The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c11.s3.34

v1.c11.s3.34

Yet another view of the same false generalization is that of O. Gruppe,¹ which would make the whole of the theology of religion later than the cult and derive all myth from cult: thus in India the fire and Soma ritual would be the starting-point for the Vedic mythology, an idea which receives some support from the views of Bergaigne. The theory hardly admits of serious discussion when stated as a general rule. There are indeed, especially in Greek religion, not a few cases where the cult, for instance that of Dionysos, has begotten myths such as the death of Pentheus,² and the same principle may certainly be allowed to be applicable in India, but to go further than that is to leave all proof and probability behind.³ The myths of the Rigveda in particular are usually simple and direct enough, and reflect too clearly the actual phenomena of nature to allow us to imagine that they have any other origin than the expression by man of the ideas which naturally occur to him from the observation of such things as the daily movement of the sun or the bursting of the monsoon with all that it means for Indian life.⁴ To the worship of the gods the cult stands of course in the closest relation, but normally it takes in India the form of prayer or sacrifice in order to win the favour of the god: only when we leave worship proper and come to magic do we as a rule find a mimicry of the mythic action of the deity.