Vedic Mythology c5.s1.t1: § 11. Dyaus

Vedic Mythology c5.s1.t1

Language: English

c5.s1.t1.1 — 4 parts

§ 11. Dyaus

c5.s1.t1.1.1

—By far the most frequent use of the word *dyaus* is as a designation of the concrete 'sky', in which sense it occurs at least 500 times in the RV. It also means 'day'¹ about 50 times. When personified as the god of heaven, Dyaus is generally coupled with Earth in the dual compound *dyāvāpṛthivī*, the universal parents. No single hymn of the RV. is addressed to Dyaus alone. When he is mentioned separately the personification is limited almost entirely to the idea of paternity. The name then nearly always appears in the nominative or genitive case. The latter case, occurring about 50 times, is more frequent than all the other cases together. The genitive is regularly connected with the name of some other deity who is called the son or daughter of Dyaus. In about three-fourths of these instances Uṣas is his daughter, while in the remainder the Aśvins are his offspring (*napātā*), Agni is his son (*sūnu*) or child (*śiśu*), Parjanya, Sūrya, the Ādityas, the Maruts, and the Aṅgirases are his sons (*putra*). Out of its thirty occurrences in the nominative the name appears only eight times alone, being otherwise generally associated with Pṛthivī or mentioned with various deities mostly including Pṛthivī. In these eight passages he is three times styled a father (1, 90⁷. 164³³; 4, 1¹⁰), once the father of Indra (4, 72³), once he is spoken of as rich in seed (*suretāḥ*) and as having generated Agni (4, 17⁴);

c5.s1.t1.1.2

in the remaining three he is a bull (5, 36⁵) or a red bull that bellows downwards (5, 58⁶), and is said to have approved when Vṛtra was slain (6, 72³). In the dative the name is found eight times. In these passages he is mentioned only three times quite alone, once being called the 'great father' (1, 71⁵), once 'lofty' (1, 54³), and once the 'lofty abode' (5, 47⁷). In two of the four occurrences in the accusative Dyaus is mentioned with Pṛthivī, once alone and without any distinctive statement (1, 174³), and once (1, 31⁴) Agni is said to have made him roar for man. Thus it appears that Dyaus is seldom mentioned independently and in only one-sixth of over ninety passages is his paternity not expressly stated or implied by association with Pṛthivī. The only essential feature of the personification in the RV. is in fact his paternity. In a few passages Dyaus is called a bull (1, 160³; 5, 36⁵) that bellows (5, 58⁶). Here we have a touch of theriomorphism inasmuch as he is conceived as a roaring animal that fertilizes the earth. Dyaus is once compared with a black steed decked with pearls (10, 68¹¹), an obvious allusion to the nocturnal sky. The statement that Dyaus is furnished with a bolt (*aśanimat*) looks like a touch of anthropomorphism. He is also spoken of as smiling through the clouds (2, 4⁶), the allusion being doubtless to the lightening sky².

c5.s1.t1.1.3

Such passages are, however, quite isolated, the conception of Dyaus being practically free from theriomorphism and anthropomorphism, excepting the notion of paternity. As a father he is most usually thought of in combination with Earth as a mother³. This is indicated by the fact that his name forms a dual compound with that of Pṛthivī oftener than it is used alone in the singular (§ 44), that in a large proportion of its occurrences in the singular it is accompanied by the name of Pṛthivī, and that when regarded separately he is not sufficiently individualized to have a hymn dedicated to his praise, though in conjunction with Pṛthivī he is celebrated in six. Like nearly all the greater gods⁴ Dyaus is sometimes called *asura*⁵ (1, 122¹· 131¹; 8, 20¹⁷) and he is once (6, 51⁵) invoked in the vocative as 'Father Heaven' (*dyauṣ pitar*) along with 'Mother Earth' (*pṛthivi mātar*). In about 20 passages the word *dyaus* is feminine, sometimes even when personified⁶. Dyaus, as has been pointed out (§ 6) goes back to the Indo-European period. There is no reason to assume that the personification in that period was of a more advanced type and that the RV. has in this case relapsed to a more primitive stage. On the contrary there is every ground for supposing the reverse to be the case. Whatever higher gods may have existed in that remote age must have been of a considerably more rudimentary type and can hardly in any instance have been conceived apart from deified natural objects⁷.

c5.s1.t1.1.4

As the Universal Father who with Mother Earth embraced all other deified objects and phenomena, he would have been the greatest among the deities of a chaotic polytheism. But to speak of him as the supreme god of the Indo-European age is misleading, because this suggests a ruler of the type of Zeus and an incipient monotheism for an extremely remote period, though neither of these conceptions had been arrived at in the earlier Rigvedic times.

Vedic Mythology c5.s1.t1: § 11. Dyaus

Contents

§ 11. Dyaus

c5.s1.t1.1.1

c5.s1.t1.1.2

c5.s1.t1.1.3

c5.s1.t1.1.4

c5.s1.t1.2

c5.s1.t1.3

c5.s1.t1.4

c5.s1.t1.5

c5.s1.t1.6

c5.s1.t1.7

c5.s1.t1.8

c5.s1.t1.9

c5.s1.t1.10