The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c9.53

c9.53

The Parsis, it is true, have not mistaken the dog, but still as regards complexion, they have represented their dogs as possessing the colour which in the Rigveda is given to the antelope of the sun. Another objection that may be urged against this identification is that we are required to suppose Mṛigashiras to be once the head of Prajâpati, and at another time that of Vṛitra. It must, however, be remembered that we do so on the express authority of the Rigveda, and that besides it is quite natural to suppose that once the antelope's head was said to exist in the heavens, Vedic poets vied with each other in weaving legends out of it. As an illustration I refer to Rig. x. 86. 5, where the poet describes Vṛishâkapi's head as cut off, but so on after Vṛishakapi is told that it was an illusion, and that in reality it was some one else whose head was so severed (verse 18). This clearly shows that it was a period when legends were still being formed out of the "antelope's head."