The Gods And Goddesses Of Hinduism
Hinduism ranks third on the list of world religions with more than 900 million followers. Although there is no original founder, it dates back to approximately 4,000 years, making it the oldest religion. Hinduism is well-known for the Gods/Goddesses they worship. While there is only one God, Hindus believe in many Gods. This is difficult to comprehend.
Hinduism has been called a Polytheistic religion. Polytheism refers to ‘the belief that many Gods exist’ (Smart 2017, 2017). Monotheism, on the other hand, is the belief that one God exists. Each deity’s name is unique and distinguishes them as one God. Due to the numerous references to millions, Hinduism has been called a multitheistic religion. Hindus believe in different types deities. Complexity in Hindu polytheism results from numerous attempts to explain both the universal laws (Danielou 64) and the nature rules (Danielou 64). Hindus attempted to explain the law that created the universe. Many deities were found and created in an attempt to find answers.
The Hinduism’s multiple gods/goddesses were created from ancient texts. The three most important sacred texts in Hinduism are The Vedas and The Epics, which describe the deities. These texts have helped to establish the deities.
The Vedic gods were created during the Arayans’ old period. A lot of deities from this area were also found in Greek mythology. This period has many similarities to that of Hindu and Greek deities. It is believed that they could have been different types of deities, with different names. Examples of similarities are Indra and Zeus. Indra, the king in the heavens, is most commonly associated with lightning bolts. Indra also has a connection to weather phenomena such as rain, wind and storms.
Zeus, also known as a weather god in Greek mythology is said to have the ability to control the weather. In Greek history, Zeus was the god/Goddess of Olympus. Similarly, Zeus’ symbol includes both Gods, the lightning bolt. The Arayans brought a combination of ideas to India, and the Vedic Gods were born. There are 33 Vedic Gods.
The Vedic religion was changed after the invasion of India by the Aryans. As a result, the deities became more concerned about not being worshipped. (Mitchell, 1982)
