes by the name of Hinduism. Religions, like Christianity and Islam, have definite religious tenets and modes of worship, and though in course of time, a number of sects arose in these religions, their differences acute as to obliterate their fundamental and basic doctrines. were not so In Hinduism also there are certain essentials, which are interwoven into the creeds of divergent Hindu sects; but they are not apparent on the surface, while the differences are patent to all. To make confusion worse confounded, many Christian missio-naries and other interested people have spread all sorts of misconceptions about Hinduism. It is, therefore, worthwhile to give an account of all those circum-stances, which have led to the creation of the present structure of Hinduism, and to trace the development of this great system of thought and practice from its earliest beginnings to the present day. It would also be worthwhile to understand the fundamental ideas, which form the core of Hinduism, and which have kept it alive in spite of the vicissitudes, through which it has passed during all these centuries. In order to understand the extreme diversity of Hindu religion and thought, as well as the various quaint ideas, superstitions and social customs prevalent amongst the Hindus, we shall have to keep in mind, the large number of races and peoples, who have made up the life of India from remote antiquity down to recent times. The dominant note of Indian culture comes from the contribution of the Aryan race. But as we survey the broad features of the Indian population, we come across, besides the Aryans, a number of other ethnological types such as the Aboriginals. the Dravidians and the Mongoloids. There are, of course, the mixed types also. All these types have contributed to the shaping of Hinduism as it exists to-day. It is the view of most scholars, that the Aryans as well as other racial groups migrated into India from outside. The Indo-Aryans are said to have come into India last of all.
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