Hinduism: Hindu mythology is rich, multifarious, and inclusive. It portrays the terrible alongside the benevolent, the trivial alongside the cosmic, and the grotesque alongside the sublime. The earliest source of Hindu mythology is the Vedic literature, the oldest texts of which are the four Vedas, or "Books of Knowledge": Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda, and Atharvaveda. These books are the oldest Indian documents and represent the religion of the Aryan invaders of the subcontinent over the period from 1400 to 500 BC.
Because it integrates a variety of heterogeneous elements, Hinduism constitutes a complex but largely continuous whole; and, because it covers the whole of life, it has religious, social, economic, literary, and artistic aspects. Hinduism thus resists a precise definition, but a common core of characteristics most Hindus share can be identified.
