Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c16.s8: § 8. The Moon

The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c16.s8

Language
English

§ 8. The Moon

v1.c16.s8.1

Apart from his connexion with Soma,² the moon is not prominent in the Vedic literature, unless with Hillebrandt we recognize him under such guises as that of Bṛhaspati, Apāṁ Napāt, Varuṇa, Yama, Narāçaṅsa, or Tvaṣṭṛ, or Viçvarūpa. He appears rarely in conjunction with Sūrya in the compounds Sūryāmāsā and Sūryācandramasā, but little is said of the pair beyond noting their alternate appearance, which is once attributed to Bṛhaspati, their creation by the creator, and the fact that they are the two bright eyes of Varuṇa.³ The birth of the moon from the sun is recognized, as well as its regular death.⁴ The connexion of the moon with the mind is early recorded,⁵ and may stand in relation to its connexion with the Fathers.⁶ In addition to the influence of the moon on vegetation, its connexion with the tides is recognized.⁷ The moon phases also receive some degree of worship,⁸ and the darkness in the face of the moon is accounted for in various ways.⁹ The Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa¹⁰ already records the existence in the moon of a hare, identified with Yama, whence the later name of Çaçin, a view corresponding to the occidental belief in the man in the moon. Among other identifications Prajāpati appears once equated with Candramas, but the more normal view is found in the idea of the Kauṣītaki Brāhmaṇa that from the asceticism of Prajāpati there sprang up five beings, Agni, Vāyu, Āditya, Candramas, and Uṣas. Another passage tells that the first four of these deities made good the members of Prajāpati when the work of creation exhausted him and he fell to pieces.¹¹

v1.c16.s8.2

² See below, Chap. 10, § 3. For Iran, see Herodotos, i. 131, and for other religions, von Schroeder, *Arische Religion*, ii. 459 ff.

v1.c16.s8.3

³ RV. i. 102. 2; x. 68. 10; 190. 3; viii. 41. 9; i. 72. 10.

v1.c16.s8.4

⁴ AV. xi. 5 (Hillebrandt, *Ved. Myth.* i. 471 f.); RV. x. 55. 5 (where Soma is clearly the moon); TB. ii. 5. 7. 3.

v1.c16.s8.5

⁵ RV. x. 90. 13 (moon born from mind); AA. ii. 4. 1; BAU. i. 3. 16; iii. 2. 13.

v1.c16.s8.6

⁶ Stereotyped in BAU. vi. 2; CU. v. 10; see below, Chap. 28, § 10. For this connexion cf. Plutarch, *de facie in orbe lunae*, 28, pp. 943 A, 943 C; Iamblichos, *V. P.* 82. The moon is the place, eye, light of the Fathers, KB. i. 2; MS. iv. 2. 1; ÇB. ii. 4. 2. 2.

v1.c16.s8.7

⁷ AB. vii. 11. For the origin of rain from the moon, see AB. viii. 28. 15; Darmesteter, *ZA.* ii. 308; Pliny, *N. H.* xx. 1.

v1.c16.s8.8

⁸ See below, Chap. 11, § 9.

v1.c16.s8.9

⁹ The offering-place on the earth is placed in the moon, VS. i. 28; ÇB. i. 2. 5. 8 f.

v1.c16.s8.10

¹⁰ i. 2. 8.

v1.c16.s8.11

¹¹ ÇB. vi. 1. 3. 16; KB. vi. 1; TB. ii. 3. 6. 1.

v1.c16.s8.12

Much stress has of late¹² been laid on the moon as the source of many myths which appear in our texts in connexion with the sun; thus the ritual use of swinging has plausibly been regarded as unnatural as a sun rite, but easily explicable as one derived from the moon; the conception of the sun as a boat or a vessel stands in a similar relation, while in German mythology such Indian beliefs as the hare in the moon, and the ceremonial striking of the calves with a fresh twig to produce milk in connexion with the new and full moon offerings, appear transferred to the sun. The importance of the moon in early times as giving the means of measuring time is insisted upon, and even the connexion of the fish with fertility is traced to the apparent connexion of shape between the fish and the sickle of the moon. These conjectures, fortunately, need not be seriously considered in regard to Vedic mythology; if they have any validity, they refer to a period distinctly earlier than the religion of the Veda.

v1.c16.s8.13

¹² Von Schroeder, *Arische Religion*, ii. 559 ff.; F. Schultze, *Psychologie der Naturvölker*, pp. 318 ff.

v1.c16.s8.14

It is probable in any case that the question is not one of the supersession of a moon mythology by a sun mythology, but of simple contamination. If we hear that in the highest step of Viṣṇu there is the well of the mead,¹ it is not necessary to bring into connexion with this the Lettish legend of the footprint of the horse in which Uhsing, god of the spring sun, brews beer, and to suggest that there was an Indo-European myth which saw in the marks on the moon the footprint of a steed, the conclusion ultimately being drawn that behind both Viṣṇu and Uhsing we have a moon deity. The mead is from the heaven, Viṣṇu’s highest step is in the heaven; the combination of ideas is thoroughly in the spirit of the Vedic imagination. Or again Agni’s flight into the waters,² and assumption of animal forms therein, are easily enough explained from his character as the lightning from the clouds, and we are not really helped by the suggestion that the myth goes back to the loss of light when the moon disappears, the theriomorphic conception being due to the sickle shape of the moon which suggests a fish,³ naturally equated with the salmon form in which Loki evaded his pursuers, or even the Dolphin shape of Apollo. Agni, after all, is not conceived as a fish, and the imaginative efforts required to introduce the moon suggest that the whole suggestion of the importance of the moon is greatly exaggerated. The moon by its waxing and waning doubtless was of great importance in fixing times of offering, but in India at least it is difficult to see how fundamental importance could be attached to this figure in comparison with the vital energy of the sun. The ethnic evidence for the importance of the moon is valuable,⁴ but it is idle to suppose that every religion has developed on parallel lines and we may believe that Indo-European religion, owing perhaps to the place of its development, was less than some others inclined to make much of the moon.

v1.c16.s8.15

¹ RV. i. 154. 5.

v1.c16.s8.16

² See below, Chap. 10, § 1.

v1.c16.s8.17

³ Von Schroeder naturally finds here an explanation of the Christian fish symbol, discussed by Scheftelowitz, *Archiv für Rel.* xiv. 1–53, 321–92; Cumont, *Die orientalischen Religionen im römischen Heidentum*, pp. 137 ff., 283 ff.

v1.c16.s8.18

⁴ See Hillebrandt, *Ved. Myth.*, pp. 13 ff.; Rhys, *Celtic Heathendom*, pp. 672 f. For Germany see Caesar, *B. G.* i. 50; Helm, *Altgerm. Rel.* i. 257 f.; for Rome, Wissowa, *Rel. der Römer*², p. 315; Fox, *Greek and Roman Myth.*, pp. 244 f.

Linked texts (12)