The fire-altar religion of the oldest hymns — the root of the Indian lines.
The religion of the Rig Veda: fire sacrifice, hymns to thirty-three gods, and rta — the cosmic order the ritual keeps turning. It has no founder and left no church; it left descendants.
Why it is filed this way
No living adherents. The rites described here were performed in northwest India between roughly 1500 and 500 BCE; what continues from them continues inside Hinduism, which is carried separately as its own line.
DeitiesMany gods and spirits
Foundedc. 1500 BCE · Northwest Indian subcontinent
FounderNone — no founding moment
AfterlifeThe fathers' world, reached through right ritual
TextsRig Veda · Sama Veda · Yajur Veda
The map
Vedic Religion’s corner of it — solid lines are descent; dotted lines are resemblance only, ideas held in common across unrelated faiths. Click a node to recenter; ✕ returns here. All 171 faiths →
c. 1500 BCE Vedic Religion c. 550 BCE Jainism c. 480 BCE Buddhism
Ritual sustains the order of the world.
The fire altar kept rta — cosmic order — turning; sacrifice was cosmology in practice.
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The gods receive offerings and give in return.
Agni carries the oblation upward; the hymns name thirty-three gods and flatter them beautifully.
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Sound rightly spoken has power.
Mantra — the precisely chanted word — acts on reality; mispronunciation is not a typo but a failure of the rite.
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I
Indra — breaker of obstacles.
Slayer of the drought-serpent Vritra: the storm as liberation, invoked more often in the Rigveda than any other god.
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A
Agni — the fire that carries.
Priest of the gods and god of the priests: every offering poured into fire travels by Agni, so every rite begins with him.
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Agnihotra — the fire offering.
Milk poured into the fire at the sun's two hinges — the day itself kept turning by ritual.
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