The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c17.s6: § 6. Mātariçvan

The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c17.s6

Language: English

§ 6. Mātariçvan

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The god Mātariçvan, unlike the one-footed goat and the dragon of the deep, is not an ancient god: his name occurs but twenty-seven times in the whole of the Rigveda, and of these instances twenty-one are found in the latest parts of the Rigveda: he occurs five times in book iii, so that he seems to have been a favourite of the Viçvāmitra family, and once in book vi. His connexion with Agni is of the closest: his name is thrice applied to Agni, and it is said of Agni¹ 'As germ of the heaven he is named Tanūnapāt; when born he becometh Narāçaṁsa; when in his mother he was fashioned as Mātariçvan, he became the wind's swift flight.' He is also identified with Bṛhaspati, and the poets who divide the one into many are said² to call it Agni, Yama, Mātariçvan. On the other hand Agni appears as distinct from Mātariçvan: Agni appears to him and to Vivasvant, Mātariçvan brings Agni to Bhṛgu: he brings Agni from the sky, from afar for men, or from the gods. He is also said to produce him by friction and to set him up in human abodes. He is occasionally mentioned in connexion with Indra, and he serves as the messenger of Vivasvant between the heaven and the earth. In the wedding hymn he is asked with other deities to join the hearts of the husband and wife.

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¹ RV. iii. 29. 11.

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² RV. i. 164. 46.

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The meaning of the word as 'he who grows in his mother' is clearly authentic:³ the root is *çu*, and the formation of the word is not open to serious exception; the accent, which is on the third syllable, is due to the analogy of such words as *prātarítvan*. The nature of the god can hardly be doubted in view of his relation to Agni: he must be the Agni who descends to earth in the form of lightning, and who like Agni himself grows in his mother. The only alternative view which has any plausibility is that of Oldenberg⁴ who sees in him a Prometheus only, without any divine nature other than the bringing down of fire. This view is, however, open to the fatal objection that it is only reasonable to interpret the Prometheus legend in itself in the sense of the descent of fire; the god originally himself descends: it is later speculation which makes an independent personage the cause of his descent.

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³ Fay (KZ. xlv. 134) suggests 'in materia turgens', but unconvincingly; cf. JAOS. xxxii. 392.

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⁴ *Rel. des Veda*², p. 122; SBE. xlvi. 123. Contrast von Schroeder, *Arische Religion*, ii. 485, 526, 530, 567, 587. For Loki, see Much, *Der germ. Himmelsgott*, p. 54.

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Mātariçvan, however, in the Yajurveda and in the Brāhmaṇas is overwhelmingly the god of wind, not of fire, and this nature of his is already hinted at in the Rigveda where the epithets boundless and wandering are applied to him. In the view of Hillebrandt⁵ the conception of the wind lies at the bottom of the nature of the Vedic god, and he points to the fact of the important part played by the wind in the production of forest fires,⁶ and the striking character of dust storms in India in support of his thesis. He suggests, however, that there may have been a tendency in the Rigveda to identify the wind and the fire which would account for the relation of Mātariçvan to Agni. To this theory the main objection is simple : it ignores the essential and not accidental connexion of Mātariçvan with Agni which is the most real part of his nature, and it is easy to point out that the transition from the fire god to a wind god is natural enough, and already hinted at in the Rigveda, where of Agni himself it is said that he is like the rushing wind.

Linked texts (2)

Ṛgvedasaṃhitā — Sanskrit
Atharvavedasaṃhitā — Atharvan & Aṅgiras, Sanskrit