The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c16.s6.1

v1.c16.s6.1

The Açvins are, next to Indra, Agni, and Soma, the gods most frequently mentioned in the Rigveda, where they claim more than fifty hymns and are mentioned over 400 times. The most constant feature is their duplicate nature: they are compared to eyes, hands, feet, wings, and animals which go in pairs. They are bright, young, yet ancient, many-formed, beautiful, agile, strong, red, and they possess profound wisdom and power. Alone of gods are they described as having ruddy paths or golden paths. The epithet *dasra*, wondrous, is almost exclusively theirs, and they are called the Nāsatyas, and once the encompassing Nāsatya is mentioned alone. The sense of the epithet, which in the singular Nāoṅhaithya is the name of a demon in the Avesta, is unknown: its great age is proved by its occurrence among the names of the gods of the Mitanni; naturally the Indian mind explained it as not untrue (*na-asatya*), but the value of such an etymology is obviously nil.¹