hinduism

hinduism or sanathana dharma is so old that it started even before Aryans settled on the banks of river indus. roughly at least 2500-1500 b.c. Aryans spread their wings from Georgia(Russia) to present India. Aryan means noble. they refered  to aranyakas or forest books they were also ritualists.they refered brahmana portions.these are ritual manuals. the upanishads are meditative,philosophycal texts. vedas were known as shrutis, that which  has to be heard, or listened,these were divinely revealed texts. smritis are our puranas like  ramayana, mahabhratha, bhagavatam, etc. bagavat geetha incidentally is a smrithi, since it appears in mahabaratha which has to be remembered. our law books were dharma shastras Aryans later on settled in madyadesh.(madyapradesh). its to be noted that gita press which started in 1923 to popularize Hinduism has printed 300 million copies of literature, but will not publish vedas on grounds that these divinely revealed texts may not be tampered with by human beings.