The Hindu religion is the oldest among every other religion, and its origins date from about 5,000 to 10,000 BC to prehistoric times. Hinduism is the largest religion in the world. Therefore, it’s no surprise that so many religious myths, ideologies, and mythologies are as ancient. Many of those mythologies may have gone through several narratives over the years, in reality, provided this timeline. Hindu mythology has a rich tradition, riddles, resounding tales, and an unusually innate link with modern science. Cyclical periods often occur that repeat after a certain interval. Epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana, the oldest epic in history, are also present. Here are the ten most fascinating things about ancient Hindu mythology:
10. The Hindu Epics
The epics of the Hindu have been composed to provide the disciples with religious values. The Sanskrit epics defined the determination of the Hindu gods in a poetic verse in essence. The Ramayana and Mahabharata are the most famous of these literary epics.
The Ramayana is a superb tale of Rama’s story. From the birth into the Kingdom of Ayodhya to his determined triumph over his dark nemesis Ravana. The epic speaks volumes about the goodness of real brotherhood, love, and the sacrificial essence of one’s wicked loss.
The Mahabharata is the most-longest epic ever written & provides a thorough insight into Hinduism’s development from 400 BC to 200 AD. At the same time, it detailed the Bhagavad Gita scripts, apart from his magnificent story of the war between the Kauravas and the Pandavas. It explains from start to finish the great war that brother-to-brother fights. The Bhagavat Gita became the embodiment of the holy scripture of Hinduism in time.
9. Treta Yuga
This is the second age in Maha Yuga’s cycle. Treta Yuga lasts 1296000 human years, according to the Hindu scripts. Treta Yuga’s arrival eventually began to decrease the role of sattva or goodness in human existence. Some goodness or virtue left in people was now followed by a rising number of tamas and rays. In human nature, the tamas embodied obscurity, and rajas formed all the passion which a human may invoke. In the meantime, people nurtured an acute degree of intelligence but still lost a lot of influence on their physiology and body. The citizens’ stature was smaller than during the Satya Yuga, with an average of 14 cubits tall, but exemplary beings, such as Rama, Laxamana, Ravana, and Hanumana, were made divine by their exceptional strength and by their inimitable intelligence, were created.
8. Dwapar Yuga
After Treta Yuga, Dwapar Yuga is the third age. It has existed for 864,000 human years as the Dwapar Yuga, also known as the Bronze Age. It is a time when goodness and bad are the neck and neck of human existence. When the human body lacks cleanliness, people regulate their bodies even more than their intellect. When Dwapara Yuga was at its height, man’s innermost body and wisdom were already missing. In his ever-increasing yearning, he became fascinated by the universe’s material facets, and this destiny could only be escaped by intellectuals such as Bhisma, Dharmaraja, and Vidura.
7. Kali Yuga
The last era of Maha Yuga’s ever-recurring cycle is the Kali Yuga. That is also the smallest and lasts 432,000 years in human life. The present time is Kali Yuga which is also known as the Iron Age. The Kali Yuga is like never before, hypocrisy and chaos. The temptations of sin are greatly corrupting human nature, but a little consciousness exists. In physicality and intelligence, the human body is in its lowest position. An average man lives between 100 and 120 years. It is believed that about 5,000 years of Kali Yuga have gone by referencing ancient Hindu scripts. The life expectancy of man will also be no more than 20 years before Kali Yuga meets its death. The unparalleled need for the materialism of man has underlined this period.
6. The Curses
In several various mythologies, curses have a long and fascinating history. The Hindu gods never punished, and they had the right to inflict any pain on others. However, there are also many examples of unusual curses worth noting in Hindu mythology. The epic Mahabharata influenced the Pandavas by the enormous anguish of Karna, who was Pandavas’ stepbrother. A furious Yudhisthira could not accept that their mother Kunti concealed such personal knowledge from them, so he cursed that no women should from then on hiding a secret from anyone. Then the curse is on the character Pandu that he will die on the spot if he ever confronted a female with feelings of lust. But the most notable curse of all is perhaps that in the wake of the Mahabharata, Gandhari maligned Lord Krishna. Krishna comforted a devastated mother after beating the Kauravas and murdering all 100 sons of Gandhari. When Gandhari saw Krishna, he accused that no one would live in the bloodline of Krishna to see centuries to come.
5. The Vedas and Modern Science
The Vedas are a compilation of hymns and religious texts written between 1500 and 1000 BC somewhere. These holy verses were written in the area of Indus, where Hinduism is thought to have come. Sanskrit is the scripture used in the Vedas. While the Vedas had been founded thousands of years ago, scientists found a close link between their messages and modern science. Contemporary scientists proposed the concept of various universes in string theory. Many worlds exist in parallel, as it means we are residing in a multiverse. In their interpretation of the cosmos, the holy texts of the Vedas and Bhagavad Gita were fine. In reality, Albert Einstein once said, “Something else seems superfluous when I read the Bhagavad Gita, and think about how God made this world.”
4. Foundation of Hinduism
Hinduism is somewhat different from most conventional faiths. It did not come from a single creator or holy scripture or at a certain time. Hinduism is a mixture of various ideologies, practices, and philosophies. These diverse points of view are generally incompatible. Therefore, there are various hypotheses regarding the origin of the oldest religion in the world. The word “Hindu” came from contemporary India only in the Mughal period. Hinduism has only been a common guide in Indian colonial rule in the 19th and 20th centuries. Proof suggests that the Indus Valley civilization around 3000 BC was worshiped popularly by an ascetic deity called Siva. Somewhere from 400BC to 200AD, there was the greatest epic, the Mahabharata. It provided enormous insight into Hindu mythology along with other historically significant books such as Bhagavad Gita.
3. Satya Yuga
Hindu mythology says explicitly that Maha Yuga is the continuous period of creation and death for all living things. This cycle is repeated in four separate eras or Yugas. Satya Yuga, which lasts 1,728,000 years, is the first of these yugas. It’s named Satya Yuga, the golden age of reality and illumination. In this period, people achieved an ideal mentality, and their acts were always thoughtful and noble. In the holy texts, there is also an abundance of thoughts and ideas among the participants. Everyone lived a good life and upheld the facts. Human physiology has since varied greatly from the one we display today. People were about 31.5 feet (21 CB or 80 cm) tall. They lived for hundreds of thousands of years.
2. Gods and Goddesses
Hinduism is a tradition of polytheism. The Hindus worship many gods, and those gods are normally a certain divine pantheon. In reality, many people claim that there are some 330 million divinities in Hindu myth, citing some lines in sacred Hindu scripts. Each of them symbolizes a certain part of life. But there are only 33 main deities, the Vedas explicitly say. During the Upanishadic period, the transition into 300 million Gods was rendered to represent the universe’s eternal existence. While so many gods and goddesses, Hindus are mostly dedicated to one deity. All the other gods are taken from their main gods as different avatars (facets). From an era perspective, all the prime gods are as ancient as time and life.
1. Theory of Creation
Hindu mythology offers many accounts of just how the world was formed. The solutions themselves are varied in-depth, and at various times there are different methods. Perhaps the most common approach is that the highest gods ignored their appearance before the time itself. No time, no heaven, no planet, or space were in the middle of it before creation. Only the dark sea, on the banks of the nothingness, washed. The trinity of gods, Vishnu, Brahma, and Shiva, presents these three features. That’s why we can see pictures in which Trinity’s heads are fused into the Trimurti. Brahma produces all things in Trimurti, and Vishnu maintains existence, and Shiva is the supreme destructor who brings change whenever possible.
Conclusion
Hinduism is regarded as the world’s oldest religion. Yet that’s a lot more. Since its inception, Hindu mythology has embraced other faiths and practices. It’s a delightful combination of epic spiritual and righteousness tales of scripture. The tales are of fantastic characters such as Rama, Laxamana, and the Pandavas.
The Vedas offer a description of ancient wisdom and astronomy. Mahabharata and Ramayana epics reveal the tales of the sacred history of the eternal war between good and evil. These are the reasons why Hindus and non-Hindus are fascinated by the complex heritage of Hindu mythology.v
