The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c15.2

v1.c15.2

THE Rigveda recognizes the number of the gods as 33, a figure given also in the Iranian tradition, and these it further divides into three groups of 11, connected with the heaven, the earth, and the waters of the air: more often the connexion of the gods with these three regions is mentioned without any precise statement of number. Of this 33 no explanation in detail can be gathered from the Rigveda: it is certain that it is not exhaustive, for other gods are mentioned in addition to the 33. The absence of any established tradition is shown by the Brāhmaṇas which recognize the 33 gods, and agree in making them out to include 8 Vasus, 11 Rudras, and 12 Ādityas, but differ as to the remaining two: the Çatapatha¹ gives either Dyaus and Pṛthivī, with a thirty-fourth in Prajāpati, or Indra and Prajāpati, while the Aitareya² adds Prajāpati and the Vaṣaṭ call, a technical introduction from the sacrifice which is manifestly not primitive.³ It is not unnatural, therefore, that Hopkins should have sought to find the origin of the number in an older 10, but there is, as we have seen, no tolerable evidence in tradition of an older set of ten gods either in India or in any other Indo-European religion.