The religion of early Vedic Aryans was primarily of

The answer is C. Rigvedic religion centred on the worship of natural forces such as Indra (rain and war), Agni (fire), Surya (sun), Varuna (cosmic order), Prithvi and Dyaus, carried out through yajnas, offerings made into the sacrificial fire with the priest as mediator.

Why the others fail:

• A) Bhakti: devotional surrender to a personal god belongs to a later phase, associated with the Bhagavad Gita and the Puranic tradition. Vedic hymns are petitions and exchanges (do ut des), not devotion.
• B) Image worship and yajnas: yajnas are right, but image worship (murti puja) appears much later, in the Puranic and Gupta period. Vedic gods were not worshipped as idols in temples.
• D) Worship of nature and Bhakti: the nature part is right, but Bhakti is a later development, so the pair fails.

Core concept: the move from Vedic sacrificial ritualism to Upanishadic speculation, and then to Bhakti and temple worship, is a standard theme in ancient Indian religion. It links directly to Mains GS-1 questions on religious and social change.

Trap: candidates pick B or D because image worship and Bhakti sound religious and familiar. Ask whether the practice is attested in the Rigveda itself, not whether it exists in Hinduism generally.