Editing Indian religions (section)

===== Unifying Hinduism =====
{{Main|Unifying Hinduism}}
[[File:An aerial view of Madurai city from atop of Meenakshi Amman temple.jpg|thumb|center|upright=3.7|An aerial view of the [[Meenakshi Temple]] from the top of the southern [[gopuram]], looking north. The temple was rebuilt by the Vijayanagar Empire.|alt=aerial image of a temple campus.]]

According to Nicholson, already between the 12th and 16th century,

{{blockquote|... certain thinkers began to treat as a single whole the diverse philosophival teachings of the Upanishads, epics, Puranas, and the schools known retrospectively as the "six systems" (''saddarsana'') of mainstream Hindu philosophy.{{sfn|Nicholson|2010|p=2}}}}

The tendency of "a blurring of philosophical distinctions" has also been noted by [[Mikel Burley]].{{sfn|Burley|2007|p=34}} Lorenzen locates the origins of a distinct Hindu identity in the interaction between Muslims and Hindus,{{sfn|Lorenzen|2006|p=24-33}} and a process of "mutual self-definition with a contrasting Muslim other",{{sfn|Lorenzen|2006|p=27}} which started well before 1800.{{sfn|Lorenzen|2006|p=26-27}} Both the Indian and the European thinkers who developed the term "Hinduism" in the 19th century were influenced by these philosophers.{{sfn|Nicholson|2010|p=2}}