The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c7.30

Language: English

c7.30

I am reminded here of the tense struggle in which my friend the late Professor Max Müller was engaged with an epithet of Ushas, quite startling, I admit, at first sight. The same beautiful Daughter of Heaven, in another hymn, is called Dakshinā. Now the word *dakshiṇā* means “sacrificial fee,” or, in plainer words, it is the baksheesh of the priests at the sacrifice. But it did not seem tolerable to Müller’s poetic mind that a poet might degrade so charming a theme by such a comparison:

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