The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c7.44

c7.44

I think my hearers will understand that it is not necessary to regard the word *dakshiṇā*, with Professor Max Müller, as a vague honorific adjective of Dawn, in the sense of "clever," or the like.² Nor need we in this instance to go to the school of the late great French interpreter of the Rig-Veda, Abel Bergaigne, who, in a fashion quite his own, transports too many of the events in the earthly life of the Vedic Hindu to heaven. He sees clearly enough that *dakshiṇā* means “sacrifice fee,” and nothing else, but opines that Dawn is called *dakshiṇā* because she is the gift of heaven bestowed upon pious men as a recompense for their piety.¹ This is all too roundabout, and unnecessary, and un-Vedic. Still less can we assent to the statement of another very sane and enlightened critic of the Vedas, Professor Oldenberg, who declares that “the hymns to Dawn waft to us the poetry of the early morn; that they steer clear of the mystic sophistries of sacrifice technique; and that they have a charm that is wanting in the sacrificial hymns proper.”² Professor Oldenberg takes the usual view of this interesting goddess. I would advocate precisely the opposite view, namely, that the hymns to Dawn, their many intrinsic beauties to the contrary notwithstanding, represent the first, the keenest, so to speak, the least tired sacrificial mood of these poet-priests as they enter upon the absorbing business of the day; and that never has the battledoor and shuttlecock of really fine poetic inspiration and plain self-engrossed human neediness been played so frankly and undisguisedly by poet—who must first live and afterwards compose poetry.