There are many others, all having special skill and talents. The gods themselves also give birth to the idea of avatars, or the form of the god when he or she comes to earth. A hand carved statue of Krishna, one of the avatars of Vishnu, was found in the ruins of an ancient Dravidian city. This proves that there were indigenous ideas for the Aryans to use in their worship.
The Aryans began to write down their ideas and methods of worship that were originally orally passed. These writings began what we know today as the Vedas. In order to pass these lengthy stories orally, they had been put into rhymes and hymns. The first book of the Vedas, the Rgveda, consists of 128 hymns to various deities. These deities were more of Aryan descent since they were warlike and patriarchal. However, the Rgveda did already show signs of polytheism. Other books began to join the Rgveda in the set of the Vedas. Books such as Samaveda, Yajurveda, and Athauuaveda showed that the Aryan culture was changing the way that it viewed its gods, as well as the way that they viewed themselves. The final addition to the Vedas in the classical period, the Upanishad, was added around 800 BCE. This is where terms like samsara, moksha, dharma, and kharma first emerged in writing. Hinduism could now be more easily passed and taught with its own jargon for communication.
These terms, when viewed separately may be difficult to grasp. However, when they are brought together they make perfect sense. The idea of samsara is roughly that of reincarnation. All souls are stuck in a cycle of life, death, and rebirth. The goal of each of these souls is to escape the cycle of samsara and obtain moksha. Moksha is a reincarnation with a god. In recent Hinduism, the moksha that you obtain is with the god of your choice, or whomever you worshipped as your patron deity. The terms of dharma and kharma are the tools that we must use in order to obtain moksha and escape samsara.
