When each idea first appears

1. c. 1400 BCE

   Rta, the cosmic order

   The Vedic word for the order that holds the world together, the forerunner of dharma.

   Rigveda, family books (mandalas 2–7)

   Era 3: The Oral Rigveda

2. c. 1200 BCE

   Iron

   The Rigveda knows only 'ayas', copper or bronze; dark metal appears now.

   Atharvaveda; excavations at Malhar

   Era 4: Late Vedic

3. c. 1100 BCE

   Doubt voiced in scripture

   The creation hymn ends by asking whether even the one above knows how it all began.

   Rigveda 10.129, the Nasadiya Sukta

   Era 3: The Oral Rigveda

4. c. 1100 BCE

   The four varnas named

   The single four-varna passage among 1,028 hymns, in the latest layer.

   Rigveda 10.90.12, the Purusha Sukta

   Era 3: The Oral Rigveda

5. c. 1100 BCE

   Rice

   Absent from the Rigveda; the clearest marker between early and late Vedic.

   Yajurveda samhitas (vrihi)

   Era 4: Late Vedic

6. c. 1000 BCE

   "Namah Shivaya"

   First heard addressing a fierce god; 'shiva', auspicious, is still an adjective.

   Taittiriya Samhita 4.5.8, the Shatarudriya

   Era 4: Late Vedic

7. c. 900 BCE

   Ritual that moves the cosmos

   The bandhu idea: correspondences between rite and world make the rite effective.

   The Brahmanas; the Agnicayana

   Era 4: Late Vedic

8. c. 700 BCE

   Karma as moral causation

   Taught privately, away from the assembly: a sign the idea was new.

   Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 3.2.13

   Era 5: The Upanishadic Turn

9. c. 700 BCE

   Rebirth, samsara

   Credited to a kshatriya king, Pravahana Jaivali of Panchala.

   Chandogya Upanishad 5.3–10

   Era 5: The Upanishadic Turn

10. c. 700 BCE

    Moksha, liberation as the goal

    Freedom replaces long life, sons and cattle as what religion is finally for.

    The older Upanishads

    Era 5: The Upanishadic Turn

11. c. 700 BCE

    Atman is Brahman

    The sacred moves from the fire altar into the person: 'tat tvam asi'.

    Chandogya Upanishad 6.8.7

    Era 5: The Upanishadic Turn

12. c. 500 BCE

    Ahimsa as a supreme value

    Non-harm rises to the centre of a tradition whose great rite had been sacrifice.

    Acharanga Sutra 1.4.1; Chandogya Upanishad 3.17.4

    Era 6: The Shramana Challenge

13. c. 500 BCE

    Renunciation as an institution

    Orders of renouncers; later absorbed as sannyasa, the last life stage.

    Shramana orders; the Dharmasutras' ashrama scheme

    Era 6: The Shramana Challenge

14. c. 250 BCE

    Writing

    By now the Vedas had been carried by memory for about a thousand years.

    Ashoka's edicts in Brahmi and Kharoshthi

    Era 6: The Shramana Challenge

15. c. 250 BCE

    Vegetarianism as an ideal

    A king publicly forbids sacrificial slaughter in his own capital.

    Ashoka, Rock Edict 1

    Era 6: The Shramana Challenge

16. c. 110 BCE

    Bhakti, devotion, attested

    A Greek envoy calls himself a Bhagavata and Vasudeva the God of gods.

    Heliodorus pillar, Besnagar

    Era 7: Epic and Classical Synthesis

17. c. 1 CE

    Avatara, God takes birth

    Nothing in the Vedas or Upanishads has a god descending into history.

    Bhagavad Gita 4.7–8

    Era 7: Epic and Classical Synthesis

18. c. 50 CE

    The sacred image, murti

    Early forms draw on yaksha and naga imagery as much as on the Veda.

    Gudimallam linga; Kushana coins; Mathura sculpture

    Era 7: Epic and Classical Synthesis

19. c. 50 CE

    Manu's law book

    One school's prescriptions on varna, purity and the duties of women.

    Manusmriti

    Era 7: Epic and Classical Synthesis

20. c. 400 CE

    The stone temple

    A permanent home for a god who can be seen: darshan becomes central.

    Sanchi Temple 17; Udayagiri; Deogarh

    Era 8: Puranic Hinduism

21. c. 500 CE

    Tantra in writing

    Supplies the ritual pattern of everyday temple puja to this day.

    Nishvasatattvasamhita

    Era 8: Puranic Hinduism

22. c. 575 CE

    The supreme Goddess

    The first text to make a goddess the source of the gods' own power.

    Devi Mahatmya, in the Markandeya Purana

    Era 8: Puranic Hinduism

23. c. 725 CE

    Advaita as a system

    One school among many at the time; its later pre-eminence is largely modern.

    Shankara, commentary on the Brahma Sutras

    Era 9: Bhakti and the Regional Turn

24. c. 750 CE

    Scripture in Tamil

    Devotional poetry in a spoken language takes on liturgical standing.

    The Alvars and Nayanars

    Era 9: Bhakti and the Regional Turn

25. c. 1010 CE

    The Brihadisvara temple

    Raja Raja Chola's great temple: shrine, landlord and treasury in one.

    Thanjavur inscriptions

    Era 9: Bhakti and the Regional Turn

26. c. 1350 CE

    "Hindu" as self-description

    Identity forms in contrast to Islam, though there is no single '-ism' yet.

    Sant poetry naming hindu and turk

    Era 10: The Sant Age

27. 1574 CE

    Scripture in Awadhi

    Tulsidas begins the Ramcharitmanas in Ayodhya.

    Tulsidas, Ramcharitmanas

    Era 10: The Sant Age

28. 1800 CE

    "Hinduism" as a world religion

    One canon, one essence, one census box: the category, not the tradition.

    Orientalists, missionaries, census officials and reformers

    Era 11: Renewal and Reform

29. 1893 CE

    All paths lead to one truth

    Vivekananda's address in Chicago; a modern Vedanta teaching.

    World's Parliament of Religions

    Era 11: Renewal and Reform

30. 1955 CE

    Codified Hindu law

    Parliament legislates monogamy, divorce and daughters' inheritance.

    The Hindu Code Bills

    Era 12: Modern and Contemporary

Dated firsts adapted from How It Evolved (CC BY 4.0), reworded by KarmaVaani.