Vedism

[David19]

I just read this biography of an ADF member, and he talks about Vedism, http://www.adf.org/about/bios/adhitin-ratrija/ (it's about halfway down where he gets to Vedism).

I'm really curious about Vedism, and I'd like to know more about it, like the beliefs, gods ('cause apparantly they're different to the Hindu ones), etc. How does Vedism differ to Hinduism (like is there a form of reincarnation in Vedism, is karma a part of it, etc?).

Anyway, I'd appreciate any help you could give me with this.

Thanks.

[Toby Stimpson]

Well, errr... there is so much I could say :).

First i'd like to point out that the majority of the sources this individual cites as good references were written almost 100 years ago. They were written by NON Indian Hindus... and there seems to be a huge bias.

Vedism doesn't exist now a days becasue it evolved. What they put in there about Hinduism coopting the term 'Vedic' strikes me as a bit biassed, especially when it's coming froma NON Hindu, non Indian group. Vedic is as much about the religion as it is about the culture, and the Northern Indians are decendants of Vedic tribes people.

Vedism to me, and of what I have been able to find is this: It was a continually evolving religion with many different Main gods over time. I mean if you look, the three main Gods once were Aryaman, Mithra and Varuna... some might say purely Persian Vedic Gods. Then you found Indra and Surya and Agni as being most important. All these gods remained powerful but the religion evolved when it went and touched local religions (such as the indigenous cults honouring Murugan like Deities). Obeisances were important as well as social order... the vedas make that quite clear, prayers to the Deities and also the proper order of society. Now one can take that social order structure and varna system but the importance was this reflected Vedic tribal order... Leaders, Priests, lay people, servants.

The religion began to change when the Puranas and Upanishads came out and were written... but by no means was it an entirely new religion, it may have started out as a sect but you find MANY different sects in Hinduism today.

Now if you look at Hinduism today you will see two sets of Gods, the Brahmanism Gods of Shiva, Vishnu, Ganesh, Brhma, Durga, kali... etc,. And the Vedic gods such as Indra, Agni, Surya, Ushas, Vayu, Yama... etc. The difrerence is the first set of Gods have a dominion over a certain portion of the world, Varuna is the sea God like Poseidon... Indra is the King of the Gods like Zeus, Agni si the god of fire. Brahmanical Gods take on a more of a teacher/hero stance.

The Vedic Gods are not completly gone, they are still worshipped. Surya being the most worshipped god now because he is the Sun God... Chandra, the Moon god also. But they are not gone they are still a part of the religions of Hinduism.

To me, when anyone says something along the lines of "That group of people sue that term to make their religion look older than it is..." well i can certainly the same thing about recon Druids who, quite frankly no as much about Druid religion as anyone else does which is, not a lot. Celtic religion for the most part is lost becasue there are no written records and only a few stories that do survive, but no theology.

I hope that sort of answers your question?

Tobias