Hinduism 101 - Mandhata Global

cities were all based on the success of an efficient agricultural system that spawned them. Thus, for a civilization that
was based on the productivity of nature, it was very essential to value fertility. This is an entirely Pre-Aryan period.
The two central deities of this cult were male and female. The male deity was found in the form of a man in a yogic
sitting posture which we find later manifested in the postures of Shiva. The man had bull’s horns on his head (the bull
was always a powerful symbol of male potency). Also, later, Shiva’s steed is Nandi the bull. The female figure is found
often manifested accepting human sacrifice, as the later-day consorts of Shiva, particularly Durga and Kali. Attendant
to these two central deities are many animal figures like deer, buffaloes, elephants, birds and others and also votive
symbols of serpents. This latter feature, animal worship, may have culminated in the later-day belief of transmigration
of souls from humans to animals and vice versa.
Also is found the naturalistic fertility symbols of male and female union like the Mithuna male and female figures
united in sexual union found in many later-day temples in India, such temples usually being associated with the Shakti
cult which itself has stemmed from Tantric viewpoints. It must be noted here that the inability to decipher the
inscriptions on the archaeological artifacts recovered from the Indus Valley sites has largely hampered any conclusive
decision on the culture.
The Aryan invasion that began from around 1800 B.C. gradually drove the Dravidian population and culture to the
extreme south and, in consequence, the deities of the Vedas were established in the upper part of the Subcontinent.
Over the large period of time these deities acquired influence over the whole of India and the Dravidian culture was
forgotten but the male and female deities of that culture together with certain symbols remain transpositioned in the
later pantheon.
The Vedic Period (1800-900 B.C.):
The Aryans were people who had first migrated from the Urals to the Central Asian Steppes and thence to the Indian
Subcontinent. They were a warlike primarily pastoral people who pursued a transitory lifestyle moving from pasture to
pasture for their herds of cattle and horses. Initially they pushed the Dravidian people into the villages from their cities
and, as successive hordes poured into the Subcontinent, the Dravidians disappeared totally from North India. One
primary reason for the success of the Aryans was their successful adoption of iron tools and arms circa 1350-1050 B.C.
The Dravidians stuck to their Bronze Age tools and weaponry and lost out.
When the Aryans arrived they brought their religion with them. Since they were not a settled race and pastoral their
gods were mostly elemental and had little to do with the earth and fertility. At the time of the writing of the Vedas at
around 1200 B.C., however, their religion was not in its pure form anymore and had by then inculcated elements of the
local religion. This was around the time the Aryans had settled in the Ganga and Jamuna valleys and were beginning to
appreciate the value of agriculture and a settled existence.
At the time of the actual writing of the Vedas – circa 1200 B.C. – the early gods, mostly deified aspects of nature, had
already acquired complex mythologies and had been personalized or anthropomorphized. The earlier distinct roles they
had been accorded had been blurred by overlapping of qualities and duties. This is why the first three parts of the Vedas
– The Samhitas, The Brahmanas and The Aranyakas - are so preoccupied with ritualistic worship. This is to appease all
the diverse deities who are all rather uncertain elements who require frequent and fervent propitiation.