Indo-Aryan Vedic religion The Vedic religion refers to the religious beliefs of some Vedic
Indo-Aryan tribes, the
aryas, who migrated into the Indus River valley region of the Indian subcontinent after the collapse of the
Indus Valley Civilisation. The Vedic religion, and subsequent Brahmanism, centre on the myths and ritual ideologies of the Vedas, as distinguished from
Agamic,
Tantric and sectarian forms of Indian religion, which take recourse to the authority of non-Vedic textual sources. The Vedic religion is described in the
Vedas and associated with voluminous Vedic literature, including the early
Upanishads, preserved into the modern times by the different priestly schools. The religion existed in the western Ganges plain in the early Vedic period from 1500–1100 BCE, and developed into Brahmanism in the late Vedic period ( 1100–500 BCE). The eastern Ganges plain was dominated by another Indo-Aryan complex, which rejected the later Brahmanical ideology and gave rise to
Jainism and
Buddhism, and the
Maurya Empire.
Indo-European roots and syncreticism The Indo-Aryans were speakers of a branch of the
Indo-European language family which originated in the
Sintashta culture and further developed into the
Andronovo culture, which in turn developed out of the
Kurgan culture of the
Central Asian
steppes. The commonly proposed period of earlier Vedic age is dated back to 2nd millennium BCE. The Vedic beliefs and practices of the pre-classical era were closely related to the hypothesized
Proto-Indo-European religion, and shows relations with rituals from the
Andronovo culture, from which the Indo-Aryan people descended. According to Anthony, the Old Indic religion probably emerged among Indo-European immigrants in the contact zone between the
Zeravshan River (present-day
Uzbekistan) and (present-day) Iran. It was "a syncretic mixture of old Central Asian and new Indo-European elements" which borrowed "distinctive religious beliefs and practices" from the
Bactria–Margiana culture (BMAC). This syncretic influence is supported by at least
383 non-Indo-European words that were borrowed from this culture, including the god
Indra and the ritual drink
soma. According to Anthony, The oldest inscriptions in Old Indic, the language of the
Rig Veda, are found in northern Syria, the location of the
Mitanni kingdom. The Mitanni kings took Old Indic throne names, and Old Indic technical terms were used for horse-riding and chariot-driving. The Old Indic term
r'ta, meaning "cosmic order and truth", the central concept of the
Rig Veda, was also employed in the Mitanni kingdom. Old Indic gods, including
Indra, were also known in the Mitanni kingdom.
South Asian influences The Vedic religion was the product of "a composite of the Indo-Aryan and Harappan cultures and civilizations". White (2003) cites three other scholars who "have emphatically demonstrated" that Vedic religion is partially derived from the
Indus Valley civilization. It is unclear if the theory in diverse Vedic texts actually reflects the folk practices, iconography, and other practical aspects of the Vedic religion. The Vedic religion changed when Indo-Aryan people migrated into the
Ganges Plain after 1100 BCE and became settled farmers, further syncretizing with the native cultures of northern India. The evidence suggests that the Vedic religion evolved in "two superficially contradictory directions", namely an ever more "elaborate, expensive, and specialized system of rituals", which survives in the present-day
srauta-ritual,
Brahmanism Historical Brahminism Brahmanism, also called Brahminism or Brahmanical Hinduism, developed out of the Vedic religion, incorporating non-Vedic religious ideas, and expanding to a
region stretching from the northwest Indian subcontinent to the Ganges valley. Brahmanism included the Vedic corpus, but also post-Vedic texts such as the
Dharmasutras and
Dharmasastras, which gave prominence to the priestly (
Brahmin) caste of the society, Heesterman also mentions the post-Vedic
Smriti (
Puranas and the Epics), which are also incorporated in the later
Smarta tradition. The emphasis on ritual and the dominant position of Brahmins developed as an ideology in the
Kuru-Pancala realm, and expanded over a wider area after the demise of the Kuru-Pancala kingdom and its incorporation into the Magadha-based empires. It co-existed with local religions, such as the
Yaksha cults. The word
Brahmanism was coined by Gonçalo Fernandes Trancoso (1520–1596) in the 16th century. Historically, and still by some modern authors, the word 'Brahmanism' was used in English to refer to the
Hindu religion, treating the term Brahmanism as synonymous with
Hinduism, and using it interchangeably. Michael S. Allen criticises the use of "Brahminism" for the "greater Vedic tradition", arguing that it obscures the contribution of non-Brahmins to the tradition. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Brahminism was the most common term used in English for Hinduism. Brahmanism gave importance to Absolute Reality (Brahman) speculations in the early
Upanishads, as these terms are etymologically linked, which developed from post-Vedic ideas during the late Vedic era. The concept of Brahman is posited as that which existed before the creation of the universe, which constitutes all of existence thereafter, and into which the universe will dissolve, followed by similar endless creation-maintenance-destruction cycles. The post-Vedic period of the Second Urbanisation saw a decline of Brahmanism. With the growth of political entities, which threatened the income and patronage of the rural Brahmins including; the
Sramanic movement, the conquests of eastern empires from
Magadha including the
Nanda Empire and the
Mauryan Empire, and also invasions and foreign rule of the northwestern Indian Subcontinent which brought in new political entities. This was overcome by providing new services and incorporating the non-Vedic Indo-Aryan religious heritage of the eastern Ganges plain and local religious traditions, giving rise to contemporary
Hinduism. The term is frequently used by
anti-Brahmin opponents, who object to their domination of Indian society and their exclusivist ideology. They follow the outline of 19th-century colonial rulers, who viewed India's culture as corrupt and degenerate, and its population as irrational. In this view, derived from a Christian understanding of religion, the original "God-given religion" was corrupted by priests, in this case Brahmins, and their religion, "Brahminism", which was supposedly imposed on the Indian population. Reformist Hindus, and others such as
Ambedkar, structured their criticism along similar lines. ==Textual history==