The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c8.16

c8.16

The sky has another irrepressible quality: it thunders. In this aspect also it became a personal god with a definite name in prehistoric times, who tends at times, as one might naturally suppose, to encroach on the domain of Father Sky, or to blend with him. The chief heathen god of the Lithuanians was Perkunas, "Thunderer," from which is derived the word *perkunyja*, "thunder-storm." The identity of this name with the parents of the Norse "Thunderer," the god Thor (Donar), namely, the male Fjorgynn and the female Fjorgyn, has never been questioned. Here also belongs Parjanya, that most transparent divinity of the rain-storm in the Vedic hymns, who "roars like a lion and thunderous strikes the evil-doers." There is some slight phonetic difficulty here. I would suggest that the word has been modulated euphemistically, so as to suggest the idea of "guarding the folk" (*pari*, "about," and *jana*, "folk").¹ Homer's Zeus has absorbed the "Thunderer," and therefore appears in a double aspect. On the one hand he is "far-eyed Sky" (εὐρύοπα); on the other he is "cloud-gatherer" (νεφεληγερέτης), and "rejoices in lightning," or, "twists the lightning" (τ ε ρ π ι κ ε ρ α υ ν o s). The Lithuanian Perkunas has absorbed the functions of Zeus and has become chief god. In the Veda also¹ Parjanya is called "Father Asura," making him for the moment the double of Father Sky, the Asura. In another passage he is even more directly identified with Dyaus.²