Vedic Mythology c3.s4.3

c3.s4.3

§ 6. Comparative Mythology. — In regard to the Indo-European period we are on far less certain ground. Many equations of name once made in the first enthusiasm of discovery and generally accepted, have since been rejected and very few of those that remain rest on a firm foundation. Dyaús = Ζεύς is the only one which can be said to be beyond the range of doubt. Varuṇa = Οὐρανός though presenting phonetic difficulties, seems possible. The rain-god Parjanya agrees well in meaning with the Lithuanian thunder-god Perkunas, but the phonetic objections are here still greater. The name of Bhaga is identical with the Slavonic *bogu* as well as the Persian *bagha*, but as the latter two words mean only 'god', the Indo-European word cannot have designated any individual deity. Though the name of Uṣas is radically cognate to Aurora and Ἠώς, the cult of Dawn as a goddess is a specially Indian development. It has been inferred from the identity of mythological traits in the thunder-gods of the various branches of the Indo-European family, that a thunder-god existed in the Indo-European period in spite of the absence of a common name. There are also one or two other not improbable equations based on identity of character only. That the conception of higher gods, whose nature was connected with light (√()*div*, to shine) and heaven (*div*) had already been arrived at in the Indo-European period, is shown by the common name *deivos* (Skt. *deva-s*, Lith. *deva-s*, Lat. *deu-s*), god. The conception of Earth as a mother (common to Vedic and Greek mythology) and of Heaven as a father (Skt. *Dyaùṣ pítar*, Gk. Ζεῦ πάτερ, Lat. *Jūpiter*) appears to date from a still remoter antiquity. For the idea of Heaven and Earth being universal parents is familiar to the mythology of China and New Zealand and may be traced in that of Egypt². The practice of magical rites and the worship of inanimate objects still surviving in the Veda, doubtless came down from an equally remote stage in the mental development of mankind, though the possibility of a certain influence exercised by the primitive aborigines of India on their Aryan conquerors cannot be altogether excluded.