Within it are two great epic Sanskrit poems, Mahabharata and the Ramayan, the Puranas, and the Dharmashastras and Dharmasutras, which are textbooks on sacred law. Like most other major religions, this play a key role in the theology of the Hindu people.
These texts create a complex philosophy that is very unique to the Hindu religion. The central idea of their beliefs is that the universe is an enclosed item, with many concentric layers. They are made up of many worlds, hells, heavens, oceans, continents, etc., with India being the center of it all. For them time is both degenerative and cylic; with their being three periods of time, each of decreasing amounts of goodness until at the end of the third period Kali Yuga, the world is destroyed as its engulfed in flames. After each Kali Yuga though, the world starts over again, in its purest time period. Another fundamental of their belief system is that just as the world is cyclic, so is life. Upon death, the soul will be recycled and come back to life in one of four forms; human, animal, vegetable, and mineral. The level of goodness in your previous lives, the concept of karma, determines what form is taken in future lives. This endless series of life is known as samsara. Release (moksha) from this can only come from the giving up of all worldly desires during one of your lives. Based on this principle, Hindus can essentially be divided into two distinct sects. These are those that seek worldly rewards, such as good rebirth, and those that look for release from the world altogether. The ideals of the first group are derived from the oldest texts, the Vedas, and are represented today in temple Hinduism. The second sect gets their advisement from the Upanishads and is found in ideology of most Hindus. The worldly aspect of Hinduism originally consisted of three Vedas, classes of society, stages of life, and goals of man with the goals and purpose of women being rarely discussed.