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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,〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://hinduism.about.com/cs/vedasvedanta/a/aa120103a_2.htm )〕 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."〔Kenoyer, M., 1998. Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization. 174 Oxford: Oxford University Press.〕 For an overview of the current relevant research, see: * Michael Witzel (2001), ("Autochthonous Aryans? The Evidence from Old Indian and Iranian Texts" ), in ''Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies'' (EJVS) 7-3, pp 1-93 * Shereen Ratnagar (2008), “The Aryan homeland debate in India”, in Kohl, PL, M Kozelsky and N Ben-Yehuda (Eds) ''Selective remembrances: archaeology in the construction, commemoration, and consecration of national pasts'', pp 349-378 * Suraj Bhan (2002), “Aryanization of the Indus Civilization” in Panikkar, KN, Byres, TJ and Patnaik, U (Eds), ''The Making of History'', pp 41-55. * }} The Vedic beliefs and practices of the pre-classical era were closely related to the hypothesised Proto-Indo-European religion, and the Indo-Iranian religion. According to Anthony, the Old Indic religion probably emerged among Indo-European immigrants in the contact zone between the Zeravshan River (present-day Uzbekistan) and (present-day) Iran. It was "a syncretic mixture of old Central Asian and new Indo-European elements", which borrowed "distinctive religious beliefs and practices" from the Bactria–Margiana Culture. At least 383 non-Indo-European words were borrowed from this culture, including the god Indra and the ritual drink Soma. According to Anthony, The oldest inscriptions in Old Indic, the language of the ''Rig Veda'', are found not in northwestern India and Pakistan, but in northern Syria, the location of the Mitanni kingdom. The Mitanni kings took Old Indic throne names, and Old Indic technical terms were used for horse-riding and chariot-driving. The Old Indic term r'ta, meaning "cosmic order and truth", the central concept of the ''Rig Veda'', was also employed in the Mitanni kingdom. And Old Indic gods, including Indra, were also known in the Mitanni kingdom. The Vedic religion of the later Vedic period co-existed with local religions, such as the Yaksha cults,〔(Encyclopedia Britannica, ''yaksha'' )〕 and was itself the product of "a composite of the Indo-Aryan and Harappan cultures and civilizations". David Gordon White cites three other mainstream scholars who "have emphatically demonstrated" that Vedic religion is partially derived from the Indus Valley Civilizations. The religion of the Indo-Aryans was further developed when they migrated into the Ganges Plain after c. 1100 BCE and became settled farmers, further syncretising with the native cultures of northern India. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Historical Vedic religion」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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