Brahmins were great survivors..

in Vedic HInduism, yajnam and yagas through which offerings were made by the hotas,ritviks. advaryus etc (class of brahmin priests) to the fire after symbolically invoking the presence of gods in fire was the mode of worship..

Natural forces or symbols of them

like Indra for thunderbolt,

vayu for air,

pooshan etc for Sun,

maruts, rudras and so on were the vedic deities..

Brahma or prajapathi also was a Vedic god who presided over yagas and took share in the offerings..

One distinctive feature of that time was that there were no invoking of gods in statues, idols etc... and there were no temples..

The vedic gods of subordinate importance during the early Vedic period like Shiva and Vishnu ( shiva in the shape of Rudras) caught the fancy of not only the brahmins but of other sects too at a later period

.. and the worship in forms and shapes in abodes specially built for such worship(temples) started....essentially based on the texts of later origin namely agamas..some tantric texts also ran parallel..

Of course no established practice ever can be completely given up, and therefore to maintain continuity, the Vedic Mantras and some rituals too got included in temple worship .. but in temple rituals offer or oblations to fire was of secondary importance..

When temple worship came into vogue in Hinduism, Vishnu, Shiva, Amba.. and perhaps Ganapathy too had gained ascendancy and the gods like Indra and Vayu were just confined to the allegiance of Vedic brahmins.. and in yagas which happened once in a while.

In this process, no temples are seen for some of the prominent Vedic deities like Indra, Vayu, etc..

In fact, building of temples and worship of idols was viewed as of secondary or inferior priority by the traditional brahmins..

But they had to survive, and jumped in with the majority and adroitly took over the poojas etc too..

Brahmins were great survivors..