currently there is a exhibit at American Museum of Natural History- (NY) about Hindu aspects of worship
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/meeting_god/index.html?src=h_h you can read about some of the ideas.
It seems that Hindu's worship aspects of god..
what is interesting about hinduism, and judism, is both religions are extremely old.. and both religions are ones you are born into. both christianity and (i think a lesser degree)Ismlam, are religions that copy from judism, but are open to all comers. while it is possible to convert to judism, prostilatizing, and looking for new members has never been an aspect of judism.
if a group of people lived near to jews, and came to see the idea of one god, the idea of law, of living by the word of god, as a good thing, there was no practical way for them to "join". One aspect of christianity is that jesus was the messiah, but an other aspect was, it an created opportunities for many people to join a group that met their needs.. the god of the the big three (judism, christianity, and islam) is very different than the roman or greek gods.. (one other signifigant difference. Judism does not hold with slavery. it is considered immoral. Indenturing servents for 10 years is ok, but not holding slaves. Unfortunately, both christianity and islamic people tend to forget this!--if you were a slave, judism must have looked very attractive!)
both islam and buddism became big alternative in area where Hinduism was practiced. both did away with a ancient cast system-- in buddism, the caste system was 'transformed' into aspect of re-incarnation..
this is a very simplistic look, and is only my opinion..
