Development and Diversity - Indus origins and the Vedic period

Origins and Indus evidence

The traditions now called Hinduism developed through many interacting communities, rituals, texts and philosophies. The Indus Valley civilisation, also called Harappan civilisation, flourished in the third millennium BCE across areas of present-day Pakistan and north-western India. Its material remains precede the surviving Vedic literary tradition. A connection is possible without every Harappan practice already being recognisably Hindu.

The Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro is a substantial water tank with carefully built access and drainage. Its unusual public setting has encouraged interpretations involving purification or ritual bathing. Later Hindu traditions attach religious importance to bathing, so the comparison deserves investigation. Yet the tank alone does not tell us its users' beliefs: public display, practical and religious functions can overlap. It cannot prove that a modern bathing rite existed unchanged then.

A seal shows a seated, horned figure surrounded by animals. John Marshall famously interpreted it as a forerunner of Pashupati, Shiva as lord of animals; the posture has also invited comparison with yoga. These are interpretations, not the figure's deciphered name. The Indus script remains undeciphered, the posture and bodily details are disputed, and similar images can carry different meanings. Archaeologist J. M. Kenoyer warns against assuming that a visual resemblance establishes the same ancient and later theology. Small female figurines likewise do not by themselves prove an organised cult of the supreme Goddess.

The evidence therefore supports a question about continuities rather than a definite birthday for Hinduism. Even if some practices survived, later meanings could change. Conversely, lack of a securely identified temple or readable creed does not demonstrate that Harappans had no religion. A careful historical judgement separates the object, the proposed interpretation and the strength of the inference.

Vedic transmission and development

The Vedic period names the development of traditions associated with the Vedas, beginning in the second millennium BCE and continuing through later ritual and philosophical literature. Academic dating concerns composition, language and transmission. A believer's claim that Vedic wisdom is eternal and revealed concerns its religious status; the two enquiries need not answer the same question.

Veda means knowledge. The four Vedas are Rig, Sama, Yajur and Atharva. The Rig Veda contains hymns; the Sama Veda arranges material for chanting; the Yajur Veda supplies ritual formulas and instructions; the Atharva Veda includes hymns, protective formulas and concerns of everyday life. They were composed and preserved orally in Sanskrit before being written down. Accurate sound, rhythm and memorised recitation mattered, so calling this simply the development of written books misses the practice that preserved them.