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.
Is Theosophy a Religion? founder of the movement, Theosophy can not be called either a "religion" or sect in the usual sense of the word. Blavatsky asks the rhetorical question, whether this confusion is the result of deep-rooted prejudice or simply a mistake due to lack of information. And at the same time she suggests that the frank cynics and slanderers don't miss an opportunity with labels "ism" or "sect" to engender a sense of distrust. She says that the opinion of the absolute majority simply is not true. Kalnitsky wrote that, in Blavatsky's opinion, dogmatic religions are the antithesis of objectivity and dull