The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c21.s1.1

v1.c21.s1.1

THE type of the dual deities, who form quite a marked feature of the Rigveda in which some sixty hymns are addressed to such gods, is given by the pair Dyāvāpṛthivī, heaven and earth, the primeval parents. The two individual gods are comparatively little mentioned in comparison with the pair: Dyaus has no hymn, Pṛthivī one only, and the pair have six. Other names are Dyāvākṣāmā, Dyāvābhūmī or Rodasī, in which the male character of Dyaus, never perfectly established, has yielded to the prevailing femininity of Pṛthivī. The pair are two fathers, two mothers. They are the makers of all creatures, but also they are made by many individual gods, Indra, Viçvakarman, Tvaṣṭṛ, or even produced from the sacrifice of the giant Puruṣa. One is a bull, the other a cow: they are unaging, they grant wealth, and are also wise and promote righteousness. They are also conceived as coming to the sacrifice or taking the sacrifice to the gods, but they are not of much importance in the ritual.¹ They have, however, a hymn addressed to them in the Vaiçvadeva Çastra of the Agniṣṭoma, and an offering is made to them by the plougher, with the result that Parjanya sends him rain. The priests liken the two to the oblation holders or the earth to the altar, and the sky to the sacrificial fee.²