The period 200 BC-AD 300 witnessed a Brahmanical revival of sorts in the sense that some of the kings professed support for Vedic rituals and sacrifices. Both the Shunga and Kanva dynasties were supporters of the Brahmanical faith.
Pushyamitra Shunga performed a two-horse asvamedha yajna. Satakarni I of the Satavahanas performed Asvamedha. Rajasuya and some other yajnas But changes also occurred in the Brahmanical religion.
It shifted towards what could be termed as I\iranic Hinduism in which, instead of pure rituals, gods and goddesses were worshipped with devotion or bb.akti. There was some change in the pantheon of deities when the idea of the Trinity gained currency.
The idea of the Supreme God remained, but the pantheon now consisted of Brahma, the creator; Vishnu, the preserver; and Shiva, the destroyer.
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Brahma had not much of a following but the other two had, and this sharply divided the society into two sects, Vaishnavites and Saivites, both of them claiming that their god was the supreme.
There were some other changes, for instance, the sage Narayana attained the state of godhead and so did the epic heroes, Rama and Krishna. The Tamil deities mentioned in the Sangam literature were taken into the Brahmanical faith and so were the local deities in the North.
Among the variety of deities worshipped, the most popular were Brahma, Agni, Surya and Indra. The four guardian deities (dikpalas) namely, Yama, Kubera, Vasava and Varuna were also worshipped.
In addition, various trees and tree-gods, animals like cow, elephant and horse, and Naga or the serpent were held in veneration, and worshipped.