The old theory of the
Aryan Immigration into North India, the Aryans displacing local inhabitants and driving
them to the south has been seriously questioned in the wake of information on the Indus
Valley Civilisation dating perhaps from 3000 BC to 1500 BC. The Indo-Aryans could have
migrated into North India from Northern Iran around 1500 BC. In Kerala, Aryan immigrants
from the North seem to have arrived some hundreds of years before Christ. |
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These immigrants are said to have brought with them the Vedic religion and introduced the
four-caste system which was totally un-known to the people of Kerala, while they (the
priestly class) themselves remained socially aloof from the rest of the community. The
Aryan Immigration Visual shows a group of Vedic Aryans engaged in the chanting of the
Gayatri Mantra of the Rigveda, a mantra remarkable for its clarity of thought and
intellectual content.
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Om Bhur Bhuvah Svah
Om Tat Savithur varenyam bhargo devasya dhimahi;
Dhiyo yo na prachodayat, Om. |
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Oh, creator of the
Universe!
We meditate upon thy supreme splendor.
May thy radiant splendor illuminate our intellects,
destroy our sins, and guide us in the right direction! |
The Vedic
religion which could be termed Brahminism did absorb influences of Buddhism and Jainism
and other cults and beliefs. The resulting faith, say from the eighth Century AD, could be
termed Hinduism, the word Hindu itself being a corrupt vision of Sindhu the major river in
the north west of India, and thus having only geographic meaning, not religious!. Hinduism
was, therefore, not founded by a historical personage as a result of revelation.
The priestly class of this Brahmanic religion were professionally involved in the Vedic
rituals but cannot be compared to the priests of say, the Christian religion, as it seldom
exerted any personal influence on the common man who was free to choose his personal God
and establish his own relationship with him. The spread of this religion did not depend on
any form of proselytism.
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