The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c11.s1.15

v1.c11.s1.15

Another conception, of minor importance, but of interest, which survived in the Avesta, is the conception of thirty-three gods. The origin of the idea is wholly unknown in the Rigveda, where neither for eleven nor for thirty-three is any explanation available, and this points to its great antiquity. But beyond this we cannot go: the effort of Hopkins¹ to evolve the number eleven from a primitive ten, and to find a circle of ten gods known to India, Greece, and Teutonic mythology must be regarded as unsuccessful: the Greek number is not very early, and is twelve, and no legitimate means of reducing it to ten is known, and even twelve is not Homeric, while the Teutonic circle of twelve is so late as to be certainly no more than a mere borrowing.²