The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c19.s9.20

v1.c19.s9.20

A goddess who owes her nature to the actual sacrificial food is Iḍā,¹ the offering of milk and butter which occurs several times in the Rigveda, and more often later. Like Aditi and more naturally, she is brought into connexion with the cow, and a cow is used in the ritual to represent her and Aditi, and addressed with her name. She bears the names butter-handed and butter-footed, which express clearly her nature, and she normally appears with the goddesses Sarasvatī and Bhāratī. Agni is said to be her son, because of his birth from the place of the Iḍā, and a mortal man Purūravas is called Aiḷa,² which seems to denote him as an offshoot from Iḍā. She is also connected in the Rigveda with Urvaçī,³ with Dadhikrāvan, and with the Açvins. She figures in the legend of Manu, who after the flood through her generated the human race, Iḍā being called his daughter.⁴ She is styled also the daughter of Mitra and Varuṇa.⁵ Bhāratī, who occurs with Iḍā, is clearly the offering (*hotrā*) of the Bharatas, a fact which accords with the importance of the Bharatas in cult.⁶ Iḍā, Sarasvatī, and Bhāratī are called in the Yajurveda the wives of Indra,⁷ and in the Rigveda a goddess Bṛhaddivā, 'of the broad sky', is mentioned with Iḍā, Sarasvatī, and Rākā, but of her nature nothing more is known.⁸