The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c30.s15.15

v2.c30.s15.15

mere relic of the plain speech of the crowd. In the view of Eggeling¹ the horse, the next animal to man in the scale, is the appropriate offering on great occasions: at the sacrifice the steed can be identified with Prajāpati, and so Prajāpati comes properly into the ritual. On the other hand he points out that the horse is connected with Varuṇa, in that the horse is the sun horse which traverses the heaven, which is Varuṇa and is conceived as a sea of waters, so that the horse is sprung from the waters. Varuṇa may, therefore, have been the earlier deity of the offering.