The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c16.s2.45

v1.c16.s2.45

On the other hand the comparison of the Ādityas and the Ameša Spenta seems certainly right and the objections which have been raised to it are not of a serious kind.² It is true that neither in India nor in Iran is the number seven absolutely fixed, but as early as the Rigveda the number seven is evidently becoming the normal one, and similarly in the Avesta the number seven is springing up, in the close connexion between Zoroaster and six other spirits. The fact that these six spirits do not correspond in name or function precisely with the Indian deities is of no consequence, if we adopt the view that the deities were not in the Indo-Iranian period very closely connected with any sphere of nature.³ This is certainly supported by the obvious fact that in India the figures of Bhaga, Aṁça, Dakṣa, and Aryaman are abstract, while the whole six in Iran are of this type. To presume an independent development of the ideas in both countries is really to assume something much more improbable than a common origin. Oldenberg’s theory that the five other than Mitra and Varuṇa represented the planets is wholly without support either in Iran or India, where the knowledge of the planets cannot be attributed at all to the age of the Rigveda or even much later.