The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c16.s6.36

v1.c16.s6.36

Other questions are suggested by the nature of the steeds of the Açvins. The conjecture that they were once not merely regarded as borne on chariots with horses, but were conceived as horses, can be supported by analogy: thus the sun is certainly called a horse, and the mother of the Açvins is, according to an old, if not Rigvedic, tradition, called a mare. Beyond this we cannot go. The fact that the chariots are also borne by birds is of some interest: are we to see in this fact, as suggested in another connexion of the Dioskouroi by S. Reinach,¹ a relic of a time when the Açvins were regarded themselves as birds, and in special swans? It is clearly impossible to determine this with any security: there is no trace of such a view in the Vedic literature, and to conjecture it into that literature is, therefore, illegitimate, since it is not necessary thus to explain the fact that the chariot of the gods is borne by birds.