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THE 
 
 COSMOLOGY OF THE EIGYEDA. 
 
THE 
 
 COSMOLOGY OF THE RIGVEDA, 
 
 AN ESSAY 
 
 H. W. WALLIS, M.A,, 
 
 GONVILLE AND CAIUS COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 
 
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 > J Of THF 
 
 UNIVERS1T 
 
 OF 
 
 WILLIAMlK^ifB KORGATE, 
 
 14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON; 
 
 and 20, SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH. 
 
 1887. 
 
GENERAL 
 
 HERTFORD : 
 PRINTED BY STEPHEN AUSTIN AND SONS 
 
B L l I I S* 
 /Hi 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The object of this essay is not so much to 
 present a complete picture of the Cosmology 
 of the Eigveda, as to supply the material from 
 which such a picture may be drawn. The 
 writer has endeavoured to leave no strictly 
 cosmological passage without a reference, and 
 to add references to illustrative passages where 
 they appeared to indicate the direction in 
 which an explanation may be sought. In 
 order to avoid any encumbrance of the notes 
 by superfluous matter, references which are 
 easily accessible in other books, such as 
 Grassmann's Lexicon, are omitted, and those 
 references which are intended to substantiate 
 statements which are not likely to be the 
 subject of doubt, are reduced to the smallest 
 number possible. The isolation of the Eigveda 
 
 156447 
 
vi Preface. 
 
 is justified on linguistic grounds. On the 
 other hand, the argument which is drawn from 
 the Atharvaveda in the Introduction is based 
 on the fact, attested by the internal character 
 of that collection and by tradition, that the 
 Atharvaveda lies apart from the stream of 
 Brahmanic development : on the testimony of 
 residents in India to the superstitious character 
 of modern Hindoos : and on the striking 
 similarity of the charms of the Atharvaveda 
 to those of European nations. If, as seems 
 most probable, the cosmological passages and 
 hymns of the Eigveda are to be classified with 
 the latest compositions in the collection, the 
 conceptions with which the essay deals must 
 be regarded as belonging to the latest period 
 represented in the Eigveda, when the earlier 
 hymns were still on the lips of priests whose 
 language did not differ materially in construc- 
 tion from that contained in the hymns which 
 they recited. 
 
 The writer desires here to express his sincere 
 gratitude to those teachers who have assisted 
 him in his general Sanskrit studies, Professors 
 
Preface. vii 
 
 E. B. Cowell, R. v. Both, G. Biihler, F. 
 Kielhorn, and K. Geldner, some of whom have 
 also kindly suggested corrections in this essay 
 while it was passing through the press. 
 Above all, his thanks are due to that Trust 
 which, in the first place, rendered it possible 
 for him to devote himself to the study, and 
 now has undertaken the publication of this 
 book. 
 
 May, 1887. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS, 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 l'AGE 
 
 The subject of the essay 1 
 
 Limits of the study . . 2 
 
 The absence of chronological data 3 
 
 The character of the collection determined by internal 
 
 indications 4 
 
 By contrast with the Atharvaveda 7 
 
 The impersonality of the Vedic gods 8 
 
 Deification of abstractions 9 
 
 The transference of divine functions and attributes . . 11 
 
 The general tendency of the Eigveda 13 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE BUILDING OF THE WORLD. 
 
 The significance of metaphors in the Eigveda . . . . 16 
 
 The measuring and building of heaven and earth ... 17 
 
 The firmness of the structure ......... 20 
 
 The introduction of the fire 21 
 
 Tvashtar, the divine carpenter 23 
 
 The Eibhus, the workmen 24 
 
 The general character of the description 26- 
 
Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 GENERATION. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The application of analogy 28 
 
 Fire and water 29 
 
 The metaphor of parentage, temporal, generic, and local. 29 
 
 Heaven and earth, the universal parents 31 
 
 The sun as the type of generation 32 
 
 Elements of confusion in the hymns to Agni .... 32 
 
 Agni in the waters of heaven 33 
 
 Gandharva, X. 123 34 
 
 The union of Gandharva with Apsaras 37 
 
 The marriage of Surya 39 
 
 The births of the gods aud of the worlds, X. 72. . . 41 
 
 Aditi and Daksha 44 
 
 The birth of Agni, X. 31. 7-10 46 
 
 The rise of the sun, X. 5 48 
 
 Hiranyagarbha, X. 121 50 
 
 The sun as supreme divinity 52 
 
 The Unborn 53 
 
 Agni as a cosmogonic factor 54 
 
 The waters 56 
 
 Parjanya, VII. 101 58 
 
 The one thing, X. 129 57 
 
 The non-existent and the existent 61 
 
 Allegory and analogy 62 
 
Contents. xi 
 
 CHAPTER IIT. 
 THE SACRIFICE. 
 
 TAGE 
 
 The source of this explanation 64 
 
 The meaning of the sacrifice 64 
 
 The popular conception of death 65 
 
 The sacrificial theory 66 
 
 The fathers identified with the rays of Agni . . . . 68 
 
 The Angirases • 69 
 
 The creative functions of the fathers 71 
 
 Generation through the fathers, X. 1 56 71 
 
 Anticipation of divine blessedness 75 
 
 The fathers in the sun, III. 38 76 
 
 The sacrificial prayer 78 
 
 The heavenly sacrifice 79 
 
 Vic^vakarman, sacrificer and creator, X. 81, 82. . . . 80 
 
 Relation of Vic,vakarinan to Hiranyagarbha .... 84 
 
 Vac compared with Sarasvati and Vayu ...... 85 
 
 Purusha, X. 90 86 
 
 Summary of results 89 
 
 CHAPTER IY. 
 
 THE ORDER OF THE WORLD. 
 
 The interpretation of abstract words 91 
 
 The general meaning of the word ritd 91 
 
 Special applications of the word 93 
 
 The principle precedes the phenomena, X. 190 ... 95 
 
 The sons and parents of the ritd 96 
 
 Yaruna, the king 97 
 
xii Content?. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The vratdni of Yaiuna 99 
 
 The relation of Varuna to ritd 100 
 
 Yaruna as creator, V. 85. 101 
 
 The maya of Asura 102 
 
 Monotheism 104 
 
 Varuna' s decline 105 
 
 The popularity of Indra 105 
 
 Speculation fostered by the Kshatriyas 106 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 THE COSMOGRAPHY OF THE RIGVEDA. 
 
 The form of the earth Ill 
 
 Heaven and earth a pair 112 
 
 The intermediate space 113 
 
 Twofold, threefold, sixfold, ninefold divisions of the 
 
 world 114 
 
 Professor Zimmer's view of a rajas under the earth. . 115 
 
 The course of the sun 117 
 
 Index of Passages . 119 
 
 Index of Sanskrit Words 128 
 
 General Index 129 
 
 CORRIGENDA. 
 
 Page 25, line 23. For three read four. 
 
 Page 40/ line 23. For XI. 81. 4. read IX. 81. 4. 
 
 Page 57, note 5. For sun read son. 
 
 Page 67, note 4. For X. 196. 4. read X. 169. 4. 
 
 Page 92, note 1. For world read word. 
 
>' or THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 THE 
 
 COSMOLOGY OP THE RIGVEDA. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Religion is the behaviour of man with respect to the 
 natural forces and influences of the world which he 
 regards as manifestations of superhuman will. The 
 external form of religion is characterized by rites and 
 ceremonies which are for the most part traditions 
 from a forgotten past ; the inner life is twofold, on 
 the one hand emotional, enthusiastic, and passionate, 
 on the other reflective, speculative, and philosophical. 
 The character of each of these phases is determined by 
 the culture and civilization of the people professing the 
 religion. The historian may approach his subject 
 from three sides, according as he wishes to illustrate 
 the aesthetic, moral, or mental character of the people. 
 In the following pages the religious hymns of the 
 Rigveda will be treated solely as expressions of in- 
 tellectual thought. The stray guesses and vague 
 attempts at philosophy, which are scattered here 
 and there through the hymns of that collection, 
 
 1 
 
The Cosmology of the Rigveda. 
 
 will be classified and, as far as possible, arranged 
 in logical sequence with a view to discovering the 
 manner of reasoning in vogue among the composers 
 of the hymns, the nature of the inferences and proofs 
 which they admitted. A critical investigation of the 
 earliest recorded results of Indian thought may be 
 expected to throw considerable light on the difficult 
 problem of the growth of Indian philosophy, if a 
 subject can be found which is common to the later and 
 the earlier thinkers. Fortunately, one great problem 
 presents itself immediately as pressing for solution in 
 all ages, namely, the origin and formation of the 
 existing world. The passages relating to this subject 
 will here be brought together and arranged according 
 to the similarity of the ideas contained in them ; 
 the most obvious links connecting analogous con- 
 ceptions will be suggested ; and other passages will 
 be adduced only so far as they serve to explain 
 allusions in the cosmological passages. 
 
 It is an essential condition of such a study that the 
 limits of the subject should be drawn as closely as 
 possible ; that, as far as possible, every avenue should 
 be closed upon conjecture and hypothesis ; and that, 
 whenever this is practicable, the authors of the hymns 
 should be allowed to speak their own words. Conse- 
 quently, no attempt will be made to discover the origin 
 of the conceptions found in our book. Mythology 
 and etymology, the investigation of the stereotyped 
 and formal results of preceding ages of thought, find 
 
Limits of the study. 
 
 no place in such a plan. Parallels from the religious 
 and philosophic thought of other nations, and illustra- 
 tions from later books, which would have obscured 
 the interdependence of the Vedic ideas on one another, 
 and so rendered it more difficult for the reader to 
 place himself in the position of the authors, are also 
 excluded. 
 
 The almost entire neglect of the chronological 
 sequence of the hymns in this essay, which is a more 
 serious omission, is the unavoidable consequence of the 
 failure that has as yet attended every attempt to find 
 a criterion by which to determine their relative dates. 
 It is generally supposed that the occurrence of a 
 hymn in the tenth book affords a suspicion of the 
 lateness of its composition. Forms and meanings of 
 words and grammatical constructions, which are of 
 rare occurrence in the Rigveda, and become more 
 frequent later, would also seem to indicate a late 
 date for the hymns in which they occur ; but it 
 has not yet been found possible to establish any 
 rules of general applicability on this score. Even if 
 we were able to determine the dates of the hj^mns, 
 we should still be very far from deciding the relative 
 ages of the ideas contained in them. The cosmo- 
 logical guesses strung together in the other Yedic 
 collections, and even in the Brahmanas, occasionally 
 bear a more primitive character than those in the 
 Rigveda, though the task of separating them from 
 later accretions is encumbered with greater difficulty. 
 
Introduction. 
 
 The illustrations from geology which are frequently- 
 introduced in this connection fail to apply in one 
 important particular. The opinions held by a single 
 man or a body of men are not lifeless as a fossil 
 nor arranged in strata according to age ; they are 
 continually growing or dying, and shifting their 
 relative positions through interaction one on another; 
 they derive their vitality and force of meaning from 
 association with the whole complex of thought in 
 which they live. A chronological arrangement of 
 the ideas could have no other basis than such 
 general principles as may be abstracted from a 
 comprehensive study of the mythology and ideology 
 of all nations. 
 
 One question, which has given rise to much dis- 
 pute, requires preliminary consideration : how far our 
 hymns may be regarded as representative of the 
 common thought of the people. The question admits 
 of treatment in two ways. We may consider the 
 statements of the Eishis, the composers of the 
 hymns, about themselves and their work; 1 and we 
 may compare their productions with the only other 
 Veda of a sufficiently distinctive character, the 
 Atharvaveda. If we examine the hymns of the Rig- 
 veda alone, we find there two clear indications of the 
 bias of the authors in their exclusiveness and their 
 
 1 A rich collection of passages on this subject will be found in Dr. 
 Muir's Original Sanskrit Texts, vol. iii., and in his article on the 
 • position of the priests in the Vedic age in the J.R.A.S. for 1866, p. 257. 
 
The bias of the JRtshis. 
 
 glorification of the sacrifice. They represent them- 
 selves as the only mediators between man and the 
 gods. They pride themselves on the pure orthodoxy 
 of their religion and on the correctness of their 
 rites. Theirs are the true or real gods, served by 
 the true priests of a true faith, with true prayers 
 and offerings. 1 Other worshippers and their gods 
 are cursed as demons and worshippers of demons. 2 
 They are the ungodly, men who know not Indra, 
 who deny Indra's existence, who serve no Agni, 
 enemies of the gods, haters of the sacrifice, men of 
 evil ways, who offer no sacrifice. 3 Upon such people 
 the Eishis call down the terrible wrath of all their 
 gods, and solemnly aver that they have never them- 
 selves been guilty of any improper worship of other 
 gods or demons. Owing to the vagueness of the 
 references, it is impossible to determine against whom 
 the denunciations are levelled, whether at dissenters 
 belonging to the same nation or tribe as the orthodox 
 or at foreigners ; they present us, however, with the 
 picture of a violent religious contest, and serve to 
 remind us that the Rishis were not the only bidders 
 for authority among the people, even in matters of 
 theolog3''. If the Rishis had any differences among 
 
 1 II. 26. 1. Bergaigne, La Religion vedique, vol. iii. p. 184. 
 
 2 V. 42. 10., V, 12., VII. 104. 14-16., V. 42. 10., VIII. 18. 13., II. 
 23. 16. 
 
 3 ddeva ; auindrd cf. II. 12. 5. ; dnagnitra cf. I. 147. 2. ; devanidah ; 
 brahmadv/shah ; anydvrata, avratd, dpavrata ; ayajnd. 
 
6 Introduction. 
 
 themselves, their common interest at any rate centred 
 in the sacrifice. The most extravagant and offensive 
 verses in the collection are the unrestrained praises 
 of the liberality of kings and other rich patrons of 
 the sacrifice, shown especially in donations of cattle 
 to the priests. It was the endeavour of the Rishis 
 to make themselves as indispensable as possible to the 
 great ones of the earth, and for that end to magnify 
 the sacrifice and its accompaniment, the hymn, as 
 the only means of attaining prosperity and divine 
 favour. 1 There are no curses so bitter as those in which 
 they denounce the illiberal. This glorification of the 
 sacrifice is the main burden of the whole Rigveda, 
 showing itself in the assimilation of all things in 
 heaven and earth to the sacrifice, and in the elevation 
 of the instruments and personifications of the sacrifice 
 to the rank of great deities. It was not in the 
 interest of the Rishis to help forward the pro- 
 gress of speculative thought in its advance towards 
 philosophy ; but rather to hedge about their own 
 religious conceptions with a wall of sanctity, and to 
 bring within this compass the wandering fancies of 
 the people, and the enquiring guesses of the thinkers. 
 Extraneous thought and criticism was to them a 
 source of danger ; they sought, therefore, to obscure 
 the doctrines of their theology by a multiplication 
 of complicated allusions and dark riddles, with which 
 
 1 Compare H. Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, pp. 168-171, 194-5. 
 
The Rigveda contrasted icith the Atharvaveda. 7 
 
 they might occupy the minds of their hearers, at the 
 same time gratifying the native taste for puzzle and 
 paradox. 1 The material upon which they worked 
 consisted in part of the myths and legends which 
 were rooted in the traditions of the people, and partly 
 also of the rude physics and metaphysics of the more 
 thoughtful. These they endeavour to adapt to their 
 own sacrificial theory. 
 
 The contents and form of the great majority of the 
 hymns in the Rigveda bear distinctly the marks of a 
 complex of doctrine in process of elaboration. 2 It 
 would be quite conceivable that this doctrine, the work 
 of a class of priests, was submissively accepted as 
 alone efficacious by the mass of the people, were the 
 Rigveda the only Yeda extant. The Atharvaveda, 
 however, presents us with another picture. In it we 
 find a collection of charms and incantations for the 
 practical uses of common life, exhibiting a spiritism 
 and a demonolatry which the Rishis of the Rigveda 
 scorned. We find a state of morality contrasting 
 
 1 parohshapriya iva hi devah pratyakshadvishah, * For the gods love 
 what is recondite, and hate that which is evident.' — Brihaditr. Up. 4. 2. 2. 
 
 2 " Neither in the language nor in the thought of the Rig- Veda have 
 I been able to discover that quality of primitive natural simplicity which 
 so many are fain to see in it. The poetry it contains appears to me, on 
 the contrary, to be of a singularly refined character and artificially 
 elaborated, full of allusions and reticences, of pretensions to mysticism 
 and theosophic insight ; and the manner of its expression is such as 
 reminds one more frequently of the phraseology in use among certain 
 small groups of initiated than the poetic language of a large community." 
 — Barth, The Religions of India, p. xiii. 
 
8 Introduction. 
 
 strongly with the noble moral teaching of the Rigveda, 
 and a more popular treatment of the Vedic gods. We 
 find, further, a number of speculative pieces of rank 
 mysticism running out in wild luxuriance far beyond 
 the sober limits of the hymns of the Rigveda. We 
 are therefore justified in characterizing the hymns 
 of the Rigveda as in the main the products of a 
 special system independent of the general thought 
 of the nation, and in carefully considering at every 
 point how far the adjustment of thought to it may 
 have influenced the form of expression. In this essay 
 the word Rishi will, for convenience, be used par- 
 ticularly to denote the adherents and promoters of 
 this system. 
 
 On the other hand, if it be granted that the hymns 
 represent in the main a system of theology which was 
 the work of a particular class of men, rather than the 
 natural growth of a national consciousness, we may 
 still find the greatest difficulty in individual cases 
 in determining how far the system has influenced their 
 manner of thought. The following description of the 
 peculiar treatment of the gods in our collection may 
 serve as an illustration of this difficulty. The deities 
 of the Rigveda differ essentially from the gods of Greek 
 or Scandinavian mythology and of the Mahabhiirata 
 in the abstract and almost impersonal nature of their 
 characters. They are little more than factors in the 
 physical and moral order of the world, apart from 
 which none, except perhaps Indra, has a self-interested 
 
The nature of the Vedic gods. 9 
 
 existence. To the Rishis they are pre-eminently the 
 receivers of sacrifice ; the apotheosis of the Itibhus is 
 described as the attainment of the right to receive 
 sacrifice. They have no definite forms. The mention 
 of their clothes, or of different parts of their bodies, 
 serves only to express the nature of their actions or 
 characters. The strength of Indra is illustrated by 
 the shaking of his blonde mustachios ; his insatiable 
 thirst for soma causes the poet to glorify the enormous 
 capacity of his belly. Savitar raises his arms, the 
 beams of the sun, to give life to the world. Rudra 
 and the Maruts are clad in bright armour and carry 
 spears, and crack their shining whips of light over 
 their horses to represent the lightning. The Dawn 
 lets fall her clothes to display her beauty. Mitra and 
 Varuna are throned in heaven ; the other gods, so far 
 as they are not identified with individual objects, 
 wander through the world at will. We hear nothing 
 of temples of the gods, and it is almost certain that 
 the hymns recognize no idols ; the gods were them- 
 selves present in the different phenomena of the world. 
 The peculiarly impersonal nature of the gods is 
 seen in the deification of purely abstract notions and 
 agencies. The most striking examples of such gods 
 are those whose names are formed with the suffix r 
 tar ; the divine agents of the processes designated by 
 the verbal roots from which their names are derived. 
 The most prominent of these are Savitar, ' the 
 quickener,' and Tvashtar, 'the carpenter/ That both 
 
10 Introduction. 
 
 gods were considered as such agents appears from the 
 frequent play on the connection between their names 
 and the related verbal forms ; and from the constant 
 addition to their names of the substantive devd, in 
 passages where we may with equal plausibility translate 
 1 the carpenter god/ ' the quickening god/ or ' god 
 Savitar/ ' god Tvashtar.' Tvashtar is the god who 
 produces the various objects in nature which show 
 the skill of an artificer ; Savitar is, however, with 
 few exceptions, 1 always identified with the great 
 quickener of the world, the sun ; and thus the abstract 
 character of his conception is somewhat obscured. The 
 frequent ascription of the action of ordaining (dhd) 
 the things in the world to different gods led to tho 
 conception of a separate god, the Ordainer or Estab- 
 lishes Dhatar. Vidhatar is in like manner the Dis- 
 poser. "We find a devd Netar three times invoked in 
 one hymn, 2 apparently as the Guide of the course 
 of life ; and a devd Tratar, to whom prayers are ad- 
 dressed for protection against foes. 3 Other examples 
 of deities invoked by the Eishis, whose names bear a 
 similarly abstract character, are Brahmanaspati or Bri- 
 haspati, • the lord of the sacrificial prayer/ Prajapati 
 * the lord of things born/ Anumati ' graciousness/ 
 Aramati ' prayer/ Ila ' adoration/ Qraddha ' faith/ and 
 Yac ■ voice/ 
 
 1 e.g. IV. 54., III. 33. 6. 
 
 2 V. 50. 
 
 3 IV. 55. 5, 7., I. 106. 7., VIII. 18. 20. 
 
Transference of divine attributes. II 
 
 The abstract nature of the Yedic gods in general 
 shows itself in the indefiniteness of the sphere of 
 activity of each one, in the poverty of their individual 
 attributes, and in the readiness with which these 
 attributes are transferred from one god to another. 
 This is the explanation of the principle familiar from 
 Professor Max Miiller's writings under the name 
 of ' henotheism, ' by which the god invoked on a 
 particular occasion is represented as exercising the 
 functions of other gods, and assuming their attributes. 
 The more impersonal and abstract the conception of 
 the god, the easier it is to attribute his entire activity 
 to another. This is particularly striking in the case 
 of one ancient god, Bhaga, who has become in the 
 Rigveda little more than a source from which descrip- 
 tions of the functions of other gods are obtained, or a 
 standard of comparison by which their greatness is 
 enhanced. His name has survived in the Slavonic 
 languages as a general name for god, a sense which 
 it also has in the Avesta. To judge from the Rigveda^ 
 Bhaga would seem to be a survival from an ancient 
 sun-worship, of which we shall find traces in the 
 course of the essay. His name is frequently mentioned 
 with that of Savitar, apparently as an epithet to 
 express Savitar's bountiful gift of sunshine to men. 
 He is invoked along with Pushan and the Adityas, 
 Mitra, Varuna, and Aryaman. The dawn is his 
 sister. 1 The eye of heaven is adorned with Bhaga's- 
 1 I. 123. 5. : cf. VII. 41. 2. 
 
12 Introduction* 
 
 light. The hymns mount up to Vishnu as on Bhaga's 
 road. * Most frequently, however, comparison with 
 Bhaga is intended to express a vague glorification 
 of the bounty of Indra and Agni ; the only special 
 points of comparison are that Indra carries the two 
 worlds, heaven and earth, as Bhaga; and that Agni 
 is the leader of the tribes of heaven, as Bhaga. 2 
 
 This apparent confusion of the functions of the 
 gods shows itself in three ways. In the first place, 
 there are common divine actions or attributes which 
 may with equal propriety be ascribed to two or more 
 gods invoked separately or together, to all the members 
 of different classes of gods, such as the sacrificial gods, 
 and the warrior-gods, or to all the gods as gods. In 
 such cases there is no real confusion. Secondly, 
 there are attributes and actions expressed in similar 
 phrases, which, however, belong to different gods 
 through the development of their characters from 
 different original conceptions in such a way as to 
 cover common ground. Of this nature are the 
 approximation of Tvashtar and Savitar, and the 
 application of the name 'father' to different gods. This 
 tendency was assisted by the occasional existence 
 in the mind of a poet of a traditional verse or 
 expression applied originally to another god, but 
 expressing more or less exactly the thought the poet 
 
 1 I. 136. 2. ; III. 54. 14.; cf. X. 151. 1. 
 
 2 I. 62. 7. ; III. 20. 4. 
 
Confusion of the divine functions. 1$ 
 
 wished to utter. The confusion is in this case real, but 
 it is not the result of a direct transference of functions. 
 Lastly, there is the conscious application to one god 
 of the attributes of another, often of the most cha- 
 racteristic attributes of the other god, either with 
 the addition of the name of the other god, or with 
 some appellative or expression familiar to the Rishis 
 in association with him. The god invoked, who in 
 such cases is usually Agni, Soma, or Indra, unites 
 with his own functions those of another god or gods. 
 Agni, Soma, and Brihaspati are expressly identified 
 with other gods as including their entire activity, 
 even without the insertion of any adverb of comparison, 
 as also it is said of Savitar that he "becomes Mitra, 
 becomes Pushan." 1 The transference here is occa- 
 sional and of a rhetorical character, and is thus entirely 
 distinct from the syncretism of the later divine 
 Triad. 
 
 This fusion is, however, but one phase of a move- 
 ment of thought to be traced through the whole 
 collection, a harmonizing movement by which it is 
 endeavoured to concentrate the theological ideas 
 recognized by the Rishis. It is the result of two 
 tendencies, both of which would seem to mark our 
 hymns as belonging rather to the end of an epoch 
 in the thought of the nation than to a period of 
 
 * II. 1., V. 3. 1, 2., 1. 163. 3. ; IX. passim ; X. 98. 1. ; mitrd bht 
 pushti bhavasi V. 81. 4, 5. 
 
14 Introduction. 
 
 active production. 1 The one tendency which is pecu- 
 liarly characteristic of India is the economical desire 
 to collect and preserve the entire theological stock of 
 the nation that nothing be lost, rather than to strike 
 out a new path in disregard of previous results. 
 Legends and mythical conceptions, as well as deities, 
 derived originally from different orders of thought, 
 are placed side by side, approximated to one another 
 and confused together. The other tendency is the 
 endeavour to define the unity of nature, which to 
 the layman was apparently typified in the light, but 
 which the Eishi endeavoured to associate with the 
 sacrifice. The various products of this latter tendency 
 are particularly characteristic of the difference be- 
 tween the cosmologies and cosmological formulae of 
 the Rigveda and those of the Atharvaveda. In the 
 Rigveda, as we have seen, the divine actions are 
 transferable from one god to another ; in the mystical 
 hymns of the Atharvaveda the several elements of 
 the world are identified with a few abstractions, 
 Skambha 'the support/ Prima 'the breath of life/ 
 Kala ' time/ Ucchishta ' the remains of the sacrifice/ 
 
 1 " For the great majority of the hymns of the Rigveda it hecomes, in 
 my opinion, more and more evident, that they mark not the rise, nor the 
 zenith, hut rather the decline of the oldest Indian lyrical art. This 
 appears from the unvaried uniformity and monotony of thought and 
 metaphor, the ahsence of originality in most of the hymns of the Rigveda ; 
 and these rather negative qualities are not indeed limited to particular 
 books, they extend, so far as I can see, in greater or less degree, over the 
 whole collection." — Bradke's Dyaus Asura, p. 2. 
 
Tendency of the Rigveda. 15 
 
 and others, each of which is for the time tentatively 
 regarded as the substratum of the universe, its cause 
 and end. Neither of these phases can be accurately 
 described as pantheistic. In the earlier book the 
 gods are not categorically (with one or two excep- 
 tions, e.g. Aditi I. 89. 10.) identified with the universe; 
 in the later the abstractions and strange figures with 
 which the elements of nature are identified cannot 
 be described as gods. The logical development of 
 the one phase of thought ends in monotheism, of the 
 t)ther in atheism. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE BUILDING OF THE WORLD. 
 
 The philosophy of nature may be described as the 
 classification of natural forces and agencies. The 
 classifications of science are based upon identity or 
 uniformity of principle discovered by analysis and in- 
 ductive reasoning ; unscientific classifications or mental 
 associations are the results of superficial comparison. 
 The former we commonly call explanations, the latter 
 resemblances, analogies, or metaphors. In an age 
 destitute of science this distinction vanishes ; the 
 metaphor partakes of the nature of an explanation. 
 The importance of the metaphors employed in the Rig- 
 veda is seen in the constancy of their application as 
 compared with the ornamental or descriptive metaphors 
 of modern poetry ; fixed comparisons are consecrated 
 to particular uses and endued with a sanction which 
 can only be explained as the result of a very special 
 sense of their propriety. Thus in describing the 
 formation of the world we find the Yedic poets 
 recurring perpetually to the metaphor of building in 
 all its details, showing that they accepted this com- 
 parison as the form of expression most applicable to 
 
The significance of the metaphor. 17 
 
 creation. If we remember that the Vedic house was 
 made of wood, it is not difficult to picture to ourselves 
 in outline the different stages in the process of its 
 erection : first, the felling of the trees for wood, and 
 the measuring of the site ; next, the fixing of the 
 main-posts in the four corners supported by leaning 
 buttresses, and of the two door-posts in the front ; 
 and lastly, the covering-in of the whole with cross- 
 beams, rafters, laths, and some kind of mud or thatch 
 to fill up the crevices. We shall see all these stages 
 recur in the allusions to the formation of the world. 
 That the world should have been created from 
 nothing is an idea which finds no place in the 
 Eigveda; the Rishis are, however, at a loss to 
 explain whence the divine builders obtained the im- 
 perishable material for their work. a What indeed 
 was the wood ? What too was that tree from which 
 they fashioned the heaven and the earth ? They two 
 stand fast and grow not old for ever, while many 
 days and mornings wax old." l The measuring of 
 
 1 X. 31. 7. ; cf. X. 81. 4. Whether the word vdna in the Rigveda is 
 ever to be translated ' forest ' is doubtful. The use of the word for cloud 
 would seem to be due to the following associations. The rain is pictured 
 as contained in wooden vats. The lightning burns in the clouds as fire in 
 wood. The clouds are blown by the wind as the branches and foliage of 
 trees. The difficult verse X. 28. 8. appears to refer to the clearing up 
 of the sky through the thunderstorm : " The gods came carrying axes, 
 splitting the clouds {vdna) ; they came with their attendants; they set 
 good wood in heaven, where there was refuse (perhaps ' underwood ' Pet. 
 Lex.) they burnt it up." The myth of the world-tree is apparently alluded 
 to in X. 135. 1., I. 24. 7., and I. 164. 20 ; cf. A. V. X. 7. 38. 
 
 2 
 
18 The Building of the World. 
 
 * the two ancient dwelling-places/ heaven and earth, 
 in the different senses of the word, is a frequent topic 
 in the hymns. Thus we read of Indra, as the re- 
 presentative of the gods, " he it is who measured the 
 six broad spaces, from which no existing thing is 
 excluded; he it is who made the wide expanse of 
 earth and the lofty dome of the sky, even he ; " l and 
 again, with confusion of the measure and the thing 
 measured, "two measures are thine, Indra, broad 
 and well-measured, the heaven by thy greatness and 
 the earth by thy skill." 2 The measuring instrument 
 is represented by the sun traversing the earth in 
 his course, and shooting his straight beams from East 
 to West. "Yaruna, standing in the region of the 
 air, measureth out the earth with the sun as with a 
 measuring-rod." 3 Hence the measurers of the world 
 par excellence are the sun- gods, as Vishnu, who 
 " measured the regions of the earth, and made fast the 
 dwelling-place on high, stepping forth, the mighty 
 strider, in three steps." The natural place to begin 
 the surveying is in the front of the house ; and so 
 the gods began their measurement of the earth from 
 the East. "Indra measured out (vimimaya) as it were 
 a house with measures from the front." 4 The idea 
 
 1 VI. 47. 3, 4. For the explanation of the ' six spaces ' and other 
 cosmographical references, see Appendix. 
 
 2 X. 29. 6. 
 » V. 85. 5. 
 
 4 pracah II. 15. 3., cf. VII. 99. 2. praclm kaMbham prithivyah. 
 
Ike Measuring of the World. 19 
 
 of measuring is closely allied to that of spreading 
 out the earth, revealing it to the eyes of man, a 
 function also ascribed to the gods connected with the 
 sun and the lightning, in particular to Indra, Agni, 
 and the Maruts. The site seems to have been con- 
 secrated by being anointed with ghee, 1 which in our 
 hymns represents the rain or light given by the gods. 
 The fathers (Manes; see Ch. III.) "anointed heaven 
 and earth to rule over them ; they measured them with 
 measuring- rods ; they made them fast and broad ; they 
 set the great worlds apart, firmly fixed for security." 2 
 Connected with the action of measuring is that of 
 setting in the corner-posts, frequently expressed by 
 a different form (mi) of the same root. The doors 
 of the cosmic house are the portals of the East 
 through which the morning light enters into the 
 world. " The Dawn shone with brilliance, and opened 
 for us the doors." 3 The doors "open high and wide 
 with their frames." 4 They are broad as the earth, 
 " extending wide and above all, many in number, 
 yea very many ; through the doors flow the streams 
 of ghee." 5 They are particularly glorified in the 
 Apri-hymns, as the gates through which the gods 
 approach, the arrangement of the place of sacri- 
 
 1 A. V. III. 12. l. 
 
 2 III. 38. 3., cf. I. 190. 2. 
 
 3 I. 113.4., IV. 51. 2., V. 45. 1. 
 
 4 ataih IX. 5. 5. 
 
 5 I. 188. 5. 
 
20 The Building of the World. 
 
 fice being assimilated to the measurement of the 
 world. Lastly, the covering-in of the house with 
 cross-beams and a thatching of bamboo-canes is alluded 
 to negatively in the designation of the sky as the 
 beamless or the rafterless. " He was a clever workman 
 in the world who produced this heaven and earth, and 
 fixed the two regions of air in the beamless space." 1 
 The air is said to be woven in the trees or clouds. 
 "Thou, Indra, didst fasten firmly the region of air 
 in the frame of heaven and earth." 2 
 
 The criterion of excellence in the human house 
 was the firmness and compactness of its structure. 
 So we are continually told of one god and another 
 how he holds the heaven and the earth fast; and the 
 security of the never-falling sky is a perpetual source 
 of wonder to the human builders. "Indra spread 
 out the broad earth, a great marvel, and supported 
 the sky, erect and mighty." "He supported the 
 heaven and the earth apart." " That which thou 
 makest secure is secure." 3 The heaven is itself called 
 vidharman, or simply dhdrman, 'the support' or 'the 
 firmament.' 4 But the compactness of the building 
 was useless unless the foundations were sure. " Savitar 
 
 1 avamgd IV. 56. 3., II. 15. 2.; askambhandX. 149. 1.; cf. Chund. 
 Up. 3. 1. 1. 
 
 3 V. 85. 2.; I. 56. 5. 
 
 3 VI. 17. 7. ; V. 29. 4. : VIII. 45. 6. 
 
 4 This sense seems necessary for dhdrman in VIII. 6. 20. The fuller 
 expression dhdrman divo dharune (X. 170. 2., V. 15. 2.), 'the sure firma- 
 ment of the sky ' or ' the support supporting the sky,' is abbreviated into 
 
The Introduction of the Fire. 21 
 
 made the earth fast with bands." "Vishnu fixed it 
 on all sides with pegs." "Brihaspati supports firmly 
 in their places the ends of the earth." 1 When all 
 was finished, the world was furnished with, gifts of 
 light, rain, and air. 2 
 
 Such is a brief outline of the metaphor of the 
 house as it pictured itself to the lively fancy of the 
 poets. A more special characteristic of the mode of 
 thought in the Eigveda is the invariable introduction 
 into all cosmological conceptions of the fires of heaven 
 and earth, the sun, the lightning or the thunderbolt, 
 and the fire of sacrifice. The solar and meteoro- 
 logical explanations of mythology have been the sub- 
 ject of so much controversy of late that it is necessary 
 to call the reader's attention once for all to the fact 
 that the frequent references in this essay to the sun 
 and the lightning, as the natural phenomena upper- 
 most in the minds of the Eishis, are in no sense 
 solar or fulgural explanations of mythology, or of 
 the origins of the gods ; they merely draw attention 
 to the conceptions associated with different gods 
 (perhaps conventionally) in the Eigveda. The first act 
 of the Indian on entering his new house was the 
 introduction of the sacred fire, Agni, " who was ever 
 
 dhdrmani in III. 38. 2., and perhaps in I. 159. 3., cf. IX. 97. 22. For 
 vidharman see Grassmann's Lexicon ; Bergaigne contests this meaning 
 for vidharman also, La Religion vedique, III. 218. n. 2. 
 
 1 yantraih X. 149. 1. ; mayiikhaihVU. 99. 3. ; IV. 50. 1 ; cf. X. 89. 1 # 
 
 2 I. 56. 5., III. 30. 11., II. 15. 2. etc. 
 
22 The Building of the World. 
 
 to be worshipped in the house," "the master of the 
 house." 1 The first act of the gods after the forma- 
 tion of the world was to produce the celestial Agni, 
 the sun or the lightning. From the hearth in the 
 middle of the house the flames and smoke streamed 
 up towards the roof, presenting the picture of a pillar 
 supporting the ceiling. Agni is " the head of 
 heaven and the navel of the earth ; " 2 he, as his 
 liquid counterpart, Soma, is 'the bearer of heaven' 
 and the support of the world. " He was set down 
 among men as a wise priest, welcome in the sacrifice 
 for his knowledge ; he shot up his straight light 
 like Savitar, and supported his smoke toward heaven 
 like a builder." 3 The sun is the gold or bronzen 
 pillar of Mitra and Varuna's throne ; the sky itself 
 is compared to a firmly set pillar. 4 This function 
 of Agni was symbolized by the erection of a post 
 in the place of sacrifice, the vanaspati of the Apri- 
 hymns, which was anointed with ghee to represent 
 his light. 
 
 The action of building the cosmic house, corre- 
 sponding to the rough work of the Indian peasant, 
 is attributed for the most part to the gods in 
 general, to Indra as the representative of the gods, 
 
 1 grihdpati, vdstosh pdtih. VII. 1. 2. cf. III. 1. 17. 
 s I. 59. 2. 
 
 8 IV. 6. 2. cf. IV. 13. 5., VI. 47. 5., X. 88. I., III. 5. 10. 
 1 V. 62. 7, 8.; V. 45. 2. 
 
Tvashtar, the joiner. 23 
 
 or to Mitra and Varuna, as the ordainers of all 
 that is in the world. But there are other gods, 
 whose special character is based on their skill in 
 the finer works of the joiner's art, such as would 
 be delegated by the peasant to the professional 
 workman. These are Tvashtar and the Ribhus. 
 Tvashtar is the clever-handed carpenter- god, who, 
 in particular, manufactured with his hatchet the 
 thunderbolt of Indra, but also, in general, "adorned 
 heaven and earth, the parents, and all things with 
 their forms," 1 whence heaven and earth are called 
 1 the artificer's pair.' In the sacrifice he created 
 the hymn of praise, which is technically described 
 as a piece of joinery. " Tvashtar produced thee 
 (Brihaspati) from all existing things, from hymn 
 after hymn, the skilled artificer. 2 He is also one 
 of the gods who generated the sacred fire. 3 But 
 his chief contribution to the sacrifice is the soma, 
 Tvashtar's mead. 4 His special function in the natural 
 world is the formation of the embryo in the womb, 
 whence he is regarded as the giver of children 
 and of increase in cattle. 5 This function and its 
 connection with the soma will call for further treat- 
 ment in the next chapter. The menial character 
 
 1 X. 110. 9., IV. 42, 3., III. 55. 19. ; cf. V. 42. 13. 
 
 2 II. 23. 17. 
 
 3 X. 2. 7., 46. 9., I. 95. 2. 
 * I. 117. 22., cf. X. 53. 9. 
 5 I. 188. 9. 
 
24 The Building of the World. 
 
 of Tvashtar's activity, and his association with the 
 harem of the gods, covered him with a certain 
 ridicule in the eyes of the Rishis. There is no hymn 
 devoted to his praise in the whole collection. Indra 
 is represented as surpassing him in his own special 
 department, the making of the soma or the rain in 
 the clouds : " I placed the bright milk in these cows, 
 which even god Tvashtar could not place in them." 
 "While a baby Indra stole the soma out of the bowls 
 in Tvashtar's house, where Tvashtar had tried to 
 hide it. 1 
 
 The same view of the menial office of the divine 
 workmen is seen in the ascription to the Eibhus of 
 a human birth, and in , the conception that they 
 obtained their immortality by their service of the gods. 
 The praises of the Eibhus consist in enumerations 
 of a certain number of actions, expressed in fixed 
 mythological figures, the discussion of which lies 
 outside the scope of this essay. They make hymns 
 and soma like Tvashtar ; they produce the wonderful 
 chariot of the Acvins, and Indra's thunderbolt and 
 horses. They are even said in one place to have 
 fashioned the Acvins themselves, 2 and they shape 
 the cow of plenty in the sky. It is said of a strong 
 king given to the people by the Maruts, as also of 
 the streams, that he was formed by Vibhvan, one 
 
 1 X. 49. 10. ; III. 48. 4., IV. 18. 3., I. 84. 15. 
 
 2 IV. 34. 9., cf. VI. 3. 8. 
 
The Ribhus. 25 
 
 of their number. 1 la particular, their renovating of 
 their aged and decrepid parents, and of the old cow, 
 which they reunited to her calf, would seem to refer 
 to the new birth of the world through, the recurrence 
 of the seasons ; and they are once said to have made 
 heaven and earth. 2 We have the names of three 
 Ribhus ; but the varied character of their workings 
 in the different departments of nature is emphasized 
 by the mystic number, thrice seven, of their gifts, 
 and we find the expression ' all the Ribhus ' employed 
 as if of an indefinite number. Their names are 
 severally used in the plural ; and one passage has 
 the remarkable expression, 'Ribhu with the Ribhus, 
 Vibhva with the Vibhus, the powers with power/ 3 
 which can leave little doubt that the number of 
 these ' men of the air ' was in one form of their 
 legends as vague as that of the wonderful works of 
 nature. Indra figures as their chief, or, in the phrase 
 of the Rigveda, they are his sons ; he as a Ribhu 
 bestows gifts on man and beast. 4 
 
 Two legends concerning the Ribhus deserve special 
 mention : their contest with Tvashtar, when they made 
 three cups for the soma from his one, and their 
 production of grass on the meadows by refreshing the 
 
 1 vibhvatashtd V. 58. 4., 42. 12. 
 
 2 IV. 34. 9. 
 
 3 ribhur ribhubhih .... vibhvo vibhubhih gdvasa qdvamsi. VII. 
 48. 2. 
 
 * IV. 37. 4., I. 121. 2. 
 
26 The Building of the World. 
 
 earth with streams after twelve days' rest, as guests, 
 in the house of Agohya. In the first case we may 
 discover the explanation of Tvashtar's defeat in 
 the superior number of the Eibhus, representing the 
 conquest of a combination of inferior beings over a 
 single-handed mighty power. The legend is usually 
 explained as referring to the three worlds; it may 
 possibly refer merely to a change of ritual. 1 The 
 Eibhus, as we shall see was the case with Tvashtar, 
 are brought into special connection with the sun, the 
 main agent of productiveness in nature. They are 
 * bright as the sun ' (siiracakshasa7i), the sons of 
 Sudhanvan, the 'good archer'; "with their father's 
 energy (taranitua) they obtained his wealth and 
 mounted up into the region of heaven ; " it is, in 
 particular, Savitar who befriends them and procures 
 them immortality ; and we read of " the dispositions 
 of the Eibhus according to the succession of the 
 dawns." 2 
 
 "We are thus brought to the end of the first ex- 
 planation of the formation of the world. The reader 
 cannot fail to have been struck with the disinterested, 
 objective character of the description ; the end of 
 creation is not man ; the Eishis do not question the 
 motive of the gods in forming the world. Divine 
 
 1 F. Neve, Essai sur le mythe des Ribhavas, Paris, 1847. 
 
 2 I. 110. 6., cf. IV. 33. 1. ; I. 110. 2, 3., cf. Ait. Br. 3. 3. 30. j 
 vidhana ribhunam IY. 51. 6. 
 
The similarity of divine and human actions, 27 
 
 actions are magnified copies of human actions ; as, 
 therefore, a man must build his house, so the gods 
 have built the universal house. The similarity, we 
 may almost say the identity, of the divine and human 
 occupations, with this difference that the gods lack 
 the object for which men pursue their work, will be 
 also illustrated by the next chapter on generation 
 as a cosmological principle. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 GENERATION. 
 
 In the preceding chapter attention was drawn to the 
 familiar logical distinction between induction and 
 analogy or metaphor. It was shown by an illus- 
 tration how the metaphor, which in modern literature" 
 is employed as a figure of language, was in the 
 Rigveda of great importance as a mode of thought. 
 The present chapter will afford an illustration of 
 analogical reasoning. Analogy is the comparison 
 of effects or of classes of effects, which we are 
 unable to analyse, but which appear so similar as 
 to lead to the presumption that they are due to 
 similar causes. In formal expression this method 
 of reasoning usually makes use of a type, or par- 
 ticularly well-known and obvious example of the 
 class in which cause and effect are found to coexist ; 
 one striking instance is singled out as representative 
 of the process which seems to relate the cause to 
 the effect. In the argument which forms the 
 subject of this chapter the process which is described 
 is that of generation ; the type is the union of 
 light and water at dawn and in the thunderstorm; 
 
Analogy. 29 
 
 the effect which, requires explanation is the origin 
 of the world. 
 
 "We have further seen in the description of 
 Agni as the pillar which supports the heavens 
 the importance of visible pictorial presentment in 
 cosmological speculation. It is the visible periodical 
 union of the two most antagonistic elements of 
 nature, fire and water, seen in the glistening dew 
 of the dawn, the brightness of the morning mist, 
 and the flash of lightning piercing the rain-cloud, 
 which explains the complicated sensuous symbolism 
 of those hymns in which the generation of the 
 world is described. We shall find that light or 
 warmth and moisture, the chief factors of genera- 
 tion in the cosmology of the Rigveda as in the 
 systems of the Ionic philosophers, are not here, as 
 they are there, the primary elements out of which the 
 world formed itself, but are always bound up with 
 the phenomena of the sky, the sun in the clouds, 
 and the lightning in the rain. In illustration of 
 this the chapter before us will treat first of the birth 
 of the sun as the type of all subsequent births, next of 
 the action of fire or light and water as productive 
 agencies, and lastly of the general principle of 
 generation as applied to explain the origin of the 
 world. 
 
 There are three principal applications of the metaphor 
 of parentage in the Rigveda, temporal, generic, and 
 local. In the temporal sense it expresses the 
 
30 Generation. 
 
 appearance of one phenomenon before another ; the 
 dawn is the mother of the sun and of the morning 
 sacrifice, the night is the mother of the morning, 1 
 and the like. The parent may correspond to an 
 efficient cause, as when the Maruts, the gods of the 
 storm-cloud, are said to give birth to darkness, or 
 again to the material cause, expressing the trans- 
 formation of one object into another, as when the 
 rain is said to be born of the cloud. 2 
 
 Again, the father is head and representative of the 
 sons of the family, as the mother of the daughters ; 
 his personality is continued in them. 3 Thus the 
 metaphor obtains a generic sense, expressing the most 
 prominent member of a group ; Vayu is the father of 
 the winds, or of the storm-gods, Rudra is the father 
 of the Maruts and Rudras, soma of the plants and 
 of the prayers ; Sarasvati is the mother of the rivers. 
 The sons may be considered as inheriting the qualities 
 of the father, as when Tvashtar's epithet ligvdrupa 
 is separated from him and becomes the name of his 
 son ; 4 or again, as in the Semitic languages, the 
 place of the father may be occupied by an abstract 
 quality, as when Agni, the Maruts and others are 
 
 i VII. 78. 3. ; I. 123. 9. 
 
 2 VII. 94. 1. 
 
 3 II. 33. 1. 
 
 4 yad etaj jnyate 'patyam sa evayam iti f>'utih } u according to the 
 Veda the offspring which is born to a man is the man himself." — Maha- 
 bharata, ^antip. 10862; cf. Brihadar. Up. 2. 1. 7. 
 
Parentage. 31 
 
 called 'the sons of strength/ or Pushan who sets 
 men ' in a large place ' is called * the child of 
 setting free/ and Indra the child of cow-getting. 1 
 
 Lastly, the metaphor has a local sense. The quiver 
 is called the father of the arrows, 2 carrying them as 
 a father carries his child in his arms. The earth 
 is the mother of the trees and of all things that she 
 bears on her broad bosom, and the heaven the father 
 of all things that move in the sky, the sun, the 
 Maruts, morning and evening. 3 
 
 But heaven and earth do not merely contain all 
 things, they also supply the nourishment by which 
 they grow; the harvest-time, for instance, can be 
 called the child of the earth. 4 The transition is easy 
 from the local application of the metaphor to the 
 temporal. Heaven and earth are the dwelling-places 
 in which all births take place, they are also the first- 
 born in the beginning, of equal age and common 
 origin ; or, what amounts to the same thing, the 
 question is mooted, which of the two could have been 
 the older ; 5 or again, by a characteristic confusion 
 
 1 vimuco napat I. 42. 1., VI. 55. 1. ; goshano napat IV. 32. 22. We 
 may perhaps trace the incipient misconception of this idiom, which does 
 not belong to the later language, in the explanation of the phrase sdhasas 
 put) ah as applied to Agni from the force exercised in rubbing the fire- 
 sticks (V. 11. 6.). "VVe must not, however, interpret the etymological 
 fancies of the Rishis too seriously. 
 
 2 VI. 75. 5. 
 
 3 I. 185. 2. 
 
 4 I. 173. 3. 
 6 I. 186. 1. 
 
32 Generation. 
 
 of thought, they are represented as the two fruitful 
 parents, who produced the world for their offspring. 1 
 The difficulty at once arose of fixing the relation 
 of heaven and earth as the universal parents to the 
 gods, who, from another point of view, have also 
 a claim to be considered the fathers of the world. 
 The Rishis contented themselves with a favourite 
 paradox : the children begat their parents. " Indra 
 begat his father and his mother from his own 
 body." 2 
 
 The first-born of heaven and earth is the sun. 
 This birth is one of the most frequent topics of the 
 Rigveda, hinted at for the most part rather than 
 described in a series of complicated riddles playing 
 perpetually on the identification of the three kinds 
 of Agni, in the sun, the lightning, and the fire or 
 soma of the sacrifice ; on the comparison of heaven 
 and earth to the two rubbing-sticks that produced 
 the fire, or to the two stones between which the 
 soma was pressed ; and other recondite parallelisms 
 enriching the formal expression more than the 
 meaning of the hymns. A great source of perplexity 
 in the interpretation is the confusion of the dawns 
 or night and morning, which give birth to the sun, 3 
 with the waters, the mists of the sky or the rain- 
 clouds which carry the embryo of the lightning. 
 
 1 I. 159. 2. 
 
 2 I. 159. 3.,X. 54. 3. 
 
 3 V. 1. 4. 
 
The Light and the Waters. 33 
 
 They are both alike represented as the cows of 
 Agni, his mothers, his nurses, sisters, or wenches. 
 The light itself is considered as a liquid, as in the 
 familiar English expressions a ' stream ' or ' flood of 
 light/ ' pouring light/ " The sun mounts upon a 
 liquid flood." l 
 
 The centre-point of the theory of cosmological 
 generation, as has been said, is the combination of 
 the light with the waters, which presented itself to 
 the eyes of the poets in the birth of the lightning 
 from the rain-cloud, and in the exhalations which 
 surround the light of the sun. Agni has his home 
 in the waters; he is 'the child of the waters/ 'the 
 one eye of heaven, who grows by the action of the 
 streams/ 2 The reference to the lightning is suf- 
 ficiently obvious ; the part played by the sun in the 
 paradox, apart from such general expressions as 'the 
 waters about the sun ' contrasted with the waters 
 below on earth, is described as the shooting or 
 weaving of his rays through the waters of heaven. 3 
 The allusion to the dew is established by the close 
 connection of the dawn with the waters, in which 
 she is represented as bathing. 4 The marriage of 
 the sky with the earth, the father and mother of 
 the sun, presented itself in two ways. First, the sky 
 
 1 VII. 60. 4.= V. 45.10. 
 
 2 IX. 9. 4., where Soma represents the sun ; I. 23. 17. 
 
 s III. 22. 3., X. 27. 21.; VII. 47, 4., IV. 38. 10., X. 178. 3. 
 * VI. 64. 4., I. 124. 5., 48. 3; V. 80. 5. 
 
 3 
 
34 Generation. 
 
 embraces the earth on all sides, and both are united 
 in the twilight of the East before the dawn. Secondly, 
 the fall of the rain and the shedding of light in 
 the form of sunshine or lightning are the visible 
 causes of the fertilization of the. soil. The sun 
 draws the dew as milk from his mother earth, and 
 obtains his light, which as we have seen is also 
 regarded as a liquid, from his father the sky. 1 
 These two, the light and the dew or rain, are inter- 
 changeably represented as milk or semen, celestial 
 ambrosia, ghee, 2 or soma- juice. 
 
 The conception of the rising sun in the morning 
 dew is personified in the figure of Gandharva, 
 a discussion of whose character will be the best 
 illustration of the birth of the sun as the type 
 of generation. In the only entire hymn which is 
 addressed to him, he receives the name of Yena, 
 which occurs again in I. 83. 5. as an epithet of the 
 rising sun. In other passages it is translated by 
 the St. Petersburg Lexicon ' longing, desire (or 
 desirous), wish. ' It is used as an epithet of the 
 dawns, of Soma, and of Brihaspati, and seems to 
 be applied also to the songs or the singers. The 
 hymn describes in a succession of poetical images 
 his rise from the morning mist up to the sky, where 
 his light is merged in the all-embracing brilliance 
 of the heavens. 
 
 1 I. 160. 3., IV. 3. 10., X. n. l. 
 
 2 IV. 58. 
 
Vena. 35 
 
 X. 123. 1. "Vena, born in light, hath driven 
 hither the calves of the speckled cow in the chariot 
 of the air; 1 at the meeting of the sun with the 
 waters, the singers caress (lit. 'lick') him here as 
 a child with hymns. 
 
 2. Yena stirreth a ripple from out the (aerial) sea ; 2 
 the child of the clouds hath appeared along the ridge 
 of the bright sky; 3 on high, on the summit of nature's 
 course, he shone ; and the hosts sang to the bosom of 
 their common father (the sky). 
 
 3. The many mothers of the calf, who have one 
 home, 4 were there, exulting in their common child ; 
 rising to the summit of nature's course the songs sip 
 (lit. lick) the sweet ambrosia. 
 
 4. The singers knowing his form yearned for him ; 
 they have found the roar of the wild buffalo (Soma) ; 
 performing the sacrifice they are come to the stream. 
 Gandharva hath found the forms of ambrosia. 
 
 5. Apsaras, the maiden, smiling on her paramour, 
 beareth him in high heaven ; he is come as a loved 
 one to the bosom of his loved one ; 5 he settleth 
 there upon his golden wing, even Yena. 
 
 6. As with longing in their hearts (venantah) they 
 gaze on thee, as a bird flying up to heaven, the gold- 
 
 1 cf. II. 40. 3. The force of aydm is ' Behold here.' 
 
 2 cf. IV. 58. 1, 11. 
 
 3 cf. VIII. 100. 5. 
 
 4 The dawns cf. VII. 2. 5., or, as Ludwig suggests, the waters. The 
 two are, as has heen said, practically indistinguishable. 
 
 5 i.e. his father, the sky; cf. V. 47. 3., III. 1. 9., VIII. 69. 7. 
 
36 Generation. 
 
 winged messenger of Varuna, to Yama's home, a 
 soaring eagle ; 
 
 7. Upright hath Gandharva mounted into the sky- 
 pointing his glancing weapons ; clad in a sweet- 
 smelling mantle, beautiful to look upon, he produceth 
 fair forms as the light. 1 
 
 8. When as a drop 2 he cometh to the aerial ocean, 
 gazing with a vulture's eye in heaven, his light 
 rejoicing in its gleaming brilliance worketh bright- 
 ness in the highest region." 3 
 
 Similar references to Gandharva as the rising 
 sun occur in I. 163. 2., where he holds the bridle 
 of the horse of the sun ; and in X. 177. 2., where he 
 sings the morning song of the sun -bird ; " the bird 
 beareth a song in his heart, Gandharva sang it 
 while yet in the womb;'* " Gandharva mounts up 
 to the sky, he beholds all the forms of Soma, his 
 light shines abroad with gleaming brilliance, he illu- 
 
 1 surabhi appears to be a play on the word gandhd, occurring in the 
 name Gandharva. The third pada is applied to Indra in VI. 29. 3., 
 including the comparison with svdr. That this comparison is no 
 hindrance to the identification of Gandharva with the sun is proved by 
 I. 50. 5., where it is applied to surya. 
 
 2 Ludwig and Grassmann translate drapsd 'spark': "drops of fire 
 are sparks."— Pet. Lex. s.v. Cf. (^at. Br. IV. 1. 1. 25. 
 
 3 Literally, " worketh fairness in itself ; " cf. arunHni krinvan of 
 Vata X. 168. 1. The interpretation given above is the one which appears 
 to me to agree best with the different images occurring in the hymn, and 
 with the other references to Gandharva, and is confirmed by A. V. II. 1., 
 IV. 1. ; Grassmann in his translation, vol. ii. p. 400, inclines to connect 
 Gandharva with the rainbow. The difference between the two interpreta- 
 tions scarcely affects the argument of the following pages. 
 
The Gandharvas and Apsarases. 37 
 
 minates heaven and earth, the parents, brilliantly." l 
 The Gandharvas receive the epithet vai/itkega, * whose 
 hair is as the wind/ or ' is borne upon the wind ' 
 (III. 38. 6., see next chapter) ; and in X. 139. 4-6. 
 Gandharva Vicviivasu is addressed as "the heavenly 
 Gandharva, measuring the realm of the air." 
 
 Our hymn illustrates the two senses in which the 
 sun is brought into connection with the waters ; first, 
 as penetrating with his beams the watery masses of 
 the sky, and secondly, in the assimilation of his 
 light to the waters, as soma or ambrosia, whence 
 the depths of light become the aerial ocean. This 
 association is stereot}'ped in the union of the 
 Gandharvas and the Apsarases, a type of marriage, 
 and in the later mythology of sexual enjoyment. 
 An Apsaras, dpya yoshd, 2 ' the water-nymph/ is 
 mentioned in X. 10. 4. as having given birth with 
 Gandharva to Yama, the progenitor of the human 
 race, in the waters ; and Vasishtha, in a late hymn, 
 VII. 33. verse 12, is represented as born from an 
 Apsaras. Through his connection with the light 
 and the waters Gandharva finds his parallel in the 
 soma, which symbolizes at the same time the 
 fructifying waters of heaven and liquid light. The 
 identification of the two is most striking in IX. 
 85. 9-12, a hymn addressed to Soma, where the 
 
 1 IX. 85. 12. 
 
 2 X. 11. 2. is obscure. 
 
38 Generation. 
 
 expressions used of Gandharva Vena in X. 123. are 
 with small modifications transferred to Soma. In 
 IX. 86. 36. Soma is called "the heavenly Gandharva 
 of the waters, whose eye is over men {nricdkshasam, 
 but see note 6 on page 68), born to rule over all 
 created things : " " the daughter of the sun brought 
 the soma, Gandharva received it." " Gandharva it 
 is who protecteth the place of Soma, who guardeth 
 the birthplaces of the gods, where he is invisible." 
 "The wise (singers) sip with their songs the rich 
 milk of heaven and earth on the sure place of the 
 Gandharva." 1 On the other hand, in VIII. 1. 11. 
 and 66. 5. he figures as the gaoler of the soma, 
 and is smitten like Tvashtar by Indra, who sets 
 the sun free. In IX. 78. 3. the Apsarases appear 
 in the same relation to Soma as to Gandharva. 2 
 
 "We can now understand the significance of 
 Gandharva in the marriage ceremony. The light of the 
 sun is considered as a main fructifying influence, not 
 only in the trees and plants, but also in the human 
 womb, as when it is said of Vishnu, that he brings 
 the parents together for rich fruitfulness, that he 
 protects the embryo in the womb, and forms the 
 female breast; of Pushan, that he grants brides to 
 his worshippers and has given birth to all things ; and 
 of the Acvins, that they have placed the embryo in 
 
 1 IX. 113. 3.; IX. 83. 4. ; I. 22. 14. ; cf. X. 80. 6. ; IV. 58. 4., V. S. 
 XII. 98. 
 
 3 cf. X. 30. 5. 
 
Surya. 39 
 
 all things. 1 The waters alone, especially as personified 
 in Parjanya, the god of the rain-cloud, will be shown 
 * later to bear the same character. Gandharva repre- 
 sents the union of these two influences. We pass 
 on to the other forms in which this union of the 
 light or the sun with the waters or the dawn is 
 expressed. In verses 40 and 41 of the classical 
 marriage hymn, or rather collection of marriage 
 formulae, X. 85, Surya, the typical bride, the daughter 
 of the sun, the dawn who rides in the chariot of 
 the Acvins, is given in marriage first to Soma, 2 then 
 to Gandharva, next to Agni, and lastly to the child 
 of man. In VI. 58. 3, 4, it is another sun-god, 
 Pushan, to whom the gods gave Surya as a bride. 3 
 Soma and Pushan are associated together in II. 40 as 
 two cosmogonic powers giving birth to the world. 
 Again, as we have seen Gandharva called the father 
 of Yama, so Vivasvat, a name of the sun or of the 
 lightning, is frequently mentioned as his father ; thus 
 
 1 I. 155. 3. ; VII. 36. 9., X. 184. 1., IX. 67. 10-12; I. 157. 5. 
 
 2 Compare verse 9. " Soma was trie bridegroom, the Acvins the two 
 interceders, when Savitar gave the willing bride Surya to her lord." 
 Soma is usually explained in this hymn in its later application as a name 
 of the moon. The different formulae here collected into one hymn cannot 
 be considered as all dating from the same period. The association of 
 Soma with the sun-gods points to the conclusion that he lias here the 
 same significance as in other hymns of the Rigveda, though many verses 
 of this hymn and their compilation may be of later date. There is a 
 doubt in verses 21 and 22 whether we should explain Gandharva Vicvavasu 
 as the protector of virgins, or, as in the later literature, the violator of 
 virgins. 
 
 3 cf. X. 85. 26, 27., VI. 55. 4. 
 
40 Generation. 
 
 the union of Surya with Gandharva finds its parallel 
 in the union of Tvashtar's daughter Saranyu (ace. 
 to Sonne, the storm-cloud ; ace. to Prof. M tiller, the 
 dawn) with Yivasvat, the fruit of which is Yama. 1 
 The nature of Tvashtar's character was, as we have 
 seen, so indefinite that he might have been introduced 
 as an agent in any natural phenomena, which were 
 regarded as products of artistic skill. His special 
 function was the formation of the embryo in the 
 womb, and it is in this connection that we observe 
 his approximation to the lightning and still more 
 to the sun. We have seen that he is the handi- 
 workman who made Indra's thunderbolt and the 
 soma. He is very frequently associated with the 
 goddesses of heaven, the Gnas, among whom we find, 
 mention in verse VII. 34. 22., of Eodasi and Varunani 
 the female counterparts of Rudra and Varuna, and 
 also of Aramati, the goddess of prayer. 2 He is invoked 
 to make the marriage union fruitful and to grant 
 increase of cattle. He is the father. 3 His approxima- 
 tion to the sun is seen in the combination of his 
 name with Savitar's. The two are invoked together 
 in XI. 81. 4. Under the triple name Tvashtar Savitar 
 Vicvarupa, where the epithet rigvdrupa serves to 
 emphasize the reference to the light, 4 he is said to 
 
 1 X. 17. l, 2. 
 
 2 Compare V. 43. 6. with VII. 34. 21. 
 
 3 III. 4. 9., VII. 34. 20., X. 184. 1. ; I. 188. 9. ; X. 64. 10. 
 
 4 See Grassmann's Lex. s.v. ; cf. Chand. Up. 5. 13. 1. 
 
The Type of Generation. 41 
 
 have nourished and given birth to all existing things. 
 Further, the same name appears to be used inter- 
 changeably with that of Gandharva for the father of 
 Yama and Yami; and Tvashtar receives the epithet 
 a griy a, the first-born. 1 We have thus arrived at the 
 following complication in the matrimonial relations 
 of the sun-gods : Gandharva, Agni, Soma, Pushan, 
 Tvashtar, and Vivasvat are all represented as the 
 bridegrooms of Surya, the daughter of the sun, or 
 of Saranyu, the daughter of Tvashtar. The Rishis 
 were not, however, content with the attainment of 
 this bizarre result of their symbolisms ; they delight 
 in describing the complication in its most paradoxical 
 form, that the father married his own daughter, and 
 with her gave birth to the universe. 2 We are thus 
 brought back to the point from which we started, 
 the union of the light with the waters confused 
 with the marriage of the sun, the first-born, with the 
 dawn, and regarded as the type of generation in 
 the world. 
 
 We now proceed to the discussion of the principal 
 hymns, among the most difficult in the Rigveda, 
 in which the figurative generation of the world is 
 described. The first hymn X. 72. contains the 
 barest outlines of a cosmogony, the details of which 
 remain in obscurity. There are two interpolations 
 
 1 X. 10. 5.; I. 13. 10. 
 
 2 V. 42. 13., and especially X. 61., I. 164. 33. 
 
42 Generation. 
 
 in the hymn (verses 2, and 6, 7) ; the original 
 verses, which are especially closely connected together, 
 admit more readily than in most hymns of separation 
 from the interpolations. 
 
 1. "Let us now proclaim with admiration the 
 births of the gods, in utterances of praise, that a 
 man may hear them (lit. see) in a later age. 1 
 
 3. In the first age of the gods the existent was 
 born from the non-existent ; after that the regions 
 (of the sky) were born from the begetter (the sky). 2 
 
 4. The earth was born from the begetter, the 
 regions (of the earth) from the earth. From 
 Aditi Daksha was born, and again from Daksha 
 Aditi. 
 
 5. Even Aditi had a birth, for she is thy daughter, 
 Daksha ; after her the blessed gods were born, of 
 immortal parentage. 
 
 8. Eight in number are the sons which were born 
 of Aditi, from her body ; she went forth to meet 
 the gods with seven, and cast the bird (Martanda) 
 away. 3 
 
 9. With seven sons Aditi went forth to meet the 
 
 1 For pag in the sense of 'hear,' cf. X. 71. 4. Or we may translate 
 with Delbriick, Altindische Tempuslehre, p. 14, 'whoever' or 'as one 
 who seeth in a later age.' For the construction cf. VIII. 6. 18. 
 
 2 The meaning of the air. dp. uttandpadah is quite uncertain ; utland is 
 used as an epithet of bhiimi, but this proves nothing for uttandpad. If we 
 take the word as masculine, and refer it to the sky, we obtain with bhd a 
 pair corresponding to Daksha and Aditi in the next two verses. 
 
 3 " The exposure of Martanda (Surya) refers apparently only to his 
 sweeping through the sky (icpdri prakshipat)" — Ludwig. 
 
The Worlds formed from Dust. 4$ 
 
 earliest age, she brought the bird thither to be born 
 and die again." 
 
 The interpolated verses are — 
 
 2. " Brahmanaspati welded these worlds together 
 like a smith ; in the earliest age of the gods the 
 existent was born from the non-existent " (cf. X. 
 81. 3.). 
 
 6. "When ye, gods, stood firmly embracing one 
 another in the formless depth, thence there arose from 
 your feet a thickening volume of dust as from dancers. 
 
 7. When ye, gods, like the Yatis, made all things 
 to grow, then ye brought forward the sun, which 
 was hidden in the sea." 
 
 The two verses 6 and 7 are interesting as containing 
 an independent story of the origin of the world : 
 the gods are said to have kicked up in dancing the 
 atoms which formed the earth. We may also notice 
 the usual mention of the production of the sun as 
 soon as heaven and earth were made. The nearest 
 parallel to this passage in the Rigveda is X. 24. 
 4, 5., addressed to the Acvins : " You two strong 
 and cunning ones produced by churning (as with 
 a fire-drill) the two (worlds) that face one another. 
 When, Niisatya (Agvins), worshipped by Vimada, 
 ye produced them by churning, all the gods yearned 
 as the two (worlds) facing one another fell away. 
 1 Nasatya,' spake the gods, ■ bring them here 
 again.' " Apparently the Acvins stirred up the dust, 
 which formed heaven and earth, and the gods were 
 
44 Generation. 
 
 so pleased with the production that they wished to 
 have them formed into solid masses. 1 Similarly in 
 I. 22. 17. the earth seems to have been formed from 
 the dust of Vishnu's three strides across the heavens. 
 The passages are, however, too isolated to admit of 
 anything more than conjectures ; we return to the 
 body of the hymn. 
 
 The mention of the non-existent and the existent 
 merely introduces the subject of origins, as will be 
 shown at the end of this chapter. The hymn contains 
 three moments; first, the birth of the three worlds, 
 heaven, earth, and the intermediate regions ; next, 
 parallel to the birth of the worlds, the birth of the 
 gods from their first parents ; lastly, the rise and 
 setting of the sun, represented by the figure of 
 Martanda. That martdndd has the meaning 'bird' 
 is proved by II. 38. 8. ; the word is perhaps here 
 chosen in allusion to the semi-divinity and semi- 
 mortality of the rising and setting sun. The relation 
 of Aditi to Daksha remains to be discussed. The 
 general meaning of the word daksha is * active 
 energy ' ; it is applied three times to the Ribhus ; 
 it is used of the production of hymns at the sacrifice ; 
 it is opposed to sickness ; and occasionally it has the 
 sense of malevolent activity. The personification of 
 Daksha as well as of Aditi is most probably to be 
 traced in the hymns themselves to an old idiom of 
 
 1 cf. Ait. Br. IV. 4. 27. 
 
Aditi and Daksha. 45 
 
 the Yedic language. In VIII. 25. 5. Mitra and 
 Varuna are called u the children of strength, and 
 the sons of daksha" i.e. the strong and active ones. 
 The expressions are common, and translators are 
 agreed as to their meaning. "We find now that the 
 description of Indra as ' son of strength/ gave rise 
 to the conception of a goddess Qavasi, his mother ; l 
 and it is scarcely less certain that Daksha, an 
 unimportant deity whose only characteristic in the 
 Rigveda is his fatherhood of the gods, has derived 
 his personality from similar expressions. 2 The analogy 
 of these two figures suggests at once a like explanation 
 of the origin of the motherhood of Aditi. The mother- 
 hood of the gods is the only constant and certain attri- 
 bute of Aditi. Aditi and Daksha are mentioned together 
 again in X. 5. 7. and 64. 5., a recurrence which 
 confirms the derivation of both from a like origin. 
 The history of the word may have been somewhat as 
 follows. It was used in pre-vedic times as an abstract 
 word meaning ' freedom from bondage/ if the generally 
 accepted etymology be correct. The determination 
 of the sons of Aditi as a class of gods was caused 
 by the association of the expression with particular 
 gods. The dditeh putrah, ' the unfettered gods, ' 
 became the sons of Aditi, and from this later sense 
 the name Aditya was derived. There is no proof 
 
 1 putrah qdvasah VIII. 92. 14. ; qdvasah sunuh IY. 24. 1. ; Cavasi 
 X. 153. 2. cf. note 1 on page 31. 
 
 2 v. s. v. ddkshapitar Pet. Lex. cf. IX. 87. 2. 
 
46 Generation. 
 
 that at the time when our hymns were composed the 
 word still bore the supposed etymological meaning of 
 'freedom from bondage/ It is used as an adjective and 
 as a substantive in so many and varied connexions 
 that no single conception has yet been proposed 
 sufficiently elastic to suit all its applications. The 
 ambiguity of meaning will be explained if we suppose 
 that after the word had become a proper name it 
 was employed anew, in the same way and in much 
 the same sense as the appellative asura, with a vague 
 sense of a grand divine significance. 1 In IX. 74. 5. 
 it is Soma who placed the fruit in Aditi's womb, 
 through which we obtain children and grandchildren. 
 The next passage which will occupy our attention 
 is a fragment, X. 31. 7-10. "Whether it come from 
 the same poet who wrote the preceding six verses 
 of the hymn or no, the connection of thought is 
 sufficiently loose for us to treat these four verses 
 alone. The subject is the first birth of the sun. 
 
 1 A collection of passages will be found in Professor A. Hillebrandt's 
 monograph, Ueber die Gtittin Aditi, Breslau, 1876. The parallelism of 
 dditi and asura is seen in the application of both words principally to 
 persons (Hillebrandt, I.e. p. 15) : in the similarity of the derivatives 
 from the two words, adititvd and asuralvd, cidityd and asura, diti and 
 sura : and in such passages as IV. 1. 20. compared with III. 3. 4. ; 
 V. 44. 11. with X. 74. 2. ; VII. 51. 1. with X. 50. 3. ; I. 89. 10. with 
 YI. 36. 1. ; V. 59. 8., X. 63. 3. with I. 131. 1.; cf. also X. 67. 2.,X. 
 10. 2. As dditi is the cow, so asura is in III. 38. 4. and V. 12. 1. an 
 epithet of vrishan. The fluctuating attributes of the goddess Aditi, as 
 distinguished from those attributes which are derived from her mother- 
 hood, are, for the most part, borrowed directly from the Adityas. 
 
The Birth of the Sun. 47 
 
 "7. What indeed was the wood? What too was 
 that tree, from which, they fashioned the heaven 
 and the earth? They two stand fast and grow 
 not old for ever, while many days and mornings 
 wax old. 
 
 8. There is no other thing besides like unto him ; 
 he is the bull that beareth heaven and earth ; of 
 his own power he maketh his skin a source of 
 light, 1 when the bay horses carry him as the sun. 
 
 9. As a Stega over the ground so he passeth over 
 the earth ; 2 he penetrateth the world, as the wind 
 scattering a mist; there, where Mitra and Varuna 
 are, he when anointed hath shot abroad his light, as 
 Agni in the wood (i.e. at sacrifice). 
 
 10. When the barren cow (the earth) beareth, 
 immediately on being anointed she maketh her 
 insecure paths secure (at daybreak), who hath her 
 own herdsman (or herself her own herdsman) ; when 
 the first son is born from his parents, the cow 
 devoureth the placenta (?) which they seek." 3 
 
 The verses deal with the formation of the three 
 
 1 Compare suryatvac. The Pet. Lex. translates pavitra ' sieve.' It 
 would then signify the filter through which the heams of the sun stream. 
 The literal meaning of the word is ' instrument of illumination or purifi- 
 cation.' A similar passage is I. 160. 3. 
 
 2 Thus the grammatical parallelism of the first and second padas is 
 complete. The Stega is a biting or stinging insect. 
 
 3 The sense of vydthih in all passages is 'an insecure going.' For our 
 passage cf. II. 35. 5., II. 4. 7. The Pet. Lex. and Grassmann take the 
 word gamyam as equivalent to gdmyam, ' a plug or peg.' The original 
 reading may possibly have been some such word as jarayu (? qdmalam), 
 
48 Generation. 
 
 main components of the universe, heaven, earth, and 
 the sun. Of the first two the poet has little to 
 tell us, and passes on at once to the third. The 
 sun is identified with the bull, Agni of the sacrifice, 
 and the earth with the lower rubbing-stick anointed 
 with ghee, which is licked up as soon as fire is struck. 
 
 The next hymn is again a description of the rise 
 of the sun, his birth in the east; the cosmogonic 
 significance of the hymn does not appear till the 
 last verse, which may be regarded as the climax 
 of the whole, or may be but an afterthought. The 
 allusions do not admit of certain explanation. I add 
 the interpretations which seem to me the most 
 plausible. 
 
 X. 5. 1. "The one sea (the sun) bearing rich 
 treasures, producing many births, is to us all a sight 
 of gladness. He sucketh the teat on the breast of 
 his hidden parents ; in the midst of the fount (source 
 of light in the East) is placed the home of the bird. 
 
 2. The strong, lusty horses dwelling in a common 
 stall come together with the mares (light and 
 waters). The wise (the rays, see Chapter III.) guard 
 the home of nature's order, they assume excellent 
 forms in secret. 
 
 3. The two cunning ones (heaven and earth) who 
 
 which would yield a suitable antecedent to ydd and give an intelligible 
 sense, cf. A. V. VI. 49. 1. With starir ydd sdta compare VII. 101. 3. 
 starh- a tvad bhdvati, suta u tvat, where the reference to the earth is still 
 clearer. 
 
The Rise of the Sun. 49 
 
 follow nature's order unite ; they form and give birth 
 to the child, nourishing him, the centre of all that 
 is fixed and that moveth, weaving 1 with insight the 
 thread of the wise. 
 
 4. For the tracks of nature's course and the juices 
 (dews and light) for refreshment follow the goodly 
 child from of old; heaven and earth, clothing them- 
 selves in a mantle, are strengthened by the rich 
 nourishment of the sweet drink. 
 
 5. His seven glowing sisters (rays and waters) as 
 a lover the understanding one bringeth forth from 
 the sweet drink to be seen ; he who is of ancient 
 birth halteth in the sky, and seeking hath found 
 the dome of heaven. 2 
 
 6. The (seven) wise ones (rays) fashion seven lines, 
 to one of these may the distressed mortal come. 3 
 The support of life in the home of the highest, at 
 the divergence of the ways, standeth on sure ground. 
 
 1 Read vdyanti, cf. II. 3. 6. For the thought compare VI. 9. 
 
 2 The rendering of vavrim pilshandsya is a paraphrase. The context 
 leads us to expect an expression of the journey of the sun up towards the 
 zenith. The word pushand is an an. elp. If we retain the text as it 
 stands, Pushan's covering will he probably the sphere of his movement. 
 For vavri compare IV. 42. 1. and X. 4. 4. 
 
 3 The 'distressed' one, lit. 'compressed,' is the mortal longing for 
 daybreak. The • lines ' maryadah are the beams of light ; the word 
 occurs again in IV. 5. 13. along with vaytind (pi.), a word with a similar 
 development of meaning ; compare also saptdraynin. These beams 
 diverge as paths from the point where the sun stands, I. 46. 11. When 
 the sun is just rising there are two paths, the dark and the light, III. 
 55. 15. Ludwig renders the word here • ways,' but assigns to it a moral 
 significance following Sayana. 
 
 4 
 
50 Generation. 
 
 7. The non-existent and the existent are in highest 
 heaven in the birthplace of Daksha, in Aditi's lap. 
 Agni is our firstborn of nature's order, and in the 
 beginning of life a lusty bull." 
 
 In the next hymn a sun-god is glorified as the 
 great power of the universe, from which all other 
 powers and existences, divine and earthly, are derived, 
 a conception which is the nearest approach to the 
 later mystical conception of Brahma, the creator of 
 the world. The hymn is addressed to Hiranyagarbha, 
 the gold- germ, who in the last verse is addressed as 
 Prajapati, the prototype and lord of things born. 
 The name Hiranyagarbha marks the association of 
 the conception with the light; the other references 
 to the sun in the hymn are equally clear; but the 
 god is already beginning to be abstracted into an 
 independent figure, though tentatively as appears 
 from the refrain. 
 
 X. 121. I. 1 "Hiranyagarbha (gold-germ) was formed 
 in the beginning ; when born he was the sole lord of 
 being. He holdeth fast the heaven here and the 
 earth ; what god shall we honour with sacrifice ? 2 
 
 2. Who giveth breath and giveth strength ; whose 
 prescriptions all the gods perform ; whose (light and) 
 shadow is immortality and death ; 3 what god shall 
 we honour with sacrifice? 
 
 1 Translated by Prof. Max Miiller, Hibbert Lectures, p. 295. 
 
 2 A similar phrase occurs in X. 168. 4., VIII. 48. 13. 
 
 3 Ludwig translates chat/5 here ' Glanz,' Grassmann ■ Schattenbild.' 
 
The Gold-germ. 51 
 
 3. Who by his power is become sole king of the 
 living world, that breath eth and slurabereth ; who 
 ruleth over its men and beasts; what god shall we 
 honour with sacrifice ? 
 
 4. Who by his power, they tell us, possesseth 
 these snowy mountains, and the sea with the Rasa 
 (a mythical river) ; whose arms are these regions ; 
 what god shall we honour with sacrifice ? 
 
 5. Through whom the strong heaven and the earth 
 are made secure, 1 through whom the realm of light 
 is supported, and the vault of the sky, who traverseth 
 the air in the middle region ; what god shall we 
 honour with sacrifice ? 
 
 6. To whom the two battle-hosts, sustained by 
 his support, looked up as they trembled in spirit, 
 there where the risen sun shines ; 2 what god shall 
 we honour with sacrifice ? 
 
 7. When the august waters went, receiving the 
 germ of all and producing fire ; thence arose the 
 living spirit of the gods [which is one]; 3 what god 
 shall we honour with sacrifice ? 
 
 8. Who surveyed with power the mighty waters, 
 when they received productive energy (ddksha) and 
 
 1 Ludwig and Grassmann take ugra as a predicate : but in that con- 
 struction the sense of the word ' actively strong, fresh,' makes a poor 
 parallel to driljia and stabhitdm. 
 
 3 The battle begins at dawn. The expression is applied to Indra in II. 
 12. 8. Dadhikra, the rising sun in the form of a war-horse, is similarly- 
 invoked by contending armies; IV. 38. 5., 39. 5. 
 
 3 Two syllables extra ; ekah is suspicious. 
 
 Y 
 
52 Generation. 
 
 begat sacrifice ; who alone is god over the gods ; 
 what god shall we honour with sacrifice ? 
 
 9. Let not the begetter of the earth harm us, 
 nor he who hath begotten the heaven, whose ordinance 
 is sure, who hath begotten the mighty and shining 
 waters ; what god shall we honour with sacrifice ? 
 
 [10. Prajapati, no other than thou is become lord 
 over all these productions ; grant us our desire when 
 we call upon thee ; may we be possessors of wealth.] "* 
 
 The hymn is an enumeration by a wearisome 
 repetition of the relative pronoun of the general 
 characteristics of a great god. We look, therefore, 
 for the most special attributes in the first few verses. 
 Hiranyagarbha, ' the gold-germ, ' is born in the 
 beginning, giving life and strength, typifying life 
 and death, king of the breathing and slumbering 
 world, whose arms are the regions of the sky. In 
 other passages Prajapati is invoked for fruitful increase 
 of children, or of cattle, and once he is identified 
 with Soma. 2 Savitar also receives the title bhuvanasi/a 
 prajdpatih, 'the prajapati of the world/ It could 
 not be expected that such a conception as that of 
 
 1 The last verse is not divided up in the pada recension ; this fact and 
 the absence of the refrain would seem to prove the verse a later addition. 
 Grassmann is not therefore strictly correct in describing the hymn as 
 addressed to Prajapati, and treating hiranyagarbha as a mere appellative. 
 Later mythology would incline us to discover in Hiranyagarbha a reference 
 to the mythical primeval egg ; there is, however, no passage in the 
 Rigveda, except perhaps I. 130. 3., to support such a reference. 
 
 2 X. 85. 43., 184. 1., 169. 4. : IX. 5. 9. 
 
The Sim as Supreme Deity. 53 
 
 Hiranyagarbha would be limited to the sun, and 
 indeed in later times the connection with^the sun 
 sank into obscurity ; but that this connection was 
 as vividly present to the minds of the]] poets as in 
 the case of Savitar is established by [this hymn and 
 the references to Prajapati which have been cited. 
 The following passages will further show that, in- 
 dependently of this name, the sun was in] process 
 of elevation to the position of \ supreme*] and only 
 god which was afterwards occupied by Brahma, the 
 creator. In I. 115. 1. the sun is called " the life 
 (atmdn) of all that moveth and standeth." " They 
 call it Indra, Mitra, Yaruna, Agni, and it is the 
 strong-winged bird (Garutmat) of the sky ; though 
 it is one (ekam sat), the poets address it in many 
 ways ; they call it Agni, Yama, and Mataricvan." 
 11 The wise singers in their utterances ascribe to the 
 strong- winged bird, which is but one (ekam sdntam), 
 many forms." 1 
 
 We have thus seen the sun not only figure as 
 the main type and agent of generation in the world, 
 but, owing to the important place which it occupies 
 in cosmological speculations, even regarded as the 
 most divine of all the gods, embracing in himself 
 their most godlike functions and attributes, including 
 the attribute of creator. The next step was easily 
 taken. As he was the first of things born, so he 
 
 1 I. 164. 46., X. 114. 5., cf. V. 3. 1., 13. 6., TO 10. 2. 
 
54 Generation. 
 
 is represented as the Unborn (ajd). The characteristic 
 creative functions of Aja, the Unborn, are indicated 
 to us in two passages in the clearest manner in 
 which characteristic functions can be indicated, that 
 is to say, by comparison of other gods with him. 
 In I. 67. 5. Agni is said to have made fast the earth, 
 like the Unborn, to have supported the sky with 
 effective utterances. In VIII. 41. 10. it is Varuna 
 who " measured out the ancient dwelling-place, and 
 made heaven and earth fast, and the sky with a 
 support like the Unborn.' " The hymn to Hiranya- 
 garbha supplies us also with a clue to the next two 
 passages. "It rested on the navel of the Unborn, 
 that alone (Mam) in which all existing things 
 abide ; " " he who supported these six regions of 
 the air in the form of the Unborn, what is that 
 one?" 1 
 
 It was stated at the beginning of this chapter that 
 the element fire was not regarded in the Rigveda 
 as a material out of which the world was made. 
 This is the more striking when we consider how 
 large a proportion of the book is directly addressed 
 to Agni in his varied character as embodying the 
 different kinds of fire and light. The passages which 
 
 1 X. 82. 6., I. 164. 6. If this Aja is to be identified with Aja 
 Ekapad, in X. 65. 13. the bearer of heaven, the ascription of one foot to 
 the sun might be due to his appearance alone in the sky as opposed to the 
 dawns and the Acvins, cf. VIII. 41. 8. His association with Ahi 
 Budhnya would then be accounted for by the play on the word ajd, ' goat.' 
 
The Cosmogonic Influence of Agni. 55 
 
 approach nearest to a cosmogonic significance are 
 those in which Agni shows most clearly the side of 
 his character which represents the light and warmth 
 of the sun. He is said to place the embryo in 
 existing things; or he is himself the embryo of the 
 waters, of the trees, of things standing still and 
 moving ; he places the germ in plants and in all 
 things existing, he produces generation on the earth 
 and in women; he enters the plants, and mounts 
 up in them ; he is the herdsman of the nations, the 
 generator of the worlds and all existing things are 
 offshoots from him. 1 There is, however, one passage 
 which would appear to approach very near to the 
 conception of fire and water as primary elements. 
 The Ribhus are represented as speaking * correct '■ 
 words when forming the cups : " ' The waters are 
 most excellent/ said one ; ' fire is most excellent/ 
 said another ; the third praised the thunderbolt (or 
 the cloud containing the lightning) exceedingly. ,,2 
 The translation is not certain and the meaning too 
 obscure to admit of any inference as to the allusions 
 in the sayings. In another passage a Eishi pro- 
 pounds the question, "how many fires, dawns, and 
 suns are there ? " and assures the wise fathers in 
 heaven that he is not putting the question as a riddle, 
 but really seeking for information. 3 
 
 1 III. 2. 10, 11. ; I. 70. 3. ; X. 183. 3., cf. III. 56. 3., IV. 58. 5. ; 
 I. 98. 2., I, 67. 9. ; II. 35. 8. 
 
 2 I. 161. 9. 3 X. 88. 18. 
 
56 Generation. 
 
 We come now to the waters. They figure alone 
 as the mothers ; the streams, and in particular the 
 Sindhu, are the most motherly of mothers. 1 They 
 know the birth of heaven and earth ; they are the 
 begetters of all that stands and moves ; they are 
 the mothers and wives of the existing world, growing 
 up together in one home. 2 Their cosmogonic activity 
 is, however, much more frequently described in union 
 with the light in such passages as those already 
 quoted. The origin of the world is conceived on 
 the analogy of the common experience of ordinary 
 life. The advance of the sun into the watery heaven 
 and the shooting of the lightning from the dark 
 masses of the rain-clouds are the signs of the 
 periodic regeneration of the world ; Rudra, the storm - 
 god, is the divine physician, and the waters are his 
 vivifying medicines ; the origin of the world was, 
 therefore, held to have been due to a primeval sunrise 
 or a primeval thunderstorm. 3 The light was the 
 first germ, the waters were the bearers of the germ. 4 
 
 The general fructifying agency of the storm, which 
 is so all-important in India, finds its clearest expression 
 in the figure of Parjanya, the god of the rain-cloud. 
 He is the god who fructifies the earth as a rutting 
 bull ; he produces fruit in plants, mares, cows, and 
 
 1 VIII. 78. 4., I. 158. 5., III. 33. 3. 
 
 2 VII. 34. 2., VI. 50. 7., X. 30. 10. 
 
 3 Cf. e.g. Val. 3. 8. 
 * Cf. X. 82. 1. 
 
Parjanya and the Waters. 57 
 
 women ; and hence receives the title of father. 1 
 The Maruts similarly receive the title because they, 
 as a husband, place the fructifying germ in the 
 earth and in women. 2 "Parjanya produceth rain, 
 Agni the embryo ; may ye both give us strength 
 to beget children." 3 The following hymn describes 
 the most characteristic actions of Parjanya. 
 
 VII. 101. 1. " Speak the three words that are 
 pointed with light, 4 which milk this udder of sweet 
 milk ; as soon as the bull is born he belloweth, 
 producing calves and the germ in plants. 
 
 2. He who giveth increase of plants and waters, 
 who ruleth as god over the living world ; may he 
 grant threefold protection and shelter, and threefold 
 light for our assistance. 
 
 3. Now she is barren and now she bringeth forth, 
 he formeth her body as it may please him ; the 
 mother receiveth milk from the father ; thereby is 
 the father strengthened and also the son. 5 
 
 4. In whom all things abide ; through the three 
 heavens threefold the waters flow : the three dripping 
 vats flow with mead on all sides plentifully. 
 
 1 V. 83. 1, 6., VII. 102. 2., VII. 101. 3. 
 
 2 VI. 49. 10., V. 58. 7., X. 63. 15., V. 53. 13. 
 
 3 VI. 52. 16. 
 
 4 Perhaps with reference to the comparison of the sacrificial prayers to 
 the arrow-like flames of the sacrificial fire, cf. X. 87. 4., II. 24. 8. 
 Mention of the tisro vacah recurs in IX. 97. 34., cf. VII. 33. 7. 
 
 5 His wife is the earth, cf. A. V. XII. 1. 12. ; the sun is probably the 
 lightning of IX. 82. 3. 
 
58 Generation. 
 
 % 
 
 5. May this hymn please Parjanya, the monarch, 
 may he accept it favourably ; may quickening rain 
 be ours, and fruitful plants tended by the god. 
 
 6. He is the fructifying bull of the multitude 
 of maidens (waters cf. III. 56. 3.), in him is the 
 breath of all that moveth and standeth ; may this 
 sacrifice protect me for a thousand years — protect us 
 ever, ye gods, with blessings/' 
 
 The principle of cosmogonic generation was, how- 
 ever, already in the Rigveda extended beyond the 
 union of the light and the waters. We find mention 
 in one hymn of a primordial substance or unit out 
 of which the universe was developed. This is 'the 
 one thing' (ekam) which we have already met with 
 in connection with Aja, the Unborn, 1 and which is 
 also used synonymously with the universe 2 in 
 accordance with the principle which is the key to 
 much of the later mysticism that cause and effect 
 are identical. The poet endeavours in a strain, 
 which preludes the philosophy of the Upanishads, 
 to picture to himself the first state of the world, 
 and the first signs of life and growth in it. The 
 speculations of the Yeda are, however, characterized 
 by a marked difference of tone as compared with 
 those of the Upanishads in the absence in them of 
 the practical end and object of the latter, deliverance 
 from the world. 
 
 1 I. 164. 6, 46., X. 82. 6. 
 
 2 III. 54. 8., X. 48. 7., Val. 10. 2. 
 
The One Thing. 59 
 
 X. 129. I. 1 "The non-existent was not, and the 
 existent was not at that time ; there was no air nor 
 sky beyond ; what was the covering in ? and where ? 
 under shelter of what ? was there water — a deep 
 depth ? 
 
 2. Death was not nor immortality then, there was 
 no discrimination 2 of night and day : that one 
 thing breathed without a wind of its own self; apart 
 from it there was nothing else at all beyond. 
 
 3. Darkness there was, hidden in darkness, in the 
 beginning, everything here was an indiscriminate 
 chaos ; it was void covered with emptiness, all that was ; 
 that one thing was born by the power of warmth. 
 
 4. So in the beginning arose desire, which was 
 the first seed of mind ; the wise found out by 
 thought, searching in the heart, the parentage of 
 the existent in the non-existent. 
 
 5. Their line was stretched across ; what was 
 above ? what was below ? there were generators, 
 there were mighty powers ; svadha below, the pre- 
 sentation of offerings above. 
 
 6. Who knoweth it forsooth ? who can announce 
 
 1 The latest of the many commentators on this hymn are Professor 
 Whitney in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. xi. 
 p. cix, and Dr. Schermann, Philosophische Hymnen aus der Rig- und 
 Atharva-Veda-Samhita verglichen mit den Philosophemen der alteren 
 Upanishads, 1887. 
 
 2 Or praketd may perhaps have here the sense of ' light-giver, illumi- 
 nator,' which would also he suitahle in I. 113. 1. and I. 94. 5. "We 
 should then translate in verse 2. ' there was no light of the day nor of the 
 night,' and in verse 3. 'all this was a lightless chaos.' 
 
30 Generation. 
 
 V- 
 
 it here (= III. 54. 5.) ? whence it was born, whence 
 this creation is. The gods came by the creating of 
 it (i.e. the one thing) ; who then knoweth whence 
 it is come into being ? 
 
 7. Whence this creation (lit. emission) is come 
 into being, whether it was ordained or no — he whose 
 eye is over all in the highest heaven, he indeed 
 knoweth it, or may be he knoweth it not." 
 
 If we accept the text as it stands, eshdtn ' their ' 
 in verse 5 will refer to kavayah, i the wise.' ' Their 
 line' is a beam of their light. The word prdyati 
 in the other passages where it occurs has only the 
 meaning 'presentation of sacrifice'; if we retain this 
 meaning and the allusion to the ancient fathers, 
 technically expressed by the word svad/td, 1 we obtain 
 a natural parallel to the contrast of the preceding 
 piida between retodhah and mahimanah in the free 
 action or enjoyment of the fathers below and the 
 sacrifice of the gods above. The chief difficulty 
 which presented itself to the mind of the poet was 
 to make a division between the upper world and the 
 lower, to bring dualism out of unity : it is for this 
 purpose that he introduces ' the wise, ' who draw 
 their line across, dividing heaven and earth. This 
 solution, however, failed to satisfy him, and he gives 
 
 1 The primary meaning of svadha is ' free action according to the 
 unfettered -will of the actor ; ' accordingly it is used of the happiness of 
 the fathers : dha has in the compound almost the sense of our do, as in 
 eno dddhanah II. 12. 10., aghdsya dhata I. 123. 5. 
 
The Non- Existent and the Existent. 61 
 
 up the problem in despair. The principle of 
 generation, on the other hand, underlies the whole 
 as a self-evident principle of cosmogony : desire 
 {It&ma, ep&><?) is the first requisite of generation ; it 
 is the seed of thought ; the wise find the bdndhu, 
 1 relationship ' or f parentage ' of the existent in the 
 non-existent ; the fathers are represented as retodhah, 
 the generators. Hence the translation ' warmth ' is 
 preferable to ' asceticism ' for tdpas ; the warmth 
 explains how the process of birth became possible. l 
 The hymn is remarkable for the clearness of expression 
 of the automatic evolution of the world; the universe 
 is represented as emanating of itself from the one 
 thing, like a stream issuing from a fountain-head. 
 
 Lastly we come to the expressions dsat and sdt y 
 the ' non-existent ' and the ' existent. ' The word 
 dsat is used in the Bigveda in two senses, as an 
 adjective with vdcas ' speech ' and as the converse 
 of sat as in the passage before us. In the first 
 case the meaning is clear ; it is equivalent to asatyd t 
 
 1 cf. X. 190. 1. The question as to the relation of Jcama and tdpas in 
 these verses to the later tdpo , tapyata and so 'kamayata of the Brahmanas 
 is a part of the general question of the relation of the Rigveda to the 
 Brahmanas. The cosmological importance of warmth in the view of the 
 ancient Aryas receives a full treatment in M. Emile Burnouf's La Science 
 des Religions, pp. 207 if. " Trois phenomenes ont frappe 1' intelligence des 
 Aryas, des le temps ou ils n'hahitaient encore que les vallees de l'Oxus : 
 ce sont le mouvement, la vie et la pensee. Ces trois choses, prises dans 
 leur etendue, embrassent tous les phenomenes naturels sans exception." 
 He proceeds to show how warmth was regarded as the principle explaining; 
 all three forms of action. 
 
62 Generation. 
 
 the unreal or the false, the converse of that which 
 is really the fact. 1 When used with sat it occurs 
 invariably in passages of a cosmogonic character; 
 sat is said to be born from dsat, that is, translated 
 into modern idiom, dsat precedes sat or dsat becomes 
 sat; we are told that Indra made dsat into sat in 
 a trice ; or dsat and sat are mentioned as in our 
 hymn as belonging to the first creation. 2 Where 
 the two words are coupled together by a con- 
 junction, dsat always precedes sat. The dsat must 
 therefore have had in itself the potentiality of 
 existence ; it is not merely the ' non-existent, ' but 
 may almost be translated the 'not yet existing/ as 
 bhdvat is elsewhere opposed to sat, 3 jai/amdnam to 
 jatam, and bhdvyam to bhutdm. It is not colourless as 
 our word ' nothing,' it is the negation of sat. Thus 
 the whole meaning expressed by these dark words 
 is nothing more than the process of becoming, the 
 beginning of development or creation. 
 
 The subject of this chapter is of special interest 
 as illustrating the relation between the symbolical 
 
 1 V. 12. 4., VII. 104. 8, 12, 13. cf. Lata IV. 5. 14. 
 
 2 X. 72. 1, 2., VI. 24. 5., X. 5. 7. The philosophic comment of 
 Sayana on verse X. 129. 1. is disproved by the expression sato bdndhum 
 dsati nir avindan in verse 4. If we treat the hymn philosophically, we 
 must assume a stage between those states described in verses 1 and 4 in 
 which dsat was present, but there was as yet no sat. The context, how- 
 ever, shows that the poet merely wished to shadow forth a condition in 
 which absolutely nothing existed ; and the presence of dsat is denied 
 because it was inseparably associated with sat. 
 
 3 I. 96. 7., A. V. VII. 1. 19. 
 
Allegory and Analogy. 63 
 
 or allegorical manner of thought, which is an 
 important factor in the formation of mythology, 
 and the analogical or metaphorical method of early 
 speculation. In the one case forces and agencies 
 are clothed with a distinct personality, they are 
 endowed in some measure with an active will and 
 character ; in the other the actions only are viewed 
 as partaking of the nature of human actions. The 
 poets of our hymns feel themselves less constrained 
 to analyse the processes of creation, the mode of 
 working of the different productive forces, than to 
 define and specify the nature of the agents. The 
 nouns — to borrow the phraseology of grammar — lose 
 their anthropomorphism sooner than the verbs. The 
 two metaphors which have now been passed in review, 
 the metaphor of building and that of generation, are 
 used almost indiscriminately to express the action 
 of any creative agent ; and in the following chapters 
 we shall meet with no further attempt to elucidate 
 the process of creation. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE SACRIFICE. 
 
 In the explanations of the origin of the world which 
 were described in the two preceding chapters there 
 was room for considerable difference of opinion as to 
 the extent to which they were influenced by the 
 sacrificial system of the Ttishis. The theory which 
 is the subject for consideration in this chapter may 
 be regarded as specially characteristic of the Eishis. 
 In the former cases it was natural to assume that 
 the motive of speculation was the desire to discover 
 a plausible explanation of the origin of things; in 
 the present case we are unable to decide whether 
 the motive was purely speculative or the outcome of 
 the exigencies of a system. The glorification of the 
 sacrifice, which was the main task of the Eishis, led 
 them to represent the sacrifice in the light of the 
 supreme cause of all successful action in the world, 
 and it may have been only in consequence of this 
 representation that they extended its working to the 
 creation and ordering of the universe. 
 
 The sacrifice, as it appears in the Eigveda, is the 
 means of gratifying a god by ministering to his 
 
The Efficacy of the Sacrifice. 65 
 
 wants, and so enabling him to perform his wonted 
 actions; it is an instrument through which a relation 
 of mutual friendship between a god and his worshippers 
 is established. The later idea of the sacrifice as a 
 contract between a man and his god, which could 
 be used against a god to force him to perform the 
 will of the sacrificer, does not find expression in our 
 hymns. Those passages in the Rigveda, which 
 through the omission of the mention of the gods 
 might seem to ascribe to the sacrifice in the hands 
 of man a power independent of the gods, can in all 
 cases be explained either as referring to divine 
 sacrificers, or as assuming the co-operation of the 
 gods. On the other hand, human sacrificers are 
 represented as associating themselves with the gods 
 through the sacrifice, as assisting the gods in their 
 actions, and in an after-life or in a state of ecstasy 
 as participating in divine power. The worship of 
 deceased ancestors is well known to be one of the 
 very earliest forms of worship, traces of which 
 survive in every popular form of religion. The 
 Rigveda allows us in this particular to draw an 
 unusually clear line of distinction between the 
 common conceptions of death as they existed in 
 the minds of the people, and the peculiar colouring 
 given to them by the bias of the Yedic Rishis. 
 
 According to the popular view, the first ancestor 
 who died, the king of the land of the dead, is Yama. 
 One passage added on to the last hymn but one of 
 
 >' or THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 or 
 ca>. iroi 
 
66 The Sacrifice. 
 
 the ninth book, where it is entirely out of place as 
 if inserted with a careless contempt of its contents, 
 gives us a description of the happy land of the dead 
 in the third heaven, where Yama reigns as king in 
 perfect bliss. It is a land of undimmed brightness, 
 " where bliss and rejoicings, joy, exceeding joy are 
 to be found, where all wishes are fulfilled; there," 
 prays the poet, "make me immortal." 1 In another 
 hymn Yama is represented as revelling on a tree 
 of goodly foliage, "the father, lord of the people, 
 showing favour to our ancestors." The fathers found 
 this home of the blessed by following his footsteps 
 past the dreadful watch-dogs, and he prepares a 
 place there for the dead in Vishnu's realm of light. 2 
 According to the Eishis, existence after death 
 and the superhuman power of the fathers depend 
 upon the due performance of the sacrifice ; immortality 
 is said to be conferred upon the priests by a sacrificial 
 god ; for the patrons of the sacrifice it is the 
 reward of liberality. 3 Yama, on the other hand, the 
 ancient popular deity, is not primarily a sacrificer. 4 
 The position of the fathers, the ancestors of the 
 Eishis, in the spirit-world, is that of a partnership 
 with the gods. Indra is "the maintainer of the 
 
 1 IX. 113. 7-n. 
 
 2 X. 135. 1., X. 14. 2., X. 18. 13., I. 154. 5. 
 
 3 VI. 1. 4., I. 31. 7. ; I. 125. 5, 6., X. 107. 2. 
 
 4 A figure in many respects analogous to Yama is that of Trita, who is 
 represented as an ancient primeval warrior, and whose connection with 
 the sacrifice is limited to the pressing of soma. 
 
Association with the Gods through Sacrifice. 67 
 
 poets, the friend of the fathers in old time." l 
 " They were banqueters with the gods, the wise men 
 of old, who observed the sacred order; the fathers 
 found the hidden light, with effective utterances they 
 begat the dawn." 2 They are associated with different 
 gods as friends or assistants in carrying out their 
 characteristic works. In particular they assist Indra 
 in his battle with the demons, when he sets free the 
 cows of light and rain, even supplying him with 
 his weapon the thunderbolt. 3 It is in agreement 
 with the gods and fathers that Prajapati gives 
 increase in cattle. 4 In this particular they occupy 
 a similar position to Brihaspati, or Brahmanaspati, 
 the lord of the sacrificial prayer, who is also Indra' s 
 assistant, and figures in very many passages along 
 with the ancient Eishis who are called his sons. 
 But the alliance with Indra is not confined to the 
 deified sacrificers ; the priests on earth also associate 
 themselves with him in his combats, and supply him 
 with the thunderbolt to strike the demons. "I and 
 thou, slayer of Vritra," exclaims one bold Eishi, 
 " will unite for victory." 5 In X. 120. 9. the poet, 
 Brihaddeva, even identifies himself with Indra. 
 
 More striking and significant is the relation of 
 
 1 VI. 21.8., cf. VII. 33. 4. 
 
 2 VII. 76. 4. 
 
 s I. 121. 12., II. 11. 4. 
 
 * X. 196. 4. 
 
 " X. 44. 9., V. 30. 8., VIII. 62. 11., cf. VIII. 69. 7, 16. 
 
68 , The Sacrifice. 
 
 the ancient fathers to Agni, based perhaps on an 
 earlier sun-worship. The familiar mythical conception 
 of the origin of the human race from fire becomes 
 to the Rishis the origin of the ancestral sacrificers 
 from Agni. Agni, as also other gods of the light, 
 the Acvins and the Adityas, 1 is the blood-relative 
 of the fathers, and of the sacrificing priest himself ; 
 he is their father, and himself a father, in the 
 technical sense, the friend of the fathers, the most 
 fatherly father. 2 The connection with Agni is so 
 close that the fathers are even identified with the 
 rays of Agni's light, 3 which are not regarded as 
 inherent in the sun, the lightning or the fire, but 
 as apportioned to them by the gods. 4 "It is these 
 beams of the sun with which our fathers were 
 united, Indra and Agni." 5 The rays are mystically 
 represented as seven in number, parallel to the seven 
 rivers of heaven and earth ; the seven ancient Rishis 
 are the seven friends of Agni, his seven horses, or 
 seven heads. 6 
 
 This connection of the fathers with the light, of 
 
 1 III. 54. 16., II. 29. 3,4. 
 
 2 I. 31. 10., IV. 17. 17., et passim. 
 
 3 I. 115. 2., cf. gat. Br. I. 9. 3. 10. 
 * e.g. X. 12. 7., cf. III. 2. 12. 
 
 5 I. 109. 7. 
 
 6 A Yery frequent designation of the fathers as ancient sacrificers is 
 ndrah. The identification of the fathers with the rays of light may 
 perhaps explain the difficult words nricdkshas * who is the sight of men,'' 
 and vaiqvanard ' who embraces all men,'' both primarily attributes of Agni 
 or the sun; compare especially III. 2. 12., 14. 4., I. 146. 4., X. 45. 3. 
 
The Fathers Identified with Agni's Rays. 69 
 
 which they are both the embodiments and the 
 guardians, 1 is alone sufficient to explain their action 
 in placing the stars in the sky : " the fathers adorned 
 the sky with stars as a black horse with jewels ; 
 they gave darkness to the night and light to the 
 day." 2 Indra and Atri, an ancestor of sacrificers, 
 free the sun from the demon who causes eclipses. 3 
 Since light is the type of wisdom and knowledge, 4 
 the fathers are regarded as especially endowed with 
 divine insight, and it is particularly as the rays of 
 light that they receive the appellative ' the wise ' 
 (kavdf/ah). 5 
 
 The general character of the fathers will be best 
 illustrated by a consideration of the most important 
 family of priestly fathers that finds mention in the 
 Pigveda, the family of the Angirases. Their associa- 
 tion with the light is so pronounced that Professor 
 Roth (Pet. Lex.) defines them as a race of higher 
 beings between gods and men, and regards their 
 priestly character as a later development. Professor 
 Weber conjectures that they were originally the 
 priests of the earlier common religion of the Indians 
 and Persians. 6 The following description will limit 
 
 1 X. 154. 5. 
 
 2 X. 68. 11., cf. I. 68. 10. 
 
 3 V. 40. 6-8. 
 
 4 cf. III. 1. 5. 
 
 5 I. 164. 5., X. 88., I. 185. 1., X. 5. 
 
 6 Indische Studien, vol. i. p. 291. 
 
70 The Sacrifice. 
 
 itself to the conception of the Angirases held by 
 the Rishis themselves. They are regarded as the 
 typical first sacrificers, whose ritual is the pattern 
 which later priests must follow ; hence the frequent 
 expression "after the manner of the Angirases." 1 
 By the offering of sacrifice they obtained Indra's 
 friendship and immortality (X. 62. 1.) ; they became 
 the sons of the gods ; 2 Brihaspati is himself called 
 an Angiras. For them Indra is said to have 
 recovered the cows and slain the demon Yala; or 
 again, it was after he had been worshipped by them 
 that he was able to achieve his victories. 3 The poet 
 of VI. 18. 5. prays for such a friendship with Indra, 
 as that in which he was praised by the Angirases 
 and smote the demon. On the other hand, Indra is 
 mentioned as himself their leader, the most Angiras- 
 like, with the Angirases; 4 or his name is omitted 
 and his characteristic actions are attributed directly 
 to the Angirases. 5 They give gifts like Mitra and 
 Bhaga, and are invoked along with the gods ; they 
 set the sun on high and spread out the earth. 6 
 
 Agni is similarly the best or oldest of the 
 Angirases ; 7 he is the first Angiras, the Rishi^ 
 
 1 e.g. I. 31. 17., 139. 9. 
 
 2 devdputra rishayah X. 62. 1, 4. 
 
 3 I. 132. 4., VIII. 14. 8., 63. 3. ; I. 62. 5., X. 111. 4. 
 
 4 I. 100. 4., 130. 3. 
 
 5 IV. 2. 15., 3. 11., I. 71. 2, 3. 
 
 6 X. 68. 2., III. 53. 7.; X. 62. 3. 
 
 7 jyeshtham ahgirasam, I. 127. 2. 
 
The Aflgirases. 71 
 
 the friend of the gods. The dawn, as also Soma, 
 receives the epithet dngirastama} The Virupah, the 
 group of nine and the group of ten, different classes 
 of Angirases, are said to be born from the fire. 2 The 
 group of nine are expressly identified with Agni's 
 rays. 3 The fathers are the guardians of the sun, who 
 give the light. 4 Through the confusion of the glance 
 of the eye with a beam of light, they are represented 
 as looking upon the earth, upon the creation of the 
 world, and even reflexively upon Agni ; 5 they are 
 the spies of Mitra and Yaruna. 6 Their participation 
 in the creation and ordering of the world is based 
 on their association with the different forms of 
 Agni. " They measured with devising calculation 
 the pair of twins (heaven and earth) of common 
 origin and a common home, they weave again and 
 again a new web in the sky, in the (aerial) ocean, 
 the wise and brilliant ones." "The Angirases made 
 the sun to rise and spread out the earth." 7 Their 
 place in the building metaphor is especially con- 
 nected with Agni of the sacrifice ; their preparing 
 a place for him, their father, is parallel to the act 
 of supporting the heaven. " They prepared an abode 
 
 1 IX. 107. 6.; VII. 75. 1., 79. 3. 
 
 2 ddgagve saptasye, IV. 51. 4. ; X. 62. 5, 6. 
 
 3 VI. 6. 3. 
 
 4 X. 107. 1., 154. 5., I. 115. 2. 
 
 5 I. 164. 4.,X. 177. 1, 2., I. 185. 1. 
 
 6 VII. 87. 3., cf. IX. 73. 7. 
 
 7 I. 159. 4., X. 62. 3., cf. V. 44. 6. 
 
72 The Sacrifice. 
 
 for their father, they provided him skilfully with 
 a large and glorious abode ; they supported their 
 parents (heaven and earth) apart with a support ; 
 sitting down (in the sacrifice) they placed him there 
 (as a pillar) upright and powerful." 1 
 
 Again, through the identification of the fathers 
 with the light, they are brought into connection 
 with the metaphor of generation. It was through 
 Agni that their ancestors were enabled to give birth 
 to their successors. 2 The fathers are united with 
 the Dawn, and desire with her to beget male 
 children. 3 In a hymn to Soma they are mentioned 
 along with the morning sun as having placed the 
 germ in the earth ; 4 and the fruitfulness of heaven 
 and earth, which give birth to gods and men, is 
 described as produced by the fathers. 5 
 
 The mystical union of the fathers with the rays 
 of light is the fundamental idea underlying the 
 abstruse allusions of the two hymns which will next 
 occupy our attention. In the first hymn (X. 56.), 
 which is a funeral hymn, the poet bids the deceased 
 man unite himself with the beams of the heavenly 
 light ; he takes occasion to celebrate the power 
 and greatness of the fathers, to whom the spirit 
 
 1 III. 31. 12., cf. X. 92. 15. That the ahode is the place of sacrifice 
 is proved by verse 9. 
 
 2 I. 68. 8, 9. 
 
 3 IV. 2. 15., X. 61. 10, 11., cf. VI. 44. 23. 
 * IX. 83. 3., cf. I. 164. 36. 
 
 5 X. 64. 14. 
 
Generation through the Fathers. 73 
 
 of the departed is journeying ; and ends with a 
 statement of the success of the journey for which 
 he has prayed. 
 
 1. " One light hast thou here, and yonder another, 
 unite thyself with the third (and highest) ; l uniting 
 thyself with a body mayest thou be welcome and 
 dear to the gods in the birth place on high. 
 
 2. May that body of thine, thou strong horse, 2 
 bearing thy body provide us with good things, and 
 thee with protection; mayest thou without swerving 
 establish the great gods here for a support as thine 
 own light in the sky. 
 
 3. Thou art strong as a horse ; 2 by this thy 
 strength mayest thou go to the yearning maidens, 3 
 on an easy path to the (land of) praise, and to the 
 sky, according to the first and true ordinances, on 
 an easy path to the gods with an easy flight. 
 
 4. Of their greatness the fathers also have obtained 
 a portion ; the gods have placed insight in them as 
 gods ; 4 and they have embraced in themselves all 
 
 1 The same idea finds expression in X. 16. 5., X. 14. 8. The third 
 light is the light in the highest region ; the reckoning naturally begins 
 from the place where the speaker stands, cf. IX. 86. 27., X. 1. 3., 123. 8. 
 Similarly Vishnu's third step upwards is the step which lands him in the 
 highest region. 
 
 2 Ludwig takes vajin as the man's name. 
 
 3 A metaphorical interpretation is most consonant with the context; 
 hence probably they are the waters of the sky or the dawns. 
 
 4 For this bold application of the name devd to the sacrifices, compare 
 III. 7. 7., 54. 17., IV. 2. 17., VIII. 48. 3., X. 53. 4., and see Zimmer, 
 Altindisches Leben, p. 205. 
 
74 The Sacrifice. 
 
 energies; 1 these (go forth and) enter again into their 
 bodies. 2 
 
 5. With power they strode through the whole 
 region of the air, measuring the unmeasured ancient 
 stations ; in their bodies they enclosed all existing 
 things ; they produced 3 in many forms offspring 
 from themselves in continued succession. 
 
 6. Here and on high 4 as sons they brought and 
 set up the Asura-god, who bringeth light (Agni i*n 
 the sacrifice below and above) ; by their third action 
 as fathers they have placed their own offspring, the 
 power of fathers, upon the earth, a thread spun 
 out continuously. 5 
 
 7. As in a ship over a flood hath Brihadukta 
 with blessings mightily translated his offspring, over 
 the regions of the air, over all the impassable ways, 
 placing them in the heavenly as in the earthly regions." 
 
 The interpretation of one or two expressions in 
 the hymn is uncertain ; the general sense is clear. 
 The rays of light are here the bodies of the fathers, 
 which emanate from the sun, assume the forms of 
 all things on the earth and of the later sacrificers, 
 the descendants of the fathers, and again return to 
 
 1 The meaning assigned to dtvishuh in this passage in the Pet. Lex. is 
 'excite, call into life;' tvishe in VII. 82. 6. is translated 'to cause to 
 arise.' 
 
 2 Compare I. 72. 5, 9. 
 
 8 lit. they caused to stream forth from themselves in succession. 
 
 4 lit. in two ways. 
 
 6 Compare A. V. X. 2. 17. 
 
Anticipation of Divine Blessedness. 75 
 
 their birth-place in the sky from which they had 
 extended themselves. 
 
 In the next hymn we have the same general 
 conception of the mystical action of the fathers ; 
 but it is the poet himself who desires to attain in 
 spirit the position of the ancient sacrificers. This 
 peculiar form of thought, frequently recurring in 
 the later literature, by which the aspirant identifies 
 himself with the object of his aspiration, is exemplified 
 in two ways in the Rigveda. Either the poets describe 
 the ecstasy caused by the performance of the sacrifice- 
 and the singing of hymns, or perhaps more exactly 
 by the intoxicating draughts of soma-juice, as a 
 state of divine blessedness ; or they anticipate the 
 glories of the heavenly world which appear to 
 them in visions of light. "We have drunk soma, 
 we are become immortal; we have reached the light, 
 we have found the gods." "And now that I have 
 attained the sight of Yaruna, his face seemeth to 
 me as the face of Agni ; the light that shineth in 
 heaven and the darkness may he, the ruler, bring 
 me thither to behold their form." 1 The same idea 
 occurs in a late hymn (X. 136.), which describes 
 the free course of the ascete (mimi) through the air 
 
 1 VIII. 48. 3, 11., VII. 88. 2-4. ; cf. I. 125. 5., X. 31. 3., V. 30. 1, 
 2., VI. 9. 6., X. 2. 3., VIII. 78. 1., X. 130. 6., I. 25. 18. Ordinary 
 knowledge is obtained parushatvdta V. 48. 5. Such passages may contain 
 the original form of the later conception of inspiration that the hymns 
 were seen by the Rishis. 
 
76 The Sacrifice. 
 
 as a spirit, and contains a further resemblance with 
 our hymn in representing the muni as walking on 
 the road of the Gandharvas, whereas in all other 
 passages (except IX. 113. 3.) the Rigveda recognizes 
 one Gandharva only. 
 
 III. 38. 1. "I will meditate a hymn as a carpenter, 
 galloping as a fast horse at a strong pole ; striving 
 towards 1 the heavenly desirable regions, I long to 
 behold the wise with insight. 
 
 2. Seek then the mighty generations of the wise ; 
 they by steadfastness and well-doing procured an 
 abode in the sky; these are thy profitable guidances; 2 
 they whom the mind desires are now come to the 
 firmament of heaven. 
 
 3. There they assume 3 hidden forms, and anoint 
 heaven and earth to rule over them ; measuring 
 them with measuring- rods, and making them fast 
 and broad, they set the great worlds apart, firmly 
 fixed for security. 4 
 
 4. They all adorn the rising (sun) ; clothed in 
 splendour he moveth with his own brilliance; that 
 is the mighty form of the Asura-bull ; he who 
 
 1 In the translation of ablii mdrmriqat I have followed the Fet. Lex. 
 The form occurs here only in the Rigveda ; but compare abhi mriqe I. 
 145. 4., II. 10. 5 ; prabhi mdrmrigat I. 140. 5. 
 
 3 For the form of expression compare X. 32. 7. 
 
 8 Grassmann in his translation neglects the Atm. p., cf. X. 5. 2., III. 
 ft. 8., I. 6. 4. 
 
 4 The translation of dhayase * is obscure,' Pet. Lex. Ludwig renders 
 ' zur Nahrung,' Grassmann ' zur Labung.' 
 
The Fathers m the Sun. IT 
 
 possesseth all forms (vigvdrupa) cometh to the waters 
 of ambrosia. 1 
 
 5. The first, the more excellent bull 2 is born, these 
 are his manifold invigorating draughts. Ye two 
 sons of heaven 3 (or of Dyaus) through the hymns 
 of the sacrifice possess the sovereignty, ye two kings, 
 from of old. 
 
 6. Ye adorn in the sacrificial assembly, ye two 
 kings, the three worlds, all the dwelling-places ; 4 I 
 saw there, coming thither in the spirit (mdnasd), 
 the Gandharvas in their course, whose hair traileth 
 in (or as) the wind. 5 
 
 7. That companionship 6 of the cow (dawn) with 
 the forms of the strong bull they establish here ; 
 clothing themselves in one and another Asura-form 
 the cunning artists determine his shape. 
 
 8. That golden light, which Savitar hath here 
 
 1 The Pet. Lex. translates ' the forces of eternity ; ' a somewhat similar 
 passage is I. 35. 6., compare also X. 139. 6. 
 
 2 The sun, cf. V. 44. 8. 
 
 3 Of the two kings one will almost certainly be Varuna ; the other may 
 be Mitra, or Indra, or Soma cf. IX. 95. 4., VI. 75. 18., or more 
 probably Yama cf. X. 14. 7., 97. 16., 123. 6. 
 
 * ' The many places of sacrifice,' according to Lud wig's explanation ; 
 he quotes Y. S. 23. 49., " I ask of thee to learn it, friend of the gods, 
 if thou art arrived thither in spirit (mdnasa) where Vishnu receives, 
 sacrifice at his three steps on which all the world is set." 
 
 5 cf. YIII. 7. 8., III. 14. 3. 
 
 "But here there is no light 
 Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown." 
 — Keats, Ode to a Nightingale. 
 
 6 This is the meaning for sdkmya suggested in the Pet. Lex. 
 
78 The Sacrifice. 
 
 shed forth, none shall keep from me; 1 he covereth 
 the spreading worlds with praise as a young woman 
 covereth her offspring. 
 
 9. In the form of that divine blessedness which 
 ye have established in the great and ancient one, 
 may ye two embrace us ; 2 all the Virupah, the 
 cunning artists, behold the works of him who standeth 
 protecting (the world) with his tongue (fire)." 
 
 The description of the cosmological importance of 
 the sacrifice would, however, be incomplete without 
 a reference to the prayer or hymn of sacrifice, the 
 regulated utterance of the sacrificial priests. The 
 prayer is mentioned especially as the instrument 
 through which the Eishis effect their works and 
 obtain children. 3 It is coupled with the fire, soma, 
 and ghee as their bride ; and thus adds one more 
 element of complication to the interpretation of the 
 different cows and nurses of Agni. But it is also 
 mentioned once or twice alone as a power influencing 
 the course of nature. " Adoration (namas) hath 
 supported the heaven and the earth." 4 The place 
 
 1 Ludwig translates, "that is the light of this Savitar, not mine." If 
 with Grassmann we treat the clause as elliptical, we must supply some 
 sense of frequent occurrence with ndkir; for such a sense compare I. 69. 
 7., VI. 30. 2., VI. 7. 5., IV. 30. 23., VII. 32. 5., VIII. 28. 4., X. 132. 
 3., I. 155. 5. The general meaning will he that of the Gayatri III. 
 62. 10. 
 
 2 lit. what of the ancient ye have established of the great, divine 
 blessedness, be ye around us. 
 
 3 prajavata vdcaso, I. 76. 4. : V. 45. 11. etc. 
 * VI. 51. 8. 
 
The Heavenly Sacrifice. 79 
 
 of Vac and Vacaspati in the cosmogonic system will 
 be dealt with later. In II. 24. 5-7. the sacrifices, 
 old and new, are personified as kavdyah, and repre- 
 sented as discovering the devices of the Panayah 
 against the laws of nature, and bringing back the 
 hidden fire. 1 
 
 So far we have been considering the power of 
 the earthly sacrifice in causing the great works of 
 nature, and in elevating the worshippers to a position 
 of friendship and almost of equality with the gods. 
 The peculiar analogical or typical logic of the 
 Rigveda receives, however, more striking illustration 
 from the heavenly sacrifice. The whole ritual of 
 sacrifice with all its appurtenances, its priests and 
 offerings, were bodily translated from the sphere of 
 human action to the world of the gods. The gods 
 become the rich patrons for whom the sacrifice is 
 performed, the ydjamdnah ; Agni, the mediator 
 between earth and heaven, becomes their priest ; he 
 is established by the gods in his priestly office, as 
 the typical sacrificer. 2 " First the gods produced 
 the hymn of praise, then Agni, then the offering, 
 so Agni became their sacrifice." 3 He is the pur ohita, 
 the appointed priest, of the gods, or perhaps, in the 
 classical sense, their family priest. The gods are 
 even said to have obtained immortality through the 
 
 1 cf. III. 4. 5. 
 
 2 VIII. 23. 18. 
 
 3 X. 88. 8. 
 
80 The Sacrifice. 
 
 sacrifice by drinking the soma, or as the gift of 
 Agni or of Brihaspati, who therefore receives the 
 title « father of all the gods/ 1 In X. 53. 10. it 
 would seem that it was the soma made by the 
 Ribhus through which the gods obtained immortality. 
 Heaven and earth, the primeval father and mother, 
 are, in particular, the first sacrificers, whose priest 
 is Agni, their first-born, the sun or the lightning. 8 
 
 The cosmological significance of the divine sacrifice 
 finds particular expression in three hymns of the 
 tenth book. Two of these (81 and 82) are addressed 
 to a god Yicvakarman, who combines in his person 
 the characters of a primeval divine sacrificer and of 
 a creator. We have already seen these two functions 
 united in Agni. We have further seen how the 
 sun, or an abstraction derived from the sun, under 
 the names of Hiranyagarbha and Aja, figures as at 
 once the germ and the creator of the universe ; the 
 sacrificial side of Agni's character, as the primeval 
 priest or father, and in this sense the creator of 
 the world, is embodied in the person of Yicvakarman, 
 who is thus a parallel figure to Hiranyagarbha, with 
 many common characteristics, and who was in the 
 later literature identified with him. The name 
 
 1 In many passages the word (leva may refer primarily to the deified 
 ancient sacrificers. The Maruts, however, are particularly represented as 
 sacrificers, III. 32. 2., V. 29, 3, 6., X. 122. 5. ; and probahly this is the 
 meaning of their attribute vedhds. 
 
 " IV. 56. 2., II. 2. 3. 
 
Vigvakarman. 81 
 
 Yicvakarman occurs twice more only in the Rigveda, 
 both times beside vigvddeva. "Thou, Indra, art over 
 all ; thou hast made the sun to shine, thou art the all- 
 worker (rigrakarman), the all-god, the mighty one." 1 
 In the other passage it is an epithet of the sun, 
 "by whom all existing things are brought to light, 
 the all-worker, possessed of universal godhead." 2 A 
 third passage, in which the form rigvdkarma occurs, 
 is ambiguous. The hymn seems to be placed in 
 the mouth of Yacaspati sapatnahdn, * the lord of 
 speech, slayer of rivals.' 3 The mention of Yacaspati 
 would seem to point a reference to verse 7 of our 
 first hymn ; but the hymn is rather to be compared 
 with the incantations of the Atharvaveda, in which 
 less regard is paid to the deity invoked, than to 
 the form of invocation. 
 
 X. 81. I. 4 "He who, sacrificing all existing things, 
 as Rishi, as sacrificer, sat down (for sacrifice) our 
 father ; he desiring treasure 5 by prayer entered, 
 the first worshipper, among men on earth. 6 
 
 2. "VYhat was his standing-place ? what was the 
 
 1 VIII. 98. 2. 
 
 2 X. 170. 4. 
 
 3 X. 166. 4. For another interpretation of this hymn see Zimmer, 
 Altindisches Leben, p. 175. 
 
 4 Some verses of these hymns have been translated by Professor F. Max 
 Miiller in his Hibbert Lectures, p. 293 f. 
 
 6 cf. X. 45. 11., 46. 2. The only similar form to prathamachdd is 
 kavichdd, an epithet of Indra and Agni III. 12. 3. ; the translation 
 remains doubtful. 
 
 6 cf. II. 34. 11. 
 
82 The Sacrifice. 
 
 support ? how was it ? l whence Yicvakarman pro- 
 duced the earth, and revealed the sky by his power, 
 the all- seer. 
 
 3. He who hath on all sides an eye, on all sides 
 a mouth, on all sides an arm, and on all sides a foot, 
 producing heaven and earth, weldeth them together 
 with his arms as wings (i.e. fanning the flame, 
 cf. X. 72. 2.), the sole god. 
 
 4. "What indeed was the wood ? what too was 
 that tree, from which they fashioned the heaven 
 and the earth ? Seek, ye thoughtful men, by your 
 thought, that on which he took his stand when he 
 made all things fast. 
 
 5. The highest, the lowest, and the middle sacrificial 
 stations, that are thine, Yicvakarman, and also those 
 here, teach to thy companions at the sacrifice, thou 
 blessed one ; do thou sacrifice to thyself 2 delighting 
 thyself. 
 
 6. Yicvakarman, do thou, delighting in the 
 offering, thyself sacrifice to heaven and earth. May 
 other men about us be fools; let us have a beneficent 
 lord. 
 
 7. We invoke Yicvakarman, the lord of speech 
 
 1 The first pada is too short by three syllables, or the second by four ; 
 the employment of hatamdt ' which,' not ' what,' referring to one of a 
 known class, may point to a corruption of the text. Verses 3, 4, 5, 
 and 7 have each an extra syllable. 
 
 3 The expression may be translated with Ludwig and Grassmann 
 "sacrifice thine own body." Verse 6 and the comparison with X. 7. 6., 
 VI. 11.2. render the interpretation given above more probable. 
 
Vigvdkarman. 83 
 
 (vdcdspdti), who moveth at a thought, for help to-day 
 in our arduous work (i.e. 'in the sacrifice/ as havishi, 
 verse 5) ; may he hear all our invocations with 
 favour, who bringeth all good for our welfare, whose 
 workings are successful." l 
 
 X. 82. 1. "The father of the eye, wise in spirit, 
 produced these two worlds, submerged in ghee ; as 
 soon as the eastern ends were made fast, heaven 
 and earth extended themselves. 
 
 2. Yicvakarman, whose power is wide as his wisdom, 
 was the ordainer and disposer, and the highest 
 apparition ; their (the fathers') offerings revel in rich 
 juice, there where the one, they tell us, is above the 
 seven Rishis. 
 
 3. Who is our father, the generator, the disposer, 
 who knoweth the stations (in heaven and earth) and 
 all existing things ; who ordained the forms of the 
 gods, even he alone; to him all other beings go for 
 information (i.e. to learn their destination). 
 
 4. The ancient Rishis offered to him treasure in 
 abundance as singers ; who, settled in the earthly 
 and heavenly regions, 2 prepared these things that 
 have come into existence. 
 
 5. That which is before the heaven and before 
 
 1 Sadhtlkarman. The play on Yicvakarman's name is obvious. 
 Probably in both words the reference is primarily to the special meaning 
 of Jcdrman * sacrificial work.' 
 
 2 Reading nishattdh. The Pet. Lex. derives asurte silrte from the root 
 svar 'shine,' cf. alurta, adrishta, K.Z. xxvii. p. 63. 
 
84 The Sacrifice. 
 
 the earth, before the Asura-gods (or the gods and 
 the Asuras) ; what first germ did the waters receive, 
 where all the gods appeared together ? x 
 
 6. The waters received that first germ, where all 
 the gods were collected ; it rested on the navel of 
 the Unborn that alone (ekam), in which all existing 
 things abide. 
 
 7. Ye will not find him who gave birth to these 
 things ; another thing hath arisen among you ; covered 
 with darkness and stammering, wander the wanton 
 singers of hymns." 
 
 In artistic composition and arrangement the two 
 hymns are as weak as the hymn to Hiranyagarbha. 
 If we eliminate the play on the word vigua and the 
 general expressions of creation, the nearest analogy 
 to the figure of Vicvakarman is Agni, whose sacrificial 
 character is especially alluded to in the phrase svaydm 
 yajasva tanvam "sacrifice to thine own self." The 
 derivation of the conception from the sun is seen in 
 the expressions ' the father of the eye/ ' the all-seer * 
 (the latter an expression applied elsewhere twice to 
 the sun and once to Soma), 'the highest apparition.' 2 
 Verses 5 and 6 of the second hymn find their parallel 
 in verses 7 and 8 of the hymn to Hiranyagarbha. 
 Aja, the Unborn, seems here to be identified with 
 Yicvakarraan. There can then be little doubt as to 
 the motive of the two hymns. They are based on 
 
 1 cf. III. 54. 9., V. 44. 6, 7., X. 61. 19. 
 
 2 IV. 1. 6., 6. 6., for other references see Grassmann's Lexicon. 
 
Vac. 65 
 
 the conception, already described, of the sun as the 
 first-born of the world and the prototype of subsequent 
 generation, and contain little more than an adapt- 
 ation of this conception (not necessarily of hymn X. 
 121) to a sacrificial god, an adaptation which may 
 be ascribed to the special bias of the Rishis. 
 
 In connection with the sacrifice the title 'lord 
 of speech' requires special examination. The title 
 is also applied twice to Soma. Yac, ' speech, ' is 
 celebrated alone in two whole hymns, X. 71. and 
 X. 125., 1 of which the former shows that the primary 
 application of the name was to the voice of the hymn, 
 the means of communication between heaven and 
 earth at the sacrifice. The other hymn illustrates 
 the constant assimilation of the varied phenomena 
 of nature to the sacrifice ; all that has a voice in 
 nature, the thunder of the storm, the reawaking of 
 life at dawn, with songs of rejoicing over the new 
 birth of the world, are embodied in this Yac in 
 the same way as it is said of Brihaspati, that he 
 embraces all things that are. It is thus another 
 expression for that idea of the unity of the world, 
 which we have seen crowning the mystical specula- 
 tion of all the more abstract hymns of the collection. 
 Again, as the natural phenomena corresponding to 
 Hiranyagarbha and Yicvakarman are the phenomena 
 
 1 The comparison of verses 2, 3, and 7 of this hymn with VIII. 100. 
 10, 11., I. 164. 34, 35, establishes the accuracy of the tradition which 
 connects the hymn with Vac. 
 
86 The Sacrifice. 
 
 of light ; so also corresponding to Vac we find, 
 though in a very much less marked degree, the 
 analogies of the breath of the wind, and of the flow 
 of the voice, represented by the river Sarasvati, 
 hymns being frequently compared to streams. 1 The 
 wind is the breath or life of the gods (citmdn), and 
 the embryo of the world ; with it the soul of man 
 unites itself after death ; 2 Vayu is called the lord 
 of the ritd? Sarasvati fills earth and air ; she is 
 continually coupled in invocation with the prayers; 4 
 and becomes later an impersonation of language. The 
 last two verses of X. 125. will suffice as an illustration 
 of the general terms in which the universality of 
 the nature of Vac finds expression. "I give birth 
 to the father on the summit of the world, my birth- 
 place is in the waters in the sea ; thence I spread 
 forth over all existing things, with the crown of 
 my head I touch yonder Heaven. I too breathe 
 a strong breath as the wind, supporting all existing 
 things ; beyond the heaven, beyond the earth, I 
 have become so great by my power." 
 
 The hymns to Vicvakarman make no attempt to 
 explain in what way the process of sacrifice could 
 be regarded as an act of creation. We are told 
 little more than that he was a primeval sacrificer 
 
 1 V. 11. 5., I. 113. 18. 
 
 2 X. 168. 4., X. 16. 3. 
 
 3 VIII. 26. 21. 
 
 4 VI. 61. 11. ; X. 65. 13., VII. 35. 11., cf. I. 3. 12. 
 
Punisha. 87 
 
 and also a creator; we have no hint how to combine 
 the two ideas into a harmonious unity. The next 
 hymn, the Purushasukta, one of the very latest 
 hymns of the Bigveda, is an attempt to solve this 
 difficulty. The legend of the formation of the universe 
 from the different parts of a giant is well known to 
 comparative mycologists ; ' here we see how the 
 Eishis adapted the myth, to serve their own ends. 
 
 X. 90. 1. "The Man {purusha) had a thousand 
 heads, a thousand eyes, and a thousand feet ; he 
 covered the earth, in all directions, and extended ten 
 finger-breadths beyond. 
 
 2. The Man was all this that hath been and will 
 be made, and a possessor of the immortality which 
 groweth. great by food (offered in sacrifice). 
 
 3. Such was his greatness; yea, the Man was still 
 mightier ; all that hath been made was one quarter 
 of him, three quarters of him were the immortals 
 in heaven. 
 
 4. With three quarters the Man mounted up, one 
 quarter came here again ; thence he strode out on 
 all sides over that which eateth and that which 
 eateth not. 
 
 5. From him the Yiraj 2 was born, and from the 
 
 1 cf. e.g. Orphic Hymn 26, page 202 in Abel's edition. 
 
 2 Viraj, whose name in X. 159. 3. appears to mean 'queen,' would 
 seem to be the female counterpart of Purusha, as Aditi of Daksha in X. 
 72. 4, 5. ; cf. Brihadar. Up. 4. 2. 3., and Dr. Muir's note in his 
 translation of this hymn, Original Sanskrit Texts, vol. v. p. 369. 
 
88 The Sacrifice. 
 
 Yiraj tlie Man; as soon as lie was born, he reached 
 out over the earth eastwards and westwards. 
 
 6. "When the gods prepared the sacrifice with the 
 Man as the offering, the spring was the sacrificial 
 butter, the summer was the fuel, and the autumn 
 was the offering. 
 
 7. As a victim on the (sacrificial) grass they 
 anointed the Man who was born in the beginning; 
 him the gods sacrificed, the Sadhyas 1 and the Rishis. 
 
 8. When the sacrifice was completed, they collected 
 the dripping fat from it; it formed the beasts of 
 the air, of the wild places, and of the village. 
 
 9. When the sacrifice was completed, the Rig- 
 hymns and the Sama-hymns were born from it, the 
 incantations were born, the Yajus was born from it. 
 
 10. From it were born the horses, all the cattle 
 that have two rows of teeth ; the kine were born 
 from it; from it the goats and sheep were born. 
 
 11. When they disposed the Man, into how many 
 parts did they form him ? 2 What are his mouth, 
 his arms, his thighs, and his feet called ? 
 
 12. His mouth was the Brahman ; his arms were 
 made the Eajanya ; his thighs were the Vaicya ; 
 and the Qudra was born from his feet. 
 
 1 The Sudhyas would seem to be divine ancient sacrificers. Compare 
 X. 109. 4.; also X. 191. 2., VII. 21. 7., and X. 130. 
 
 2 Or elliptically, following Professor Avery's suggestion, Journal of the 
 American Oriental Society, vol. xi. p. cxlix, ''dividing him into all the 
 parts into -which they formed him." 
 
Pitnts/w. 89 
 
 13. The moon was born from his mind, the sun 
 from his eye ; Indra and Agni from his mouth, and 
 Vayu was born from bis breath. 
 
 14. From his navel came the air ; from his head 
 arose the sky, from his feet the earth, from his ear 
 the regions ; so they formed the worlds. 
 
 15. He had seven enclosing logs of fuel, and 
 thrice seven layers of fuel ; when the gods performed 
 the sacrifice, they bound the Man as victim. 
 
 16. (=1. 164. 50.) So the gods sacrificed a 
 sacrifice sacrificially : they were the first sacrificial 
 erdinances. Those mighty ones attained to heaven, 
 where the ancient Sadhyas abide as gods." 
 
 We have now passed in review the three most 
 circumstantial explanations of the origin of the 
 world. In the first chapter it was regarded as a 
 work of art ; and since the principal manufacture 
 known to the men of the time was the working of 
 wood, the world was pronounced a production of 
 builders and joiners. In the second chapter the 
 origin of the world was ascribed to the agency 
 of that visible process which is the cause of all 
 natural, as opposed to mechanical, production. In 
 the argument of this chapter the origin of the 
 world was supposed to have been effected by a 
 similar instrumentality to that which is represented 
 as the most efficacious in the hands of man, the 
 formal sacrifice. The three explanations are not 
 mutually exclusive ; any two of them or all three 
 
90 The Sacrifice. 
 
 are frequently combined together in one verse. The 
 classification adopted in this essay is, therefore, to 
 be regarded as one of practical convenience only. 
 Further, it must not be supposed that what is here 
 described as the system of the Eishis was their 
 exclusive possession. There may have been laymen 
 whose views were more sacerdotal than those of the 
 priests ; as there may have been, and doubtless 
 were, priests to whom speculation was dearer than 
 ritual. 1 On the other hand, a classification based 
 on later forms of thought would have been positively 
 misleading. We may very easily persuade ourselves 
 that in some isolated verse we have discovered the 
 starting-point of a later philosophy, where the com- 
 parison of similar passages shows that it was only 
 the poverty of our imagination which confined the 
 meaning within our own particular range of thought. 
 The Rigveda must be made its own commentary. 
 It is a not infrequent occurrence that a whole 
 complex of modern ideas finds its most happy and 
 appropriate expression in an old term, or a proper 
 name or attribute, or in the words of an ancient 
 saying. The words themselves have contributed 
 nothing to the formation of the ideas ; they had 
 lost their first meaning and were fast falling into 
 oblivion, when the breath of a spirit from another 
 sphere inspired them with a new vitality. 
 
 1 cf. X. 71. 11. 
 
CHAPTER IT. 
 
 THE ORDER OF THE WORLD. 
 
 Attention has already been drawn to the narrow 
 boundary-line which often separates the expression 
 of the superficial guesses of unscientific thinkers 
 from the expression of the profoundest results of 
 modern philosophy and science. We meet continually 
 in our hymns with forms of expression, appearing 
 at first sight to be the vehicle of grand thought, 
 placed side by side with puerile and foolish conceits. 
 Some general rule is needed for the guidance of 
 the interpreter. In the case of an individual man 
 it may be an impossibility to draw a line of circum- 
 scription marking out the range of his thought ; in 
 the case, however, of a class of men, the difficulty 
 will naturally be increased of defining the capacity 
 of the deepest or acutest thinker among them ; but 
 we can draw inferences as to the construction which 
 they as a class will put upon a given expression, 
 and so reflexively as to the sense in which an 
 author addressing them expects his words to be 
 understood. The difficulties of the critic will be 
 found to concentrate themselves for the most part 
 
92 The Order of the World, 
 
 on the interpretation of abstract words. Common 
 experience teaches us that an unscientific speaker 
 makes a large use of a limited number of abstract 
 words in different senses, neglecting for the time 
 being in each particular application of his terms the 
 senses, which in other contexts he would himself 
 intend by them. The terms are rich in the variety 
 of their meanings, the connection of which with one 
 another may not appear strictly logical; but the 
 connotation of the terms in individual expressions 
 is limited. The character of the hymns of the 
 Eigveda is in general anything but philosophic or 
 scientific ; consequently, in order to find the motive 
 for the use of particular words or phrases we are 
 bound to seek on every occasion the most special 
 meaning which the context will admit, at the same 
 time remembering that no such need of a strict 
 limitation was probably present to the mind of the 
 author. 
 
 The word used to denote the conception of the 
 order of the world is ritci. 1 Everything in the 
 universe which is conceived as showing regularity 
 of action may be said to have the fit a for its 
 principle. In its most general application the con- 
 ception expressed by the word occupied to some 
 extent the place of natural and moral law, fate, or 
 
 1 The account which Professor F. Max Miiller has given of this world 
 in his Hibbert Lectures, pp. 237 fL, is based on his view of the etymology. 
 
mta. 9a 
 
 the will of a supreme god. It is the great and 
 mighty ritd, 1 which gods and men obey, and beside 
 which the Yedic gods sink into the position of 
 angels or heavenly spirits. The ritd was, however, 
 in itself too stationary, too conservative, and purely 
 regulative to be endowed with the individual life 
 necessary to a god ; it remained an abstract idea 
 and was not an object of direct adoration. 
 
 More usually the meaning of the word as applied 
 to the natural world connects itself with the alter- 
 nation of day and night, the regular passage of the 
 sun through the heavens, or the unswerving motion 
 of the rain in its fall from heaven and of the streams 
 along their courses. This last application of the word 
 may have determined its special sense of 'water' in 
 the later language. The limited meaning as applied 
 to the regular celestial phenomena is illustrated by 
 the phrase, 'the place of the ritd,' used specifically for 
 the sky. " The Maruts come from afar from the 
 seat of the ritd." 2 Yishnu is the embryo of the 
 ritd. 3 This sense is perhaps also the ground of the 
 association of the word ritd with the metaphorical 
 antithesis of light and darkness, the types of happi- 
 
 1 mahdt, brihdt, cf. brihdt svar — 
 
 " He might not : — no, though a primeval god : 
 The sacred seasons might not be disturbed." 
 
 Keats, Hyperion. 
 
 2 paravdtah sdclanad ritdsya IV. 21. 3. 
 
 3 I. 156. 3. 
 
34 The Order of the World. 
 
 ness and distress, and of moral right and wrong. 
 The word is used interchangeably with satyd 'reality, 
 truth/ and hence 'light/ 'belonging to the light;' 
 dnrita is the most usual antithesis to satyd. l The 
 sun figures in connection with both terms ; " the 
 earth is supported by truth, the sky is supported 
 by the sun, the Adityas exist by the ritd." "The 
 flowing of the streams is ritd, the expansion of the 
 sun's light is truth." The sun is "the true light 
 set on the sure support of the sky." 2 To the 
 Bishi, however, the type of regularity on earth was 
 the sacrifice ; the word is therefore specially employed 
 in the sense of sacrifice. Agni is said to sacrifice 
 the ritd. 3 The ritd has its chariot, its ship, its horses, 
 bulls, cows, and the like, in all which cases the 
 reference is primarily or exclusively to the sacrifice. 
 The seat of the ritd becomes the place of sacrifice. 
 
 We proceed to the discussion of the place of 
 the ritd in cosmogony. The discussion limits itself 
 naturally to those passages where ritd is employed 
 in its cosmic sense, putting on one side such 
 expressions as ' offspring ' or ' embryo of the ritd \ 
 applied to Agni and Soma, because fire and soma- 
 juice were produced at the sacrifice. The principle 
 of the order of the world, of the regularity of cosmic 
 
 1 VII. 56. 12., IX. 113. 4., III. 6. 10. ; IV. 5. 5., VIII. 62. 12., 
 VII. 49. 3. cf. V. 12. 4., Brihadar. Up. 1. 4. 14. 
 
 2 X. 85. 1., I. 105. 12., X. 170. 2. 
 
 3 I. 75. 5. 
 
Rita as a First Principle. 95 
 
 phenomena, was conceived by the E-ishis to have 
 existed as a principle before the manifestation of 
 any phenomena. The argument would seem to be 
 somewhat as follows. The phenomena of the world 
 are shifting and changeable, but the principle 
 regulating the periodical recurrence of phenomena 
 is constant; fresh phenomena are continually re- 
 produced, but the principle of order remains the 
 same ; the principle, therefore, existed already when 
 the earliest phenomena appeared ; in the Yedic 
 idiom it is their father, it has given birth to them. 
 This parentage is exactly parallel to that of heaven 
 and earth. Heaven and earth are the first according 
 to or by reason of the vita ; l the gods are born of 
 ritd. The view that the principle must precede 
 the manifestation appears to be the motive of the 
 following short and rather incomprehensible hymn, 
 probably one of the latest in the collection. 2 
 
 X. 190. 1. "Order (ritd) and truth were born from 
 kindled heat, the night was born, then the watery 
 flood. 
 
 2. From the watery flood the year was born, 
 disposing day and night, the ruler of all that closeth 
 the eye. 
 
 3. The Ordainer (dhdtdr) formed sun and moon in 
 order, and heaven and earth, the regions of the air 
 and the light." 
 
 1 X. 12. l. 
 
 2 Since it is not divided up in the pada recension. 
 
« 
 
 96 The Order of the World. 
 
 It will be observed that the year, day, and night 
 come into existence before the sun, moon, heaven, 
 and earth. The hymn is unique in its enumeration 
 of progressive stages in the growth of the world. 
 In no other hymn is the origin of the world viewed 
 as a gradual process. Account must, however, be 
 taken of the necessities of the style in which the 
 hymns are composed, admitting of fragmentary 
 allusions of every kind, but not of the full treatment 
 at one time of any one thought. In one passage 
 at the beginning of the well-known physician's 
 hymn, we read that "the plants came into being 
 three ages before the gods." l If the passage has 
 any cosmological significance, and from the context 
 this appears very improbable, it is still too isolated 
 in the Rigveda to form the basis of an argument. 
 
 The expression ' born from the ritd ' 2 is in- 
 distinguishable from the equally common phrases 
 ' born in the ritd * or ' according to the ritd,* or the 
 more indefinite expressions 'born of the ritd* 'embryo 
 of the ritd/ ritcijcl, ritejd, ritdprajdfa, ritdjdta, the 
 last of which is analysed in one passage (VI. 7. 1.) 
 into rite jdtd. The separate manifestations of the 
 ritd are expressed by the plural ritdni, where each 
 phenomenon is itself regarded as a ritd. Thus the 
 
 1 triyuglim X. 97. 1. 
 
 2 In II. 13. 1. ritv, the mother, is prohably the time of sacrifice. In 
 the Atharvaveda, xix. 53 and 54, it is time in general, kald, that appears 
 as the parent of all things. 
 
 
King Varuna. 97 
 
 gods are the protectors or leaders of ritd; the dawn 
 directs the reins of ritd ; the dawns or the sun 
 produce ritd. Or again, the causes of these mani- 
 festations may be regarded as the causes of the 
 principle, and so we return to the familiar paradox 
 that the sons begat their parent. Heaven and 
 earth, morning and night, are the mothers of the 
 ritd. 
 
 The best illustration of the ideas connected with 
 the order of the world will be an examination of 
 the character of Varuna, the chief of the lords of 
 natural order. Yaruna is in the Bigveda primarily 
 the great king over all, whose throne is in the sky, 
 the god of peaceful dominion as opposed to the' 
 warrior Indra. 1 From his throne on high he looks 
 down upon all that happens in the world, and into 
 the heart of man. "He knoweth the path of the 
 birds, that fly through, the air ; he knoweth the 
 ships as lord of the sea ; he knoweth the way of 
 the spreading, high, and mighty wind ; and he 
 knoweth those who dwell above it. He beholdeth 
 with insight that which is hidden, that which is 
 done and yet to be done." 2 As king he ordains 
 all that happens on the earth, and as legislator he 
 
 1 VII. 82. 5. A full description of Varuna's character, together with 
 a discussion of the origin and development of the conception of the god, 
 will he found in Professor A. Hillehrandt's Mitra and Varuna, Breslau, 
 1877. 
 
 2 I. 25. 7, 9, 11. 
 
 7 
 
98 The Order of the World, 
 
 lays down the laws. The Maruts receive their 
 impulse from Indra, but their instructions from 
 Varuna. 1 His activity shows itself pre-eminently in 
 the control of the most regular phenomena of nature, 
 the course of the sun, and of the rivers. Mitra and 
 Varuna set the sun in heaven as a shining chariot. 
 "King Varuna made a path for the sun for it to 
 follow," and a path for the streams. 2 The seven 
 rivers of the sky, as the seven rivers of the earth, 
 are under his control. In I. 24. verse 10. the poet 
 wonders whither the stars go in the daytime, and 
 his explanation is that "Varuna's laws are inviolable; 
 the moon wanders shining through the night." Mitra 
 and Varuna have ordained the succession of years, 
 months, and days. 3 And Varuna's power is not 
 limited to the natural world; as judge he administers 
 his own moral code, and is especially invoked for 
 forgiveness of sins against fellow-men. Indra is 
 mentioned as the soldier who punishes offenders 
 against Varuna' s laws. 4 
 
 These laws are in Vedic language vratani ; the 
 nearest English translation of the word is perhaps 
 ' courses of action ' or ' ways of life.' 5 It is used 
 
 1 X. 66. 2. 
 
 2 V. 63. 7., I. 24. 8., VII. 60. 4., 63. 5., 87. 1., II. 28. 4. 
 
 3 VII. 66. 11., I. 25. 8. 
 * X. 113. 5. 
 
 6 For the etymology of the word vratd see a note by Professor "Whitney 
 in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. xi. p. cexxix. 
 ' Course of action, behaviour,' is the meaning he assigns to it. 
 
The Ordinances of Varum. 99 
 
 especially with verbs of motion or of following, 
 in one place with the addition of the words 'as it 
 were with the feet/ 1 and with the prepositions dnu 
 'after/ and its converse dti; in these constructions 
 vratd alone is equivalent to ritdsya pdnthdh, the path 
 of the ritd. It is used of the characteristic occupations 
 of gods and of men. 2 A good wife is a wife who 
 follows the vratd of her husband. The vratani of a 
 superior power are said to overcome those of an 
 inferior ; the vratdni of the other gods yield to 
 Indra ; he places himself above all other vratani ; 
 he conquers the vratdni of the great flood. 3 All 
 things are said to be in the vratd of a powerful god. 4 
 Thus the meaning of the word takes its colour from 
 the person to whom it is applied : a description of 
 the vratani of Varuna is a description of his activity. 
 The vratani of Varuna are his royal ordinances. 
 Soma is twice compared to a king whose vratdni 
 are good ; 5 and the ordinances of king Soma are 
 praised as the vratani of Mitra and Varuna. 6 The 
 criterion of excellence in a good lawgiver and judge 
 is the firmness and impartiality of his decisions. 
 What he has once determined must remain as a 
 
 1 V. 67. 3. 
 
 2 IX. 112. 1., X. 37. 5. 
 
 3 VI. 14. 3., III. 60. 6., VIII. 32. 28., X. 111. 4. 
 * Indra III. 30. 4. ; Parjanya V. 83. 5. 
 
 5 IX. 20. 5., 57. 3. 
 
 6 I. 91. 3.=IX. 88. 8. 
 
100 The Order of the World. 
 
 rule to bind all subsequent decisions. Hence we 
 are continually told of Yaruna that bis vratani stand 
 fast, are unalterable (dhritavrata). "For on thee, 
 O thou that none may deceive, rest the immovable 
 vratani as on a mountain. " They are the fixed 
 ordinances according to which the sun travels through 
 heaven, the streams flow into the ocean, and the 
 actions of men are ruled. 1 The other gods follow 
 the vratani of Mitra and Yaruna, they are in their 
 vratd; poets pray that they may walk in Yaruna's 
 vratd ; 2 and Mitra and Yaruna follow the vratd, 
 which they themselves have made, as a just king 
 follows his own precedents. 3 
 
 Thus Yaruna occupies a position corresponding as 
 nearly as possible to that of the ritd, of which he 
 may almost be considered the personification. His 
 vratani are the vratani of the ritd ; the ritd is itself 
 called the ritd of Mitra and Yaruna ; it is the 
 principle of their activity, according to which they 
 rule ; they are the guides and protectors of the ritd ; 
 and Yaruna punishes offenders against the ritd. 4 " This 
 sketch suffices to show how Yaruna, the maintainer 
 and ordainer of all that is constant in the world, 
 
 1 II. 28. 8., cf. X. 65. 8.; VIII. 41. 1., I. 24. 10., X. 12. 5, 
 " The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the watercourses: he 
 turneth it whithersoever he will." — Prov. xxi. 1. 
 
 2 VIII. 41. 7., X. 36. 13., I. 24. 15., II. 28. 2., VII. 87. 7. 
 
 3 IV. 13. 2., V. 67. 3. 
 
 * III. 4. 7., II. 28. 4., X. 85. 1., V. 63. 7., II. 27. 8., VII. 40. 4., 
 VII. 84. 4., cf. VII. 83. 9. 
 
Relation of Varum to Rita. 101 
 
 could be considered as the creator of the world. 
 He differs from the deities mentioned in Chapter II 
 in that he is in no way a productive agent in nature, 
 his creative function is an inference from his presi- 
 dential capacity ; he differs from the ritd in that 
 he is an agent and not a mere regulating principle. 
 The following is one of the clearest hymns in whicli 
 Yaruna appears in this general character of the 
 orderer, maintainer, and therefore creator of the 
 world. 
 
 Y. 85. 1. " I will sing forth a mighty and loud 
 hymn to the king of all, acceptable to renowned 
 Yaruna ; who hath struck out the earth, as a slayer 
 of victims, a skin to spread forth before the sun. 
 
 2. He hath woven the air in the trees ; l he hath 
 placed speed in horses, and milk in kine ; Yaruna 
 hath placed understanding in hearts, fire in water, 
 the sun in the sky, and soma on the mountain. 
 
 3. Yaruna poureth forth the cask, mouth down- 
 wards, over heaven, earth, and air, wherewith the 
 king of all the world wetteth the land, as rain a 
 corn-field. 
 
 4. Yaruna wetteth the land, earth and sky, what 
 time he wisheth to draw milk ; the mountains clothe 
 themselves in cloud ; the tempestuous warriors 2 are 
 let loose. 
 
 1 Pet. Lex. ' clouds.' 
 
 2 Maruts, V. 63. 4, 6., IV. 54. 5. 
 
102 The Order of the World. 
 
 5. This great design of the renowned Asura, of 
 Yaruna will I proclaim — that, standing in the 
 region of the air, he measureth out the earth with 
 the sun as with a measuring-rod. 
 
 6. This great design of the most wise god hath 
 none assailed, that the swift streaming rivers fill 
 not the one sea with water. 
 
 7. What wrong we have ever done, Yaruna, 
 to comrade or friend (with a play on the names 
 Mitra and Aryaman), to companion or brother, to 
 one of our own tribe or to stranger, loose it from us. 
 
 8. If we have cheated at play as dishonest players, 
 be our sin real or such as we know not {i.e. imposed 
 by a curse), cast all from us, god, as loose bonds, 
 and let us be thine own, Yaruna." ! 
 
 The word translated ' design ' {may a) in verses 5 
 and 6 calls for special comment. It is apparently 
 derived from an obsolete root ma ( = man), - to 
 think/ and is used in the sense of planning a work 
 of art, or a malicious attack on an enemy. It was, 
 however, by the Rishis approximated to the existing 
 root ma {mi)> ' measure/ 2 and is thus applied to the 
 
 1 The comparison with the Old Testament cannot fail to suggest 
 itself. For such a comparison there is no more instructive chapter than 
 Joh. xxxviii. ; there is scarcely a metaphor in that chapter which does not 
 find its exact parallel in the Vedic descriptions of Varuna. The tone is, 
 however, very different. The Hebrew poet is illustrating in detail the 
 incomprehensible power of Jehovah, contrasted with the frailty of man. 
 
 2 IX. 83. 3., cf. II. 17. 5., I. 159. 4., III. 38. 7. ; see the article ' La 
 maya et le pouvoir createur des divinites vediques ' by M. Regnaud, in the 
 Revue de l'histoire des religions, vol. xii. pp. 237 ff. 
 
Maya. 103 
 
 measuring skill of Mitra and Varuna in laying the 
 foundations of the earth, and in directing the course 
 of the sun and the waters. The original meaning of 
 the word, denoting the artistic designing or planning 
 of a work with the mental calculation of an architect, 
 rather than the manual skill of a builder or carpenter, 
 will explain how it is that it is only once applied 
 to Tvashtar, 1 and only once to the Eibhus. 2 The 
 sun goes to his work knowing the design of the 
 gods. 3 In V. 63. 7. the mdyd of the Asura is placed 
 side by side with the dhdrman of Mitra and Varuna. 
 This may a of the Asura, D}^aus pitar, whose worship 
 was practically a thing of the past at the time when 
 our hymns were composed, 4 is mentioned elsewhere 
 only in the instrumental case; Mitra and Varuna 
 send rain according to, or by means of the design of 
 the Asura ; 5 the sun is anointed (with light) according 
 to the design of the Asura. The may a of the Asura 
 is in other passages simply transferred to Varuna ; 
 the sun is called the mayd of Mitra and Varuna; 
 or the name of the god is omitted and we are told 
 that the sun shines mayaya " according to design " 6 
 " These two children (sun and moon) wander one 
 
 1 X. 53. 9. 
 
 2 III. 60. 1. parallel to foV7, dhv, mcinas. 
 
 3 X. 88. 6. 
 
 4 Compare Dr. Bradke's Dyaus Asura, Halle, 1885. 
 
 5 V. 63. 3. 
 
 6 VIII. 41. 3. ; III. 61. 7., cf. V. 63. 4. ; I. 160. 3. 
 
104 The Order of the World. 
 
 after the other according to design, they go dancing 
 round the place of sacrifice ; the one beholds all 
 existing things, the other ordaining the times of 
 the sacrifice is born again and again." l The English 
 word ■ design/ contrasted with the plural g designs/ 
 illustrates at the same time the malevolent sense of 
 the plural of the Vedic word, a sense associated 
 with the singular in one or two passages only. 
 
 The contemplation of this august god Varuna, 
 who at first sight would appear worthy of exclusive 
 adoration, recalls us, finally, to the consideration 
 of the extent of the advance towards monotheism 
 testified by our hymns. There are only two ways 
 conceivable by which a religion can rise from a 
 polytheistic to a monotheistic stage. Either one of 
 the polytheistic gods can be elevated to a position 
 of unique supremacy over all the others ; or a new 
 god can be introduced who shall supplant the old 
 gods and reduce them to the condition of inferior 
 spirits, demons, or non-entities. The elevation of 
 an indigenous god may be caused by the influence 
 of an external religious system, or in the absence 
 of direct foreign influence may result from the gradual 
 development of the religion through the action of 
 philosophic thought or national enthusiasm working 
 upon the religion, or through systematization of 
 existing religious conceptions. That the impulse 
 
 i X. 85. 18. 
 
Monotheism. 10> 
 
 towards monotheism was not the outcome of the 
 religion of the priests, as presented to us in the 
 Rigveda, will be shewn by an examination of the 
 shortcomings of the two principal gods of the Rigveda, 
 Indra and Yaruna. 
 
 Yaruna was compromised by his position of equality 
 with Mitra, and his association with the other gods 
 classed as Adityas. Essentially a god of peace, he- 
 could not be invoked in the struggles for victory 
 over hostile tribes, that blessing which lay nearest 
 to the hearts of the kings who were the chief patrons 
 of the sacrifice; as a stern god of justice he offered 
 little attraction to the common people ; his throne 
 was set in heaven, and thus he had a limited, almost 
 local, existence which offended the metaphysical sense 
 of the philosophers. Yery soon after the period of 
 the composition of our hymns he was reduced from 
 his exalted position to that of the god of the 
 midnight sky, or of the waters. 
 
 The favourite god of the Rigveda is Indra. H& 
 is endowed with the functions and attributes of most 
 of the other gods of the pantheon, including those 
 of Yaruna. 1 He is set free from the limitations of 
 space and time. The whole universe cannot contain 
 
 1 I. 101. 3. The following list contains passages in which actions 
 characteristic of Varuna are ascribed to Indra: VIII. 40. 8., II. 24. 12.,. 
 VII. 47. 3., X. 111. 3, 8., VIII. 37. 3., VII. 98. 6., V. 40. 8., X. 138. 
 6., cf. VII. 66. 11., I. 25. 8. Compare also M. Bergaigne's interpre- 
 tation of IV. 42., La Religion vedique, vol. iii. p. 143. 
 
106 The Order of the World. 
 
 him ; if there were a hundred heavens, and a hundred 
 earths, and a thousand suns, they would not equal 
 him ; * he embraces all nations as a felloe the spokes 
 of a wheel ; he holds the two worlds in his fist ; 
 the earth and all creatures are as a grain of dust 
 in his sight. 2 His dominion is not limited to past 
 and present, it extends over all time. He is above 
 all that has been, and that is to be born ; in him 
 are all heroic deeds that have been done and will 
 be done. 3 The conception of Indra was, however, 
 too much hampered by association with popular 
 legends, and his character too pronounced as that of 
 a warrior, to be acceptable to the Brahmans ; the 
 unusual distinctness of his personality was incom- 
 patible with absolute supremacy. He remained a 
 great god, the first of the Devas, but never became 
 the highest deity. 
 
 The verses of our hymns which refer to an unique 
 supreme being are not to be explained as products 
 of the natural development of Yedic religion as 
 represented to us by the Bishis. They are stray 
 lights from an entirely different order of thought, 
 which is represented later in the Upanishads. 
 Tradition points unmistakeably to the inference that 
 
 1 VIII. 70. 5. Atha ima atistutaya ity acahshate ''pi vci sampratyaya 
 eva syad mahabhagyad devatayah. Nirakta 13. 1. Similar passages are 
 I. 100. 15., 173. 6., VI. 30. 1. 
 
 2 III. 30. 5., I. 63. 1., X. 119. 6. 
 
 3 VIII. 89. 6., VIII. 63. 6. 
 
Brahmam and Kshatriyas. 107 
 
 the speculations which these latter contain were 
 particularly characteristic of the royal class. l If 
 we consider further that in the Vedic age the priests 
 had not yet attained to the high position of sole 
 authoritative teachers among the people which they 
 afterwards arrogated to themselves, it will not perhaps 
 be an improbable conjecture that the lay philosophy 
 to which these verses bear witness was in its origin 
 the production of members of princely families 
 independent of the narrow system of the Bishis. 
 Their introduction into the Rigveda shows that the 
 compilers of that collection were not conscious of 
 any incongruity, and may be taken as a sign that the 
 ideas which they contain were the property of the 
 few. The Eishis, for their part, were already inclined 
 to regard the sacrifice as of more importance than 
 the character of the gods to whom it was offered. 
 The same indifference which is 'seen in the indefinite- 
 
 1 " "We may hope in course of time, in view of the wealth of material 
 extant in the Rigveda, Atharvaveda, and the Brahmanas, to be able to 
 trace step by step how the sparks of philosophic light struck in the 
 Rigveda glimmered brighter and brighter, till at last in the Upanishads 
 they burst into that clear flame, which even now has power to enlighten 
 and warm us. A number of tokens indicate that the real cherisher of 
 these thoughts was originally the caste of the Kshatriyas rather than the 
 caste of the priests, which was sated with ceremonial observances : over 
 and over again in the Upanishads we come across the situation that 
 the Brahman asks the Kshatriya for information, which the latter after 
 various reflections on the impropriety of the proceeding imparts to him 
 (cf. Brih. 2. 1., Kaush. 4. 1., Brih. 6. 2., Chand. 5. 3., 5. 11., Kaush. 
 1. !.)•" — Deussen, Das System des Vedanta, p. 18. 
 
108 The Order of the World. 
 
 ness of their conceptions of individual gods explains 
 to some extent the fact that they had not energy 
 enough to develope their theology into a monotheism. 
 Their religion remained essentially polytheistic ; l but 
 side by side with the religion, independent of it, 
 though not in hostility with it, there was a germ 
 of mystic philosophy cherished by a few speculative 
 thinkers, who recognized one supreme cause and 
 bowed down in devotion before it. 
 
 1 Compare on this subject an article by Professor Whitney in the Revue 
 de l'histoire des religions, vol. vi. p. 129, of which a summary is given in 
 the Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. xi. p. Ixxx. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 THE COSMOGRAPHY OF THE RIGVEDA. 
 
 This appendix will contain a short sketch of the 
 conceptions of the form of the world, the stage on 
 which the cosmological actions are performed, con- 
 sisting of earth, heaven, and the intermediate spaces. 
 The descriptions of the several parts of the world, 
 in particular of the sky, are so various that it would 
 be folly to attempt to reduce them to uniformity ; 
 the object of this sketch is only to supply the reader 
 with a rough indication of the nature of the Yedic 
 ideas on cosmography, which are referred to in the 
 quotations of the essay, with special emphasis on 
 those points where a misconception would be likely 
 to arise. 
 
 The earth presented itself to the minds of the 
 poets as above all the broad place (prithivi, urvi, 
 mahtf vdrah prithivycih, mahi prithivi vdrimabhih), the 
 extended (uttdna), the boundless (apdra). It is the 
 substratum of the universe (bhilmi, kshdm, gma) ; 
 or the place here, simply H this " {iddm) as opposed 
 
112 Appendix. 
 
 to what is yonder. "We have mention of the four 
 points of the compass (e.g. X. 19. 8.) ; and the earth 
 thus receives in one passage the epithet " four- 
 cornered" or "four-pointed" (bhumvm cdtiirbhrishtim 
 X. 58. 3.). More frequently, however, the point 
 where the speaker stands is represented as one of 
 the regions of the earth, raising the number to five 
 (pdhca pradigah IX. 86. 29.) ; they are enumerated 
 in X. 42. 11. Similarly the inhabitants of the 
 world are described as the five tribes l (pdftca 
 krishtdyah). The earth is depicted in one passage 
 (I. 35. 8.) as containing eight mountains, three 
 continents, and seven streams ; the enumeration 
 would seem to be originally mythical, and the 
 corresponding objects sought to suit the previously 
 conceived numbers. The sky has also its seven 
 streams flowing down from the clouds which are its 
 mountains. 
 
 The conception of the form of the earth was 
 naturally modified by the coupling of heaven and 
 earth into a single dual conception (rodasi, dyavd- 
 prith&T, kshom). Together they are the two great 
 ones (mahlf mdkl, urvT, vara). In one passage they 
 figure as the two halves (II. 27. 15. ubhav drdhau). 
 From the semi- spherical appearance of the sky they 
 receive the name 'the two bowls turned towards each 
 other* (samiclne dhishdiie, and apparently camvh III. 
 
 1 v. s. v. kris/tti, Pet. Lex. 
 
The Cosmography of the Rigveda. 113 
 
 55. 20.), or they are compared to the wheels at the 
 two ends of an axle (X. 89. 4.). They are equal 
 in size, and both are copies of Indra's greatness 
 (pratimana). 
 
 Heaven is represented as the realm of shining 
 light (div, rocand y rocandm divdh), as the woven 
 web of light (vyoman cf. uraii pathi vyute III. 54. 9.). 
 It is the height (sanu, prishthd, vishtdp) or the roof 
 of the world supported on high (see Chapter I.). At 
 times we find mention of a firmament above the sky 
 (divo naka) in which the stars are fixed. 
 
 More peculiar is the conception of the intermediate 
 space of air, between heaven and earth. The air is 
 not personified to the same extent as heaven and 
 earth, and may therefore be considered a quasi- 
 scientific conception. It is called simply the inter- 
 mediate space (antdriksha) or the rdjas. The latter 
 word occurs three times in the Rigveda in the plural 
 of the dust of the soil; the original sense of the 
 word may have been associated with the fine motes 
 (mdrici) glittering in the beams of the sun. 1 The rdjas 
 obstructs the rays of the sun (Y. 59. 3.), and can 
 thus be regarded as the cause of darkness, whence 
 the epithet 'black' ; when illuminated it is the medium 
 through which the rays are conveyed to the earth 
 (X. 53. 6.). As the dust of the earth receives the 
 rain, so the dust of the air is permeated with 
 
 1 A somewhat similar combination of meanings occurs in the word 
 purisha, cf. pdntha arendvah I. 35. 11., and see K. Z. xxvi. p. 62. 
 
 8 
 
114 Appendix. 
 
 moisture, and hence rajas can bear the epithet ' watery • 
 (aptyam I. 124. 5., madhumat I. 90. 7.). The limits of 
 the region of the air are said to be indiscoverable. 
 
 These three, heaven, earth, and air, are the favourite 
 group of three in the Rigveda, underlying all manner 
 of applications of the number. Some whole hymns 
 have no other motive than this continual play on 
 the number (I. 34., III. 56.). According to a 
 common idiom of the Rigveda the three may be 
 denoted by any one of the three names; they are 
 even all mentioned together as the three earths, the 
 three heavens, and the three airs; 1 more complication 
 still is occasionally caused by the addition in the 
 singular of one member of the trio, when the three 
 have already been mentioned. The twofold division, 
 again, into heaven and earth, is combined with the 
 threefold division, and thus we have mention of six 
 worlds, or six rdjdmsi. These were originally mere 
 freaks of language, but the expressions led to a sub- 
 sequent real subdivision. In the Rigveda we read 
 of an upper, middle and lower heaven (V. 60. 6.) ; 
 one passage (I. 108. 9, 10.) speaks of an upper, middle 
 and lower earth ; the word earth seems in this passage 
 to be used in a loose sense (cf. VII. 104. 11.). In the 
 Atharvaveda, however, the division is clearly denned 
 (A.V. VI. 21. 1.). The triple subdivision is par- 
 ticularly marked in the case of the rajas. In the 
 
 1 For a similar manipulation of the numbers compare VII. 33. 7. 
 
The Cosmography of the Rigveda. 115 
 
 highest of the three rdjdmsi {tritiye) are the rain- 
 waters. The two lower regions are within the range 
 of our perception ; the third belongs to Vishnu, whither 
 he stepped with the third of his ascending strides 
 (VII. 99. 1., cf. I. 155. 5.) ; it is the invisible, mys- 
 terious rajas (ddbhutam X. 105. 7.). 1 More fre- 
 quently, however, the rajas is divided on the twofold 
 principle, the one half belonging to the earth (par- 
 thivam rajah), the other to the sky (divo rajah). 
 
 Prof. H. Zimmer in his book, ' Altindisches Leben,' 
 p. 357, has alleged the existence of a rajas beneath 
 the earth to account for the course of the sun in 
 the night : we will close this sketch with a discussion 
 of his hypothesis. It cannot be doubted that in 
 the majority of cases, where two or three rdjdmsi 
 are mentioned, they are conceived as all above the 
 earth. A perfectly clear instance to prove that 
 parthivam rajah is situated above the earth is I. 
 81. 5. a paprau parthivam rdjo badbadhe rocand divl, 
 "he filled the earthly rajas and pressed against the 
 sky." The epithet mddhumat applied to parthivam 
 rajah (I. 90. 7.) can scarcely refer to anything under 
 the earth. The presumption is, therefore, that in 
 all cases the same words refer to a rajas above the 
 earth. Zimmer refers to three passages, VI. 9. 1., 
 
 1 The conception of the highest region as hidden above the light, or 
 hidden in impenetrable light, offers an explanation of some passages which 
 have caused difficulty to interpreters, e.g. X. 114. 2. pdreshu guhyeshu 
 vrateshu cf. I. 155. 3. and IX. 75. 2. 
 
116 Appendix, 
 
 VII. 80. 1., and V. 81. 4. The first passage reads 
 dhag ca krishndm dhar drjunam ca vi vartete rdjasl 
 vedyabhih. Zimmer translates " es durchrollen die 
 lichte und schwarze Tageshalfte offenkundig die beiden 
 Luftkreise." We must compare I. 185. 1. vi vartete 
 dhanl cakriyeva, "day and night revolve like two 
 wheels/' i.e. circling round from east to west, the one 
 rising as the other goes down. We are in no way- 
 obliged to consider that the progress of either is 
 continued further below the earth. The next passage 
 excludes such an interpretation : vivartdyantlm rdjasl 
 sdmante avishkrinvatim bhuvanani vigva (VII. 80. 1.), 
 the dawn "unrolling the two rdjasl, which border 
 on one another, revealing all things." Here Zimmer 
 remarks, " beide Gebiete stossen aneinander ; " the 
 limits, however, coincide just as well if we regard 
 both rdjasl as narrowing down together towards east 
 and west (cf. V. 47. 3.), or the adjacent borders 
 may be the horizontal plane which separates them. 
 The question is decided by the consideration that 
 only one moment is described, namely, that of 
 daybreak; the dawn is represented as unrolling, 
 unfolding both together, and at the same time as 
 giving light to the world. On the other passage 
 V. 81. 4., utd ratrlm ubhaydtah pdrlyase, Zimmer 
 observes, "die Nacht umwandelt Surya von beiden 
 Seiten. " The verse is, however, addressed not to 
 Surya but to Savitar, who, though in some sense a 
 god of the sun, has a special character as god of 
 
The Cosmography of the Rigveda. 117 
 
 the evening. I translate then, "and thou encompassest 
 the night on both sides " (cf. IX. 86. 6). 
 
 But if we dismiss the hypothesis of a rajas under 
 the earth, how did the poets of the Rigveda explain 
 the course of the sun ? In one passage an explanation 
 appears to be offered; the words are aydm cakrdm 
 ishanat suryasya ny etacam rlramat sasrimdndm \ a 
 hrishnd im juhurdno jigharti tvaco bud/me rcijaso asyd 
 yonau (IY. 17. 14.). Indra stops the chariot of the 
 sun, and, turning it round, flings it into the concealing 
 darkness, apparently the darkness belonging to the 
 night- sky, the way that it came. A similar idea 
 occurs in the Aitareya Brahmana (3. 4. 44.), where 
 the sun is said to turn round so as to shine downwards 
 in the daytime and upwards in the night. In the 
 same way we are told that it is another rajas which 
 accompanies the sun to the east, different from the 
 light with which he rises (X. 37. 3) ; the light which 
 his horses draw is now bright, now dark (I. 115. 5.), 
 or the path along which his horses travel becomes 
 dark (I. 164. 47.). Such an explanation was, however, 
 inapplicable to the stars, and one poet asks in wonder, 
 "These stars, which are set on high, and appear at 
 night, whither do they go in the daytime ?" (I. 24. 10.) ; 
 and even in the case of the sun a doubt is expressed 
 in the question, " how many suns are there and how 
 many dawns?" (X. 88. 18.) 
 
INDEX OF PASSAGES, 
 
 An asterisk is affixed to those passages which are wholly 
 or partially translated, or which form the subject of special 
 comment. 
 
 RIG VEDA. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 46 
 
 I. 3. 4 
 
 3.12 86 
 
 6.4. 76 
 
 13.10 41 
 
 22. 17* .... 44 
 23.16 5 
 
 23. 17 33 
 
 24.7 17 
 
 24. 10.*. . . 98, 117 
 
 24.. 14. . . . 
 
 24. 15. . . . 
 
 25. 7, 9, 11* . 
 
 38 
 
 100 
 
 97 
 
 25. 18 75 
 
 31. 7. 
 31. 10. 
 31. 17. 
 35. 6. 
 35. 8. 
 42. 1. 
 46. 11. 
 48. 3. 
 
 66 
 
 68 
 70 
 77 
 112 
 31 
 49 
 33 
 
 PAGE 
 
 56. 5 * ..... 20 
 
 62, 5. i .... 70 
 
 62. 7. i * * . . 12 
 
 63. 1 106 
 
 67.5* ..... 54 
 
 67,9. . ; * . . 55 
 
 68. 8. 9. * ... 72 
 
 68. 10. i . i . . 69 
 
 69,7. ..... 78 
 
 70. 3 55 
 
 71.2,3. i i . . 70 
 
 72.5,9. .... 74 
 
 75,5. . , , . . 94 
 
 81.5. ..... 115 
 
 83.5. ..... 34 
 
 84.15. . .... 24 
 
 89. 10. ... 46, 115 
 
 90. 7. 
 
 91. 3. 
 94.-5. 
 
 95. 2. 
 
 96. 7. 
 
 115 
 99 
 59 
 23 
 62 
 
120 
 
 Index. 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PAGB 
 
 I. 98. 2. . . . 
 
 . . 55 
 
 I. 154. 5 66 
 
 100. 4. . . . 
 
 . . 70 
 
 155. 3. . . 
 
 
 
 39, 115 
 
 100. 15. . . 
 
 . . 106 
 
 156. 3. . . 
 
 
 
 . 93 
 
 101. 3. . . . 
 
 . . 105 
 
 157. 5. . 
 
 
 
 . 39 
 
 105. 12.* . . 
 
 . . 94 
 
 158. 5. . 
 
 
 
 . 56 
 
 106. 7. . . . 
 
 . . 10 
 
 159. 2. . 
 
 
 
 . 32 
 
 108. 9, 10. 
 
 . . 114 
 
 159. 3 .* , 
 
 
 
 21, 32 
 
 109. 7 * . . 
 
 . . 68 
 
 159. 4 .* . 
 
 
 
 71, 102 
 
 110. 2, 3. . . 
 
 . . 26 
 
 160. 3. . 
 
 
 34, 
 
 47, 103 
 
 110.6.* . . 
 
 . . 26 
 
 161. 9 .* 
 
 
 
 . . 55 
 
 113. 1. . . . 
 
 
 163. 2 * 
 
 
 
 i . 36 
 
 113.4.*. . . 
 
 . . 19 
 
 163. 3. . 
 
 
 
 . . 13 
 
 113. 18. . , 
 
 . . 86 
 
 164. 4. . 
 
 
 
 . . 71 
 
 115. 1 * , . 
 
 . . 53 
 
 164. 5. . 
 
 
 
 . . 69 
 
 115.2. . . . 
 
 . . 68 
 
 164. 6.* 
 
 
 
 . . 54 
 
 115. 5. . . .. 
 
 115, 117 
 
 164. 20. 
 
 
 
 . . 17 
 
 117. 22.. , , 
 
 . . 23 
 
 164. 33. . 
 
 
 
 , ; 41 
 
 121.2. . . . 
 
 . , 25 
 
 164. 34, 35. 
 
 
 
 . . 85 
 
 121. 12. . . 
 
 . . 67 
 
 164. 36. 
 
 
 
 . . 72 
 
 123. 5. . . , 
 
 , 11, 60 
 
 164. 46* 
 
 
 
 . . 53 
 
 123.9. . . . 
 
 . . 30 
 
 164. 47. 
 
 
 
 . . 117 
 
 124. 5. . . . 
 
 33, 114 
 
 164. 50* 
 
 
 
 . . 89 
 
 125. 5, , , . 
 
 . . 75 
 
 173. 3. . 
 
 
 
 . . 31 
 
 125. 5, 6. . . 
 
 ... 66 
 
 173. 6. . 
 
 
 
 . .106 
 
 127. 2. . , , 
 
 . . 70 
 
 185. 1*. 
 
 
 31 
 
 ,71, 116 
 
 130. 3. . .. . 
 
 . 52, 70 
 
 185.2. . 
 
 
 
 . . 31 
 
 131. 1. . . . 
 
 . . 46 
 
 188. 5.*. 
 
 
 
 . . 19 
 
 132. 4. . . . 
 
 . . 70 
 
 188. 9. . 
 
 
 
 . 23, 40 
 
 136.2. . . . 
 
 . . 12 
 
 190. 2. . 
 
 
 
 . . 19 
 
 139. 9. . . . 
 
 . . 70 
 
 
 
 
 
 140. 5. . . . 
 
 ... 76 
 
 II. 1. . . 
 
 
 
 . . 13 
 
 145. 4. . . . 
 
 . . 76 
 
 2.2. . 
 
 
 
 . 80 
 
 146. 4. . . . 
 
 ... 68 
 
 3. 6. . 
 
 
 
 . 49 
 
 147. 2. . . . 
 
 . . 5 
 
 4.7. . . 
 
 
 
 . 47 
 
Index. 
 
 121 
 
 PAGE 
 
 II. 10. 5 ...... 76 
 
 11.4. . , , . . 67 
 
 12. 5. , , , . . 5 
 
 12. 8. ...... 51 
 
 12. 10. ..... 60 
 
 13. 1. , , . . . 96 
 15. 2. ..... 20 
 
 15. 3* 18 
 
 17. 5 102 
 
 23. 17 * ...... 23 
 
 24. 5-7 * . . ... 79 
 
 24. 8 57 
 
 24. 12 105 
 
 26. 1 • . 5 
 
 27.8- . . . . .100 
 
 27. 15 112 
 
 28. 3- ...... 100 
 
 28, 4. . . . 98, 100 
 
 28. 8* 100 
 
 29.3,4.. ..... 68 
 
 33. 1. 30 
 
 34. 11 .81 
 
 35. 5.. . . . . . 47 
 
 35. 8 55 
 
 38.8.. 44 
 
 40 39 
 
 40.3. . . . . . 35 
 
 III. 1. 5 69 
 
 1. 8. . . ... 76 
 
 ■ 1. 9. r , • . . 35 
 
 1.17. « , < . . 22 
 
 2.. 10, 11. -,.. 55 
 
 2.12. r r ... . 68 
 
 PAGE 
 
 III. 4. 5 79 
 
 4. 7 100 
 
 4. 9 .40 
 
 5. 10 22 
 
 7. 7. .... . 73 
 
 12. 3 81 
 
 14. 3. ..... 77 
 
 14. 4. ..... 68 
 
 20. 4 12 
 
 22. 3 33 
 
 30. 4 99 
 
 30. 5.. 106 
 
 30. 11 21 
 
 31. 12.* .... 72 
 
 32. 2 .80 
 
 33. 3 .56 
 
 33. 6. 10 
 
 38* ...... 76 
 
 38. 2. ..... 21 
 
 38. 3 * 19 
 
 38. 4 46 
 
 38. 6. ..... 37 
 
 38. 7. ..... 102 
 
 48, 4. 24 
 
 53. 7. ..... 70 
 
 54. 5. ..... 60 
 
 54. 8. . t . . . 58 
 54.9. . . , 84,113 
 
 54. 14. . . * . . 12 
 
 54. 16. , * . . . 68 
 
 54. 17. . . * .• . 73 
 55.15. ,,,.-. 49 
 55.19. , / , . . 23 
 
 55. 20. . .- , . . 113 
 
122 
 
 Index. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 III. 56. 3 55, 58. 
 
 60. 6. 103 
 
 60,3 99 
 
 61. 7.* 103 
 
 62. 10 78 
 
 IV. 1. 6 84 
 
 1,2Q 46 
 
 2. 15 72 
 
 2. 17 73 
 
 3. 10 34, 70 
 
 5. 13 49 
 
 5. 14 62 
 
 6.2.* 22 
 
 6.6 84 
 
 13.2 100 
 
 13.5. 22 
 
 17.14.* .... 117 
 
 17. 17 68 
 
 18.13. , .... 24 
 
 21. 13 93 
 
 24. 1 45 
 
 32. 22. ..... 31 
 
 33. 1 26 
 
 34,9. , , . . . 25 
 
 34.19 24 
 
 37. 4., , , t . . 25 
 
 38. 5. , , , . . 51 
 
 38. 10 33 
 
 39.5. , , , . . 51 
 
 42. 1. , , , . . 49 
 
 42.3. , , , . . 23 
 
 50. 1 * , , , . . 21 
 
 51.2. < ^ .... 19 
 
 PAGE 
 
 IV. 51.4. . . , . . 71 
 51. 6 * ..... 26 
 54 10 
 
 54. 5. ...... 101 
 
 55. 5, 7 10 
 
 56. 2 80 
 
 56.3.* 20 
 
 58 34 
 
 58. 1, 11. ... . 35 
 
 58. 4 38 
 
 58.5 55 
 
 V. 1. 4. 32 
 
 3, 1 53 
 
 3, 1, 2. .... 13 
 
 11.5. 86 
 
 11.6* 31 
 
 12 5 
 
 12. 1 46 
 
 12.4 62 
 
 13,6 .53 
 
 15. 2. ...... 20 
 
 29. 3, 6. . . . . 80 
 
 29. 4 * 20 
 
 30.1. 75 
 
 30.8 67 
 
 40. 6-8 69 
 
 40. 8 105 
 
 42. 10. .... . 5 
 
 42. 12. ..... 25 
 
 42. 13 23, 41 
 
 43. 6. ..... 40 
 
 44. 6 71 
 
 44. 6,. 7.. .... 84 
 
Index. 
 
 123 
 
 Y. 44. 8. . 
 44.11. . 
 45.1. . 
 45. 2. . 
 45. 10.* 
 45. 11. . 
 47.3. . 
 48. 5. 
 50.10. . 
 53. 13. . 
 
 58. 4. . 
 58.7.. . 
 
 59. 2 * . 
 59.3. . 
 59. 8. . 
 60.6. , 
 
 62. 7, 8. 
 
 63. 3, 4. 
 63. 4, 6. 
 63. 7. . 
 67. 3 .* 
 
 80. 5. 
 
 81. 4* 
 81. 4, 5. 
 83. 1. 
 83. 5. 
 83. 6. 
 85* 
 85. 2. 
 85. 5* 
 
 YI. 3. 8. 
 
 6. 3., 
 
 7. 1. 
 
 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 '. 77 
 . 46 
 . 19 
 . 22 
 . 33 
 . 78 
 . 35 
 . 75 
 
 . . 10 
 . 57 
 . 25 
 . 57 
 
 - . 22 
 . 113 
 
 . 114 
 
 . . 22 
 . 103 
 . 101 
 
 98, 103 
 
 . 99 
 
 .. . 33 
 
 . 116 
 
 ; . 13 
 
 .. . 57 
 .." . 99 
 . . 27 
 . . 101 
 . 20 
 . 18 
 
 . . 24 
 
 . . 71 
 . . 96 
 
 PAGE 
 
 YI. 9. ..... . 46 
 
 9. 1.* . . . . . 11& 
 
 9.6. ..... 75 
 
 11.2. ..... 82 
 
 14.3. ..... 99 
 
 17. 7.* . . , . . 20 
 
 18. 5. ..... 70 
 
 21.8* ..-,.. 67 
 
 24. 5. . , . . . 5 
 
 29. 3. ..... 36 
 
 30. 1. . . , . . 106- 
 30. 2. . , , . . 58 
 36. 1. . , , . . 46 
 44.23. ..... 72 
 
 47.3,4.*- .... 18 
 
 47.5. ..... 22 
 
 49. 10 .57 
 
 50. 7. ..... 56 
 
 51.8* . , , . . 78 
 
 52. 16* .... 57 
 
 55. 1. ..... 31 
 
 55. 4. ..... 39 
 
 58.3,4. .... 39 
 
 60. 4. ..... 98 
 
 61. 11, .- .... 86 
 63. 5. . .... 98 
 
 64.4. . . i . . 33 
 75. 5. ..... 31 
 
 75.18. ..... 77 
 
 87. 1. . < t . . 98 
 
 YII. 1.2...... 22 
 
 2. 5. , . . . . 35 
 
 21. 7 88. 
 
124 
 
 Index* 
 
 VII. 33. 4. 
 
 . 
 
 33. 7. . 
 
 « 
 
 33.12. . 
 
 «, 
 
 34. 2. . 
 
 . 
 
 34. 20, 21, 
 
 22 
 
 36.9. . 
 
 . 
 
 40.4. . 
 
 t 
 
 41,2. . 
 
 ., 
 
 47.3. . 
 
 .. 
 
 47. 4. . 
 
 .. 
 
 48. .2* . 
 
 * 
 
 51. 1. , 
 
 K 
 
 60. 4* . 
 
 , 
 
 75. 1. . 
 
 * 
 
 76.. 4* . 
 
 K 
 
 80. 1* , 
 
 «- 
 
 82. 5 .* . 
 
 •. 
 
 83.9. . 
 
 ., 
 
 84. 4. . 
 
 • 
 
 87.3. .. 
 
 . 
 
 87.7.. . 
 
 * 
 
 88.. 2-4.* 
 
 ., 
 
 94.1. , 
 
 .^ 
 
 98. 6. . 
 
 .. 
 
 99. 1. . 
 
 *. 
 
 99.2.. . 
 
 #j 
 
 99.3* .. 
 
 . 
 
 101* , , 
 
 t 
 
 101.3. . 
 
 ._ 
 
 102.2., . 
 
 < 
 
 104. 8, 12, 
 
 13. 
 
 104. 11. K 
 
 . 
 
 104. 14-16. 
 
 •. 
 
 - ... 
 
 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 . . . 
 
 
 
 57 
 
 
 
 37 
 
 
 
 56 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 
 
 39 
 
 
 
 100 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 105 
 
 
 
 33 
 
 
 
 25 
 
 
 
 . 46 
 
 
 
 33 
 
 
 
 71 
 
 
 
 . 67 
 
 
 
 116 
 
 
 
 97 
 
 
 
 100 
 
 
 
 100 
 
 
 
 71 
 
 
 
 . 100 
 
 
 
 . 75 
 
 
 
 30 
 
 
 
 105 
 
 
 
 115 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 21 
 
 
 
 . 57 
 
 
 
 48 
 
 
 
 .. 57 
 
 
 
 62 
 
 
 
 114 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 VIII. 1. 11 
 6. 18. 
 
 6. 20. 
 
 7. 8.. 
 14.8. 
 18.. 13. 
 18. 20. 
 23.. 18. 
 25. 5. 
 26..21. 
 32. 28. 
 37. 3. 
 41. 1., 
 41.. 3. 
 41.7.. 
 41. 10..* 
 45. 6* 
 48. 3 * 
 48. ia. 
 
 Val. 3. 8. 
 10. 2. 
 
 VIII. 63. 6 
 66. 5. 
 
 69. 7. . 
 69.7,16 
 
 70. 5 * 
 78.3.. 
 78.4.. 
 89. 6. 
 92.11* 
 92. 14. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 38 
 
 42 
 
 20 
 
 77 
 
 70 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 79 
 
 45 
 
 86 
 
 99 
 
 105 
 
 100 
 
 103 
 
 100 
 
 54 
 
 20 
 
 75 
 
 50 
 
 56 
 52 
 
 106 
 38 
 35 
 67 
 
 106 
 30 
 56 
 
 106 
 67 
 45 
 
Index. 
 
 125 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 VIII. 98. 2. . . . . 
 
 . 81 
 
 X. 4. 4. . . . 
 
 . . 49 
 
 100. 5. . . . . 
 
 . 35 
 
 5 * . . . . 
 
 . . 48 
 
 100. 10, 11. . . . 
 
 . 85 
 
 5. 2. . ♦ . 
 
 . . 76 
 
 
 
 5. 7. . . . 
 
 . 45, 62 
 
 IX. 5.5.*. . . . 
 
 . 19 
 
 7. 6. . . . 
 
 . . 82 
 
 5. 9.. ... . 
 
 . 52 
 
 10. 2. . .. . 
 
 . . 46 
 
 9. 4.* ... . 
 
 . 33 
 
 10. 4. . . . 
 
 . . 37 
 
 20. 5. . . . . 
 
 . 99 
 
 10. 5. . . . 
 
 . . 41 
 
 57. 3 
 
 . 99 
 
 11. U ♦ . , 
 
 . . 34 
 
 67. 10-12. . . . 
 
 . 39 
 
 11.2. . . . 
 
 . . 37 
 
 73. 7. . . . . 
 
 . 71 
 
 12. 1* . . . 
 
 . . 95 
 
 74. 5 
 
 . 46 
 
 12. 5. . . . 
 
 . . 100 
 
 75. 2. . . . . 
 
 . 115 
 
 14.7. . . . 
 
 . . 77 
 
 78. 3. . . „ , 
 
 . 38 
 
 14. 8. . , . 
 
 ... 73 
 
 81. 4. . . . . 
 
 . 40 
 
 16. 3. . . . 
 
 . . 86 
 
 82. 3. . . . . 
 
 . 57 
 
 16. 5. . . , 
 
 . . 73 
 
 83. 3. . . . 
 
 72, 102 
 
 17. 1, 2. . . 
 
 . . 40 
 
 83. 4 * . , . . 
 
 . 38 
 
 18. 13. . . . 
 
 . . 66 
 
 85. 9-12* 
 
 . 37 
 
 19. 18. . . . 
 
 . . 112 
 
 86. 29. , . . 
 
 . 112 
 
 24.4,5* . . 
 
 . . 43 
 
 86. 36* . • 
 
 . . 38 
 
 27. 21. . . . 
 
 . . 33 
 
 87. 2. « . . 
 
 . . 45 
 
 28. 8* . . . 
 
 . . 17 
 
 88. 8. , , .. 
 
 . . 99 
 
 29. 6 * . . . 
 
 . . 18 
 
 95. 4.. . . . 
 
 . . 77 
 
 30. 5. . . . 
 
 . . 38 
 
 97, 22. . . . 
 
 . . 21 
 
 31. 3. . . . 
 
 . . 75 
 
 97. 34. , . . 
 
 . . 57 
 
 31. 7* . . . 
 
 . . 17 
 
 107. 6. , . , 
 
 . . 71 
 
 31. 7-10 * . , 
 
 . . 47 
 
 112. U , \ * 
 
 . . 99 
 
 32. 7. . . 
 
 . . 76 
 
 113. 3* , . . 
 
 . 38, 76 
 
 35. 7. . . 
 
 . . 99 
 
 113.7-11*. . 
 
 . . 66 
 
 36. 13. . . 
 
 .. . 100 
 
 
 
 37. 3. . . 
 
 . . . 117 
 
 X. 1. 3. . . . 
 
 . . 73 
 
 42. 11. . . , 
 
 , . . 112 
 
 2. 3. . . . 
 
 . . 75 
 
 45. 11. . . 
 
 . . . 81 
 
 2.7. .. . . 
 
 . . 23 
 
 46.2. . . . 
 
 . . . 81 
 
126 
 
 Index, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 X. 46. 9 23 
 
 48. 7 58 
 
 49. 10.* .... 24 
 
 50. 3 46 
 
 53. 4 73 
 
 53. 6 113 
 
 53. 9 80 
 
 54. 3 32 
 
 56 * 72 
 
 58. 3 112 
 
 61 41 
 
 61. 10, 11. ... 72 
 
 61. 19 84 
 
 62. 3.*. .... 71 
 
 63. 3 46 
 
 63. 15 57 
 
 64. 5 45 
 
 64. 10 40 
 
 64. 14 72 
 
 65. 13 54, 86 
 
 66. 2 * 98 
 
 67. 2 46 
 
 71 85 
 
 71. 4 42 
 
 71. 11 90 
 
 72.* 42 
 
 72. 1, 2. ... 62, 82 
 
 74. 2 46 
 
 81.*. ..... 81 
 
 82.* 83 
 
 81. 4* 17 
 
 82. 1. .... . 56 
 
 82. 6 * ...... 54 
 
 85. 1 * 100 
 
 PAGE 
 
 X. 85. 6 103 
 
 85. 9* 39 
 
 85. 18* ..... 104 
 
 85. 21, 22. ... 39 
 
 85. 26. 27. ... 39 
 
 85. 40, 41* ... 39 
 
 85. 43 52 
 
 87. 4 57 
 
 88. 1. 22 
 
 88. 6 103 
 
 88. 8 .* 79 
 
 88. 18*. . . 55, 117 
 
 89. 1 21 
 
 89. 4. . . .. . .113 
 
 90.* 87 
 
 92. 15. , .. , . . 72 
 
 97. 1 .* 96 
 
 97. 16 77 
 
 98. 1 13 
 
 105. 7 115 
 
 107. 2 66 
 
 109. 4. ..... 88 
 
 110. 9.* .... . 23 
 
 111. 3,8 105 
 
 111.4 99 
 
 113.5 98 
 
 114. 2. ..... 115 
 
 114. 5* 53 
 
 119. 6. 106 
 
 120. 9 67 
 
 121 * 50 
 
 122. 5. ..... 80 
 
 123.* ....... 35 
 
 123. 6. . .... 77 
 
Index, 
 
 127 
 
 PAGE 
 
 X. 123. 8 73 
 
 125. 7, 8 * ... . 86 
 
 129* 59 
 
 130 88 
 
 130. 6 75 
 
 135. 1 17, 66 
 
 136 75 
 
 138. 6. . . *. °. . 105 
 
 139. 4-6. ". '. . 37, 77 
 149. i;* '. . *. . . 21 
 151. 1. . '. '. . . 12 
 153. 2. '. '. . . . 45 
 
 159. 3. 87 
 
 166 81 
 
 168. 1. ..... 36 
 
 168. 4. ... . 50, 86 
 
 169. 4. .... 52, 67 
 
 170. 2 * . . . . 20, 94 
 170. 4 * 81 
 
 177. 2* ..... 36 
 
 178. 3 33 
 
 184. 1 39, 52 
 
 190* ...... 95 
 
 190. 1. ..... 61 
 
 191. 2. ..... 88 
 
 ATHARVAVEDA. 
 II. 1. ..... 36 
 
 III. 12. 1 19 
 
 IY. 1 36 
 
 VI. 21. 1 114 
 
 YI. 49. 1 48 
 
 PAGE 
 
 VII. 1. 19 62 
 
 X. 2. 17 74 
 
 X. 7. 38 17 
 
 XII. 1. 12 57 
 
 XIX. 53, 54. ... 96 
 
 VAJASANEYISAMHITA. 
 23. 49. ..... 77 
 
 CATAPATHA BRAHMANA. 
 I. 9. 3. 10. .... 68 
 IY. 1. 1. 25. .... 36 
 
 AITAREYA BRAHMANA. 
 3. 3. 30 26 
 
 3. 4. 44. . . . . . 117 
 
 4. 4. 27 44 
 
 BRIHADARANYAKA 
 UPANISHAD. 
 
 1. 4. 14. 
 
 2. 1. 7. 
 4. 2. 2. 
 4. 2. 3. 
 
 94 
 30 
 
 7 
 87 
 
 CHANDOGYA UPANISHAD. 
 
 3. 1. 1 20 
 
 5. 13. 1. ..... 40 
 
 MAHABHARATA. 
 (Jantip. 10862. ... 30 
 
128 
 
 INDEX OF SANSKRIT WORDS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ajd 54 
 
 dditi 45 f 
 
 ddbhuta 115 
 
 at/dm 35 
 
 avamgd ..... 20 
 
 dsat 61 f 
 
 dsura 46 
 
 ashambhand .... 20 
 uttandpad .... 42 
 ritd . . . . 92 ff, 100 
 ekam . . . . 53 f, 58 
 
 guhya 115 
 
 Jcavdyah .... 69 
 goshano naput . . . 31 
 
 tdpas 61 
 
 ddhha 44 
 
 devd . . . . 10, 73, 30 
 
 drapsd 36 
 
 dhdrman 20 
 
 dhritdvrata . . . .100 
 
 pavitra 47 
 
 purisha 113 
 
 prahetd 59 
 
 prajapati 52 
 
 PAGE 
 
 prdyati 60 
 
 prdcah 18 
 
 marydda , . . . 49 
 
 muyd 102 ff 
 
 mi 19 
 
 rdjas 113ff 
 
 vdna 17 
 
 vdnaspdti . . . . 22 
 
 vavri 49 
 
 vdyukega . . .37, 77 
 
 vidharman .... 20 
 
 vibhvata8htd ... 24 
 
 vimuco napdt ... 31 
 
 virdj 87 
 
 vigvdJcarman . . 81, 83 
 
 vigvdrupa .... 40 
 
 vedhds 80 
 
 vydthih 47 
 
 vratd . ... . . 98ff 
 
 gamydm 47 
 
 sat 61f 
 
 sdhasas putrdh . 31, 45 
 
 stegd . . . . . 47 
 
 svadhd . ... . 60 
 
129 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Aqvins, 38 ff, 43 f, 68. 
 
 Heaven, 3 If, 42 ff, 90, 95, 
 
 Aditi, 15, 42, 44 ff. 
 
 113. 
 
 Agni, 5, 211, 32ff, 47 f, 68, 
 
 ' Henotheism,' llff. 
 
 79. 
 
 Hiranyagarbha, 50 ff, 84 f. 
 
 Air, 113. 
 
 Indra, 18, 20, 22, 24,45,67, 
 
 Aja, 54. 
 
 70, 98, 105f. 
 
 Angiras, 69 ff. 
 
 Kshatriyas, 107. 
 
 Apsaras, 37ff. 
 
 Mahabharata, 8. 
 
 Aramati, 10, 30. 
 
 Martanda, 42, 44. 
 
 Asura, 46, 103. 
 
 Maruts, 57, 80. 
 
 Atharvaveda, 7, 14 f, 81. 
 
 Mitra, see Yaruna. 
 
 Atri, 69. 
 
 Monotheism, 15, 104ff. 
 
 Bhaga, llf. 
 
 Netar, 10. 
 
 Brahma, 53. 
 
 Non-existent, 61 ff. 
 
 Brihaspati, 21, 23, 43, 67. 
 
 Parjanya, 57ff. 
 
 Qavasi, 45. 
 
 Plants, 96. 
 
 Daksha, 42, 44 ff. 
 
 Prajapati, 52. 
 
 Dawn, 39ff, 72. 
 
 Purusha, 87. 
 
 Dhatar, 10, 95. 
 
 Piishan, 38 ff. 
 
 Dyaus, 103. 
 
 Ribhus, 24ff, 55, 80. 
 
 Earth, 3 If, 42 ff, 80, 95, 111. 
 
 Rishis, 4ff, 21, 64ff, 85, 87, 
 
 Father, 12, 29ff. 
 
 90, 106 ff. 
 
 Fathers, 66 ff. 
 
 Rudra, 30, 56. 
 
 Gandharva, 34ff, 76. 
 
 Sadhyas, 88. 
 
 Gnas, 40. 
 
 Saranyu, 40 f. 
 
 9 
 
130 
 
 Index. 
 
 SarasvatI, 30, 86. 
 
 Savitar, 9, 13, 26, 40, 116. 
 
 Soma, 22, 30, 38 ff, 99. 
 
 Surya, 39 ff. 
 
 Tratar, 10. 
 
 Trita, 66. 
 
 Tvashtar, 9f, 23 f, 38, 40 f. 
 
 Upanishads, 58, 107. 
 
 Vac, 85 f. 
 
 Varuna, 18,71, 97 ff. 
 
 Vayu, 86. 
 
 Yena, 34 ff. 
 
 Viqvakarman, 80 ff. 
 
 Vidhatar, 10. 
 
 Viraj, 87. 
 
 Yirupah, 71. 
 
 Yishnu, 18, 21, 38, 44, 66, 
 
 115. 
 Vivasvat, 39, 41. 
 Waters, 56. 
 Worlds, 112. 
 Yama, 37, 39 f, 65 f. 
 
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