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Vedic Mythology c5.s1.t7: § 20. Uṣas

Vedic Mythology c5.s1.t7

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§ 20. Uṣas

c5.s1.t7.1

—Uṣas, goddess of Dawn, is celebrated in about 20 hymns of the RV. and mentioned more than 300 times. Owing to the identity of name, the personification is but slight, the physical phenomenon of dawn never being absent from the poet’s mind, when the goddess is addressed. Uṣas is the most graceful creation of Vedic poetry and there is no more charming figure in the descriptive religious lyrics of any other literature. The brightness of her form has not been obscured by priestly speculation nor has the imagery as a rule been marred by references to the sacrifice. Arraying herself in gay attire, like a dancer, she displays her bosom (1, 92⁴, cp. 6, 64²). Like a maiden decked by her mother she shows her form (1, 123¹¹). Clothed in light the maiden appears in the east, and unveils her charms (1, 124³˙⁴). Effulgent in peerless beauty she withholds her light from neither small nor great (ib. ⁶). Rising resplendent as from a bath, showing her charms she comes with light, driving away the darkness (5, 80⁵˙⁶). She is young, being born again and again, though ancient; shining with an uniform hue, she wastes away the life of mortals (1, 92¹⁰). As she has shone in former days, so she shines now and will shine in future, never aging, immortal (1, 113¹³˙¹⁵). The maiden coming again awakes before all the world (1, 123²). Ever shortening the ages of men, she shines forth, the last of the dawns that have always gone, the first of those to come¹ (1, 124²). Like a wheel she revolves ever anew (3, 61³). She awakens creatures that have feet and makes the birds to fly up: she is the breath and life of everything (1, 48⁵˙¹⁰. 49³). She awakens every living being to motion (1, 92⁹; 7, 77¹). The Dawns waken the sleeping and urge the living, the two-footed and the four-footed, to motion (4, 51⁵). When Uṣas shines forth, the birds fly up from their nests, and men seek nourishment (1, 124¹²). She reveals the paths of men, wakening the five tribes (7, 79¹). She manifests all beings and bestows new life (7, 80¹˙²). She drives away evil dreams to Trita Āptya (8, 47¹⁴˙¹⁶). She removes the black robe of night (1, 113¹⁴). She dispels the darkness (6, 64³. 65²). She wards off evil spirits and the hated darkness (7, 75¹). She discloses the treasures concealed by darkness and distributes them bountifully (1, 123⁴˙⁶). She illumines the ends of the sky when she awakes (1, 92¹¹). She opens the gates of heaven (1, 48¹⁵. 113⁴). She opens the doors of darkness as the cows their stall (1, 92⁴). Her radiant beams appear like herds of cattle (4, 52²⁻⁴). She is visible afar, spreading out cattle (*paśūn*) as it were (1, 92¹²). The ruddy beams fly up, the ruddy cows yoke themselves, the ruddy dawns weave their web (of light) as of old (ib. ²). Thus Uṣas comes to be called ‘mother of kine’² (4, 52²˙³; 7, 77²).

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Day by day appearing at the appointed place, she never infringes the ordinance of order and of the gods (1, 92¹². 123⁹. 124²; 7, 76⁵); she goes straight along the path of order, knowing the way she never loses her direction (5, 80⁴). She renders good service to the gods by causing all worshippers to awake and the sacrificial fires to be kindled (1, 113⁹). She is besought to arouse only the devout and liberal worshipper, leaving the ungodly niggard to sleep on (1, 124¹⁰; 4, 51³). Worshippers are however sometimes spoken of as wakening her instead of being awakened by her (4, 52⁴ &c.), and the Vasiṣṭhas claim to have first wakened her with their hymns (7, 80¹). She is once asked not to delay, that the sun may not scorch her as a thief or an enemy (5, 79⁹). She is besought to bring the gods to drink Soma (1, 48¹²). Hence probably, the gods are often described as ‘waking with Uṣas’ (1, 14⁹ &c.).

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Uṣas is borne on a car which is shining (7, 78¹), brilliant (1, 23⁷), bright (3, 61²), well-adorned (1, 49²), all-adorning (7, 75⁶), massive (1, 48¹⁰ &c.), and spontaneously-yoked (7, 78⁴). She is also said to arrive on a hundred chariots (1, 48⁷). She is drawn by steeds which are ruddy (7, 75⁶ &c.), easily guided (3, 61²), regularly-yoked (4, 51⁵), or is said to be resplendent with steeds (5, 79¹⁻¹⁰). She is also described as being drawn by ruddy kine or bulls (*gō*: 1, 92². 124¹¹; 5, 80³). Both the horses and the cows probably represent the ruddy rays of morning light³; but the cows are generally explained as the red morning clouds. The distance the dawns traverse in a day is 30 *yojanas* (1, 123⁸).

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As is to be expected, Uṣas is closely associated with the sun. She has opened paths for Sūrya to travel (1, 113¹⁶). She brings the eye of the gods and leads on the beautiful white horse (7, 77³). She shines with the light of the sun (1, 113⁹), with the light of her lover (1, 92¹¹). Savitṛ shines after the path of Uṣas (5, 81²). Sūrya follows her as a young man a maiden (1, 115²). She meets the god who desires her (1, 123¹⁰). She is the wife of Sūrya (7, 75⁵); the Dawns are the wives of the Sun (4, 5¹³). Thus as followed in space by the sun, she is conceived as his wife or mistress. But as preceding the sun in time she is occasionally thought of as his mother (cp. p. 35). She has generated Sūrya, sacrifice, Agni (7, 78³). She has been produced (*prasūtā*) for the production (*savāya*) of Savitṛ, and arrives with a bright child (1, 113¹⋅²). Uṣas is the sister of the Āditya Bhaga (1, 123⁵; cp. p. 45) and the kinswoman (*jāmi*) of Varuṇa (1, 123⁵). She is also the sister (1, 113²⋅³; 10, 127³) or the elder sister (1, 124⁸) of Night; and the names of Dawn and Night are often conjoined as a dual compound (*uṣāsā-naktā* or *naktoṣāsā*). Uṣas is born in the sky (7, 75¹); and the place of her birth suggests the relationship most frequently mentioned in the RV.: she is constantly called the daughter of heaven (1, 30²² &c.)⁴. She is once also spoken of as the beloved (*priyā*) of heaven (1, 46¹).

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The sacrificial fire being regularly kindled at dawn, Agni is naturally often associated with Uṣas in this connexion, sometimes not without a side-glance at the sun, the manifestation of Agni which appears simultaneously with the kindling of the sacrificial fire (1, 124¹⋅¹¹ &c.)⁵. Agni appears with or before the Dawn. Uṣas causes Agni to be kindled (1, 113⁹). He is thus like the sun sometimes called her lover (1, 69¹; 7, 10¹, cp. 10, 3³). He goes to meet the shining Uṣas as she comes, asking her for fair riches (3, 61⁶). Uṣas is naturally also often connected with the twin gods of the early morning, the Aśvins (1, 44² &c.). They accompany her (1, 183²) and she is their friend (4, 52²⋅³). She is invoked to arouse them (8, 9¹⁷), and her hymn is said to have awakened them (3, 58¹). When the Aśvins' car is yoked, the daughter of the sky is born (10, 39¹²). Uṣas is once associated with the moon, which being born ever anew goes before the dawns as harbinger of day (10, 85¹⁹).

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Various gods are described as having produced or discovered the dawns. Indra who is characteristically a winner of light, is said to have generated or lighted up Uṣas (2, 12⁷ &c.). But he is sometimes also hostile to her, being described as shattering her wain (§ 22). Soma made the dawns bright at their birth (6, 39³) and constituted them the wives of a good husband (6, 44²³), as Agni does (7, 6⁵). Bṛhaspati discovered the Dawn, the sky (*svar*), and Agni, repelling the darkness with light (10, 68⁹). The ancient Fathers, companions of the gods, by efficacious hymns discovered the hidden light and generated Uṣas (7, 76⁴).

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The goddess is often implored to dawn on the worshipper or bring to him wealth and children, to bestow protection and long life (1, 30²². 48¹ &c.), to confer renown and glory on all the liberal benefactors of the poet (5, 79⁶, cp. 1, 48⁴). Her adorers ask from her riches and desire to be to her as sons to a mother (7, 81⁴). The soul of the dead man goes to the sun and to Uṣas (10, 58⁸), and by the ruddy ones in whose lap the Fathers are said to be seated, the Dawns are doubtless meant (10, 15⁷).

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Besides the sixteen enumerated in the Naighaṇṭuka (1, 8) Uṣas has many other epithets. She is resplendent, shining, bright, white, ruddy, golden-hued, of brilliant bounty, born in law, most Indra-like, divine, immortal⁶. She is characteristically bountiful (*maghonī*: ZDMG. 50, 440).

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The name of Uṣas is derived from the root *vas* to shine and is radically cognate to Aurora and Ἠώς (p. 8)⁷.

Cites (2)