‘Agni is messenger of all the world.
* * * * *
Skyward ascends his flame the merciful,
With our libations watered well;
And now the red smoke seeks the heavenly way,
And men enkindle Agni here.
‘We make of thee our Herald, Holy One;
Bring down the gods unto our feast.
O son of night, and all who nourish man,
Pardon us when on you we call.
‘Thou, Agni, art the ruler of the house;
Thou at the altar art our priest.
O purifier, wise and rich in good,
O sacrificer, bring us safely now.’
There are other genuine sun-gods in the Vedic creed, to whom hymns are addressed. One of these is Mitra.[65] Mitra too is a friend of man—
To man comes Mitra down in friendly converse.
Mitra it was who fixed the earth and heaven.
Unslumbering mankind he watches over.
To Mitra then your full libations pour.’
But there are not many hymns addressed to Mitra alone. And he stands far behind Indra or Agni in the Vedic creed as we actually find it. Another sun-god—the disk of the sun, so to say—is Surya, the shiner. He is sometimes called the eye of Mitra and Varuna. But in other places he is said to come through heaven dragging his wheel. Yet great as he is, the sun-god is compelled to follow his daily round. ‘He travels upon changeless paths.’ Another sun-god is Savitar, whose name is almost identical in meaning with Surya.
Dawn and
Evening.
The writers of the Vedic hymns were very largely taken up with observing and recording in their mythic fashion all the skyey phenomena from dawn to sunset. For each changed aspect of the heavens, bright or cloudy, calm or windy, they had a divinity. They sang to the fair young morning as she came out of the chambers of darkness and opened the stalls for the cattle to go forth to pasture; they sang the heavy labouring sun of midday; they sang the stormy sky or the hurrying clouds; and at evening they sang the evening sun sinking peacefully to rest and bringing ‘night and peace’ to all the world. Wherefore, to bring to a close this picture of the religion of the Vedas, we will give just two more hymns from that vast collection, the Rig-Veda—a hymn to the morning, and a hymn to the sun (Savitar) at sun-setting.
HYMN TO THE DAWN.
‘Dawn full of wisdom, rich in everything!
Fairest! attend the singers’ song of praise.
O thou rich goddess, old, yet ever young!
Thou, all-dispenser, in due order comest.