Hinduism, Hindu Law, Indian Law

Abstract

Approximately 3,5 thousand years ago, the communities rooted in the region of the Valley of Indo (North of India) started to organize one of the oldest religious systems in the History of Mankind: the Hinduism. During many centuries, its beliefs had been transmitted, orally, across the generations, culminating in transcriptions in the Vedas, which content is the compilation of hymns and prayers considered as the first sacred book of the History of Religion. This sacred literature is composed by four volumes of texts in verses that explain the unity and the variety of the multiple lines of Hinduism. By means of its most important teachings, this set of books is sacred for more than 1 billion of adepts that follow different monotheistic, polytheistic or pantheistic sects which can integrate the same religion. The first paper version of the Vedas probably is dated in century II b.C., when the Hindu people developed a writing system. According to legends and historians, they would have been organized by Vyasa, a wise who would be the incarnation of Vishnu, a god that, in all the cycles of creation and destruction of the Universe, has the function to elaborate four books, which intention is to guarantee that the chants propagate and eternalize itself. Vyasa would be responsible for other sacred texts of Hinduism like Mahabharata that was spelled by him to the lord Ganesh, the god with head of elephant, which would have recorded these words in paper. Indian historians and specialists in History of India estimated that the four Vedas (RigVeda, YajurVeda, SamaVeda e AtharvaVeda) would have been compiled between 1490 and 900 b.C.; however, independently of its origin, is in the Vedic texts that are the main concepts and symbols of the Hinduism like, also, the gods, legends and the teachings that give form and unity to the Religion. The Hindu Law is the traditional law of India, which is applied by and to the adepts of the Hinduism in determined situations, emphasizing Family Law and coexists with the Indian Law. However, Hindu and Indian are not the same thing: the inhabitants of India are the Indians, and those who adopt the Hinduism as Religion are the Hindus. Indian Law and Hindu Law are not synonymous: the first one is the Indian State Law that applies to all of its inhabitants, independently of their Religion, while Hindu Law only applies the Hindu community.