historical Vedic religion

 

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This article discusses the historical religious practices in the Vedic time period; see Hinduism and Indian religions for details of continued religious practices. See Śrauta for the continuing practice of performance of rituals by an oral passing of hymns/chants through generations.

The religion of the Vedic period (also known as Vedism or Vedic Brahmanism or, in a context of Indian antiquity, simply Brahmanism^[1]) is the historical predecessor of Hinduism and the other Indian religions. Its liturgy is reflected in the Mantra portion of the four Vedas. The religious practices centered on a clergy administering sacrificial rites. A small fraction of conservative Shrautins continue this tradition today within contemporary Hinduism.

Texts dating to the Vedic period, composed in Vedic Sanskrit, are mainly the four Vedic Samhitas, but the Brahmanas, and some of the older Upanishads (BAU, ChU, JUB) are also considered Vedic. The Vedas record the liturgy connected with the rituals and sacrifices performed by the purohitas. According to traditional views, the hymns of the Rigveda and other Vedic hymns were divinely revealed to the rishis, who were considered "hearers" (shruti means "what is heard"), rather than "authors". However, the Rigvedic hymns clearly speak about composing new hymns by individual authors who were in competition with their colleagues.

The mode of worship was worship of the elements like fire and rivers, worship of heroic gods like Indra (quite similar to the Greek religion), chanting of hymns and performance of sacrifices. The priests helped the common man in performing rituals. People prayed for abundance of children, rain, cattle (wealth), long life and an afterlife in the heavenly world of the ancestors. This mode of worship has been preserved even today in Hinduism, which involve recitations from the Vedas by a purohit (priest), for prosperity, wealth and general well-being.

Elements of Vedic religion reach back into Proto-Indo-Iranian times. The Vedic period is held to have ended around 500 BC, Vedic religion gradually metamorphosizing into the historical Indian religions, among them the Vedanta school of Hinduism and Buddhism, the former further evolving into Puranic Hinduism, the latter diversifying into Chinese and Japanese schools.

Rituals

Main articles: Yajurveda and yajna

Specific rituals and sacrifices of the Vedic religion include:

• The Soma cult described in the Rigveda, descended from a common Indo-Iranian practice.
• Fire rituals, also a common Indo-Iranian practice, cf. Zoroastrianism:
  • The Agnihotra or oblation to Agni, a sun charm,
  • The Agnicayana, the sophisticated ritual of piling the fire altar.
  • The Agnistoma or Soma sacrifice
• The Ashvamedha or horse sacrifice
• The Purushamedha, or symbolic sacrifice of a man, imitating that of the the cosmic Purusha, cf. Purusha Sukta
• The rituals described in the Atharvaveda concerned with medicine and healing practises, as well as black and white magic.

The Ashvamedha (horse sacrifice) has parallels in the 2nd millennium BC Sintashta and Andronovo culture, in India allegedly continued until the 4th and even the 18th century CE (Jaya Singh at Jaipur). The practice of vegetarianism may already have arisen in late Vedic times. Although in the Rigveda, the cow's description as aghnya (that which should not be killed) may refer to poetry ^[2], it is certain to be reflective of the social practice as were other practices like rituals and deity worship. The overall metamorphosis into contemporary vegetarianism is seen as early as the late Brahmanas and Upanishads and may have continued under the influence of Jainism, of the nascent Vedanta reform and possibly of Buddhism, which began as a reform-movement of the Vedic religion.

The Hindu rites of cremation were developed during the Vedic period; while they are attested from early times in the Cemetery H culture, there is a late Rigvedic reference in RV 10.15.14, invoking forefathers "both cremated (agnidagdhá-) and uncremated (ánagnidagdha-)".

Pantheon

Main article: Rigvedic deities

The Vedic pantheon, similar to its Greek or Germanic counterparts, comprises clans of anthropomorphic deities as well as deified natural phenomena, and like the Germanic Vanir and Aesir it knows two classes of gods, Devas and Asuras. The Asuras (Mitra, Varuna, Aryaman, Bhaga, Amsa, etc.) are deities of cosmic and social order, from the universe and kingdoms down to the individual. The Rigveda is a collection of hymns to various deities, most notably heroic Indra, Agni the sacrificial fire and messenger of the gods, and Soma, the deified sacred drink of the Indo-Iranians. Also prominent is Varuna (often paired with Mitra) and the group of "all-gods", the Vishvadevas.

Monistic tendencies

Already the Rigveda, in its youngest books (books 1 and 10) contains hymns for monistic thought, that however need to be interpreted in the context of the individual hymn. Often quoted are pada 1.164.46c,

ékam sád víprā́ bahudhā́ vadanti

"To what is One, sages give many a title" (trans. Griffith)

and hymns 10.129 and 10.130, dealing with a creator deity, especially verse 10.129.7:

iyám vísṛṣṭiḥ yátaḥ ābabhûva / yádi vā dadhé yádi vā ná / yáḥ asya ádhyakṣaḥ paramé vyóman / sáḥ aṅgá veda yádi vā ná véda

"He, the first origin of this creation, whether he formed it all or did not form it, / Whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not." (trans. Griffith)

Ékam sát in 1.164.46c means "One Being" or "One Truth". Such concepts received greater emphasis in classical Hinduism, from the time of Adi Shankara at the latest, and they receive emphasis in contemporary Hinduism from pantheistic sects like Arya Samaj.

Post-Vedic religions

Main article: Indian religions

Vedic religion gradually diversified into the Hindu paths of Yoga and Vedanta, a religious path considering itself the 'essence' of the Vedas. The Vedic pantheon was interpreted as a unitary view of the universe with God seen as immanent and transcendent in the forms of Ishvara (God's Personal Feature), Paramatma (God's localised feature) and Brahman (God's Impersonal Energies). There are also conservative schools which continue portions of the historical Vedic religion largely unchanged until today (see Śrauta, Nambudiri).

Religions that have continued from the Vedic religion :

• Shramana traditions (nastika):^[3]
  • Jainism, from the 6th century BC
  • Buddhism, from ca. 500 BC; declined in India over the 8th to 12th centuries in favour of Pauranic Hinduism.
• Hinduism is an umbrella term for astika traditions in India (see History of Hinduism)
  • Puranas, Sanskrit epics^[4]
  • the classical schools of Hindu philosophy, of which only Vedanta is extant.
  • Shaivism
  • Vaishnavism
  • Bhakti
  • Shrauta traditions, maintaining much of the original form of the Vedic religion.

Notes

See also

• Vedic priesthood
• Vedic period
• Brahmanism
• Proto-Indo-European religion
• Zoroastrianism

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