The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c14.37

v1.c14.37

Neither in the philosophical hymns nor in the mythology are the gods treated as existing from all eternity to all eternity. The philosophy of the Veda makes them born after the creation of the world, or derives their being from the non-existent or the element of water, while the mythology finds in them most often the children of sky and earth. In one late hymn¹ the gods are born from Aditi, from the waters, and from the earth, doubtless in accordance with the threefold division of the Universe. Aditi is the parent of the Ādityas, the Dawn is mother of all, and the function of paternity is assigned to Soma and Brahmaṇaspati. Hence there are recognized different generations of the gods, the older and the younger, and the Atharvaveda² speaks of ten gods as being before the rest, but the passage is not mythological and cannot support a theory³ that originally the Vedic Indians had ten great gods, whence, by inclusive reckoning and multiplication by the favourite number 3, the 33 of the normal reckoning are attained. Nor in origin were the gods immortal: they are said in the Rigveda to have been given this gift by Savitṛ⁴ or by Agni,⁵ or to have attained it by drinking the Soma.⁶ Indra is said to have attained it by austerity.⁷ The later literature agrees: the gods are expressly asserted to have been originally mortal, and this fact is asserted individually of such deities as Indra, Agni, and even Prajāpati. The Atharvaveda⁸ ascribes their attaining immortality to Rohita, or to their continence and austerity, while the prevailing view in the Brāhmaṇas ascribes their success to some performance of a ritual act in an accurate manner. That the immortality thus won was not, as in post-Vedic literature, merely for the space of a cosmic age may be regarded as certain, since the conception of the four ages of the world (Kṛta, Tretā, Dvāpara, and Kali) is wholly unknown⁹ to the Vedic literature and first makes its appearance in the epic and in the law-book of Manu.