The Sanatana dharma traces its existance back to some 10 thousands years back. There is an old saying that when people in the west were busy in making utensils out of human bones the people in India were writing Vedas. We have not only invented the number system but been using it efficiently for astronomy. The word Hindu which has been for long seen as a religious identity of a group of people is in actually the geographical identity of the people living side the great Himalayas and the Indu sagar(ocean). So if we follow that up then every person living in India be him a christian or Muslim or follower of any other religion is actually a Hindu. But with time the word "Hindu" had became the identity of the followers of "Sanatan Dharma". "Sanatana" is a Sanskrit word that denotes that which is Anadi (beginningless), Anantha (endless) and does not cease to be, that which is eternal and everlasting. Dharma is from dhri, meaning to hold together, ...