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The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c21.s2: § 2. Groups of Gods

The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c21.s2

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§ 2. Groups of Gods

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It is a characteristic trait of the Rigveda that some forty hymns are devoted to the group of gods called All-gods, Viçve Devās, and the impression given by the Rigveda is borne out by the ritual in which the All-gods receive frequent attention.² The fact must be carefully borne in mind in framing any theory as to the feeling of the poets as to the rank of the several gods: they must have known of these joint invocations, in which as many gods as possible are propitiated, and the same tendency to be catholic in the reverence paid to the gods is to be noted in the Sūtras where offerings are prescribed to all the gods, including even unknown gods. The Rigveda already shows the tendency to set up individual gods as outside the number of All-gods: in the Sūtras there is perfectly obvious the distinction between all the gods and the older All-gods.¹ The religious conception which lies at the back of it is one which can be paralleled from many religions. By inventing a comprehensive group no deity at any rate could justly complain that it had been passed over altogether.

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² Arbman (*Rudra*, p. 154, n. 3) suggests that the term includes all the gods as opposed to the heavenly gods of the Vedic sacrifice; but this clearly is wrong, the term denoting the whole of the gods of the sacrifice taken collectively.

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¹ Kauç. lvi. 6.

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Of the other groups of gods the Maruts are the most important: they also in the Rigveda bear the name of Rudras. This group is, however, distinguished from the Maruts in the later texts, and its number is placed at 11, though 33, which is the traditional number of all the gods, is given in the Taittirīya Saṁhitā.² The Ādityas, who are seven or eight in the Rigveda, become 12 in the Brāhmaṇas, and are often mentioned especially in contrast with the Aṅgirases, who are rather a priestly family than actual deities.³ With the Ādityas and Rudras the Vasus are invoked in the Rigveda:⁴ it is clear that there they are connected with Indra. But in the later texts they are connected with Agni, not Indra, and their number, not defined in the Rigveda, is fixed at 8, though the Taittirīya Saṁhitā,⁵ by a freak gives 333. In the Chāndogya Upaniṣad⁶ we find five groups, Indra with the Rudras, Agni with the Vasus, Varuṇa with the Ādityas, Soma with the Maruts, and Brahman with the Sādhyas. The last group is a set of gods of whom practically nothing can be said: they are mentioned occasionally from the Rigveda⁷ onwards, occurring in the usual way even in the Sūtras, but except that they are ancient, nothing more is to be learned of their nature.⁸

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² i. 4. 11. 1.

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³ Levi, *La doctrine du sacrifice*, pp. 65, 66.

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⁴ vii. 10. 4; 35. 6.

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⁵ v. 5. 2. 5.

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⁶ iii. 6-10.

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⁷ x. 90. 7 (with gods and seers); i. 164. 50; TS. vi. 3. 4. 8; 5. 1; 5. 6. 1; PB. viii. 3. 5; xxv. 8. 2 (before the gods); AB. viii. 12. 4 (with Āptyas); 14. 3; HGS. ii. 19. 1; ÇGS. iv. 9. 3; BhGS. iii. 9.

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⁸ A triad of gods associated in worship or by connexion of descent is not known in Vedic religion, nor practically in Greek or Babylonian belief; Farnell, *Greece and Babylon*, pp. 180 ff. The current view which finds triads in the Greek mysteries is given in Legge, *Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity*, i. ch. ii. We have only the three forms of Agni, and his three names and casual triads like Varuṇa, Mitra, Aryaman, for which we need not seek any prototype in the Semitic Anu, Enlil, Ea, or Sin, Ramman, Šamaš; the later Brahman, Rudra, Viṣṇu appear only in Maitr. iv. 5; v. 1, preluded by Mahānār. Up. xi. 12. See Hopkins, *Origin of Religion*, pp. 294 ff. Cf., on Trita, Güntert, *Der arische Weltkönig*, pp. 30 ff.

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