Vedas are not the important sacred scriptures for the Hindus.

Vedas are not the important sacred scriptures for the Hindus. The Vedas as a body of scripture contain many contradictions and they are fragmentary in nature. For most Hindus of today, scriptures like the Bhagavad-Gita, Ramayana, Mahabharata and Puranas are more attractive and appealing than the Vedas. In addition, the gods and goddesses they worship differ considerably from the Vedic ones.

The collection of hymns called Vedas written in praise of certain deities by poets over several centuries does not seem to have much significance for the Hindus of today. Most Vedic gods do not find a place in Hinduism.

Maharishi Dayananda Saraswathi fonder of Arya Samaj  was the first thinker and reformer to emphasise the importance of ‘going back to the Vedas’ in order to bring about social reforms in society and to purify Hinduism of its many aberrations. Hinduism is ‘Puranic based’. Vedic Gods like Indra, Varuna, Agni, Soma and the like, whom the Vedic people worshipped, hardly have any significance in Hinduism.

Reincarnation was not a Vedic belief.  Belief in reincarnation which is central to Hinduism of today is not really attested to in the Vedas, though they hint at life after death. The doctrine of transmigration as elaborated in Hinduism has no place in the Vedic hymns”. In the early Vedic literature, there is no express mention of the doctrine of transmigration.

It is in the Upanishads that it appears for the first time. The Rig Veda speaks of two paths for the souls of the deceased, namely, the path of the gods (devayana) and the path of the fathers (pitriyana). Those who go by the former enjoy immortality and there is no return to physical life after that.

In fact, the Vedic man longed for this state of life. Whereas those who go by the latter path, unite with the fathers and then return to earth, after having enjoyed the fruits of his deeds.

 Rig Veda ― consisting of about 10,500 verses ― there is only one occasion where there is mention of a return to this world after death. What is implied here is that it cannot be taken as an important teaching of the Rig Veda.

The Avatara and caste system are not Vedic in origin.  The theory of Avatara (‘descend’) of gods which is very important to modern Hinduism is non-Vedic. The term Avatara (…) is not found in the earlier Vedic texts, and is absent from the older Sanskrit glossaries”.

The caste system which is so integral to Hinduism was also not practiced in the Vedic times. There is hardly any evidence of rigid caste system in the Vedas. It is argued that the purushasukta hymn of the Rig Veda (X.90) which is often referred to in order to give a religious sanction to caste system was a later interpolation. The Vedas, however, speak of various classes of people, which appear to have been names of professions, and they were not hereditary.

“The very concept of castes by birth, upper/lower castes, superior/inferior castes, outcastes, untouchables, Dalits, etc. are clearly prohibited by Rigveda”.

Taboo on cow slaughter is not Vedic in origin.  The taboo on cow slaughter and beef eating did not exist in Vedic times. Criteria like taboo on beef-eating or belief in reincarnation might stamp the Vedic seers as non-Hindus”. The question whether the Vedic people practiced cow slaughter is debated among Hindu traditionalists. The cow was a sacred animal that the authors of the Vedas sacrificed cows and ate beef on special occasions. This argument only substantiates the view that cow was not an inviolable animal and that beef eating was not a taboo in Vedic times.

As is clear from the above, several aspects that are intrinsic to the Hinduism of today, such as, the doctrine of re-incarnation, avatars (‘descent’) of gods,  caste system, taboo on cow slaughter and beef eating were absent in the Vedic religion. It was shown by a critical study of the Vedas that the Aryans had no developed idea of caste system, (.…)  The taboo on the use of beef was shown to be of later origin, that the cow was freely killed for ceremonial and other purposes in ancient India”.