Who was the founder of Hinduism?

Answer 1

Hinduism is formed of diverse traditions and has no single founder.

The Oldest Religion

Hinduism is the oldest religion of all world religions. For hundreds of years, it has been searched for some evidence about its founder, but no one could point a finger at a specific founder or its date of origin. Even the authors of its sacred texts are largely unknown. The system exists from time immemorial and there is no exact beginning of Hinduism. It has no particular fonder but has many Rishis, Saints, Gurus, and leaders who reformed and revived the existing culture and traditions. It has developed out of Brahmanism.

Ancient Hindu works talk about things that happened between periods of time more than the period well known to history scholars of current time. Even scientific excavations show the existence of ceremonious worship, at the early periods.

In other words, there is no single founder of Hinduism and it existed from time unexplored, as a religion. Hinduism, is open to interpretation, and is a collection of a path to wisdom, which is based on reasoning more than a divine authority and does not have any specific founder.

The temples that have been found in the Indus valley civilization have no indication of a deity. But there were many 'gods' and 'goddesses' as symbols of nature. People of the Indus valley civilization worshiped forces of nature. Each village had its own unique statue to worship. The aspect of politics was also mixed with the religion models in ancient culture where the ruler was considered the 'son' of the mother-goddess.

Thus, Hinduism was subject to new philosophies that changed it over time. It consists of a wide range of beliefs, which are not interrelated sometimes. There is no known founder as such for Hinduism, no creed, or single source of authority. All the Hindu philosophies share just a thin connection with each other.

Also, some say Hinduism is not a religion but way of life.

Ancient Hindu Works

Ancient Hindu works talk about things that happened between periods of time more than the period well known to history scholars of current time. Even scientific excavations show the existence of ceremonious worship, at the early periods.

In other words, there is no single founder of Hinduism and it existed from time unexplored, as a religion. Hinduism, is open to interpretation, and is a collection of a path to wisdom, which is based on reasoning more than a divine authority and does not have any specific founder.

The temples that have been found in the Indus valley civilization have no indication of a deity. But there were many 'gods' and 'goddesses' as symbols of nature. People of the Indus valley civilization worshiped forces of nature. Each village had its own unique statue to worship. The aspect of politics was also mixed with the religion models in ancient culture where the ruler was considered the 'son' of the mother-goddess.

Thus, Hinduism was subject to new philosophies that changed it over time. It consists of a wide range of beliefs, which are not interrelated sometimes. There is no known founder as such for Hinduism, no creed, or single source of authority. All the Hindu philosophies share just a thin connection with each other.

Another view:

Hinduism was founded by an institution of Seven Sages called Saptarishis. Just as we have Pope for Christianity today, Hinduism, from the beginning, had an institution of seven sages who were the patriarchs of the Vedic religion. They very strictly guarded the Vedic body of knowledge, and the copy of the Vedas available to them was considered to be the final copy. They were considered as God's manifestation on earth, and their word was the final authority in religious matters.

Any changes to the Vedas were needed to be approved by this elite group of sages. If the reasons were justified, they approved the changes and incorporated them into the Vedas. Otherwise, they rejected it and kept the Vedas intact without any contamination. From what appears, they were extremely strict about changes to the Vedas. Even to this day of Hinduism, a word in Veda is normally considered as the final authority to the literal T. So we have Brahmanas, Aranyakas, and Upanishads as appendages to the Vedas. As more and more philosophy developed, all of them got incorporated into this body as appendages.
According to mythology When Lord Brahma created their sons to cherish earth with life, Hinduism was born. So sons of brahma started Hinduism.