The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c11.33

c11.33

of Erikapaeos, an Orphic name of Protogonos and synonymous with Phanes, Helios, Priapos, Dionysos," but, says he, "the original conception of Vrishâkapi (Vrishan, bull, irrigator; Kapi, ape, tremulous) is not much clearer than that of Erikapaeos." However, if the comparison be correct, we may, I think, take it as confirming the identification of Vrishâkapi with the sun proposed by several scholars, native and European. In fact, there seems to be a general agreement that Vrishâkapi represents the sun in one form or the other. But this alone does not account for all the incidents recorded in the hymn. I would, therefore, further suggest that Vrishâkapi be understood as representing the sun at the autumnal equinox, when he may be rightly said to shake off the rains, inasmuch as the equinox falls at the end of the rainy season. I have previously shown that the conception of Vishnu and Shiva can be traced to the Vedic Vishnu and Rudra, and these latter may be taken as the types or the embodiments of the mild and terrible aspects of nature at the vernal and the autumnal equinox. If Vrishâkapi in later mythology has therefore come to denote Vishnu and Shiva, according to Amara, the meanings are consistent with the supposition that in the Vedas Vrishâkapi represents the sun at the equinoxes. In the hymn itself, Vrishâkapi is said to have assumed the form of a yellow antelope whose head Indrânî is described to have cut off. This circumstance serves to guide us in at once fixing the position of Vrishâkapi in the heavens. It is the same antelope's head that has given rise to so many myths. When the position of Vrishâkapi is thus fixed, it would not be difficult to understand the various incidents described in the hymn. But without further anticipating what I have to say in the explanation of the hymn, I now proceed to examine the hymn itself. We shall then see whether the assumption which we have made regarding the character and attributes of Vrishâkapi gives us a simple, natural, and above all, intelligible explanation of the story given in the hymn, which, as explained at present, is nothing but a bundle of disconnected, if not mutually inconsistent, statements. I shall first quote the original hymn.