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Indian Ethnicity and Religious Heritage
futile. However, when the question is in fact raised and discussed with great learning and labor, I am tempted to show that in some very basic aspects - ontological, epistemological and metaphysical - Jainism and Buddhism stand "distinct" and even "apart" from what is known as "Hinduism", or , as I would like to put it, "Vedic Tradition". For clarity I would like to note that I am in full agreement with the author that "Hinduism" is a misnomer unless it is taken in a geographical sense. However for the sake of convenience and exposition let me use the expression "Hinduism" to indicate coverage for different religious trends which have developed in India by the followers of Vedas.
Proceeding in this manner we find that Hinduism is an ocean wherein the waters of different and divergent rivers of thought have met and mixed with each other. They are Dwait, Adwait, Vishishtadwait, Mimansa, Naiyayika, Sankhya, Yoga, Shaivi, Vaishnavi, Bhakti, Jnana, Karma and even Agnosticism.. These different trends of Hinduism are some times complimentary and equal number
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