Vedic Mythology c5.s4.13

c5.s4.13

§ 39. Viśvakarman, Prajāpati. — A few other abstract deities originating in compound epithets and all representing the supreme god who was being evolved at the end of the Rigvedic period, are found in the RV. As the name of a god Viśvakarman occurs only five times in the RV. and always in the tenth book. Two whole hymns (10, 81. 82) are dedicated to his praise. The word also occurs as an attribute once (8, 87²) of Indra and once (10, 170⁴) of the Sun as the 'all-creating'. It is not uncommon as an adjective in the later Vedas, where it also appears as an attribute of Prajāpati (VS. 12, 61). The two hymns of the RV. describe Viśvakarman thus. He is all-seeing, having eyes, as well as a face, arms, and feet, on every side. (In this the Brahmā of later mythology, who is four-faced and four-armed, resembles him.) He is also provided with wings. He is a seer, a priest, our father. He is a lord of speech (*vācas pati*), swift as thought, beneficent, the source of all prosperity. He knows all places and beings, and he alone gives their names to the gods. He is wise and energetic, the highest apparition (*paramā saṃdṛk*). He is an establisher (*dhātṛ*) and a disposer (*vidhātṛ*), having produced the earth and disclosed the sky. It seems likely that the word was at first attached as an epithet chiefly to the sun-god, but in the later Rigvedic period became one of the almost synonymous names given to the one god (10, 81³) the conception of whom was then being tentatively evolved, and who as Viśvakarman was, owing to the name, mainly thought of in his architechtonic aspect¹. Viśvakarman in the Brāhmaṇas is expressly identified with the creator Prajāpati (ŚB. 8, 2, 1¹⁰. 3¹³, cp. AB. 4, 22). In post-Vedic times he was conceived as the artificer of the gods.