The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c18.s5.1

v1.c18.s5.1

The goddess Pṛthivī plays a singularly restricted part in the Rigveda except in so far as she is invoked along with Dyaus. She has but one short hymn of her own,⁵ and a long and interesting hymn ascribed to her in the Atharvaveda⁶ is conspicuous rather for its accuracy of enumeration of the sights of the earth than for religious fervour. She is rich in heights, bears the burden of the mountains, and supports in the ground the forest trees. She is great, shining, and firm, and quickens the earth, by scattering rain from the cloud, a fact which shows that she is not rigidly confined to her element, doubtless because she has borrowed an attribute of Dyaus himself. The Brāhmaṇas⁷ follow the Rigveda in referring her name as broad to the fact of her having been extended. In the funeral hymn⁸ she is appealed to be tender to the dead as to a child, and she is called kindly mother earth. In the domestic ritual offerings to her as Bhūmi are not rare.⁹