[Advaita-l] Scholarly Article on Why Vedas are Valid

[Kalyan K]

Namaste Satishji,

>May be such deities can be considered as grAma devata-s or kula
devata-s(arasu for example) who are only devata-s for a certain region or
for certain families...?
>A normal traditional Indian ritualist does not pay any attention to these
other deities. But there are few exceptions, like for example the mantra
mahArNava does talk about >worship of some deities who are outside the
"traditional Indian ritual-arena". So here we have a case where a devata was
imported much like the Japanese and other Eastern >cultures took to worship
of Indian deities.

May I ask how many gods that are being worshipped today have their basis in
the vedas? Indra, Agni, Varuna are some of the major Gods of the vedas but
how many temples of Indra, Agni, Varuna do we see today? There are other
gods (I will not name them for obvious reasons) who are worshipped widely
today, but do not find mention (or find a merely passing mention) in the
vedas.

I am NOT suggesting that we should stop the worship of any God. I am merely
saying that even the tradition Indian ritualistic people have changed a lot
between the vedic age and the present age.

Regards
Kalyan