Arthur Berriedale Keith

“ Of feuds among the gods we hear little or nothing: Indra alone reveals traits of disorderliness, perhaps not unnatural in one who boasts of having drunk himself into intoxication with soma. He seems once to have fought with all the gods, to have shattered the car of Dawn, and even to have slain his father; and he actually quarrelled with his faithful henchmen, the Maruts. To their worshippers the gods are good and kind, and for them they slay the demons, with whom they wage a war which is triumphant if seemingly incessant. They richly bless the sacrificer and punish the niggard. ”

“ Clothed in light, she appears in the east and shows her charms; immortal and unaging, she awakes before the world. When she shines forth, the birds fly up, and men bestir themselves; she removes the black mantle of night and banishes evil dreams and the hated darkness. She follows ever the path of Order, though once she is asked not to delay lest the sun scorch her as a thief or an enemy. She is borne on a car with ruddy steeds or kine, and the distance which the dawns traverse in a day is thirty yojanas (leagues) . ”

“ He is often viewed as a bull or even as a cow, the clouds being feminine. He quickens the earth with seed, and the winds blow forth and the lightnings fall; he is a thunderer and a giver of increase to plants, to grass, to cows, mares, and women. He is even called the divine father whose wife is the earth, and he is said to rule over all the world; he produces a calf himself, perhaps the lightning or the soma. He is sometimes associated with the Maruts and is clearly akin to Indra, of whom he later becomes a form. ”

“ It is almost certain that in Indra we must see a storm-god, and that his exploit of defeating Vṛtra is a picture of the bursting forth of the rain from the clouds at the oncoming of the rainy season, when all the earth is parched, and when man and nature alike are eager for the breaking of the drought. The tremendous storms which mark the first fall of the rain are generally recognized as a most fitting source for the conception of the god, while the mountains cleft and the cows won are the clouds viewed from different standpoints. ”

“ There is too little distinction between gods and men for us to be surprised that the gods were once mere mortals, or that there are ancient as well as more recent gods. How they won immortality is uncertain: Savitṛ or Agni bestowed it upon them, or they obtained it by drinking soma, whereas Indra gained it by his ascetic practices. Yet it seems clear that they did get it and that when the gods are called unaging, it does not mean, as in the mythology of the epic, that they endure only for a cosmic age ”

“ A bundle of fagots is attached to the dead to wipe out his track and hinder the return of death to the living. Borne along the path by which the fathers went in days gone by, the soul passes on to the realm of light and in his home receives a resting-place from Yama. Though his corpse is destroyed by the flame, still in the other world he is not a mere spirit, but has what must be deemed a refined form of his earthly body. He abides in the highest point of the sun, and the fathers are united with the sun and its rays. ”

“ The abode of the gods is in the highest realm of sky, and the offerings of men are either carried thither to them by Agni or, in a concept which is perhaps older, they are deemed to come to the straw on which the pious worshipper has set out his gifts. The food which they eat is that of man—milk, barley, butter, cattle, sheep, and goats—chosen now and then for special fitness, as when Indra, often called a bull, receives hecatombs of bulls. The drink of the gods is the soma. ”

“ It seems clear that the earthly as well as the heavenly portion of the atmosphere is above, not below, the earth, so that the sun does not return from west to east under the earth, but goes back by the way it came, turning its light side up to the sky and thus leaving earth in darkness. The earth, conceived as extended, broad, and boundless, is compared in shape to a wheel, but no ocean surrounds it, as in Greek and later Indian mythology. The earth has four points, or five when we include the place where the speaker stands. ”

“ The worlds are supported by Varuṇa and Mitra; Varuṇa made the golden swing (the sun) to shine in the heaven and placed fire in the waters; the wind is his breath. He establishes the morning and the evening; through him the moon moves and the stars shine at night; he regulates the months of the year. He is only rarely connected with the sea, for the Ṛgveda knows little of the ocean, but his occult power keeps the ever-flowing rivers from filling it up. Despite this, Varuṇa and Mitra are greatly concerned with the waters of the atmosphere and make the rain to fall ”

“ Soma is also rich in healing and lord of the plants. When quaffed, he stimulates speech and is the lord of speech. He is a maker of seers, a protector of prayer, and his wisdom is extolled. He gazes with wisdom on men and so has a thousand eyes. The fathers, no less than men and gods, love him, and through him they found the light and the cows. The great deeds of the gods owe their success to their drinking the soma, with three lakes of which Indra fills himself for the slaying of Vṛtra. When drunk by Indra, Soma made the sun to rise in the sky, and hence Soma is declared to perform the feat ”

“ The Gandharva is heavenly and dwells in the high region of the sky; he is a measurer of space and is closely connected with the sun, the sun-bird, and the sun-steed, while in one passage he is possibly identified with the rainbow. He is also associated with the soma; he guards its place and protects the races of the gods. It is in this capacity, it would seem, that he appears as an enemy whom Indra pierces, just as in the Avesta the Gandarewa, dwelling in the sea Vourukasha, the abode of the White Haoma, battles with and is overcome by Keresāspa. ”

“ The time of the Aśvins' appearance is at dawn; they follow dawn in their car; at the yoking of their car the dawn is born; but yet, despite this, they are invoked to come to the offering not only at the morning but also at noon and at sunset. Their parentage is not definitely decided: they are children of Sky or of Ocean, or of Vivasvant and Saraṇyū, or of Pūṣan; and though normally inseparable like the eyes or the hands, nevertheless they are once or twice said to be variously born or born here and there. ”

“ An older conception is that of the earth and the sky alone as constituting the universe. In that case the idea of the shape of the earth varies, for when it is united with the sky, it is compared to two great bowls turned toward each other; while from another point of view earth and sky are likened to the wheels at the ends of an axle. So closely united are the pair that, as a deity, Dyāvāpṛthivī ("Sky and Earth") is far more frequently invoked than either Dyaus ("Sky") or Pṛthivī ("Earth") . The joint deity can claim six hymns in the Ṛgveda, the Earth only one, and the Sky none. ”

“ Yet speculation is free and changes easily: Dawn is the mother of the sun and is born of Night, by reason of temporal sequence; while for local causes Sky and Earth are the all-parents. Or the greatest of a class is parent of the rest, as the storm-god Rudra ("Roarer") of the Rudras, the wind of the storm-gods, Sarasvatī of rivers, and Soma of plants. A certain mysticism and love of paradox result in a declaration that Indra produced his parents, Sky and Earth, or that Dakṣa (a creator-god) is at once father and son of Aditi. Similar vagueness prevails regarding men. ”

“ Beside the gods some priests and priestly families who are more than real men figure in the Ṛgveda. Prominent among these are the Bhṛgus, whose name denotes "the Bright," and who play the role of those who kindle Agni when he is discovered by Mātariśvan and establish and diffuse his use upon earth. They find him in the waters; they produce him by friction and pray to him. They are invoked to drink soma with all the thirty-three gods, the Maruts, the waters, and the Aśvins; they overcome the demon Makha and are foes of the historic king Sudās. ”

“ It has been necessary, therefore, to circumscribe narrowly the scope of the subject by restricting the treatment to that mythology which stands in close connexion with religion and which conveys to us a conception of the manner in which the Indian pictured to himself the origin of the world and of life, the destiny of the universe and of the souls of man, the gods and the evil spirits who supported or menaced his existence. ”

“ Thus he is hardly anthropomorphized at all, whether named alone, or when conjoined with earth, and his worship is little removed from the direct adoration of the sky as a living being. No moral attribute belongs to him, nor is there any trace of sovereignty over the world or the other gods. The position of power and elevation which Greek mythology ascribes to Zeus is not accorded in full to any Vedic deity, but in so far as Zeus has a parallel, it is in Varuṇa, not in Dyaus. ”

“ The goddesses in the Ṛgveda play but a small part beside the gods, and the only great one is Uṣas, though Sarasvatī is of some slight importance. To Indra, Varuṇa, and Agni are assigned Indrāṇī, Varuṇānī, and Agnāyī respectively, but they are mere names. Pṛthivī ("Earth") , who is rather frequently named with Dyaus, has only one hymn to herself, while Rātrī ("Night") is invoked as the bright starlit night, at whose approach men return home as birds hasten back to their nests, and who is asked to keep the thief and the wolf away. ”

“ Mitra, Varuṇa, and Indra are called Ādityas, and the same name is given to Savitṛ and to Sūrya. Sometimes the Ādityas form a group in conjunction with other gods like the Maruts, Rudras, Vasus, and Ṛbhus, or again they seem occasionally to include all the gods. From Varuṇa they appear to have derived the moral duties of punishing sin and rewarding the good; they spread fetters for their enemies, but protect their worshippers as birds spread their wings over their young. ”

“ The rain-clouds are cows, and the gods fight for them against the demons. The beams of dawn are also clouds, but it is possible that the cow in itself had begun to receive reverence, being addressed as Aditi and a goddess, and being described as inviolable, nor later is there any doubt of direct zoölatry. Indra, Agni, and rarely Dyaus are described as bulls; the boar is used as a description of Rudra, the Maruts, and Vṛtra. Soma, Agni, and the sun are hailed as birds, and an eagle carried down the soma for Indra, apparently representing Indra's lightning. ”

“ Of the fate of evil-doers we hear very little, and it would appear that annihilation was often regarded as their fate. Yet there is mention of deep places produced for the evil, false, and untrue, and Indra and Soma are besought to dash the evil-doers into the abyss of bottomless darkness, while the prayer is uttered that the enemy and the robber may lie below the three earths. ”

“ He inspires men and delivers and protects them. Riches and rain are his gifts, as are offspring and prosperity; he forgives sin, averts the wrath of Varuṇa, and makes men guiltless before Aditi.
To the gods also Agni is a benefactor; he delivered them from a curse, won them great space in battle, and is even called "the Slayer of Vṛtra." His main feat, however, is the burning of the Rakṣases who infest the sacrifice, a sign of the early use of fire to destroy demons. By magic the lighting of Agni may even bring about the rising of the sun in the sky. ”

“ The sun as a female is a remarkable idea, and therefore Sūryā has often been taken as the dawn, but the name presents difficulties, since it does not contain any patronymic element; and, moreover, the conception contained in the wedding-hymn of the union of Soma (no doubt the moon) and the dawn would be wholly unusual.
The constant grouping of gods in the Ṛgveda comes to formal expression in the practice of joint invocation, which finds its natural starting-point in the concept of heaven and earth, who are far oftener worshipped as joint than as separate deities. ”

“ The task of selecting such myths as will best illustrate the nature of the powers of good and evil is one in which we cannot hope for complete success; and the problem is rendered still more hard by the essential vagueness of many of the figures of Indian mythology: the mysticism of Indian conception tends ever to a pantheism alien to the clear-cut creations of the Hellenic imagination. ”

“ There is but one goddess of the celestial world, the maiden Uṣas, the most poetical figure in the whole pantheon. Decking herself in gay attire like a dancer, she displays her bosom, and like a maiden adorned by her mother she reveals her form. ”

“ Their particular time of power is the evening and above all else they detest sacrifice and prayer. Agni, the Fire, is especially besought to drive them away and destroy them, and hence wins his title of "Slayer of Rakṣases." With the Rakṣases in later literature rank the Piśācas as foes of the fathers, precisely as the Asuras are the enemies of the gods and the Rakṣases of men, but the Ṛgveda knows only the yellow-peaked, watery Piśāci, whom Indra is invoked to crush. ”

“ The crow and the pigeon are the messengers of Yama, the god of death, and a bird of omen is invoked. The "Serpent" (Ahi) is a form of the demon Vṛtra, but there is no trace of the worship of snakes as such. Animals serve also as steeds for the gods: the Aśvins use the ass, and Pūṣan the goat, but horses are normal. Yama has two dogs, the offspring of Saramā, though she does not appear in the Ṛgveda as a bitch. Indra has a monkey, of whom a late hymn (x. 86) tells a curious story. Apparently the ape, Vṛṣākapi, was the favourite of Indra and injured property of Indra's wife ”

“ But the fathers are more than spirits living in peace after the toils of life. They are powerful to aid and receive offering, while they are invoked with the dawns, streams, mountains, heaven and earth, Pūṣan, and the Ṛbhus. They are asked to accord riches, offspring, and long life; they are said to have generated the dawn and, with Soma, to have extended heaven and earth. They especially love the soma and come for it in thousands. Yet though they are even called gods, they are distinguished from the true divinities ”

“ Among the gods listed in the Mitanni inscription we find the Nāsatyas, thus confirming the early existence of the divine pair who in the Avesta have degenerated into a demon, Nāonghaithya. Their normal name in the Ṛgveda is the Aśvins ("Horsemen") , though they are also called "the Wonder-Workers" (Dasra) , and later mythology has invented Dasra and Nāsatya as the names of the pair. They are beautiful, strong, and red and their path is red or golden. They have a skin filled with honey and touch the sacrifice and the worshipper with their honey-whip. ”