The ancient peoples of India belong to the Vedic religion or Santana Dharma; therefore, they have nothing to do with present-day Hinduism.+

The ancient peoples of the Indus Valley of undivided India did not identify themselves as Hindu.

A Hindu idol or deity, or temple, has nothing to do with the Vedic religion. Vedic people ate beef. The Hindu practices of idol worship and temple worship ban beef-eating, which was introduced many centuries later.

As one peeps into the annals of religious history, he finds that Hinduism, which exists today, is not a continuation of the Vedic religion, and it has no real historical foundation. Hinduism is of a much later origin.

As per the researchers, the two faiths, the Hindu belief system, have drifted miles away from the Vedic faith, so the two seem to be two distinct faiths. It is not difficult to discover that there is no noticeable continuity of Hinduism from the religion of the Vedas.

The distinctive characteristics of the Hindu belief system cannot be traced in Vedic literature. Besides, although the Vedas are revered as sacred texts, there are many people in India who do not know what ‘belief in the Vedas’ means. In most cases, the acquaintance of the Hindus with the Vedas is limited to the few hymns that are recited in temples and household liturgies.

Max Müller says: ~ "The religion of the Veda knows no idols; the worship of idols in India is a secondary formation, a degradation of the more primitive worship of ideal gods."

Hindus are idol worshipers of a large number of Gods and Goddesses, whereas in the Vedas, the God has been described as: -

In the Yajurveda – chapter- 32: ~ It has been said that God Supreme or Supreme Spirit.

Rig Veda: ~ The Atman (Soul or Spirit) is the cause; Atman is the support of all that exists in this universe. May ye never turn away from the Atman, the Self. May ye never accept another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman?" (10:48, 5)

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: ~ Brahman (God in truth) is present in the form of the Athma, and it is indeed Athma itself.

Thus, it refers to the formless and attributeless God, which is the Atman (Soul), the Self within the false experience.

Thus, it indicates clearly that all the Gods with form and attributes are mere imagination based on the false self. Thus, Atman or Soul, the Self, is God in truth. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar