History & overview · every faith gets one
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.
The founding
Composed and memorized over centuries by hereditary priestly families, the Vedas were carried orally with astonishing fidelity long before writing reached them.
No single founder — Vedic Religion accreted rather than began.
What it holds
Reality. The world runs on rta — an order older than the gods.
The divine. Many gods and spirits.
Death and after. The fathers' world, reached through right ritual.
The line
descent is public here — where it came from, what left itBranches:
Jainism — Non-violence taken to its logical end. Buddhism — A path out of suffering, open to anyone, requiring no god. Hinduism — A family of paths sharing dharma, karma, and liberation — not a single creed.