Short answer
No. The Vedas and today's Hinduism differ at the centre. In the Rig Veda, about 250 hymns praise Indra and at least 200 praise Agni, the sacred fire. Vishnu has five whole hymns, and Rudra, later called Shiva, has three. Today Hindus in India feel closest to Shiva, Hanuman and Ganesha. Indra and Agni were not even on the survey's card of gods. The hymns mention no temples, and worship centred on fire and sacrifice. Later Hindu books rank those rites lower. An Indian historian who translated the Rig Veda said later Hinduism worships "images and gods unknown to the Vedas". Many Hindus reply that a living tradition grows. But if every layer can change, no teaching is final. Islam says something different. One message came through every prophet, and the Qur'an says it was completed.
Full explanation
The Hindu teaching: the Veda is the highest authority
Hindus rank the Veda above every other book, so this is a fair test of Hinduism on its own terms. Swami Vivekananda, a Hindu monk, told the Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 that Hindus received their religion through the Vedas. Manu's law book says the Veda must not be called into question. India's Supreme Court named acceptance of the Veda as the first basic idea of Hindu thought. Vivekananda also set a rule. In religious duty, he wrote, the Vedas are the only capable authority. The Puranas, the traditional books on the gods, count only so far as they follow the Vedas. So the question matters. If what Hindus do today is not in the Vedas, then by this rule it lacks the authority it claims.
“The Hindus have received their religion through their revelation, the Vedas. They hold that the Vedas are without beginning and without end. It may sound ludicrous to this audience, how a book can be without beginning or end. But by the Vedas no books are meant. They mean the accumulated treasury of spiritual law discovered by different persons in different times. Just as the law of gravitation existed before its discovery, and would exist if all humanity forgot it, so with the laws that govern the spiritual world. The moral, ethical and spiritual relation between soul and souls and between individual spirits and the Father of all spirits were there before their discovery and would remain even if we forgot them. The discoverers of these laws are called Rishis, and we honor them as perfected beings, and I am glad to tell this audience that some of the very best of them were women.”
“But by Sruti (revelation) is meant the Veda, and by Smriti (tradition) the Institutes of the sacred law: those two must not be called into question in any matter, since from those two the sacred law shone forth.”
In a case on whether the Swaminarayan sect is a religion separate from Hinduism, a five-judge bench (the judgment by Chief Justice Gajendragadkar) said that Hindu religion is hard to define: unlike other religions it does not claim any one prophet, does not worship any one God and does not hold any one dogma, and it may broadly be described as a way of life. It named as the first basic concept of Hindu thought the acceptance of the Veda as the highest authority in religious and philosophic matters, and it adopted as fairly adequate and satisfactory the working formula of B. G. Tilak: "Acceptance of the Vedas with reverence; recognition of the fact that the means or ways to salvation are diverse and realisation of the truth that the number of gods to be worshipped is large, that indeed is the distinguishing feature of Hindu religion". The Court held that the Swaminarayan followers are Hindus.
Writes that in matters of religious duty the Vedas are the only capable authority. The Puranas and other religious books are all Smriti, and their authority goes only so far as they follow the Vedas and do not contradict them.
The gods changed places
The Rig Veda is the Veda's collection of hymns. Arthur Macdonell, an Oxford Sanskrit scholar, went through its gods in 1897. About 250 hymns celebrate Indra, very nearly a quarter of the whole book. At least 200 celebrate Agni, the sacrificial fire. Soma, the god of the sacred drink, has 120. These three take up roughly three-fifths of the hymns. Vishnu is "celebrated in not more than five whole hymns". Rudra, the old god who later took the name Shiva, has "only three entire hymns". Macdonell calls both of them subordinate in the Rig Veda. Vishnu rises in the later Vedic books, and the name Shiva first appears in the Yajur Veda. So their rise began after the Rig Veda's hymns, in later layers of the Veda itself. Now compare a survey of about 30,000 Indian adults, published by the Pew Research Center in 2021. Hindus were shown a card of 15 gods and could choose up to three. Shiva came first with 44%, then Hanuman with 35% and Ganesha with 32%. Vishnu had 10%. Indra, Agni and Soma were not on the card at all. The Sun was on it, and 2% chose him. The goddesses changed as well. Romesh Chunder Dutt was an Indian historian who translated the whole Rig Veda into Bengali. He called Saraswati "the only Vedic goddess whose worship continues in India to the modern day". Her "modern companions, Durgâ, Kalî, Lakshmî, and others, are creations of a later day", he wrote. In Pew's survey 28% chose Lakshmi, 20% Kali and 8% Saraswati. Macdonell's index has no entry for Hanuman or Ganesha, and its only Krishna is a worshipper's father. So the gods who fill the Rig Veda are not the gods who fill Hindu homes today. A Hindu who prays to Hanuman or Krishna cannot point to these hymns as the source of that prayer.
“His importance is indicated by the fact that about 250 hymns celebrate his greatness, more than those devoted to any other god and very nearly one-fourth of the total number of hymns in the RV.”
“Next to Indra he is the most prominent of the Vedic gods. He is celebrated in at least 200 hymns of the RV., and in several besides he is invoked conjointly with other deities.”
“All the 114 hymns of the ninth besides 6 in other books, are dedicated to his praise.”
“These two along with Indra are, judged by the frequency of the hymns addressed to them, the three most popular deities of the RV. For, roughly speaking, three-fifths of its hymns are dedicated to their praise.”
“Viṣṇu, though a deity of capital importance in the mythology of the Brāhmaṇas, occupies but a subordinate position in the RV. His personality is at the same time more important there than would appear from the statistical standard alone. According to that he would be a deity only of the fourth rank, for he is celebrated in not more than five whole hymns and in part of another, while his name occurs only about 100 times altogether in the RV.”
“This god occupies a subordinate position in the RV., being celebrated in only three entire hymns, in part of another, and in one conjointly with Soma, while his name occurs about 75 times.”
“The Yajurveda represents a still later stage. Its formulas being made for the ritual, are not directly addressed to the gods, who are but shadowy beings having only a very loose connexion with the sacrifice. The most salient features of the mythology of the Yajurveda are the existence of one chief god, Prajāpati, the greater importance of Viṣṇu, and the first appearance of an old god of the Rigveda under the new name of Śiva.”
Face-to-face survey of 29,999 Indian adults, including 22,975 Hindus, from 17 November 2019 to 23 March 2020. People were shown a card of 15 gods and could choose up to three. Hindus felt closest to Shiva (44%), Hanuman (35%), Ganesha (32%), Lakshmi (28%), Krishna (21%), Kali (20%), Lord Ram (17%) and Vishnu (10%). The other gods on the card were Saraswati (8%), Dattatreya, Ayyappa, Meenakshi, Murugan, the Sun (2%) and Jesus. Indra, Agni and Soma were not on it; 9% of Hindus named "another god".
“She is the only Vedic goddess whose worship continues in India to the modern day; all her modern companions, Durgâ, Kalî, Lakshmî, and others, are creations of a later day.”
Macdonell's survey of the Vedic gods has no entry in its index for Hanuman or Ganesha. Its index gives one Krishna, on p. 52, where the hymns name a worshipper of the Ashvins, Vishvaka, as the son of Krishna. There the word is a man's name, not a god's. The index lists ganapati once, on p. 101: Macdonell says the god Brihaspati, also named Brahmanaspati, is called ganapati, 'lord of a host', in Rig Veda 2.23.1, a term once applied to Indra also.
The hymns know no temple
Macdonell wrote that the Rig Veda mentions neither images nor temples. He noted one possible exception for images, which is answered below. References to idols, he said, begin to appear in later additions to the Brahmanas, the prose ritual books. They appear too in the Sutras, the rule books that followed. Dutt reached the same finding in 1893: "every father of a family was his own priest, and his home was his temple". Worship took place at the fire. One hymn praises Agni as the god in whom "horses, bulls, oxen, and barren cows, and rams" are offered. Manu defends the practice: slaughter for sacrifice, he says, "is not slaughtering" in the ordinary sense. Manu's law book knows images: it tells a man to keep "an idol" on his right as he passes. Yet it shows how low the temple-priest stood. It lists "temple-priests" among those to keep away from rites for the gods and the ancestors. It also says a gift to one "is lost". So in a law book many Hindus revere, the temple-priest is unfit for the rite.
“It is easy to understand that in the case of deities whose outward shape was so vaguely conceived and whose connexion with natural phenomena was in many instances still clear, no mention of either images (§ 66 c) or temples is found in the RV.”
“Something of this kind (possibly an image) must be meant even in a passage of the RV., in which the poet asks, ‘Who will buy this my Indra for ten cows? When he has slain his foes he may give him back to me’ (4, 24 10; cp. 8, 1 5). References to idols begin to appear in the later additions to the Brāhmaṇas and in the Sūtras.”
“As we have seen, then, every father of a family was his own priest, and his home was his temple. There is no mention of idols in the Rig Veda, none of temples or places of worship where the people were to congregate. The sacred fire was lighted in the house of every householder, and he chanted the beautiful and simple hymns which we now find collected in the Rig Veda.”
“He in whom horses, bulls, oxen, and barren cows, and rams, when duly set apart, are offered up,— To Agni, Soma-sprinkled, drinker of sweet juice, Disposer, with my heart I bring a fair hymn forth.”
“Svayambhû (the Self-existent) himself created animals for the sake of sacrifices; sacrifices (have been instituted) for the good of this whole (world); hence the slaughtering (of beasts) for sacrifices is not slaughtering (in the ordinary sense of the word). Herbs, trees, cattle, birds, and (other) animals that have been destroyed for sacrifices, receive (being reborn) higher existences. On offering the honey-mixture (to a guest), at a sacrifice and at the rites in honour of the manes, but on these occasions only, may an animal be slain; that (rule) Manu proclaimed. A twice-born man who, knowing the true meaning of the Veda, slays an animal for these purposes, causes both himself and the animal to enter a most blessed state.”
“Let him pass by (a mound of) earth, a cow, an idol, a Brâhmana, clarified butter, honey”
“Physicians, temple-priests, sellers of meat, and those who subsist by shop-keeping must be avoided at sacrifices offered to the gods and to the manes.”
“(Food) given to a seller of Soma becomes ordure, (that given) to a physician pus and blood, but (that presented) to a temple-priest is lost, and (that given) to a usurer finds no place (in the world of the gods).”
Worship then and worship now
Pew's survey shows where Hindu worship stands today. Among Hindus in India, 85% keep an altar, shrine or religious symbol at home. Each week, 76% perform puja, prayer and offerings to the gods, at home, and 53% do so at a temple. When Pew asked about sacred books, its example for Hindus was the Bhagavad Gita, not the Vedas. In all, 82% said it is "the word of God". The old rites have not vanished. In the same survey, 41% of Hindus said they had taken part in or seen an animal sacrifice. But the centre has moved from the fire to the image, from the hymns to the Gita, and from Indra to Shiva. The point is not that sacrifice is wrong. Islam has a sacrifice of its own, and the Qur'an says it is piety that reaches God (﷾). The point is that the Veda's central act of worship is no longer the centre of the religion that honours the Veda.
Among Indian Hindus, 85% have an altar, shrine or religious symbol in their home for worship. 76% perform puja, which Pew describes as often involving prayer and offerings to deities, at home at least weekly, and 53% do so at a temple each week. 41% have ever taken part in or witnessed an animal sacrifice for religious purposes, 65% in the South and 25% in the North. Hindus were asked about their sacred text with the Bhagavad Gita as the example, and 82% said it is the word of God.
“Puranic Hinduism is not a religion of Vedic sacrifices, but of the worship of images and gods unknown to the Vedas.”
“It is not their meat nor their blood, that reaches Allah: it is your piety that reaches Him: He has thus made them subject to you, that ye may glorify Allah for His Guidance to you and proclaim the good news to all who do right.”
| Topic | The Rig Veda | Hindus in India today |
|---|---|---|
| Leading gods | Indra, Agni and Soma | Shiva, Hanuman and Ganesha |
| Place of worship | The fire in the home; no temples mentioned | Home shrines and temples |
| Main act of worship | Offerings in the fire | Puja, each week for 76% at home and 53% at a temple |
| Sacred book | The hymns | The Bhagavad Gita: 82% call it "the word of God" |
Hindu scripture itself ranks the old rites lower
This change is not only something outsiders see. Hindu scripture records it. The Upanishads are shruti, the highest layer. The Mundaka Upanishad says there are two kinds of knowledge. The lower, it says, is the Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva Veda, with their supporting studies. The higher is the knowledge of the Indestructible. In the next section it calls the sacrifices "frail" boats. Those who praise the rites as the highest good, it says, face "old age and death" again and again. The Bhagavad Gita is smriti, the layer below, and it says the same in its own way. It speaks of "unwise ones" who are "enamoured of Vedic words" and "say there is nothing else". It tells Arjuna, the warrior Krishna is teaching, to rise above what the Vedas deal with. In 9:20-21 those who follow "the three (Vedas)" do reach heaven. But they "enter the mortal world when (their) merit is exhausted". The next verse turns to those who worship Krishna, "meditating on me and on no one else". So the reward of the hymns' religion has become a stop on a longer road. A Hindu cannot call those rites the highest way and also accept these books. So the later layers do not simply explain the earlier ones. They rank them lower.
“He said to him: ‘Two kinds of knowledge must be known, this is what all who know Brahman tell us, the higher and the lower knowledge.’ ‘The lower knowledge is the Rig-veda, Yagur-veda, Sâma-veda, Atharva-veda, Sikshâ (phonetics), Kalpa (ceremonial), Vyâkarana (grammar), Nirukta (etymology), Khandas (metre), Gyotisha (astronomy); but the higher knowledge is that by which the Indestructible (Brahman) is apprehended.’”
“But frail, in truth, are those boats, the sacrifices, the eighteen, in which this lower ceremonial has been told. Fools who praise this as the highest good, are subject again and again to old age and death.”
“The state of mind consisting in firm understanding regarding steady contemplation does not belong to those, O son of Prithâ! who are strongly attached to (worldly) pleasures and power, and whose minds are drawn away by that flowery talk which is full of (ordinances of) specific acts for the attainment of (those) pleasures and (that) power, and which promises birth as the fruit of acts—(that flowery talk) which those unwise ones utter, who are enamoured of Vedic words, who say there is nothing else, who are full of desires, and whose goal is heaven. The Vedas (merely) relate to the effects of the three qualities; do you, O Arguna! rise above those effects of the three qualities, and be free from the pairs of opposites, always preserve courage, be free from anxiety for new acquisitions or protection of old acquisitions, and be self-controlled.”
“Those who know the three (branches of) knowledge, who drink the Soma juice, whose sins are washed away, offer sacrifices and pray to me for a passage into heaven; and reaching the holy world of the lord of gods, they enjoy in the celestial regions the celestial pleasures of the gods. And having enjoyed that great heavenly world, they enter the mortal world when (their) merit is exhausted. Thus those who wish for objects of desire, and resort to the ordinances of the three (Vedas), obtain (as the fruit) going and coming. To those men who worship me, meditating on me and on no one else, and who are constantly devoted, I give new gifts and preserve what is acquired by them.”
The hymns
Worship at the fire, with offerings to the gods.
The Mundaka Upanishad
The four Vedas are "the lower knowledge", and the sacrifices are "frail" boats.
The Bhagavad Gita
Those who follow the three Vedas "enter the mortal world when (their) merit is exhausted".
Later Hinduism
"not a religion of Vedic sacrifices", in Dutt's words.
Hindus themselves have said so
Muslims did not invent this gap. Dutt wrote of "modern or Puranic Hinduism", the Hinduism of the Puranas. "Though nominally revering the Vedas", he said, it shows "a complete estrangement" from them. His verdict was plain: "Puranic Hinduism is not a religion of Vedic sacrifices, but of the worship of images and gods unknown to the Vedas." Vishnu and Rudra are in the hymns, as shown above, but their high rank and their images came after the hymns. Dayananda Saraswati was a 19th-century Hindu reformer and no friend of Islam. He said no verse of the Vedas speaks of calling God into an image. He called the books that teach image worship contrary to the Vedas. Vivekananda defended the use of images. Yet he told an American audience in 1900 that the Buddhists "were the first to use images". He said their use "was unknown before then". These men disagreed on much, and on images above all. Yet all three say image worship does not come from the Vedas. So the reader need not take a Muslim's word for it.
“Buddhism had questioned the sacredness of the Vedas, and modern or Puranic Hinduism, though nominally revering the Vedas, shows a complete estrangement and emancipation from those ancient works.”
“Puranic Hinduism is not a religion of Vedic sacrifices, but of the worship of images and gods unknown to the Vedas.”
Dayananda Saraswati, founder of the Arya Samaj, argues in the revised second edition of his Satyarth Prakash, a book that also gives a chapter to attacking the Qur'an, that no verse of the Vedas speaks of invoking God into an image, bringing it to life, or worshipping it; the verses recited for these rites, he says, come from the Tantras, not the Vedas. To the view that a god comes into the image when called by mantras and leaves when the rite ends, he answers that God, who fills all things, neither comes nor goes. He reads Yajur Veda 32.3 (na tasya pratima asti) and the Kena Upanishad's refrain as forbidding image worship, calls the Tantras and Puranas that enjoin it contrary to the Vedas, and denies that image worship is a first step toward God.
“My brethren, we can no more think about anything without a mental image than we can live without breathing. By the law of association the material image calls up the mental idea and vice versa. This is why the Hindu uses an external symbol when he worships. He will tell you it helps to keep his mind fixed on the Being to whom he prays. He knows as well as you do that the image is not God, is not omnipresent.”
“By and by, there arose huge temples and all the paraphernalia. The use of images was unknown before then. I say they were the first to use images.”
The Hindu reply: a living tradition grows
Hindus have a serious reply. A tradition is alive, they say, and living things grow. Vivekananda put it this way. He divided the Vedas into a knowledge portion and a ritual portion. The rites, he wrote, change with time, place and person. Only the knowledge portion, the Vedanta, keeps its authority for all time. Manu's law book also says duties differ from age to age. Sacrifice is the chief virtue of one age, and giving is the chief virtue of the Kali age, the present age in Hindu teaching. On this view, the move from the fire to the temple is growth, not loss.
Divides the Vedas into the Jnana-kanda (the knowledge portion) and the Karma-kanda (the ritual portion). The ceremonies of the ritual portion and their fruits, he writes, belong to the world of Maya, so they have been changing and will change with time, space and person. Social laws and customs based on them change too. Only the knowledge portion, the Vedanta, has commanded recognition for all time, and its authority is not limited by time, place or persons.
“One set of duties (is prescribed) for men in the Krita age, different ones in the Tretâ and in the Dvâpara, and (again) another (set) in the Kali, in proportion as (those) ages decrease in length. In the Krita age the chief (virtue) is declared to be (the performance of) austerities, in the Tretâ (divine) knowledge, in the Dvâpara (the performance of) sacrifices, in the Kali liberality alone.”
Why "it grew" does not settle it
This reply meets three problems. The first is authority. Vivekananda's own rule says later books count only so far as they follow the Vedas. Suppose a later book, such as the Agamas, the manuals of temple worship, may overrule the Veda. Then the Veda is not the highest authority. If it may not, then temples and images fail the rule, because the hymns do not teach them. The second problem is that more than rites changed. Whom a person worships is not a local custom. Neither is what happens after death, and the hymns' picture of that changed too. The knowledge portion is not settled either: Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva read the Upanishads in ways that rule each other out. The third problem is the most serious. Growth by custom has no end point. If the Gita can lower the hymns, a later teacher can lower the Gita. So no stage can say it is the truth, because each may be replaced. A person who must decide how to worship needs more than the latest stage.
Writes that in matters of religious duty the Vedas are the only capable authority. The Puranas and other religious books are all Smriti, and their authority goes only so far as they follow the Vedas and do not contradict them.
“It is easy to understand that in the case of deities whose outward shape was so vaguely conceived and whose connexion with natural phenomena was in many instances still clear, no mention of either images (§ 66 c) or temples is found in the RV.”
“Those who know the three (branches of) knowledge, who drink the Soma juice, whose sins are washed away, offer sacrifices and pray to me for a passage into heaven; and reaching the holy world of the lord of gods, they enjoy in the celestial regions the celestial pleasures of the gods. And having enjoyed that great heavenly world, they enter the mortal world when (their) merit is exhausted. Thus those who wish for objects of desire, and resort to the ordinances of the three (Vedas), obtain (as the fruit) going and coming. To those men who worship me, meditating on me and on no one else, and who are constantly devoted, I give new gifts and preserve what is acquired by them.”
Writes that in the Vedic view the spirit of the dead went on the path trodden by the fathers to the realm of eternal light, and found them in the highest heaven with Yama, king of the dead; heaven was gained above all by those who gave liberal sacrificial gifts to priests. The theory of transmigration, he says, is developed in the oldest Upanishads. Its earliest form is in the Shatapatha Brahmana, where being born again and dying repeatedly does not go beyond the next world; the Upanishads turn it into transmigration by supposing rebirth to take place in this world. In the Chandogya the householder who has performed sacrifice and good works goes by the path of the Fathers to the moon, stays until the consequences of his actions are exhausted, and returns to earth to be born again. Macdonell calls this a double retribution, first in the next world and then by transmigration in this, and says the first is a survival of the old Vedic belief about the future life. He notes that the last book of the Shatapatha Brahmana forms an Aranyaka, whose six concluding chapters are the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, and that the Brihadaranyaka's account of the return (6.2.15-16) is similar to the Chandogya's.
“Scriptural passages also (such as, 'When the Self only is all this, how should he see another?' Bri. Up. II, 4, 13) declare that for him who sees that everything has its Self in Brahman the whole phenomenal world with its actions, agents, and results of actions is non-existent. Nor can it be said that this non-existence of the phenomenal world is declared (by Scripture) to be limited to certain states; for the passage 'Thou art that' shows that the general fact of Brahman being the Self of all is not limited by any particular state. Moreover, Scripture, showing by the instance of the thief (Kh. VI, 16) that the false-minded is bound while the true-minded is released, declares thereby that unity is the one true existence while manifoldness is evolved out of wrong knowledge.”
“Hence such words as 'I,' 'thou,' &c., which are different forms of appellation of the individual soul, at bottom denote the highest Self only; for the individual souls together with non-sentient matter are the body—and hence modes—of the highest Self. This entire view is condensed in the co-ordination 'Thou art that.' The individual soul being thus connected with the highest Self as its body, its attributes do not touch the highest Self, not any more than infancy, youth, and other attributes of the material body touch the individual soul.”
“In reality verily thou art not that (God) O Śvetaketu, so be thou not conceited and proud. The Asuras became conceited, thinking in their heart "I am Brahman," they say "the world is false, I am a perfect being, I am almighty."”
The Veda is the highest authority, and later books count only so far as they follow it.
If a later book may not change it
Temples and images fail the rule, because the hymns do not teach them.
If a later book may change it
The Veda is not the highest authority.
And then?
A later teacher may change the later book too, so no stage is final.
Islam: one message, and a finished one
Islam makes the opposite claim. The Qur'an says every messenger was sent with one message: worship God (﷾) alone. It names Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus (peace be upon them) as bringing the same religion. Laws did differ between peoples: "To each among you have we prescribed a law". But God (﷾) alone changed them, through a prophet He sent. What people must believe about Him never changed. And the sending has ended. Muhammad (ﷺ) is "the Seal of the Prophets", and God (﷾) says, "This day have I perfected your religion for you". Muslims know when those words came: on a Friday at Arafat, during the pilgrimage. The Prophet (ﷺ) said that whatever is brought into this matter that is not of it is rejected. Muslims have picked up customs of their own over the centuries, and this rule judges those customs too. Muslims also differ on points of law, and Islam has four schools of law. But the schools are not new layers of revelation. They are scholars' readings of the same Qur'an and the same teaching of the Prophet (ﷺ), and they differ on details of practice. For any dispute the Qur'an names the judge: "refer it to Allah and His Messenger". The Prophet (ﷺ) said that a judge who does his best and is right has two rewards. One who does his best and errs has one. So an honest difference is allowed, but no scholar may overrule the text. This is the opposite of Vivekananda's rule, in which the rites themselves are meant to change. The Qur'an also says God (﷾) will guard its message. Its claim to be God's (﷾) word is tested on other pages of this site. The point here is the kind of claim it makes. A Muslim can test any practice against the Qur'an and the Prophet's (ﷺ) teaching, because no later layer can overrule them. A Hindu who wants a teaching that does not shift can read the Qur'an and test it. It asks for worship with no image and no go-between, given to one God (﷾) alone: "Call on Me; I will answer your (Prayer)".
“Not a messenger did We send before thee without this inspiration sent by Us to him: that there is no god but I; therefore worship and serve Me.”
“The same religion has He established for you as that which He enjoined on Noah - the which We have sent by inspiration to thee - and that which We enjoined on Abraham, Moses, and Jesus: Namely, that ye should remain steadfast in religion, and make no divisions therein: to those who worship other things than Allah, hard is the (way) to which thou callest them. Allah chooses to Himself those whom He pleases, and guides to Himself those who turn (to Him).”
“To thee We sent the Scripture in truth, confirming the scripture that came before it, and guarding it in safety: so judge between them by what Allah hath revealed, and follow not their vain desires, diverging from the Truth that hath come to thee. To each among you have we prescribed a law and an open way. If Allah had so willed, He would have made you a single people, but (His plan is) to test you in what He hath given you: so strive as in a race in all virtues. The goal of you all is to Allah; it is He that will show you the truth of the matters in which ye dispute;”
“Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but (he is) the Messenger of Allah, and the Seal of the Prophets: and Allah has full knowledge of all things.”
“This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion.”
A Jewish man told Umar ibn al-Khattab that if the verse "This day have I perfected your religion" had been revealed to the Jews, they would have kept that day as a festival. Umar answered that Muslims know exactly when and where it came down: on a Friday, while the Prophet (ﷺ) was standing at Arafat during the pilgrimage.
Aisha reports that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: whoever introduces into this matter of ours something that is not of it, it is rejected.
“O ye who believe! Obey Allah, and obey the Messenger, and those charged with authority among you. If ye differ in anything among yourselves, refer it to Allah and His Messenger, if ye do believe in Allah and the Last Day: That is best, and most suitable for final determination.”
Amr ibn al-As reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) said that when a judge strives to reach the right ruling and is right, he has two rewards, and when he strives and is wrong, he still has one reward.
Divides the Vedas into the Jnana-kanda (the knowledge portion) and the Karma-kanda (the ritual portion). The ceremonies of the ritual portion and their fruits, he writes, belong to the world of Maya, so they have been changing and will change with time, space and person. Social laws and customs based on them change too. Only the knowledge portion, the Vedanta, has commanded recognition for all time, and its authority is not limited by time, place or persons.
“We have, without doubt, sent down the Message; and We will assuredly guard it (from corruption).”
“And your Lord says: "Call on Me; I will answer your (Prayer): but those who are too arrogant to serve Me will surely find themselves in Hell - in humiliation!"”
| Question | A tradition that grows | Islam's claim |
|---|---|---|
| Who may change it? | Later books, teachers and custom | God (﷾) alone, through a prophet He sent |
| Does belief about God (﷾) change? | Whom people worship has changed | No: one message through every messenger |
| Is there an end point? | None | Yes: "This day have I perfected your religion for you" |
| What settles a dispute? | Teachers whose readings rule each other out | "refer it to Allah and His Messenger" |
The replies, answered
Bhagavad Gita 3:9-12 — chapter 3, verses 9-12
“This world is fettered by all action other than action for the purpose of the sacrifice. Therefore, O son of Kuntî! do you, casting off attachment, perform action for that purpose. The Creator, having in olden times created men together with the sacrifice, said: 'Propagate with this. May it be the giver to you of the things you desire. Please the gods with this, and may those gods please you. Pleasing each other, you will attain the highest good. For pleased with the sacrifices, the gods will give you the enjoyments you desire. And he who enjoys himself without giving them what they have given, is, indeed, a thief.'”
Cited for
The Gita does not reject the rites. It says the Creator made men together with the sacrifice, and that pleasing the gods brings the highest good. So the Gita and the Vedas agree.
The response
The Gita does keep sacrifice. That is why its ranking matters. The same book says those who follow the three Vedas return to the mortal world when their merit runs out. A rite can be kept and still be placed lower.
Where it lands — The Gita keeps the rites but puts them below devotion to Krishna. That is a change of rank, and the page's point stands.
Mundaka Upanishad 1.2.7 — chapter 1, section 2, verse 7
“But frail, in truth, are those boats, the sacrifices, the eighteen, in which this lower ceremonial has been told. Fools who praise this as the highest good, are subject again and again to old age and death.”
Cited for
Lower does not mean false. The Upanishads belong to the Veda. So this is the Veda teaching its own higher meaning, not a later book overruling it.
The response
Then the Veda's last layer places all four Vedas under "the lower knowledge", and calls the rites frail. A Hindu must now choose which part of the Veda is the real one. The hymns and the Upanishads do not offer the same way to the same end.
Where it lands — This reading moves the problem inside the Veda. It does not remove it.
Rig Veda 4.24.10 — Mandala 4, Hymn 24, verse 10
“Who for ten milch-kine purchaseth from me this Indra who is mine? When he hath slain the Vṛitras let the buyer give him back to me.”
Cited for
The Rig Veda knew images. A poet offers to sell "this Indra who is mine" for ten cows.
The response
Macdonell notes this verse himself and says it is "possibly an image". It is one puzzling verse about a bargain. It gives no command to worship an image, and it names no temple. He still says references to idols begin to appear in later additions to the Brahmanas and in the Sutras.
Where it lands — One uncertain verse cannot make image and temple worship the religion of the Vedas.
Perspectives
A living tradition grows
The Veda's rites were always meant to change with time and place. Its lasting truth is the Vedanta. Temples, images and devotion are the same religion in a later form.
A common Hindu answer, in Vivekananda's form
The ritual portion of the Veda changes with time, place and person. Only the knowledge portion, the Vedanta, stands for all time.
Rebuttal
Vivekananda also says later books count only so far as they follow the Vedas. If temples and images come from later books, they fail his own test. And the knowledge portion is not one teaching: Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva read it in ways that rule each other out.
Manu says each age has its own duties. Sacrifice was the chief virtue of one age, and giving is the chief virtue of the present Kali age. So scripture itself expected the change.
Rebuttal
These verses speak of which virtue comes first. They do not say which gods to worship, and they do not mention temples or images. The same book keeps the sacrifices and keeps temple-priests away from the rites. So it cannot be the licence for a temple religion.
Islam changed too. Each prophet brought a new law, and the Qur'an came after the Torah and the Gospel.
Rebuttal
Islam does not say God's (﷾) religion grew. It says the message was one from the start: worship God (﷾) alone. Laws differed, but God (﷾) alone changed them, through a prophet He sent. No custom or later generation could, and that sending ended with the Prophet (ﷺ). Nor does the Qur'an call the earlier revelation a lower path, as the Gita does with the Vedic rites. It describes itself as "confirming the scripture that came before it".
Islam has grown too. Muslims follow four schools of law. And Vivekananda said Muslims use the graves of their saints "almost in the place of images".
Rebuttal
The schools are scholars' readings of the same Qur'an and the same teaching of the Prophet (ﷺ). They differ on details of practice, and none claims the right to overrule either source. The Qur'an gives the rule for a dispute: "refer it to Allah and His Messenger". As for graves, the Prophet (ﷺ) forbade his people to take graves as places of worship. And he said that what is brought into the faith and is not of it is rejected. So where Muslims have drifted, Islam's own texts correct them. In Vivekananda's account the rites are meant to change.
Nothing essential has changed
The gods of today are in the Veda already, under other names. The Veda itself says that truth is one. Hindus still revere the Veda, so the religion is the same.
A common Hindu answer
The Rig Veda says, "To what is One, sages give many a title". So Indra and Shiva are names of the same One, and the change of names means nothing.
Rebuttal
Macdonell places this idea in the later hymns, such as this one. The verse is about names. It does not explain why the fire gave way to the image, or why later books ranked the rites lower. So even if every name means the One, the worship still changed.
Vishnu and Rudra are in the Rig Veda, and counting hymns is a poor way to measure a god.
Rebuttal
Macdonell agrees that the count is only a partial guide, and he says Vishnu matters more than his hymns suggest. He still calls both Vishnu and Rudra subordinate in the Rig Veda. Being present is not the same as being supreme. And the case does not rest on the count alone: temples are missing too, and so is any clear mention of images.
The Veda is more than the Rig Veda's hymns. The Yajur Veda knows the name Shiva, and the Svetasvatara Upanishad says, "there is one Rudra only". So Shiva's worship is Vedic.
Rebuttal
This grants that the change began inside the Veda. Macdonell calls the Yajur Veda "a still later stage", and its one chief god is Prajapati. So the Veda's own layers give the first place to different gods. Indra has the most hymns, Prajapati is chief in the Yajur Veda, and Rudra is the one lord of this Upanishad. The reply also does not reach Hanuman, Ganesha, Lakshmi or Kali, or the temple.
Ganesha is in the Rig Veda. Hindus still recite "gananam tva ganapatim" to him.
Rebuttal
The verse names the god it addresses: "O Brahmaṇaspati", "The King supreme of prayers". The title "Lord and Leader of the heavenly hosts" is given to him. Macdonell reads it the same way: ganapati, 'lord of a host', is a title of this god. Reciting the line to Ganesha is a later use, so it shows the change and does not disprove it.
Hindus still revere the Veda and recite its verses, so they have not left it.
Rebuttal
Reverence and following are different things. Dutt's phrase is "nominally revering the Vedas". A book can be honoured as the highest authority while its gods, rites and rewards are left behind. Pew's figures show where worship stands today.
Go back to the Vedas
Later Hindus left the Vedas, but the remedy is to return to them. The Vedas teach one God and no images, so a Hindu has no need of another religion.
The answer of Dayananda Saraswati and the Arya Samaj
The Puranas and image worship are later errors. The true Vedic religion needs only to be restored.
Rebuttal
This reply grants the page's answer. It also leaves a problem. The hymns themselves are addressed to Indra, Agni and Soma by the hundred. Most of the Veda's branches did not survive, and the meaning of its verses was disputed early. The Qur'an teaches the worship of one God (﷾) plainly, in a text Muslims still have.
What the record shows
The Rig Veda's leading gods, its fire worship and its reward are not the centre of Hindu practice today.
Indra, Agni and Soma fill about three-fifths of the Rig Veda. Vishnu has five whole hymns and Rudra three.
Hindus in India today feel closest to Shiva, Hanuman and Ganesha. Indra, Agni and Soma were not on the survey's card.
The Rig Veda mentions no temples, and scholars find no clear mention of images in it.
Most Hindus in India keep a shrine, altar or religious symbol at home, and perform puja at home each week.
The Islamic perspective
God (﷾) sent one message through every prophet. He completed it with the Qur'an, and no later generation may add to the faith.
Every messenger was sent with the same message: there is no god but Allah (﷾), so worship Him.
Laws differed between peoples, but only God (﷾) changed them, through a prophet He sent.
The religion was completed in the Prophet's (ﷺ) lifetime, and he is the last of the prophets.
Whatever is brought into the faith that is not of it is rejected.