WI - Hindu Ethiopia

According to Wikipedia, ancient India and Ethiopia had maintained contacts with one another since the 2nd Century via the Red Sea trade. If possible, could Hinduism become a prominent enough religion for an Aksumite/Ethiopian Emperor to proclaim it a state religion, similarly as Ezana did in the 330s? What are the effects of Ethiopia going Hindu?
 
According to Wikipedia, ancient India and Ethiopia had maintained contacts with one another since the 2nd Century via the Red Sea trade. If possible, could Hinduism become a prominent enough religion for an Aksumite/Ethiopian Emperor to proclaim it a state religion, similarly as Ezana did in the 330s? What are the effects of Ethiopia going Hindu?

Hinduism doesn't do well in incorporating non-indian people imo, secondly the merchants themselves likely didnt seek converts and any hindu deities or rites would have been incorporated into the pre-existing beliefs of the land rather than supplant them.
 
It’s not impossible, you just need more Indian based merchants to be actively participating in the Arabian Sea trade rather than simply acting as vendors at the end of it. An easy way to do this would actually be to have the Great Kshatraps, the Scythian-descended rulers of Gujarat, Southern Rajasthan and chunks of Maharashtra defeat the Satavahana Empire which wasn’t as maritime, therefore leading to their ascendancy and ability to trade in peace.

When the Sadhavas of Kalinga and the various Tamil kingdoms were able to achieve this and simply project maritime power they converted and Indicized the majority of South-east Asia. With a permanent base in Socotra (which is an Arabicization of a Sanskrit word, and was already as staging base for Indian merchants OTL) they might be able to achieve similar things here. It’s also a prime moment for this to occur now because syncretisation is in full swing with Kushans promoting it in India proper with the rise of deities such as Oesho. The rites and worship of such deities can easily subsume the old Ethiopian deities such as Astar and Beher.

Or a different way to achieve this is for the Pandyan or Cheran kings to initiate the Indiacizatio. Of the Horn of Africa. Eventually the princes of Aksum may need legitimacy and they’ll invite Brahmins to legitimise them and marry the princesses of Pandyan descent to gain it, initiating a different sort of religious conversion via Vedic rites.
 
Youre more likely to have Tewahedo states in India than Hindu states in Ethiopia. You could have hindu *swahili
 

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I seriously doubt it. Ethiopia is quite faraway and the influence from other religions from West Asia and North Africa isn't less. The kind of mechanism you mentioned wouldn't work for Hinduism(emperor converting, making it a state religion as did Christianity in Rome). It would have to be an offshoot of Hinduism as is Christianity to Judaism. I don't think Christianity could be butterflied away from Ethiopia. Even if they have a Hindu influence, they would be less connected to the Hindu heartland in the subcontinent while more connected to Roman Empire, West Asia and North Africa and hence, Christianity would make still make it. Unlike Indonesia, it is too influenced by the other major powers close by.
 
Youre more likely to have Tewahedo states in India than Hindu states in Ethiopia. You could have hindu *swahili

Historically even the pure Indian migrants reduced their observance to Hinduism by the 3rd generation.

Caste and those outside of the caste system will have limited ability to integrate into Hindu communities.
 

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Historically even the pure Indian migrants reduced their observance to Hinduism by the 3rd generation.

Caste and those outside of the caste system will have limited ability to integrate into Hindu communities.
The diaspora is the best example for this. Due to the closed nature, most in the future generations who have lesser and lesser contact with the Country of origin will drift faraway from the religion in pursuit of opportunities in their now native land that's the Center of their Universe. I don't see why similar things shouldn't happen in the eras preceding. Plus, your previous point is very relevant. Hinduism hasn't done well with foreigners until the Neo-Hindu movements.
 
Historically even the pure Indian migrants reduced their observance to Hinduism by the 3rd generation.

Caste and those outside of the caste system will have limited ability to integrate into Hindu communities.
I mean, it all comes down to the main question that a lot of the time doesn't have a good answer: If you are Hindu, and the people all around you are polytheist, and you are also polytheist, why not just convert to the local polytheism and not have to deal with the mess that comes with being the "wrong" sort of polytheist, especially when it comes to religions like Hinduism that really don't care all that much about orthodoxy as long as you have a kind of orthopraxy.

You could totally get Buddhist Ethiopia, though, especially with an earlier POD.
 
The diaspora is the best example for this. Due to the closed nature, most in the future generations who have lesser and lesser contact with the Country of origin will drift faraway from the religion in pursuit of opportunities in their now native land that's the Center of their Universe. I don't see why similar things shouldn't happen in the eras preceding. Plus, your previous point is very relevant. Hinduism hasn't done well with foreigners until the Neo-Hindu movements.

I would disagree. The Indicization of South East Asia and the state of Sogdia prior the Hepthalite invasions shows that Hinduism has done pretty well with fun non-Indian groups.
 

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I would disagree. The Indicization of South East Asia and the state of Sogdia prior the Hepthalite invasions shows that Hinduism has done pretty well with fun non-Indian groups.
Are you confusing Khotan with Sogdia, by any chance? Khotan was inhabited by a branch of the people who brought Hinduism (Indo-Aryans) and later conquered by the Saka Buddhist+Pagan ruling class. Even their bordering cities inhabited by Tocharians were fully Buddhist+Shaman(?). Most of the foreign rulers of India were Buddhist, Pagan and later Muslim and finally Christian.
 
Are you confusing Khotan with Sogdia, by any chance? Khotan was inhabited by a branch of the people who brought Hinduism (Indo-Aryans) and later conquered by the Saka Buddhist+Pagan ruling class. Even their bordering cities inhabited by Tocharians were fully Buddhist+Shaman(?). Most of the foreign rulers of India were Buddhist, Pagan and later Muslim and finally Christian.

I’m familiar with Khotan’s history, the Gandhari influx debate and the eventual Iranicization of the region via the settling of the Saka tribes.

However Sogdia during the 5th-7th centuries AD did have the worship of Indic deities. As I previously mentioned the Kashmiri Shaivite rendition of Shiva was widely being worshipped as Oesho-Veshparkar, an unspecified Durga-like deity was revered, Vaishravana (Kubera) was invoked alongside many Iranica deities and Indra’s worship as depicted in many paintings shows threaded figures standing before a small fire altar praising ‘Abdab’. There was clearly a sizeable worship of Puranic deities.

Now I’m not saying the region was fully Hindu, useless as that term is prior to the 13th century, but there was a sizeable minority present alongside the Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Iranian polytheists, Manichaeans and Christians in the region.
 
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