By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik - Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist
Harappan civilisation, which thrived over 4,000 years ago, had seals of as-yet-unidentified Goddesses emerging from trees and Goddesses riding tigers. Vedic religion that thrived 3,000 years ago, however, was primarily a masculine religion dominated by worship of Indra, Varuna, Agni and Soma, even Prajapati. Goddesses play a generally minor role, but are present in the form of speech (Vac), twilight (Ushas), forests (Aranyani), earth (Prithvi), prosperity (Shri) and even power (Durga). Veda is all hymns, not quite description of images, more like poetry evoking personified concepts.
