The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c17.173

v1.c17.173

As we have already seen, the tradition makes kings take part in the discussions which marked the formation of the doctrine of the absolute, and even hints that the doctrine was in some way a special tenet of the ruling class; but it is doubtful if we can accord full credit to this tradition, or believe that the *brahman* doctrine was the reaction of the noble class against the excessive devotion of the priests to the ritual¹. Policy adequately explains the part assigned to them by the Brāhmans, whose aim it was to make their patrons appreciate that their researches were such as to deserve support. Parallel with the development of philosophy there was proceeding the movement which leads to the religions of modern India, the exaltation of Rudra and in a minor degree of Vishṇu to the position of a great god. Prajāpati is indeed the main subject of the theosophical speculation of the Brāhmaṇa texts, a purpose to which his name as 'lord of creatures' especially lent itself; but Prajāpati had no claims to be a god of the people, and the position of Rudra as a popular deity is sufficiently shown by the litanies to him in the Saṃhitās of the Yajurveda, and by the whole outlook of such texts as the Aitareya, Kaushītaki, and Çatapatha Brāhmaṇas. When Prajāpati committed incest with his daughter, the Aitareya tells us that the gods were wroth, and from their most dread forms produced the god Bhūtapati, ‘lord of creatures,’ who represents one aspect of Rudra’s activities. He pierced Prajāpati and thereby acquired his dominion over all cattle. In another passage the wording of a Rigvedic verse is altered to avoid the mention of Rudra’s dread name: in yet another he appears at the sacrifice in black raiment and appropriates to himself the sacrificial victim. We need not suppose that in this presentation the Brāhmaṇas were creating a new figure: rather they were adapting to their system, as far as they could, a great god of the people. But the Rudra of this period can hardly be regarded as a mere development of the Rudra of the Rigveda: it seems most probable that with the Vedic Rudra is amalgamated an aboriginal god of vegetation, closely connected with pastoral life.