The oldest of the Vedas is the Rig-Veda , a collection of 1,017 hymns made for the benefit of the priests responsible for invoking the gods at sacrifices. They reveal an optimistic people seeking divine favour in the form of material advance. All have the Brahmanas commentary and explanation interleaved. The Artharva-Veda is completely different, being a collection of spells which may have originated from the Sudra classes. The Vedas merge into the Upanishads via the 'Discourses in the Forest'.
Religion now becomes internalized, speculative and deeply devotional.
Classic Hindu pantheism emerges. Already the late-Vedic hymns refashion older poems to give answers to burning questions. The immortality of the soul is simply asserted in beautiful poetry . There are no philosophical arguments. In later times, the Vedic gods declined, and minor gods became more important, most notably Vishnu.