Historical Vedic religion from c. 500 BCE, declined in India over the 5th to 12th centuries in favor of Puranic Hinduism and Islam. Historical Vedic religion The historical Vedic religion (also known as Vedism, Brahmanism, Vedic Brahmanism, and ancient Hinduism) refers to the religious ideas and practices among Indo-Aryan-speaking peoples of ancient India after about 1500 BCE. These ideas and practices are found in the Vedic texts, and they were one of the major influences that shaped contemporary Hinduism. According to the "Encyclopædia Britannica", in the Hindu tradition and particularly in India, the Vedic religion is considered to be a part of Hinduism.
Historical Vedic religion religious ideas of Indo-Europeans who migrated into the Indus River valley region of the subcontinent, whose religion relied on the Vedic corpus including the early Upanishads. Brahmanism, according to Heesterman, refers to the religion that had expanded to a region stretching from the northwest subcontinent to the Ganges valley. Brahmanism included the Vedic corpus and non-Vedic literature such as the "Dharmasutras" and "Dharmasastras", and was the version of ancient Hinduism that gave prominence to the priestly (Brahmin) class of the society. According to the "Encyclopædia Britannica", Brahmanism refers to both the predominant position of the priests (Brahmans) and the importance