Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Vedic Mythology c3.s1: § 2. Characteristics of Vedic Mythology

Vedic Mythology c3.s1

Language
English

§ 2. Characteristics of Vedic Mythology

c3.s1.1

Vedic mythology occupies a very important position in the study of the history of religions. Its oldest source presents to us an earlier stage in the evolution of beliefs based on the personification and worship of natural phenomena, than any other literary monument of the world. To this oldest phase can be traced by uninterrupted development the germs of the religious beliefs of the great majority of the modern Indians, the only branch of the Indo-European race in which its original nature worship has not been entirely supplanted many centuries ago by a foreign monotheistic faith. The earliest stage of Vedic mythology is not so primitive as was at one time supposed¹, but it is sufficiently primitive to enable us to see clearly enough the process of personification by which natural phenomena developed into gods, a process not apparent in other literatures. The mythology, no less than the language, is still transparent enough in many cases to show the connexion both of the god and his name with a physical basis; nay, in several instances the anthropomorphism is only incipient. Thus *uṣas*, the dawn, is also a goddess wearing but a thin veil of personification; and when *agni*, fire, designates the god, the personality of the deity is thoroughly interpenetrated by the physical element.

c3.s1.2

The foundation on which Vedic mythology rests, is still the belief, surviving from a remote antiquity, that all the objects and phenomena of nature with which man is surrounded, are animate and divine. Everything that impressed the soul with awe or was regarded as capable of exercising a good or evil influence on man, might in the Vedic age still become a direct object not only of adoration but of prayer. Heaven, earth, mountains, rivers, plants might be supplicated as divine powers; the horse, the cow, the bird of omen, and other animals might be invoked; even objects fashioned by the hand of man, weapons, the war-car, the drum, the plough, as well as ritual implements, such as the pressing-stones and the sacrificial post, might be adored.

c3.s1.3

This lower form of worship, however, occupies but a small space in Vedic religion. The true gods of the Veda are glorified human beings, inspired with human motives and passions, born like men, but immortal. They are almost without exception the deified representatives of the phenomena or agencies of nature². The degree of anthropomorphism to which they have attained, however, varies considerably. When the name of the god is the same as that of his natural basis, the personification has not advanced beyond the rudimentary stage. Such is the case with Dyaus, Heaven, Pṛthivī, Earth, Sūrya, Sun, Uṣas, Dawn, whose names represent the double character of natural phenomena and of the persons presiding over them. Similarly in the case of the two great ritual deities, Agni and Soma, the personifying imagination is held in check by the visible and tangible character of the element of fire and the sacrificial draught, called by the same names, of which they are the divine embodiments. When the name of the deity is different from that of the physical substrate, he tends to become dissociated from the latter, the anthropomorphism being then more developed. Thus the Maruts or Storm-gods are farther removed from their origin than Vāyu, Wind, though the Vedic poets are still conscious of the connexion. Finally, when in addition to the difference in name, the conception of a god dates from a pre-Vedic period, the severance may have become complete. Such is the case with Varuṇa, in whom the connexion can only be inferred from mythological traits surviving from an earlier age. The process of abstraction has here proceeded so far, that Varuṇa's character resembles that of the divine ruler in a monotheistic belief of an exalted type. Personification has, however, nowhere in Vedic mythology attained to the individualized anthropomorphism characteristic of the Hellenic gods. The Vedic deities have but very few distinguishing features, while many attributes and powers are shared by all alike. This is partly due to the fact that the departments of nature which they represent have often much in common, while their anthropomorphism is comparatively undeveloped. Thus the activity of a thunder-god, of the fire-god in his lightning form, and of the storm-gods might easily be described in similar language, their main function in the eyes of the Vedic poets being the discharge of rain. Again, it cannot be doubted that various Vedic deities have started from the same source³, but have become differentiated by an appellative denoting a particular attribute having gradually assumed an independent character. Such is the case with the solar gods. There is, moreover, often a want of clearness in the statements of the Vedic poets about the deeds of the gods; for owing to the character of the literature, myths are not related but only alluded to. Nor can thorough consistency be expected in such mythological allusions when it is remembered that they are made by a number of different poets, whose productions extend over a prolonged literary period.

c3.s1.4

¹ BRI. XIII ff.; P. v. BRADKE, Dyaus Asura, Halle 1885, 2—11; ZDMG. 40, 670.

c3.s1.5

² ORV. 591—4.

c3.s1.6

³ L. v. SCHROEDER, WZKM. 9, 125—6; cp. BRI. 25.

c3.s1.7

Works on Vedic Mythology in general: R. ROTH, Die höchsten Götter der arischen Völker, ZDMG. 6, 67—77; 7, 607; BÖHTLINGK and ROTH, Sanskritwörterbuch, 7 vols., St. Petersburg 1852—75; J. MUIR, Original Sanskrit Texts on the Origin and History of the People of India, their Religion and Institutions, 5 vols., especially vols. 4^2 revised (1873) and 5^3 (1884); GRASSMANN, Wörterbuch zum Ṛig-Veda, Leipzig 1873; Ṛig-Veda übersetzt und mit kritischen und erläuternden Anmerkungen versehen, 2 vols., Leipzig 1876—7; W. D. WHITNEY, Oriental and Linguistic Studies, 2, 149 ff.; JAOS. 3, 291 ff. 331 ff.; P. WURM, Geschichte der indischen Religion, Basel 1874, pp. 21—54; A. BERGAIGNE, La Religion Védique d'après les Hymnes du Ṛigveda, 3 vols., Paris 1878—83; A. LUDWIG, Der Rigveda oder die heiligen Hymnen der Brāhmaṇa. Zum ersten Male vollständig ins Deutsche übersetzt. Mit Commentar und Einleitung. Prag, Wien, Leipzig 1876—88; F. MAX MÜLLER, Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion, London 1878; A. KAEGI, Der Rigveda, 2nd ed., Leipzig 1881; English Translation by R. ARROWSMITH, Boston 1886; A. BARTH, The Religions of India, London 1882; A. KUHN, Mythologische Studien. I^2: Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Göttertranks, Gütersloh 1886; L. v. SCHRÖDER, Indiens Litteratur und Kultur, Leipzig 1887, pp. 45—145; P. D. CHANTEPIE DE LA SAUSSAYE, Lehrbuch der Religionsgeschichte, Freiburg i. B., 1887, 1, pp. 346—69; PISCHEL and GELDNER, Vedische Studien. vol. I, Stuttgart 1889, vol. II, part I 1892; A. HILLEBRANDT, Vedische Mythologie, vol. I, Soma und verwandte Götter, Breslau 1891; P. REGNAUD, Le Rig-Véda et les Origines de la Mythologie indo-européenne, Paris 1892 (the author follows principles of interpretation altogether opposed to those generally accepted). E. HARDY, Die Vedisch-brahmanische Periode der Religion des alten Indiens, Münster i. W. 1893; H. OLDENBERG, Die Religion des Veda, Berlin 1894; P. DEUSSEN, Allgemeine Geschichte der Philosophie mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Religionen, vol. I, part 1, Philosophie des Veda bis auf die Upanishad's, Leipzig 1894; E. W. HOPKINS, The Religions of India, Boston and London 1895.

Linked texts (2)