In the Vedas, we find the Aryans referring to celestial beings or Deva, and to ancestors or Pitra. Food is offered to both. The Deva are offered food facing the eastern direction, the Pitra are facing the southern direction. The Devas are venerated in spring and summer when the days are going longer and warmer while the Pitra are associated with the darker and colder half of the year when the sun is moving in the southern direction.

The non-Aryan people of India approached death and ghosts in a very different way. The Harappans seemed to fear the dead. They cremated them or buried them in special zones outside the settlement. At Stone Age sites, the dead were buried in and around their homes, sometimes in large pots, along with a few funerary offerings, such as jewellery, jars and tools of their trade. On top of it, they would place large stone mounds, which are called megaliths, which are found in the Deccan region.