Vedic Mythology c5.s2.t1.4

c5.s2.t1.4

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'.