Sanatana dharma is the oldest religion in the world. It is based upon the collection of spiritual laws discovered by Rishis thousands years ago. It prescribed certain duties that a human being must perform for the fulfilment of life. Sanatana dharma is prehistoric and absolute in nature. On the other hand, the term Hindu or Hindu dharma is a term given by Persians only a few centuries ago, to mean the people living beside the river Sindhu. With the beginning of the 19th century, Hindu came to be understood as a collective term to describe the religion practiced by Indians and the name of the the country India. Greek Alexander gave the name Indu, which later become India, the country, and its people as Indian.
Sanatana dharma consists of virtues such as honesty, refraining from injuring living beings, purity, good will, mercy, patience, forbearance, self-restraint, generosity, and asceticism. Sanatana dharma is mentioned in Vedas as the oldest literature in the world. The term Hindu does not find mention in ancient literatures like Vedas and Puranas. It has been coined by Persians to mean people living besides the river Sindhu. When Muslim rulers ruled India, they levied the Jazia tax upon all non-Muslim so that all non-Muslims were called Hindu. Later during the 19th century, Hindu become to be recognized as the Hindu religion engulfing the people of India and the Sanatana dharma. Even today, in many countries Muslims and Christians from India are termed as Hindu-Muslims and Hindu-Christians respectively.
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