A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, so far as it illustrates the Primitive Religion of the Brahmans c10.13

c10.13

Eight out of the ten Maṇḍalas begin with hymns addressed to Agni, and these hymns, with the exception of the tenth Maṇḍala, are invariably followed by hymns addressed to Indra.¹ After the hymns addressed to these two deities we generally meet with hymns addressed to the Viśve Devâḥ. This cannot be the result of mere accident, nor is there anything in the character of the two gods, Agni and Indra, which would necessitate such an arrangement. Agni is indeed called the lowest of the gods, but this neither implies his inferiority nor his superiority.¹ It simply means that Agni, as the god of fire on the hearth, is the nearest god, who descends from his high station to befriend men, and who, in the form of the sacrificial fire, becomes the messenger and mediator between god and men.² This would not be sufficient to account for the place assigned to him at the beginning of eight out of the ten Maṇḍalas of the Rig-veda. Indra, again, is certainly the most powerful of the Vedic gods³, but he never enjoys that supremacy which in Greece and Rome was allowed to Zeus and Jupiter. We can hardly doubt, therefore, that the place allowed to hymns addressed to Agni and Indra, at the beginning