The earliest form of worship from which the present-day Hinduism has developed is known as Vedic religion. It consisted mainly of the worship of the powers of nature namely, the storm (Maruts), fire (Agni), the dawn (Usha), the sun (Surya) and the moon (Chand).
Rain, lightning, thunder and the terrors of the heavens implied the existence of a powerful being in the sky named Indra whose activities were believed to have caused these.
Vedic worship consisted mainly of singing hymns of praise to one or other of the deities, in offering oblations of soma, which is a kind of liquor made of the soma plant, to the gods and in sacrificing animals.
Vedas have been considered the most ancient and sacred text of the Hindu community. In the Hindu religion it is believed that Vedas are not the creation of man rather by God and as such they are pious as yet. It is held that the contemporary priests and saints obtained the Vedas directly from God.
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The word ‘Veda’ has evolved from the substance ‘Vid’, which meant knowledge, power, gain and thought. Accordingly, the means by which human beings obtain knowledge and become scholar is Veda. Thus, it can be said that the objective of Vedas was to provide wisdom to mankind.
In the beginning the Vedic texts were committed to memory and not written down. For this reason the Vedas have also been called Sruti, meaning what is heard.
There are four kinds of Vedas in all: the Rig Veda embodies the earliest literature of the Hindus and is more interesting than the other Vedas.
It is in the form of hymns addressed to the great Vedic deities like Indra, Varuna, Maruts etc.
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The Sama Veda and Yajur Veda have little originality about them as these consist mainly of the Hymns of the Rig Veda arranged in particular way for recitation during ritual sacrifices.
The Atharva Veda, which is of much later origin, is a curious mixture of sublime wisdom, witchcraft, beautiful poetry and silly charms for exorcising evil spirits.