The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c15.12

v1.c15.12

Further considerations help to diminish the differences which might be expected to exist between deities whose natural basis is different. On the analogy of the pair of gods, Mitra and Varuṇa, whose union is in all probability Indo-Iranian, were formed other pairs,² in which Indra usually formed one member. The attribution to the pair of gods of the feats of either naturally and inevitably led to the association of one god with feats which were not his in the beginning. Again the gods were assimilated in consequence of their possessing the same power though exercising it in different forms. Thus Agni by the fire repels demons, but Indra performs the same feat with the thunderbolt, and the two gods, agreeing in part, come to agree in whole. Agni, therefore, is given the thunderbolt of Indra: he is styled slayer of Vṛtra, he wins the cows and the waters, the sun and the dawns. The task of extending the earth and of propping the air and the sky is one which is attributed to very varied gods: it can as easily be performed by Varuṇa as by Indra or by Viṣṇu, by the first as the upholder of the physical order of the universe, by the second as the great active god, and by Viṣṇu as the strider through the worlds. The tendency to syncretism is also increased by the close connexion of the elements in nature: thus the water is on the one hand divine in itself, but from the waters of the clouds springs forth the fire of the lightning, and that fire in its descent to earth enters into the water: the water contains, therefore, always an element of fire, and Agni himself is accordingly the son of the waters, thus commingling in his nature two very diverse elements. But Agni is not merely the fire on earth or the lightning in the air, he is also the sun in the sky, and thus Agni is closely and intimately related to Sūrya. But the sun is placed in the sky or produced or given a path to go in by about a dozen different gods. Other gods, again, are essentially akin by the reason of their being aspects merely of the same natural phenomenon.