What was the original faith or religion of india?
This is going to be one of those really controversial questions. It’s a bit like the origins of Christianity–a lot of different groups claim to have the “original practice” of their faith, but the ancient practices were probably actually very different from the modern form of the faith. India, being a large region containing many local cultures, probably started out with a lot of local religious traditions that were gradually incorporated into a single religion, Hinduism. This can be seen throughout modern Hindu tradition–people from different regions of India have different explanations for what event is being celebrated on the feast of Divali, for example, stemming from regional differences in lore. They all agree that it’s a festival of the victory of light over darkness, but there are three or four different stories of what mythical battle Divali commemorates. It’s probable that India, like most regions, started out with a lot of nature-based polytheistic religions, similar to pa
“Evidence attesting to prehistoric religion in the Indian subcontinent derives from scattered Mesolithic rock paintings depicting dances and rituals. Neolithic pastoralists inhabiting the Indus River Valley buried their dead in a manner suggestive of spiritual practices that incorporated notions of an afterlife and belief in magic.[6] Other South Asian Stone Age sites, such as the Bhimbetka rock shelters in central Madhya Pradesh and the Kupgal petroglyphs of eastern Karnataka, contain rock art portraying religious rites and evidence of possible ritualised music.[7] The Harappan people of the Indus Valley Civilization, which lasted from 3300–1700 BCE and was centered around the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra river valleys, may have worshiped an important mother goddess symbolising fertility.[8] Excavations of Indus Valley Civilization sites show seals with animals and “fire‑altars”, indicating rituals associated with fire. A linga-yoni of a type similar to that which is now worshiped by Hindu
