The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c19.s1.19

v1.c19.s1.19

Other theories are even less plausible: Weber⁵ sees in them the geniuses of the past, present, and future, and in Agohya the sun who may not be concealed, i. e. driven from his course even by the winter solstice; Bergaigne⁶ takes them as three ancient skilful sacrificers who attained immortality, and whose number three stands in connexion with the three fires. The evidence forbids any certainty or even probability: it is, however, most probable that they are identical with the German ‘Elbe’, and that they are elves of the air or the earth who have won their way to a divine greatness.⁷ By an extraordinary freak we find them in the Mahābhārata elevated to the stature of the greatest of gods imaginable.⁸