Religion is regarded as sacred and real by the Indian populace, by the wise as false and by the political class as useful.+

If you are seeking truth then it is very much necessary to peep into the religious history of India.

Religion is regarded as sacred and real by the Indian populace, by the wise as false, and by the political class as useful. 

As you peep into annals of the religious history you will become aware of the fact that Santana Dharma or Vedic religion is based on the Spirit, therefore, the Santana Dharma or Vedic religion is Spirituality.

Yajurveda – chapter- 32:~   “ God is Supreme Spirit has no ‘Pratima’ (idol) or material shape. God cannot be seen directly by anyone. God pervades all beings and all directions. 

Thus,   Idolatry does not find any support from the Vedas.

Santana Dharma or Vedic religion meaning that has no beginning or an end, righteousness forever.

Ancient peoples of India belong to Vedic religion or Santana Dharma, therefore, they have nothing to do with the present-day Hinduism. The ancient peoples of Indus Valley or undivided India were called Hindus by Muslim Invaders. 

Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru: - The word Hindu can be earliest traced to a source a tantric in the 8th century and it was used initially to describe the people, it was never used to describe religion. (The discovery of India” on page -74 and -75) 

According to Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, Its connection with religion is of late occurrence. The word Hinduism is derived from the word Hindu.

The word Hinduism was first used by the English writers in the 19th century to describe the multiplicity of faiths of the people of India.

In Encyclopaedia Britannica it says ~ “The word Hinduism was first used by the British writers in the year 1830 to describe the multiplicity of the faiths of the people of India excluding the converted Christians. (Volume -20, Reference -581)

The word Hinduism is a misnomer.

Swami Vivekananda says: - The word Hindu is a misnomer; the correct word should be a Vedantins, a person who follows the Vedas.

However, in order to legitimize the antiquity of Hinduism, Maharishi Dayananda Saraswathi (1824-1883) founder of Arya Samaj insisted on ‘going back to the Vedas’.

Aurobindo Ghose (1872-1950) believed that the Vedas are the foundation of the Sanatana Dharma.

The caste system which is so integral to Hinduism was also not practiced in the Vedic times. There is hardly any evidence of a rigid caste system in the Vedas. It is argued that the purushasukta hymn of the Rig Veda (X.90) which is often referred to in order to give a religious sanction to the caste system was a later interpolation. The Vedas, however, speak of various classes of people, which appear to have been names of professions, and they were not hereditary.

“The very concept of castes by birth, upper/lower castes, superior/inferior castes, outcastes, untouchables, Dalits, etc. are clearly prohibited by Rigveda”.

Vedic religion or Santana Dharma is not Hinduism. The word Hindu came originated from the word Sindhu which is another name for the river Indus. Maybe people who stayed along the Sindhu (Indus) valley came to be known as Hindus. 

An exact date of the birth of Santana Dharma cannot be given.  They say that Santana Dharma is as old as planet earth. Some claim it is 5000 to 7000 years old Ancient India consisted of indigenous people.  Aryans, Dravidians, Jews, Christian, and Muslims have invaded India and all ingenious people were converted to different faith from time to time.  Thus, Hinduism is a group of different castes, creeds, and faith.

The Hindus believed in polytheism, believing all of their Gods to be separate individuals, which were introduced much later by the founders of Hinduism which contains diverse beliefs caste and creed.  

The term ‘Hindu’ is originally a geographical nomenclature. In the Arabic texts where the term ‘Hindu’ is initially used, refers to the inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent, the land across the Sindhu or Indus River. Al-Hind was, therefore, geographical identity and the Hindus were all the people who lived on this land.

Thus, the term ‘Hindu’ was used to describe those who professed a religion other than Islam and Christianity. It is also noteworthy that the use of the word ‘Hindu’ in non-Islamic sources is known probably only from the 15^TH century A.D.

The term ‘Hindu’ became a term of administrative convenience when the rulers of Arab, Turkish, Afghan and Mughal origin ― all Muslims ― had to differentiate between ‘the believers’ and the rest.

It is a well-known fact that the Vedic people not only did not identify themselves as Hindus but also did not possess the essential characteristics of Hinduism.

Vedic religion or Santana Dharma is distinct from Hinduism. The Vedic religion or Santana Dharma deserves to be treated on its own as a distinct religion with its own sacred texts, rites, rules of social life, beliefs, and practices without interlinking it with Hinduism. Perhaps it is right to maintain that the Mimamsa School which is concerned with the investigation of the Vedic texts, their correct interpretation and the meticulous performance of the Vedic rituals and ceremonies has preserved and defended a part of the heritage of the Vedic tradition.

The Vedanta school also may have received a part of the inspiration from the Vedas. For the rest of the Hindu philosophical schools and religious sects, the influence of the Vedas is nominal. However, in as much as elements from the Vedas have influenced some aspects of Hinduism, it may be considered as one of the many factors influencing modern Hinduism.

But by no means can it be maintained that Hinduism has its direct ancestry in the Vedic religion or Santana Dharma. Therefore, Hinduism of Vedic times is an imagined community. Hinduism is of a much later origin, and a historical view of Indian religions would endorse a dichotomy between Vedic religion or Santana Dharma and contemporary Hinduism.

Hinduism does not have a long ancestry as is often presumed or propagated by the Hindu ideologues. In fact, historically, religions like Buddhism and Jainism can claim greater antiquity than the Hinduism of today. Hinduism began to take a systematic form from the time of Sage Sri, Sankara (8^th century A.D). In this sense, he may be considered as the ‘founder’ of Hinduism.

 Thus, Hinduism came to existence with its own code of conduct beliefs, rituals after the 8^th century.    Hinduism, as one knows it today, is of recent origin. He states: “Hinduism did not really achieve its status as a coherent though still baffling, religious complex until after the establishment of the British rule in indie.

In discussing the Vedic religion, it is also to be remembered that in the course of history, many non-Aryan elements entered into the Vedic religion. The Vedic Aryans freely borrowed elements from the culture and the society around them. But we cannot say with precision, which are the non-Aryan elements in the Vedic religion. Therefore, the thesis of the direct ancestry of Hinduism of today from Vedic religion is to be considered as a myth purported by orthodoxy.

Temple worship, pilgrimages, the Gods and Goddesses are important to the Hindus. Hindu Gods are Rama, Krishna, Kali, Ganesh, Hanuman, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and the respective consorts of the last three, namely, Saraswati, Lakshmi, and Shakti. None of these deities figured prominently in the Vedic pantheon and some of them are clearly non-Vedic. 

The major Gods of Hinduism like Vishnu and Shiva are non-Aryan in origin. Though they may have belonged to the Vedic tradition they played no major role in the Vedas. The more important religious sects among the Hindus, like Vaishnavism, Saivism and so on, did not have a Vedic origin but had come into existence is much recent times.

Originally Shiva and the cult of the Mother Goddess belonged to the religion of the Indus Valley people. As one goes in deeper into the annals of the Indian religious history  Vishnu and Shiva cult is a melting of at least two cultures, if not three, namely, the Aryan culture, the pre-Aryan culture of the Ganges Valley, and the Indus Valley culture. These three cultures were closely knit by the first century of Christianity and in the later period underwent further developments, and probably also a fourth tradition of the indigenous tribes that stood outside the four classes of the caste system as outcasts.

Vedic worshippers did not use temples and idols as Hindus of today do. For them, the sacrificial rituals were more important than temple or idol worship the major Hindu feasts of today are based on the epic feats of Rama and Krishna and the Puranic lore pertaining to Shiva and the Goddess.

The Vedas are not the important sacred scriptures for the Hindus. The Vedas as a body of scripture contains many contradictions and they are fragmentary in nature. For most Hindus of today, scriptures like the Bhagavad-Gita, Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Puranas are more attractive and appealing than the Vedas. In addition, the gods and goddesses they worship differ considerably from the Vedic ones.

The collection of hymns called Vedas are written in praise of certain deities by poets over several centuries does not seem to have much significance for the Hindus of today. Most Vedic gods do not find a place in Hinduism.

Maharishi Dayananda Saraswati founder of Arya Samaj was the first thinker and reformer to emphasize the importance of ‘going back to the Vedas’ in order to bring about social reforms in society and to purify Hinduism of its many aberrations. Hinduism is ‘Puranic based’. Vedic Gods like Indra, Varuna, Agni, Soma and the like, whom the Vedic people worshipped, hardly have any significance in Hinduism.

Reincarnation was not a Vedic belief.  Belief in reincarnation which is central to Hinduism of today is not really attested to in the Vedas though they hint at life after death. The doctrine of transmigration as elaborated in Hinduism has no place in the Vedic hymns”. In the early Vedic literature, there is no express mention of the doctrine of transmigration.

It is in the Upanishads that it appears for the first time. The Rig Veda speaks of two paths for the Souls of the deceased, namely, the path of the gods (devayana) and the path of the fathers (pitriyana). Those who go by the former enjoy immortality and there is no return to physical life after that.

In fact, the Vedic man longed for this state of life. Whereas those who go by the latter path, unite with the fathers and then return to earth, after having enjoyed the fruits of his deeds.

Rig Veda ~ consisting of about 10,500 verses ― there is only one occasion where there is mention of a return to this world after death. What is implied here is that it cannot be taken as important teaching of the Rig Veda.

The Avatara and caste system are not Vedic in origin.  The theory of Avatara (‘descend’) of gods which is very important to modern Hinduism is non-Vedic. The term Avatara (…) is not found in the earlier Vedic texts, and is absent from the older Sanskrit glossaries”.

The caste system which is so integral to Hinduism was also not practiced in the Vedic times. There is hardly any evidence of a rigid caste system in the Vedas. It is argued that the purushasukta hymn of the Rig Veda (X.90) which is often referred to in order to give a religious sanction to the caste system was a later interpolation. The Vedas, however, speak of various classes of people, which appear to have been names of professions, and they were not hereditary.

“The very concept of castes by birth, upper/lower castes, superior/inferior castes, outcastes, untouchables, Dalits, etc. are clearly prohibited by Rigveda”.

The taboo on cow slaughter is not Vedic in origin.  The taboo on cow slaughter and beef-eating did not exist in Vedic times. Criteria like taboo on beef-eating or belief in reincarnation might stamp the Vedic seers as non-Hindus”. 

The question of whether the Vedic people practiced cow slaughter is debated among Hindu traditionalists. The cow was a sacred animal that the authors of the Vedas sacrificed cows and ate beef on special occasions. This argument only substantiates the view that cow was not an inviolable animal and that beef-eating was not a taboo in Vedic times.

As is clear from the above, several aspects that are intrinsic to the Hinduism of today, such as, the doctrine of re-incarnation, avatars (‘descent’) of gods, caste system, the taboo on cow slaughter and beef-eating were absent in the Vedic religion. It was shown by a critical study of the Vedas that the Aryans had no developed idea of the caste system, (.…)  

The taboo on the use of beef was shown to be of later origin, that the cow was freely killed for ceremonial and other purposes in ancient India”.:~Santthosh Kumaar