The Vedic period religions laid the foundation of the religious practices that are continued till date in modern India. These religions arose from the sacred scriptures that were composed during the Vedic period. These scriptures founded the very base of Hinduism in India. The scriptures that talk of the various religious practices are basically the four Vedas namely Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda. The Upanishads are also considered to be a part of the Vedas and contain valuable information regarding the rituals and religions of Vedic Age.

The principles of religions in Vedic Era were basically laid down by the priests, who were the highest class of people in the society. They were the ones who performed the rituals, chanted hymns and read out holy texts in temples and functions. The texts recorded in the Vedas were supposed to have divine power and were to be chanted perfectly with the right tone, pronunciation and emphasis. This was believed to make the hymns effective to the hilt and gain the maximum power out of it.

Religion in Early Vedic Period: Religion in early Vedic period revolved around crude forms of worshipping which basically includes nature worship. This means that people in the early Vedic period worshipped different forms of nature as god like sun, earth, moon, wind, rain, and other natural phenomena. Since there were no scientific explanations for natural phenomena like rain, thunder, wind, etc. people feared them and thus worshipped them. Chanting of prayers and hymns were a common practice to invoke the Gods and it was normal to sacrifice animals in the name of religion.

Religion in Later Vedic Period: The later Vedic age saw the increase in powers of the priests and they formed the highest class in the society. Religious practices were refined and worship of Gods in the form of idols gained importance. Animal sacrifice also increased during this period. With rituals and hymns taking center stage, the evolution of Hindu religion took place. Nature worship gave rise to new beliefs and new Gods. The duty of imparting the religious know how to people was the duty of the priests. 

The Vedic period has been broadly classified into two categories: the Early and Later Vedic Periods. This has been done according to the way the transition in the style of culture and society took place. The Vedic period society developed rapidly as time passed by. In Vedic age, culture and society developed from the crude form to the refined form as more and more people came to settle and started to contribute their own ideas to reform the society. With the development in society & culture during Vedic era, historians had to divide the era according to the developments.

Society and Culture in Early Vedic Period: Society in the early Vedic period was basically semi nomadic in nature as people were still learning to settle permanently. They did settle on small patches of land, but moved as soon as the resources over there were depleting. They started to domesticate wild animals and train them as farm animals. As the population in these semi-nomadic groups increased, they settled permanently as moving with a large group was next to impossible. They then started to do farming on a large scale and resorted to full time farming. Their culture was that of a typical tribe. They had a tribal chief who was the governing head of the tribe. He was helped by a group of wise and experienced men in performing his duties.

Society and Culture in Later Vedic Period: The society in the later Vedic period increased in size as people began to live in large settlements that had all facilities for the people. The size of the agricultural fields grew in size. During this time, kingship evolved into the hereditary form in which the son of a ruling chief gets the throne after the chief. The priestly class developed and occupied the highest position in the society. Another significant development during the later Vedic age was that of the caste division of the society. The society was divided into four castes namely Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras. The Brahmanas were the priestly class who occupied the highest position in the society. The Kshatriyas were the warriors; the Vaishyas were the service class like businessmen and peasants. The Shudras were the lowest class of people who did jobs like removing garbage, cleaning up, etc.