Vedic Mythology c5.s2.t6.9

c5.s2.t6.9

As the shedder of rain Parjanya is naturally in a special degree the producer and nourisher of vegetation. When he quickens the earth with his seed, the plants spring up; in his activity are plants of every form; he has produced plants for nourishment (5, 834. 5. 10, cp. 6, 52⁶; AV. 4, 152. 3. 15; 8, 7²¹). He is the fructifier and increaser of plants; protected by the god they bear good fruit (7, 1011. 5). Reeds and grass are produced by his action (7, 102¹, cp. 5, 75¹⁵; AV. 1, 2¹. 3¹; 19, 30⁵). Parjanya places the germ not only in plants but in cows, mares, and women (7, 102²), and is invoked to bestow fertility (5, 83⁷ cp. 6, 52¹⁶). He is the bull that impregnates everything: in him is the soul of what moves and stands (7, 101⁶; cp. 1, 115¹). He is even described as a self-dependent sovereign, who rules over the whole world, in whom all beings and the three heavens are established, and in whom the threefold waters flow (7, 1012. 4. 5). Owing to his generative activity Parjanya several times receives the epithet of 'father' (7, 101³; 9, 82³; AV. 4, 15¹²; 12, 1¹²). He is once called 'our divine (*asura*) father' (5, 83⁶); and in another passage 'the occult power of the Asura' (5, 633. 7) perhaps refers to him.