[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Religion and philosophy](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion) › [The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads)](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.bloomfield-1908) › c7.32 # The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c7.32 The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c7.32 - **Language:** English ### [c7.32](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.bloomfield-1908.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 - [Previous: c7.31](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.bloomfield-1908.c7.31) - [Next: c7.33](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.bloomfield-1908.c7.33) - [Up: c7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.bloomfield-1908.c7) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.bloomfield-1908.c7.32](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.bloomfield-1908.c7.32) · Pramāṇa