What follows is a Eurocentric view of the Vedas and the dates associated with
their conception.Note the emphasis the writer places on the words "These
calculations are based on the assumption that the early Indians possessed an
exact astronomical knowledge of the sun's course such as there is no evidence,
or even probability, that they actually possessed. " Note the number
of hypothesis that are made to arrive at the definite conclusion that the Rg
was dated around 1300 BCE. Note also the assumption that the so called Aryans
brought with them a religion in which the gods were chiefly personified
powers of Nature, a few of them, such as Dyaus, going back to the
Indo-European, others, such as Mitra, Varuna, Indra, to the Indo-Iranian
period. Nevermind that there is no trace of the vedas anywhere in the rest
of the known galaxy except in the Indian peninsula.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/vedaread.htm
Scanned at www.sacred-texts.com August 31, 2000.
INTRODUCTION
1. AGE OF THE RIGVEDA.
THE Rigveda is undoubtedly the oldest literary
monument of the Indo-European languages. But the exact period when the hymns were
composed is a matter of conjecture. All that we can say with any approach to
certainty is that the oldest of them cannot date from later than the thirteenth
century B.C. This assertion is based on the following grounds. Buddhism, which
began to spread in India about 500 B.C., presupposes the existence not only of
the Vedas, but also of the intervening literature of the Brahmanas and
Upanishads. The development of language and religious thought apparent in the
extensive literature of the successive phases of these two Vedic periods
renders it necessary to postulate the lapse of seven or eight centuries to
account for the gradual changes, linguistic, religious, social, and political,
that this literature displays. On astronomical grounds, one Sanskrit scholar
has (cf. p. 146) concluded that the oldest Vedic hymns date from 3000 B.C.,
While another puts them as far back as 6000 B.C. These calculations are based
on the assumption that the early Indians possessed an exact astronomical
knowledge of the sun's course such as there is no evidence, or even
probability, that they actually possessed. On the other hand, the possibility
of such extreme antiquity seems to be disproved by the relationship of the
hymns of the Rigveda to the oldest part of the Avesta, which can hardly date
earlier than from about 800 B.C. That relationship is so close that the
language of the Avesta, if it were known at a stage some five centuries
earlier, could scarcely have differed at all from that of the Rigveda. Hence
the Indians could not have separated from the Iranians much sooner than 1300
B.C. But, according to Prof. Jacobi, the separation took place before 1500 B.C.
In that case we must assume that the Iranian and the Indian languages remained
practically unchanged for the truly immense period of over 3000 years. We must
thus rest content with the moderate estimate of the thirteenth century B.C. as
the approximate date for the beginning of the Rigvedic period. This estimate
has not been invalidated by the discovery in 1907 of the names of the Indian
deities Mitra, Varuna, Indra, Nasatya, in an inscription of about 1400 B.C.
found in Asia Minor. For the phonetic form in which these names there appear
may quite well belong to the Indo-Iranian period when the Indians and the
Persians were still one people. The date of the inscription leaves two
centuries for the separation of the Indians, their migration to India, and the
commencement of the Vedic hymn literature in the north-west of Hindustan.
2. ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF THE COLLECTION.
When the Indo-Aryans entered India, they brought
with them a religion in which the gods were chiefly personified powers of
Nature, a few of them, such as Dyaus, going back to the Indo-European, others,
such as Mitra, Varuna, Indra, to the Indo-Iranian period. They also brought
with them the cult of fire and of Soma, besides a knowledge of the art of
composing religious poems in several metres, as a comparison of the Rigveda and
the Avesta shows. The purpose of these ancient hymns was to propitiate the gods
by praises accompanying the offering of malted butter poured on the fire and of
the juice of the Soma plant placed on the sacrificial grass. The hymns which
have survived in the Rigveda from the early period of the Indo-Aryan invasion
were almost exclusively composed by a hereditary priesthood. They were handed
down in different families by memory, not by writing, which could hardly have
been introduced into India before about 700 B.C. These family groups of hymns
were gradually brought together till, with successive additions, they assumed
the earliest collected form of the Rigveda. Then followed the constitution of
the Samhita text, which appears to have taken place about 600 B.C., at the end
of the period of the Brahmanas, but before the Upanishads, which form
appendages to those works, came into existence. The creators of the Samhita did
not in any way alter the diction of the hymns here collected together, but only
applied to the text certain rules of Sandhi which prevailed in their time, and
by which, in particular, vowels are either contracted or changed into
semi-vowels, and a is often dropped after e and o, in such a way as constantly
to obscure the metre. Soon after this work was concluded, extraordinary
precautions were taken to preserve from loss or corruption the sacred text thus
fixed. The earliest expedient of this kind was the formation of the Pada or
'word' text, in which all the words of the Samhita text are separated and given
in their original form as unaffected by the rules of Sandhi, and in which most
compounds and some derivatives and inflected forms are analysed. This text,
which is virtually the earliest commentary on the Rigveda, was followed by
other and more complicated methods of reciting the text, and by various works
called Anukramanis or 'Indexes', which enumerate from the beginning to the end
of the Rigveda the number of stanzas contained in each hymn, the deities, and
the metres of all the stanzas of the Rigveda. Thanks to these various
precautions the text of the Rigveda has been handed down for 2,500 years with a
fidelity that finds no parallel in any other literature.
3. EXTENT AND DIVISIONS OF THE RIGVEDA.
The Rigveda consists of 1,017 or, counting eleven
others of the eighth Book which are recognized as later additions, 1,028 hymns.
These contain a total of about 10,600 stanzas, which give an average Of ten
stanzas to each hymn. The shortest hymn has only one stanza, while the longest
has fifty-eight. If printed continuously like prose in Roman characters, the
Samhita text would fill an octavo volume of about 600 pages of thirty-three
lines each. It has been calculated that in bulk the RV. is equivalent to the
extant poems of Homer.
There is a twofold division of the RV. into parts.
One, which is purely mechanical, is into Astakas or 'eighths' of about equal
length, each of which is subdivided into eight Adhyayas or 'lessons', while
each of the latter consists of Vargas or 'groups' of five or six stanzas. The
other division is into ten Mandalas or 'books' (lit. 'cycles') and Suktas or
'hymns'. The latter method is an historical one, indicating the manner in which
the collection came into being. This system is now invariably followed by
Western Scholars in referring to or quoting from the Rigveda.
4. ARRANGEMENT OF THE RIGVEDA.
Six of the ten books, ii to vii, are homogeneous in
character. The hymns contained in each of them were, according to native Indian
tradition, composed or 'seen' by poets of the same family, which handed them
down as its own collection. The tradition is borne out by the internal evidence
of the seers' names mentioned in the hymns, and by that of the refrains
occurring in each of these books. The method of arrangement followed in the
'family books' is uniform, for each of them is similarly divided into groups
addressed to different gods. On the other hand, Books i, viii, and x were not
composed each by a distinct family of seers, while the groups of which they
consist are constituted by being the hymns composed by different individual
seers. Book ix is distinguished from the rest by all its hymns being addressed
to one and the same deity, Soma, and by its groups being based not on identity
of authorship, but of metre.
Family books.--In these the first group of hymns is
invariably addressed to Agni, the second to Indra, and those that follow to
gods of less importance. The hymns within these deity groups are arranged
according to the diminishing number of stanzas contained in them. Thus in the
second Book the Agni group of ten hymns begins with one of sixteen stanzas and
ends with one of only six. The first hymn of the next group in the same book
has twenty-one, the last only four stanzas. The entire group of the family
books is, moreover, arranged according to the increasing number of the hymns in
each of those books, if allowance is made for later additions. Thus the second
Book has forty-three, the third sixty-two, the sixth seventy-five, and the
seventh one hundred and four hymns. The homogeneity of the family books renders
it highly probable that they formed the nucleus of the RV., which gradually
assumed its final shape by successive additions to these books.
The earliest of these additions appears to be the
second half of Book i, which, consisting of nine groups, each by a different
author, was prefixed to the family books, the internal arrangement of which it
follows. The eighth is like the family books as being in the main composed by
members of one family, the Kanvas; but it differs from them in not beginning
with hymns to Agni and in the prevalence of the strophic metre called Pragatha.
The fact of its containing fewer hymns than the seventh book shows that it did
not form a unit of the family books; but its partial resemblance to them caused
it to be the first addition at the end of that collection. The first part of
Book i (1-50) is in several respects like Book viii: Kanvas seem to have been
the authors of the majority of these hymns; their favourite strophic metre is
again found here; and both collections contain many similar or identical
passages. There must have been some difference between the two groups, but the
reason why they should have been separated by being added at the beginning and
the end of an older collection has not yet been shown.
The ninth book was added as a consequence of the
first eight being formed into a unit. It consists entirely of hymns addressed
to Soma while the juice was 'clarifying' (pavamana); on the other hand, the
family books contain not a single Soma hymn, and Books i and viii together only
three hymns invoking Soma in his general character. Now the hymns of Book ix
were composed by authors of the same families as those of Books ii to vii, as
is shown, for instance, by the appearance here of refrains peculiar to those
families. Hence it is to be assumed that all the hymns to Soma Pavamana were
removed from Books i to viii, in order to form a single collection belonging to
the sphere of the Udgatr or chanting priest, and added after Books i-viii,
which were the sphere of the Hotr or reciting priest. The diction and recondite
allusions in the hymns of this book suggest that they are later than those of
the preceding books; but some of them may be early, as accompanying the Soma
ritual which goes back to the Indo-Iranian period. The hymns of the first part
of this book (1-60) are arranged according to the decreasing number of their
stanzas, beginning with ten and ending with four. In the second part (61-114),
which contains some very long hymns (one of forty-eight and another of
fifty-eight stanzas), this arrangement is not followed. The two parts also
differ in metre: the hymns of the first are, excepting four stanzas, composed
in Gayatri, while the second consists mainly of groups in other metres; thus
68-84 form a Jagati and 87-97 a Tristubh group.
The tenth book was the final addition. Its language
and subject matter show that it is later in origin than the other books; its
authors were, moreover, clearly familiar with them. Both its position at the
end of the RV. and the fact that the number of its hymns (191) is made up to
that of the first book indicate its supplementary character. Its hymns were
composed by a large, number of seers of different families, some of which
appear in other' books; but the traditional attribution of authorship is of
little or no value in the case of a great many hymns. In spite of its generally
more modern character, it contains some hymns quite as old and poetic as the
average of those in other books. These perhaps found a place here because for
some reason they had been overlooked while, the other collections were being
formed. As regards language, we find in the tenth book earlier grammatical
forms and words growing obsolete, while new words and meanings begin to emerge.
As to matter, a tendency to abstract ideas and philosophical speculation, as
well as the introduction of magical conceptions, such as belong to the sphere
of the Atharvaveda, is here found to prevail.
5. LANGUAGE.
The hymns of the RV. are composed in the earliest
stage of that literary language of which the latest, or Classical Sanskrit, was
stereotyped by the grammar of Panini at the end of the fourth century B.C. It
differs from the latter about as much as Homeric from Attic Greek. It exhibits
a much greater variety of forms than Sanskrit does. Its case-forms both in nominal
and pronominal inflexion are more numerous. It has more participles and
gerunds. It is, however, in verbal forms that its comparative richness is most
apparent. Thus the RV. very frequently uses the subjunctive, which as such has
entirely died out in Sanskrit; it has twelve forms of the infinitive, while
only a single one of these has survived in Sanskrit. The language of the RV.
also differs from Sanskrit in its accent, which, like that of ancient Greek, is
of a musical nature, depending on the pitch of the voice, and is marked
throughout the hymns. This accent has in Sanskrit been changed not only to a
stress accent, but has shifted its position as depending on quantity, and is no
longer marked. The Vedic accent occupies a very important position in Comparative
Philology, while the Sanskrit accent, being secondary, has no value of this
kind.
The Sandhi of the RV. represents an earlier and a
less conventional stage than that of Sanskrit. Thus the insertion of a sibilant
between final n and a hard palatal or dental is in the RV. restricted to cases
where it is historically justified; in Sanskrit it has become universal, being
extended to cases where it has no justification. After e and o in the RV. a is
nearly always pronounced, while in Sanskrit it is invariably dropped. It may
thus be affirmed with certainty that no student can understand Sanskrit
historically without knowing the language of the RV.
6. METRE.
The hymns of the RV. are without exception metrical.
They contain on the average ten stanzas, generally of four verses or lines, but
also of three and sometimes five. The line, which is called Pada, ('quarter')
and forms the metrical unit, usually consists of eight, eleven, or twelve
syllables. A stanza is, as a rule, made up of lines of the same type; but some
of the rarer kinds of stanza are formed by combining lines of different length.
There are about fifteen metres, but only about seven of these are at all
common. By far the most common are the Tristubh (4 x 11 syllables), the Gayatri
(3 x 8), and the Jagati (4 x 12), which together furnish two-thirds of the
total number of stanzas in the RV. The Vedic metres, which are the foundation
of the Classical Sanskrit metres except two, have a, quantitative rhythm in
which short and long syllables alternate and, which is of a generally iambic
type. It is only the rhythm of the last four or five syllables (called the
cadence) of the line that is rigidly determined, and the lines of eleven and
twelve syllables have a caesura as well. In their structure the Vedic metres
thus come half way between the metres of the Indo-Iranian period, in which, as
the Avesta shows, the principle is the number of syllables only, and) those of
Classical Sanskrit, in which (except the sloka) the quantity of every single
syllable in the line is fixed. Usually a hymn of the Rigveda consists of
stanzas in the same metre throughout; a typical divergence from this rule is to
mark the conclusion of a hymn with a stanza in a different metre. Some hymns
are strophic in their construction. The strophes in them consist either of
three stanzas (called trca) in the same simple metre, generally Gayatri, or of
two stanzas in different mixed metres. The latter type of strophe is called
Pragatha and is found chiefly in the eighth book.
7. RELIGION OF THE RIGVEDA.
This is concerned with the worship of gods that are
largely personifications of the powers of nature. The hymns are mainly
invocations of these gods, and are meant to accompany the oblation of Soma
juice and the fire sacrifice of melted butter. It is thus essentially a
polytheistic religion, which assumes a pantheistic colouring only in a few of
its latest hymns. The gods are usually stated in the RV. to be thirty-three in
number, being divided into three groups of eleven distributed in earth, air,
and heaven, the three divisions of the Universe. Troops of deities, such as the
Maruts, are of course not included in this number. The gods were believed to
have had a beginning. But they were not thought to have all come into being at
the same time; for the RV. occasionally refers to earlier gods, and certain
deities are described as the offspring of others. That they were considered to
have been originally mortal is implied in the statement that they acquired
immortality by drinking Soma or by receiving it as a gift from Agni and Savitr.
The gods were conceived as human in appearance.
Their bodily parts which are frequently mentioned, are in many instances simply
figurative illustrations of the phenomena of nature represented by them. Thus
the arms of the Sun are nothing more than his rays; and the tongue and limbs of
Agni merely denote his flames. Some of the gods appear equipped as warriors,
especially Indra, others are described as priests, especially Agni and
Brhaspati. All of them drive through the air in cars, drawn chiefly by steeds,
but sometimes by other animals. The favourite food of men is also that of the
gods, consisting in milk, butter, grain, and the flesh of sheep, goats, and
cattle. It is offered to them in the sacrifice, which is either conveyed to
them in heaven by the god of fire, or which they come in their cars to partake
of on the strew of grass prepared for their reception. Their favourite drink is
the exhilarating juice of the Soma plant. The home of the gods is heaven, the
third heaven, or the highest step of Visnu, where cheered by draughts of Soma
they live a life of bliss.
Attributes of the gods.--Among these the most
prominent is power, for they are constantly described as great and mighty. They
regulate the order of nature and vanquish the potent powers of evil. They hold
sway over all creatures; no one can thwart their ordinances or live beyond the
time they appoint; and the fulfilment of desires is dependent on them. They are
benevolent beings who bestow prosperity on mankind; the only one in whom
injurious traits appear being Rudra. They are described as 'true' and 'not
deceitful', being friends and protectors of the honest and righteous, but
punishing sin and guilt. Since in most cases the gods of the RV. have not yet
become dissociated from the physical phenomena which they represent, their
figures are indefinite in outline and deficient in individuality. Having many
features, such as power, brilliance, benevolence, and wisdom in common with
others, each god exhibits but very few distinctive attributes. This vagueness
is further increased by the practice of invoking deities in pairs-a practice
making both gods share characteristics properly belonging to one along. When
nearly every power can thus be ascribed to every god, the identification of one
deity with another becomes easy. There are in fact several such identifications
in the RV. The idea is even found in more than one late passage that various
deities are but different forms of a single divine being. This idea, however,
never developed into monotheism, for none of the regular sacrifices in the
Vedic period were offered to a single god. Finally, in other late hymns of the
RV. we find the deities Aditi and Prajapati identified not only with all the
gods, but with nature as well. This brings us to that pantheism which became
characteristic of later Indian thought in the form of the Vedanta philosophy.
The Vedic gods may most conveniently be classified
as deities of heaven, air, and earth, according to the threefold division
suggested by the RV. itself. The celestial gods are Dyaus, Varuna, Mitra,
Surya, Savitr, Pusan, the Asvins, and the goddesses Usas, Dawn, and Ratri,
Night. The atmospheric gods are Indra, Apam napat, Rudra, the Maruts, Vayu,
Parjanya, and the Waters. The terrestrial deities are Prthivi, Agni, and Soma.
This Reader contains hymns addressed to all these gods, with detailed
introductions describing their characters in the words, as far as is possible,
of the RV. itself. A few quite subordinate deities are not included, partly
because no entire hymn is addressed to them. Two such belong to the celestial
sphere. Trita, a somewhat obscure god, who is mentioned only in detached
stanzas of the RV., comes down from the Indo-Iranian period. He seems to represent
the 'third' or lightning form of fire. Similar in origin to Indra, be was
ousted by the latter at an early period. Matarisvan is a divine being also
referred to only in scattered stanzas of the RV. He is described as having
brought down the hidden fire from heaven to men on earth, like the Prometheus
of Greek mythology. Among the terrestrial deities are certain rivers that are
personified and invoked in the RV. Thus the Sindhu (Indus) s celebrated as a
goddess in one hymn (x. 75, 2. 4. 6), and the Vipas (Bïas) and the Sutudri
(Sutlej), sister streams of the Panjab, in another (iii. 33). The most
important and oftenest lauded is, however, the Sarasvati (vi. 61; vii. 95).
Though the personification goes much further here than in the case of other streams,
the connexion of the goddess with the river is never lost sight of in the RV.
Abstract deities.--One result of the advance of
thought during the period of the RV. from the concrete towards the abstract was
the rise of abstract deities. The earlier and more numerous class of these
seems to have started from epithets which were applicable to one or more older
deities, but which came to acquire an independent value as the want of a god
exercising the particular activity in question began to be felt. We find here
names denoting either an agent (formed with the suffix tr or tar), such as
Dhatr 'Creator', or an attribute, such as Prajapati, 'Lord of Creatures'. Thus
Dhatr, otherwise an epithet of Indra, appears also as an independent deity who
creates heaven and earth, sun and moon. More rarely occur Vidhatri the
'Disposer', Dhartr, the 'Supporter', Tratr, the Protector', and Netr, the
'Leader'. The only agent god mentioned at all frequently in the RV. is Tvastr,
the 'Artificer', though no entire hymn is addressed to him. He is the most
skilful of workmen, having among other things fashioned the bolt of Indra and a
new -drinking-cup for the gods. He is a guardian of Soma, which is called the
'food of Tvastr', and which Indra drinks in Tvastr's house. He is the father of
Saranyu, wife of Vivasvant and mother of the primaeval twins Yama and Yami. The
name of the solar deity Savitr the 'Stimulator', belongs to this class of agent
gods (cf. p. 11).
There are a few other abstract deities whose names
were originally epithets of older gods, but now become epithets of the supreme
god who was being evolved at the end of the Rigvedic period. These
appellations, compound in form, are of rare and late occurrence. The most
important is Prajapati, 'Lord of Creatures' Originally an epithet of such gods
as Savitr and Soma, this name is employed in a late verse of the tenth book to
designate a distinct deity in the character of a Creator. Similarly, the
epithet Visvakarman, 'all-creating', appears as the name of an independent deity
to whom two hymns (x. 81. 82) are addressed. Hiranyagarbha, the 'Golden Germ',
once occurs as the name of the supreme god described as the 'one lord of all
that exists'. In one curious instance it is possible to watch the rise of an
abstract deity of this type. The refrain of a late hymn of the RV. (x. 121) is
kasmai devaya havisa vidhema? 'to what god should we pay worship with
oblation?' This led to the word ká, 'who?' being used in the later Vedic
literature as an independent name, Ka, of the supreme god. The only abstract
deity of this type occurring in the oldest as well as the latest parts of the
RV. is Brhaspati (p. 83).
The second and smaller class of abstract deities
comprises personifications of abstract nouns. There are seven or eight of these
occurring in the tenth book. Two hymns (83, 84) are addressed to Manyu,
'Wrath', and one (x. 161) to Sraddha, 'Faith'. Anumati, 'Favour (of the gods)',
Aramati, 'Devotion', Sunrta, 'Bounty', Asuniti, 'Spirit-life', and Nirrti,
'Decease', occur only in a few isolated passages.
A purely abstract deity, often incidentally
celebrated throughout the RV. is A-diti, 'Liberation', 'Freedom' (lit.
'un-binding'), whose main characteristic is the power of delivering from the
bonds of physical suffering and moral guilt. She, however, occupies a unique
position among the abstract deities, owing to the peculiar way in which the
personification seems to have arisen. She is the mother of the small group of
deities called Adityas, often styled 'sons of Aditi'. This expression at first
most probably meant nothing more than 'sons of liberation', according to an
idiom common in the RV. and elsewhere. The word was then personified, with the
curious result that the mother is mythologically younger than some at least of
her sons, who (for instance Mitra) date from the Indo-Iranian period. The
goddess Diti, named only three times in the RV., probably came into being as an
antithesis to Aditi, with whom she, is twice mentioned.
Godesses play an insignificant part in the RV. The
only one of importance is Usas (p. 92). Next come Sarasvati, celebrated in two
whole hymns (vi. 61; vii. 95) as well as parts of others, and Vac, 'Speech' (x,
71. 125). With one hymn each are addressed Prthivi, 'Earth' (v. 84), Ratri,
'Night' (x, 127, p. 203), and Aranyani, 'Goddess of the Forest' (x. 146).
Others are only sporadically mentioned. The wives of the great gods are still
more insignificant, being mere names formed from those of their consorts, and
altogether lacking in individuality: such are Agnayi, Indrani, Varunani,
spouses of Agni, Indra, and Varuna respectively.
Dual Divinities.--A peculiar feature of the religion
of the RV. is the invocation of pairs of deities whose names are combined as
compounds, each member of which is in the dual. About a dozen such pairs are
celebrated in entire hymns, and about a dozen more in detached stanzas. By far
the largest number of hymns is addressed to the couple Mitra-Varuna, though the
names most frequently found as dual compounds are those of Dyava-prthivi,
'Heaven and Earth' (p. 36). The latter pair, having been associated as
universal parents from the Indo-European period onwards, in all probability
furnished the analogy for this dual type.
Groups of Deities.--There are also a few more or
less definite groups of deities, generally associated with some particular god.
The Maruts (p. 21), who attend on Indra, are the most numerous group. The
smaller group of the Adityas, of whom Varuna is the chief, is constantly
mentioned in company with their mother Aditi. Their number is stated in the RV.
to be seven or, with the addition of Martanda, eight. One passage (ii. 27, 1)
enumerates six of them Mitra, Aryaman, Bhaga, Varuna, Daksa, Amsa: Surya was
probably regarded as the seventh. A much less important group, without
individual names or definite number, is that of the Vasus, whose leader is
generally Indra. There are, finally, the Visve devas (p. 147), who, invoked in
many hymns, form a comprehensive group, which in spite of its name is, strange
to say, sometimes conceived as a narrower group associated with others like the
Vasus and Adityas.
Lesser Divinities.--Besides the higher gods, a
number of lesser divine powers are known to the RV. The most prominent of these
are the Rbhus, who are celebrated in eleven hymns. They are a deft-handed trio,
who by their marvellous skill acquired the rank of deities. Among their five
main feats of dexterity the greatest consisted in transforming the bowl of
Tvastr into four shining cups.
The bowl and the cups have been various interpreted
a s the moon with its four phases or the year with its Seasons. The Rbhus
further exhibited their skill in renewing the youth of their parents, by whom
Heaven and Earth seem to have been meant.
Occasional mention is made in the RV. of an Apsaras,
a celestial water-nymph, the spouse of a corresponding genius named Gandharva.
In a few passages more Apsarases, than one are spoken of; but the only one
mentioned by name is Urvasi. Gandharva is in the RV. a single being (like the
Gandarewa of the Avesta), who dwells in the aerial sphere, guards the celestial
Soma, and is (as in the Avesta) connected with the waters.
There are, lastly, a few divinities of the tutelary
order, guardians watching over the welfare of house or field. Such is the
rarely mentioned Vastospati, 'Lord of the Dwelling', who is invoked to grant a
favourable entry, to remove disease, and to bestow protection and prosperity.
Ksetrasya pati, 'Lord of the Field', is besought to grant cattle and horses and
to confer welfare. Sita, the 'Furrow', is once invoked to dispense crops and
rich blessings.
In addition to the great phenomena of nature,
various features of the earth's surface as well as artificial objects are to be
found deified in the RV. Thus besides Rivers and Waters (p. 115), already
mentioned as terrestrial goddesses, mountains are often addressed as
divinities, but only along with other natural objects, or in association with
gods. Plants are regarded as divine powers, one entire hymn (x. 97) being
devoted to their praise, chiefly with reference to their healing properties.
Sacrificial implements, moreover, are deified. The most important of these is
the sacrificial post which is praised and invoked in a whole hymn (iii. 8). The
sacrificial grass (barhis) and the Divine Doors (dvaro devih), which lead to
the place of sacrifice, are addressed as goddesses. The pressing stones
(gravanas) are invoked as deities in three hymns (x. 76. 94. 175): spoken of as
immortal, unaging, mightier than heaven, they are besought to drive away demons
and destruction. The Mortar and Pestle used in pounding the Soma plant are also
invoked in the RV. (i. 28, 6. 6). Weapons, finally, are sometimes deified:
armour, bow, quiver, arrows, and drum being addressed in one of the hymns (vi.
75).
The Demons often mentioned in the hymns are of two
kinds. The higher and more powerful class are the aerial foes of the gods.
These, are seldom called asura in the RV., where in the older parts that word
means a divine being, like ahura in the Avesta (cf. p. 134). The term dasa, or
dasyu, properly the name of the dark aborigines, is frequently used in the
sense of fiend to designate the aerial demons. The conflict is regularly one
between a single god and a single demon, as exemplified by Indra and Vrtra. The
latter is by far the most frequently mentioned. His mother being called Danu,
he is sometimes alluded to by the metronymic term Danava. Another powerful
demon is Vala, the personified cave of the cows, which he guards, and which are
set free by Indra and his allies, notably the Angirases. Other demon
adversaries of Indra are Arbuda, described as a wily beast, whose cows Indra
drove out; Visvarapa, son of Tvastr, a three-headed demon slain by both Trita
and Indra, who seize his cows; and Svarbhanu, who eclipses the sun. There are
several other individual demons, generally described as Dasas and slain by
Indra. A group of demons are the Panis ('niggards'), primarily foes of Indra,
who, with the aid of the dog Sarama, tracks and releases the cows hidden by
them.
The second or lower class of demons are terrestrial
goblins, enemies of men. By far the most common generic name for them is
Raksas. They are nearly always mentioned in connexion with some god who
destroys them. The much less common term Yalu or Yatudhana (primarily
'sorcerer') alternates with Raksas, and perhaps expresses a species. A class of
demons scarcely referred to in the RV., but often mentioned in the later Vedas,
are the Pisacas, eaters of raw flesh or of corpses.
Not more than thirty hymns are concerned with
subjects other than the worship of gods or deified objects. About a dozen of
these, almost entirely confined to the tenth book, deal with magical practices,
which properly belong to the sphere of the Atharvaveda. Their contents are
augury (ii. 42. 43) or spells directed against poisonous vermin (i. 191) or
disease (x. 163), against a demon destructive of children (x. 162), or enemies
(x. 166), or rival wives (x. 145). A few are incantations to preserve life (x.
58. 60), or to induce sleep (v. 55), or to procure offspring (x. 183); while
one is a panegyric of frogs as magical bringers of rain (vii. 103, p. 141).
8. SECULAR MATTER IN THE RIGVEDA.
Secular hymns.--Hardly a score of the hymns are secular
poems. These are especially valuable as throwing direct light on the earliest
thought and civilization of India. One of the most noteworthy of them is the
long wedding hymn (x. 85). There are also five funeral hymns (x. 14-18). Four
of these are addressed to deities concerned with the future life; the last,
however, is quite secular in tone, and gives more information than any of the
rest about the funeral customs of early Vedic India (cf. p. 164).
Mythological dialogues. -Besides several mythological
dialogues in which the speakers are divine beings (iv. 62; x. 51. 52. 86. 108),
there are two in which both agents are human. One is a somewhat obscure
colloquy (x. 95) between a mortal lover Puraravas and the celestial nymph
Urvasi, who is on the point of forsaking him. It is the earliest form of the
story which much more than a thousand years later formed the subject of
Kalidasa's drama Vikramorvasi. The other (x. 10) is a dialogue between Yama and
Yami, the twin parents of the human race. This group of hymns has a special
literary interest as foreshadowing the dramatic works of a later age.
Didactic hymns.--Four hymns are of a didactic
character. One of these (x. 34) is a striking poem, being a monologue in which
a gambler laments the misery he has brought on himself and his home by his
inability to resist the attraction of the dice. The rest which describe the
various ways in which men follow gain (ix. 112), or praise wise speech (x. 71),
or the value of good deeds (x. 117), anticipate the sententious poetry for
which post-Vedic literature is noted.
Riddles.--Two of the hymns consist of riddles. One
of these (viii. 29, p. 147) describes various gods without mentioning their
names. More elaborate and obscure is a long poem of fifty-two stanzas (i. 164),
in which a number of enigmas, largely connected with the sun, are propounded in
mystical and symbolic language. Thus the wheel of order with twelve spokes,
revolving round the heavens, and containing within it in couples 720 sons,
means the year with its twelve months and 360 days and 360 nights.
Cosmogonic hymns.--About half a dozen hymns consist
of speculations on the origin of the world through the agency of a Creator
(called by various names) as distinct from any of the ordinary gods. One of
them (x. 129, p. 207), which describes the world as due to the development of
the existent (sat) from the non-existent (a-sat), is particularly interesting
as the starting-point of the evolutional philosophy which in later times
assumed shape in the Sankhya system.
A semi-historical character attaches to one complete
hymn (i. 126) and to appendages of 3 to 5 stanzas attached to over thirty
others, which are called Danastutis, or 'praises of gifts'. These are
panegyrics of liberal patrons on behalf of whom the seers composed their hymns.
They yield incidental genealogical information about the poets and their
employers, as well as about the names and the habitat of the Vedic tribes. They
are late in date, appearing chiefly in the first and tenth, as well as among
the supplementary hymns of the eighth book.
Geographical data.--From the geographical data of the
RV., especially the numerous rivers there mentioned, it is to be inferred that
the Indo-Aryan tribes when the hymns were composed occupied the territory
roughly corresponding to the north-west Frontier Province, and the Panjab of
to-day. The references to flora and fauna bear out this conclusion.
The historical data of the hymns show that the
Indo-Aryans were still engaged in war with the aborigines, many victories over
these foes being mentioned. That they were still moving forward as conquerors
is indicated by references to rivers as obstacles to advance. Though divided
into many tribes, they were conscious of religious and racial unity,
contrasting the aborigines with themselves by calling them non-sacrificers and
unbelievers, as well as 'black-skins' and the 'Dasa colour' as opposed to the
'Aryan colour'.
Incidental references scattered throughout the hymns
supply a good deal of information about the social conditions of the time. Thus
it is clear that the family, with the father at its head, was the basis of
society, and that women held a freer and more honoured position than in later
times. Various crimes are mentioned, robbery, especially of cattle, apparently
being the commonest. Debt, chiefly as a result of gambling, was known. Clothing
consisted usually of an upper and a lower garment, which were made of sheep's
wool. Bracelets, anklets, necklaces, and earrings were worn as ornaments. Men
usually grew beards, but sometimes shaved. Food mainly consisted of milk,
clarified butter, grain, vegetables, and fruit. Meat was eaten only when
animals were sacrificed. The commonest kind appears to have been beef, as bulls
were the chief offerings to the gods. Two kinds of spirituous liquor were made:
Soma was drunk at religious ceremonies only, while Sura, extracted from some
kind of grain, was used on ordinary occasions.
Occupations.--One of the chief occupations of the
Indo-Aryan was warfare. He fought either on foot or from a chariot, but there
is no evidence to show that he ever did so on horseback. The ordinary weapons
were bows and arrows, but spears and axes were also used. Cattle-breeding
appears to have been the main source of livelihood, cows being the chief
objects of desire in prayers to the gods. But agriculture was also practised to
some extent: fields were furrowed with a plough drawn by bulls; corn was cut
with sickles, being then threshed and winnowed. Wild animals were trapped and
snared, or hunted with bows and arrows, occasionally with the aid of dogs.
Boats propelled by paddles were employed, as it seems mainly for the purpose of
crossing rivers. Trade was known only in the form of barter, the cow
representing the unit of value in exchange. Certain trades and crafts already
existed, though doubtless in a rudimentary stage. The occupations of the
wheelwright and the carpenter were, combined. The smith melted ore in a forge,
and made kettles and other vessels of metal. The tanner prepared the skins of
animals. Women plaited mats of grass or reeds, sewed, and especially wove, but
whether they ever did so professionally is uncertain.
Amusements.--Among these chariot-racing was the
favourite. The most popular social recreation was playing with dice (cp. p.
186). Dancing was also practised, chiefly by women. The people were fond of
music, the instruments used being the drum (dundubhi), the flute (vana), and
the lute (vina). Singing is also mentioned.
9. LITERARY MERIT OF THE RIGVEDA.
The diction of the hymns is on the whole natural and
simple, free from the use of compounds of more than two members. Considering
their great antiquity, the hymns are composed with a remarkable degree of
metrical skill and command of language. But as they were produced by a
sacerdotal class and were generally intended to accompany a ritual no longer
primitive, their poetry is often impaired by constant sacrificial allusions.
This is especially noticeable in the hymns addressed to the two ritual deities
Agni and Soma, where the thought becomes affected by conceits and obscured by
mysticism. Nevertheless the RV. contains much genuine poetry. As the gods are
mostly connected with natural phenomena, the praises addressed to them give
rise to much beautiful and even noble imagery. The degree of literary merit in
different hymns naturally varies a good deal, but the average is remarkably
high. The most poetical hymns are those addressed to Dawn, equal if not
superior in beauty to the religious lyrics of any other literature. Some of the
hymns to Indra show much graphic power in describing his conflict with the
demon Vrtra. The hymns to the Maruts, or Storm gods, often depict with vigorous
imagery the phenomena of thunder and lightning, and the mighty onset of the
wind. One hymn to Parjanya (v. 83) paints the devastating effects of the
rain-storm with great vividness. The hymns in praise of Varuna describe the
various aspects of his sway as moral ruler of the world in an exalted strain of
poetry. Some of the mythological dialogues set forth the situation with much
beauty of language; for example, the colloquy between Indra's messenger Sarama
and the demons who stole the cows (x. 108), and that between the primaeval
twins Yama and Yami (x. 10). The Gambler's lament (x. 34) is a fine specimen of
pathetic poetry. One of the funeral hymns (x. 18) expresses ideas connected
with death in language of impressive and solemn beauty. One of the cosmogonic
hymns (x. 129) illustrates how philosophical speculation can be clothed in
poetry of no mean order.
10. INTERPRETATION.
In dealing with the hymns of the RV. the important
question arises, to what extent are we able to understand their real sense,
considering that they have come down to us as an isolated relic from the
remotest period of Indian literature? The reply, stated generally, is that, as
a result of the labours of Vedic scholars, the meaning of a considerable
proportion of the RV. is clear, but of the remainder many hymns and a great
many single stanzas or passages are still obscure or unintelligible. This was
already the case in the time of Yaska, the author of the Nirukta, the oldest
extant commentary (c. 500 B.C.) on about 600 detached stanzas of the RV.; for
he quotes one of his predecessors, Kautsa, as saying that the Vedic hymns we
obscure, unmeaning, and mutually contradictory.
In the earlier period of Vedic studies, commencing
about the, middle of the nineteenth century, the traditional method, which
follows the great commentary of Sayana (fourteenth century A.D.), and is
represented by the translation of the RV., begun by H.H. Wilson in 1850, was
considered adequate. It has since been proved that, though the native Indian
commentators are invaluable guides. in explaining the theological and ritual
texts of the Brahmanas and Satras, with the atmosphere of which they were
familiar, they did not possess a continuous tradition from the time when the
Vedic hymns were composed. That the gap between the poets and the interpreters
even earlier than Yaska must have been considerable, is shown by the
divergences of opinion among his predecessors as quoted by him. Thus one of
these, Aurnavabha, interprets nasatyau, an epithet of the Asvins, as 'true, not
false', another Agrayana, as 'leaders of truth' (satyasya pranetarau), while
Yaska himself thinks it may mean 'nose-born' (nasika-prabhavau)! Yaska,
moreover, mentions several different schools of interpretation, each of which
explained difficulties in accordance with its own particular theory. Yaska's
own interpretations, which in all cases of doubt are based on etymology, are
evidently often merely conjectural, for he frequently gives several alternative
explanations of a word. Thus he explains the epithet jata-vedas in as many as
five different ways. Yet he must have had more and better means of ascertaining
the sense of various obscure words than Sayana who lived nearly 2,000 years
later. Sayana's interpretations, however, sometimes differ from those of Yaska.
Hence either Yaska is wrong or Sayana does not follow the tradition. Again,
Sayana often gives several inconsistent explanations of a word in interpreting
the same passage or in commenting on the same word in different passages. Thus
asura, 'divine being', is variously rendered by him as 'expeller of foes',
'giver of strength', 'giver of life', 'hurler away of what is undesired',
'giver of breath or water', 'thrower of oblations, priest', 'taker away of
breath', 'expeller of water, Parjanya', 'impeller', 'strong', 'wise', and
'rain-water' or 'a water-discharging cloud'! In short it is clear from a
careful examination of their comments that neither Yaska nor Sayana possessed
any certain knowledge about a large number of words in the RV. Hence their
interpretations can be treated as decisive only if they are borne out by
probability, by the context, and by parallel passages.
For the traditional method Roth, the founder of
Vedic philology, substituted the critical method of interpreting the difficult
parts of the RV. from internal evidence by the minute comparison of all words
parallel in form and matter, while taking into consideration context, grammar,
and etymology, without ignoring either the help supplied by the historical
study of the Vedic language in its connexion with Sanskrit or the outside
evidence derived from the Avesta and from Comparative Philology. In the application
of his method Roth attached too much weight to etymological considerations,
while he undervalued the evidence of native tradition. On the other hand, a
reaction arose which, in emphasizing the purely Indian character of the Vedic
hymns, connects the interpretation of them too closely with the literature of
the post-Vedic period and the much more advanced civilization there described.
It is important to note that the critical scholar has at his disposal not only
all the material that was open to the traditional interpreters, and to which he
is moreover able to apply the comparative and historical methods of research,
but also possesses over and above many valuable aids that were unknown to the
traditional school--the Avesta, Comparative Philology, Comparative Religion and
Mythology, and Ethnology. The student will find in the notes of the Reader many
exemplifications of the usefulness of these aids to interpretation. There is
good reason to hope from the results already achieved that steady adherence to
the critical method, by admitting all available evidence and by avoiding
one-sidedness in its application, will eventually clear up a large proportion
of the obscurities and difficulties that still confront the interpreter of the
Rigveda.
AGNI
As the personification of the sacrificial fire, Agni
is second in importance to Indra (ii. 12) only, being addressed in at least 200
hymns. The anthropomorphism of his physical appearance is only rudimentary, and
is connected chiefly with the sacrificial aspect of fire. Thus he is
butter-backed, flame-haired, and has a tawny beard, sharp jaws, and golden
teeth. Mention is often made of his tongue, with which the gods eat the
oblation. With a burning head he faces in all directions.
He is compared with various animals: he resembles a
bull that bellows, and has horns which he sharpens; when born he is often
called a calf; he is kindled like a horse that brings the gods, and is yoked to
convey the sacrifice to them. He is also a divine bird; he is the eagle of the
sky; as dwelling in the waters he is like a goose; he is winged, and he takes
possession of the wood as a bird perches on a tree.
Wood or ghee is his food, melted butter his
beverage; and he is nourished three times a day. He is the mouth by which the
gods eat the sacrifice; and his flames are spoons with which he besprinkles the
gods, but he is also asked to consume the offerings himself. He is sometimes,
though then nearly always with other gods, invited to drink the Soma juice.
His brightness is much dwelt upon: he shines like
the sun; his lustre is like the rays of the dawn and the sun, and like the
lightnings of the rain-cloud. He shines even at night, and dispels the darkness
with his beams. On the other hand, his path is black when he invades the
forests and shaves the earth as a barber a beard. His flames are like roaring
waves, and his sound is like the thunder of heaven. His red smoke rises up to
the firmament; like the erector of a post he supports the sky with his smoke.
'Smoke-bannered' (dhuma-ketu) is his frequent and exclusive epithet.
He has a shining, golden, lightning car, drawn by
two or more ruddy and tawny steeds. He is a charioteer of the sacrifice, and
with his steeds he brings the gods on his car.
He is the child of Heaven (Dyáus), and is often
called the son of Heaven and Earth (i. 160). He is also the offspring of the
waters. The gods generated him as a light for the Aryan or for man, and placed
him among men. Indra is called Agni's twin brother, and is more closely
associated with him than any other god.
The mythology of Agni, apart from his sacrificial
activity, is mainly concerned with his various births, forms, and abodes.
Mention is often made of his daily production from the two kindling sticks
(aránis), which are his parents or his mothers. From the dry wood Agni is born
living; as soon as born the child devours his parents. By the ten maidens that
produce him are meant the ten fingers of the kindler. Owing to the force
required to kindle Agni he is often called 'son of strength' (sáhasah sunúh).
Being produced every morning he is young; at the same time no sacrificer is
older than Agni, for he conducted the first sacrifice. Again, Agni's origin in
the aerial waters is often referred to: he is an embryo of the waters; he is
kindled in the waters; he is a bull that has grown in the lap of the waters. As
the 'son of Waters' (ii. 35) he has become a separate deity. He is also
sometimes conceived as latent in terrestrial waters. This notion of Agni in the
waters is a prominent one in the RV. Thirdly, a celestial origin of Agni is
often mentioned: he is born in the highest heaven, and was brought down from
heaven by Matarisvan, the Indian Prometheus; and the acquisition of fire by man
is regarded as a gift of the gods as well as a production of Matarisvan. The
Sun (vii. 63) is further regarded as a form of Agni. Thus Agni is the light of
heaven in the bright sky; he was born on the other side of the air and sees all
things; he is born as the sun rising in the morning. Hence Agni comes to have a
triple character. His births are three or threefold; the gods made him
threefold; he is threefold light; he has three heads, three bodies, three
stations. This threefold nature of Agni is clearly recognized in the RV., and
represents the earliest Indian trinity.
The universe being also regarded as divided into the
two divisions of heaven and earth, Agni is sometimes said to have two origins,
and indeed exclusively bears the epithet dvi-jánman having two births. As being
kindled in numerous dwellings Agni is also said to have many births.
Agni is more closely associated with human life than
any other deity. He is the only god called grhá-pati lord of the house, and is
constantly spoken of as a guest (átithi) in human dwellings. He is an immortal
who has taken up his abode among mortals. Thus be comes to be termed the
nearest kinsman of men. He is oftenest described as a father, sometimes also as
a brother or even as a son of his worshippers. He both takes the offerings of
men to the gods and brings the gods to the sacrifice. He is thus
characteristically a messenger (dutá) appointed by gods and by men to be an
'oblation-bearer'.
As the centre of the sacrifice he comes to be
celebrated as the divine counterpart of the earthly priesthood. Hence he is
often called priest (rtvíj, vípra) domestic priest (puróhita), and more often
than by any other name invoking priest (hótr), also officiating priest
(adhvaryú) and playing priest (brahmán). His priesthood is the most salient
feature of his character; he is in fact the great priest, as Indra is the great
warrior.
Agni's wisdom is often dwelt upon. As knowing all
the details of sacrifice he is wise and all-knowing, and is exclusively called
jatá-vedas he who knows all created beings.
He is a great benefactor of his worshippers,
protecting and delivering them, and bestowing on them all kinds of boons, but
pre-eminently domestic welfare, offspring, and prosperity.
His greatness is often lauded, and is once even said
to surpass that of the other gods. His cosmic and creative powers are also
frequently praised.
From the ordinary sacrificial Agni who conveys the
offering (havya-váhana) is distinguished his corpse-devouring (kravyád) form
that burns the body on the funeral pyre (x. 14). Another function of Agni is to
burn and dispel evil spirits and hostile magic.
The sacrificial fire was already in the Indo-Iranian
period the centre of a developed ritual, and was personified and worshipped as
a mighty, wise, and beneficent god. It seems to have been an Indo-European
institution also, since the Italians and Greeks, as well as the Indians and
Iranians, had the custom of offering gifts to the gods in fire. But whether it
was already personified in that remote period is a matter of conjecture.
The name of Agni (Lat. igni-s, Slavonic ogni) is
Indo-European, and may originally have meant the 'agile' as derived from the
root ag to drive (Lat. ago, Gk. hágo), Skt. ájami).
SAVITR
This god is celebrated in eleven entire hymns and in
many detached stanzas as well. He is pre-eminently a golden deity: the epithets
golden-eyed, golden-handed, and golden-tongued are peculiar to him. His car and
its pole are golden. It is drawn by two or more brown, white-footed horses. He
has mighty golden splendour which he diffuses, illuminating heaven, earth, and
air. He raises aloft his strong golden arms, with which be arouses and blesses
all beings, and which extend to the ends of the earth. He moves in his golden
car, seeing all creatures, on a downward and an upward path. Shining with the
rays of the sun, yellow-haired, Savitr raises up his light continually from the
east. His ancient paths in the air are dustless and easy to traverse, and on
them he protects his worshippers; for he conveys the departed spirit to where
the righteous dwell. He removes evil dreams, and makes men sinless; he drives
away demons and sorcerers. He observes fixed laws; the waters and the wind are
subject to him. The other gods follow his lead; and no being can resist his
will. In one stanza (iii. 62, 10) he is besought to stimulate the thoughts of
worshippers who desire to think of the glory of god Savitr. This is the
celebrated Savitri stanza which has been a morning prayer in India for more
than three thousand years. Savitr is often distinguished from Surya (vii. 63),
as when he is said to shine with the rays of the Sun, to impel the sun, or to
declare men sinless to the sun. But in other passages it is hardly possible to
keep the two deities apart.
Savitr is connected with the evening as well as the
morning; for at his command night comes and he brings all beings to rest.
The word Savitr is derived from the root su to
stimulate, which is constantly and almost exclusively used with it in such a
way as to form a perpetual play on the name of the god. In nearly half its
occurrences the name is accompanied by devá god, when it means the 'Stimulator
god'. He was thus originally a solar deity in the capacity of the great
stimulator of life and motion in the world.
MARÚTAS
This group of deities is prominent in the RV.,
thirty-three hymns being addressed to them alone, seven to them with Indra, and
one each to them with Agni and Pusan (vi. 54). They form a troop (ganá,
sárdhas), being mentioned in the plural only. Their number is thrice sixty or thrice
seven. They are the sons of Rudra (ii. 33) and of Prsni, who is a cow (probably
representing the mottled storm-cloud). They are further said to have been
generated by Vayu, the god of Wind, in the wombs of heaven and they are called
the sons of heaven; but they are also spoken of as self-born. They are brothers
equal in age and of one mind, having the same birthplace and the same abode.
They have grown on earth, in air, and in heaven, or dwell in the three heavens.
The goddess Rodasi is always mentioned in connexion with them; she stands
beside them on their car, and thus seems to have been regarded as their bride.
The brilliance of the Maruts is constantly referred
to: they are golden, ruddy, shine like fires, and are self-luminous. They are
very often associated with lightning: all the five compounds of vidyút in the
RV. are almost exclusively descriptive of them. Their lances represent
lightning, as their epithet rsti-vidyut lightning-speared shows. They also have
golden axes. They are sometimes armed with bows and arrows, but this trait is
probably borrowed from their father Rudra. They wear garlands, golden mantles,
golden ornaments, and golden helmets. Armlets and anklets (khadí) are peculiar
to them. The cars on which they ride gleam with lightning, and are drawn by
steeds (generally feminine) that are ruddy or tawny, spotted, swift as thought.
They are great and mighty; young and unaging; dustless, fierce, terrible like
lions, but also playful like children or calves.
The noise made by them, and often mentioned, is
thunder and the roaring of the winds. They cause the mountains to quake and the
two worlds to tremble; they rend trees, and, like wild elephants, devour the
forests. One of their main activities is to shed rain: they cover the eye of the
sun with rain; they create darkness with the cloud when they shed rain; and
they cause the heavenly pail and the streams of the mountains to pour. The
waters they shed are often clearly connected with the thunder storm. Their rain
is often figuratively called milk, ghee, or honey. They avert heat, but also
dispel darkness, produce light, and prepare a path for the sun.
They are several times called singers: they are the
singers of heaven they sing a song; for Indra when he slew the dragon, they
sang a song and pressed Soma. Though primarily representing the sound of the
winds, their song is also conceived as a hymn of praise. Thus they come to be
compared with priests, and are addressed as priests when in the company of
Indra.
Owing to their connexion. with the thunderstorm, the
Maruts are constantly associated with Indra (ii. 12) as his friends and allies,
increasing his strength and prowess with their prayers, hymns, and songs, and
generally assisting him in the fight with Vrtra. Indra indeed accomplishes all
his celestial exploits in their company. Sometimes, however, the Maruts.
accomplish these exploits alone. Thus they rent Vrtra joint from joint, and
disclosed the cows.
When not associated with Indra, the Maruts occasionally
exhibit the maleficent traits of their father Rudra. Hence they are implored to
ward off the lightning from their worshippers and not to let their ill-will
reach them, and are besought to avert their arrow and the stone which they
hurl, their lightning, and their cow- and man-slaying bolt. But like their
father Rudra, they are also supplicated to bring healing remedies. These
remedies appear to be the waters, for the Maruts bestow medicine by raining.
The evidence of the RV. indicates that the Maruts are
Storm-gods. The name is probably derived from the root mar, to shine, thus
meaning 'the shining ones'.
VISNU
This deity occupies a subordinate position in the
RV., being celebrated in only five or six hymns. The only anthropomorphic
traits mentioned about him are the strides he takes, and the description of him
as a youth vast in body who is no longer a child. The central feature of his
nature consists in his three steps, connected with which are his exclusive
epithets 'wide-going' (uru-gayá) and 'wide-striding' (uru-kramá). With these
steps he traverses the earth or the terrestrial spaces. Two of his steps are
visible to men, but the third or highest is beyond the flight of birds or
mortal ken. His highest step is like an eye fixed in heaven; it shines brightly
down. It is his dear abode, where pious men and the gods rejoice. There can be
no doubt that these three steps refer to the course of the sun, and in all
probability to its passage through the three divisions of the world: earth,
air, and heaven. Visnu sets in motion like a revolving wheel his ninety steeds
(= days) with their four names (= seasons), an allusion to the three hundred
and sixty days of the solar year. Thus Visnu seems to. have been originally a
personification of the activity of the sun, the swiftly-moving luminary that
with vast strides passes through the whole universe. Visnu takes his steps for
man's existence, to bestow the earth on him as a dwelling. The most prominent
secondary characteristic of Visnu is his friendship for Indra, with whom he is
often allied in the fight with Vrtra. In hymns addressed to Visnu alone, Indra
is the only other deity incidentally associated with him. One hymn (vi. 69) is
dedicated to the two gods conjointly. Through the Vrtra myth the Maruts, lndra's
companions, are drawn into alliance with Visnu, who throughout one hymn (v. 87)
is praised in combination with them.
The name is most probably derived from vis be
active, thus meaning 'the active one'.
DYÁVA-PRTHIVÍ
Heaven and Earth are the most frequently named pair
of deities in the RV. They are so closely associated that, while they are
invoked as a pair in six hymns, Dyáus is never addressed alone in any hymn, and
Prthiv in only one of three stanzas. The dual compound Dyáva-Prthiví, moreover,
occurs much oftener than the name of Dyáus alone. Heaven and Earth are also
mentioned as ródasi the two worlds more than 100 times. They are parents, being
often called pitára, matára, jánitri, besides being separately addressed as
'father' and 'mother'. They have made and sustain all creatures; they are also
the parents of the gods. At the same time they are in different passages spoken
of as themselves created by individual gods. One of them is a prolific bull,
the other a variegated cow, being both rich in seed. They never grow old. They
are great and wide-extended; they are broad and vast abodes. They grant food
and wealth, or bestow great fame and dominion. Sometimes moral qualities are
attributed to them. They are wise and promote righteousness. As father and
mother they guard beings, and protect from disgrace and misfortune. They are
sufficiently personified to be called leaders of the sacrifice and to be
conceived as seating themselves around the offering; but they never attained to
a living personification or importance in worship. These two deities are quite
co-ordinate, while in most of the other pairs one of the two greatly
predominates.
INDRA
Indra is invoked alone in about one-fourth of the
hymns of the RV., far more than are addressed to any other deity; for he is the
favourite national god of the Vedic people. He is more anthropomorphic on the
physical side, and more invested with mythological imagery, than any other
member of the pantheon. He is primarily a god of the thunderstorm who
vanquishes the demons of drought or darkness, and sets free the waters or wing
the light. He is secondarily the god of battle who aids the victorious Aryan in
overcoming his aboriginal foes.
His physical features, such as body and head, are
often referred to after he has drunk Soma he agitates his jaws and his beard;
and his belly is many times mentioned in connexion with his great powers of
drinking Soma. Being tawny (hári) in colour, he is also tawny-haired and
tawny-bearded. His arms are especially often referred to because they wield the
thunderbolt (vájra), which, mythologically representing the lightning stroke,
is his exclusive weapon. This bolt was fashioned for him by Tvastr, being made
of iron (ayasá), golden, tawny, sharp, many-pointed, sometimes spoken of as a
stone or rock. Several epithets, compounds or derivatives of vájra, such as
vájra-bahu bearing the bolt in his arm and vajrín wielder of the bolt are
almost without exception applied to him. Sometimes he is described as armed
with bow and arrows; he also carries a hook (ankusá).
Having a golden car, drawn by two tawny steeds
(hári), he is a car-fighter (rathesthá). Both his car and his steeds were
fashioned by the Rbhus, the divine artificers.
As Indra is more addicted to Soma than any of the
other gods, the common epithet 'Soma-drinker' (Somapá) is characteristic of
him. This beverage stimulates him to carry out his warlike deeds; thus for the
slaughter of Vrtra he is said to have drunk three lakes of Soma. One whole hymn
(x. 119) is a monologue in which Indra, intoxicated with Soma, boasts of his
greatness and his might.
Indra is often spoken of as having been born, and
two whole hymns deal with the subject of his birth. His father, the same as
Agni's, appears to be Dyaus; but the inference from other passages is that he
is Tvastr, the artificer among the gods. Agni is called Indra's twin brother,
and Pusan (vi. 54) is also his brother. His wife, who is often mentioned, is
Indrani. Indra is associated with various other deities. The Maruts, (i. 85)
are his chief allies, who constantly help him in his conflicts. Hence the
epithet Marútvant accompanied by the Maruts is characteristic of him. Agni is
the god most often conjoined with him as a dual divinity. Indra is also often
coupled with Varuna (vii. 86) and Vayu, god of Wind, less often with Soma
(viii. 48), Brhaspati (iv. 50), Pusan, and Visnu.
Indra is of vast size; thus it is said that he would
be equal to the earth even if it were ten times as large as it is. His
greatness and power are constantly dwelt on: neither gods nor men have attained
to the limit of his might; and no one like him is known among the gods. Thus
various epithets such as sákrá and sácivant mighty, sácipáti lord of might,
satákratu having a hundred powers, are characteristic of him.
The essential myth forming the basis of his nature
is described with extreme frequency and much variation. Exhilarated by Soma and
generally escorted by the Maruts, he attacks the chief demon of drought,
usually called Vrtra, but often also the serpent (áhi). Heaven and Earth
tremble when the mighty combat takes place. With his bolt be shatters Vrtra who
encompasses the waters, hence receiving the exclusive epithet apsu-jit,
conquering in the waters. The result of the conflict, which is regarded as being
constantly renewed, is that he pierces the mountain and sets free the waters
pent up like imprisoned cows. The physical elements in the conflict are nearly
always the bolt, the mountain, waters or rivers, while lightning, thunder,
cloud, rain are seldom directly named. The waters are often terrestrial, but
also often aerial and celestial. The clouds are the mountains (párvata, girí),
on which the demons lie or dwell, or from which Indra caste them down, or which
he cleaves to release the waters. Or the cloud is a rock (ádri) which
encompasses the cows (as the waters are sometimes called), and from which he
releases them. Clouds, as containing the waters, figure as cows also; they
further appear under the names of udder (údhar), spring (útsa), cask (kávandha),
pail (kósa). The clouds, moreover, appear as the fortresses (púras) of the
aerial demons, being described as moving, autumnal, made of iron or stone, and
as 90, 99, or 100 in number. Indra. shatters them and is characteristically
called the 'fort-destroyer' (parbhíd). But the chief and specific epithet of
Indra is 'Vrtra-slayer' (Vrtra-hán), owing to the essential importance, in the
myth, of the fight with the demon. In this fight the Maruts are his regular
allies, but Agni, Soma, and Visnu also often assist him. Indra also engages in
conflict with numerous minor demons; sometimes he is described as destroying
demons in general, the Raksases or the Asuras.
With the release of the waters is connected the
winning of light, sun, and dawn. Thus Indra is invoked to slay Vrtra and to win
the light. When he had slain Vrtra, releasing the waters for man, he placed the
sun visibly in the heavens. The sun shone forth when Indra blew the serpent
from the air. There is here often no reference to the Vrtra fight. Indra is
then simply said to find the light; he gained the sun or found it in the
darkness, and made a path for it. He produces the dawn as well as the sun; he
opens the darkness with the dawn and the sun. The cows. mentioned along with
the sun and dawn, or with the sun alone, as found, released, or won by Indra,
are here probably the morning beams, which are elsewhere compared with cattle
coming out of their dark stalls. Thus when the dawns went to meet Indra, he
became the lord of the cows; when be overcame Vrtra he made visible the cows of
the nights. There seems to be a confusion between the restoration of the sun
after the darkness of the thunderstorm, and the recovery of the sun from the
darkness of night at dawn. The latter feature is probably an extension of the
former. Indra's connexion with the thunderstorm is in a few passages divested
of mythological imagery, as when he is said to have created the lightnings of
heaven and to have directed the action of the waters downwards. With the
Vrtra-fight, with the winning of the cows and of the sun, is also connected the
gaining of Soma. Thus when Indra drove the serpent from the air, there shone
forth fires, the sun. and Soma; he won Soma at the same time as the cows.
Great cosmic actions are often attributed to Indra.
He settled the quaking mountains and plains. He stretches out heaven and earth
like a hide; he holds asunder heaven and earth as two wheels are kept apart by
the axle; he made the non-existent into the existent in a moment. Sometimes the
separation and support of heaven and earth are described as a result of Indra's
victory over a demon who held them together.
As the destroyer of demons in combat, Indra is
constantly invoked by warriors. As the great god of battle he is more
frequently called upon than any other deity to help the Aryans in their
conflicts with earthly enemies. He protects the Aryan colour and subjects the
black skin. He dispersed 50,000 of the black race. He subjected the Dasyus to
the Aryan, and gave land to the Aryan.
More generally Indra is praised as the protector,
helper, and friend of his worshippers. He is described as bestowing on them
wealth, which is considered the result of victories. His liberality is so
characteristic that the frequent attribute maghávan bountiful is almost
exclusively his.
Besides the central myth of the Vrtra-fight, several
minor stories are connected with Indra. In various passages he is described as
shattering the car of Usas, goddess of Dawn (iv. 51); this trait is probably
based on the notion of Indra's bringing the sun when kept back by the delaying
dawn. He is also said to have stopped the steeds of the Sun, apparently by
causing the latter to lose a wheel of his car. Indra is further associated with
the myth of the winning of Soma; for it is to him that the eagle brings the
draught of immortality from the highest heaven. Another myth in the capture by
Indra, with the help of Sarama, of the cows confined in a cave by demons called
Panis.
Various stories which, though mixed with
mythological elements, probably have an historical basis, are told of Indra's
having fought in aid of individual protégés, such as king Sudas, against
terrestrial foes.
The attributes of Indra are chiefly those of
physical superiority and rule over the physical world. He is energetic and
violent in action, an irresistible fighter, an inexhaustible lavisher of the
highest goods on mankind, but at the same time sensual and immoral in various
ways, such as excess in eating and drinking, and cruelty in killing his own
father Tvastr. He forms a marked contrast to Varuna, the other great universal
monarch of the RV., who wields passive and peaceful sway, who uniformly applies
the laws of nature, who upholds moral order, and whose character displays lofty
ethical features.
The name of Indra is pre-Indian; for it occurs in
the Avesta as that of a demon; the term verethraghna (=Vrtrahán) is also found
there as the designation of the God of Victory, though unconnected with Indra.
Thus it seems likely that there was already in the Indo-Iranian period a god
resembling the Vrtra-slaying Indra of the RV. The etymology of the word is
doubtful, but its radical portion ind may be connected with that in índ-u drop.
RUDRÁ
This god occupies a subordinate position in the RV.,
being celebrated in only three entire hymns, in part of another, and in one
conjointly with Soma. His hand, his arms, and his limbs are mentioned. He has
beautiful lips and wears braided hair. His colour is brown; his form is
dazzling, for he shines like the radiant sun, like gold. He is arrayed with
golden ornaments, and wears a glorious necklace (niská). He drives in a car.
His weapons are often referred to: he holds the thunderbolt in his arm, and
discharges his lightning shaft from the sky; but he is usually said to be armed
with a bow and arrows, which are strong and swift.
Rudra is very often associated with the Maruts (i.
85). He is their father, and is said to have generated them from the shining
udder of the cow Prsni.
He is fierce and destructive like a terrible beast,
and is called a bull, as well as the ruddy (arusá) boar of heaven. He is
exalted, strongest of the strong, swift, unassailable, unsurpassed in might. He
is young and unaging, a lord (ísana) and father of the world. By his rule and
univeral dominion be is aware of the doings of men and gods, He is bountiful
(midhváms), easily invoked and auspicious (sivá). But he is usually regarded as
malevolent; for the hymns addressed to him chiefly express fear of his terrible
shafts and deprecation of his wrath. He is implored not to slay or injure, in
his anger, his worshippers and their belongings, but to avert his great
malignity and his cow-slaying, man-slaying bolt from them, and to lay others
low. He is, however, not purely maleficent like a demon. He not only preserves
from calamity, but bestows blessings. His healing powers are especially often
mentioned; he has a thousand remedies, and is the greatest physician of
physicians. In this connexion be has two exclusive epithets, jálasa, cooling,
and jálasa-bhesaja, possessing cooling remedies.
The physical basis represented by Rudra is not
clearly apparent. But it seems probable that the phenomenon underlying his
nature was the storm, not pure and simple, but in its baleful aspect seen in
the destructive agency of lightning. His healing and beneficent powers would
then have been founded partly on the fertilizing and purifying action of the
thunderstorm, and partly on the negative action of sparing those whom be might
slay. Thus the deprecations of his wrath led to the application of the euphemistic
epithet sivá which became the regular name of Rudra's historical successor in
post-Vedic mythology.
The etymological sense of the name is somewhat
uncertain, but would be 'Howler' according to the usual derivation from rud
cry.
APÁM NÁPAT
This deity is celebrated in one entire hymn (ii.
35), is invoked in two stanzas of a hymn to the Waters, and is often mentioned
incidentally elsewhere. Brilliant and youthful, he shines without fuel in the
waters which surround and nourish him. Clothed in lightning, be is golden in
form, appearance, and colour. Standing in the highest place, he always shines
with undimmed splendour. Steeds, swift as thought, carry the Son of Waters. In
the last stanza of his hymn he is invoked as Agni and must be identified with
him; Agni, moreover, in some hymns addressed to him, is spoken of as Apam
napat. But the two are also distinguished; for example, 'Agni, accordant with
the Son of Waters, confers victory over Vrtra'. The epithet asu-héman
swiftly-speeding, applied three times to Apam napat, in its only other
occurrence refers to Agni. Hence Apam napat appears to represent the lightning
form of Agui which lurks in the eloud. For Agni, besides being directly called
Apam napat, is also termed the embryo (gárbha) of the waters; and the third
form of Agni is described as kindled in the waters.
This deity is not a creation of Indian mythology,
but goes back to the Indo-Iranian period. For in the Avesta Apam napat is a
spirit of the waters, who lives in their depths, who is surrounded by females,
who is often invoked with them, who drives with swift steeds, and is said to
have seized the brightness in the depth of the ocean.
MITRÁ
The association of Mitra with Varuna is so intimate
that he is addressed alone in one hymn only (iii. 59). Owing to the scantiness
of the information supplied in that hymn his separate character appears
somewhat indefirite.
Uttering his voice, he marshals men and watches the
tillers with unwinking eye. He is the great Aditya who marshals, yatayati, the
people, and the epithet yatayáj-jana arraying men together appears to be
peculiarly his. Savitr (i. 35) is identified with Mitra because of his laws,
and Visnu (i. 154) takes his three steps by the laws of Mitra: statements
indicating that Mitra regulates the course of the sun. Agni, who goes at the
head of the dawns (that is to say, is kindled before dawn), produces Mitra, and
when kindled is Mitra. In the Atharvaveda, Mitra at sunrise is contrasted with
Varuna in the evening, and in the Brahmanas Mitra is connected with day, Varuna
with night.
The conclusion from the Vedic evidence that Mitra
was a solar deity, is corroborated by the Avesta and by Persian religion in
general, where Mithra is undoubtedly a sun-god or a god of light specially
connected with the sun.
The etymology of the name is uncertain, but it must
originally have meant 'ally' or 'friend', for the word often means 'friend' in
the RV., and the Avestic Mithra is the guardian of faithfulness. As the kindly
nature of the god is often referred to in the Veda, the term must in the
beginning have been applied to the sun-god in his aspect of a benevolent power
of nature.
BRHASPÁTI
This god is addressed in eleven entire hymns, and in
two others conjointly with Indra. He is also, but less frequently, called
Brahmanas páti, 'Lord of prayer', the doublets alternating in the same hymn.
His physical features are few: he is sharp-horned and blue-backed;
golden-coloured and ruddy. He is armed with bow and arrows, and wields a golden
hatchet or an iron axe. He has a car, drawn by ruddy steeds, which slays the
goblins, bursts open the cow-stalls, and wins the light. Called the father of
the gods, he is also said to have blown forth their births like a blacksmith.
Like Agni, he is both a domestic and a brahman. priest. He is the generator of
all prayers, and without him sacrifice does not succeed. His song goes to
heaven, and he is associated with singers. In several passages he is identified
with Agni, from whom, however, he is much oftener distinguished. He is often
invoked with Indra, some of whose epithets, such as maghávan bountiful and
vajrin welder of the bolt he shares. He has thus been drawn into the Indra myth
of the release of the cows. Accompanied by his singing host he rends Vala with
a roar, and drives out the cows. In to doing he dispels the darkness and finds
the light. As regards his relation to his worshippers, he is said to help and
protect the pious man, to prolong life, and to remove disease.
Brhaspáti is a purely Indian deity. The double
accent and the parallel name Bráhmanas páti indicate that the first member is
the genitive of a noun brh, from the same root as bráhman, and that the name
thus means 'Lord of prayer'.
He seems originally to have represented an aspect of
Agni, as a divine priest, presiding over devotion, an aspect which bad already
attained an independent character by the beginning of the Rigvedic period. As
the divine brahman priest he seems to have been the prototype of Brahma, the
chief of the later Hindu triad.
USÁS
The goddess of Dawn is addressed in about twenty
hymns. The personification is but slight, the physical phenomenon always being
present to. the mind of the poet. Decked in gay attire like a dancer, clothed
in light, she appears in the east and unveils her charms. Rising resplendent as
from a bath she comes with light, driving away the darkness and removing the
black robe of night. She is young, being born again and again, though ancient.
Shining with a uniform hue, she wastes away the life of mortals. She illumines
the ends of the sky when she awakes; she opens the gates of heaven; her radiant
beams appear like herds of cattle. She drives away evil dreams, evil spirits,
and the hated darkness. She discloses the treasures concealed by darkness, and
distributes them bountifully, She awakens every living being to motion. When
Usas shines forth, the birds, fly up from their nests and men seek nourishment.
Day by day appearing at the appointed place, she never infringes the ordinance
of nature and of the gods. She renders good service to the gods by awakening
all worshippers and causing the sacrificial fires to be kindled. She brings the
gods to drink the Soma draught. She is borne on a shining car, drawn by ruddy
steeds or kine, which probably represent the red rays of morning.
Usas is closely associated with the Sun. She has
opened paths for Surya to travel; she brings the eye of the gods, and leads on
the beautiful white horse. She shines with the light of the Sun, with the light
of her lover. Surya follows her as a young man a maiden; she meets the god who
desires her. She thus comes to be spoken of as the wife of Surya. But as
preceding the Sun, she is occasionally regarded as his mother; thus she is said
to arrive with a bright child. She is also called the sister, or the elder
sister, of Night (x. 127), and their names are often conjoined as a dual
compound (usása-nákta and náktosása). She is born in the sky, and in, therefore
constantly called the 'daughter of Heaven '. As the sacrificial fire is kindled
at dawn, Usas is often associated with Agni, who is sometimes, called her
lover. Usas causes Agni to be kindled, and Agni goes to meet the shining Dawn
as she approaches. She is also often connected with the twin gods of early
morning, the Asvins (vii. 71). When the Asvins' car is yoked, the daughter of
the sky is born. They are awakened by her, accompany her, and are her friends.
Usas brings the worshipper wealth and children,
bestowing protection and long life. She confers renown and glory on all liberal
benefactors of the poet. She is characteristically bountiful (maghóni).
The name of Usas is derived from the root vas, to
shine, forms of which are often used with reference to her in the hymns in
which she is invoked.
PARJÁNYA
This deity occupies quite a subordinate position,
being celebrated in only three hymns. His name often means 'rain-cloud' in the
literal sense but in most passages it represents the personification, the cloud
then becoming an udder, a pail, or a water-skin. Parjanya is frequently described
as a bull that quickens the plants and the earth. The shedding of rain is his
most prominent characteristic. He flies around with a watery car, and loosens
the water-skin; he sheds rain-water as our divine (ásara) father. In this
activity he is associated with thunder and lightning. He is in a special degree
the producer and nourisher of vegetation. He also produces fertility in cows,
mares, and women. He is several times referred to as a father. By implication
his wife is the Earth, and he is once called the son of Dyaus.
PUSÁN
This god is celebrated in eight hymns, five of which
occur in the sixth Mandala. His individuality is vague, and his anthropomorphic
traits are scanty. His foot and his right band are mentioned; he wears braided
hair and a beard. He carries a golden spear, an awl, and a goad. His car is
drawn by goats instead of horses. His characteristic food is gruel (karambhá).
He sees all creatures clearly and at once. He is the
wooer of his mother and the lover of his sister (Dawn), and was given by the
gods to the Sun-maiden Surya as a husband. He is connected with the marriage
ceremonial in the wedding hymn (x. 85). With his golden aerial ships Pusan acts
as the messenger of Surya. He moves onward observing the universe, and makes
his abode in heaven. He is a guardian who knows and beholds all creatures. As
best of charioteers he drove downward the golden wheel of the sun. He traverses
the distant path of heaven and earth; he goes to and returns from both the
beloved abodes. He conducts the dead on the far-off path of the Fathers. He is
a guardian of roads, removing dangers out of the way; and is called 'son of
deliverance' (vimúco nápat). He follows and protects cattle, bringing them home
unhurt and driving back the lost. His bounty is often mentioned. 'Glowing'
(aghrni) is one of his exclusive epithets. The name means 'prosperer', as
derived from pus, cause to thrive. The evidence, though not clear, indicates
that Pusan was originally a solar deity, representing the beneficent power of the
sun manifested chiefly in its pastoral aspect.
ÁPAS
The Waters are addressed in four hymns, as well as
in a few scattered verses. The personification is only incipient, hardly
extending beyond the notion of their being mothers, young wives, and goddesses
-who bestow boons and come to the sacrifice. They follow the path of the gods.
Indra, armed with the bolt, dug out a channel for them, and they never infringe
his ordinances. They are celestial as well as terrestrial, and the sea is their
goal. They abide where the gods dwell, in the seat of Mitra-Varuna, beside the
sun. King Varuna moves in their midst, looking down on the truth and the
falsehood of men. They are mothers and as such produce Agni. They give their
auspicious fluid like loving mothers. They are most motherly, the producers of
all that is fixed and that moves. They purify, carrying away defilement. They
even cleanse from moral guilt, the sins of violence, cursing, and lying. They
also bestow remedies, health, wealth, strength, long life, and immortality.
Their blessing and aid are often implored, and they are invited to seat
themselves on the sacrificial grass to receive the offering of the Soma priest.
The Waters are several times associated with honey.
They mix their milk with honey. Their wave, rich in honey, became the drink of
Indra, Whom it exhilarated and to whom it gave heroic strength. They are
invoked to pour the wave which is rich in honey, gladdens the gods, is the
draught of Indra, and is produced in the sky. Here the celestial Waters seem to
be identified with the heavenly Soma, the beverage of Indra. Elsewhere the
Waters used in preparing the terrestrial Soma seem to be meant. When they
appear bearing ghee, milk, and honey, they are accordant with the priests that
bring well-pressed Soma for Indra, Soma (viii. 48) delights in them like a
young man in lovely maidens; he approaches them as a lover; they are maidens
who bow down before the youth.
The deification of the Waters is pre-Vedic, for they
are invoked as apo in the Avesta also.
MITRÁ-VARUNA
This is the pair most frequently mentioned next to
Heaven and Earth. The hymns in which they are conjointly invoked are much more
numerous than those in which they are separately addressed. As Mitra (iii. 59)
is distinguished by hardly any individual traits, the two together have
practically the same attributes and functions as Varuna alone. They are
conceived as young. Their eye is the sun. Reaching out they drive with the rays
of the sun as with arms. They wear glistening garments. They mount their car in
the highest heaven. Their abode is golden and is located in heaven; it is
great, very lofty, firm, with a thousand columns and a thousand doors. They
have spies that are wise and cannot be deceived. They are kings and universal
monarchs. They are also called Asuras, who wield dominion by means of mayá
occult power, a term mainly connected with them. By that power they send the
dawns, make the sun traverse the sky, and obscure it with cloud and rain. They
are rulers and guardians of the whole world. They support heaven, and earth,
and air.
They are lords of rivers, and they are the gods most
frequently thought of and prayed to as bestowers of rain. They have kine
yielding refreshment, and streams flowing with honey. They control the rainy
skies and the streaming waters. They bedew the pastures with ghee (= rain) and
the spaces with honey. They send rain and refreshment from the sky. Rain
abounding in heavenly water comes from them. One entire hymn dwells on their
powers of bestowing rain.
Their ordinances are fixed and cannot be obstructed
even by the immortal gods. They are upholders and cherishers of order. They are
barriers against falsehood, which they dispel, hate, and punish. They afflict
with disease those who neglect their worship.
The dual invocation of these gods goes back to the
Indo-Iranian period, for Ahura and Mithra are thus coupled in the Avesta.
SÚRYA
Some ten hymns are addressed to Surya. Since the
name designates the, orb of the sun as well as the god, Surya is the most
concrete of the solar deities, his connexion with the luminary always being
present to the mind of the seers. The eye of Surya is several times mentioned;
but Surya, himself is also often called the eye of Mitra and Varuna, as well as
of Agni and of the gods. He is far-seeing, all-seeing, the spy of the whole
world; he beholds all beings, and the good and bad deeds of mortals. He arouses
men to perform their activities. He is the soul or guardian of all that moves
or is stationary. His car is drawn by one steed called etasá, or by seven swift
mares called hárit bays.
The Dawn or Dawns reveal or produce Surya; he shines
from the lap of the Dawns; but Dawn is also sometimes Surya's wife. He also
bears the metronymic Aditya or Aditeya, son of the goddess Aditi. His father is
Dyaus or Heaven. The gods raised him who had been hidden in the ocean, and they
placed him in the sky; various individual gods, too, are said to have produced
Surya or raised him to heaven.
Surya is in various passages conceived as a bird
traversing space; he is a ruddy bird that flies; or he is a flying eagle. He is
also called a mottled bull, or a white and brilliant steed brought by Dawn.
Occasionally he is, described as an inanimate object: he is a gem of the sky,
or a variegated stone set in the midst of heaven. He is a brilliant weapon
(áyudha) which Mitra-Varuna conceal with cloud and rain, or their felly (paví),
or a brilliant car placed by them in heaven. Surya is also sometimes spoken of
as, a wheel (cakrá), though otherwise the wheel of Surya is mentioned. Surya
shines for all the world, for men and gods. He dispels the darkness, which he
rolls up like a skin, or which his rays throw off like a skin into the waters.
He measures the days and prolong life. He drives away sickness, disease, and
evil dreams. All creatures depend on him, and the epithet 'all-creating'
(visvá-karman) is once applied to him. By his greatness he is the divine priest
(asuryà puróhita) of the gods. At his rising he is besought to declare men
sinless to Mitra-Varuna and to other gods.
The name Súrya is a derivative of svàr light, and
cognate with the Avesta hvare sun, which has swift horses and is the eye of
Ahura Mazda
ASVÍNA.
These two deities are the most prominent gods after
Indra, Agni, and Soma, being invoked in more than fifty entire hymns and in
parts of several others. Though their name (asv-in horseman) is purely Indian,
and though they undoubtedly belong to the group of the deities of light, the
phenomenon which they represent is uncertain, because in all probability their
origin is to be sought in a very early pre-Vedic age.
They are twins and inseparable, though two or three
passages suggest that they may at one time have been regarded as distinct. They
are young and yet ancient. They are bright, lords of lustre, of golden
brilliancy, beautiful, and adorned with lotus-garlands. They are the only gods
called golden-pathed (híranya-vartani). They are strong and agile, fleet as
thought or as an eagle. They possess profound wisdom and occult power. Their
two most distinctive and frequent epithets are dasrá wondrous and násatya true.
They are more closely associated with honey (mádhu)
than any of the other gods. They desire honey and are drinkers of it. They have
a skin filled with honey; they poured out a hundred jars of honey. They have a
honey-goad; and their car is honey-hued and honey-bearing. They give honey to
the bee and are compared with bees. They are, however, also fond of Soma, being
invited to drink it with Usas and Surya. Their car is sunlike and, together
with all its parts, golden. It is threefold and has three wheels. It is swifter
than thought, than the twinkling of an eye. It was fashioned by the three
divine artificers, the Rbhus. It is drawn by horses, more commonly by birds or
winged steeds; sometimes by one or more buffaloes, or by a single asa
(rásabha). It passes over the five countries; it moves around the sky; it
traverses heaven and earth in one day; it goes round the sun in the distance.
Their revolving course (vartís), a term almost exclusively applicable to them,
is often mentioned. They come from heaven, air, and earth, or from the ocean;
they abide in the sea of heaven, but sometimes their locality is referred to as
unknown. The time of their appearance is between dawn and sunrise: when
darkness stands among the ruddy cows; Usas awakens them; they follow after her
in their car; at its yoking Usas is born. They yoke their car to descend to
earth and receive the offerings of worshippers. They come not only in the
morning, but also at noon and sunset. They dispel darkness and chase away evil
spirits.
The Asvins are children of Heaven; but they are also
once said to be the twin sons of Vivasvant and Tvastr's daughter Saranyú
(probably the rising Sun and Dawn). Pusan is once said to be their son; and
Dawn seems to be meant by their sister. They are often associated with the Sun
conceived as a female called either Surya or more commonly the daughter of
Surya. They are Surya's two husbands whom she chose and whose car she mounts.
Surya's companionship on their car is indeed characteristic. Hence in the
wedding hymn (x. 85) the Asvins are invoked to conduct the bride home on their
car, and they (with other gods) are besought to bestow fertility on her.
The Asvins are typically succouring divinities. They
are the speediest deliverers from distress in general. The various rescues they
effect are of a peaceful kind, not deliverance from the dangers of battle. They
are characteristically divine physicians, healing diseases with their remedies,
restoring sight, curing the sick and the maimed. Several legends are mentioned
about those whom they restored to youth, cured of various physical defects, or
befriended in other ways. The name oftenest mentioned is that of Bhujyu, whom
they saved from the ocean in a ship.
The physical basis of the Asvins has been a puzzle
from the time of the earliest interpreters before Yuska, who offered various
explanations, while modern scholars also have suggested several theories. The
two most probable are that the Asvins represented either the morning twilight,
as half light and half dark, or the morning and the evening star. It is
probable that the Asvins date from the Indo-European period. The two horsemen,
sons of Dyaus, who drive across the heaven with their steeds, and who have a
sister, are parallel to the two famous horsemen of Greek mythology, sons of
Zeus, brothers of Helena; and to the two Lettic God's sons who come riding on
their steeds to woo the daughter of the Sun. In the Lettic myth the morning
star comes to look at the daughter of the Sun. As the two Asvins wed the one
Surya so the two Lettic God's sons wed the one daughter of the Sun; the latter
also (like the Dioskouroi and the Asvins) are rescuers from the ocean,
delivering the daughter of the Sun or the Sun himself.
VÁRUNA
Beside Indra (ii. 12) Varuna is the greatest of the
gods of the RV., though the number of the hymns in which he is celebrated alone
(apart from Mitra) is small, numbering hardly a dozen.
His face, eye, arms, hands, and feet are mentioned.
He moves his arms, walks, drives, sits, eats, and drinks. His eye with which he
observes mankind is the sun. He is far-sighted and thousand-eyed. He treads
down wiles with shining foot. He sits on the strewn grass at the sacrifice. He
wears a golden mantle and puts on a shining robe. His car, which is often
mentioned, shines like the sun, and is drawn by well-yoked steeds. Varuna sits
in his mansions looking on all deeds. The Fathers behold him in the highest
heaven. The spies of Varuna are sometimes referred to: they sit down around
him; they observe the two worlds; they stimulate prayer. By the golden-winged
messenger of Varuna the sun is meant. Varuna is often called a king, but
especially a universal monarch (samráj) The attribute of sovereignty (ksatrá)
and the term ásura are predominantly applicable to him. His divine dominion is
often alluded to by the word mayá occult power; the epithet mayín crafty is
accordingly used chiefly of him.
Varuna is mainly lauded as upholder of physical and
moral order. He is a great lord of the laws of nature. He established heaven
and earth, and by his law heaven and earth are held apart. He made the golden
swing (the sun) to shine in heaven; he has made a wide path for the sun; he
placed fire in the waters, the sun in the sky, Soma on the rock. The wind which
resounds through the air is Varuna's breath. By his ordinances the moon shining
brightly moves at night, and the stars placed up on high are seen at night, but
disappear by day. Thus Varuna is lord of light both by day and by night. He is
also a regulator of the waters. He caused the rivers to flow; by his occult
power they pour swiftly into the ocean without filling it. It is, however, with
the aerial waters that he is usually connected. Thus he makes the inverted cask
(the cloud) to pour its waters on heaven, earth, and air, and to moisten the
ground.
Varuna's ordinances being constantly said to be
fixed, he is pre-eminently called dhrtravrata whose laws are established. The
gods themselves follow his ordinances. His power is; so great that neither the
birds as they fly nor the rivers as they flow can reach the limits of his
dominion. He embraces the universe, and the abodes of all beings. He is
all-knowing, and his omniscience is typical. He knows the flight of the birds in
the sky, the path of the ships in the ocean, the course of the far-travelling
wind beholding all the secret things that have been or shall be done, he
witnesses men's truth and falsehood. No creature can even wink without his
knowledge.
As a moral governor Varuna stands far above any
other deity. His wrath is aroused by sin, the infringement of his ordinances,
which he severely punishes. The fetters (pásas) with which he binds sinners are
often mentioned, and are characteristic of him. On the other hand, Varuna is
gracious to the penitent. He removes sin as if untying a rope. He releases even
from the sin committed by men's fathers. He spares him who daily transgresses
his laws when a suppliant, and is gracious to those who have broken his laws by
thoughtlessness. There is in fact no hymn to Varuna in which the prayer for
forgiveness of guilt does not occur. Varuna is on a footing of friendship with
his worshipper, who communes with him in his celestial abode, and sometimes
sees him with the mental eye. The righteous hope to behold in the next world
Varuna and Yama, the two kings who reign in bliss.
The original conception of Varuna seems to have been
the encompassing sky. It has, however, become obscured, because it dates from
an earlier age. For it goes back to the Indo-Iranian period at least, since the
Ahura Mazda (the wise spirit) of the Avesta agrees with the Asura Varuna in
character, though not in name. It may even be older still; for the name Varuna
is perhaps identical with the Greek ouranos sky. In any case, the word appears
to be derived from the root vr cover or encompass.
MANDUKAS
The ... hymn [vii. 103], intended as a spell to
produce rain, is a panegyric of frogs, who are compared during the drought to
heated kettles, and are described as raising their voices together at the
commencement of the rains like Brahmin pupils repeating the lessons of their
teacher.
VÍSVE DEVÁH
The comprehensive group called Vísve deváh or
All-Gods occupies an important position, for at least forty entire hymns are
addressed to them. It is an artificial sacrificial group intended to include
all the gods in order that none should be left out in laudations meant for the
whole pantheon. The ... hymn [viii. 29] though traditionally regarded as meant
for the Vísve deváh is a collection of riddles, in which each stanza describes
a deity by his characteristic marks, leaving his name to be guessed. The
deities meant in the successive stanzas are: 1. Soma, 2. Agni, 3. Tvastr, 4.
Indra, 5. Rudra, 6. Pusan, 7. Visnu, 8. Asvins, 9. Mitra-Varuna, 10. Angirases.
SÓMA
As the Soma sacrifice formed the centre of the
ritual of the RV., the god Soma is one of the most prominent deities. With
rather more than 120 hymns (all those in Mandala ix, and about half a dozen in
others) addressed to him, becomes next to Agni (i. 1) in importance. The
anthropomorphism of his character is less developed than that of India or
Varuna because the plant and its juice are constantly present to the mind of
the poet. Soma has terrible and sharp weapons, which he grasps in his hand; he
wields a bow and a thousand-pointed shaft. He has a car which is heavenly,
drawn by a team like Vayu's. He is also said to ride on the same car as Indra.
He is the best of charioteers. In about half a dozen hymns he is associated
with Indra, Agni, Pusan, and Rudra respectively as a dual divinity. He is
sometimes attended by the Maruts, the close allies of Indra. He comes to the
sacrifice and receives offerings on the sacred grass.
The Soma juice, which is intoxicating, is frequently
termed mádhu or sweet draught, but oftenest called índu the bright drop. The
colour Of Soma is brown (babhrú), ruddy (aruná), or more usually tawny (hári).
The whole of the ninth book consists of incantations chanted over the tangible
Soma, while the stalks are being pounded by stones, the juice passes through a
woollen strainer, and flows into wooden vats, in which it is offered to the
gods on the litter of sacred grass (barhís). These processes are overlaid with
confused and mystical imagery in endless variation. The pressing stones with
which the shoot (amsú) is crushed are called ádri or grávan. The pressed juice
as it passes through the filter of sheep's wool is usually called pávamana or
punaná flowing clear. This purified (unmixed) Soma is sometimes called suddhá
pure, but much oftener sukrá, or súci bright; it is offered almost exclusively
to Vayu or India. The filtered Soma flows into jars (kalása) or vats (dróna),
where it is mixed with water and also with milk, by which it is sweetened. The
verb mrj cleanse is used with reference to this addition of water and milk.
Soma is spoken of as having three kinds of admixture (asír): milk (gó), sour
milk (dádhi), and barley (yáva). The admixture being alluded to as a garment or
bright robe, Soma is described as 'decked with beauty'. Soma is pressed three
times a day: the Rbhus are invited to the evening pressing, Indra to the midday
one, which is his exclusively, while the morning libation is his first drink.
The three abodes (sadhástha) of Soma which are mentioned probably refer to
three tubs used in the ritual.
Soma's connexion with the waters, resulting from the
admixture, is expressed in the most various ways. He is the drop that grows in
the waters; he is the embryo of the waters or their child; they are his mothers
or his sisters; he is lord and king of streams; he produces waters and causes
heaven and earth to rain. The sound made by the trickling Soma is often alluded
to generally in hyperbolical usage, with verbs meaning to roar or bellow, or
even thunder. He is thus commonly called a bull among the waters, which figure
as cows. Soma is moreover swift, being often compared with a steed, sometimes
with a bird flying to the wood. Owing to his yellow colour Soma's brilliance is
the physical aspect most dwelt upon by the poets. He is then often likened to
or associated with the sun.
The exhilarating power of Soma led to its being
regarded as a divine drink bestowing immortal life. Hence it is called amrta
draught of immortality. All the gods drink Soma; they drank it to gain
immortality; it confers immortality not only on gods, but on men. It has,
moreover, medicinal powers: Soma heals whatever is sick, making the blind to
see and the lame to walk. Soma also stimulates the voice, and is called 'lord
of speech'. He awakens eager thought: he is a generator of hymns, a leader of
poets, a seer among priests. Hence his wisdom is much dwelt upon; thus he is a
wise seer, and he knows the races of the gods.
The intoxicating effect of Soma most emphasized by
the poets is the stimulus it imparts to Indra in his conflict with hostile
powers. That Soma invigorates Indra for the fight with Vrtra is mentioned in
innumerable passages. Through this association Indra's warlike exploits and
cosmic actions come to be attributed to Soma independently. He is a victor
unconquered in fight, born for battle. As a warrior he wins all kinds of wealth
for his worshippers.
Though Soma is several times regarded as dwelling or
growing on the mountains (like Haoma in the Avesta), his true origin and abode
are regarded as in heaven. Soma is the child of heaven, is the milk of heaven,
and is purified in heaven. He is the lord of heaven; he occupies heaven, and
his place is the highest heaven. Thence he was brought to earth. The myth
embodying this belief is that of the eagle that brings Soma to Indra, and is
most fully dealt with in the two hymns iv. 26 and 27. Being the most important
of herbs, Soma is said to have been born as the lord (páti) of plants, which
also have him as their king; he is a lord of the wood (vánaspáti), and has
generated all plants. But quite apart from his connexion with herbs, Soma is,
like other leading gods, called a king: he is a king of rivers; a king of the
whole earth; a king or father of the gods; a king of gods and mortals. In a few
of the latest hymns of the RV. Soma begins to be mystically identified with the
moon; in the AV. Soma several times means the moon; and in the Brahmanas this
identification has already become a commonplace.
We know that the preparation and the offering of
Soma (the Avestan Haoma) was already an important feature of Indo-Iranian
worship, In both the RV. and the Avesta it is stated that the stalks were
pressed, that the juice was yellow, and was mixed with milk; in both it grows
on mountains, and its mythical home is in heaven, whence it comes down to
earth; in both the Soma draught has become a mighty god and is called a king;
in both there are many other identical mythological traits relating to Soma.
It is possible that the belief in an intoxicating
divine beverage, the home of which was in heaven, goes back to the
Indo-European period. It must then have been regarded as a kind of honey mead
(Skt. mádhu, Gk. methu, Anglo-Saxon medu).
The name of Soma (= Haoma) means pressed juice,
being derived from the root su (= Av. hu) press.
FUNERAL HYMNS
The RV. contains a group of five hymns (x. 14-18)
concerned with death and the future life. From them we learn that, though
burial was also practised, cremation was the usual method of disposing of the
dead, and was the main source of the mythology relating to the future life.
Agni conveys the corpse to the other world, the Fathers, and the gods. He is
besought to preserve the body intact and to burn the goat which is sacrificed
as his portion. During the process of cremation Agni and Soma are besought to
heal any injury that bird, beast, ant, or serpent may have inflicted on the
body. The way to the heavenly world is a distant path on which Savitr (i. 35)
conducts and Pusan (vi. 54) protects the dead. Before the pyre is lighted, the
wife of the dead man, having lain beside him, arises, and his bow is taken from
his hand. This indicates that in earlier times his widow and his weapons were
burnt with the body of the husband. Passing along by the path trodden by the
Fathers, the spirit of the dead man goes to the realm of light, and meets with
the Fathers who revel with Yama in the highest heaven. Here, uniting with a
glorious body, he enters upon a life of bliss which is free from imperfections
and bodily frailties, in which all desires are fulfilled, and which is passed
among the gods, especially in the presence of the two kings Yama and Varuna.
PITÁRAS
Two hymns (x. 15 and 54) are addressed to the
Pitaras or Fathers, the blessed dead who dwell in the third heaven, the third
or highest step of Visnu. The term as a rule applies to the early or first
ancestors, who followed the ancient paths, seers who made the paths by which
the recent dead go to join them. Various groups of ancestors are mentioned,
such as the Angirases and Atharvans, the Bhrgus and Vasisthas, who are
identical in name with the priestly families associated by tradition with the
composition of the Atharvaveda and of the second and seventh Mandalas of the
Rigveda. The Pitaras are classed as higher, lower, and middle, as earlier and
later, who though not always known to their descendants, are known to Agni.
They revel with Yama and feast with the gods. They are fond of Soma, and thirst
for the libations prepared for them on earth, and eat the offerings along with
him. They come on the same car as Indra and the goods. Arriving in their
thousands they range themselves on the sacrificial grass to the south, and
drink the pressed draught. They receive oblations as their food. They are
entreated to hear, intercede for, and protect their worshippers, and besought
not to injure their descendants for any sin humanly committed against them.
They are invoked to give riches, children, and long life to their sons, who
desire to be in their good graces. The Vasisthas are once collectively implored
to help their descendants. Cosmical actions, like those of the gods, are
sometimes attributed to the Fathers. Thus they are said to have adorned the sky
with stars, to have placed darkness in the night and light in the day; they
found the light and generated the dawn. The path trodden by the Fathers
(pitryána) is different from that trodden by the gods (devayána).
HYMN OF THE GAMBLER
This [x. 34] is one, among the secular hymns, of a
group of four which have a didactic character. It is the lament of a gambler
who, unable to resist the fascination of the dice, deplores the ruin to which
he has brought on his family. The dice (aksás) consisted of the nuts of a large
tree called vibhidaka (Terminalia bellerica), which is still utilized for this
purpose in India.
PÚRUSA
There are six or seven hymns dealing with the
creation of the world as produced from some original material. In the following
one, the well-known Purusa-sukta or hymn of Man, the gods are the agents of
creation, while the material out of which the world is made is the body of a
primaeval giant named Purusa. The act of creation is here treated as a
sacrifice in which Purusa is the victim, the parts when cut up becoming
portions of the universe. Both its language and its matter indicate that it is
one of the very latest hymns of the Rigveda. It not only presupposes a
knowledge of the three oldest Vedas, to which it refers by name, but also, for
the first and only time in the Rigveda, mentions the four castes. The religious
view is moreover different from that of the old hymns, for it is pantheistic:
'Purusa is all this world, what has been and shall be'. It is, in fact, the
starting-point of the pantheistic philosophy of India.
RÁTRI
The goddess of night, under the name of Rátri is
invoked in only one hymn (x. 127). She is the sister of Usas, and like her is
called a daughter of heaven. She is not conceived as the. dark, but as the
bright starlit night. Decked with all splendour she drives away the darkness.
At her approach men, beasts, and birds go to rest. She protects her worshippers
from the wolf and the thief, guiding them to safety. Under the name of nákta
n., combined with usás, Night appears as a dual divinity with Dawn in the form
of Usása-nákta and Náktosása, occurring in some twenty scattered stanzas of the
Rigveda.
HYMN OF CREATION
In the ... cosmogonic poem [x. 129] the origin of
the world is explained the evolution of the existent (sát) from the
non-existent (ásat). Water thus came into being first; from it was evolved
intelligence by heat. It is the starting-point of the natural philosophy which
developed into the Sankhya system.
YAMÁ
Three hymns are addressed to Yama, the chief of the
blessed dead. There is also another (x. 10), which consists of a dialogue between
him and his sister Yami. He is associated with Varuna, Brhaspati, and
especially Agni, the conductor of the dead, who is called his friend and his
priest. He is not expressly designated a god, but only a being who rules the
dead. He is associated with the departed Fathers, especially the Angirases,
with whom he comes to the sacrifice to drink Soma.
Yama dwells in the remote recess of the sky. In his
abode, which is the home of the gods, he is surrounded by songs and the sound
of the flute. Soma is pressed for Yama, ghee is offered to him, and he comes to
seat himself at the sacrifice. He is invoked to lead his worshippers to the
gods, and to prolong life.
His father is Vivasvant and his mother Saranyu. In
her dialogue with him Yami speaks of Yama as the 'only mortal', and elsewhere
he is said to have chosen death and abandoned his body. He departed to the
other world, having found out the path for many, to where the ancient Fathers
passed away. Death is the path of Yama. His foot-fetter (pádbisa) is spoken of
as parallel to the bond of Varuna. The owl (úluka) and the pigeon (kapóta) are
mentioned as his messengers, but the two four-eyed, broad-nosed, brindled dogs,
sons of Sarama (sarameyáu) are his regular emissaries. They guard the path
along which the dead man hastens to join the Fathers who rejoice with Yama.
They watch men and wander about among the peoples as Yama's messengers. They
are besought to grant continued enjoyment of the light of the sun.
As the first father of mankind and the first of those
that died, Yama appears to have originally been regarded as a mortal who became
the chief of the souls of the departed. He goes back to the Indo-Iranian
period, for the primaeval twins, from whom the human race is descended, Yama
and Yami, are identical with the Yima and Yimeh of the Avesta. Yama himself may
in that period have been regarded as a king of a golden age, for in the Avesta
he is the ruler of an earthly, and in the RV. that of a heavenly paradise.
VÁTA
This god, as Váta, the ordinary name of wind, is
addressed in two short hymns. He is invoked in a more concrete way than his
doublet Vayú, who is celebrated in one whole hymn and in parts of others.
Vata's name is frequently connected with forms of the root va, blow, from which
it is derived. He is once associated with the god of the rain-storm in the dual
form of Vata-Parjanyá, while Vayu is often similarly linked with Indra as
Índra-Vayú. Vata is the breath of the gods. Like Rudra he wafts healing and
prolongs life; for he has the treasure of immortality in his house. His
activity is chiefly mentioned in connexion with the thunderstorm. He produces
ruddy lights and makes the dawns to shine. His swiftness often supplies a
comparison for the speed of the gods or of mythical steeds. His noise is also
often mentioned