Rakesh Kumar Singhal ラケシ　クマール　シング ראקש קומאר : What are the biggest misconceptions that Hindus have about Hinduism? Replied by Sayak Biswas thru Quora

Probably the biggest misconception in my opinion that many think as a serious truth, even the staunchest of Hindus do so, that Hinduism always remained within India or more often, the Indian subcontinent alone.

This often with passage of time, got twisted by several outsiders, trying to show that Hinduism was probably never a very popular or a very accommodating religion, hence few outside India accepted it.

Well, I will say, this happens to be kind of a false theory. While Hinduism never had any law of “spreading it’s beliefs and ideas” but it did leave it’s mark in several places of world, without resorting to bloodshed or wars. Sometimes this mark was revealed by incidents, sometimes in monuments and sometimes, even in culture and language.

Following this, all discussions will be completely based on history. Bit long, so keep reading with patience.

The Temple of Fire:

If you ever get an opportunity to visit a nation called Azerbaijan (located just south of Russia and west of Caspian Sea) , do try making it to the capital city of Baku.

If you make it, take a taxi from Heydar Aliyev Airport, and move to a town-like area just adjacent to Baku, called Surakhani.

An interesting feature of Surakhani is that there are spots from where rocks “breathe out fire”, thanks to the hydrocarbon deposits. The rocks which lie at such sites are impossible for an ordinary human being to hold in hands, unless they have a seriously high tolerance for heat.

One such place, hundreds of years ago ,became the site of a temple, called as Ateshgah, which means “Home of Fire”-

Years ago, when Azerbaijan lived in olden days free of external influence , the centre of this temple housed an “eternal flame” fueled by hydrocarbons oozing out of ground. This was seen as a sacred thing by folks there, and it became a sacred site.

Interesting fact: While the origins of the temple seems rooted in Zoroastrianism ( Parsis), the place became a sacred site for Hindus and Sikhs too who were mainly traders controlling the economy of that region. As most will know, fire is a sacred thing for both Hindus and Parsis.

For example, an invocation to Lord Shiva, taken from the temple

Another inscription. If you know somewhat of Hindi or Devanagari, you can see that the first like begins with “Sri Ganeshay nama..” , while second line is a salutation to the sacred fire of temple (termed here as “Jwala ji”). The other half of tablet has Persian inscriptions.The picture though is not much clear-

There are some other such inscriptions, in Gurmukhi script, the same script in which Punjabi is written in India.

The decline

Somewhere in 19th century, with a huge decrease of Indian population due to decline in trade, Ateshgah became irrelevant as a religious site.

Though the eternal fire died out when large-scale oil and gas explorations began in Azerbaijan under the Soviet Union, later on to revive the temple in 2007, the Azerbaijan government created an “artificial fire”. Today though not as active as a temple as it was centuries ago, Ateshgah is an archaeological reserve under the Government of Azerbaijan, and is seen as a connection to the past of the country.

The other “Elephant-God”

If you ever get time, do google the name “Kangiten”, who happens to be a “God of Bliss” in Japanese Buddhism.

While there will be many images, one of them will be like this-

Interesting fact:

Like Hindu Gods and goddesses often have more than one name, Kangiten too has several names, one being Ganwha, Vinayaka-ten and even Ganapetai.
One of the things Kangiten is worshipped for , is because the deity is seen as a “remover of obstacles”. At same time, Kangiten is worshipped by gamblers, actors, geishas.

When it comes to first point, does it sound similar to a famous Hindu God who even looks similar?

The Southeast Asia story:

Way before arrival of Islam to shores of Aceh province from the Arab regions, ancient mariners of what then was known as Kalinga empire set sails on their large boats (In Odia they called “Boita”) and make long journeys to islands like Java, Bali and Borneo, which are today regions of Indonesia. While they were traders too, it wasn’t just trade items that were exchanged. A significant level of culture got implanted into those islands, resulting in a significant influence of Hinduism.

Even to this date, the feats of those ancient mariners are respected in Odia culture, with a festival held annually on banks of River Mahanadi. The Odia people call this event as “Bali-jatra” (Translation: Voyage to Bali)

While this sea-based trade routes may not be the only reason, but it did create a high-level influence of Hinduism in the region, leading to some major empires to have a blend of several things, like Buddhism along with Hinduism. Many of these empires had close ties with not just Kalinga, but also several other major empires, like the Cholas of Southern India.

Coming to Cholas, well they have their own feats when it comes to Southeast Asia, not just trade, but also wars. Below is the region that was under influence in time of Rajendra Chola I, after his attack on Srivijaya Empire, which used to rule regions of today’s Sumatra and Malay Archipelago-

However, the strongest and at same time the last of the major Hindu empire, was the Majapahit

Now what the influence of Majapahit was, that can be seen by one fact, that many people of Indonesia see that empire as the foundation stone of the modern-day Indonesian nation.

The Majapahit banner and the Naval Jack of Indonesian Navy, both kind of look something like this-

Kambojas and Cambodia:

Another kingdom that had a very high influence, existed in what today is called Cambodia, back then it was Kamboja-desha.

The history of this name is derived from an ancient Indian tribe called Kamboja (during days of Mahajanapada) . Kambojas were quite famous and in high demand for different empires of the subcontinent, since they were skilled horsemen and horse-rearers.

One man among Kambojas, called Kaundinya Jayvarman visited the place called Funan state, married the princess there, and hence later on the name of his tribe became the new name of an empire.

The Khmer Empire had Hinduism as one of the official religions, and was the home to one of the only two temples dedicated to Lord Brahma.

However the best symbol of Hindu influence in Cambodia is this - Angkor Wat, created by King Suryavarman II and is dedicated to Lord Vishnu-

Interesting fact:

I took this screenshot from Wikipedia, just to show the level to which they got influenced. Basically a list of mottos of several things,-

2. Some famous Indonesian people-

a. Susilo Bambung Yudhyono- Politician, and former President

b. Megawati Sukarnoputri- Again a former President, and daughter of one of Indonesia’s founding fathers, Sukarno

c. Sri Mulyani Indrawati- Finance Minister of Indonesia

d. Basuki Tjahaja Purnama - Former governor of Jakarta, jailed because of protesting against some bigots who implicated him on a false charge of blapshemy

d. Krisdayanti - A quite popular singer bit less than a decade ago

First three are Sunni Muslims, fourth one is Christian,last one is again a Muslim. But apparently their name sound more Hindu and sometimes more Sanskritized than even the standard Indian themselves I guess. While standard Muslim names exist too, but a nation having 87% Muslims having Sanskritized names was surprising.

3. Also, presenting the flag-carrier of Indonesia, Garuda Indonesia, named after Vishnu’s vahana (translation: mount)-

I can narrate several more stories like this, with all the facts and links with me, but I guess that will make an already long answer even longer.

My opinion:

There are a large number of real-life incidents which one will not find in a standard school textbook of India, but if you spend a bit of your free time on internet looking for it (if you’re interested of course), then believe me, the stories you will find is not just surprising, but also something that will make you think a lot about the origins of Hinduism, and with it, the completely unadulterated history of the land called India.

Edit:

Since I spoke of Garuda, the coat of arms of Indonesia is called Garuda Pancasilla . Pancasilla means “Five Principles”, and these five principles are cornerstone of the Republic of Indonesia.