Prehistoric India to 1000 B.C. c14.108

c14.108

The religious beliefs of the Aryans have been the subject of a literature of their own, and this complex study lies beyond the scope of this book. We have noted in passing the anthropomorphic gods Indra, Rudra, the Aṣvins, and the Maruts; the Indo-European sky god, Dyaus-pitar, holds a less important place in the *Rigveda*, as do Mitra and Varuna. The sun-god Surya and the dawn-goddess Uśas are personifications of natural phenomena, just as Agni is that of fire, or Soma, the deified intoxicating juice of the unknown plant on which the gods carouse and on which so much of Vedic ritual centres. The relationship of the Aryan peoples to their gods is that of a frank expectation of favours if the right sacrifices are performed and the correct words chanted, and Keith rather cynically pictures the priests saying, unashamed, to Indra, ‘We have our wishes; you have gifts; here are we with our songs’ and expecting ‘that the god will see that the exchange is fair’.