ORIGIN OF INDIAN RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS AND PHILOSOPHIES — The Veda is the oldest literary and philosophical work of India and it constitutes the basis of Vedism, the oldest form of Brahmanism. Vedism, intrinsically, is a religious system, mainly concerned with the worship of many gods that are related to natural phenomena. The Veda is composed of Mantra, Brahmana, Aranyaka, and Upanishad. The literary arrangement of the Veda in four compilations accords with the chronology of the Vedic period of Indian philosophy. The mantras (hymns) contain prayers of the Old Vedic Era that spanned from about 1500 until 1000. This Old Vedic era is also called the era of hymns. The Mantra in itself is divided into four collections (samhita): the Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda and Atharvaveda. The first three of these form the triple wisdom (tray vidya) and have always been considered as canonical. The Rigveda or the Veda of the verses is the oldest text. It is a collection of stanza composed for the gods of the Vedic pantheon. Among the best known of these gods are – besides the god of fire Agni: Indra: god of thunder and lightning, and Vishnu: god of the sun. The Rigveda hymns belong to the oldest literary relics in the history of mankind. The Samaveda or the Veda of songs contains melodies that have been selected from the Rigveda. Of the formulae in verse and the parts in prose that make up the Yajurveda or the Veda of the offering spells, the formulae in verse were also taken from the Rigveda. The Atharvaveda or the Veda of atharvan is a collection of songs used by magicians. According to tradition, this collection was compiled by Atharvan, to whom the institutionalisation of the fire ritual is attributed. This part of the Veda was only later recognized as canonical. Still, the Atharvadeda also contains material stemming from the oldest Vedic times. Around the 15th cen., the Indo-European Aryans invaded India. The Aryans (literally : nobles, aristocrats), who came from the region of what is now Iran, represent the eastern branch of the Indo-Iranians. They expanded their power over several stages. In a first stage that lasted until about 1000, the territory of the Aryans was limited to the Punjab (Land of Five Rivers), the Indus basin in what is now Pakistan. A second stage lasted until about 500. During this period their territory was expanded to the east, as far as the Ganges plain. The heart of their culture shifted to this area. The time span from the first invasion of the Aryans until the 6th c. is known as the Vedic Period. Vedic refers to the Veda, the sacred Aryan texts. They were written in Vedic Sanskrit between the 15th and the 6th cen. The Brahmana primarily refers to sacrifice and rituals. The work also contains cosmological myths. The compilation belongs to the era of sacrificial mysticism lasting from about 1000 until 750. The Brahmana is continued in the more mystical Aranyaka and Upanishad. These two compilations can be dated between 750 and 500 and contain religious-philosophical texts. Philosophical reactions against Vedism: Jainism and Buddhism. Since they do not recognize the Veda, these new movements of thought are called nastika (disloyal, heterodox). This in contrast with the astika schools (loyal, orthodox) who do acknowledge the Veda. The essence of Buddhism are the Four Noble Truths, as preached by the Buddha: life is fundamentally suffering; suffering is a result of one’s desires; to stop suffering one must stop desiring; one can stop desiring by following the Noble Eightfold Path: right speech, action, livelihood, effort, awareness, concentration, intention and views. Consistently following of this path will eventually lead to enlightenment (nirvana). —————————— SCIENTIFIC DATING OF IMPORTANT PERSONS IN HISTORY: The (religious) tradition holds that LAOZI (a pseudonym for Lao Dan), an older contemporary of CONFUCIUS (trad. date: 551-479; actual date unknown), is the author of the Tao-te Ching. This would date LAOZI before ZHUANGZI (369-286). The current version of the Tao-te Ching however, is dated in the 3rd c. A.D. The fact that ZHUANGZI’s works contain a number of stories about LAO DAN, but without any reference in the oldest core of the Zhuangzi to the Tao-te Ching, along with the fact that the content of the Tao-te Ching belongs to a later phase of development of Chinese philosophy, makes ever more scientists date ZHUANGZI before LAOZI. (source : http://worldhistorytimeline.net/)