The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c8.64

c8.64

As the basis of cosmic order the *ṛta* rules the world and nature. The established facts of the visible world, but especially the events of nature that recur periodically, are fixed or regulated by *ṛta*. Those daughters of heaven, the Maidens Dawn, shine upon the morning sky in harmony with *ṛta*, or when they wake up in the morning they rise from the seat of *ṛta*. The sun is placed upon the sky in obedience to the *ṛta*. He is called the wheel of *ṛta* with twelve spokes. This means that he courses across the sky as the year of twelve months. Even the shallow mystery that the red, raw cow yields white, cooked milk is "the *ṛta* of the cow guided by the *ṛta*."¹ The gods themselves are born of the *ṛta* or in the *ṛta* (*ṛtajāta*); they show by their acts that they know the *ṛta*, observe the *ṛta*, and love the *ṛta*.²