Historical Vedic religion given to Absolute reality (Brahman) speculations in the early Upanishads, as these terms are etymologically linked. The word Brahmanism was coined by Gonçalo Fernandes Trancoso (1520-1596) in the 16th century. The Vedic religion was probably the religion of the Vedic Indo-Aryans, and existed in northern India from c. 1750–500 BCE. The Indo-Aryans were a branch of the Indo-European language family, which originated in the Sintashta culture and further developed into the Andronovo culture, which in turn developed out of the Kurgan culture of the Central Asian steppes. The commonly proposed period of earlier Vedic age is dated back to 2nd
Religion in Germany religious groups, the Roman Catholic Church and the mainline Protestant Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) use a three-level hierarchy of "churches", "free churches" and : Every Protestant (church whose canonical jurisdiction extends over one or several states, or ) and Catholic episcopacy has a ( delegate) from whom information about religious movements may be obtained. Notes Further reading Religion in Germany Christianity is the largest religion in Germany, comprising an estimated 57% of the country's population in 2017. The second largest religion in Germany is Islam, with around 4 million adherents in 2016 (5% of the population). Smaller religious groups