Vedic Revival

[Ancient_Soul]

Over time many of the vedic gods such a Varuna and Indra that were worshipped in ancient india lost their significance as the religion changed. With PoD after the conquests Alexander of Macedon would a revival of the old vedic pantheon be possible?

 

[Albert.Nik]

What makes you think Indra and Varuna are not worshipped today? The era of Vedic God's had the Vedic religion mostly as a loosely Organized ethnic religion. How could it be reverted to that after the conquest of Alexander of Macedon? Maybe some Cult worship or something would help.

 

[Madhukar_Shah]

I mean what exactly are you looking for- during the 18th/19th century there was a revival of Vedic Brahmanism which did re popularise Vedic rituals and gods and they never really went completely out of fashion before that anyway

 

[Jonathan Edelstein]

Like this, you mean? There's a mandir of theirs about a mile from my house.

 

[Ancient_Soul]

What makes you think Indra and Varuna are not worshipped today? The era of Vedic God's had the Vedic religion mostly as a loosely Organized ethnic religion. How could it be reverted to that after the conquest of Alexander of Macedon? Maybe some Cult worship or something would help.

I mean what exactly are you looking for- during the 18th/19th century there was a revival of Vedic Brahmanism which did re popularise Vedic rituals and gods and they never really went completely out of fashion before that anyway

It is true that they never died out, however, their popularity gradually diminished

 

[Albert.Nik]

Well,as I said,that was an ethnic Pagan religion of the historical Indo-Aryans called as the Historical Vedic religion. How could this be revived after so much developments and interactions? Some kind of Missionary Cult Worship could do the trick. But yes,even that would be diluted enough after so much interactions.

 

[CountPeter]

It is true that they never died out, however, their popularity gradually diminished

No it didn't?
Smarta has big positions for them, and they feature prominently in Shaktism, Vaishnavism and Shaivanism. I am actually having a hard time thinking about a time they were not popular.

 

[Madhukar_Shah]

Would you prefer a scenario where the pantheon of devas reigns supreme without subordination to Brahma Vishnu Shiv or Shakti

 

[Shahrasayr]

The death blow of the Vedic pantheon is two fold. The Upanishads set the stones for the transition from developed polytheistic faith woth monistic leanings to a fully monistic faith which itself gave rise to the 8 major schools of the post-Vedic period which influenced the shape of Indian faiths to come.

Following that the Vedanta school in the form of Vedantic thought gave birth to Dvaita and Advaita the former taking a more liberal dualiatic form of monotheism and the latter became the bedrock of modern Hinduism. Both encouraged a more personal god and started the personalised Bhakti form of worship.

To make the Vedic deities survive one needs either the Samkhya or Mimamsa school to survive past the 12th century. The former is atheistic whereas the latter is agnostic and both encourage the study of the exegesis of the Vedas and are thus the most likely way to keep the Vedic deities prominent.

 

[Kishan]

The rise of the cults of Shiva, Vishnu and Shakti (Durga), weakened the Vedic religion and Vedic gods like Indra, Varuna, Yama, Agni, Vayu, Surya etc. The cults of Shiva and Vishnu became more prominent eclipsing other cults. I do not know when the major cults of Shaivism and Vaishnavism which were even on adversarial terms at times, combined along with minor cults like Shakteyas etc. to form the modern form of Hinduism. The union of Shaivites and Vaishnavites gave rise to the concept of Trimurti of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. The rise of the Trimurti concept did not wipe off the Vedic gods, but they became subordinate to the Trimurti, similar to the angels in Christianity.
The Brahma in the Trimurti concept is different from Brahman or Parabrahma in the Hindu philosophy. The Advaita concept propagated by Shankaracharya is monism which considers Parabrahma as the supreme God which has no form, beginning or end. In this concept Brahman is the only real being and the universe is a myth or shadow. "Brahma sathyam, Jagat mithya", so said Shankaracharya. The Advaita concept is considered as the ultimate truth in Hindu philosophy.
Even when acknowledging Shankaracharya as the last word in philosophy The popular Hinduism revolves around the Trimurty concept and worship of them as common practice. The three members of Trimurti are not considered equal in power. Brahma is considered less powerful than the other two, may be because they were the supreme Gods in their respective cults. There are only very few temples where Brahma is worshiped, though he is the Creater. Vishnu is the Preserver and Shiva is the Destroyer. The Shakti of the Shakteya cult was given three forms as Parvati, Lakshmi and Sarasvati and they became the consorts of Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma respectively. The sons of Shiva, Ganesh(Ganapati) and Subrahmanya (Muruka or Shanmukha) are also worshipped. Ayyappa, the deity of Shabarimala Temple, which became controversial due to a recent Supreme Court judgement is also a son of Lord Shiva. Lord Vishnu has no children as such but has several incarnations like Lord Ram, Lord Krishna etc. who are also worshiped as deities. Though the Vedic gods too have temples here and there they are few in number and not as popular as those of Lord Shiva, his consort and sons , Lord Vishnu and his incarnations. The largest Vishnu temple in history was the one built in Angkor Wat in Cambodia by Jayavarman of Khmer dynasty, some thousand years back. The largest Shiva temple was built in Prambanan in Java in Indonesia. It was a complex of 240 temples, the largest one for Lord Shiva. The two smaller ones on either side were of Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma.

 

[Indicus]

Arya Samaj is already a thing, is it not?

 

[Kishan]

Arya Samaj was established by Swami Dayanand Saraswati in 1875 as a revival movement in Hinduism. His call was to return to the Vedas, as he considered the later developments as a deviation from the original religion. But it does not mean that he wanted a restoration of the Vedic gods, as he advocated monotheism and opposed the idol worship. The establishment of Arya Samaj was a reaction to the rise of Islam and Christianity. He also started the Shuddhi movement to reconvert the Hindus who had converted to other religions like Islam and Christianity. Arya Samaj in course of time lost its original zeal and it became an establishment organisation. They are permitted by law to convert non-Hindus to Hinduism and issue certificates of change of religion. The interaction of Hinduism with the other religions gave birth to many reform and revival movements like Brahmo Samaj, Arya Samaj, Prarthana Samaj, Atmiya Sabha, Dharma Sabha, Tatvabodhini Sabha, Theosophical Society, Ramakrishna Mission etc. in the nineteenth century. They have all made their contributions to the social reforms in India.