The History of Indian Literature c8.71

c8.71

The former, the mythological relations, represented in the older hymns of the Rik, in part carry us back to the primitive Indo-Germanic time. They contain relics of the childlike and naïve conceptions then prevailing, such as may also be traced among the Teutons and Greeks. So, for instance, the idea of the change of the departed spirit into air, which is conducted by the winged wind, as by a faithful dog, to its place of destination, as is shown by the identity of Sárameya and Ἑρμείας,[^asterisk] of Śabala and Κέρβερος.dagger Further, the idea of the celestial sea, Varuṇa, Οὐρανός, encompassing the world; of the Father-Heaven, Dyaushpitar, Ζεύς, Diespiter; of the Mother-Earth, Δημήτηρ; of the waters of the sky as shining nymphs; of the sun's rays as cows at pasture; of the dark cloud-god as the robber who carries off these maidens and cows; and of the mighty god who wields the lightning and thunderbolt, and who chastises and strikes down the ravisher; and other such notions.[^double-dagger] Only the faintest outlines of this comparative mythology are as yet discernible; it will unquestionably, however, by degrees claim and obtain, in relation to classical mythology, a position exactly analogous to that which has already, in fact, been secured by comparative Indo-Germanic grammar in relation to classical grammar. The ground on which that mythology has hitherto stood trembles beneath it, and the new light about to be shed upon it we owe to the hymns of the Rigveda, which enable us to glance, as it were, into the workshop whence it originally proceeded.[^section]