The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c20.s2.13

v1.c20.s2.13

The etymological sense of Tvaṣṭṛ seems clear: it is formed from a root *tvakṣ*, which has a parallel in the Avesta, and which has the sense of fashion, like the normal *takṣ*. Oldenberg⁸ considers that the god is no more than the personification of creative activity, and so far as the Rigveda goes it seems difficult to deny that this theory is adequate. On the other hand Hillebrandt,¹ who, for no adequate reason, suggests that the etymology may be really from some aboriginal word, is strongly of opinion that the mythical conception is the concrete one of the sun, his son Viçvarūpa being the moon. The theory is open as regards Viçvarūpa to fatal difficulty, but there is no objection, having regard to the case of Savitṛ, to see in Tvaṣṭṛ another case of an agent god, who has come into separate existence from being at first merely an epithet of a more concrete divinity. The post-Vedic mythology indeed regards him as an Āditya, but this fact is of very little consequence. Ludwig ² takes him to be a god of the year, but this is obviously much less likely than the suggestion of the sun as a great creative power.