Historical Vedic religion
The religion of the Vedic period (also known as Vedism, ancient Hinduism, Brahmanism and Vedic Brahmanism) was the religion of the Indo-Aryans of northern India. It is a historical predecessor of modern Hinduism, though significantly different from it.
The Vedic liturgy is conserved in the mantra portion of the four Vedas, which are compiled in Sanskrit. The religious practices centered on a clergy administering rites. The complex Vedic rituals of Śrauta continue in coastal Andhra.
Scholars consider Vedic religion to have been a composite of the Indo-Aryan and Harappan cultures.
Origins
The commonly proposed period of earlier Vedic age is dated back to 2nd millennium BCE. The Vedic religion was the religion of the Indo-Aryans, and existed in northern India from c. 1750 to 500 BCE. The Indo-Aryans were a branch of the Indo-European language family, which originated in the Kurgan culture of the Central Asian steppes. bringing with them their language and religion. They were closely related to the Indo-Aryans who founded Mitanni kingdom in northern Syria (ca.1500-1300 BCE). Both groups were rooted in the Andronovo-culture in the Bactria-Margiana era, in present northern Afghanistan, and related to the Indo-Iranians, from which they split-off around 1800-1600 BCE. Their roots go back further to the Sintashta culture, with funeral sacrifices which show close parallels to the sacrificial funeral rites of the Rig Veda.
The immigrations consisted probably of small groups of people.Jonathan Mark Kenoyer notes that "there is no archaeological or biological evidence for invasions or mass migrations into the Indus Valley between the end of the Harappan phase, about 1900 B.C. and the beginning of the Early Historic period around 600 B.C."
For an overview of the current relevant research, see:
