Historical Vedic religion
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This article discusses the historical religious practices in the Vedic time period; see Dharmic religions for details of contemporary religious practices. See Śrauta for the continuing practice of Vedic rituals.
The religion of the Vedic period (also known as Vedism[1]) is the historical predecessor of the Dharmic religions. Its liturgy is reflected in the Mantra portion of the 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. To the rishis, the hymns of the Rigveda and other Vedic hymns were divinely revealed, and they were considered "hearers" (shruti means "what is heard"), rather than "authors".
The mode of worship was performance of sacrifices and chanting of hymns. The priests helped the common man in performing rituals. People prayed for abundance of children, cattle and wealth. This mode of worship is largely intact even today, 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 Dharmic religions, notably the Vedanta schools and Buddhism, the former further evolving into Puranic Hinduism, the latter diversifying into Chinese and Japanese schools.
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[edit] Rituals
The Ashvamedha (horse sacrifice) has parallels in the 2nd millennium BC Andronovo culture, in India allegedly continued until the 4th century AD. The practice of vegetarianism may already have arisen in late Vedic times. In the Rig-Veda, the cow is often described as aghnya (that which should not be killed). However, the overall metamorphosis into contemporary vegeteranism may have begun under the influence of the nascent Vedanta reform and possibly Buddhism, which began as a reform-movement of the Vedic religion.
The Hindu rites of cremation, 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-)", indicating convergence of Aryan (Indo-Iranian) and pre-Aryan traditions.
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
- The Agnicayana, the sophisticated ritual of piling the fire altar.
- The Agnistoma or fire sacrifice
- The Ashvamedha or horse sacrifice
- The Purushamedha, or sacrifice of the cosmic Purusha, cf. Purusha Sukta
- The rituals described in the Atharvaveda concerned with demonology and magic.
[edit] Pantheon
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 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.
[edit] Monistic tendencies
Already the Rigveda, in its youngest books (books 1 and 10) contains evidence for emerging monistic thought. 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.
These monistic tendencies are reflected in modern sects of Hinduism like the pantheistic Arya Samaj according to which, there is only one creator who encompasses the universe and it is He whom must be striven to be attained by all. This sect does not worship individual deities such as Ganesha or Lakshmi, as is done today by most Hindus.
[edit] Offshoots of Vedic religion
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 :
Out of these, Hinduism has maintained almost all of original form of the Vedic religion, and has evolved over time to be the in the highly diverse and multi-faceted henotheistic, form that we know of today.
Modern Hinduism as we know today considers the four Vedas (Rig-Veda, Atharva-Veda, Sama-Veda and Yajur Veda) and the Upanishads as sacred texts. Of the four vedas, the Rig-Veda has the highest authority. The word 'Hindu' had been nomenclatured by Persians signifying those living on the other side of the river Sindhu relative to them. Otherwise, most scholars believe that Hinduism as known today, is actually Vedanta and its followers as Vedantists. This idea was first mooted by Swami Vivekananda.
Zoroastrianism shares common Indo-Iranian properties with the Vedic religion but it is not a direct descendant.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Encyclopedia Britannica 2007
