History of Sanskrit Literature -4 (BY ARTHUR A. MACDONELL

History of Sanskrit Literature

(BY

ARTHUR A. MACDONELL, M. A., Ph.D.

BODEN PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT)

 

To this feature may be traced the myth of the

VISHNU USHAS 81

Brahmanas in which Vishnu appears in the form of a

dwarf as an artifice to recover the earth, now in the

possession of demons, by taking his three strides. His

character for benevolence was in post-Vedic mythology

developed in the doctrine of the Avatars (" descents

"

to earth) or incarnations which he assumed for the good

of humanity.

Ushas, goddess of dawn, is almost the only female

deity to whom entire hymns are addressed, and the only

one invoked with any frequency. She, however, is celebrated

in some twenty hymns. The name, meaning the

"Shining One," is cognate to the Latin Aurora and

the Greek Eos. When the goddess is addressed, the

physical phenomenon of dawn is never absent from

the poet's mind. The fondness with which the thoughts

of these priestly singers turned to her alone among

the goddesses, though she received no share in the

offering of soma like the other gods, seems to show

that the glories of the dawn, more splendid in Northern

India than those we are wont to see, deeply impressed

the minds of these early poets. In any case, she is

their most graceful creation, the charm of which is

unsurpassed in the descriptive religious lyrics of any

other literature. Here there are no priestly subtleties

to obscure the brightness of her form, and few allusions

to the sacrifice to mar the natural beauty of the

imagery.

To enable the reader to estimate the merit of this

poetry I will string together some utterances about

the Dawn goddess, culled from various hymns, and

expressed as nearly as possible in the words of their

composers. Ushas is a radiant maiden, born in the

sky, daughter of Dyaus. She is the bright sister of

82 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

dark Night. She shines with the light of her lover,

with the light of Surya, who beams after her path and

follows her as a young man a maiden. She is borne on

a brilliant car, drawn by ruddy steeds or kine. Arraying

herself in gay attire like a dancer, she displays her bosom.

Clothed upon with light, the maiden appears in the east

and unveils her charms. Rising resplendent as from

a bath, she shows her form. Effulgent in peerless

beauty, she withholds her light from neither small nor

great. She opens wide the gates of heaven ; she opens

the doors of darkness, as the cows (issue from) their

stall. Her radiant beams appear like herds of cattle.

She removes the black robe of night, warding off evil

spirits and the hated darkness. She awakens creatures

that have feet, and makes the birds fly up : she is

the breath and life of everything. When Ushas shines

forth, the birds fly up from their nests and men seek

nourishment. She is the radiant mover of sweet, sounds,

the leader of the charm of pleasant voices. Day by

day appearing at the appointed place, she never infringes

the rule of order and of the gods ; she goes

straight along the path of order; knowing the way,

she never loses her direction. , As she shone in former

days, so she shines now and will shine in future, never

aging, immortal.

The solitude and stillness of the early morning sometimes

suggested pensive thoughts about the fleeting

nature of human life in contrast with the unending

recurrence of the dawn. Thus one poet exclaims :

Gone are the mortals who informer ages

Beheld theflushing of the earlier morning.

We living men now look upo?i her shining;

They are coming who shall infuture see her (i. 113, 11).

THE POETRY OF DAWN 83

In a similar strain another Rishi sings :

Again and again newly born though ancient,

Decking her beauty with the self-same colours,

The goddess wastes away the life of mortals,

Like wealth diminished by the skilfulplayer (i. 92, 10).

The following stanzas from one of the finest hymns

to Dawn (i. 113) furnish a more general picture of this

fairest creation of Vedic poetry :

This light has come, of all the lights thefairest,

The brilliant brightness has been born, far-shining.

Urged onwardfor god SavitrPs uprising,

Night now has yielded up her place to Morning.

The sisters'' pathway is the same, unending :

Taught by the gods, alternately they tread it.

Fair-shaped, of differe?itforms andyet one-minded^

Night and Morning clash not, nor do they linger.

Bright leader ofglad sounds, she shines effulgent :

Widely she has unclosedfor us her portals.

Arousing all the world, she shows us riches :

Daw7i has awakened every living creature.

There Heaven's Daughter has appeared before us,

The maiden flushing in her brilliant garments.

Thou sovran lady of all earthly treasure,

Auspicious Dawn, flush here to-day upon us.

In the sky'sframework she has shone with splendourj

The goddess has cast offthe robe of darkness.

Wakening up the world with ruddy horses,

Upon her well-yoked chariot Daw?i is coming.

Bringing upon it many bounteous blessings,

Brightly shining, she spreads her brilliant lustre.

Last of the countless mornings that have go?ie by,

First of bright ?norns to come has Dawn arisen.

Arise ! the breath, the life, again has reached us :

Darkness has gone away and light is coming.

She leaves a pathwayfor the sun to travel :

We have arrived where men prolong existence.

84 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

Among the deities of celestial light, those most frequently

invoked are the twin gods of morning named

Acvins. They are the sons of Heaven, eternally young

and handsome. They ride on a car, on which they are

accompanied by the sun-maiden Surya. This car is

bright and sunlike, and all its parts are golden. The

time when these gods appear is the early dawn, when

" darkness still stands among the ruddy cows." At the

yoking of their car Ushas is born.

Many myths are told about the Acvins as succouring

divinities. They deliver from distress in general,

especially rescuing from the ocean in a ship or ships.

They are characteristically divine physicians, who give

sight to the blind and make the lame to walk. One

very curious myth is that of the maiden Vi^pala, who

having had her leg cut off in some conflict, was at

once furnished by the Acvins with an iron limb. They

agree in many respects with the two famous horsemen

of Greek mythology, the Dioskouroi, sons of Zeus and

brothers of Helen. The two most probable theories

as to the origin of these twin deities are, that they

represent either the twilight, half dark, half light, or the

morning and evening star.

In the realm of

y

air Indra is the dominant deity. He

is, indeed, the favourite and national god of the Vedic

Indian. His importance is sufficiently indicated by the

fact that more than one-fourth of the Rigveda is devoted

to his praise. Handed down from a bygone age, Indra

has become more anthropomorphic and surrounded by

mythological imagery than any other Vedic god. The

significance of his character is nevertheless sufficiently

clear. He is primarily the thunder-god, the conquest

of the demon of drought or darkness named Vritra, the

INDRA 85

"

Obstructor," and the consequent liberation of the waters

or the winning of light, forming his mythological essence.

This myth furnishes the Rishis with an ever-recurring

theme. Armed with his thunderbolt, exhilarated by

copious draughts of soma, and generally escorted by

the Maruts or Storm-gods, Indra enters upon the fray.

The conflict is terrible. Heaven and earth tremble

with fear when Indra smites Vritra like a tree with his

bolt. He is described as constantly repeating the combat.

This obviously corresponds to the perpetual renewal

of the natural phenomena underlying the myth. The

physical elements in the thunderstorm are seldom directly

mentioned by the poets when describing the exploits

of Indra. He is rarely said to shed rain, but constantly

to release the pent-up waters or rivers. The lightning

is regularly the "

bolt," while thunder is the lowing of

the cows or the roaring of the dragon. The clouds are

designated by various names, such as cow, udder, spring,

cask, or pail. They are also rocks (adri), which encompass

the cows set free by Indra. They are further

mountains from which Indra casts down the demons

dwelling upon them. They thus often become fortresses

(pur) of the demons, which are ninety, ninety-nine, or

a hundred in number, and are variously described as

"

moving,"

"

autumnal,"

" made of iron or stone." One

stanza (x. 89, 7) thus brings together the various features

of the myth :

" Indra slew Vritra, broke the castles, made

a channel for the rivers, pierced the mountain, and

delivered over the cows to his friends." Owing to the

importance of the Vritra myth, the chief and specific

epithet of Indra is Vritrahan, "slayer of Vritra." The

following stanzas are from one of the most graphic of the

86 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

hymns which celebrate the conflict of Indra with the

demon (i. 32) :

I willproclaim the manly deeds of Indra,

Thefirst that he performed, the lightning-wielder.

He sinote the dragon, then discharged the waters,

And cleft the caverns of the lofty mountains.

Impetuous as a bull, he chose the soma,

And drank in threefold vessels of its juices.

The Bowiteous god grasped lightningfor his missile,

He struck down dead thatJirst-bor?i of the dragons.

Him lightning then availed naught, nor thunder,

Nor mist nor hailstorm which he spread around hi?n ;

When Indra and the dragon strove in battle,

The Bounteous godgained victoryfor ever.

Plunged in the miast of never-ceasing torrents,

That stand not still but ever hasten 07tward,

The waters bear off Vritrds hidden body :

Indrdsfiercefoe sank down to lasting darkness.

t

With the liberation of the waters is connected the

winning of light and the sun. Thus we read that when

Indra had slain the dragon Vritra with his bolt, releasing

the waters for man, he placed the sun visibly in the

heavens, or that the sun shone forth when Indra blew

the dragon from the air.

Indra naturally became the god of battle, and is more

frequently invoked than any other deity as a helper in

conflicts with earthly enemies. In the words of one poet,

he protects the Aryan colour (yarnd) and subjects the

black skin ; while another extols him for having dispersed

50,000 of the black race and rent their citadels.

His combats are frequently called gavishti, "desire of

cows," his gifts being considered the result of victories.

The following stanzas (ii. 12, 2 and 13) will serve as a

IMMORAL TRAITS IN INDRA $7

specimen of the way in which the greatness of Indra

is celebrated :

Who made the widespread earth when quaking steadfast^

Who brought to rest the agitated mountains,

Who measured out air's intermediate spaces,

Who gave the sky support : he, men, is Indra.

Heaven and earth themselves bow down before him,

Before his might the very mountains tremble.

Who, known as Soma-drinker, aj-med with lightning,

Is wielder of the bolt : he, men, is Indra.

To the more advanced anthropomorphism of Indra's

nature are due the occasional immoral traits which appear

in his character. Thus he sometimes indulges in

acts of capricious violence, such as the slaughter of

his father or the destruction of the car of Dawn. He is

especially addicted to soma, of which he is described as

drinking enormous quantities to stimulate him in the

performance of his warlike exploits. One entire hymn

(x. 119) consists of a monologue in which Indra, inebriated

with soma, boasts of his greatness and power.

Though of little poetic merit, this piece has a special

interest as being by far the earliest literary description

of the mental effects, braggadocio in particular, produced

by intoxication. In estimating the morality of

Indra's excesses, it should not be forgotten that the exhilaration

of soma partook of a religious character in

the eyes of the Vedic poets.

Indra's name is found in the Avesta as that of a

demon. His distinctive Vedic epithet, Vritrahan, also

occurs there in the form of verethraghna, as a designation

of the god of victory. Hence there was probably

in the Indo-Iranian period a god approaching to the

Vedic form of the Vritra-slaying and victorious Indra.

7

88 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

In comparing historically Varuna and Indra, whose

importance was about equal in the earlier period of the

Rigveday

it seems clear that Varuna was greater in the

Indo-Iranian period, but became inferior to Indra in

later Vedic times. Indra, on the other hand, became in

the Brahmanas and Epics the chief of the Indian heaven,

and even maintained this position under the Puranic

triad, Brahma-Vishnu-iva, though of course subordinate

to them.

At least three of the lesser deities of the air are connected

with lightning. One of these is the somewhat

obscure god Trita, who is only mentioned in detached

verses of the Rigveda, The name appears to designate

the " third

"

(Greek, trito-s)} as the lightning form of fire.

His frequent epithet, Aptyay seems to mean the "

watery."

This god goes back to the Indo-Iranian period, as both

his name and his epithet are found in the Avesta. But

he was gradually ousted by Indra as being originally

almost identical in character with the latter. Another

deity of rare occurrence in the Rigveda, and also dating

from the Indo-Iranian period, is Apam napat, the " Son

of Waters." He is described as clothed in lightning and

shining without fuel in the waters. There can, therefore,

be little doubt that he represents fire as produced from

the rain-clouds in the form of lightning. Mataricvan,

seldom mentioned in the Rigveda, is a divine being described

as having, like the Greek Prometheus, brought

down the hidden fire from heaven to earth. He most

probably represents the personification of a celestial

form of Agni, god of fire, with whom he is in some

passages actually identified. In the later Vedas, the

Brahmanas, and the subsequent literature, the name

has become simply a designation of wind.

RUDRA THE MARUTS 89

The position occupied by the god Rudra in the

Rigveda is very different from that of his historical successor

in a later age. He is celebrated ill only three

or four hymns, while his name is mentioned slightly less

often than that of Vishnu. He is usually said to be

armed with bow and arrows, but a lightning shaft and

a thunderbolt are also occasionally assigned to him. He

is described as fierce and destructive like a wild beast,

and is called "the ruddy boar of heaven." The hymns

addressed to him chiefly express fear of his terrible

shafts and deprecation of his wrath. His malevolence

is still more prominent in the later Vedic literature. The

euphemistic epithet zva, "auspicious," already applied

to him in the Rigveda, and more frequently, though not

exclusively, in the younger Vedas, became his regular

name in the post-Vedic period. Rudra is, of course, not

purely malevolent like a demon. He is besought not

only to preserve from calamity but to bestow blessings

and produce welfare for man and beast. His healing

powers are mentioned with especial frequency, and he

is lauded as the greatest of physicians.

Prominent among the gods of the Rigveda are the

Maruts or Storm-gods, who form a group of thrice

seven or thrice sixty. They are the sons of Rudra

and the mottled cloud-cow Pricni. At birth they are

compared with fires, and are once addressed as "born

from the laughter of lightning." They are a troop of

youthful warriors armed with spears or battle-axes and

wearing helmets upon their heads. They are decked

with golden ornaments, chiefly in the form of armlets

or of anklets :

They gleam with armlets as the heavens are decked with stars;

Like cloud-born lightnings shine the torrents of their rain (ii. 34, 2).

90 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

They ride on golden cars which gleam with lightning,

while they hold fiery lightnings in their hands :

The lightnings smile upon the earth below them

What time the Maruts sprinkleforth theirfatness.

(i. 1 68, 8).

They drive with coursers which are often described as

spotted, and they are once said to have yoked the

winds as steeds to their pole.

The Maruts are fierce and terrible, like lions or

wild boars. With the fellies of their car they rend

the hills :

The Maruts spread the mist abroad,

And make the mountains rock and reel,

When with the winds they go their way (viii. 7, 4).

They shatter the lords of the forest and like wild

elephants devour the woods :

Before you,fierce ones, even woods bow down in fear,

The earth herself, the very ?nountain trembles (v. 60, 2).

One of their main functions is to shed rain. They

are clad in a robe of rain, and cover the eye of the

sun with showers. They bedew the earth with milk ;

they shed fatness (ghee) ; they milk the thundering,

the never-failing spring; they wet the earth with mead;

they pour out the heavenly pail :

The rivers echo to their chariotfellies

What time they utterforth the voice of rain-clouds.

(i. 168, 8).

In allusion to the sound of the winds the Maruts

are often called singers, and as such aid Indra in his

fight with the demon. They are, indeed, his constant

associates in all his celestial conflicts.

The God of Wind, called Vayu or Vata, is not a

VAYU VATA 91

prominent deity in the Rigveda, having only three entire

hymns addressed to him. The personification is more

developed under the name of. Vayu, who is mostly

associated with India, while Vata is coupled only with

the^ li^, anthropomorphic rain-god, Parjanya. Vayu is

swift as thought and^tfias roaring velocity. He has

a shining car drawn by a team or a..pair of ruddy

steeds. On this car, which has a golden seat and

touches the sky, Indra is his companion. Vata, as also

the ordinary designation of wind, is celebrated in a

more concrete manner. His name is often connected

with the verb vdf "to blow," from which it is derived.

Like Rudra, he wafts healing and prolongs life ; for he

has the treasure of immortality in his house. The poet

of a short hynm (x. 168) devoted to his praise thus

describes him :

Of Vdta's car I now willpraise the greatness :

Crashing it speeds alo?igj its noise is thunder.

Touching the sky, it goes on causing lightnings j

Scattering the dust of ea7'th it hurriesforward.

In air upon his pathways hastening onward,

Never on any day he tarries resting.

Thefirst-born order-lovingfriend of waters,

Where, pray, was he bor?i ? say, whence came he hither?

The soul ofgods, and of the world the offspring,

This god according to his liki?ig wanders.

His sound is heard, but ne^er is see?i hisfigure.

This Vata let us now with offerings worship.

Another deity of air is Parjanya, god of rain, who

is invoked in but three hymns, and is only mentioned

some thirty times in the Rigveda. The name in several

passages still means simply "rain-cloud." The personification

is therefore always closely connected with

92 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

the phenomenon of the rain-storm, in which the raincloud

itself becomes an udder, a pail, or a water-skin.

Often likened to a bull, Parjanya is characteristically a

shedder of rain. His activity is described in very vivid

strains (v. 83) :

The trees he strikes to earth atid smites the demon crew :

The whole worldfears the wielder of the mighty bolt

The guiltless man himselffleesfro?n the potent god,

What time Parjanya thundering smites the iniscreant.

Like a car-driver urging on his steeds with whips,

He causes to boundforth the messengers of rain.

Fromfar away the liorfs roar reverberates,

What time Parjanyafills the atmosphere with rain.

Forth blow the winds, to earth the lightningflashesfall,

Up shoot the herbs, the realm of light with moisture streamsj

Nourishment in abundance springsfor all the world,

What time Parjanya quickeneth the earth with seed.

Thunder and roar : the vital germ deposit /

With water-bearing chariotfly around us /

Thy water-skin unloosed to earth draw downward:

With moisture make the heights and hollows equal !

The Waters are praised as goddesses in four hymns of

the Rigveda. The personification, however, hardly goes

beyond representing them as mothers, young wives, and

goddesses who bestow boons and come to the sacrifice.

As mothers they produce Agni, whose lightning form is, as

we have seen, called Apam Napat,

" Son of Waters." The

divine waters bear away defilement, and are even invoked

to cleanse from moral guilt, the sins of violence, cursing,

and lying. They bestow remedies, healing, long life, and

immortality. Soma delights in the waters as a young

man in lovely maidens ; he approaches them as a lover ;

they are maidens who bow down before the youth.

Several rivers are personified and invoked as deities

DEIFIED RIVERS EARTH 93

in the Rigveda. One hymn (x. 75) celebrates the Sindhu

or Indus, while another (iii. 33) sings the praises of the

sister streams Vipac and Cutudri. SarasvatI is, however,

the most important river goddess, being lauded in three

entire hymns as well as in many detached verses. The

personification here goes much further than in the case

of other streams ; but the poets never lose sight of the

connection of the goddess with the river. She is the

best of mothers, of rivers, and of goddesses. Her unfailing

breast yields riches of every kind, and she bestows

wealth, plenty, nourishment, and offspring. One poet

prays that he may not be removed from her to fields

which are strange. She is invoked to descend from the

sky, from the great mountain, to the sacrifice. Such

expressions may have suggested the notion of the

celestial origin and descent of the Ganges, familiar to

post-Vedic mythology. Though simply a river deity in

the Rigveda, SarasvatI is in the Brahmanas identified

with Vach, goddess of speech, and has in post-Vedic

mythology become the goddess of eloquence and wisdom,

invoked as a muse, and regarded as the wife of Brahma.

Earth, Prithivl, the Broad One, hardly ever dissociated

from Dyaus, is celebrated alone in only one short

hymn of three stanzas (v. 84). Even here the poet cannot

refrain from introducing references to her heavenly

spouse as he addresses the goddess,

Who,firmlyfixt, theforest trees

With might supportest in the ground:

Whenfrom the lightning of thy cloud

The rain-floods of the sky pour down.

The personification is only rudimentary, the attributes

of the goddess being chiefly those of the physical earth.

The most important of the terrestrial deities is Agni,

94 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

god of fire. Next to Indra he is the most prominent

of the Vedic gods, being celebrated in more than 200

hymns. It is only natural that the personification of

the sacrificial fire, the centre around which the ritual

poetry of the Veda moves, should engross so much of

the attention of the Rishis. Agni being also the regular

name of the element (Latin, ignis), the anthropomorphism

of the deity is but slight. The bodily parts of the god

have a clear connection with the phenomena of terrestrial

fire mainly in its sacrificial aspect. In allusion to

the oblation of ghee cast in the fire, Agni is "butterbacked,"

u

butter-faced," or " butter-haired." He is

also "flame-haired," and has a tawny beard. He has

sharp, shining, golden, or iron teeth and burning jaws.

Mention is also often made of his tongue or tongues.

He is frequently compared with or directly called a

steed, being yoked to the pole of the rite in order to waft

the sacrifice to the gods. He is also often likened to a

bird, being winged and darting with rapid flight to the

gods. He eats and chews the forest with sharp tooth.

His lustre is like the rays of dawn or of the sun, and

resembles the lightnings of the rain-cloud ; but his track

and his fellies are black, and his steeds make black

furrows. Driven by the wind, he rushes through the

wood. He invades the forests and shears the hairs of

the earth, shaving it as a barber a beard. His flames are

like the roaring waves of the sea. He bellows like a bull

when he invades the forest trees ; the birds are terrified

at the noise when his grass-devouring sparks arise.

Like the erector of a pillar, he supports the sky with his

smoke ; and one of his distinctive epithets is

" smokebannered."

He is borne on a brilliant car, drawn by

two or more steeds, which are ruddy or tawny and windAGNI

HIS THREE BIRTHS 95

impelled. He yokes them to summon the gods, for he

is the charioted" of the sacrifice.

The poets love to dwell on his various births, forms,

and abodes. They often refer to the daily generation of

Agni by friction from the two fire-sticks. These are his

parents, producing him as a new-born infant who is hard

to catch. From the dry wood the god is born living ;

the child as soon as born devours his parents. The ten

maidens said to produce him are the ten fingers used in

twirling the upright fire-drill. Agni is called "Son of

strength

" because of the powerful friction necessary in

kindling a flame. As the fire is lit every morning for the

sacrifice, Agni is described as "waking at dawn." Hence,

too, he is the "

youngest

"

of the gods ; but he is also

old, for he conducted the first sacrifice. Thus he comes

to be paradoxically called both "ancient" and "very

young

"

in the same passage.

Agni also springs from the aerial waters, and is often

said to have been brought from heaven. Born on earth,

in air, in heaven, Agni is frequently regarded as having

a triple character. The gods made him threefold, his

births are three, and he has three abodes or dwellings.

" From heaven first Agni was born, the second time from

us {i.e. men), thirdly in the waters." This earliest Indian

trinity is important as the basis of much of the mystical

speculation of the Vedic age. It was probably the

prototype not only of the later Rigvedic triad, Sun, Wind,

Fire, spoken of as distributed in the three worlds, but

also of the triad Sun, Indra, Fire, which, though not

Rigvedic, is still ancient. It is most likely also the

historical progenitor of the later Hindu trinity of

Brahma, Vishnu, Civa. This triad of fires may have

suggested and would explain the division of a single

96 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

sacrificial fire into the three which form an essential

feature of the cult of the Brahmanas. *

Owing to the multiplicity of terrestrial fires, Agni is

also said to have many births ; for he abides in every

family, house, or dwelling. Kindled in many spots, he

is but one ; scattered in many places, he is one and the

same king. Other fires are attached to him as branches

to a tree. He assumes various divine forms, and has

many names ; but in him are comprehended all the

gods, whom he surrounds as a felly the spokes. Thus

we find the speculations about Agni's various forms

leading to the monotheistic notion of a unity pervading

the many manifestations of the divine.

Agni is an immortal who has taken up his abode

among mortals; he is constantly called a "guest" in

human dwellings ; and is the only god to whom the frequent

epithet grihapati, "lord of the house," is applied.

As the conductor of sacrifice, Agni is repeatedly

called both a u

messenger

" who moves between heaven

and earth and a priest. He is indeed the great priest,

just as Indra is the great warrior.

Agni is, moreover, a mighty benefactor of his worshippers.

With a thousand eyes he watches over the

man who offers him oblations ; but consumes his worshippers'

enemies like dry bushes, and strikes down the

malevolent like a tree destroyed by lightning. All blessings

issue from him as branches from a tree. All

treasures are collected in him, and he opens the door

of wealth. He gives rain from heaven and is like a

spring in the desert. The boons which he confers are,

however, chiefly domestic welfare, offspring, and general

prosperity, while Indra for the most part grants victory,

booty, power, and glory.

SOMA 97

Probably the oldest function of fire in regard to its

cult is that of burning and dispelling evil spirits and

hostile magic. It still survives in the Rigveda from

an earlier age, Agni being said to drive away the

goblins with his light and receiving the epithet rakshohan

}

"

goblin-slayer." This activity is at any rate more

characteristic of Agni than of any other deity, both in

the hymns and in the ritual of the Vedas.

Since the soma sacrifice, beside the cult of fire,

forms a main feature in the ritual of the Rigveday the

god Soma is naturally one of its chief deities. The

whole of the. ninth book, in addition to a few scattered

hymns elsewhere, is devoted to his praise. Thus,

judged by the standard of frequency of mention, Soma

comes third in order of importance among the Vedic

gods. The constant presence of the soma plant and

its juice before their eyes set limits to the imagination

of the poets who describe its personification. Hence

little is said of Soma's human form or action. The

ninth book mainly consists of incantations sung over

the soma while it is pressed by the stones and flows

through the woollen strainer into the wooden vats,

in which it is finally offered as a beverage to the gods

on a litter of grass. The poets are chiefly concerned

with these processes, overlaying them with chaotic

imagery and mystical fancies of almost infinite variety.

When Soma is described as being purified by the

ten maidens who are sisters, or by the daughters of

Vivasvat (the rising sun), the ten fingers are meant.

The stones used in pounding the shoots on a skin

" chew him on the hide of a cow." The flowing of the

juice into jars or vats after passing through the filter

of sheep's wool is described in various ways. The

98 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

streams of soma rush to the forest of the vats like

buffaloes. The god flies like a bird to settle in the vats.

The Tawny One settles in the bowls like a bird sitting

on a tree. The juice being mixed with water in the

vat, Soma is said to rush into the lap of the waters like

a roaring bull on the herd. Clothing himself in waters,

he rushes around the vat, impelled by the singers.

Playing in the wood, he is cleansed by the ten maidens.

He is the embryo or child of waters, which are called

his mothers. When the priests add milk to soma "

they

clothe him in cow-garments."

The sound made by the soma juice flowing into

the vats or bowls is often referred to in hyperbolical

language. Thus a poet says that "the sweet drop flows

over the filter like the din of combatants." This sound

is constantly described as roaring, bellowing, or occasionally

even thundering. In such passages Soma is

commonly compared with or called a bull, and the

waters, with or without milk, are termed cows.

Owing to the yellow colour of the juice, the physical

quality of Soma mainly dwelt upon by the poets is his

brilliance. His rays are often referred to, and he is

frequently assimilated to the sun.

The exhilarating and invigorating action of soma

led to its being regarded as a divine drink that bestows

everlasting life. Hence it is called amrita, the "immortal"

draught (allied to the Greek ambrosia). Soma is

the stimulant which conferred immortality upon the

gods. Soma also places his worshipper in the imperishable

world where there is eternal light and glory,

making him immortal where King Yama dwells. Thus

soma naturally has medicinal power also. It is medicine

for a sick man, and the god Soma heals whatSOMA

99

ever is sick, making the blind to see and the lame to

walk.

Soma when imbibed stimulates the voice, which it

impels as the rower his boat. Soma also awakens eager

thought, and the worshippers of the god exclaim,

" We

have drunk soma, we have become immortal, we have

entered into light, we have known the gods." The intoxicating

power of soma is chiefly, and very frequently,

dwelt on in connection with Indra, whom it stimulates

in his conflict with the hostile demons of the air.

Being the most important of herbs, soma is spoken

of as lord of plants or their king, receiving also the

epithet vanaspati,

" lord of the forest."

Soma is several times described as dwelling or growing

on the mountains, in accordance with the statements

of the Avesta about Haoma. Its true origin and abode

is regarded as heaven, whence it has been brought down

to earth. This belief is most frequently embodied in the

myth of the soma-bringing eagle {gyena), which is probably

only the mythological account of the simple

phenomenon of the descent of lightning and the simultaneous

fall of rain.

In some of the latest hymns of the Rigveda Soma

begins to be somewhat obscurely identified with the

moon. In the Atharva-veda Soma several times means

the moon, and in the Yajurveda Soma is spoken of as

having the lunar mansions for his wives. The identification

is a commonplace in the Brahmanas, which explain

the waning of the moon as due to the gods and fathers

eating up the ambrosia of which it consists. In one of

the Upanishads, moreover, the statement occurs that the

moon is King Soma, the food of the gods, and is drunk

up by them. Finally, in post-Vedic literature Soma is

ioo SANSKRIT LITERATURE

a regular name of the moon, which is regarded as being

consumed by the gods, and consequently waning till it

is filled up again by the sun. This somewhat remarkable

coalescence of Soma with the moon doubtless

sprang from the hyperbolical terms in which the poets

of the Rigveda dwell on Soma's celestial nature and

brilliance, which they describe as dispelling darkness.

They sometimes speak of it as swelling in the waters,

and often refer to the sap as a "drop" (indu). Comparisons

with the moon would thus easily suggest themselves.

In one passage of the Rigveda, for instance,

Soma in the bowls is said to appear like the moon in the

waters. The mystical speculations with which the Soma

poetry teems would soon complete the symbolism.

A comparison of the Avesta with the Rigveda shows

clearly that soma was already an important feature ixi

the mythology and cult of the Indo-Iranian age. In

both it is described as growing on the mountains,

whence it is brought by birds ; in both it is king of

plants ; in both a medicine bestowing long life and removing

death. In both the sap was pressed and mixed

with milk ; in both its mythical home is heaven, whence

it comes down to earth ; in both the draught has become

a mighty god ; in both the celestial Soma is distinguished

from the terrestrial, the god from the beverage.

The similarity goes so far that Soma and Haoma have

even some individual epithets in common.

The evolution of thought in the Rigvedic period

shows a tendency to advance from the concrete to the

abstract. One result of this tendency is the creation of

abstract deities, which, however, are still rare, occurring

for the most part in the last book only. A few of them

are deifications of abstract nouns, such as raddha

ABSTRACT DEITIES 101

"Faith," invoked in one short hymn, and Manyu, "Wrath,"

in two. These abstractions grow more numerous in the

later Vedas. Thus Kama, "

Desire," first appears in the

Atharva-veda, where the arrows with which he pierces

hearts are already referred to ; he is the forerunner of

the flower-arrowed god of love, familiar in classical

literature. More numerous is the class of abstractions

comprising deities whose names denote an agent, such as

Dhatriy "Creator," or an attribute, such as Prajapati,

" Lord of Creatures." These do not appear to be direct

abstractions, but seem to be derived from epithets designating

a particular aspect of activity or character,

which at first applying to one or more of the older

deities, finally acquired an independent value. Thus

Prajdpati, originally an epithet of such gods as Savitri

and Soma, occurs in a late verse of the last book as a

distinct deity possessing the attribute of a creator. This

god is in the Atharva-veda and the Vdjasaneyi-Samhitd

often, and in the Brahmanas regularly, recognised as the

chief deity, the father of the gods. In the Sutras, Prajapati

is identified with Brahma, his successor in the post-

Vedic age.

A hymn of the tenth book furnishes an interesting

illustration of the curious way in which such abstractions

sometimes come into being. Here is one of the

stanzas :

By whom the mighty sky, the earth so steadfast.

The realm of light, heaveris vault, has been established,

Who in the air the boundless space traverses :

What god should we with sacrifices worship ?

The fourth line here is the refrain of nine successive

stanzas, in which the creator is referred to as unknown,

with the interrogative pronoun ka,

" what ?

"

This ka in

102 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

the later Vedic literature came to be employed not only

as an epithet of the creator Prajapati, but even as an

independent name of the supreme god.

A deity of an abstract character occurring in the

oldest as well as the latest parts of the Rigveda is

Brihaspati,

" Lord of Prayer." Roth and other distinguished

Vedic scholars regard him as a direct personification

of devotion. In the opinion of the present

writer, however, he is only an indirect deification of the

sacrificial activity of Agni, a god with whom he has

undoubtedly much in common. Thus the most prominent

feature of his character is his priesthood. Like

Agni, he has been drawn into and has obtained a firm

footing in the Indra myth. Thus he is often described

as driving out the cows after vanquishing the demon

Vala. As the divine brahmd priest, Brihaspati seems

to have been the prototype of the god Brahma, chief

of the later Hindu trinity. But the name Brihaspati

itself survived in post-Vedic mythology as the designation

of a sage, the teacher of the gods, and regent

of the planet Jupiter.

Another abstraction, and one of a very peculiar

kind, is the goddess Aditi. Though not the subject of

any separate hymn, she is often incidentally celebrated.

She has two, and only two, prominent characteristics.

She is, in the first place, the mother of the small group

of gods called Adityas, of whom Varuna is the chief.

Secondly, she has, like her son Varuna, the power of

releasing from the bonds of physical suffering and

moral guilt. With the latter trait her name, which

means "unbinding,"

"

freedom," is clearly connected.

The unpersonified sense seems to survive in a few

passages of the Rigveda. Thus a poet prays for the

GODDESSES 103

"secure and unlimited gift of aditi." The origin of

the abstraction is probably to be explained as follows.

The expression "sons of Aditi," which is several times

applied to the Adityas, when first used in all likelihood

meant " sons of liberation," to emphasise a salient trait

of their character, according to a turn of language

common in the Rigveda. The feminine word "liberation

"

{aditi) used in this connection would then have

become personified by a process which has more than

one parallel in Sanskrit. Thus Aditi, a goddess of

Indian origin, is historically younger than some at least

of her sons, who can be traced back to a pre-Indian

age.

Goddesses, as a whole, occupy a very subordinate

position in Vedic belief. They play hardly any part

as rulers of the world. The only one of any consequence

is Ushas. The next in importance, SarasvatI,

ranks only with the least prominent of the male gods.

One of the few, besides Prithivl, to whom an entire

hymn is addressed, is Ratrl, Night. Like her sister

Dawn, with whom she is often coupled, she is addressed

as a daughter of the sky. She is conceived

not as the dark, but as the bright starlit night. Thus,

in contrasting the twin goddesses, a poet says, "One

decks herself with stars, with sunlight the other." The

following stanzas are from the hymn addressed to Night

(x. 127) :

Night coming on, the goddess shines

In many places with her eyes :

All-glorious she has decked herself.

Immortal goddess, far and wide

Shefills the valleys and the heights ;

Darkness with light she overcomes.

8

IQ4 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

And now the goddess coming on

Has driven away her sister Dawn ;

Far offthe darkness hastes away.

Thus, goddess, come to us to-day,

At whose approach we seek our homes,

As birds tipon the tree their nest.

The villagers have gone to rest,

Beasts, too, withfeet and birds with wings;

The hungry hawk himself is still.

Ward offthe she-wolf and the wolf

Ward off the robber, goddess Night :

And take us safe across the gloom.

Goddesses, as wives of the great gods, play a still

more insignificant part, being entirely devoid of independent

character. Indeed, hardly anything about

them is mentioned but their names, which are simply

formed from those of their male consorts by means of

feminine suffixes.

A peculiar feature of Vedic mythology is the invocation

in couples of a number of deities whose names

are combined in the form of dual compounds. About

a dozen such pairs are celebrated in entire hymns,

and some half-dozen others in detached stanzas. By far

the greatest number of such hymns is addressed to

Mitra-Varuna, but the names most often found combined

in this way are those of Heaven and Earth {Dydvdprithivt).

There can be little doubt that the latter

couple furnished the analogy for this favourite formation.

For the association of this pair, traceable as far

back as the Indo-European period, appeared to early

thought so intimate in nature, that the myth of their

conjugal union is found widely diffused among primitive

peoples.

GROUPS OF GODS 105

Besides these pairs of deities there is a certain

number of more or less definite groups of divine

beings generally associated with some particular

god. The largest and most important of these are the

Maruts or Storm-gods, who, as we have seen, constantly

attend Indra on his warlike exploits. The same

group, under the name of Rudras, is occasionally associated

with their father Rudra. The smaller group of

the Adityas is constantly mentioned in company with

their mother Aditi, or their chief Varuna. Their number

in two passages of the Rigveda is stated as seven

or eight, while in the Brahmanas and later it is regularly

twelve. Some eight or ten hymns of the Rigveda are

addressed to them collectively. The following lines

are taken from one (viii. 47) in which their aid and

protection is specially invoked :

As birds extend their sheltering wings,

Spreadyourprotectioii over us.

As charioteers avoid ill roads,

May dangers always pass us by.

Resting in you, O gods, we are

Like men thatjight in coats of mail.

Look down on us, O Adityas,

Like spies observingfrom the bank :

Lead us to paths ofpleasantness,

Like horses to an easyford.

A third and much less important group is that of the

Vasus, mostly associated with Indra in the Rigveda,

though in later Vedic texts Agni becomes their leader.

They are a vague group, for they are not characterised,

having neither individual names nor any definite

number. The Brahmanas, however, mention eight of

106 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

them. Finally, there are the Vicvedevas or All-gods, to

whom some sixty hymns are addressed. It is a factitious

sacrificial group meant to embrace the whole pantheon

in order that none should be excluded in invocations

intended to be addressed to all. Strange to say, the

All-gods are sometimes conceived as a narrower group,

which is invoked with others like the Vasus and Adityas.

Besides the' higher gods the Rigveda knows a number

of mythical beings not regarded as possessing the divine

nature to the full extent and from the beginning. The

most important of these are the Ribhus who form a

triad, and are addressed in eleven hymns. Characteristically

deft-handed, they are often said to have acquired

the rank of deities by their marvellous skill. Among the

five great feats of dexterity whereby they became gods,

the greatest in which they appear as successful rivals of

Tvashtri, the artificer god consists in their having transformed

his bowl, the drinking vessel of the gods, into

four shining cups. This bowl perhaps represents the

moon, the four cups being its phases. It has also been

interpreted as the year with its division into seasons.

The Ribhus are further said to have renewed the youth of

their parents, by whom Heaven and Earth seem to have

been meant. With this miraculous deed another myth

told about them appears to be specially connected.

They rested for twelve days in the house of the sun,

Agohya ("who cannot be concealed"). This sojourn of

the Ribhus in the house of the sun in all probability

alludes to the winter solstice, the twelve days being the

addition which was necessary to bring the lunar year of

354 into harmony with the solar year of nearly 366

days, and was intercalated before the days begin to grow

perceptibly longer. On the whole, it seems likely that

APSARAS AND GANDHARVA 107

the Ribhus were originally terrestrial or aerial elves,

whose dexterity gradually attracted to them various

myths illustrative of marvellous skill.

In a few passages of the Rigveda mention is made of

a celestial water-nymph called Apsaras (" moving in the

waters "), who is regarded as the spouse of a corresponding

male genius called Gandharva. The Apsaras, in the

words of the poet, smiles at her beloved in the highest

heaven. More Apsarases than one are occasionally

spoken of. Their abode is in the later Vedas extended

to the earth, where they especially frequent trees, which

resound with the music of their lutes and cymbals. The

Brahmanas describe them as distinguished by great

beauty and devoted to dance, song, and play. In the

post-Vedic period they become the courtesans of Indra's

heaven. The Apsarases are loved not only by the

Gandharvas but occasionally even by men. Such an one

was UrvacJ. A dialogue between her and her earthly

spouse, Pururavas, is contained in a somewhat obscure

hymn of the Rigveda (x. 95). The nymph is here made

to say :

Among mortals in otherform I wandered,

And dweltfor many nights throughoutfour autumns.

Her lover implores her to return ; but, though his request

is refused, he (like Tithonus) receives the promise of

immortality. The ^atapatha Brdhmana tells the story in

a more connected and detailed form. UrvagI is joined

with Pururavas in an alliance, the permanence of which

depends on a condition. When this is broken by a

stratagem of the Gandharvas, the nymph immediately

vanishes from the sight of her lover. Pururavas, distracted,

roams in search of her, till at last he observes

108 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

her swimming in a lotus lake with other Apsarases in the

form of an aquatic bird. UrvacI discovers herself to

him, and in response to his entreaties, consents to return

for once after the lapse of a year. This myth in the

post-Vedic age furnished the theme of Kalidasa's play

Vikramorvaci.

Gandharva appears to have been conceived originally

as a single being. For in the Rigveda the name nearly

^ always occurs in the singular, and in the Avesta, where

it is found a few times in the form of Gandarewa, only

in the singular. According to the Rigveda, this genius,

the lover of the water-nymph, dwells in the fathomless

spaces of air, and stands erect on the vault of

heaven. He is also a guardian of the celestial soma,

and is sometimes, as in the Avesta, connected with the

waters. In the later Vedas the Gandharvas form a class,

their association with the Apsarases being so frequent as

to amount to a stereotyped phrase. In the post-Vedic

age they have become celestial singers, and the notion of

their home being in the realm of air survives in the

expression "City of the Gandharvas" as one of the

Sanskrit names for "mirage."

Among the numerous ancient priests and heroes of

the Rigveda the most important is Manu, the first sacrificer

and the ancestor of the human race. The poets

refer to him as " our father," and speak of sacrificers as

" the people of Manu." The ^atapatha Brahinana makes

Manu play the part of a Noah in the history of human

descent.

A group of ancient priests are the Angirases, who are

closely associated with Indra in the myth of the capture

of the cows. Another ancient race of mythical priests are

the Bhrigus, to whom the Indian Prometheus, Mataricvan,

MYTHOLOGICAL ANIMALS 109

brought the hidden Agni from heaven, and whose function

was the establishment and diffusion of the sacrificial

fire on earth.

A numerically definite group of ancestral priests,

rarely mentioned in the Rigveda, are the seven Rishis or

seers. In the Brahmanas they came to be regarded as

the seven stars in the constellation of the Great Bear,

and are said to have been bears in the beginning. This

curious identification was doubtless brought about partly

by the sameness of the number in the two cases, and

partly by the similarity of sound between rishi,

u

seer,"

and riksha, which in the Rigveda means both "star"

and " bear."

Animals play a considerable part in the mythological

and religious conceptions of the Veda. Among them

the horse is conspicuous as drawing the cars of the gods,

and in particular as representing the sun under various

names. In the Vedic ritual the horse was regarded as

symbolical of the sun and of fire. Two hymns of the

Rigveda (i. 162-163) which deal with the subject, further

show that horse-sacrifice was practised in the earliest age

of Indian antiquity.

The cow, however, is the animal which figures most

largely in the Rigveda. This is undoubtedly due to the

important position, resulting from its pre-eminent utility,

occupied by this animal even in the remotest period of

Indian life. The beams of dawn and the clouds are

cows. The rain-cloud, personified under the name of

Pricni,

" the speckled one," is a cow, the mother of the

Storm-gods. The bountiful clouds on which all wealth

in India depended, were doubtless the prototypes of the

many-coloured cows which yield all desires in the heaven

of the blest described by the Atharva-veda, and which are

no SANSKRIT LITERATURE

the forerunners of the " Cow of Plenty

"

(Kdmaduh) so

familiar to post-Vedic poetry. The earth itself is often

spoken of by the poets of the Rigveda as a cow. That

this animal already possessed a sacred character is shown

by the fact that one Rishi addresses a cow as Aditi and

a goddess, impressing upon his hearers that she should

not be slain. Aghnya ("not to be killed"), a frequent

designation of the cow in the Rigveda, points in the

same direction. ' Indeed the evidence of the Avesta

proves that the sanctity of this animal goes back even

to the Indo-Iranian period. In the Atharva-veda the

worship of the cow is fully recognised, while the atapatha

Brdhmana emphasises the evil consequences of

eating beef. The sanctity of the cow has not only survived

in India down to the present day, but has even

gathered strength with the lapse of time. The part

played by the greased cartridges in the Indian Mutiny

is sufficient to prove this statement. To no other animal

has mankind owed so much, and the debt has been richly

repaid in India with a veneration unknown in other

lands. So important a factor has the cow proved in

Indian life and thought, that an exhaustive account of

her influence from the earliest times would form a noteworthy

chapter in the history of civilisation.

Among the noxious animals of the Rigveda the serpent

is the most prominent. This is the form which

the powerful demon, the foe of Indra, is believed to

possess. The serpent also appears as a divine being

in the form of the rarely mentioned Ahi budhnya, "the

Dragon of the Deep," supposed to dwell in the fathomless

depths of the aerial ocean, and probably representing

the beneficent side of the character of the serpent

Vritra. In the later Vedas the serpents are mentioned

SERPENT-WORSHIP DEIFIED PLANTS lit

as a class of semi-divine beings along witli the Gandharvas

and others ; and in the Sutras offerings to them

are prescribed. In the latter works we meet for the first

time with the Nagas, in reality serpents, and human only

in form. In post-Vedic times serpent-worship is found

all over India. Since there is no trace of it in the Rigveda,

while it prevails widely among the non-Aryan Indians,

there is reason to believe that when the Aryans spread

over India, the land of serpents, they found the cult diffused

among the aborigines and borrowed it from them.

Plants are frequently invoked as divinities, chiefly

in enumerations along with waters, rivers, mountains,

heaven, and earth. One entire hymn (x. 97) is, however,

devoted to the praise of plants ipshadhi) alone,

mainly with regard to their healing powers. Later Vedic

texts mention offerings made to plants and the adoration

paid to large trees passed in marriage processions. One

hymn of the Rigveda (x. 146) celebrates the forest as a

whole, personified as AranyanI, the mocking genius of

the woods. The weird sights and sounds of the gloaming

are here described with a fine perception of nature.

In the dark solitudes of the jungle

Sounds as ofgrazing cows are heard,

A dwelling-house appears to loom,

And AranyanI, Forest-nymph,

Creaks like a cart at eventide.

Here some one calls his cow to himt

Another there isfelling wood;

Who tarries in theforest-glade

7 hinks to hwiself,

" / heard a cry."

Never does Aranyani hurt

Unless one goes too near to her :

When she has eaten ofsweetfruit

At her own will she goes to rest.

H2 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

Sweet-scented, redolent of balm,

Replete withfood, yet tilli?ig not,

Mother of beasts, the Forest-nymph,

Her I have magnified with praise.

On the whole, however, the part played by plant,

tree, and forest deities is a very insignificant one in the

Rigveda.

A strange religious feature pointing to a remote

antiquity is the occasional deification and worship even

of objects fashioned by the hand of man, when regarded

as useful to him. These are chiefly sacrificial implements.

Thus in one hymn (iii. 8) the sacrificial post

(called "lord of the forest") is invoked, while three

hymns of the tenth book celebrate the pressing stones

used in preparing soma. The plough is invoked in a

few stanzas ; and an entire hymn (vi. 75) is devoted to

the praise of various implements of war, while one in

the Atharva-veda (v. 20) glorifies the drum.

The demons so frequently mentioned in the Rigveda

are of two classes. The one consists of the aerial

adversaries of the gods. The older view is that of a

conflict waged between a single god and a single demon.

This gradually developed into the notion of the gods

and the demons in general being arrayed against each

other as two opposing hosts. The Brahmanas regularly

represent the antagonism thus. Asura is the ordinary

name of the aerial foes of the gods. This word has a

remarkable history. In the Rigveda it is predominantly

a designation of the gods, and in the Avesta it denotes,

in the form of Ahura, the highest god of Zoroastrianism.

In the later parts of the Rigveda, however, asura, when

used by itself, also signifies

u demon," and this is its only

sense in the Atharva-veda. A somewhat unsuccessful

DEMONS 113

attempt has been made to explain how a word signifying

"

god" came to mean "

devil," as the result of national

conflicts, the Asuras or gods of extra-Vedic tribes becoming

demons to the Vedic Indian, just as the devas or

gods of the Veda are demons in the Avesta. There is

no traditional evidence in support of this view, and it is

opposed by the fact that to the Rigvedic Indian asura

not only in general meant a divine being, but was

especially appropriate to Varuna, the most exalted of

the gods. The word must therefore have changed its

meaning in course of time within the Veda itself. Here

it seems from the beginning to have had the sense of

"possessor of occult power," and hence to have been

potentially applicable to hostile beings. Thus in one

hymn of the Rigveda (x. 124) both senses seem to occur.

Towards the end of the Rigvedic period the application

of the word to the gods began to fall into abeyance.

This tendency was in all likelihood accelerated by the

need of a word denoting the hostile demoniac powers

generally, as well as by an incipient popular etymology,

which saw a negative {a-surd) in the word and led to

the invention of sura, "god," a term first found in the

Upanishads.

A group of aerial demons, primarily foes of Indra, are

the Panis. The proper meaning of the word is "niggard,"

especially in regard to sacrificial gifts. From this signification

it developed the mythological sense of demons

resembling those originally conceived as withholding the

treasures of heaven. vJThe term dasa or dasyu, properly

the designation of the dark aborigines of India contrasted

with their fair Aryan conquerors, is frequently used in

the sense of demons or fiends.

By far the most conspicuous of the individual aerial

ii 4 SANSKRIT LITERATURE

demons of the Rigveda, is Vritra, who has the form of

a serpent, and whose name means "

encompasser."

Another demon mentioned with some frequency is

Vala, the personification of the mythical cave in

which the celestial cows are confined. In post-Vedic

literature these two demons are frequently mentioned

together and are regarded as brothers slain by Indra.

The most often named among the remaining adversaries

of Indra is Cushna, the "hisser" or "scorcher." A

rarely-mentioned demon is Svarbhanu, who is described

as eclipsing the sun with darkness. His successor in

Sanskrit literature was Rahu, regarded as causing eclipses

by swallowing the sun or moon.

The second class of demons consists of goblins

supposed to infest the earth, enemies of mankind as

the Asuras are of the gods. By far the most common

generic name for this class is Rakshas. They are

hardly ever mentioned except in connection with some

god who is invoked to destroy or is praised for having

destroyed them. These goblins are conceived as having

the shapes of various animals as well as of men.

Their appearance is more fully described by the Atharvaveda,

in which they are also spoken of as deformed

or as being blue, yellow, or green in colour. According

to the Rigveda they are fond of the flesh of men and

horses, whom they attack by entering into them in order

to satisfy their greed. They are supposed to prowl

about at night and to make the sacrifice the special

object of their attacks. The belief that the Rakshases

actively interfere with the performance of sacrificial rites

remains familiar in the post-Vedic period. A species of

goblin scarcely referred to in the Rigveda, but often

mentioned in the later Vedas, are the Picachas, described

DEMONS 115

as devouring corpses and closely connected with the

dead.

Few references to death and the future life are to

be found in the hymns of the Rigveda, as the optimistic

and active Vedic Indian, unlike his descendants in later

centuries, seems to have given little thought to the other

world. Most of the information to be gained about their

views of the next life are to be found in the funeral

hymns of the last book. The belief here expressed is

that fire or the grave destroys the body only, while the

real personality of the deceased is imperishable. The

soul is thought to be separable from the body, not only

after death, but even during unconsciousness (x. 58).

There is no indication here, or even in the later Vedas,

of the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, though it

was already firmly established in the sixth century B.C.

when Buddhism arose. One passage of the Rigveda,

however, in which the soul is spoken of as departing

to the waters or the plants, may contain the germs of the

theory.

Om Tat Sat

                                                        

(Continued...) 

(My humble salutations to  Brahmsree Sreeman  Arthur A. Macdonell  and also my humble greatulness to  great Devotees , Philosophic Scholars  for the collection)