Three civilisations:
Hinduism
Buddhism
Islam

▷Hinduism
Hinduism was the first religion to appear in India. Historians do not really know how or whem Hinduism started. However, by reading and understanding sacred Hindu texts, such as the Vedas(collections of poems sung in praise of Aryans gods) and the Bhagavad Gita ("Divine Song of God"), historians have concluded that:
↘Hinduism is at least 3000 years old and is the oldest religion in India.
↘Hinduism developed slowly over many centuries through a mixing of the beliefs of the Aryans and the Indus people.

→Three main features of Hinduism are:
↘The worship of many gods
∴The most important gods are Brahma(the Creator), Vishnus(the Preserver) and Shiva (the Destroyer).

↘The belief in non-violence:
∴Hinduism teaches that all life is sacred. Therefore, human beings and animals should not be killed. Some animals, such as the cow are especially sacred.

↘The belief in reincarnation:
∴The Hindus believe that when a person dies, his soul is reborn into a new body. This process is called reincarnation.

→Belief in reincarnation
Hindus believe that soul reincarnates or is reborn several times. If a person does good deeds, his soul will be reincarnated in the body of a person of a higher caste. However, if a person does bad deeds, then his soul will be reincarnated in the body of a person of a lower caste. The soul can be freed from this cycle of rebirth if enough good deeds are done in several lives. When this happens, the soul will join Brahma, the creator of god, in heaven.

→Impact of Hinduism
Hinduism was such an important religion in ancient India that it affected almost every aspect of life. The ancient Indians believed that the caste a person was born into was the result of his actions during his previous life. Thus, every Hindu accepted the caste he was bron into. He would then try his best to be a good person so that he would reborn into a higher caste. It was also believed that as divine rulers, Indian kings had to make sure that everyone followed the rules of the caste system.

→Spread of Hinduism
Between 200 CE and 1200 CE, Hinduism spread to Southeast Asia where it was adopted by many people. Rulers of Southeast Asia kingdoms built temples in worship of Hindu gods and adopted the idea of divine kingship. However, changes were also made to the religion. For example, the people of ancient Southeast Asia did not adopt the caste system. This is an example of cultural adaptation.

Today, Hinduism continues to be a major religion. In India, 83 per cent of the population are Hindus. Most of the beliefs practised by the ancient Hindus are still being practised today. Certainly, the gods Brahma(the Creator), Shiva(the Destroyer) and Vishnu(the Preserver), whom the ancient Hindus prayed to, are still being worshipped today. However, other aspects of Hinduism, such as the caste system, have become less important to present-day Hindus.

▷Buddhism
Ancient India was also the birthplace of another important religion- Buddhism. Unlike Hinduism, whose origins founder are not known, we know that Buddhism began over 2000 years ago and was developed from the teachings of a prince called Gautama Siddhartha.

→Gautama Siddhartha
Gautama Siddhartha was born c.566 BCE in north India. As a prince, he led a sheltered life and luxurious life. When he was about 29 year old, Gautama went outside the palace grounds and into the neighbouring villages. For the first time in his life, he witnessed how people suffered from illnesses, old age and death. He also met an ascetic(someone who restrains from normal comforts). Deeply moved by what he saw, Siddhartha left the palace to search for a way to ed suffering and achieve everlasting happiness.

As Gautama Siddhartha was sitting under a pipal tree(which we now call the Bodhi tree or "Tree of Wisdom") in deep though, realised the answer to his question. Suffering was caused by craving, hatred and ignorance. When these causes were removed, suffering ended. After this realisation, Siddhartha freed himself from craving, hatred and ignorance. He was thus released from the endless cycle of birth, death and suffering, The moment that Gautama found the answer to his question is called enlightment or true understanding. From this moment, Gautama became known as the Buddha, which means "The Enlightened One".

For the rest of his life, the Buddha travelled all over north India to teach people how to achieve enlightment- by practising the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. The Buddha taught the Dharma (the Truth) for 49 years before passing on into final nirvana.

Rulers of ancient Southeast Asia adopted Hinduism, learned Sanskrit and built magnificent Hindu temple cities. The Prambanan temple in central Java and the Angkor Wat in Cambodia are famous examples of Hindu monuments in Southeast Asia. In fact, the Angkor Wat is one of the largest religious monuments in the world! Although these monuments still stand today, the Hinduism that was introduced by the ancient Indians did not survive in the reigion, except on the Indonesian island of Bali.

→Buddhism as a religion
When the Buddha was alive, he told his followers that he was not starting a new religion. He did claim to have any special powers. His teachings did not mention any god or gods. What he was spreading was his belief that all men are born equal and that all men can achieve enlightment. After the Buddha's death, however, some of his followers raised him to the level of a god and Buddhism became a religion.

→Impact of Buddhism
Buddhism spread very quickly in ancient India. Many Hidus, especially those from the lower castes, converted to Buddhism because it taught that all men are equal. Centuries later, several powerful Indian rulers converted to Buddhism or were strongly influenced by the Buddha's teachings. These rulers then helped to spread Buddhism throughout India and the rest of Asia.

Ashoka, ruler of the Mauryan empire from 269 BCE to 332 BCE, was an example of a ruler who did much to spread the teachings on Buddhism. In the first few years of his ruler, Ashoka waged a war on Kalinga, a kingdom in the eastern part of Inda. Although Ashoka finally won the war, it had lasted for several years and killed thousands of people. Ashoka was so horrifed by the great amount of death and suffering he saw that he vowed never to use warfare to conquer new territories. Ashoka became Buddhist and announced that he would rule only by 'right conduct' and not by force.

Ashoka regarded himself as the 'father' of his people. Thus, he felt that it was his duty to teach his people to be good. He had his messages to his people carved on rocks and pillars all over his empire. These messages advised the people to resepct their parents and elders, to stop killing living creatures and to avoid burning and cutting down forests. Ashoka also built hospitals, rest houses and roads to improve the welfare of his people. He also sent Buddhists to foreign places to spread the teachings of Buddhism. These people were called missionaries. It was through Ashoka's missionaries that Buddhism reached present-day Sri Lanka, Myanmar and China

From the 6th century CE onwards, the popularity of Buddhism in India declined. Today, only a small percentage of Indiams practise Buddhism. However, it remains an important religion in other parts of the world owing to the spread of Buddhism to countries beyond India more than 2000 years ago.

In 671 CE, the Buddhist monk Yijing spent six months at Palembang(which the Chinese called Fo-Shih), the capital of the Srivijaya kingdom, to study Sanskrit. He was on his way home from a pilgrimage(journey to a sacred place) to India. While in India and Palembang, he observed and recorded Buddhist practises. These would later provide useful information for Chinese monks in China about the kind of Buddhism that was practised in India and Southeast Asia. When Yijing returned to China, he had some 400 volumes of holy Sanskrit scriptures. Later, he translated 56 volumes of the scriptures and wrote the book, Biography of Eminent Monks in the Tang Dynasty in Search of Buddhist Truth in India.

Examples of impressive Buddhist monuments are the famous Borobudur complex in Indonesia and the Ananda temple in Myanmar. Although Buddhism did not survive in the Indonesian islands, it still remains as an important religion in present-day Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

▷Islam
The followers of Islam are known as Muslims. Muslims believe that their religion was revealed by Allah through the Prophet Muhammad. Muhammad was born in Mecca in Arabia in 570 CE. Muslims believe that in 610 CE, Muhammad received the first of several messages from Allah. In Arabic, Allah means 'the one true God'. These messages were later written down to become the Qur'an, the holy book of the Muslims. The Qur'an states how Allah wants Muslims to live.

Judging from the Muslims tombstones found in the region. historians believe that Islam came to Southeast Asia c. the 11th century CE. As with Hinduism and Buddhism, Islam was brought to Southeast Asia by traders.