Vedic Mythology c5.s3.t4.31

c5.s3.t4.31

Soma has been brought from heaven (9, 63²⁷. 66³⁰). The myth most commonly expressive of this belief is that of Soma and the eagle. It was brought by the eagle (1, 80²). The bird brought Soma from that highest heaven (4, 26⁶). The eagle brought the Soma or mead (*madhu*) to Indra (3, 43⁷; 4, 18¹³). The swift eagle flew to the Soma plant (5, 45⁹); the eagle tore off the sweet stalk for Indra (4, 20⁶). The eagle brought it for Indra through the air with his foot (8, 71⁹). Flying swift as thought, the bird broke through the iron castle (cp. 4, 27¹), going to heaven he brought the Soma for the wielder of the bolt (8, 89⁸). The eagle bore the plant from afar, from heaven (9, 68⁶. 77². 86²⁴; 10, 11⁴. 99⁸. 144⁴). The myth is most fully dealt with in RV. 4, 26 and 27⁵⁰. In the Brāhmaṇas it is Gāyatrī, a mystical sacerdotal name of Agni⁵¹, that carries off the Soma. In the RV. the eagle is constantly distinguished from Indra as bringing the Soma to him. There is only one passage (unconnected with this myth) in which Indra seated at the Soma offering is called an eagle (10, 99⁸). 'Eagle of heaven' is an epithet applied to Agni (7, 15⁴: otherwise twice said of the Maruts), the term eagle is connected with Agni Vaidyuta or lightning (TB. 3, 10, 5¹ cp. 12, 1²), and Agni is often called a bird in the RV. (p. 89). On this evidence Bloom-field, who subjects his predecessors' interpretations of RV. 4, 27 to a searching criticism, with much plausibility explains the carrying off of Soma by the eagle as a mythological account of the simple phenomenon of the descent of lightning, darting from the cloud (i. e. the iron castle) and causing the fall of the ambrosial fluid Soma (i. e. the water of the cloud). At the same time he refers to a passage of the RV. (1, 93⁶) in which the descent of fire and of Soma are mentioned together⁵². A detail of the myth (probably a mere embellishment added by the individual poet) is the trait that as the eagle carried away Soma, the archer Kṛśānu⁵³ shot at him knocking out a feather (4, 273·4; cp. AB. 3, 25). This trait is related with greater detail in the Brāhmaṇas. Either a feather or a claw is here stated to have been shot off. Falling to the ground, it became a *parṇa* (*palāśa*) or a *śalyaka* tree. The tree hereby acquired a specially sacred character in connexion with the ritual⁵⁴.