The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c7.61

c7.61

Large numbers of technical, ritualistic words and expressions crowd the pages of the Rig-Veda. Its metres are finished and conventional to a very high degree; they are also, to some extent, distributed among the gods, so that a given metre is associated especially with a certain god. For instance, the *gāyatrī* is the metre of the god Agni; the *trishtubh* the metre of the god Indra. They are also distributed to some extent according to the time of the day: the *gāyatrī* in the morning, the *trishtubh* at noon, the *jagatī* at evening. Above all, the advanced character of the Rig-Veda's ritual manifests itself in the large number of different designations for priests. These occur not only singly, but in series: the names of these priests are largely, though not entirely, the names of the priests of the later ceremonial.¹