Buddhism was founded by Siddhartha Guatama in the late 6th Century, B.C.E.
Siddhartha Guatama was born in 560 B.C.E., to a ruling family in the kingdom of Sakya, located on the border between Nepal and India. Though he was given every material luxury, Siddhartha soon grew restless. While out for a walk, he encountered an old person, an ill person and a funeral for someone that had died. Slowly, scenes of human suffering he witnessed while traveling the kingdom began to take their toll on him. He began spending much of his time engaged in deep contemplation of his life experiences and in periods of Meditation. When he was 29, gave away his belongings and renounced his princely life, vowing to seek out holy men that would teach him how get beyond himself and break the endless chain of human misery.
He sat beneath a Bodhi (fig) tree in deep meditation, determined not to move until he had found Enlightenment. During his meditation, he encountered Mara, the Hindu personification of evil. She tempted him with all the sensual pleasures in an effort to distract him from his quest. Siddhartha simply ignored her. By sunset, Mara and all the temptations she presented him with were gone. From his experiences, Siddhartha distilled his Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path. These teachings were to become the religious doctrine of Buddhism. Siddhartha traveled, teaching many people his system.
Buddhism is one of the world's largest religions today. Yet, there are some sources that claim that Buddhism is not a religion on the basis that, according to them, Buddhism doesn't recognized God in any form. I wish to point out, however, that according to Siddhartha's (or Buddha, as he would later be called) experiences in Meditation, the deities associated with Buddhism are Hindu. Hindu teachings were clearly a part of Siddhartha's foundation for Buddhism, or he would not have encountered the Hindu deity, Mara, as his adversary.