Hinduism (originally written hindooism) is the European appellation in use since around 1780 for what was perceived to be an Indian religion on par with other religions, especially Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The emergence of this term can be seen as the culmination of a conceptual development in Europe resulting from inquiry into Indian religions. Hinduism replaced previous explanatory terms like brahmanism and gentooism (gentilism) [6. 56], which themselves had been understood from the beginning to be constructs [6. 155]. The new term denoted,  with both e…