The Religions of India / Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume 1, Edited by Morris Jastrow

by Edward Washburn Hopkins

CHAPTER III.

THE RIG VEDA. THE UPPER GODS.

The hymns of the Rig Veda may be divided into three classes, those in which are especially lauded the older divinities, those in which appear as most prominent the sacrificial gods, and those in which a long-weakened polytheism is giving place to the light of a clearer pantheism. In each category there are hymns of different age and quality, for neither did the more ancient with the growth of new divinities cease to be revered, nor did pantheism inhibit the formal acknowledgment of the primitive pantheon. The cult once established persisted, and even when, at a later time, all the gods had been reduced to nominal fractions of the All-god, their ritualistic individuality still was preserved. The chief reason for this lies in the nature of these gods and in the attitude of the worshipper. No matter how much the cult of later gods might prevail, the other gods, who represented the daily phenomena of nature, were still visible, awe-inspiring, divine. The firmest pantheist questioned not the advisability of propitiating the sun-god, however much he might regard this god as but a part of one that was greater. Belief in India was never so philosophical that the believer did not dread the lightning, and seek to avert it by praying to the special god that wielded it. But active veneration in later times was extended in fact only to the strong Powers, while the more passive divinities, although they were kept as a matter of form in the ceremonial, yet had in reality only tongue-worshippers.

With some few exceptions, however, it will be found impossible to say whether any one deity belonged to the first pantheon.

The best one can do is to separate the mass of gods from those that become the popular gods, and endeavor to learn what was the character of each, and what were the conceptions of the poets in regard both to his nature, and to his relations with man. A different grouping of the gods (that indicated below) will be followed, therefore, in our exposition.

After what has been said in the introductory chapter concerning the necessity of distinguishing between good and bad poetry, it may be regarded as incumbent upon us to seek to make such a division of the hymns as shall illustrate our words. But we shall not attempt to do this here, because the distinction between late mechanical and poetic hymns is either very evident, and it would be superfluous to burden the pages with the trash contained in the former,[1] or the distinction is one liable to reversion at the hands of those critics whose judgment differs from ours, for there are of course some hymns that to one may seem poetical and to another, artificial. Moreover, we admit that hymns of true feeling may be composed late as well as early, while as to beauty of style the chances are that the best literary production will be found among the latest rather than among the earliest hymns.

It would, indeed, be admissible, if one had any certainty in regard to the age of the different parts of the Rig Veda, simply to divide the hymns into early, middle, and late, as they are sometimes divided in philological works, but here one rests on the weakest of all supports for historical judgment, a linguistic and metrical basis, when one is ignorant alike of what may have been accomplished by imitation, and of the work of those later priests who remade the poems of their ancestors.

Best then, because least hazardous, appears to be the method which we have followed, namely, to take up group by group the most important deities arranged in the order of their relative importance, and by studying each to arrive at a fair understanding of the pantheon as a whole. The Hindus themselves divided their gods into highest, middle, and lowest, or those of the upper sky, the atmosphere, and the earth. This division, from the point of view of one who would enter into the spirit of the seers and at the same time keep in mind the changes to which that spirit gradually was subjected, is an excellent one. For, as will be seen, although the earlier order of regard may have been from below upwards, this order does not apply to the literary monuments. These show on the contrary a worship which steadily tends from above earthwards; and the three periods into which may be divided all Vedic theology are first that of the special worship of sky-gods, when less attention is paid to others; then that of the atmospheric and meteorological divinities; and finally that of terrestrial powers, each later group absorbing, so to speak, the earlier, and therewith preparing the developing Hindu intelligence for the reception of the universal god with whom closes the series.

Other factors than those of an inward development undoubtedly were at work in the formation of this growth. Especially prominent is the amalgamation of the gods of the lower classes with those of the priest-hood. Climatic environment, too, conditioned theological evolution, if not spiritual advance. The cult of the mid-sphere god, Indra, was partly the result of the changing atmospheric surroundings of the Hindus as they advanced into India. The storms and the sun were not those of old. The tempests were more terrific, the display of divine power was more concentrated in the rage of the elements; while appreciation of the goodness of the sun became tinged with apprehension of evil, and he became a deadly power as well as one beneficent. Then the relief of rain after drought gave to Indra the character of a benign god as well as of a fearful one. Nor were lacking in the social condition certain alterations which worked together with climatic changes. The segregated mass of the original people, the braves that hung about the king, a warrior-class rapidly becoming a caste, and politically the most important caste, took the god of thunder and lightning for their god of battle. The fighting race naturally exalted to the highest the fighting god. Then came into prominence the priestly caste, which gradually taught the warrior that mind was stronger than muscle. But this caste was one of thinkers. Their divinity was the product of reflection. Indra remained, but yielded to a higher power, and the god thought out by the priests became God. Yet it must not be supposed that the cogitative energy of the Brahman descended upon the people's gods and suddenly produced a religious revolution. In India no intellectual advance is made suddenly. The older divinities show one by one the transformation that they suffered at the hands of theosophic thinkers. Before the establishment of a general Father-god, and long before that of the pantheistic All-god, the philosophical leaven was actively at work. It will be seen operative at once in the case of the sun-god, and, indeed, there were few of the older divinities that were untouched by it. It worked silently and at first esoterically. One reads of the gods' 'secret names,' of secrets in theology, which 'are not to be revealed,' till at last the disguise is withdrawn, and it is discovered that all the mystery of former generations has been leading up to the declaration now made public: 'all these gods are but names of the One.'

THE SUN-GOD.

The hymn which was translated in the first chapter gives an epitome of the simpler conceptions voiced in the few whole hymns to the sun. But there is a lower and a higher view of this god. He is the shining god par excellence, the deva, s[=u]rya,[2] the red ball in the sky. But he is also an active force, the power that wakens, rouses, enlivens, and as such it is he that gives all good things to mortals and to gods. As the god that gives life he (with others)[3] is the author of birth, and is prayed to for children. From above he looks down upon earth, and as with his one or many steeds he drives over the firmament he observes all that is passing below. He has these, the physical side and the spiritual side, under two names, the glowing one, S[=u]rya, and the enlivener, Savitar;[4] but he is also the good god who bestows benefits, and as such he was known, probably locally, by the name of Bhaga. Again, as a herdsman's god, possibly at first also a local deity, he is P[=u]shan (the meaning is almost the same with that of Savitar). As the 'mighty one' he is Vishnu, who measures heaven in three strides. In general, the conception of the sun as a physical phenomenon will be found voiced chiefly in the family-books: "The sightly form rises on the slope of the sky as the swift-going steed carries him … seven sister steeds carry him."[5] This is the prevailing utterance. Sometimes the sun is depicted under a medley of metaphors: "A bull, a flood, a red bird, he has entered his father's place; a variegated stone he is set in the midst of the sky; he has advanced and guards the two ends of space."[6] One after the other the god appears to the poets as a bull, a bird,[7] a steed, a stone, a jewel, a flood, a torch-holder,[8] or as a gleaming car set in heaven. Nor is the sun independent. As in the last image of a chariot,[9] so, without symbolism, the poet speaks of the sun as made to rise by Varuna and Mitra: "On their wonted path go Varuna and Mitra when in the sky they cause to rise Surya, whom they made to avert darkness"; where, also, the sun, under another image, is the "support of the sky."[10] Nay, in this simpler view, the sun is no more than the "eye of Mitra Varuna,"[11] a conception formally retained even when the sun in the same breath is spoken of as pursuing Dawn like a lover, and as being the 'soul of the universe' (I. 115. 1-2). In the older passages the later moral element is almost lacking, nor is there maintained the same physical relation between Sun and Dawn. In the earlier hymns the Dawn is the Sun's mother, from whom he proceeds.[12] It is the "Dawns produced the Sun," in still more natural language;[13] whereas, the idea of the lover-Sun following the Dawn scarcely occurs in the family-books.[14] Distinctly late, also, is the identification of the sun with the all-spirit ([=a]tm[=a], I. 115. 1), and the following prayer: "Remove, O sun, all weakness, illness, and bad dreams." In this hymn, X. 37. 14, S[=u]rya is the son of the sky, but he is evidently one with Savitar, who in V. 82. 4, removes bad dreams, as in X. 100. 8, he removes sickness. Men are rendered 'sinless' by the sun (IV. 54. 3; X. 37. 9) exactly as they are by the other gods, Indra, Varuna, etc. In a passage that refers to the important triad of sun, wind and fire, X. 158. I ff., the sun is invoked to 'save from the sky,' i.e. from all evils that may come from the upper regions; while in the same book the sun, like Indra, is represented as the slayer of demons (asuras) and dragons; as the slayer, also, of the poet's rivals; as giving long life to the worshipper, and as himself drinking sweet soma. This is one of the poems that seem to be at once late and of a forced and artificial character (X. 170).

Although S[=u]rya is differentiated explicitly from Savitar (V. 81. 4, "Savitar, thou joyest in S[=u]a's rays"), yet do many of the hymns make no distinction between them. The Enlivener is naturally extolled in fitting phrase, to tally with his title: "The shining-god, the Enlivener, is ascended to enliven the world"; "He gives protection, wealth and children" (II. 38.1; IV. 53. 6-7). The later hymns seem, as one might expect, to show greater confusion between the attributes of the physical and spiritual sun. But what higher power under either name is ascribed to the sun in the later hymns is not due to a higher or more developed homage of the sun as such. On the contrary, as with many other deities, the more the praise the less the individual worship. It is as something more than the sun that the god later receives more fulsome devotion. And, in fact, paradoxical as it seems, it is a decline in sun-worship proper that is here registered. The altar-fire becomes more important, and is revered in the sun, whose hymns, at most, are few, and in part mechanical.

Bergaigne in his great work, La Religion Védique, has laid much stress on sexual antithesis as an element in Vedic worship. It seems to us that this has been much exaggerated. The sun is masculine; the dawn, feminine. But there is no indication of a primitive antithesis of male and female in their relations. What occurs appears to be of adventitious character. For though sun and dawn are often connected, the latter is represented first as his mother and afterwards as his 'wife' or mistress. Even in the later hymns, where the marital relation is recognized, it is not insisted upon. But Bergaigne[15] is right in saying that in the Rig Veda the sun does not play the part of an evil power, and it is a good illustration of the difference between Rik and Atharvan, when Ehni cites, to prove that the sun is like death, only passages from the Atharvan and the later Brahmanic literature.[16]

When, later, the Hindus got into a region where the sun was deadly, they said, "Yon burning sun-god is death," but in the Rig Veda' they said, "Yon sun is the source of life,"[17] and no other conception of the sun is to be found in the Rig Veda.

There are about a dozen hymns to S[=u]rya, and as many to Savitar, in the Rig Veda.[18] It is noteworthy that in the family-books the hymns to Savitar largely prevail, while those to S[=u]rya are chiefly late in position or content. Thus, in the family-books, where are found eight or nine of the dozen hymns to Savitar, there are to S[=u]rya but three or four, and of these the first is really to Savitar and the Açvins; the second is an imitation of the first; the third appears to be late; and the fourth is a fragment of somewhat doubtful antiquity. The first runs as follows: "The altar-fire has seen well-pleased the dawns' beginning and the offering to the gleaming ones; come, O ye horsemen (Açvins), to the house of the pious man; the sun (S[=u]rya), the shining-god, rises with light. The shining-god Savitar has elevated his beams, swinging his banner like a good (hero) raiding for cattle. According to rule go Varuna and Mitra when they make rise in the sky the sun (S[=u]rya) whom they have created to dissipate darkness, being (gods) sure of their habitation and unswerving in intent. Seven yellow swift-steeds bear this S[=u]rya, the seer of all that moves. Thou comest with swiftest steeds unspinning the web, separating, O shining-god, the black robe. The rays of S[=u]rya swinging (his banner) have laid darkness like a skin in the waters. Unconnected, unsupported, downward extending, why does not this (god) fall down? With what nature goes he, who knows (literally, 'who has seen')? As a support he touches and guards the vault of the sky" (IV. 13).

There is here, no more than in the early hymn from the first book, translated in the first chapter, any worship of material phenomena. S[=u]rya is worshipped as Savitar, either expressly so called, or with all the attributes of the spiritual. The hymn that follows this[19] is a bald imitation. In V. 47 there are more or less certain signs of lateness, e.g., in the fourth stanza ("four carry him, … and ten give the child to drink that he may go," etc.) there is the juggling with unexplained numbers, which is the delight of the later priesthood. Moreover, this hymn is addressed formally to Mitra-Varuna and Agni, and not to the sun-god, who is mentioned only in metaphor; while the final words námo divé, 'obeisance to heaven,' show that the sun is only indirectly addressed. One cannot regard hymns addressed to Mitra-Varuna and S[=u]rya (with other gods) as primarily intended for S[=u]rya, who in these hymns is looked upon as the subject of Mitra and Varuna, as in VII. 62; or as the "eye" of the two other gods, and 'like Savitar' in VII. 63. So in VII. 66. 14-16, a mere fragment of a hymn is devoted exclusively to S[=u]rya as "lord of all that stands and goes." But in these hymns there are some very interesting touches. Thus in VII. 60. 1, the sun does not make sinless, but he announces to Mitra and Varuna that the mortal is sinless. There are no other hymns than these addressed to S[=u]rya, save those in the first and tenth books, of which nine stanzas of I. 50 (see above) may be reckoned early, while I. 115, where the sun is the soul of the universe, and at the same time the eye of Mitra-Varuna, is probably late; and I. 163 is certainly so, wherein the sun is identified with Yama, Trita, etc.; is 'like Varuna'; and is himself a steed, described as having three connections in the sky, three in the waters, three in the sea. In one of the hymns in the tenth book, also a mystical song, the sun is the 'bird' of the sky, a metaphor which soon gives another figure to the pantheon in the form of Garutman, the sun-bird, of whose exploits are told strange tales in the epic, where he survives as Garuda. In other hymns S[=u]rya averts carelessness at the sacrifice, guards the worshipper, and slays demons. A mechanical little hymn describes him as measuring the 'thirty stations.' Not one of these hymns has literary freshness or beauty of any kind. They all belong to the class of stereotyped productions, which differ in origin and content from the hymns first mentioned.[20]

SAVITAR.

Turning to Savitar one finds, of course, many of the same descriptive traits as in the praise of S[=u]rya, his more material self. But with the increased spirituality come new features. Savitar is not alone the sun that rises; he is also the sun that sets; and is extolled as such. There are other indications that most of the hymns composed for him are to accompany the sacrifice, either of the morning or of the evening. In II. 38, an evening song to Savitar, there are inner signs that the hymn was made for rubrication, but here some fine verses occur: "The god extends his vast hand, his arms above there—and all here obeys him; to his command the waters move, and even the winds' blowing ceases on all sides." Again: "Neither Indra, Varuna, Mitra, Aryaman, Rudra, nor the demons, impair his law" We call attention here to the fact that the Rig Veda contains a strong(stong in the original) current of demonology, much stronger than has been pointed out by scholars intent on proving the primitive loftiness of the Vedic religion.

In III. 62. 7-9 there are some verses to P[=u]shan, following which is the most holy couplet of the Rig Veda, to repeat which is essentially to repeat the Veda. It is the famous G[=a]yatr[=i] or S[=a]vitr[=i] hymnlet (10-12):

Of Savitar, the heavenly, that longed-for glory may we win,
And may himself inspire our prayers.[21]

Whitney (loc. cit.) says of this hymn that it is not remarkable in any way and that no good reason has ever been given for its fame. The good reason for this fame, in our opinion, is that the longed-for glory was interpreted later as a revealed indication of primitive pantheism, and the verses were understood to express the desire of absorption into the sun, which, as will be seen, was one of the first divine bodies to be accepted as the type of the All-god. This is also the intent of the stanzas added to I. 50 (above, p. 17), where S[=u]rya is "the highest light, the god among gods," mystic words, taken by later philosophers, and quite rightly, to be an expression of pantheism. The esoteric meaning of the G[=a]yatr[=i] presumably made it popular among the enlightened. Exoterically the sun was only the goal of the soul, or, in pure pantheism, of the sight. In the following[22] the sin-forgiving side of Savitar is developed, whereby he comes into connection with Varuna:

God Savitar deserveth now a song from us;
To-day, with guiding word, let men direct him here.
He who distributes gifts unto the sons of men,
Shall here on us bestow whatever thing is best;
For thou, O Savitar, dost first upon the gods
Who sacrifice deserve, lay immortality,
The highest gift, and then to mortals dost extend
As their apportionment a long enduring life.
Whatever thoughtless thing against the
race of gods We do in foolishness and human insolence,
Do thou from that, O Savitar, mid gods and men
Make us here sinless, etc.

But if this song smacks of the sacrifice, still more so does V. 81, where Savitar is the 'priest's priest,' the 'arranger of sacrifice,' and is one with P[=u]shan. He is here the swift horse (see above) and more famous as the divider of time than anything else. In fact this was the first ritualistic glory of Savitar, that he divides the time for sacrifice. But he receives more in the light of being the type of other luminous divinities. In the next hymn, another late effort (V. 82; see the dream in vs. 4), there may be an imitation of the G[=a]yatr[=i]. Savitar is here the All-god and true lord, and frees from sin. There is nothing new or striking in the hymns VI. 71; VII. 38 and 45. The same golden hands, and references to the sacrifice occur here. Allusions to the Dragon of the Deep, who is called upon with Savitar (VII. 38. 5), and the identification of Savitar with Bhaga (ib. 6) are the most important items to be gleaned from these rather stupid hymns. In other hymns not in the family-books (II.-VIII.), there is a fragment, X. 139. 1-3, and another, I. 22. 5-8. In the latter, Agni's (Fire's) title, 'son of waters,' is given to Savitar, who is virtually identified with Agni in the last part of the Rig Veda; and in the former hymn there is an interesting discrimination made between Savitar and P[=u]shan, who obeys him. The last hymn in the collection to Savitar, X. 149, although late and plainly intended for the sacrifice (vs. 5), is interesting as showing how the philosophical speculation worked about Savitar as a centre. 'He alone, he the son of the waters, knows the origin of water, whence arose the world.' This is one of the early speculations which recur so frequently in the Brahmanic period, wherein the origin of 'all this' (the universe) is referred to water. A hymn to Savitar in the first book contains as excellent a song as is given to the sun under this name. It is neither a morning nor an evening song in its original state, but mentions all the god's functions, without the later moral traits so prominent elsewhere, and with the old threefold division instead of thrice-three heavens.

TO SAVITAR (I. 35).

I call on Agni first (the god of fire) for weal;
I call on Mitra-Varuna to aid me here;
I call upon the Night, who quiets all that moves;
On Savitar, the shining god, I call for help.

After this introductory invocation begins the real song in a different metre.

Through space of darkness wending comes he hither,
Who puts to rest th' immortal and the mortal,
On golden car existent things beholding,
The god that rouses, Savitar, the shining;
Comes he, the shining one, comes forward, upward,
Comes with two yellow steeds, the god revered,
Comes shining Savitar from out the distance,
All difficulties far away compelling.
His pearl-adorned, high, variegated chariot,
Of which the pole is golden, he, revered,
Hath mounted, Savitar, whose beams are brilliant,
Against the darksome spaces strength assuming.
Among the people gaze the brown white-footed
(Steeds) that the chariot drag whose pole is golden.
All peoples stand, and all things made, forever,
Within the lap of Savitar, the heavenly.

[There are three heavens of Savitar, two low ones,[23]
One, men-restraining, in the realm of Yama.
As on (his) chariot-pole[24] stand all immortals,
Let him declare it who has understood it!]

Across air-spaces gazes he, the eagle,
Who moves in secret, th' Asura,[25] well-guiding,
Where is (bright) S[=u]rya now? who understands it?
And through which sky is now his ray extending?

He looks across the earth's eight elevations,[26]
The desert stations three, and the seven rivers,
The gold-eyed shining god is come, th' Arouser,
To him that worships giving wealth and blessings.

The golden-handed Savitar, the active one,
Goes earth and heaven between, compels demoniac powers,
To S[=u]rya gives assistance, and through darksome space
Extends to heaven, etc.[27]

P[=U]SHAN AND BHAGA AS SUN-GODS.

With P[=u]shan, the 'bestower of prosperity,' appears an ancient side of sun-worship. While under his other names the sun has lost, to a great extent, the attributes of a bucolic solar deity, in the case of P[=u]shan he appears still as a god whose characteristics are bucolic, war-like, and priestly, that is to say, even as he is venerated by the three masses of the folk. It will not do, of course, to distinguish too sharply between the first two divisions, but one can very well compare P[=u]shan in these rôles with Helios guiding his herds, and Apollo swaying armed hosts. It is customary to regard P[=u]shan as too bucolic a deity, but this is only one side of him. He apparently is the sun, as herdsmen look upon him, and in this figure is the object of ridicule with the warrior-class who, especially in one family or tribe, take a more exalted view of him. Consequently, as in the case of Varuna, one need not read into the hymns more than they offer to see that, not to speak of the priestly view, there are at least two P[=u]shans, in the Rig Veda itself.[28]

As the god 'with braided hair,' and as the 'guardian of cattle,'
P[=u]shan offers, perhaps, in these particulars, the original of
Rudra's characteristics, who, in the Vedic period, and later as
Rudra-Çiva, is also a 'guardian of cattle' and has the 'braided hair.'

Bergaigne identifies P[=u]shan with Soma, with whom the poets were apt to identify many other deities, but there seems to be little similarity originally.[29] It is only in the wider circles of each god's activity that the two approach each other. Both gods, it is true, wed S[=u]rya (the female sun-power), and Soma, like P[=u]shan, finds lost cattle. But it must be recognized once for all that identical attributes are not enough to identify Vedic gods. Who gives wealth? Indra, Soma, Agni, Heaven and Earth, Wind, Sun, the Maruts, etc. Who forgives sins? Agni, Varuna, Indra, the Sun, etc. Who helps in war? Agni, P[=u]shan, Indra, Soma, etc. Who sends rain? Indra, Parjanya, Soma, the Maruts, P[=u]shan, etc. Who weds Dawn? The Açvins, the Sun, etc. The attributes must be functional or the identification is left incomplete.

The great disparity in descriptions of P[=u]shan may be illustrated by setting VI. 48. 19 beside X. 92. 13. The former passage merely declares that P[=u]shan is a war-leader "over mortals, and like the gods in glory"; the latter, that he is "distinguished by all divine attributes"; that is to say, what has happened in the case of Savitar has happened here also. The individuality of P[=u]shan dies out, but the vaguer he becomes the more grandiloquently is he praised and associated with other powers; while for lack of definite laudation general glory is ascribed to him. The true position of P[=u]shan in the eyes of the warrior is given unintentionally by one who says,[30] "I do not scorn thee, O P[=u]shan," i.e., as do most people, on account of thy ridiculous attributes. For P[=u]shan does not drink soma like Indra, but eats mush. So another devout believer says: "P[=u]shan is not described by them that call him an eater of mush."[31] The fact that he was so called speaks louder than the pious protest. Again, P[=u]shan is simply bucolic. He uses the goad, which, however, according to Bergaigne, is the thunderbolt! So, too, the cows that P[=u]shan is described as guiding have been interpreted as clouds or 'dawns.' But they may be taken without 'interpretation' as real cows.[32] P[=u]shan drives the cows, he is armed with a goad, and eats mush; bucolic throughout, yet a sun-god. It is on these lines that his finding-qualities are to be interpreted. He finds lost cattle,[33] a proper business for such a god; but Bergaigne will see in this a transfer from P[=u]shan's finding of rain and of soma.[34] P[=u]shan, too, directs the furrow[35]

Together with Vishnu and Bhaga this god is invoked at sacrifices, (a fact that says little against or for his original sun-ship),[36] and he is intimately connected with Indra. His sister is his mistress, and his mother is his wife (Dawn and Night?) according to the meagre accounts given in VI. 55. 4-5.[37] As a god of increase he is invoked in the marriage-rite, X. 85. 37.

As Savitar and all sun-gods are at once luminous and dark, so P[=u]shan has a clear and again a revered (terrible) appearance; he is like day and night, like Dyaus (the sky); at one time bright, at another, plunged in darkness, VI. 58. 1. Quite like Savitar he is the shining god who "looks upon all beings and sees them all together"; he is the "lord of the path," the god of travellers; he is invoked to drive away evil spirits, thieves, footpads, and all workers of evil; he makes paths for the winning of wealth; he herds the stars and directs all with soma. He carries a golden axe or sword, and is borne through air and water on golden ships; and it is he that lets down the sun's golden wheel. These simpler attributes appear for the most part in the early hymns. In what seem to be later hymns, he is the mighty one who "carries the thoughts of all"; he is like soma (the drink), and attends to the filter; he is "lord of the pure"; the "one born of old," and is especially called upon to help the poets' hymns.[38] It is here, in the last part of the Rig Veda, that he appears as [Greek: psuchopompós], who "goes and returns," escorting the souls of the dead to heaven. He is the sun's messenger, and is differentiated from Savitar in X. 139. 1.[39] Apparently he was a god affected most by the Bharadv[=a]ja family (to which is ascribed the sixth book of the Rig Veda) where his worship was extended more broadly. He seems to have become the special war-god of this family, and is consequently invoked with Indra and the Maruts (though this may have been merely in his rôte as sun). The goats, his steeds, are also an attribute of the Scandinavian war-god Thor (Kaegi, Rig Veda, note 210), so that his bucolic character rests more in his goad, food, and plough.

Bhaga is recognized as an [=A]ditya (luminous deity) and was perhaps a sun-god of some class, possibly of all, as the name in Slavic is still kept in the meaning 'god,' literally 'giver.' In the Rig Veda the word means, also, simply god, as in bhágabhakta, 'given by gods'; but as a name it is well known, and when thus called Bhaga is still the giver, 'the bestower' (vidhart[=á]). As bhaga is also an epithet of Savitar, the name may not stand for an originally distinct personality. Bhaga has but one hymn.[40] There is in fact no reason why Bhaga should be regarded as a sun-god, except for the formal identification of him as an [=A]dityà, that is as the son of Aditi (Boundlessness, see below); but neither S[=u]rya nor Savitar is originally an [=A]dityà, and in Iranic bagha is only an epithet of Ormuzd.

HYMNS TO P[=U]SHAN AND BHAGA.

To P[=U]SHAN (vi. 56).

The man who P[=u]shan designates
With words like these, 'mush-eater he,'
By him the god is not described.

With P[=u]shan joined in unison
That best of warriors, truest lord,
Indra, the evil demons slays.

'T is he, the best of warriors, drives
The golden chariot of the sun
Among the speckled kine (the clouds).

Whate'er we ask of thee to-day,
O wonder-worker, praised and wise,
Accomplish thou for us that prayer.

And this our band, which hunts for kine,[41]
Successful make for booty's gain;
Afar, O P[=u]shan, art thou praised.

We seek of thee success, which far
From ill, and near to wealth shall be;
For full prosperity to-day;
And full prosperity the morn.[42]

To BHAGA (vii. 41).

Early on Agni call we, early Indra call;
Early call Mitra, Varuna, the Horsemen twain;
Early, too, Bhaga, P[=u]shan, and the Lord of Strength;
And early Soma will we call, and Rudra too.

This stanza has been prefixed to the hymn by virtue of the catch-word 'early' (in the morning), with which really begins this prosaic poem (in different metre):

The early-conquering mighty Bhaga call we,
The son of Boundlessness, the gift-bestower,[43]
Whom weak and strong, and e'en the king, regarding,
Cry bhágam bhakshi, 'give to me the giver.'[44]

O Bhaga, leader Bhaga, true bestower,
O Bhaga, help this prayer, to us give (riches),
O Bhaga, make us grow in kine and horses,
O Bhaga, eke in men, men-wealthy be we!

And now may we be rich, be bhaga-holders,[45]
Both at the (day's) approach, and eke at midday,
And at the sun's departure, generous giver.
The favor of the gods may we abide in.

O gods, (to us) be Bhaga really bhaga,[46]
By means of him may we be bhaga-holders.
As such an one do all, O Bhaga, call thee,
As such, O Bhaga, be to-day our leader.

May dawns approach the sacrifice, the holy
Place, like to Dadhikr[=a],[47] like horses active,
Which bring a chariot near; so, leading Bhaga,
Who finds good things, may they approach, and bring him.

As this is the only hymn addressed to Bhaga, and as it proves itself to have been made for altar service (in style as well as in special mention of the ceremony), it is evident that Bhaga, although called Aditi's son, is but a god of wealth and (like Ança, the Apportioner) very remotely connected with physical functions. But the hymn appears to be so late that it cannot throw much light on the original conception of the deity. We rather incline to doubt whether Bhaga was ever, strictly speaking, a sun-god, and think that he was made so merely because the sun (Savitar) was called bhaga. A (Greek: Zehys) Bagaios was worshipped by the Phrygians, while in the Avesta and as a Slavic god Bhaga has no especial connection with the sun. It must be acknowledged, however, that every form of the sun-god is especially lauded for generosity.

VISHNU.

In the person of Vishnu the sun is extolled under another name, which in the period of the Rig Veda was still in the dawn of its glory. The hymns to Vishnu are few; his fame rests chiefly on the three strides with which he crosses heaven, on his making fast the earth, and on his munificence.[48] He, too, leads in battle and is revered under the title Çipivishta,[49] of unknown significance, but meaning literally 'bald.' Like Savitar he has three spaces, two called earthly, and one, the highest, known only to himself. His greatness is inconceivable, and he is especially praised with Indra, the two being looked upon as masters of the world.[50] His highest place is the realm of the departed spirits.[51] The hymns to him appear to be late (thus I. 155. 6, where, as the year, he has four seasons of ninety days each). Like P[=u]shan (his neighbor in many lauds) he is associated in a late hymn with the Maruts (V. 87). His later popularity lies in the importance of his 'highest place' (or step) being the home of the departed spirits, where he himself dwells, inscrutable. This led to the spirit's union with the sun, which, as we have said, is one of the first phases of the pantheistic doctrine. In the family-books Vishnu gets but two hymns, both in the same collection, and shares one more with Indra (VII. 99-100; VI. 69). In some of the family-collections, notably in that of the Visvamitras, he is, if not unknown, almost ignored. As Indra's friend he is most popular with the Kanva family, but even here he has no special hymn.

None born, God Vishnu, and none born hereafter
E'er reaches to the limit of thy greatness;
Twas thou establish'st yon high vault of heaven,
Thou madest fast the earth's extremest mountain. (VII. 99. 2.)

Three steps he made, the herdsman sure,
Vishnu, and stepped across (the world). (I. 22. i8.)

The mighty deeds will I proclaim of Vishnu,
Who measured out the earth's extremest spaces,
And fastened firm the highest habitation,
Thrice stepping out with step all-powerful.

O would that I might reach his path beloved,
Where joy the men who hold the gods in honor. (I. 154. 1, 5.)

Under all these names and images the sun is worshipped. And it is necessary to review them all to see how deeply the worship is ingrained. The sun is one of the most venerable as he is the most enduring of India's nature-gods.[52] In no early passage is the sun a malignant god. He comes "as kine to the village, as a hero to his steed, as a calf to the cow, as a husband to his wife."[53] He is the 'giver,' the 'generous one,' and as such he is Mitra, 'the friend,' who with Varuna, the encompassing heaven, is, indeed, in the Rig Veda, a personality subordinated to his greater comrade; yet is this, perhaps, the sun's oldest name of those that are not descriptive of purely physical characteristics. For Mithra in Persian keeps the proof that this title was given to the Indo-Iranic god before the separation of the two peoples. It is therefore (perhaps with Bhaga?) one of the most ancient personal designations of the sun,—one, perhaps, developed from a mere name into a separate deity.

HEAVEN AND EARTH.

Not only as identical with the chief god of the Greeks, but also from a native Indic point of view, it might have been expected that Dyaus (Zeus), the 'shining sky,' would play an important rôle in the Hindu pantheon. But such is not the case. There is not a single hymn addressed independently to Dyaus, nor is there any hint of especial preeminence of Dyaus in the half-dozen hymns that are sung to Heaven and Earth together. The word dyaus is used hundreds of times, but generally in the meaning sky (without personification). There is, to be sure, a formal acknowledgment of the fatherhood of Dyaus (among gods he is father particularly of Dawn, the Açvins, and Indra), as there is of the motherhood of Earth, but there is no further exaltation. No exaggeration—the sign of Hindu enthusiasm—is displayed in the laudation, and the epithet 'father' is given to half a dozen Vedic gods, as in Rome Ma(r)spiter stands beside Jup(p)iter. Certain functions are ascribed to Heaven and Earth, but they are of secondary origin. Thus they bring to the god he sacrifice,[54] as does Agni, and one whole hymn may thus be epitomized: 'By the ordinance of Varuna made firm, O Heaven and Earth, give us blessings. Blest with children and wealth is he that adores you twain. Give us sweet food, glory and strength of heroes, ye who are our father and mother.'[55]

The praise is vague and the benevolence is the usual 'bestowal of blessings' expected of all the gods in return for praise. Other hymns add to this something, from which one sees that these deities are not regarded as self-created; for the seers of old, or, according to one poet some wonderful divine artisan, "most wondrous worker of the wonder-working gods," created them. Their chief office is to exercise benign protection and bestow wealth. Once they are invited to come to the sacrifice "with the gods," but this, of course, is not meant to exclude them from the list of gods[56].

The antithesis of male and female, to Bergaigne's insistence on which reference was made above (p. 43), even here in this most obvious of forms, common to so many religions, shows itself so faintly that it fails utterly to support that basis of sexual dualism on which the French scholar lays so much stress. Dyaus does, indeed, occasionally take the place of Indra, and as a bellowing bull impregnate earth, but this is wholly incidental and not found at all in the hymns directly lauding Heaven and Earth. Moreover, instead of "father and mother" Heaven and Earth often are spoken of as "the two mothers," the significance of which cannot be nullified by the explanation that to the Hindu 'two mothers' meant two parents, and of two parents one must be male,—Bergaigne's explanation. For not only is Dyaus one of the 'two mothers,' but when independently used the word Dyaus is male or female indifferently. Thus in X. 93. I: "O Heaven and Earth be wide outstretched for us, (be) like two young women." The position of Heaven and Earth in relation to other divinities varies with the fancy of the poet that extols them. They are either created, or they create gods, as well as create men. In accordance with the physical reach of these deities they are exhorted to give strength whereby the worshipper shall "over-reach all peoples"; and, as parents, to be the "nearest of the gods," to be "like father and mother in kindness." (I. 159; 160. 2, 5.)

One more attribute remains to be noticed, which connects Dyaus morally as well as physically with Savitar and Varuna. The verse in which this attribute is spoken of is also not without interest from a sociological point of view: "Whatsoever sin we have committed against the gods, or against a friend, or against the chief of the clan (family)[57] may this hymn to Heaven and Earth avert it." It was shown above that Savitar removes sin. Here, as in later times, it is the hymn that does this. The mystery of these gods' origin puzzles the seer: "Which was first and which came later, how were they begotten, who knows, O ye wise seers? Whatever exists, that they carry."[58] But all that they do they do under the command of Mitra.[59]

The most significant fact in connection with the hymns to Heaven and Earth is that most of them are expressly for sacrificial intent. "With sacrifices I praise Heaven and Earth" (I. 159. 1); "For the sake of the sacrifice are ye come down (to us)" (IV. 56. 7). In VI. 70 they are addressed in sacrificial metaphors; in VII. 53. 1 the poet says: "I invoke Heaven and Earth with sacrifices," etc. The passivity of the two gods makes them yield in importance to their son, the active Savitar, who goes between the two parents. None of these hymns bears the impress of active religious feeling or has poetic value. They all seem to be reflective, studied, more or less mechanical, and to belong to a period of theological philosophy. To Earth alone without Heaven are addressed one uninspired hymn and a fragment of the same character: "O Earth be kindly to us, full of dwellings and painless, and give us protection."[60] In the burial service the dead are exhorted to "go into kindly mother earth" who will be "wool-soft, like a maiden."[61] The one hymn to Earth should perhaps be placed parallel with similar meditative and perfunctory laudations in the Homeric hymns:

To EARTH (V. 84).

In truth, O broad extended earth,
Thou bear'st the render of the hills,[62]
Thou who, O mighty mountainous one,
Quickenest created things with might.
Thee praise, O thou that wander'st far,
The hymns which light accompany,
Thee who, O shining one, dost send
Like eager steeds the gushing rain.
Thou mighty art, who holdest up
With strength on earth the forest trees,
When rain the rains that from thy clouds
And Dyaus' far-gleaming lightning come.[62]

On the bearing of these facts, especially in regard to the secondary greatness of Dyaus, we shall touch below. He is a god exalted more by modern writers than by the Hindus!

VARUNA.

Varuna has been referred already in connection with the sun-god and with Heaven and Earth. It is by Varuna's power that they stand firm. He has established the sun 'like a tree,' i.e., like a support, and 'made a path for it.'[63] He has a thousand remedies for ills; to his realm not even the birds can ascend, nor wind or swift waters attain. It is in accordance with the changeless order[64] of Varuna that the stars and the moon go their regular course; he gives long life and releases from harm, from wrong, and from sin.[65]

Varuna is the most exalted of those gods whose origin is physical. His realm is all above us; the sun and stars are his eyes; he sits above upon his golden throne and sees all that passes below, even the thoughts of men. He is, above all, the moral controller of the universe.

To VARUNA (i. 25).

Howe'er we, who thy people are,
O Varuna, thou shining god,
Thy order injure, day by day,
Yet give us over nor to death,
Nor to the blow of angry (foe),
Nor to the wrath of (foe) incensed.[66]
Thy mind for mercy we release—
As charioteer, a fast-bound steed—
By means of song, O Varuna.

* * * * *

('Tis Varuna) who knows the track
Of birds that fly within the air,
And knows the ships upon the flood;[67]
Knows, too, the (god) of order firm,
The twelve months with their progeny,
And e'en which month is later born;[68]
Knows, too, the pathway of the wind,
The wide, the high, the mighty (wind),
And knows who sit above (the wind).

(God) of firm order, Varuna
His place hath ta'en within (his) home
For lordship, he, the very strong.[69]
Thence all the things that are concealed
He looks upon, considering
Whate'er is done and to be done.
May he, the Son of Boundlessness,
The very strong, through every day
Make good our paths, prolong our life.

Bearing a garment all of gold,
In jewels clothed, is Varuna,
And round about him sit his spies;
A god whom injurers injure not,
Nor cheaters cheat among the folk,
Nor any plotters plot against;
Who for himself 'mid (other) men
Glory unequalled gained, and gains
(Such glory) also 'mid ourselves.

Far go my thoughts (to him), as go
The eager cows that meadows seek,
Desiring (him), the wide-eyed (god).
Together let us talk again,
Since now the offering sweet I bring,
By thee beloved, and like a priest
Thou eat'st.

I see the wide-eyed (god):
I see his chariot on the earth,
My song with joy hath he received.

Hear this my call, O Varuna,
Be merciful to me today,
For thee, desiring help, I yearn.

Thou, wise one, art of everything,
The sky and earth alike, the king;
As such upon thy way give ear,
And loose from us the (threefold) bond;
The upper bond, the middle, break,
The lower, too, that we may live.

In the portrait of such a god as this one comes very near to monotheism. The conception of an almost solitary deity, recognized as watcher of wrong, guardian of right, and primitive creator, approaches more closely to unitarianism than does the idea of any physical power in the Rig Veda.

To the poet of the Rig Veda Varuna is the enveloping heaven;[70] that is, in distinction from Dyaus, from whom he differs toto caelo, so to speak, the invisible world, which embraces the visible sky. His home is there where lives the Unborn, whose place is unique, above the highest heaven.[71]

But it is exactly this loftiness of character that should make one shy of interpreting Varuna as being originally the god that is presented here. Can this god, 'most august of Vedic deities,' as Bergaigne and others have called him, have belonged as such to the earliest stratum of Aryan belief?

There are some twelve hymns in the Rig Veda in Varuna's honor. Of these, one in the tenth book celebrates Indra as opposed to Varuna, and generally it is considered late, in virtue of its content. Of the hymns in the eighth book the second appears to be a later imitation of the first, and the first appears, from several indications, to be of comparatively recent origin.[72] In the seventh book (vii. 86-89) the short final hymn contains a distinctly late trait in invoking Varuna to cure dropsy; the one preceding this is in majorem gloriam of the poet Vasistha, fitly following the one that appears to be as new, where not only the mysticism but the juggling with "thrice-seven," shows the character of the hymn to be recent.[73] In the first hymn of this book the late doctrine of inherited sin stands prominently forth (vii. 86. 5) as an indication of the time in which it was composed. The fourth and sixth books have no separate hymns to Varuna. In the fifth book the position of the one hymn to Varuna is one favorable to spurious additions, but the hymn is not otherwise obnoxious to the criticism of lateness. Of the two hymns in the second book, the first is addressed only indirectly to Varuna, nor is he here very prominent; the second (ii. 28) is the only song which stands on a par with the hymn already translated. There remain the hymns cited above from the first, not a family-book. It is, moreover, noteworthy that in ii. 28, apart from the ascription of general greatness, almost all that is said of Varuna is that he is a priest, that he causes rivers to flow, and loosens the bond of sin.[74] The finest hymn to Varuna, from a literary point of view, is the one translated above, and it is mainly on the basis of this hymn that the lofty character of Varuna has been interpreted by occidental writers. To our mind this hymn belongs to the close of the first epoch of the three which the hymns represent. That it cannot be very early is evident from the mention of the intercalated month, not to speak of the image of Varuna eating the sweet oblation 'like a priest.' Its elevated language is in sharp contrast to that of almost all the other Varuna hymns. As these are all the hymns where Varuna is praised alone by himself, it becomes of chief importance to study him here, and not where, as in iii. 62, iv. 41, vi. 51, 67, 68, and elsewhere, he is lauded as part of a combination of gods (Mitra or Indra united with Varuna). In the last book of the Rig Veda there is no hymn to Varuna,[75] a time when pantheistic monotheism was changing into pantheism, so that, in the last stage of the Rig Veda, Varuna is descended from the height. Thereafter he is god and husband of waters, and punisher of secret sin (as in ii. 28). Important in contrast to the hymn translated above is v. 85.

TO VARUNA.

"I will sing forth unto the universal king a high deep prayer, dear to renowned Varuna, who, as a butcher a hide, has struck earth apart (from the sky) for the sun. Varuna has extended air in trees, strength in horses, milk in cows, and has laid wisdom in hearts; fire in water; the sun in the sky; soma in the stone. Varuna has inverted his water-barrel and let the two worlds with the space between flow (with rain). With this (heavenly water-barrel) he, the king of every created thing, wets the whole world, as a rain does a meadow. He wets the world, both earth and heaven, when he, Varuna, chooses to milk out (rain)—and then do the mountains clothe themselves with cloud, and even the strongest men grow weak. Yet another great and marvellous power of the renowned spirit (Asura) will I proclaim, this, that standing in mid-air he has measured earth with the sun, as if with a measuring rod. (It is due to) the marvellous power of the wisest god, which none ever resisted, that into the one confluence run the rivers, and pour into it, and fill it not. O Varuna, loosen whatever sin we have committed to bosom-friend, comrade, or brother; to our own house, or to the stranger; what (we) have sinned like gamblers at play, real (sin), or what we have not known. Make loose, as it were, all these things, O god Varuna, and may we be dear to thee hereafter."

In this hymn Varuna is a water-god, who stands in mid-air and directs the rain; who, after the rain, reinstates the sun; who releases from sin (as water does from dirt?). According to this conception it would seem that Varuna were the 'coverer' rather than the 'encompasser.' It might seem probable even that Varuna first stood to Dyaus as cloud and rain and night to shining day, and that his counterpart, (Greek: Hohyranhos), stood in the same relation to (Greek: Zehys); that were connecte(Greek: Hohyranhos)d with (Greek: hyrheô) and Varuna with vari, river, v[=a]ri, water.[76]

It is possible, but it is not provable. But no interpretation of Varuna that ignores his rainy side can be correct. And this is fully recognized by Hillebrandt. On account of his "thousand spies," i.e., eyes, he has been looked upon by some as exclusively a night-god. But this is too one-sided an interpretation, and passes over the all-important, fact that it is only in conjunction with the sun (Mitra), where there is a strong antithesis, that the night-side of the god is exclusively displayed. Wholly a day-god he cannot be, because he rules night and rain. He is par excellence the Asura, and, like Ahura Mazdao, has the sun for an eye, i.e., he is heaven. But there is no Varuna in Iranian worship and Ahura is a sectarian specialization. Without this name may one ascribe to India what is found in Iran?[77] It has been suggested by Bergaigne that Varuna and Vritra, the rain-holding demon, were developments from the same idea, one revered as a god, the other, a demon; and that the word means 'restrainer,' rather than 'encompasser.'

From all this it will be evident that to claim an original monotheism as still surviving in the person of Varuna, is impossible; and this is the one point we would make. Every one must admire the fine hymn in which he is praised, but what there is in it does not make it seem very old, and the intercalated month is decisive evidence, for here alone in the Rig Veda is mentioned this month, which implies the five-year cyclus, but this belongs to the Brahmanic period (Weber, Vedische Beiträge, p. 38). Every explanation of the original nature of Varuna must take into consideration that he is a rain-god, a day-god, and a night-god in turn, and that where he is praised in the most elevated language the rain-side disappears, although it was fundamental, as may be seen by comparing many passages, where Varuna is exhorted to give rain, where his title is 'lord of streams,' his position that of 'lord of waters.' The decrease of Varuna worship in favor of Indra results partly from the more peaceful god of rain appearing less admirable than the monsoon-god, who overpowers with storm and lightning, as well as 'wets the earth.'

The most valuable contribution to the study of Varuna is Hillebrandt's 'Varuna and Mitra.' This author has succeeded in completely overthrowing the old error that Varuna is exclusively a night-god.[78] Quite as definitively he proves that Varuna is not exclusively a day-god.

Bergaigne, on the other hand, claims an especially tenebrous character for Varuna.[79] Much has been written on luminous deities by scholars that fail to recognize the fact that the Hindus regard the night both as light and as dark. But to the Vedic poet the night, star-illumined, was bright. Even Hillebrandt speaks of "the bright heaven" of day as "opposed to the dark night-heaven in which Varuna also shows himself."[80]

In the Rig Veda, as it stands, with all the different views of Varuna side by side, Varuna is a universal encompasser, moral as well as physical. As such his physical side is almost gone. But the conception of him as a moral watcher and sole lord of the universe is in so sharp contrast to the figure of the rain-god, who, like Parjanya, stands in mid-air and upsets a water-barrel, that one must discriminate even between the Vedic views in regard to him.[81]

It is Varuna who lets rivers flow; with Indra he is besought not to let his weapons fall on the sinner; wind is his breath.[82]

On the other hand he is practically identified with the sun.[83] How ill this last agrees with the image of a god who 'lives by the spring of rivers,' 'covers earth as with a garment,' and 'rises like a secret sea (in fog) to heaven'![84] Even when invoked with the sun, Mitra, Varuna still gives rain: "To whomsoever ye two are kindly disposed comes sweet rain from heaven; we beseech you for rain … you, the thunderers who go through earth and heaven" (v. 63),—a strange prayer to be addressed to a monotheistic god of light: "Ye make the lightning flash, ye send the rain; ye hide the sky in cloud and rain" (ib.). In the hymn preceding we read: "Ye make firm heaven and earth, ye give growth to plants, milk to cows; O ye that give rain, pour down rain!" In the same group another short hymn declares: "They are universal kings, who have ghee (rain) in their laps; they are lords of the rain" (v. 68). In the next hymn: "Your clouds (cows) give nourishment, your streams are sweet." Thus the twain keep the order of the seasons (i. 2. 7-8) and protect men by the regular return of the rainy season. Their weapons are always lightning (above, i. 152. 2, and elsewhere). A short invocation in a family-book gives this prayer: "O Mitra-Varuna, wet our meadows with ghee; wet all places with the sweet drink" (iii. 62. 16).

The interpretation given above of the office of Varuna as regards the sun's path, is supported by a verse where is made an allusion to the time "when they release the sun's horses," i.e., when after two or three months of rain the sun shines again (v. 62. 1). In another verse one reads: "Ye direct the waters, sustenance of earth and heaven, richly let come your rains" (viii. 25. 6).

Now there is nothing startling in this view. In opposition to the unsatisfactory attempts of modern scholars, it is the traditional interpretation of Mitra and Varuna that Mitra was god of day (i.e., the sun), and Varuna the god of night (i.e., covering),[85] while native belief regularly attributes to him the lordship of water[86]. The 'thousand eyes' of Varuna are the result of this view. The other light-side of Varuna as special lord of day (excluding the all-heaven idea with the sun as his 'eye') is elsewhere scarcely referred to, save in late hymns and VIII. 41.[87] In conjunction with the storm-god, Indra, the wrath-side of Varuna is further developed. The prayer for release is from 'long darkness,' i.e., from death; in other words, may the light of life be restored (II. 27. 14-15; II. 28. 7). Grassmann, who believes that in Varuna there is an early monotheistic deity, enumerates all his offices and omits the giving of rain from the list;[88] while Ludwig derives his name from var (= velle) and defines him as the lofty god who wills!

Varuna's highest development ushers in the middle period of the Rig Veda; before the rise of the later All-father, and even before the great elevation of Indra. But when S[=u]rya and Dawn were chief, then Varuna was chiefest. There is no monotheism in the worship of a god who is regularly associated as one of a pair with another god. Nor is there in Varuna any religious grandeur which, so far as it exceeds that of other divinities, is not evolved from his old physical side. One cannot personify heaven and write a descriptive poem about him without becoming elevated in style, as compared with the tone of one that praises a rain-cloud or even the more confined personality of the sun. There is a stylistic but not a metaphysical descent from this earlier period in the 'lords of the atmosphere,' for, as we shall show, the elevation of Indra and Agni denotes a philosophical conception yet more advanced than the almost monotheistic greatness attained by Varuna. But one must find the background to this earlier period; and in it Varuna is not monotheistic. He is the covering sky united with the sun, or he whose covering is rain and dew. Indra treats Varuna as Savitar treats Mitra, supplants him; and for the same reason, because each represents the same priestly philosophy.

In the one extant hymn to Mitra (who is Indo-Iranian) it is Mitra that 'watches men,' and 'bears earth and heaven.' He is here (iii. 59) the kindly sun, his name (Mitra, 'friend') being frequently punned upon.

The point of view taken by Barth deserves comment. He says:[89] "It has sometimes been maintained that the Varuna of the hymns is a god in a state of decadence. In this view we can by no means concur; … an appeal to these few hymns is enough to prove that in the consciousness of their authors the divinity of Varuna stood still intact." If, instead of 'still intact,' the author had said, 'on the increase, till undermined by still later philosophical speculation,' the true position, in our opinion, would have been given. But a distinction must be made between decadence of greatness and decadence of popularity. It has happened in the case of some of the Vedic inherited gods that exactly in proportion as their popularity decreased their greatness increased; that is to say, as they became more vague and less individual to the folk they were expanded into wider circles of relationship by the theosophist, and absorbed other gods' majesty.[89] Varuna is no longer a popular god in the Rig Veda. He is already a god of speculation, only the speculation did not go far enough to suit the later seers of Indra-Savitar-hood. Most certainly his worship, when compared in popularity with that of Agni and Indra, is unequal. But this is because he is too remote to be popular.

What made the popular gods was a union of near physical force to please the vulgar, with philosophical mysticism to please the priest, and Indra and Agni fulfilled the conditions, while awful, but distant, Varuna did not.

In stating that the great hymn to Varuna is not typical of the earliest stage of religious belief among the Vedic Aryans, we should add one word in explanation. Varuna's traits, as shown in other parts of the Rig Veda, are so persistent that they must be characteristic of his original function. It does not follow, however, that any one hymn in which he is lauded is necessarily older than the hymn cited from the first book. The earliest stage of religious development precedes the entrance into the Punj[=a]b. It may even be admitted that at the time when the Vedic Aryans became Hindus, that is, when they settled about the Indus, Varuna was the great god we see him in the great hymn to his honor. But while the relation of the [=A]dityas to the spirits of Ahura in Zoroaster's system points to this, yet it is absurd to assume this epoch as the starting point of Vedic belief. Back of this period lies one in which Varuna was by no means a monotheistic deity, nor even the greatest divinity among the gods. The fact, noticed by Hillebrandt, that the Vasishtha family are the chief praisers of Varuna, may also indicate that his special elevation was due to the theological conceptions of one clan, rather than of the whole people, since in the other family books he is worshipped more as one of a pair, Varuna and Mitra, heaven and sun.

ADITI.

The mother of Varuna and the luminous gods is the 'mother of kings,' Boundlessness (aditi)[90] a product of priestly theosophy. Aditi makes, perhaps, the first approach to formal pantheism in India, for all gods, men, and things are identified with her (i. 89. 10). Seven children of Aditi are mentioned, to whom is added an eighth (in one hymn).[91] The chief of these, who is, par excellence the [=A]ditya (son of Aditi), is Varuna. Most of the others are divinities of the sun (x. 72). With Varuna stands Mitra, and besides this pair are found 'the true friend' Aryaman, Savitar, Bhaga, and, later, Indra, as sun (?). Daksha and Ança are also reckoned as [=A]dityas, and S[=u]rya is enumerated among them as a divinity distinct from Savitar. But the word aditi, 'unbound,' is often a mere epithet, of Fire, Sky, etc. Moreover, in one passage, at least, aditi simply means 'freedom' (i. 24. 1), less boundlessness than 'un-bondage'; so, probably, in i. 185. 3, 'the gift of freedom.' Ança seems to have much the same meaning with Bhaga, viz., the sharer, giver. Daksha may, perhaps, be the 'clever,' 'strong' one ([Greek: dexios]), abstract Strength; as another name of the sun (?). Aditi herself (according to Müller, Infinity; according to Hillebrandt, Eternity) is an abstraction that is born later than her chief sons, Sun and Varuna.[92] Zarathustra (Zoroaster, not earlier than the close of the first Vedic period) took the seven [=A]dityas and reformed them into one monotheistic (dualistic) Spirit (Ahura), with a circle of six moral attendants, thereby dynamically destroying every physical conception of them.

DAWN.

We have devoted considerable space to Varuna because of the theological importance with which is invested his personality. If one admit that a monotheistic Varuna is the ur-Varuna, if one see in him a sign that the Hindus originally worshipped one universally great superior god, whose image effaced that of all the others,[93] then the attempt to trace any orderly development in Hindu theology may as well be renounced; and one must imagine that this peculiar people, starting with monotheism descended to polytheism, and then leapt again into the conception of that Father-god whose form, in the end of the Rig Vedic period, out-varunas Varuna as encompasser and lord of all. If, on the other hand, one see in Varuna a god who, from the 'covering,' heaven and cloud and rain, from earliest time has been associated with the sun as a pair, and recognize in Varuna's loftier form the product of that gradual elevation to which were liable all the gods at the hands of the Hindu priests; if one see in him at this stage the highest god which a theology, based on the worship of natural phenomena, was able to evolve; then, for the reception of those gods who overthrew him from his supremacy, because of their greater freedom from physical restraints, there is opened a logical and historical path—until that god comes who in turn follows these half-embodied ones, and stands as the first immaterial author of the universe—and so one may walk straight from the physical beginning of the Rig Vedic religion to its spiritual Brahmanic end.

We turn now to one or two phenomena-deities that were never much tampered with by priestly speculation; their forms being still as bright and clear as when the first Vedic worshipper, waiting to salute the rising sun, beheld in all her beauty, and thus praised

THE DAWN.[94]

As comes a bride hath she approached us, gleaming;
All things that live she rouses now to action.
A fire is born that shines for human beings;
Light hath she made, and driven away the darkness.

Wide-reaching hath she risen, to all approaching,
And shone forth clothed in garments white and glistening,
Of gold her color, fair to see her look is,
Mother of kine,[95] leader of days she gleameth.

Bearing the gods' eye, she, the gracious maiden,
—Leading along the white and sightly charger[96]
—Aurora, now is seen, revealed in glory,
With shining guerdons unto all appearing.

O near and dear one, light far off our foes, and
Make safe to us our kines' wide pasture-places.
Keep from us hatred; what is good, that bring us,
And send the singer wealth, O generous maiden.

With thy best beams for us do thou beam widely,
Aurora, goddess bright, our life extending;
And food bestow, O thou all goods possessing,
Wealth, too, bestowing, kine and steeds and war-cars

Thou whom Vasistha's[97] sons extol with praises,
Fair-born Aurora, daughter of Dyaus, the bright one,
On us bestow thou riches high and mighty,
—O all ye gods with weal forever guard us.

In the laudation of Varuna the fancy of the poet exhausts itself in lofty imagery, and reaches the topmost height of Vedic religious lyric. In the praise of Dawn it descends not lower than to interweave beauty with dignity of utterance. Nothing in religious poetry more graceful or delicate than the Vedic Dawn-hymns has ever been written. In the daily vision of Dawn following her sister Night the poet sees his fairest goddess, and in his worship of her there is love and admiration, such as is evoked by the sight of no other deity. "She comes like a fair young maiden, awakening all to labor, with an hundred chariots comes she, and brings the shining light; gleam forth, O Dawn, and give us thy blessing this day; for in thee is the life of every living creature. Even as thou hast rewarded the singers of old, so now reward our song" (I. 48).

The kine of Dawn are the bright clouds that, like red cattle, wander in droves upon the horizon. Sometimes the rays of light, which stretch across the heaven, are intended by this image, for the cattle-herding poets employed their flocks as figures for various ends.

The inevitable selfish pessimism of unripe reflection is also woven into the later Dawn-hymns: "How long will it be ere this Dawn, too, shall join the Dawns departed? Vanished are now the men that saw the Dawns of old; we here see her now; there will follow others who will see her hereafter; but, O Dawn, beam here thy fairest; rich in blessings, true art thou to friend and right. Bring hither (to the morning sacrifice) the gods" (I. 113).

Since the metre (here ignored) of the following hymn is not all of one model, it is probable that after the fourth verse a new hymn began, which was distinct from the first; but the argument from metre is unconvincing, and in any event both songs are worth citing, since they show how varied were the images and fancies of the poets: "The Dawns are like heroes with golden weapons; like red kine of the morning on the field of heaven; shining they weave their webs of light, like women active at work; food they bring to the pious worshipper. Like a dancing girl is the Dawn adorned, and opens freely her bosom; as a cow gives milk, as a cow comes forth from its stall, so opens she her breast, so comes she out of the darkness (verses 1-4) …She is the ever new, born again and again, adorned always with the same color. As a player conceals the dice, so keeps she concealed the days of a man; daughter of Heaven she wakes and drives away her sister (Night). Like kine, like the waves of a flood, with sunbeams she appears. O rich Dawn, bring us wealth; harness thy red horses, and bring to us success" (I. 92). The homage to Dawn is naturally divided at times with that to the sun: "Fair shines the light of morning; the sun awakens us to toil; along the path of order goes Dawn arrayed in light. She extendeth herself in the east, and gleameth till she fills the sky and earth"; and again: "Dawn is the great work of Varuna and Mitra; through the sun is she awakened" (I. 124; III. 61. 6-7). In the ritualistic period Dawn is still mechanically lauded, and her beams "rise in the east like pillars of sacrifice" (IV. 51. 2); but otherwise the imagery of the selections given above is that which is usually employed. The 'three dawns' occasionally referred to are, as we have shown elsewhere,[98] the three dawn-lights, white, red, and yellow, as they are seen by both the Vedic poet and the Florentine.

Dawn becomes common and trite after awhile, as do all the gods, and is invoked more to give than to please. 'Wake us,' cries a later poet, 'Wake us to wealth, O Dawn; give to us, give to us; wake up, lest the sun burn thee with his light'—a passage (V. 79) which has caused much learned nonsense to be written on the inimical relations of Sun and Dawn as portrayed here. The dull idea is that Dawn is lazy, and had better get up before S[=u]rya catches her asleep. The poet is not in the least worried because his image does not express a suitable relationship between the dawn and the sun, nor need others be disturbed at it. The hymn is late, and only important in showing the new carelessness as regards the old gods.[99] Some other traits appear in VII. 75. 1 ff., where Dawn is 'queen of the world,' and banishes the druhs, or evil spirit. She here is daughter of Heaven, and wife of the sun (4, 5); ib. 76. 1, she is the eye of the world; and ib 81. 4, she is invoked as 'mother.'

There is, at times, so close a resemblance between Dawn-hymns and Sun-hymns that the imagery employed in one is used in the other. Thus the hymn VI. 64 begins: "The beams of Dawn have arisen, shining as shine the waters' gleaming waves. She makes good paths, … she banishes darkness as a warrior drives away a foe (so of the sun, IV. 13. 2; X. 37. 4; 170. 2). Beautiful are thy paths upon the mountains, and across the waters thou shinest, self-gleaming" (also of the sun). With the last expression may be compared that in VI. 65. 5: "Dawn, whose seat is upon the hills."

Dawn is intimately connected not only with Agni but with the Twin Horsemen, the Açvins (equites)—if not so intimately connected as is Helen with the Dioskouroi, who, pace Pischel, are the Açvins of Hellas. This relationship is more emphasized in the hymns to the latter gods, but occasionally occurs in Dawn-hymns, of which another is here translated in full.

TO DAWN (IV. 52).

The Daughter of Heaven, this beauteous maid,
Resplendent leaves her sister (Night),
And now before (our sight) appears.

Red glows she like a shining mare,
Mother of kine, who timely comes—
The Horsemen's friend Aurora is.

Both friend art thou of the Horsemen twain,
And mother art thou of the kine,
And thou, Aurora, rulest wealth.

We wake thee with our praise as one
Who foes removes; such thought is ours,
O thou that art possesst of joy.

Thy radiant beams beneficent
Like herds of cattle now appear;
Aurora fills the wide expanse.

With light hast thou the dark removed,
Filling (the world), O brilliant one.
Aurora, help us as thou us'st.

With rays thou stretchest through the heaven
And through the fair wide space between,
O Dawn, with thy refulgent light.

It was seen that Savitar (P[=u]shan) is the rising and setting sun. So, antithetic to Dawn, stands the Abendroth with her sister, Night. This last, generally, as in the hymn just translated, is lauded only in connection with Dawn, and for herself alone gets but one hymn, and that is not in a family-book. She is to be regarded, therefore, less as a goddess of the pantheon than as a quasi-goddess, the result of a poet's meditative imagination, rather than one of the folk's primitive objects of adoration; somewhat as the English poets personify "Ye clouds, that far above me float and pause, ye ocean-waves … ye woods, that listen to the night-bird's singing, O ye loud waves, and O ye forests high, and O ye clouds that far above me soared; thou rising sun, thou blue rejoicing sky!"—and as in Greek poetry, that which before has been conceived of vaguely as divine suddenly is invested with a divine personality. The later poet exalts these aspects of nature, and endows those that were before only half recognized with a little special praise. So, whereas Night was divine at first merely as the sister of divine Dawn, in the tenth book one poet thus gives her praise:

HYMN TO NIGHT (X. 127).

Night, shining goddess, comes, who now
Looks out afar with many eyes,
And putteth all her beauties on.

Immortal shining goddess, she
The depths and heights alike hath filled,
And drives with light the dark away.

To me she comes, adorned well,
A darkness black now sightly made;
Pay then thy debt, O Dawn, and go.[100]

The bright one coming put aside
Her sister Dawn (the sunset light),
And lo! the darkness hastes away.

So (kind art thou) to us; at whose
Appearing we retire to rest,
As birds fly homeward to the tree.

To rest are come the throngs of men;
To rest, the beasts; to rest, the birds;
And e'en the greedy eagles rest.

Keep off the she-wolf and the wolf,
Keep off the thief, O billowy Night,
Be thou to us a saviour now.

To thee, O Night, as 'twere an herd,
To a conqueror (brought), bring I an hymn
Daughter of Heaven, accept (the gift).[101]

THE AÇVINS.

The Açvins who are, as was said above, the 'Horsemen,' parallel to the Greek Dioskouroi, are twins, sons of Dyaus, husbands, perhaps brothers of the Dawn. They have been variously 'interpreted,' yet in point of fact one knows no more now what was the original conception of the twain than was known before Occidental scholars began to study them.[102] Even the ancients made mere guesses: the Açvins came before the Dawn, and are so-called because they ride on horses (açva, equos) they represent either Heaven and Earth, or Day and Night, or Sun and Moon, or two earthly kings—such is the unsatisfactory information given by the Hindus themselves.[103]

Much the same language with that in the Dawn-hymns is naturally employed in praising the Twin Brothers. They, like the Dioskouroi, are said to have been incorporated gradually into the pantheon, on an equality with the other gods,[104] not because they were at first human beings, but because they, like Night, were adjuncts of Dawn, and got their divinity through her as leader.[105] In the last book of the Rig Veda they are the sons of Sarany[=u] and Vivasvant, but it is not certain whether Sarany[=u] means dawn or not; in the first book they are born of the flood (in the sky).[106] They are sons of Dyaus, but this, too, only in the last and first books, while in the latter they are separated once, so that only one is called the Son of the Sky.[107] They follow Dawn 'like men' (VIII. 5. 2) and are in Brahmanic literature the 'youngest of the gods.'[108]

The twin gods are the physicians of heaven, while to men they bring all medicines and help in times of danger. They were apparently at first only 'wonder-workers,' for the original legends seem to have been few. Yet the striking similarity in these aspects with the brothers of Helen must offset the fact that so much in connection with them seems to have been added in books one and ten. They restore the blind and decrepit, impart strength and speed, and give the power and seed of life; even causing waters to flow, fire to burn, and trees to grow. As such they assist lovers and aid in producing offspring.

The Açvins are brilliantly described, Their bird-drawn chariot and all its appurtenances are of gold; they are swift as thought, agile, young, and beautiful. Thrice they come to the sacrifice, morning, noon, and eve; at the yoking of their car, the dawn is born. When the 'banner before dawn' appears, the invocation to the Açvins begins; they 'accompany dawn.' Some variation of fancy is naturally to be looked for. Thus, though, as said above, Dawn is born at the Açvins yoking, yet Dawn is herself invoked to wake the Açvins; while again the sun starts their chariot before Dawn; and as sons of Zeus they are invoked "when darkness still stands among the shining clouds (cows)."[109]

Husbands or brothers or children of Dawn, the Horsemen are also S[=u]ry[=a]'s husbands, and she is the sun's daughter (Dawn?) or the sun as female. But this myth is not without contradictions, for S[=u]ry[=a] elsewhere weds Soma, and the Açvins are the bridegroom's friends; whom P[=u]shan chose on this occasion as his parents; he who (unless one with Soma) was the prior bridegroom of the same much-married damsel.[110]

The current explanation of the Açvins is that they represent two periods between darkness and dawn, the darker period being nearer night, the other nearer day. But they probably, as inseparable twins, are the twinlights or twilight, before dawn, half dark and half bright. In this light it may well be said of them that one alone is the son of bright Dyaus, that both wed Dawn, or are her brothers. They always come together. Their duality represents, then, not successive stages but one stage in day's approach, when light is dark and dark is light. In comparing the Açvins to other pairs[111] this dual nature is frequently referred to; but no less is there a triality in connection with them which often in describing them has been ignored. This is that threefold light which opens day; and, as in many cases they join with Dawn, so their color is inseparable. Strictly speaking, the break of red is the dawn and the white and yellow lights precede this[112]. Thus in V. 73. 5: "Red birds flew round you as S[=u]ry[=a] stepped upon your chariot"; so that it is quite impossible, in accordance with the poets themselves, to limit the Açvins to the twilight. They are a variegated growth from a black and white seed. The chief function of the Açvins, as originally conceived, was the finding and restoring of vanished light. Hence they are invoked as finders and aid-gods in general (the myths are given in Myriantheus).

Some very amusing and some silly legends have been collected and told by the Vedic poets in regard to the preservation and resuscitating power of the Açvins—how an old man was rejuvenated by them (this is also done by the three Ribhus, master-workmen of the gods); how brides are provided by them; how they rescued Bhujyu and others from the dangers of the deep (as in the classical legends); how they replaced a woman's leg with an iron one; restored a saint's eye-sight; drew a seer out of a well, etc, etc. Many scholars follow Bergaigne in imagining all these miracles to be anthropomorphized forms of solar phenomena, the healing of the blind representing the bringing out of the sun from darkness, etc. To us such interpretation often seems fatuous. No less unconvincing is the claim that one of the Açvins represents the fire of heaven and the other the fire of the altar. The Twins are called n[=a]saty[=a], the 'savers' (or 'not untrue ones[113]'); explained by some as meaning 'gods with good noses[114].'

HYMN TO THE HORSEMEN.

Whether ye rest on far-extended earth, or on the sea in house upon it made, 'come hither thence, O ye that ride the steeds. If ever for man ye mix the sacrifice, then notice now the Kanva [poet who sings]. I call upon the gods [Indra, Vishnu[115] and the swift-going Horsemen[116]. These Horsemen I call now that they work wonders, to seize the works (of sacrifice), whose friendship is preëminently ours, and relationship among all the gods; in reference to whom arise sacrifices … If, to-day, O Horsemen, West or East ye stand, ye of good steeds, whether at Druhyu's, Anu's, Turvaça's, or Yadu's, I call ye; come to me. If ye fly in the air, O givers of great joy; or if through the two worlds; or if, according to your pleasure, ye mount the car,—thence come hither, O Horsemen.

From the hymn preceding this, the following verses[117]:

Whatever manliness is in the aether, in the sky, and among the five peoples, grant us that, O Horsemen … this hot soma-drink of yours with laudation is poured out; this soma sweet through which ye discovered Vritra … Ascend the swift-rolling chariot, O Horsemen; hither let these my praises bring ye, like a cloud … Come as guardians of homes; guardians of our bodies. Come to the house for (to give) children and offspring. Whether ye ride on the same car with Indra, or be in the same house with the Wind; whether united with the Sons of Boundlessness or the Ribhus, or stand on Vishnu's wide steps (come to us). This is the best help of the horsemen, if to-day I should entice them to get booty, or call them as my strength to conquer in battle…. Whatever medicine (ye have) far or near, with this now, O wise ones, grant protection…. Awake, O Dawn, the Horsemen, goddess, kind and great…. When, O Dawn, thou goest in light and shinest with the Sun, then hither comes the Horsemen's chariot, to the house men have to protect. When the swollen soma-stalks are milked like cows with udders, and when the choric songs are sung, then they that adore the Horsemen are preëminent….

Here the Açvins are associated with Indra, and even find the evil demon; but, probably, at this stage Indra is more than god of storms.

Some of the expanded myths and legends of the Açvins may be found in i. 118, 119, 158; x. 40. Here follows one with legends in moderate number (vii. 71):

Before the Dawn her sister, Night, withdraweth;
The black one leaves the ruddy one a pathway.
Ye that have kine and horses, you invoke we;
By day, at night, keep far from us your arrow.

Come hither, now, and meet the pious mortal,
And on your car, O Horsemen, bring him good things;
Keep off from us the dry destroying sickness,
By day, at night, O sweetest pair, protect us.

Your chariot may the joy-desiring chargers,
The virile stallions, bring at Dawn's first coming;
That car whose reins are rays, and wealth upon it;
Come with the steeds that keep the season's order.

Upon the car, three-seated, full of riches,
The helping car, that has a path all golden,
On this approach, O lords of heroes, true ones,
Let this food-bringing car of yours approach us.

Ye freed from his old age the man Cyav[=a]na;
Ye brought and gave the charger swift to Pedu;
Ye two from darkness' anguish rescued Atri;
Ye set J[a=]husha down, released from fetters.[118]

This prayer, O Horsemen, and this song is uttered;
Accept the skilful[sic] poem, manly heroes.
These prayers, to you belonging, have ascended,
O all ye gods protect us aye with blessings![119]

The sweets which the Açvins bring are either on their chariot, or, as is often related, in a bag; or they burst forth from the hoof of their steed. Pegasus' spring in Helicon has been compared with this. Their vehicles are variously pictured as birds, horses, ships, etc. It is to be noticed that in no one of their attributes are the Açvins unique. Other gods bring sweets, help, protect, give offspring, give healing medicines, and, in short, do all that the Açvins do. But, as Bergaigne points out, they do all this pacifically, while Indra, who performs some of their wonders, does so by storm. He protects by not injuring, and helps by destroying foes. Yet is this again true only in general, and the lines between warlike, peaceful, and 'sovereign' gods are often crossed.

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