Vedic Metre in its Historical Development c17.s2.6

c17.s2.6

Two other groups of deities are prominent in the earlier parts of the Rigveda, the Aśvinā and the Marutaḥ. Both appear capable of naturalistic interpretations; the Aśvinā as representing some phenomenon of the sky, by which they come to be associated with the ‘Chaldaean’ deities; the Marutaḥ as representing the storm-clouds, which as they sweep furiously over the earth may be compared to or associated with the devastating onset of Indra. In a subordinate position we may notice especially Uṣas the Dawn, and Pūṣan the rustic deity of the field path-ways. In these religious conceptions there is a striking lack of coordination, and we can only think of them as fragments of some earlier system or systems of deities, to which we are hardly likely to find the clue unless it be in the history of other Indo-European peoples. The chief deity of the Indo-Europeans, Ζεύς or Jove, is honoured in the Rigveda by no hymn, but his name Dyaus is still held in respect, and at times he seems to exercise a shadowy sovereignty. Failing fuller knowledge, we may reasonably speak of all the deities mentioned in this section as Indo-European, and we may largely interpret this Indo-European system as a deification of natural phenomena. Amongst these phenomena, however, the daily course of the sun occupies a position of very subordinate importance.