Within the Punj[=a]b, the Vedic Aryans, now at last really 'Hindus,' having extended themselves to the Çutudri (Çatadru, Sutlej), a formidable barrier, and eventually having crossed even this, the last tributary's of the Indus, descended to the jumna (Yamun[=a]), over the little stream called 'the Rocky' (Drishadvat[=i]) and the lesser Sarasvat[=i], southeast from Lahore and near Delhi, in the region Kurukshetra, afterwards famed as the seat of the great epic war, and always regarded as holy in the highest degree.
Not till the time of the Atharva Veda do the Aryans appear as far east as Benares (V[=a]r[=a]nas[=i], on the 'Varan[=a]vat[=i]'), though the Sarayu is mentioned in the Rik. But this scarcely is the tributary of the Ganges, Gogra, for the name seems to refer to a more western stream, since it is associated with the Gomat[=i] (Gomal). One may surmise that in the time of the Rig Veda the Aryans knew only by name the country east of Lucknow. It is in the Punj[=a]b and a little to the west and east of it (how far it is impossible to state with accuracy) where lies the real theatre of activity of the Rig Vedic people.
Some scholars believe that this people had already heard of the two oceans. This point again is doubtful in the extreme. No descriptions imply a knowledge of ocean, and the word for ocean means merely a 'confluence' of waters, or in general a great oceanic body of water like the air. As the Indus is too wide to be seen across, the name may apply in most cases to this river. An allusion to 'eastern and western floods,'[17] which is held by some to be conclusive evidence for a knowledge of the two seas, is taken by others to apply to the air-oceans. The expression may apply simply to rivers, for it is said that the Vip[=a]ç and Çutudr[=i] empty into the 'ocean', i.e., the Indus or the Çutudr[=i]'s continuation.[18] One late verse alone speaks of the Sarasvat[=i] pouring into the ocean, and this would indicate the Arabian Sea.[19] Whether the Bay of Bengal was known, even by hearsay and in the latest time of this period, remains uncertain. As a body the Aryans of the Rig Veda were certainly not acquainted with either ocean. Some straggling adventurers probably pushed down the Indus, but Zimmer doubtless is correct in asserting that the popular emigration did not extend further south than the junction of the Indus and the Pa[=n]canada (the united five rivers).[20] The extreme south-eastern geographical limit of the Rig Vedic people may be reckoned (not, however, in Oldenberg's opinion, with any great certainty) as being in Northern Beh[=a]r (M[=a]gadha). The great desert, Marusthala, formed an impassable southern obstacle for the first immigrants.[21]
On the other hand, the two oceans are well known to the Atharva Veda, while the geographical (and hence chronological) difference between the Rik and the Atharvan is furthermore illustrated by the following facts: in the Rig Veda wolf and lion are the most formidable beasts; the tiger is unknown and the elephant seldom alluded to; while in the Atharvan the tiger has taken the lion's place and the elephant is a more familiar figure. Now the tiger has his domicile in the swampy land about Benares, to which point is come the Atharvan Aryan, but not the Rig Vedic people. Here too, in the Atharvan, the panther is first mentioned, and for the first time silver and iron are certainly referred to. In the Rig Veda the metals are bronze and gold, silver and iron being unknown.[22] Not less significant are the trees. The ficus religiosa, the tree later called the 'tree of the gods' (deva-sadana, açvattha), under which are fabled to sit the divinities in heaven, is scarcely known in the Rig Veda, but is well known in the Atharvan; while India's grandest tree, the nyagrodha, ficus indica, is known to the Atharvan and Brahmanic period, but is utterly foreign to the Rig Veda. Zimmer deems it no less significant that fishes are spoken of in the Atharvan and are mentioned only once in the Rig Veda, but this may indicate a geographical difference less than one of custom. In only one doubtful passage is the north-east monsoon alluded to. The storm so vividly described in the Rig Veda is the south-west monsoon which is felt in the northern Punj[=a]b. The north-east monsoon is felt to the southeast of the Punj[=a]b, possibly another indication of geographical extension, withal within the limits of the Rig Veda itself.
The seat of culture shifts in the Brahmanic period, which follows that of the Vedic poems, and is found partly in the 'holy land' of the west, and partly in the east (Beh[=a]r, Tirhut).[23] The literature of this period comes from Aryans that have passed out of the Punj[=a]b. Probably, as we have said, settlements were left all along the line of progress. Even before the wider knowledge of the post-Alexandrine imperial age (at which time there was a north-western military retrogression), and, from the Vedic point of view, as late as the end of the Brahmanic period, in the time of the Upanishads, the northwest seems still to have been familiarly known.[24]
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: We take this opportunity of stating that by the religions of the Aryan Hindus we mean the religions of a people who, undoubtedly, were full-blooded Aryans at first, however much their blood may have been diluted later by un-Aryan admixture. Till the time of Buddhism the religious literature is fairly Aryan. In the period of "Hinduism" neither people nor religion can claim to be quite Aryan.]
[Footnote 2: If, as thinks Schrader, the Aryans' original seat was on the Volga, then one must imagine the Indo-Iranians to have kept together in a south-eastern emigration.]
[Footnote 3: That is to say, frequent reference is made to
'five tribes.' Some scholars deny that the tribes are Aryan
alone, and claim that 'five,' like seven, means 'many.']
[Footnote 4: RV. III. 33. 11; 53. 12. Zimmer, Altindisches
Leben, p. 160, incorrectly identifies viç with tribus
(Leist, Rechtsgeschichte, p. 105).]
[Footnote 5: Viçv[=a]mitra. A few of the hymns are not
ascribed to priests at all (some were made by women; some by
'royal-seers,' i.e. kings, or, at least, not priests).]
[Footnote 6: Caste, at first, means 'pure,' and signifies that there is a moral barrier between the caste and outcast. The word now practically means class, even impure class. The native word means 'color,' and the first formal distinction was national, (white) Aryan and 'black-man.' The precedent class-distinctions among the Aryans themselves became fixed in course of time, and the lines between Aryans, in some regards, were drawn almost as sharply as between Aryan and slave.]
[Footnote 7: Compare RV. iii. 33, and in I. 131. 5, the words: 'God Indra, thou didst help thy suppliants; one river after another they gained who pursued glory.']
[Footnote 8: Thomas, Rivers of the Vedas (JRAS. xv. 357
ff.; Zimmer, loc. cit. cap. 1).]
[Footnote 9: Later called the Candrabh[=a]ga. For the Jumna
and Sarayu see below.]
[Footnote 10: This is the error into which falls Brunnhofer,
whose theory that the Vedic Aryans were still settled near
the Caspian has been criticised above (p. 15).]
[Footnote 11: Compare Geiger, Ostiranische Cultur, p. 81.
See also Muir, OST. ii. p. 355.]
[Footnote 12: Lassen, I. p. 616, decided in favor of the
western passes of the Hindukush.]
[Footnote 13: From Kandahar in Afghanistan to a point a little west of Lahore. In the former district, according to the Avesta, the dead are buried (an early Indian custom, not Iranian).]
[Footnote 14: Geiger identifies the Vita[=g]uhaiti or Vitanghvati with the Oxus, but this is improbable. It lies in the extreme east and forms the boundary between the true believers and the 'demon-worshippers' (Yasht, 5, 77; Geiger, loc. cit. p. 131, note 5). The Persian name is the same with Vitast[=a], which is located in the Punj[=a]b.]
[Footnote 15: On the Kurus compare Zimmer (loc. cit.), who thinks Kashmeer is meant, and Geiger, loc. cit. p. 39. Other geographical reminiscences may lie in Vedic and Brahmanic allusions to Bactria, Balkh (AV.); to the Derbiker (around Meru? RV.), and to Manu's mountain, whence he descended after the flood (Naubandhana): Çatapatha Br[=a]hmana, I. 8. 1, 6, 'Manu's descent'.]
[Footnote 16: Arch. Survey, xiv. p. 89; Thomas, loc. cit. p. 363.]
[Footnote 17: RV. x. 136. 5.]
[Footnote 18: RV. iii. 33. 2.]
[Footnote 19: RV. vii. 95. 2. Here the Sarasvat[=i] can be only the Indus.]
[Footnote 20: Pa[=n]ca-nada, Punjnud, Persian 'Punj[=a]b,' the five streams, Vitas[=a], Asikn[=i], Ir[=a]vat[=i], Vip[=a]ç, Çutudr[=i]. The Punjnud point is slowly moving up stream; Vyse, JRAS. x. 323. The Sarayu may be the Her[=i]r[=u]d, Geiger, loc. cit. p. 72.]
[Footnote 21: Muir, OST. ii. 351; Zimmer, loc. cit. p. 51 identifies the K[=i]katas of RV. iii. 53. 14 with the inhabitants of Northern Beh[=a]r. Marusthala is called simply 'the desert.']
[Footnote 22: The earlier áyas, Latin aes, means bronze
not iron, as Zimmer has shown, loc. cit. p. 51. Pischel,
Vedische Studien, I, shows that elephants are mentioned
more often than was supposed (but rarely in family-books).]
[Footnote 23: Weber, Indische Studien, I. p. 228;
Oldenberg, Buddha, pp. 399 ff., 410.]
[Footnote 24: Very lately (1893) Franke has sought to show that the P[=a]li dialect of India is in part referable to the western districts (Kandahar), and has made out an interesting case for his novel theory (ZDMG. xlvii. p. 595).]
* * * * *
CHAPTER III.
THE RIG VEDA. THE UPPER GODS.
The hymns of the Rig Veda may be divided into three classes, those in which are especially lauded the older divinities, those in which appear as most prominent the sacrificial gods, and those in which a long-weakened polytheism is giving place to the light of a clearer pantheism. In each category there are hymns of different age and quality, for neither did the more ancient with the growth of new divinities cease to be revered, nor did pantheism inhibit the formal acknowledgment of the primitive pantheon. The cult once established persisted, and even when, at a later time, all the gods had been reduced to nominal fractions of the All-god, their ritualistic individuality still was preserved. The chief reason for this lies in the nature of these gods and in the attitude of the worshipper. No matter how much the cult of later gods might prevail, the other gods, who represented the daily phenomena of nature, were still visible, awe-inspiring, divine. The firmest pantheist questioned not the advisability of propitiating the sun-god, however much he might regard this god as but a part of one that was greater. Belief in India was never so philosophical that the believer did not dread the lightning, and seek to avert it by praying to the special god that wielded it. But active veneration in later times was extended in fact only to the strong Powers, while the more passive divinities, although they were kept as a matter of form in the ceremonial, yet had in reality only tongue-worshippers.
With some few exceptions, however, it will be found impossible to say whether any one deity belonged to the first pantheon.
The best one can do is to separate the mass of gods from those that become the popular gods, and endeavor to learn what was the character of each, and what were the conceptions of the poets in regard both to his nature, and to his relations with man. A different grouping of the gods (that indicated below) will be followed, therefore, in our exposition.
After what has been said in the introductory chapter concerning the necessity of distinguishing between good and bad poetry, it may be regarded as incumbent upon us to seek to make such a division of the hymns as shall illustrate our words. But we shall not attempt to do this here, because the distinction between late mechanical and poetic hymns is either very evident, and it would be superfluous to burden the pages with the trash contained in the former,[1] or the distinction is one liable to reversion at the hands of those critics whose judgment differs from ours, for there are of course some hymns that to one may seem poetical and to another, artificial. Moreover, we admit that hymns of true feeling may be composed late as well as early, while as to beauty of style the chances are that the best literary production will be found among the latest rather than among the earliest hymns.
It would, indeed, be admissible, if one had any certainty in regard to the age of the different parts of the Rig Veda, simply to divide the hymns into early, middle, and late, as they are sometimes divided in philological works, but here one rests on the weakest of all supports for historical judgment, a linguistic and metrical basis, when one is ignorant alike of what may have been accomplished by imitation, and of the work of those later priests who remade the poems of their ancestors.
Best then, because least hazardous, appears to be the method which we have followed, namely, to take up group by group the most important deities arranged in the order of their relative importance, and by studying each to arrive at a fair understanding of the pantheon as a whole. The Hindus themselves divided their gods into highest, middle, and lowest, or those of the upper sky, the atmosphere, and the earth. This division, from the point of view of one who would enter into the spirit of the seers and at the same time keep in mind the changes to which that spirit gradually was subjected, is an excellent one. For, as will be seen, although the earlier order of regard may have been from below upwards, this order does not apply to the literary monuments. These show on the contrary a worship which steadily tends from above earthwards; and the three periods into which may be divided all Vedic theology are first that of the special worship of sky-gods, when less attention is paid to others; then that of the atmospheric and meteorological divinities; and finally that of terrestrial powers, each later group absorbing, so to speak, the earlier, and therewith preparing the developing Hindu intelligence for the reception of the universal god with whom closes the series.
Other factors than those of an inward development undoubtedly were at work in the formation of this growth. Especially prominent is the amalgamation of the gods of the lower classes with those of the priest-hood. Climatic environment, too, conditioned theological evolution, if not spiritual advance. The cult of the mid-sphere god, Indra, was partly the result of the changing atmospheric surroundings of the Hindus as they advanced into India. The storms and the sun were not those of old. The tempests were more terrific, the display of divine power was more concentrated in the rage of the elements; while appreciation of the goodness of the sun became tinged with apprehension of evil, and he became a deadly power as well as one beneficent. Then the relief of rain after drought gave to Indra the character of a benign god as well as of a fearful one. Nor were lacking in the social condition certain alterations which worked together with climatic changes. The segregated mass of the original people, the braves that hung about the king, a warrior-class rapidly becoming a caste, and politically the most important caste, took the god of thunder and lightning for their god of battle. The fighting race naturally exalted to the highest the fighting god. Then came into prominence the priestly caste, which gradually taught the warrior that mind was stronger than muscle. But this caste was one of thinkers. Their divinity was the product of reflection. Indra remained, but yielded to a higher power, and the god thought out by the priests became God. Yet it must not be supposed that the cogitative energy of the Brahman descended upon the people's gods and suddenly produced a religious revolution. In India no intellectual advance is made suddenly. The older divinities show one by one the transformation that they suffered at the hands of theosophic thinkers. Before the establishment of a general Father-god, and long before that of the pantheistic All-god, the philosophical leaven was actively at work. It will be seen operative at once in the case of the sun-god, and, indeed, there were few of the older divinities that were untouched by it. It worked silently and at first esoterically. One reads of the gods' 'secret names,' of secrets in theology, which 'are not to be revealed,' till at last the disguise is withdrawn, and it is discovered that all the mystery of former generations has been leading up to the declaration now made public: 'all these gods are but names of the One.'
THE SUN-GOD.
The hymn which was translated in the first chapter gives an epitome of the simpler conceptions voiced in the few whole hymns to the sun. But there is a lower and a higher view of this god. He is the shining god par excellence, the deva, s[=u]rya,[2] the red ball in the sky. But he is also an active force, the power that wakens, rouses, enlivens, and as such it is he that gives all good things to mortals and to gods. As the god that gives life he (with others)[3] is the author of birth, and is prayed to for children. From above he looks down upon earth, and as with his one or many steeds he drives over the firmament he observes all that is passing below. He has these, the physical side and the spiritual side, under two names, the glowing one, S[=u]rya, and the enlivener, Savitar;[4] but he is also the good god who bestows benefits, and as such he was known, probably locally, by the name of Bhaga. Again, as a herdsman's god, possibly at first also a local deity, he is P[=u]shan (the meaning is almost the same with that of Savitar). As the 'mighty one' he is Vishnu, who measures heaven in three strides. In general, the conception of the sun as a physical phenomenon will be found voiced chiefly in the family-books: "The sightly form rises on the slope of the sky as the swift-going steed carries him … seven sister steeds carry him."[5] This is the prevailing utterance. Sometimes the sun is depicted under a medley of metaphors: "A bull, a flood, a red bird, he has entered his father's place; a variegated stone he is set in the midst of the sky; he has advanced and guards the two ends of space."[6] One after the other the god appears to the poets as a bull, a bird,[7] a steed, a stone, a jewel, a flood, a torch-holder,[8] or as a gleaming car set in heaven. Nor is the sun independent. As in the last image of a chariot,[9] so, without symbolism, the poet speaks of the sun as made to rise by Varuna and Mitra: "On their wonted path go Varuna and Mitra when in the sky they cause to rise Surya, whom they made to avert darkness"; where, also, the sun, under another image, is the "support of the sky."[10] Nay, in this simpler view, the sun is no more than the "eye of Mitra Varuna,"[11] a conception formally retained even when the sun in the same breath is spoken of as pursuing Dawn like a lover, and as being the 'soul of the universe' (I. 115. 1-2). In the older passages the later moral element is almost lacking, nor is there maintained the same physical relation between Sun and Dawn. In the earlier hymns the Dawn is the Sun's mother, from whom he proceeds.[12] It is the "Dawns produced the Sun," in still more natural language;[13] whereas, the idea of the lover-Sun following the Dawn scarcely occurs in the family-books.[14] Distinctly late, also, is the identification of the sun with the all-spirit ([=a]tm[=a], I. 115. 1), and the following prayer: "Remove, O sun, all weakness, illness, and bad dreams." In this hymn, X. 37. 14, S[=u]rya is the son of the sky, but he is evidently one with Savitar, who in V. 82. 4, removes bad dreams, as in X. 100. 8, he removes sickness. Men are rendered 'sinless' by the sun (IV. 54. 3; X. 37. 9) exactly as they are by the other gods, Indra, Varuna, etc. In a passage that refers to the important triad of sun, wind and fire, X. 158. I ff., the sun is invoked to 'save from the sky,' i.e. from all evils that may come from the upper regions; while in the same book the sun, like Indra, is represented as the slayer of demons (asuras) and dragons; as the slayer, also, of the poet's rivals; as giving long life to the worshipper, and as himself drinking sweet soma. This is one of the poems that seem to be at once late and of a forced and artificial character (X. 170).
Although S[=u]rya is differentiated explicitly from Savitar (V. 81. 4, "Savitar, thou joyest in S[=u]a's rays"), yet do many of the hymns make no distinction between them. The Enlivener is naturally extolled in fitting phrase, to tally with his title: "The shining-god, the Enlivener, is ascended to enliven the world"; "He gives protection, wealth and children" (II. 38.1; IV. 53. 6-7). The later hymns seem, as one might expect, to show greater confusion between the attributes of the physical and spiritual sun. But what higher power under either name is ascribed to the sun in the later hymns is not due to a higher or more developed homage of the sun as such. On the contrary, as with many other deities, the more the praise the less the individual worship. It is as something more than the sun that the god later receives more fulsome devotion. And, in fact, paradoxical as it seems, it is a decline in sun-worship proper that is here registered. The altar-fire becomes more important, and is revered in the sun, whose hymns, at most, are few, and in part mechanical.
Bergaigne in his great work, La Religion Védique, has laid much stress on sexual antithesis as an element in Vedic worship. It seems to us that this has been much exaggerated. The sun is masculine; the dawn, feminine. But there is no indication of a primitive antithesis of male and female in their relations. What occurs appears to be of adventitious character. For though sun and dawn are often connected, the latter is represented first as his mother and afterwards as his 'wife' or mistress. Even in the later hymns, where the marital relation is recognized, it is not insisted upon. But Bergaigne[15] is right in saying that in the Rig Veda the sun does not play the part of an evil power, and it is a good illustration of the difference between Rik and Atharvan, when Ehni cites, to prove that the sun is like death, only passages from the Atharvan and the later Brahmanic literature.[16]
When, later, the Hindus got into a region where the sun was deadly, they said, "Yon burning sun-god is death," but in the Rig Veda' they said, "Yon sun is the source of life,"[17] and no other conception of the sun is to be found in the Rig Veda.
There are about a dozen hymns to S[=u]rya, and as many to Savitar, in the Rig Veda.[18] It is noteworthy that in the family-books the hymns to Savitar largely prevail, while those to S[=u]rya are chiefly late in position or content. Thus, in the family-books, where are found eight or nine of the dozen hymns to Savitar, there are to S[=u]rya but three or four, and of these the first is really to Savitar and the Açvins; the second is an imitation of the first; the third appears to be late; and the fourth is a fragment of somewhat doubtful antiquity. The first runs as follows: "The altar-fire has seen well-pleased the dawns' beginning and the offering to the gleaming ones; come, O ye horsemen (Açvins), to the house of the pious man; the sun (S[=u]rya), the shining-god, rises with light. The shining-god Savitar has elevated his beams, swinging his banner like a good (hero) raiding for cattle. According to rule go Varuna and Mitra when they make rise in the sky the sun (S[=u]rya) whom they have created to dissipate darkness, being (gods) sure of their habitation and unswerving in intent. Seven yellow swift-steeds bear this S[=u]rya, the seer of all that moves. Thou comest with swiftest steeds unspinning the web, separating, O shining-god, the black robe. The rays of S[=u]rya swinging (his banner) have laid darkness like a skin in the waters. Unconnected, unsupported, downward extending, why does not this (god) fall down? With what nature goes he, who knows (literally, 'who has seen')? As a support he touches and guards the vault of the sky" (IV. 13).
There is here, no more than in the early hymn from the first book, translated in the first chapter, any worship of material phenomena. S[=u]rya is worshipped as Savitar, either expressly so called, or with all the attributes of the spiritual. The hymn that follows this[19] is a bald imitation. In V. 47 there are more or less certain signs of lateness, e.g., in the fourth stanza ("four carry him, … and ten give the child to drink that he may go," etc.) there is the juggling with unexplained numbers, which is the delight of the later priesthood. Moreover, this hymn is addressed formally to Mitra-Varuna and Agni, and not to the sun-god, who is mentioned only in metaphor; while the final words námo divé, 'obeisance to heaven,' show that the sun is only indirectly addressed. One cannot regard hymns addressed to Mitra-Varuna and S[=u]rya (with other gods) as primarily intended for S[=u]rya, who in these hymns is looked upon as the subject of Mitra and Varuna, as in VII. 62; or as the "eye" of the two other gods, and 'like Savitar' in VII. 63. So in VII. 66. 14-16, a mere fragment of a hymn is devoted exclusively to S[=u]rya as "lord of all that stands and goes." But in these hymns there are some very interesting touches. Thus in VII. 60. 1, the sun does not make sinless, but he announces to Mitra and Varuna that the mortal is sinless. There are no other hymns than these addressed to S[=u]rya, save those in the first and tenth books, of which nine stanzas of I. 50 (see above) may be reckoned early, while I. 115, where the sun is the soul of the universe, and at the same time the eye of Mitra-Varuna, is probably late; and I. 163 is certainly so, wherein the sun is identified with Yama, Trita, etc.; is 'like Varuna'; and is himself a steed, described as having three connections in the sky, three in the waters, three in the sea. In one of the hymns in the tenth book, also a mystical song, the sun is the 'bird' of the sky, a metaphor which soon gives another figure to the pantheon in the form of Garutman, the sun-bird, of whose exploits are told strange tales in the epic, where he survives as Garuda. In other hymns S[=u]rya averts carelessness at the sacrifice, guards the worshipper, and slays demons. A mechanical little hymn describes him as measuring the 'thirty stations.' Not one of these hymns has literary freshness or beauty of any kind. They all belong to the class of stereotyped productions, which differ in origin and content from the hymns first mentioned.[20]
SAVITAR.
Turning to Savitar one finds, of course, many of the same descriptive traits as in the praise of S[=u]rya, his more material self. But with the increased spirituality come new features. Savitar is not alone the sun that rises; he is also the sun that sets; and is extolled as such. There are other indications that most of the hymns composed for him are to accompany the sacrifice, either of the morning or of the evening. In II. 38, an evening song to Savitar, there are inner signs that the hymn was made for rubrication, but here some fine verses occur: "The god extends his vast hand, his arms above there—and all here obeys him; to his command the waters move, and even the winds' blowing ceases on all sides." Again: "Neither Indra, Varuna, Mitra, Aryaman, Rudra, nor the demons, impair his law" We call attention here to the fact that the Rig Veda contains a strong(stong in the original) current of demonology, much stronger than has been pointed out by scholars intent on proving the primitive loftiness of the Vedic religion.
In III. 62. 7-9 there are some verses to P[=u]shan, following which is the most holy couplet of the Rig Veda, to repeat which is essentially to repeat the Veda. It is the famous G[=a]yatr[=i] or S[=a]vitr[=i] hymnlet (10-12):
Of Savitar, the heavenly, that longed-for glory may we win,
And may himself inspire our prayers.[21]
Whitney (loc. cit.) says of this hymn that it is not remarkable in any way and that no good reason has ever been given for its fame. The good reason for this fame, in our opinion, is that the longed-for glory was interpreted later as a revealed indication of primitive pantheism, and the verses were understood to express the desire of absorption into the sun, which, as will be seen, was one of the first divine bodies to be accepted as the type of the All-god. This is also the intent of the stanzas added to I. 50 (above, p. 17), where S[=u]rya is "the highest light, the god among gods," mystic words, taken by later philosophers, and quite rightly, to be an expression of pantheism. The esoteric meaning of the G[=a]yatr[=i] presumably made it popular among the enlightened. Exoterically the sun was only the goal of the soul, or, in pure pantheism, of the sight. In the following[22] the sin-forgiving side of Savitar is developed, whereby he comes into connection with Varuna:
God Savitar deserveth now a song from us;
To-day, with guiding word, let men direct him here.
He who distributes gifts unto the sons of men,
Shall here on us bestow whatever thing is best;
For thou, O Savitar, dost first upon the gods
Who sacrifice deserve, lay immortality,
The highest gift, and then to mortals dost extend
As their apportionment a long enduring life.
Whatever thoughtless thing against the
race of gods We do in foolishness and human insolence,
Do thou from that, O Savitar, mid gods and men
Make us here sinless, etc.
But if this song smacks of the sacrifice, still more so does V. 81, where Savitar is the 'priest's priest,' the 'arranger of sacrifice,' and is one with P[=u]shan. He is here the swift horse (see above) and more famous as the divider of time than anything else. In fact this was the first ritualistic glory of Savitar, that he divides the time for sacrifice. But he receives more in the light of being the type of other luminous divinities. In the next hymn, another late effort (V. 82; see the dream in vs. 4), there may be an imitation of the G[=a]yatr[=i]. Savitar is here the All-god and true lord, and frees from sin. There is nothing new or striking in the hymns VI. 71; VII. 38 and 45. The same golden hands, and references to the sacrifice occur here. Allusions to the Dragon of the Deep, who is called upon with Savitar (VII. 38. 5), and the identification of Savitar with Bhaga (ib. 6) are the most important items to be gleaned from these rather stupid hymns. In other hymns not in the family-books (II.-VIII.), there is a fragment, X. 139. 1-3, and another, I. 22. 5-8. In the latter, Agni's (Fire's) title, 'son of waters,' is given to Savitar, who is virtually identified with Agni in the last part of the Rig Veda; and in the former hymn there is an interesting discrimination made between Savitar and P[=u]shan, who obeys him. The last hymn in the collection to Savitar, X. 149, although late and plainly intended for the sacrifice (vs. 5), is interesting as showing how the philosophical speculation worked about Savitar as a centre. 'He alone, he the son of the waters, knows the origin of water, whence arose the world.' This is one of the early speculations which recur so frequently in the Brahmanic period, wherein the origin of 'all this' (the universe) is referred to water. A hymn to Savitar in the first book contains as excellent a song as is given to the sun under this name. It is neither a morning nor an evening song in its original state, but mentions all the god's functions, without the later moral traits so prominent elsewhere, and with the old threefold division instead of thrice-three heavens.
TO SAVITAR (I. 35).
I call on Agni first (the god of fire) for weal;
I call on Mitra-Varuna to aid me here;
I call upon the Night, who quiets all that moves;
On Savitar, the shining god, I call for help.
After this introductory invocation begins the real song in a different metre.
Through space of darkness wending comes he hither,
Who puts to rest th' immortal and the mortal,
On golden car existent things beholding,
The god that rouses, Savitar, the shining;
Comes he, the shining one, comes forward, upward,
Comes with two yellow steeds, the god revered,
Comes shining Savitar from out the distance,
All difficulties far away compelling.
His pearl-adorned, high, variegated chariot,
Of which the pole is golden, he, revered,
Hath mounted, Savitar, whose beams are brilliant,
Against the darksome spaces strength assuming.
Among the people gaze the brown white-footed
(Steeds) that the chariot drag whose pole is golden.
All peoples stand, and all things made, forever,
Within the lap of Savitar, the heavenly.
[There are three heavens of Savitar, two low ones,[23]
One, men-restraining, in the realm of Yama.
As on (his) chariot-pole[24] stand all immortals,
Let him declare it who has understood it!]
Across air-spaces gazes he, the eagle,
Who moves in secret, th' Asura,[25] well-guiding,
Where is (bright) S[=u]rya now? who understands it?
And through which sky is now his ray extending?
He looks across the earth's eight elevations,[26]
The desert stations three, and the seven rivers,
The gold-eyed shining god is come, th' Arouser,
To him that worships giving wealth and blessings.
The golden-handed Savitar, the active one,
Goes earth and heaven between, compels demoniac powers,
To S[=u]rya gives assistance, and through darksome space
Extends to heaven, etc.[27]
P[=U]SHAN AND BHAGA AS SUN-GODS.
With P[=u]shan, the 'bestower of prosperity,' appears an ancient side of sun-worship. While under his other names the sun has lost, to a great extent, the attributes of a bucolic solar deity, in the case of P[=u]shan he appears still as a god whose characteristics are bucolic, war-like, and priestly, that is to say, even as he is venerated by the three masses of the folk. It will not do, of course, to distinguish too sharply between the first two divisions, but one can very well compare P[=u]shan in these rôles with Helios guiding his herds, and Apollo swaying armed hosts. It is customary to regard P[=u]shan as too bucolic a deity, but this is only one side of him. He apparently is the sun, as herdsmen look upon him, and in this figure is the object of ridicule with the warrior-class who, especially in one family or tribe, take a more exalted view of him. Consequently, as in the case of Varuna, one need not read into the hymns more than they offer to see that, not to speak of the priestly view, there are at least two P[=u]shans, in the Rig Veda itself.[28]
As the god 'with braided hair,' and as the 'guardian of cattle,'
P[=u]shan offers, perhaps, in these particulars, the original of
Rudra's characteristics, who, in the Vedic period, and later as
Rudra-Çiva, is also a 'guardian of cattle' and has the 'braided hair.'
Bergaigne identifies P[=u]shan with Soma, with whom the poets were apt to identify many other deities, but there seems to be little similarity originally.[29] It is only in the wider circles of each god's activity that the two approach each other. Both gods, it is true, wed S[=u]rya (the female sun-power), and Soma, like P[=u]shan, finds lost cattle. But it must be recognized once for all that identical attributes are not enough to identify Vedic gods. Who gives wealth? Indra, Soma, Agni, Heaven and Earth, Wind, Sun, the Maruts, etc. Who forgives sins? Agni, Varuna, Indra, the Sun, etc. Who helps in war? Agni, P[=u]shan, Indra, Soma, etc. Who sends rain? Indra, Parjanya, Soma, the Maruts, P[=u]shan, etc. Who weds Dawn? The Açvins, the Sun, etc. The attributes must be functional or the identification is left incomplete.
The great disparity in descriptions of P[=u]shan may be illustrated by setting VI. 48. 19 beside X. 92. 13. The former passage merely declares that P[=u]shan is a war-leader "over mortals, and like the gods in glory"; the latter, that he is "distinguished by all divine attributes"; that is to say, what has happened in the case of Savitar has happened here also. The individuality of P[=u]shan dies out, but the vaguer he becomes the more grandiloquently is he praised and associated with other powers; while for lack of definite laudation general glory is ascribed to him. The true position of P[=u]shan in the eyes of the warrior is given unintentionally by one who says,[30] "I do not scorn thee, O P[=u]shan," i.e., as do most people, on account of thy ridiculous attributes. For P[=u]shan does not drink soma like Indra, but eats mush. So another devout believer says: "P[=u]shan is not described by them that call him an eater of mush."[31] The fact that he was so called speaks louder than the pious protest. Again, P[=u]shan is simply bucolic. He uses the goad, which, however, according to Bergaigne, is the thunderbolt! So, too, the cows that P[=u]shan is described as guiding have been interpreted as clouds or 'dawns.' But they may be taken without 'interpretation' as real cows.[32] P[=u]shan drives the cows, he is armed with a goad, and eats mush; bucolic throughout, yet a sun-god. It is on these lines that his finding-qualities are to be interpreted. He finds lost cattle,[33] a proper business for such a god; but Bergaigne will see in this a transfer from P[=u]shan's finding of rain and of soma.[34] P[=u]shan, too, directs the furrow[35]
Together with Vishnu and Bhaga this god is invoked at sacrifices, (a fact that says little against or for his original sun-ship),[36] and he is intimately connected with Indra. His sister is his mistress, and his mother is his wife (Dawn and Night?) according to the meagre accounts given in VI. 55. 4-5.[37] As a god of increase he is invoked in the marriage-rite, X. 85. 37.
As Savitar and all sun-gods are at once luminous and dark, so P[=u]shan has a clear and again a revered (terrible) appearance; he is like day and night, like Dyaus (the sky); at one time bright, at another, plunged in darkness, VI. 58. 1. Quite like Savitar he is the shining god who "looks upon all beings and sees them all together"; he is the "lord of the path," the god of travellers; he is invoked to drive away evil spirits, thieves, footpads, and all workers of evil; he makes paths for the winning of wealth; he herds the stars and directs all with soma. He carries a golden axe or sword, and is borne through air and water on golden ships; and it is he that lets down the sun's golden wheel. These simpler attributes appear for the most part in the early hymns. In what seem to be later hymns, he is the mighty one who "carries the thoughts of all"; he is like soma (the drink), and attends to the filter; he is "lord of the pure"; the "one born of old," and is especially called upon to help the poets' hymns.[38] It is here, in the last part of the Rig Veda, that he appears as [Greek: psuchopompós], who "goes and returns," escorting the souls of the dead to heaven. He is the sun's messenger, and is differentiated from Savitar in X. 139. 1.[39] Apparently he was a god affected most by the Bharadv[=a]ja family (to which is ascribed the sixth book of the Rig Veda) where his worship was extended more broadly. He seems to have become the special war-god of this family, and is consequently invoked with Indra and the Maruts (though this may have been merely in his rôte as sun). The goats, his steeds, are also an attribute of the Scandinavian war-god Thor (Kaegi, Rig Veda, note 210), so that his bucolic character rests more in his goad, food, and plough.
Bhaga is recognized as an [=A]ditya (luminous deity) and was perhaps a sun-god of some class, possibly of all, as the name in Slavic is still kept in the meaning 'god,' literally 'giver.' In the Rig Veda the word means, also, simply god, as in bhágabhakta, 'given by gods'; but as a name it is well known, and when thus called Bhaga is still the giver, 'the bestower' (vidhart[=á]). As bhaga is also an epithet of Savitar, the name may not stand for an originally distinct personality. Bhaga has but one hymn.[40] There is in fact no reason why Bhaga should be regarded as a sun-god, except for the formal identification of him as an [=A]dityà, that is as the son of Aditi (Boundlessness, see below); but neither S[=u]rya nor Savitar is originally an [=A]dityà, and in Iranic bagha is only an epithet of Ormuzd.
HYMNS TO P[=U]SHAN AND BHAGA.
To P[=U]SHAN (vi. 56).
The man who P[=u]shan designates
With words like these, 'mush-eater he,'
By him the god is not described.
With P[=u]shan joined in unison
That best of warriors, truest lord,
Indra, the evil demons slays.
'T is he, the best of warriors, drives
The golden chariot of the sun
Among the speckled kine (the clouds).
Whate'er we ask of thee to-day,
O wonder-worker, praised and wise,
Accomplish thou for us that prayer.
And this our band, which hunts for kine,[41]
Successful make for booty's gain;
Afar, O P[=u]shan, art thou praised.
We seek of thee success, which far
From ill, and near to wealth shall be;
For full prosperity to-day;
And full prosperity the morn.[42]
To BHAGA (vii. 41).
Early on Agni call we, early Indra call;
Early call Mitra, Varuna, the Horsemen twain;
Early, too, Bhaga, P[=u]shan, and the Lord of Strength;
And early Soma will we call, and Rudra too.
This stanza has been prefixed to the hymn by virtue of the catch-word 'early' (in the morning), with which really begins this prosaic poem (in different metre):
The early-conquering mighty Bhaga call we,
The son of Boundlessness, the gift-bestower,[43]
Whom weak and strong, and e'en the king, regarding,
Cry bhágam bhakshi, 'give to me the giver.'[44]
O Bhaga, leader Bhaga, true bestower,
O Bhaga, help this prayer, to us give (riches),
O Bhaga, make us grow in kine and horses,
O Bhaga, eke in men, men-wealthy be we!
And now may we be rich, be bhaga-holders,[45]
Both at the (day's) approach, and eke at midday,
And at the sun's departure, generous giver.
The favor of the gods may we abide in.
O gods, (to us) be Bhaga really bhaga,[46]
By means of him may we be bhaga-holders.
As such an one do all, O Bhaga, call thee,
As such, O Bhaga, be to-day our leader.
May dawns approach the sacrifice, the holy
Place, like to Dadhikr[=a],[47] like horses active,
Which bring a chariot near; so, leading Bhaga,
Who finds good things, may they approach, and bring him.
As this is the only hymn addressed to Bhaga, and as it proves itself to have been made for altar service (in style as well as in special mention of the ceremony), it is evident that Bhaga, although called Aditi's son, is but a god of wealth and (like Ança, the Apportioner) very remotely connected with physical functions. But the hymn appears to be so late that it cannot throw much light on the original conception of the deity. We rather incline to doubt whether Bhaga was ever, strictly speaking, a sun-god, and think that he was made so merely because the sun (Savitar) was called bhaga. A (Greek: Zehys) Bagaios was worshipped by the Phrygians, while in the Avesta and as a Slavic god Bhaga has no especial connection with the sun. It must be acknowledged, however, that every form of the sun-god is especially lauded for generosity.
VISHNU.
In the person of Vishnu the sun is extolled under another name, which in the period of the Rig Veda was still in the dawn of its glory. The hymns to Vishnu are few; his fame rests chiefly on the three strides with which he crosses heaven, on his making fast the earth, and on his munificence.[48] He, too, leads in battle and is revered under the title Çipivishta,[49] of unknown significance, but meaning literally 'bald.' Like Savitar he has three spaces, two called earthly, and one, the highest, known only to himself. His greatness is inconceivable, and he is especially praised with Indra, the two being looked upon as masters of the world.[50] His highest place is the realm of the departed spirits.[51] The hymns to him appear to be late (thus I. 155. 6, where, as the year, he has four seasons of ninety days each). Like P[=u]shan (his neighbor in many lauds) he is associated in a late hymn with the Maruts (V. 87). His later popularity lies in the importance of his 'highest place' (or step) being the home of the departed spirits, where he himself dwells, inscrutable. This led to the spirit's union with the sun, which, as we have said, is one of the first phases of the pantheistic doctrine. In the family-books Vishnu gets but two hymns, both in the same collection, and shares one more with Indra (VII. 99-100; VI. 69). In some of the family-collections, notably in that of the Visvamitras, he is, if not unknown, almost ignored. As Indra's friend he is most popular with the Kanva family, but even here he has no special hymn.
None born, God Vishnu, and none born hereafter
E'er reaches to the limit of thy greatness;
Twas thou establish'st yon high vault of heaven,
Thou madest fast the earth's extremest mountain. (VII. 99. 2.)
Three steps he made, the herdsman sure,
Vishnu, and stepped across (the world). (I. 22. i8.)
The mighty deeds will I proclaim of Vishnu,
Who measured out the earth's extremest spaces,
And fastened firm the highest habitation,
Thrice stepping out with step all-powerful.
O would that I might reach his path beloved,
Where joy the men who hold the gods in honor. (I. 154. 1, 5.)
Under all these names and images the sun is worshipped. And it is necessary to review them all to see how deeply the worship is ingrained. The sun is one of the most venerable as he is the most enduring of India's nature-gods.[52] In no early passage is the sun a malignant god. He comes "as kine to the village, as a hero to his steed, as a calf to the cow, as a husband to his wife."[53] He is the 'giver,' the 'generous one,' and as such he is Mitra, 'the friend,' who with Varuna, the encompassing heaven, is, indeed, in the Rig Veda, a personality subordinated to his greater comrade; yet is this, perhaps, the sun's oldest name of those that are not descriptive of purely physical characteristics. For Mithra in Persian keeps the proof that this title was given to the Indo-Iranic god before the separation of the two peoples. It is therefore (perhaps with Bhaga?) one of the most ancient personal designations of the sun,—one, perhaps, developed from a mere name into a separate deity.
HEAVEN AND EARTH.
Not only as identical with the chief god of the Greeks, but also from a native Indic point of view, it might have been expected that Dyaus (Zeus), the 'shining sky,' would play an important rôle in the Hindu pantheon. But such is not the case. There is not a single hymn addressed independently to Dyaus, nor is there any hint of especial preeminence of Dyaus in the half-dozen hymns that are sung to Heaven and Earth together. The word dyaus is used hundreds of times, but generally in the meaning sky (without personification). There is, to be sure, a formal acknowledgment of the fatherhood of Dyaus (among gods he is father particularly of Dawn, the Açvins, and Indra), as there is of the motherhood of Earth, but there is no further exaltation. No exaggeration—the sign of Hindu enthusiasm—is displayed in the laudation, and the epithet 'father' is given to half a dozen Vedic gods, as in Rome Ma(r)spiter stands beside Jup(p)iter. Certain functions are ascribed to Heaven and Earth, but they are of secondary origin. Thus they bring to the god he sacrifice,[54] as does Agni, and one whole hymn may thus be epitomized: 'By the ordinance of Varuna made firm, O Heaven and Earth, give us blessings. Blest with children and wealth is he that adores you twain. Give us sweet food, glory and strength of heroes, ye who are our father and mother.'[55]
The praise is vague and the benevolence is the usual 'bestowal of blessings' expected of all the gods in return for praise. Other hymns add to this something, from which one sees that these deities are not regarded as self-created; for the seers of old, or, according to one poet some wonderful divine artisan, "most wondrous worker of the wonder-working gods," created them. Their chief office is to exercise benign protection and bestow wealth. Once they are invited to come to the sacrifice "with the gods," but this, of course, is not meant to exclude them from the list of gods[56].
The antithesis of male and female, to Bergaigne's insistence on which reference was made above (p. 43), even here in this most obvious of forms, common to so many religions, shows itself so faintly that it fails utterly to support that basis of sexual dualism on which the French scholar lays so much stress. Dyaus does, indeed, occasionally take the place of Indra, and as a bellowing bull impregnate earth, but this is wholly incidental and not found at all in the hymns directly lauding Heaven and Earth. Moreover, instead of "father and mother" Heaven and Earth often are spoken of as "the two mothers," the significance of which cannot be nullified by the explanation that to the Hindu 'two mothers' meant two parents, and of two parents one must be male,—Bergaigne's explanation. For not only is Dyaus one of the 'two mothers,' but when independently used the word Dyaus is male or female indifferently. Thus in X. 93. I: "O Heaven and Earth be wide outstretched for us, (be) like two young women." The position of Heaven and Earth in relation to other divinities varies with the fancy of the poet that extols them. They are either created, or they create gods, as well as create men. In accordance with the physical reach of these deities they are exhorted to give strength whereby the worshipper shall "over-reach all peoples"; and, as parents, to be the "nearest of the gods," to be "like father and mother in kindness." (I. 159; 160. 2, 5.)
One more attribute remains to be noticed, which connects Dyaus morally as well as physically with Savitar and Varuna. The verse in which this attribute is spoken of is also not without interest from a sociological point of view: "Whatsoever sin we have committed against the gods, or against a friend, or against the chief of the clan (family)[57] may this hymn to Heaven and Earth avert it." It was shown above that Savitar removes sin. Here, as in later times, it is the hymn that does this. The mystery of these gods' origin puzzles the seer: "Which was first and which came later, how were they begotten, who knows, O ye wise seers? Whatever exists, that they carry."[58] But all that they do they do under the command of Mitra.[59]
The most significant fact in connection with the hymns to Heaven and Earth is that most of them are expressly for sacrificial intent. "With sacrifices I praise Heaven and Earth" (I. 159. 1); "For the sake of the sacrifice are ye come down (to us)" (IV. 56. 7). In VI. 70 they are addressed in sacrificial metaphors; in VII. 53. 1 the poet says: "I invoke Heaven and Earth with sacrifices," etc. The passivity of the two gods makes them yield in importance to their son, the active Savitar, who goes between the two parents. None of these hymns bears the impress of active religious feeling or has poetic value. They all seem to be reflective, studied, more or less mechanical, and to belong to a period of theological philosophy. To Earth alone without Heaven are addressed one uninspired hymn and a fragment of the same character: "O Earth be kindly to us, full of dwellings and painless, and give us protection."[60] In the burial service the dead are exhorted to "go into kindly mother earth" who will be "wool-soft, like a maiden."[61] The one hymn to Earth should perhaps be placed parallel with similar meditative and perfunctory laudations in the Homeric hymns:
To EARTH (V. 84).
In truth, O broad extended earth,
Thou bear'st the render of the hills,[62]
Thou who, O mighty mountainous one,
Quickenest created things with might.
Thee praise, O thou that wander'st far,
The hymns which light accompany,
Thee who, O shining one, dost send
Like eager steeds the gushing rain.
Thou mighty art, who holdest up
With strength on earth the forest trees,
When rain the rains that from thy clouds
And Dyaus' far-gleaming lightning come.[62]
On the bearing of these facts, especially in regard to the secondary greatness of Dyaus, we shall touch below. He is a god exalted more by modern writers than by the Hindus!
VARUNA.
Varuna has been referred already in connection with the sun-god and with Heaven and Earth. It is by Varuna's power that they stand firm. He has established the sun 'like a tree,' i.e., like a support, and 'made a path for it.'[63] He has a thousand remedies for ills; to his realm not even the birds can ascend, nor wind or swift waters attain. It is in accordance with the changeless order[64] of Varuna that the stars and the moon go their regular course; he gives long life and releases from harm, from wrong, and from sin.[65]
Varuna is the most exalted of those gods whose origin is physical. His realm is all above us; the sun and stars are his eyes; he sits above upon his golden throne and sees all that passes below, even the thoughts of men. He is, above all, the moral controller of the universe.
To VARUNA (i. 25).
Howe'er we, who thy people are,
O Varuna, thou shining god,
Thy order injure, day by day,
Yet give us over nor to death,
Nor to the blow of angry (foe),
Nor to the wrath of (foe) incensed.[66]
Thy mind for mercy we release—
As charioteer, a fast-bound steed—
By means of song, O Varuna.
* * * * *
('Tis Varuna) who knows the track
Of birds that fly within the air,
And knows the ships upon the flood;[67]
Knows, too, the (god) of order firm,
The twelve months with their progeny,
And e'en which month is later born;[68]
Knows, too, the pathway of the wind,
The wide, the high, the mighty (wind),
And knows who sit above (the wind).
(God) of firm order, Varuna
His place hath ta'en within (his) home
For lordship, he, the very strong.[69]
Thence all the things that are concealed
He looks upon, considering
Whate'er is done and to be done.
May he, the Son of Boundlessness,
The very strong, through every day
Make good our paths, prolong our life.
Bearing a garment all of gold,
In jewels clothed, is Varuna,
And round about him sit his spies;
A god whom injurers injure not,
Nor cheaters cheat among the folk,
Nor any plotters plot against;
Who for himself 'mid (other) men
Glory unequalled gained, and gains
(Such glory) also 'mid ourselves.
Far go my thoughts (to him), as go
The eager cows that meadows seek,
Desiring (him), the wide-eyed (god).
Together let us talk again,
Since now the offering sweet I bring,
By thee beloved, and like a priest
Thou eat'st.
I see the wide-eyed (god):
I see his chariot on the earth,
My song with joy hath he received.
Hear this my call, O Varuna,
Be merciful to me today,
For thee, desiring help, I yearn.
Thou, wise one, art of everything,
The sky and earth alike, the king;
As such upon thy way give ear,
And loose from us the (threefold) bond;
The upper bond, the middle, break,
The lower, too, that we may live.
In the portrait of such a god as this one comes very near to monotheism. The conception of an almost solitary deity, recognized as watcher of wrong, guardian of right, and primitive creator, approaches more closely to unitarianism than does the idea of any physical power in the Rig Veda.
To the poet of the Rig Veda Varuna is the enveloping heaven;[70] that is, in distinction from Dyaus, from whom he differs toto caelo, so to speak, the invisible world, which embraces the visible sky. His home is there where lives the Unborn, whose place is unique, above the highest heaven.[71]
But it is exactly this loftiness of character that should make one shy of interpreting Varuna as being originally the god that is presented here. Can this god, 'most august of Vedic deities,' as Bergaigne and others have called him, have belonged as such to the earliest stratum of Aryan belief?
There are some twelve hymns in the Rig Veda in Varuna's honor. Of these, one in the tenth book celebrates Indra as opposed to Varuna, and generally it is considered late, in virtue of its content. Of the hymns in the eighth book the second appears to be a later imitation of the first, and the first appears, from several indications, to be of comparatively recent origin.[72] In the seventh book (vii. 86-89) the short final hymn contains a distinctly late trait in invoking Varuna to cure dropsy; the one preceding this is in majorem gloriam of the poet Vasistha, fitly following the one that appears to be as new, where not only the mysticism but the juggling with "thrice-seven," shows the character of the hymn to be recent.[73] In the first hymn of this book the late doctrine of inherited sin stands prominently forth (vii. 86. 5) as an indication of the time in which it was composed. The fourth and sixth books have no separate hymns to Varuna. In the fifth book the position of the one hymn to Varuna is one favorable to spurious additions, but the hymn is not otherwise obnoxious to the criticism of lateness. Of the two hymns in the second book, the first is addressed only indirectly to Varuna, nor is he here very prominent; the second (ii. 28) is the only song which stands on a par with the hymn already translated. There remain the hymns cited above from the first, not a family-book. It is, moreover, noteworthy that in ii. 28, apart from the ascription of general greatness, almost all that is said of Varuna is that he is a priest, that he causes rivers to flow, and loosens the bond of sin.[74] The finest hymn to Varuna, from a literary point of view, is the one translated above, and it is mainly on the basis of this hymn that the lofty character of Varuna has been interpreted by occidental writers. To our mind this hymn belongs to the close of the first epoch of the three which the hymns represent. That it cannot be very early is evident from the mention of the intercalated month, not to speak of the image of Varuna eating the sweet oblation 'like a priest.' Its elevated language is in sharp contrast to that of almost all the other Varuna hymns. As these are all the hymns where Varuna is praised alone by himself, it becomes of chief importance to study him here, and not where, as in iii. 62, iv. 41, vi. 51, 67, 68, and elsewhere, he is lauded as part of a combination of gods (Mitra or Indra united with Varuna). In the last book of the Rig Veda there is no hymn to Varuna,[75] a time when pantheistic monotheism was changing into pantheism, so that, in the last stage of the Rig Veda, Varuna is descended from the height. Thereafter he is god and husband of waters, and punisher of secret sin (as in ii. 28). Important in contrast to the hymn translated above is v. 85.
TO VARUNA.
"I will sing forth unto the universal king a high deep prayer, dear to renowned Varuna, who, as a butcher a hide, has struck earth apart (from the sky) for the sun. Varuna has extended air in trees, strength in horses, milk in cows, and has laid wisdom in hearts; fire in water; the sun in the sky; soma in the stone. Varuna has inverted his water-barrel and let the two worlds with the space between flow (with rain). With this (heavenly water-barrel) he, the king of every created thing, wets the whole world, as a rain does a meadow. He wets the world, both earth and heaven, when he, Varuna, chooses to milk out (rain)—and then do the mountains clothe themselves with cloud, and even the strongest men grow weak. Yet another great and marvellous power of the renowned spirit (Asura) will I proclaim, this, that standing in mid-air he has measured earth with the sun, as if with a measuring rod. (It is due to) the marvellous power of the wisest god, which none ever resisted, that into the one confluence run the rivers, and pour into it, and fill it not. O Varuna, loosen whatever sin we have committed to bosom-friend, comrade, or brother; to our own house, or to the stranger; what (we) have sinned like gamblers at play, real (sin), or what we have not known. Make loose, as it were, all these things, O god Varuna, and may we be dear to thee hereafter."
In this hymn Varuna is a water-god, who stands in mid-air and directs the rain; who, after the rain, reinstates the sun; who releases from sin (as water does from dirt?). According to this conception it would seem that Varuna were the 'coverer' rather than the 'encompasser.' It might seem probable even that Varuna first stood to Dyaus as cloud and rain and night to shining day, and that his counterpart, (Greek: Hohyranhos), stood in the same relation to (Greek: Zehys); that were connecte(Greek: Hohyranhos)d with (Greek: hyrheô) and Varuna with vari, river, v[=a]ri, water.[76]
It is possible, but it is not provable. But no interpretation of Varuna that ignores his rainy side can be correct. And this is fully recognized by Hillebrandt. On account of his "thousand spies," i.e., eyes, he has been looked upon by some as exclusively a night-god. But this is too one-sided an interpretation, and passes over the all-important, fact that it is only in conjunction with the sun (Mitra), where there is a strong antithesis, that the night-side of the god is exclusively displayed. Wholly a day-god he cannot be, because he rules night and rain. He is par excellence the Asura, and, like Ahura Mazdao, has the sun for an eye, i.e., he is heaven. But there is no Varuna in Iranian worship and Ahura is a sectarian specialization. Without this name may one ascribe to India what is found in Iran?[77] It has been suggested by Bergaigne that Varuna and Vritra, the rain-holding demon, were developments from the same idea, one revered as a god, the other, a demon; and that the word means 'restrainer,' rather than 'encompasser.'
From all this it will be evident that to claim an original monotheism as still surviving in the person of Varuna, is impossible; and this is the one point we would make. Every one must admire the fine hymn in which he is praised, but what there is in it does not make it seem very old, and the intercalated month is decisive evidence, for here alone in the Rig Veda is mentioned this month, which implies the five-year cyclus, but this belongs to the Brahmanic period (Weber, Vedische Beiträge, p. 38). Every explanation of the original nature of Varuna must take into consideration that he is a rain-god, a day-god, and a night-god in turn, and that where he is praised in the most elevated language the rain-side disappears, although it was fundamental, as may be seen by comparing many passages, where Varuna is exhorted to give rain, where his title is 'lord of streams,' his position that of 'lord of waters.' The decrease of Varuna worship in favor of Indra results partly from the more peaceful god of rain appearing less admirable than the monsoon-god, who overpowers with storm and lightning, as well as 'wets the earth.'
The most valuable contribution to the study of Varuna is Hillebrandt's 'Varuna and Mitra.' This author has succeeded in completely overthrowing the old error that Varuna is exclusively a night-god.[78] Quite as definitively he proves that Varuna is not exclusively a day-god.
Bergaigne, on the other hand, claims an especially tenebrous character for Varuna.[79] Much has been written on luminous deities by scholars that fail to recognize the fact that the Hindus regard the night both as light and as dark. But to the Vedic poet the night, star-illumined, was bright. Even Hillebrandt speaks of "the bright heaven" of day as "opposed to the dark night-heaven in which Varuna also shows himself."[80]
In the Rig Veda, as it stands, with all the different views of Varuna side by side, Varuna is a universal encompasser, moral as well as physical. As such his physical side is almost gone. But the conception of him as a moral watcher and sole lord of the universe is in so sharp contrast to the figure of the rain-god, who, like Parjanya, stands in mid-air and upsets a water-barrel, that one must discriminate even between the Vedic views in regard to him.[81]
It is Varuna who lets rivers flow; with Indra he is besought not to let his weapons fall on the sinner; wind is his breath.[82]
On the other hand he is practically identified with the sun.[83] How ill this last agrees with the image of a god who 'lives by the spring of rivers,' 'covers earth as with a garment,' and 'rises like a secret sea (in fog) to heaven'![84] Even when invoked with the sun, Mitra, Varuna still gives rain: "To whomsoever ye two are kindly disposed comes sweet rain from heaven; we beseech you for rain … you, the thunderers who go through earth and heaven" (v. 63),—a strange prayer to be addressed to a monotheistic god of light: "Ye make the lightning flash, ye send the rain; ye hide the sky in cloud and rain" (ib.). In the hymn preceding we read: "Ye make firm heaven and earth, ye give growth to plants, milk to cows; O ye that give rain, pour down rain!" In the same group another short hymn declares: "They are universal kings, who have ghee (rain) in their laps; they are lords of the rain" (v. 68). In the next hymn: "Your clouds (cows) give nourishment, your streams are sweet." Thus the twain keep the order of the seasons (i. 2. 7-8) and protect men by the regular return of the rainy season. Their weapons are always lightning (above, i. 152. 2, and elsewhere). A short invocation in a family-book gives this prayer: "O Mitra-Varuna, wet our meadows with ghee; wet all places with the sweet drink" (iii. 62. 16).
The interpretation given above of the office of Varuna as regards the sun's path, is supported by a verse where is made an allusion to the time "when they release the sun's horses," i.e., when after two or three months of rain the sun shines again (v. 62. 1). In another verse one reads: "Ye direct the waters, sustenance of earth and heaven, richly let come your rains" (viii. 25. 6).
Now there is nothing startling in this view. In opposition to the unsatisfactory attempts of modern scholars, it is the traditional interpretation of Mitra and Varuna that Mitra was god of day (i.e., the sun), and Varuna the god of night (i.e., covering),[85] while native belief regularly attributes to him the lordship of water[86]. The 'thousand eyes' of Varuna are the result of this view. The other light-side of Varuna as special lord of day (excluding the all-heaven idea with the sun as his 'eye') is elsewhere scarcely referred to, save in late hymns and VIII. 41.[87] In conjunction with the storm-god, Indra, the wrath-side of Varuna is further developed. The prayer for release is from 'long darkness,' i.e., from death; in other words, may the light of life be restored (II. 27. 14-15; II. 28. 7). Grassmann, who believes that in Varuna there is an early monotheistic deity, enumerates all his offices and omits the giving of rain from the list;[88] while Ludwig derives his name from var (= velle) and defines him as the lofty god who wills!
Varuna's highest development ushers in the middle period of the Rig Veda; before the rise of the later All-father, and even before the great elevation of Indra. But when S[=u]rya and Dawn were chief, then Varuna was chiefest. There is no monotheism in the worship of a god who is regularly associated as one of a pair with another god. Nor is there in Varuna any religious grandeur which, so far as it exceeds that of other divinities, is not evolved from his old physical side. One cannot personify heaven and write a descriptive poem about him without becoming elevated in style, as compared with the tone of one that praises a rain-cloud or even the more confined personality of the sun. There is a stylistic but not a metaphysical descent from this earlier period in the 'lords of the atmosphere,' for, as we shall show, the elevation of Indra and Agni denotes a philosophical conception yet more advanced than the almost monotheistic greatness attained by Varuna. But one must find the background to this earlier period; and in it Varuna is not monotheistic. He is the covering sky united with the sun, or he whose covering is rain and dew. Indra treats Varuna as Savitar treats Mitra, supplants him; and for the same reason, because each represents the same priestly philosophy.
In the one extant hymn to Mitra (who is Indo-Iranian) it is Mitra that 'watches men,' and 'bears earth and heaven.' He is here (iii. 59) the kindly sun, his name (Mitra, 'friend') being frequently punned upon.
The point of view taken by Barth deserves comment. He says:[89] "It has sometimes been maintained that the Varuna of the hymns is a god in a state of decadence. In this view we can by no means concur; … an appeal to these few hymns is enough to prove that in the consciousness of their authors the divinity of Varuna stood still intact." If, instead of 'still intact,' the author had said, 'on the increase, till undermined by still later philosophical speculation,' the true position, in our opinion, would have been given. But a distinction must be made between decadence of greatness and decadence of popularity. It has happened in the case of some of the Vedic inherited gods that exactly in proportion as their popularity decreased their greatness increased; that is to say, as they became more vague and less individual to the folk they were expanded into wider circles of relationship by the theosophist, and absorbed other gods' majesty.[89] Varuna is no longer a popular god in the Rig Veda. He is already a god of speculation, only the speculation did not go far enough to suit the later seers of Indra-Savitar-hood. Most certainly his worship, when compared in popularity with that of Agni and Indra, is unequal. But this is because he is too remote to be popular.
What made the popular gods was a union of near physical force to please the vulgar, with philosophical mysticism to please the priest, and Indra and Agni fulfilled the conditions, while awful, but distant, Varuna did not.
In stating that the great hymn to Varuna is not typical of the earliest stage of religious belief among the Vedic Aryans, we should add one word in explanation. Varuna's traits, as shown in other parts of the Rig Veda, are so persistent that they must be characteristic of his original function. It does not follow, however, that any one hymn in which he is lauded is necessarily older than the hymn cited from the first book. The earliest stage of religious development precedes the entrance into the Punj[=a]b. It may even be admitted that at the time when the Vedic Aryans became Hindus, that is, when they settled about the Indus, Varuna was the great god we see him in the great hymn to his honor. But while the relation of the [=A]dityas to the spirits of Ahura in Zoroaster's system points to this, yet it is absurd to assume this epoch as the starting point of Vedic belief. Back of this period lies one in which Varuna was by no means a monotheistic deity, nor even the greatest divinity among the gods. The fact, noticed by Hillebrandt, that the Vasishtha family are the chief praisers of Varuna, may also indicate that his special elevation was due to the theological conceptions of one clan, rather than of the whole people, since in the other family books he is worshipped more as one of a pair, Varuna and Mitra, heaven and sun.