Elements of Hindu Iconography v4.c34.2

v4.c34.2

THE twin-gods, the Aśvini-dēvatās, were playing an important part in the Vēdic period. Yāska says in his *Nirukta* that these gods Aśvins were so-called because they pervaded everything (*vyaśnuvātē*), one of them with moisture and the other with light; but Aurṇavabha derives the name from *aśva*, a horse. Who these gods were the commentators of the Vēdas themselves are not able to answer; some say these were personifications of heaven and earth; others of day and night and yet others, the sun and moon. Prof. Roth thinks that they represent Indra and Āditya and that they are the harbingers of the Dawn to usher whose existence they hurry on in their chariot. In the *Ṛigvēda* they are said to be the sons of Vivasvat and Śaraṇyū in one place, of the sky in another and of the ocean in a third. The *Taittirīya-samhitā* calls them the youngest of the gods and the brothers of Ushas. They are also associated with Sūryā, the daughter of the sun, and are held to be young, beautiful, bright and agile and as wearing lotus garlands; they were possessed of wonderful therapeutic power and are said to have helped many with this power of theirs. We have already seen that they restored the head of Yajña-Nārāyaṇa which was accidentally severed. They are described as always riding in a chariot drawn by fleet horses. Nothing very definite about these gods or their position in the Vēdic mythology is known and yet it is a well-known fact that they are very often invoked in the Vēdic literature.