Relative ages of major religions
Placing the major world religions on a timeline shows wide gaps in age. Hinduism has no single founder and developed gradually from Vedic traditions, with roots commonly traced to roughly 1500 BCE or earlier, making it the oldest of the large living traditions. Judaism's foundational period is generally placed in the second millennium BCE. Buddhism arose with Siddhartha Gautama around the 5th to 6th century BCE in India, roughly contemporary with the early development of several other Eastern philosophies.
The Abrahamic sequence and major schisms
Christianity began in the 1st century CE from within Judaism, and Islam dates its founding to the early 7th century CE with the prophet Muhammad. Each tradition later experienced major internal divisions: Christianity's East-West Schism in 1054 and the Protestant Reformation beginning in 1517, Islam's early Sunni-Shia split following disputes over succession, and various sectarian developments within Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. A timeline highlights both founding dates and these branching points.