Bhawani Mandi

Hinduism is an extremely diverse religious and spiritual tradition. It has no founder, governing body or single holy book, although the Vedas (Sanskrit: वेद Veda, lit. knowledge) are regarded by most Hindus to be the holiest and most authoritative religious texts. It is often referred to as not a religion but a way of life. The beginnings of Hinduism are at least as old as the Vedas, the earliest of which are estimated to date from approximately 1700 BCE, with traces of the religion found in the earlier Indus Valley Civilisation, beginning from 3300 BCE, some Hindus call it the 'Sindhu Saraswati Civilisation'. Many scholars now believe that the Vedic mythology of Hinduism originally evolved from proto-Indo-European mythology, thus sharing a common origin with many mythologies of pre-Christian Europe, such as the Greek, Roman, Celtic, Slavic and Germanic ones.