The Vedic religion is one of the oldest echelons of religious activity of India and is still reckoned as the starting point of the idea of Hinduism. Vedas are a composition of ancient texts which are the oldest scriptures containing religious verses, functions and auspicious occasions. The Vedic religion is contoured by these Vedas, which are supposed to have been directly revealed and are not human compositions. It is therefore indeed necessary to understand the Vedas in order to know the real meaning of the Vedic religion.. There are four Vedas namely the Rigveda, the Samaveda, the Yajurveda and the Atharvaveda. The Rigveda is in poetical form with more than a thousand hymns in about ten thousand stanzas. The Samaveda is wholly derived from the Rigveda and has a little less than two thousand stanzas. The Yajurveda i.e. Vajasaneyl text has both poetry and prose with a total of about two thousand stanzas and prose units. The Atharvaveda has over seven hundred hymns in about six thousand stanzas and prose units. The Yajurveda and the Atharvaveda, too, have many Rigvedic stanzas in them.

According to the Vedic religion there are two different ways of approaching the Ultimate Reality. One of them is through an inner spiritual vision and another through poetic vision, which makes what, is seen with the eye a symbol of what is seen with the spirit and the mind. The descriptions of gods that are depicted in the Vedic religion are not intellectual conceptions but are experiences.

The mythology of the Rigveda constantly relates itself to the process of creation and to the early ages of the world. It is said that like the individual soul the creation is also divine. The Sun, the Moon, Fire, Air, Water, Earth are all gods according to the Vedic seers. According to the Nirukta fire on the earth, Air in the intermediate region between the heaven and the earth, and the Sun in the sky are the most important gods. Each of these three gods becomes thirty-three. These thirty-three gods again split themselves into three thousand, three hundred and thirty-nine gods. Thus the whole creation is called Aditi. She is complete, infinite and indivisible. She is considered the mother of all gods. She is the original form of creation. In reality all the gods are the part and parcel of one god. They are born as the result of contact with each other and are forms of each other. This is also the very kernel of the Vedic religion. Various planes are evident in this Vedic mythology. On the farthest plane are Dyaus or Heaven and Prthivi or earth. In the middle distance is the figure of Varuna. In the foreground Indra and his great cycle stand. Some aggressive gods, who have absorbed the substance of many other figures into themselves and now dominate the mythological legend, are also present. Lastly the fire in all its forms and Soma were given divine status. In part the Rigvedic gods are the transposition of natural phenomena to the mythical plane.

In Vedic religion therefore Vedic nature-worship is undeniable. The Sun is an all-pervading, ever-present force shown in many forms directly and also symbolically. Varuna and Mitra i.e. the Sun represent two complementary aspects of the sovereign power, one magical and terrible in character and the other juridical and benign.

The Vedic religion talks about the inner vision which is indeed the ultimate Reality; the Pure Being, Formless, Attributeless, Sexless and Nameless. Vedic scriptures like the Rig Veda describe this pre-creation state whilst throwing light to the gist of Vedic religion. "There was neither existence nor non-existence then, neither the world nor the sky that lies beyond it....The One (ekam) breathed airless by self-impulse, other than that (lat) was nothing what-so-ever. What was that One (tat ekam) as the unborn" . The seers have repeatedly identified the Deva i.e. the manifest-Absolute and with the Pure Being i.e. the Unmanifested Absolute. It is evident then, that any one of Devas or Devis may be regarded as the Supreme Being or the Absolute.

In fact the underlying principle of the Vedic religion is monotheism. An undertone of monistic tendency therefore is an inseparable part of the Vedic religion. Monistic tendencies are found in the Nasadiya Sukta of the RigVeda. This talks about the `One` being-non-being that `breathed without breath`. Evidence of this monistic thought is found in pada 1.164.46c, which is "ékam sád vípra´ bahudha´ vadanti"meaning "to what is One, sages gives many a title". Similarly there are other hymns which deal with the creator deity, talking about the creator "whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not" these monistic tendencies are no doubts also reflected in Hinduism. Hints at monism were attempted by subduing other gods to singular entities or gods of supreme power. Viswakarma, Indra and Varuna, are the three most notable in this regard, though Indra was the most praised as supreme in the Rig Vedic verses.

One Rigvedic passage states: "There is One Reality (Ekaihsat) whom the sages call by various names, they call it Agni, Yama, Matarisvan, Indra, Mitra or Vanina." A sage in the Rigveda says that at the beginning of creation, cosmic order or rta and truth or satya were manifested through blazing spiritual fire or tapas. The Devas are promoters of rta and are pure in spirit and infallible. They embody rta in both its cosmic and ethical aspects. Indo-European mythology served a number of social functions. These functions were respectively religious and juridical, military and temporal and also economic.

The Vedic religion had kindled a quest for knowledge into the mind of the ancient Indians. One of the major religions in India, Hinduism owes its existence to the Vedic religion and its scriptures. The Vedic period is believed to have ended around 500 BC, and it has elements that hark back to proto-Indo-Iranian times. Vedic religion incorporated the worship of different natural elements like fire and rivers, different terrestrial and atmospheric gods, hymns and sacrifices that were very discreet in nature. Vedic religious practices involved ceremonies that centred on ritual sacrifice of animals and on the use of soma to achieve trancelike states. The `Srauta` tradition, which is very conservative in its own terms, preserves the various ritualistic traditions of the Vedic religion.

Rituals Of Vedic Religion
The rituals of Vedic religion emphasise on the Soma cult, fire rituals, rituals contained in the Atharva Veda, and other Yajnas. There was as such no temple in the Vedic period. The term ayatana designated the ordinary domestic hearth. The centre of the sacred ground was called vedi. It was sometimes a raised mound, but more often a pit made to receive religious offering. Of the grand Vedic sacrifices, the Soma sacrifice relating to Indra was considered the most important.

Vedic Deities
The concept of deities finds a remarkable dimension in the Vedic religion. The Rigvedic deities may be placed under four categories. The first one can be mentioned as those representing the principal phenomena of nature, the second one is domestic deities, the third one is abstract deities and the fourth one is minor deities.

Offshoots of Vedic religion
Vedic religion is like a parental religion from which many such religions arose that continues to exist even today. Vedic religion has its connections even with pre-Zoroastrian Persian religion and this cannot be denied, though it is not a direct descendant. So is the evidence of this being the predecessor of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism cannot be ignored. Vedic religion as already debated is a very ancient religion and from this has evolved these different religious categories. The concept of Dharma, which is a Sanskrit word, has been first mentioned in the Vedas in its oldest form `dharman`, and also common usage in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. Vedic religion got divided into Hindu paths of Yoga and Vedanta or the culmination of the Vedas, which is a holy path assuming itself to be the essence of the Vedas. Vedic religion propagated the Vedic pantheon which held the unitary view of the universe with God seen to be assuming different forms of Ishvara which is God`s personal feature, Paramatma being a localized feature and Brahman God`s impersonal energies.

Hinduism has evolved from the Vedic religion and also has remained almost true to the Vedic religion. Present day Hinduism consists of the four Vedas, namely - Rig-Veda, Atharva-Veda, Sama-Veda and Yajur Veda and the Upanishads are the sacred texts. Scholars believe that Hindu religion is actually Vedanta and its followers are called Vedantists. This is a gradual development from the Vedas. Hindu religion even today follows some basic rituals which are common to the Vedic religion. Like chanting of hymns, sacrifices, mode of worship, recitations from the Vedas by a purohit or priest etc. Upanishads are a continuation of the Vedas and Buddha stand closest to the spirit of the Upanishads. In order to understand and appreciate life and teachings of Buddha one has to take the Upanishads into consideration else it is simply unjustified. Buddha accepted the idealistic teachings of the Upanishads, and acknowledged it at its utmost level, in its purest form. In Jainism too there are vast Vedic undertones. For example the Rig Veda clearly refers to Rishabhdev, the 1st Tirthankar, and to Aristanemi, the 22nd Tirthankar. Then Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda also mention Rishabhdev, Ajitanath and Aristanemi, the sect of Vratya and so on. Therefore the Vedas seem to be all encompassing and has its spread in a massive way.

The Vedic religion evolved into a very strong religion incorporating various characteristics of religious rituals, different forms of divinities and most importantly the religious scriptures called the Vedas. They are very informative and a great source information about this religion which bores a rich cultural heritage. The Veda is composed of Mantra, Brahmana, Aranyaka, and Upanishad. The philosophical concepts of atman and Brahman also developed from Vedism and finally it faced a decline with its spread in 8th to 5th century BCE. Vedic religion began as an ancient religion and finally we see the emergence of many other religious sects, which have close resemblance with its characteristics. Therefore Vedic religion is a pioneer in the religious circle and is still has its overtones in religion like Hinduism, as a living entity.