also there was no "Hinduism" until the British actually codified the Gentoo laws..Originally posted by: metacrisis
^Thanks Neha! I find it a very interesting topic...how Hinduism morphed, changed and evolved with each new philosophy that it came in contact with!
Hindu was the people who lived beyond Indus, that's why we have Hindustan (somewhere in 10-12th century)
There were varied sects, about 23-25 of them.. may be referred as cults today .. so it was nothing very blanket, one size fits all. That explains the loads of versions of pretty much every deity and stories related to them.