Vedic Mythology c5.s1.t6: § 18. Vivasvat

Vedic Mythology c5.s1.t6

Language: English

§ 18. Vivasvat

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—Vivasvat is not celebrated in any single hymn of the RV., but his name occurs there about thirty times, generally as Vivásvat, five times also as Vívasvat. He is the father of the Aśvins (10, 17²) and of Yama (10, 14⁵. 17¹). As in post-Vedic literature he is already also in the Vedas the father of Manu (§ 50), the ancestor of the human race, who is once (Vāl. 4¹) called Vivasvat (= Vaivasvata, p. 12) and receives the patronymic Vaivasvata in the AV. and the ŚB. Men are also directly stated to be the progeny of Vivasvān Ādityaḥ (TS. 6, 5, 6²; ŚB. 3, 1, 3⁴). The gods are also once spoken of as the offspring (*janimā*) of Vivasvat (10, 63¹). Vivasvat's wife is Saraṇyū, daughter of Tvaṣṭṛ (10, 17¹·²).

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It was to Vivasvat as well as Mātariśvan that Agni was first manifested (1, 31⁵). Vivasvat's messenger is once (6, 8⁴) stated to be Mātariśvan, but is otherwise Agni (1, 58¹; 4, 7⁴; 8, 39³; 10, 21⁵). Agni is once said to be produced from his parents (the fire-sticks) as the sage of Vivasvat (5, 11³).

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The seat (*sadana*) of Vivasvat is mentioned five times. The gods (10, 12⁷) and Indra delight in it (3, 51³) and there singers extol the greatness of Indra (1, 53¹; 3, 34⁷) or of the waters (10, 75¹). Perhaps the same notion is referred to when a new hymn is said (1, 139¹) to be placed in Vivasvat as a centre (*nābhā*).

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Indra is connected with Vivasvat in several passages of the RV. He rejoices in the prayer of Vivasvat (8, 6³⁹) and placed his treasure beside Vivasvat (2, 13⁶). With the ten¹ (fingers) of Vivasvat Indra pours out the pail from heaven (8, 61⁸, cp. 5, 53⁶). Indra being so closely associated with the abode of Vivasvat, Soma is likely to be there. And indeed Soma is in the ninth book brought into intimate relation to Vivasvat. Soma dwells with Vivasvat (9, 26⁴) and is cleansed by the daughters (= fingers) of Vivasvat (9, 14⁵). The prayers of Vivasvat urge the tawny Soma to flow (9, 99²). The seven sisters (= waters) urge the wise Soma on the course of Vivasvat (9, 66⁸). The streams of Soma flow through the sieve having obtained (the blessing) of Vivasvat and producing the blessing (*bhagam*) of dawn (9, 10⁵).

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The Aśvins who dwell with Vivasvat are besought to come to the offering (1, 46¹³). At the yoking of the Aśvins' car the daughter of the sky is born and the two bright days (probably day and night) of Vivasvat (10, 39¹²; cp. ŚB. 10, 5, 2⁴).

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Vivasvat is also mentioned along with Varuṇa and the gods as an object of worship (10, 65⁶). In one passage Vivasvat shows a hostile trait, when the worshippers of the Ādityas pray that the missile, the well-wrought arrow of Vivasvat, may not slay them before old age¹ (8, 56²⁰, cp. AV. 19, 9⁷). On the other hand, Vivasvat preserves from Yama (AV. 18, 3⁶²).

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The word *vivasvat* occurs a few times as an adjective meaning 'brilliant' in connexion with Agni and Uṣas. Agni is said to have produced the children of men and by brilliant sheen heaven and the waters (1, 96²). Agni is the wise, boundless, brilliant sage who shines at the beginning of dawn (7, 9³). Agni is besought to bring the brilliant gift of dawn (1, 44¹), and men desire to see the shining face of brilliant dawn (3, 30¹³). The etymological meaning 'shining forth' (*vi* + √(vas)) is peculiarly appropriate in relation to Uṣas, whose name is derived from the same root and in connexion with whom the words *vi-uṣ* and *vi-uṣṭi*, 'shining forth, dawning' are nearly always used. The derivation is given in the ŚB. where it is said that Āditya Vivasvat illumines (*vi-vaste*) night and day (ŚB. 10, 5, 2⁴).

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² SVL. 148.

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In the YV. (VS. 8, 5; MS. 1, 6¹²) and the Brāhmaṇas Vivasvat is called Āditya and in the post-Vedic literature is a common name of the sun.

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He goes back to the Indo-Iranian period, being identical with Vīvaṅhvant (the father of Yima), who is described as the first man that prepared Haoma, Āthwya being the second, and Thrita the third (Yasna, 9, 10). The first and third of these are found connected in the RV. also (Vāl. 4¹), where Indra is said to have drunk Soma beside Manu Vivasvat and Trita.

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¹ Cp. LRV. 4, 386.

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As a mythological figure Vivasvat seems to have faded by the time of the RV. like Trita³. Considering the etymology, the connexion with the Aśvins, Agni, and Soma, the fact that his seat is the place of sacrifice⁴, the most probable interpretation of Vivasvat seems to be that he originally represented the rising sun⁵. Most scholars⁶ explain him simply as the sun. Some take him to be the god of the bright sky⁷ or the heaven of the sun⁸. Bergaigne (1, 88) thinks that Agni alone, of whom the sun is a form, can be responsible for the character of a sacrificer which is prominent in Vivasvat. Oldenberg⁹ comparing the Avestan Vīvaṅhvant, the first mortal that prepared Haoma, believes that the reasons for considering Vivasvat a god of light, are insufficient and that he represents simply the first sacrificer, the ancestor of the human race.

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³ Roth, ZDMG. 4, 424.

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⁴ PW., BRV. 1, 87, ORV. 275; PVS. 1, 242 ('chapel of V.'); Foy, KZ. 34, 228.

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⁵ The later view of Roth, PW. ('Morgensonne'); cp. ZDMG. 4, 425 ('das Licht der Himmelshöhe').

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⁶ A. Kuhn, Sp.AP. 248 ff., HVM. 1, 488, HRI. 128. 130, and others.

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⁷ LRV. 3, 333; 5, 392; Ehni, Yama, 19. 24.

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⁸ BRI. 9—10.

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⁹ ORV. 122, ZDMG. 49, 173, SBE. 46, 392. Cp. also Roth, ZDMG. 4, 432; BRV. 1, 86—8; HVM. 1, 474—88; Bloomfield, JAOS. 15, 176—7.

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§ 19. Ādityas.—The group of gods called Ādityas is celebrated in six whole hymns and in parts of two others in the RV. It is rather indefinite both as to the names of the gods it includes and as to their number. Not more than six are anywhere enumerated and that only once: Mitra, Aryaman, Bhaga, Varuṇa, Dakṣa, Aṃśa (2, 27¹). In the last books of the RV. the number is once (9, 114³) stated to be seven and once (10, 72⁸) eight, Aditi at first presenting only seven to the gods and bringing the eighth, Mārtāṇḍa¹, afterwards (ibid. ⁹). The names of the Ādityas are not specified in either of these passages. The AV. states that Aditi had eight sons (8, 9²¹), and the TB. (1, 1, 9¹) mentions these eight by name as Mitra, Varuṇa, Aryaman, Aṃśa, Bhaga, Dhātṛ, Indra, Vivasvat (the first five occur in RV. 2, 27¹), and the same list is quoted by Sāyaṇa (on RV. 2, 27¹) as found in another passage of the Taittirīya branch of the Veda. The ŚB. in one passage speaks of the Ādityas as having become eight by the addition of Mārtāṇḍa, while in two others (6, 1, 2⁸; 11, 6, 3⁸) they are said to be twelve in number and are identified with the twelve months. In post-Vedic literature they are regularly twelve sun-gods, evidently connected with the twelve months, Viṣṇu being one of them and the greatest². In addition to the six Ādityas mentioned in RV. 2, 27¹, Sūrya is a few times termed an Āditya (p. 30), which is a common name for the sun in the Brāhmaṇas and later. Under the name of Āditya, identified with Agni, Sūrya is said to have been placed by the gods in the sky (10, 88¹¹). Savitṛ is also once mentioned in an enumeration with the four Ādityas Bhaga, Varuṇa, Mitra, Aryaman (8, 18³). If therefore the number of the Ādityas was regarded by the poets of the RV. to have been definitely seven, the sun must have been the seventh, the eighth Mārttāṇḍa whom Aditi throws away and brings back (10, 72[^8. 9]) probably being the setting sun. In the AV. (13, 2[^9. 37]) the sun is called the son of Aditi, the sun and moon Ādityas (8, 2¹⁵), and Viṣṇu is invoked in an enumeration containing gods who in the RV. are Ādityas: Varuṇa, Mitra, Viṣṇu, Bhaga, Aṁśa besides Vivasvat (11, 6²). The mother of the Ādityas is here once (9, 1⁴) said to be not Aditi but the golden-hued Madhukaśā, daughter of the Vasus.

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Indra is, however, in the RV. once coupled in the dual as an Āditya with Varuṇa the chief of the Ādityas (7, 85⁴), and in Vāl. 4⁷ he is directly invoked as the fourth Āditya. In MS. 2, 1¹² Indra is a son of Aditi, but in the ŚB. (11, 6, 3⁵) he is distinguished from the 12 Ādityas. When one god alone is mentioned as an Āditya, it is generally Varuṇa, their chief; but in the hymn in which Mitra is celebrated alone (3, 59), that deity is called an Āditya, as well as Sūrya. When two are mentioned, they are Varuṇa and Mitra, once Varuṇa and Indra; when three, Varuṇa, Mitra, and Aryaman³; when five, which is only once the case, the same three together with Savitṛ and Bhaga. Dakṣa occurs only in the enumeration of six mentioned above. The Ādityas are often invoked as a group, the names of Mitra and Varuṇa being generally mentioned at the same time. They also appear frequently along with other groups (§ 45) Vasus, Rudras, Maruts, Aṅgirases, Ṛbhus, Viśvedevas. The term Ādityas seems not infrequently to be used in a wider sense, as an equivalent for the gods generally⁴. Their nature as a class in fact resembles that of the gods in general, not being specifically characterized like that of their two chiefs, Mitra and Varuṇa. In the aggregate sense they are the gods of celestial light, without representing any particular manifestation of that light, such as sun, moon, and stars, or dawn. The hypothesis of OLDENBERG that the Ādityas originally represented sun, moon, and the five planets, is based on their abstract nature and names (such as Bhaga, Aṁśa, Dakṣa) and the supposition that their characteristic number is seven⁵, which is also the number of the Iranian Ameṣaspentas⁶. It is here to be noted that the two groups have not a single name in common, even Mithra not being an Ameṣaspenta; that the belief in the Ādityas being seven in number is not distinctly characteristic and old⁷; and that though the identity of the Ādityas and Ameṣaspentas has been generally accepted since ROTH's essay⁸, it is rejected by some distinguished Avestan scholars⁹.

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In some of the hymns of the RV. in which the Ādityas are celebrated (especially in 2, 27), only the three most frequently mentioned together, Mitra, Varuṇa, and Aryaman, seem to be meant. What is distant is near to them; they support all that moves and is stationary, as gods who protect the universe (2, 27[^3. 4]). They see what is good and evil in men's hearts and distinguish the honest man from the deceitful (2, 27³; 8, 18¹⁵). They are haters of falsehood and punish sin (2, 27⁴; 7, 52². 60⁵. 66¹³). They are besought to forgive sin (2, 27¹⁴. 29⁵), to avert its consequences or to transfer them to Trita Āptya (5, 52²; 8, 47⁸). They spread fetters for their enemies (2, 27¹⁶), but protect their worshippers as birds spread their wings over their young (8, 47²). Their servants are protected as with armour, so that no shaft can strike them (ib. 7. 8). They ward off sickness and distress (8, 18¹⁰), and bestow various boons such as light, long life, offspring, guidance (2, 27; 8, 18²². 56¹⁵. ²⁰).

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The epithets which describe them are: bright (*śuci*), golden (*hiraṇyaya*), many-eyed (*bhūryakṣa*), unwinking (*animiṣa*), sleepless (*asvapnaj*), far-observing (*dīrghadhī*). They are kings, mighty (*kṣatriya*), vast (*uru*), deep (*gabhīra*), inviolable (*ariṣṭa*), having fixed ordinances (*dhṛtavrata*), blameless (*anavadhya*), sinless (*avṛjina*), pure (*dhārapūta*), holy (*ṛtāvan*).

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The name is clearly a metronymic formation from that of their mother Aditi, with whom they are naturally often invoked. This is also one of the three derivations given by Yāska (Nir. 2, 13, cp. TA. 1, 14¹).

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The greater gods belonging to the group have already been dealt with separately, but the lesser Ādityas having hardly any individuality may best be described here in succession.

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Aryaman¹⁰ though mentioned about 100 times in the RV. is so destitute of individual characteristics, that in the Naighaṇṭuka he is passed over in the list of gods. Except in two passages, he is always mentioned with other deities, in the great majority of cases with Mitra and Varuṇa. In less than a dozen passages the word has only the appellative senses of 'comrade' and 'groomsman', which are occasionally also connected with the god. Thus Agni is once addressed with the words: 'Thou art Aryaman when (the wooer) of maidens' (5, 3²). The derivative adjective *aryamya*, 'relating to a comrade', once occurs as a parallel to *mitrya*, 'relating to a friend' (5, 85⁷). Thus the conception of Aryaman seems to have differed but little from that of the greater Āditya Mitra, 'the Friend'. The name goes back to the Indo-Iranian period, as it occurs in the Avesta.

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One hymn of the RV. (7, 41) is devoted chiefly to the praise of Bhaga¹¹, though some other deities are invoked in it as well; and the name of the god occurs over sixty times. The word means 'dispenser, giver' and appears to be used in this sense more than a score of times attributively, in several cases with the name of Savitṛ¹². The god is also regularly conceived in the Vedic hymns as a distributor of wealth, comparisons with Bhaga being generally intended to express glorification of Indra's and Agni's bounty. The word *bhaga* also occurs about twenty times in the RV. with the sense of 'bounty, wealth, fortune', and the ambiguity is sometimes played upon. Thus in one passage (7, 41²) where Bhaga is called the distributor (*vidhartā*), it is stated that men say of the god, 'May I share in Bhaga' (*bhagaṁ bhakṣi*). In another verse (5, 46⁶) in which he is termed the 'dispenser' (*vibhaktā*, derived from the same root *bhaj*), he is invoked to be full of bounty (*bhagavān*) to his worshippers.

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Dawn is Bhaga's sister (1, 123⁵). Bhaga's eye is adorned with rays (1, 136²), and hymns rise up to Viṣṇu as on Bhaga's path (3, 54¹⁴). Yāska describes Bhaga as presiding over the forenoon (Nir. 12, 13). The Iranian form of the name is *bagha*, 'god', which occurs as an epithet of Ahura Mazda. The word is even Indo-European¹³, since it occurs in Old Church Slavonic as *bogŭ* in the sense of 'god'. There is no reason to suppose that it designated any individual god in the Indo-European period, for it cannot have attained a more specialized sense than 'bountiful god', if indeed it meant more than merely 'bountiful giver'.

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The word Aṁśa, which occurs less than a dozen times in the RV., is almost synonymous with *bhaga*, expressing both the concrete sense of ‘share, portion’ and that of ‘apportioner’. It is found but three times as the name of a god¹⁴, only one of these passages stating anything about him besides his name. Agni is here said to be Aṃśa, a bountiful (*bhājayu*) god at the feast’ (2, 1⁴).

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¹⁴ Roth, ZDMG. 6, 75; BRI. 19. —

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Dakṣa¹⁵ is mentioned hardly more than half a dozen times in the RV. as the name of a god. The word occurs more frequently as an adjective meaning ‘dexterous, strong, clever, intelligent’, applied to Agni (3, 14⁷) and Soma (9, 61¹⁸ &c.), or as a substantive in the sense of ‘dexterity, strength, cleverness, understanding’. The name of the personification therefore appears to mean the ‘dexterous’ or ‘clever’ god. Excepting the verse (2, 27¹) which enumerates the six Ādityas, he is mentioned only in the first and tenth books. In one passage (1, 89³) he is referred to with other Ādityas, and in another (10, 64⁵) with Mitra, Varuṇa, and Aryaman, Aditi also being spoken of in connexion with his birth. In a cosmogonic hymn (10, 72⁴·⁵) Dakṣa is said to have sprung from Aditi, when it is immediately added that Aditi sprang from him and is his daughter, the gods being born afterwards. In another verse (10, 5⁷) it is stated that the existent and non-existent were in the womb of Aditi, in the birthplace of Dakṣa. Thus the last two passages seem to regard Aditi and Dakṣa as universal parents. The paradox of children producing their own parents has been shown (p. 12) to be not unfamiliar to the poets of the RV. The manner in which it came to be applied in this particular case seems to be as follows. The Ādityas are spoken of as ‘gods who have intelligence for their father’ (6, 50²), the epithet (*dakṣapitarā*) being also applied to Mitra-Varuṇa, who in the same verse (7, 66²) are called ‘very intelligent’ (*sudakṣa*). The expression is made clearer by another passage (8, 25⁵), where Mitra-Varuṇa are termed ‘sons of intelligence’ (*sūnū dakṣasya*) as well as ‘children of great might’ (*napātā śavaso mahaḥ*). The juxtaposition of the latter epithets shows that *dakṣa* is here not a personification but the abstract word used as in Agni’s epithets ‘father of skill’ (*dakṣasya pitṛ*: 3, 27⁹) or ‘son of strength’ (§§ 8, 35). This conclusion is confirmed by the fact that ordinary human sacrificers are called *dakṣápitaraḥ*, ‘having skill for their father’ (8, 52¹⁰). Such expressions probably brought about the personification of Dakṣa as the father of the Ādityas and his association with Aditi. In the TS. the gods in general are called *dakṣapitarah*, and in the ŚB. (2, 4, 4²) Dakṣa is identified with the creator Prajāpati.

Cites (9)

Ṛgvedasaṃhitā — Sanskrit
Śatapathabrāhmaṇa — Yājñavalkya & Śāṇḍilya (Vedic teacher), Sanskrit
Kṛṣṇayajurvedasaṃhitā — Sanskrit
Nirukta — Yāska, Sanskrit
Atharvavedasaṃhitā — Atharvan & Aṅgiras, Sanskrit
Kṛṣṇayajurvedasaṃhitā — Sanskrit
Taittirīyabrāhmaṇa — Sanskrit
Śuklayajurvedasaṃhitā — Sanskrit
Taittirīyāraṇyaka — Sanskrit