How did Hinduism begin?

Who are the Hindus?
People living East of the Indus River. People were originally known as Hindos or Indos.
Sanatana Dharma
Many Hindus who would rather call the religion something different. They believe Hinduism is more than a religion. It is a culture, a way of life, and a code of behavior. Some Hindus use ‘Sanatana Dharma’ instead, which means eternal law.
Eternal means forever and never ending. Laws are rules people have to live by.
Indus Valley Civilsation
Located in an area known as Pakistan and part of NW India.
Farming from around 3200 BCE
Cities began around 2500 BCE
100 settlements have been located along the Indus River
Did the Indus Valley Religion?
No site of a temple has been found.
Religious artifacts reveal links to modern Hindu culture. Figures show what may be early representations of Shiva, a major Hindu god. Other figures relate to a mother goddess, fertility images, and the worship of the bull.
All of these became part of later Indian civilisation.
Who were the Ayrans?
Around 1500 BCE a group of people descended onto the land that lies between the tributaries of the River Indus.
These people were tall, fair skinned, prominent nosed, proud people who called themselves Aryans. They would have looked and spoke very differently to the native people of the Indus Valley.
These invaders mixed with the Indus Valley people to create a new Indian civilisation. It is from this new civilisation that the religion of Hinduism was first formed.
How did Hinduism begin?
According to recent theories, the Indus Valley peoples migrated to the region of India near the River Ganges. The Aryan peoples also migrated from further north to the same area near the Ganges. The cultures and beliefs of these peoples mixed and
became what we now know as Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma.