Ken Sisby wrote:

> Sonaten is the name that I have heard Hindus use to refer to their religion.
> From what I have read it goes back to the Vedas and means something like
> "the old way" or something like that.  What name are you saying was applied
> to them by the Moghuls?
> 
> Ken
> 
> 
> "Martin Edwards" <bigm554@netscape.net> wrote in message
> news:chnfu6$9df$2@titan.btinternet.com...
> 
>>Ken Sisby wrote:
>>
>>
>>>I think that it would be better to say that the Xian/Hebrew bible simply
>>>copies the creation myths that abound throughout the old world.
> 
> Sonaten,
> 
>>>the religion of the Hindus or Arya was the original of such myths.
>>>
>>
>>What the devil is Sonaten?  The ancient Hindus had no name for their
>>religion.  The name was originally applied to them by Muslim conquerors
>>and they gradually adopted it.
> 
> 
> 
Even though I asked the question, it has just come back to me. 
"Sanatana Dharma", "The Eternal Way" was a name used by the Hindus for 
their way of life, but it meant the whole rule of life, rather than just 
worship.  One example is that truly strict Hindus will not wear sewn 
clothes, so a very religious Brahmin will always wear a dhoti and 
another sheet over his shoulders.  This has obviously been toned down a 
bit in recent years, and pious Hindu businessmen often wear suits and 
ties.  "Hindustan" was the land of the (River) Sindh in Persian, which 
was adopted by the Mughals, though they were of Turkic origin.  It 
gradually came to mean the land of the Hindus and they eventually 
adopted it themselves.  The neutral vowel, unwritten in Sanskritic 
languages, comes out in UK English as "a" and American English as "o". 
Sorry about the confusion: a product of my fast surfing.

-- 
You can't fool me: there ain't no Sanity Clause.  -Chico Marx

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/1955