Vedic roots and living worship

The layers matter and the entries mark them. The oldest figures belong to the Vedic hymns of the second millennium BCE; the familiar gods of temple worship take their mature shape later, in the epics and the Puranas. Some Vedic deities faded as others rose, and regional and sectarian traditions (Vaishnava, Shaiva, Shakta) each place a different figure at the centre.

These are objects of living devotion for hundreds of millions of people. The atlas records each figure's myths, iconography, consorts and vehicles, and the domains and correspondences attached to them, describing what the tradition holds rather than adjudicating among its schools.