The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c7.32

c7.32

The word which I have just rendered by “liberal goddess” (*maghonī*) is the very one that is used constantly and technically for the patron of the sacrifice (*maghavan*), the immediate source from which flow all the fees of the sacrifice. In its feminine form (*maghonī*) it is used almost solely as an epithet of Dawn. Here it is, cheek by jowl with *dakshiṇā*. Ushas is the patroness of the sacrifice; she is herself the sacrifice fee, *because she heralds or ushers in the sacrificial day*¹ after the darkness of the night, when both liberal and stingy are asleep. If I could get myself to suspect one of these ancient Rishis of humor, I should say that there was a touch of humor—anyhow it is unconscious humor—in the following appeal to Ushas: "Arouse, O Ushas, liberal goddess, them that give; the niggards shall sleep unawakened!"¹ That is to say, what is the use of waking the stingy man, he is not going to give us anything anyhow. Another stanza states this even more emphatically: "O shining Dawns, ye liberal goddesses, do ye to-day suggest to the rich that they shall give bounty! Let the stingy, unawakened, sleep in the depths of obscure darkness!²