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Vedic Mythology c5.s2.t1: § 23. Trita Āptya

Vedic Mythology c5.s2.t1

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§ 23. Trita Āptya

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Trita Āptya is not celebrated in any entire hymn of the RV. but is only incidentally mentioned there in forty passages occurring in twenty-nine hymns. The epithet Āptya accompanies or alternates with Trita seven times in four hymns of the RV. (1, 109; 5, 41; 8, 47; 10, 8). He is oftenest mentioned or associated with Indra; he is seven times connected or identified with Agni, is several times spoken of with the Maruts, and ten times with Soma either as the beverage or the deity. Trita is mentioned alone as having rent Vṛtra by the power of the Soma draught (1, 187¹).

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The Maruts aided Trita and Indra in the victory over Vṛtra (8, 7²⁴). Such action must have been regarded as characteristic of Trita, for it is mentioned as an illustration. When Indra in the Vṛtra fight strove against the withholder of rain, he cleft him as Trita cleaves the fences of Vala (1, 52⁴·⁵). So again the man who is aided by Indra-Agni, pierces rich strongholds like Trita (5, 86¹). Trita Āptya knowing his paternal weapons and urged by Indra fought against and slew the three-headed son of Tvaṣṭṛ and released the cows (10, 8⁸). In the following stanza Indra performs exactly the same feat; for he strikes off the three heads of Viśvarūpa the son of Tvaṣṭṛ and takes possession of the cows. Indra (or perhaps Agni) subdued the loudly roaring three-headed six-eyed demon and Trita strengthened by his might slew the boar (i. e. the demon, cp. 1, 121¹¹) with iron-pointed bolt (10, 99⁶). Here the feat performed by the two gods is again identical. Indra produced cows for Trita from the dragon (10, 48²). Indra delivered over Viśvarūpa the son of Tvaṣṭṛ to Trita (2, 11¹⁹). Indra strengthened by the Soma-pressing Trita, cast down Arbuda and with the Aṅgirases rent Vala (2, 11²⁰). When the mighty Maruts go forth and the lightnings flash, Trita thunders and the waters roar (5, 54²). In two obscure passages of a Marut hymn (2, 34) the bright path of the Maruts is said to shine forth when Trita appears (v. 10) and Trita seems to be conceived as bringing the Maruts on his car (v. 14). In an Agni hymn the winds are said to have found Trita, instructing him to help them (10, 115⁴). The flames of Agni rise when Trita in the sky blows upon him like a smelter and sharpens him as in a smelting furnace (5, 9⁵). Trita eagerly seeking him (Agni) found him on the head of the cow; he when born in houses becomes as a youth the centre of brightness, establishing himself in dwellings. Trita enveloped (in flames) seated himself within his place (10, 46³·⁶). Trita is spoken of as in heaven (5, 9⁵). His abode is secret (9, 102²). It is remote; for the Ādityas and Uṣas are prayed to remove ill deeds and evil dreams to Trita Āptya (8, 47¹³⁻⁷). It seems to be in the region of the sun. For the poet says: 'Where those seven rays are, there my origin is extended; Trita Āptya knows that; he speaks for kinship': which seems to mean that he claims kinship with it (1, 105⁹). In the same hymn (v. 17) Trita is described as buried in a well (*kūpe*) and praying to the gods for help; Bṛhaspati heard him and released him from his distress. In another passage (10, 87) Trita within a pit (*vavre*) prays to his father and goes forth claiming his paternal weapons; and in the next stanza (10, 8⁸) he fights with Viśvarūpa. Indra is said to drink Soma beside Viṣṇu, Trita Āptya, or the Maruts (8, 12¹⁶) and to delight in a hymn of praise beside Trita (Vāl. 4¹). In the ninth book, doubtless owing to its peculiar character, Trita appears in the special capacity of a preparer of Soma, a feature alluded to only once in the rest of the RV. (2, 11²⁰). Soma is purified by Trita (9, 34⁴). Trita's maidens (the fingers) urge the tawny drop with stones for Indra to drink (9, 32². 38²). Soma occupies the secret place near the two pressing stones of Trita (9, 102²) and is besought to bring wealth in a stream on the ridges (*pṛṣṭheṣu*) of Trita (9, 102³). Soma caused the sun along with the sisters to shine on the summit (*sānu*) of Trita (9, 37⁴). They press out the stalk, the bull that dwells on the mountains, who, like a buffalo, is purified on the summit; hymns accompany him as he roars; Trita cherishes (him who is like) Varuṇa in the ocean (9, 95⁴). When Soma pours the mead, he calls up the name of Trita (9, 86²⁰).

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There are several passages from which little or nothing can be gathered as to Trita's original nature. Thus his name occurs in some enumerations which furnish no information (2, 31⁶; 5, 41⁴; 10, 64³). In two other verses (5, 41⁹˙ ¹⁰) the interpretation is uncertain, as the text seems to be corrupt. In one passage in the middle of a Varuṇa hymn Trita is described as one in whom all wisdom is centred, as the nave in the wheel (8, 41⁶). In another passage Trita is said to have harnessed a celestial steed fashioned from the sun and given by Yama, this steed being in the following stanza said to be identical with Yama, the Sun, and with Trita 'by secret operation' (1, 163²˙ ³). The half dozen passages of the AV.¹ which mention Trita, add no definite information about him. They suggest only the idea of a remote god, to whom guilt or dream is transferred (1, 113¹˙ ³; 19, 56⁴). The TS. (1, 8, 10²) describes Trita as a bestower of long life. This is no doubt a secondary trait² accruing to Trita as the preparer of Soma, the draught of immortality. The Brāhmaṇas speak of Trita as one of three deities, the other two being Ekata and Dvita, sons of Agni and born from the waters (ŚB. 1, 2, 3¹˙ ²; TB. 3, 2, 8¹⁰˙ ¹¹). Sāyaṇa on RV. 1, 105 quotes a story of the Sāṭyāyanins, in which the same three brothers are Ṛṣis, Trita being cast into a well by the other two. It is clear that here the three names have a numerical sense. Dvita already occurs in the RV., once along with Trita (8, 47¹⁶) and once alone in an Agni hymn (5, 18²) and apparently identified with Agni. The name of Trita is not mentioned in the list of deities in the Naighaṇṭuka. Yāska (Nir. 4, 6) explains the word to mean 'very proficient in wisdom' (deriving it from √tr), or as a numeral referring to the three brothers Ekata, Dvita, Trita. In another passage (Nir. 9, 25) he explains Trita as 'Indra in three abodes' (i. e. heaven, earth, air).

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In examining the evidence of the RV. we find that Indra and Trita in three or four passages perform the same feat, that of slaying a demon. Trita in one is impelled by Indra, while in another Indra is inspired by Trita; and twice Indra is said to have acted for Trita. Further, Trita is associated with the Maruts in the thunderstorm. Moreover, he finds Agni, kindles Agni in heaven, and takes up his abode in human dwellings, clearly as a form of Agni. His abode is remote and hidden, and Soma is there. In the ninth book Trita as the preparer of Soma diverges more from Indra, who is only a drinker of Soma. Corresponding to Trita in the Avesta we find Thrita, who is a man (as Trita becomes in the Indian Epic). He is once (Yasna 9, 10) described as the third man who prepared Haoma (= Soma) for the corporeal world (Āthwya = Āptya being the second) and once (Vend. 20, 2) as the first healer who received from Ahura Mazda ten thousand healing plants which grow round the white Haoma, the tree of immortality. Thrita is also called the son of Sāyuzhdri in two passages (Yasht 5, 72; 13, 113) in one of which he is said to have dwelt in Apãm napāṭ (as a locality on earth)³. This shows that Trita was connected with Soma as early as the Indo-Iranian period. The other side of Trita's activity, the slaughter of the three-headed six-eyed demon or dragon we find in the Avesta transferred to a cognate personage, Thraetaona, who slays the fiendish serpent (*Azi dahāka*), the three-mouthed, three-headed, six-eyed demon. It is noteworthy that Thraetaona in his expedition against Dahāka is accompanied by two brothers who seek to slay him on the way⁴. The word *tritá* phonetically corresponds to the Greek τρίτος⁵, the third. That it was felt to have the meaning of 'the third', is shown by the occurrence beside it of Dvita in the RV. and by the invention of Ekata beside these two in the Brāhmaṇas. The collocation of *trīṇi*, three, with Trita (RV. 9, 102³; AV. 5, 1¹⁾ points in the same direction. Finally, it is highly probable that in one passage of the RV. (6, 44²³)⁶ the word *trita* in the plural means 'third'.

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¹ See Whitney's AV. Index verborum, s. v. Tṛta.

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⁴ SP. AP. 271.

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⁵ Brugmann, Grundriss 2, 229; according to Fick, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch 14, 63. 229, Trita originally meant sea.

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⁶ ORV. 183, n.; cp. Pott, KZ. 4, 441.

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Trita's regular epithet Āptya seems to be derived from *āp*, water, and hence to be practically equivalent in sense to Apāṁ napāt⁷. Sāyaṇa (on RV. 8, 47¹⁵) explains it as 'son (*putra*) of waters'. Another epithet of Trita, *vaibhūvasa*, which is formed like a patronymic and only occurs once (10, 46³) may be connected with Soma⁸.

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³ SP. AP. 193.

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⁷ Cp. Johansson, IF. 4, 136. 143.

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⁸ JRAS. 25, 450.

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The above evidence may perhaps justify the conclusion that Trita was a god of lightning, the third or aerial form of fire, originally the middle member of the triad Agni, Vāyu or Indra, Sūrya. By a process of natural selection Indra seems to have ousted this god originally almost identical in character with himself, with the result that Trita occupies but an obscure position even in the RV. If this interpretation be correct, Trita's original connexion with Soma would signify the bringing of Soma from heaven by lightning (as in the Soma-eagle myth: § 37). The paucity of the evidence has led to many divergent views⁹. Only some of these need be mentioned here. Roth (ZDMG. 2, 224) considered Trita a water and wind god. Hillebrandt¹⁰ regards him as a deity of the bright sky. Perry believes him to be a god of the storm, older than Indra¹¹. Pischel who formerly (PVS. 1, 186) thought him to be 'a god of the sea and of the waters' has recently (GGA. 1894, p. 428) expressed the opinion that Trita was originally a human healer who was later deified. Hardy thinks Trita is a moon god¹².

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² Otherwise Pischel, GGA. 1894, p. 427.

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⁹ Stated up to date in JRAS. 25, 4, 19—23.

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¹⁰ Varuṇa und Mitra 94—5.

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¹¹ JAOS. 11, 142—5.

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¹² HVBP. 35—8. Macdonell, The god Trita; JRAS. 25, 419—96. To the authorities here quoted may be added: LRV. 3, 355—7; KRV. 33, note 112 d; BRI. 11; BDA. 82, n. 3; Sp.AP. 262—71; Bloomfield, AJP. 11, 341; PAOS. 1894, cxix—cxxiii; Ludwig, Ṛgveda-Forschung 117—9; Fay, PAOS. 1894, clxxiv; AJP. 17, 13; ORV. 143; SBE. 46, 406; HRI. 104; Oertel, JAOS. 18, 18—20.

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§ 24. Apāṁ napāt. — The deity called Apāṁ napāt is celebrated in one whole hymn (2, 35), is invoked in two verses of a hymn to the waters (10, 30³. ⁴), and is mentioned by name nearly thirty times altogether in the RV. The waters stood around the brilliant Son of waters; the youthful waters go around him the youthful; three divine females desire to give food to him the divine; he sucks the milk of the first mothers (2, 35³⁻⁵). He, the bull, engendered the embryo in them; he the child, sucks and they kiss him (v. ¹³); the Son of waters growing strong within the waters, shines forth (v. ⁷). He shines without fuel in the waters (v. ⁴; 10, 30⁴). Clothed in lightning the Son of waters has mounted upright the lap of the slanting (waters); carrying him the swift (waters) golden in colour go around him (v. ⁹; cp. Agni in 1, 95⁴. ⁵). The Son of waters is golden in form, appearance and colour; coming from a golden womb he sits down and gives food to his worshipper (v. ¹⁰). Standing in the highest place he always shines with undimmed (splendour); the swift waters carrying ghee as food to their son, fly around with their garments (v. ¹⁴). The face of the Son of waters, whom the maidens kindle, whose colour is golden, and whose food is ghee, increases in secret (v. ¹¹). He has a cow which in his own house gives good milk (v. ⁷). Steeds (*vṛṣaṇaḥ*) swift as thought carry the son of waters (1, 186⁵). The son of waters is connected with rivers (*nādya*: v. ¹). The son of waters has engendered all beings, who are merely branches of him (v. ²· ⁸). In the last stanza of the Apām napāt hymn, the deity is invoked as Agni and must be identified with him. Conversely Agni is in some hymns addressed to him, spoken of as Apām napāt (cp. VS. 8, 24). Agni is the Son of waters (3, 9¹). He is the Son of waters who sat down on earth as a dear priest (1, 143¹). But they are also distinguished. Agni, accordant with the Son of waters, confers victory over Vṛtra (6, 13³). The Son of waters unites here with the body of another as it were (2, 35¹³). The epithet *āśuheman*, 'swiftly speeding'¹, applied three times to Apām napāt, is in its only other occurrence used of Agni.

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Apām napāt is mentioned in various enumerations, especially with Aja ekapād (2, 31⁶; 7, 35¹³), Ahi budhnya (1, 186⁵; 2, 31⁶; 7, 35¹³), and Savitṛ (2, 31⁶; 6, 50¹³). The epithet is directly applied to Savitṛ at least once (p. 33), perhaps because Savitṛ represents another fertilizing form of Agni.

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Apām napāt, who is golden, is clothed in lightning, dwells in the highest place, grows in concealment, shines forth, is the offspring of the waters, comes down to earth, and is identified with Agni, appears to represent the lightning form of Agni which is concealed in the cloud. For Agni, besides being directly called Apām napāt, is also termed the embryo (*garbha*) of the waters (7, 9³; 1, 70³). As such he has been deposited in human dwellings (3, 5³), his abode is in the waters (8, 43⁹) and the two fire-sticks engender Agni who is the embryo both of plants and of waters (3, 1¹³). Agni is also called the 'son of the rock' (10, 20⁷ cp. 6, 48⁵), which can hardly refer to anything but the lightning which issues from the cloud mountain. As contrasted with his celestial and terrestrial forms, the third form of Agni is described as kindled in the waters, the ocean, the udder of heaven, the lap of the waters (10, 45¹⁻³). In fact the abode of the celestial Agni in the waters is one of the best established points in Vedic mythology². The term Āptya applied to Trita appears to bear a similar interpretation (§ 23).

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¹ Windisch, FaR. 144.

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² Cp. especially RV. 3, 1 (GVS. 1, 157—70); also 5, 85²; 7, 49⁴; 10, 9⁶.

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Apām napāt is not a creation of Indian mythology, but goes back to the Indo-Iranian period. In the Avesta Apãm napāṭ is a spirit of the waters, who lives in their depths, is surrounded by females and is often invoked with them, drives with swift steeds, and is said to have seized the brightness in the depth of the ocean³. Spiegel⁴ thinks this deity shows indications of an igneous nature in the Avesta, and Darmesteter considers him to be the fire-god as born from the cloud in lightning⁵. L. v. Schroeder agrees with this view⁶; some scholars, however, dissent from it. Oldenberg⁷ is of opinion that Apām napāt was originally a water genius pure and simple, who became confused with the water-born Agni, a totally different being. His grounds are, that one of the two hymns in which he is celebrated (10, 30), is connected in the ritual with ceremonies exclusively concerned with water, while even in 2, 35 his aqueous nature predominates⁸. Hillebrandt⁹, on the other hand, followed by Hardy¹⁰, thinks Apām napāt is the moon, and Max Müller¹¹ that he is the sun or lightning.

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³ Cp. HVM. 1, 377—8.

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⁴ Sp.AP. 192—3.

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⁵ SBE. 4², lxiii; l'Avesta traduit 2, 630, note, 3, 82 (cp. Ormazd et Ahriman 34); but see Hillebrandt, ZDMG. 48, 422.

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⁶ WZKM. 9, 227—8.

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⁷ ORV. 118—20, cp.
357. — 8 Cp. v. SCHROEDER, WZKM. 1. c.; MACDONELL, JRAS. 27, 955—6. — 9 HVM. 1, 365—80; ZDMG. 48, 422 f. — 10 HVBP. 38 f. — 11 Chips, 4^2, 410; NR. 500. RIALLE, Revue de Ling. 3, 49 ff.; WINDISCHMANN in SPIEGEL'S Zoroastrische Studien 177—86; SPIEGEL, Avesta Tr. 3, xix. Liv; GRV. 1, 45; BRV. 2, 17—19. 36—7; 3, 45; Manuel pour étudier le Sanscrit védique, s. v. apām napāt; LRV. 4, 181; GRUPPE, Die griech. Culte 1, 89; BDA. 82, note 2; LRF. 93; MACDONELL, JRAS. 25, 475—6; HRI. 106.

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