Vedic Religion and Philosophy

• Some gods had also been worshipped during the Rig Vedic period, which were the personified powers of nature.

Categories of Gods

• The Vedic Gods were classified into three categories as −
  1. Terrestrial (Prithivisthana) e.g. Prithivi, Agni, Soma, Brihaspati, and Rivers.
  2. Aerial or intermediate (Antarikshasthana), Indra, Apam-napat, Rudra, Vayu-Vata, Prujanya, and Apah (water).
  3. Celestial (Dyusthana) e.g. Dyaus, Varuna, Mitra, Surya, Savitri, Pushan, Vishnu, the Adityas, Ushas, and the Asvins.

• Indra and Varuna (the supreme cosmic and moral ruler) stand out in that order, pre-eminent above the rest.
• Agni and Soma were also popular deities. Agni was valued as the messenger between the earth and the heaven. Agni is the only God who is regarded as present among all the categories of Gods.
• Gods are described as born yet they are immortal. In appearance, they are humans, though sometimes they are conceived as animals, e.g. Dyaus as a bull and Sun as a swift horse.
• In the sacrifice to the God, ordinary food of men such as milk, grain, flesh, etc. were offered and it becomes the food of Gods.
• The gods normally used to be kind; but some of them also had unkind traits, like Rudra and Maruta.
• Splendor, strength, knowledge, possession, and truth are common attributes of all the deities.
• Gayatri Mantra is recited daily by the pious Hindus even today.
• The multiplicity of gods is due to the different designations that have been given to God.
• The ultimate unity of the universe is asserted as the creation of one God to whom different designations applied.
• The creation is deemed as the outcome of the sacrifice made by the Viratpurusha or of evolution from nonbeing manifested in the form of water.
• It is mentioned that Hiranyagarbha arose from the great waters, pervading the universe, and thus created the waves out of eternally pre-existing matter.
• The hymn devoted to Visvakarman tells us that the waters contained the floating world egg from which Visvakarman arises; the first born in the universe, the creator, and maker of the world. It is now confirmed by science that life first developed in water.

Ancient Indian History – The Aryan Invasion

• Similarities between Sanskrit and European languages (especially with Latin and Greek) was first noticed by a merchant Filippo Sassetti, who lived in Goa between 1583 and 1588 A.D.
• Sir William Jones and many other scholars who were in the service of East India Company elaborated the language similarities (between European and Indian languages).
• On the basis of the similarities, some scholars postulated that the ancestors of Indians and Europeans, must at one time, had lived in the same region and spoken the same language.
• The scholars called this Indo-European language and their common homeland as the Indo-European homeland. This created a great divergence of opinion about the problem of identifying the original homeland of the Aryans, which was still a matter of debate.
• A number of homelands (of Aryans) have been propounded, such as Steppe of central Asia, southern Russia, southern Europe, Germany, Chinese Turkistan, or even Mediterranean area like Palestine and Israel. Almost everywhere, the Vedic language and its literature were found (except India).
• The Rig Veda is the oldest surviving records of the Aryans. It does not give any evidence (even a suspicion) of any migration of Aryans from any other area.
• Max Muller assigned period between 1,200 or 1,000 B.C. for this event. Max Muller as a true Christian believed in Bible and according to Bible, the world was created on 23^rd October 4,004 B.C. and thus Max Muller had the challenge to accommodate the entire human history within the 6,000 years.
• The Aryans were originally inhabitants of India and did not come from outside as there is no archaeological or biological evidence, which could establish the arrival of any new people from outside between 5,000 B.C. and 800 B.C.

Harappan Civilization and Rigveda

• A careful consideration of the evidence of the Rig Veda will lead to the conclusion that references it contains about people and their civilization may be taken to refer to the Harappan
• The Discovery of Boghaz-Koi inscription (of 14^th century B.C.) mentioned Rig Vedic deities that the Rig Veda existed earlier and the culture migrated from India to Asia Minor in that early age.
• The time period of the Rig Veda in its final form should be placed not later than about 3,000 B.C.