Vedic Mythology c5.s6.2.1

c5.s6.2.1

There can be little doubt that the analogy for this favourite formation was furnished by Dyāvāpṛthivī, Heaven and Earth², the pair which to early thought appeared so indissolubly connected in nature, that the myth of their conjugal union is found widely diffused among primitive peoples³ and has therefore probably come down to the Veda from a period anterior to that immediately preceding the separation of the Indo-European nations. In the RV. itself this couple is so closely associated that while they are invoked as a pair in six hymns, not one is devoted to the praise of Dyaus alone and only one of three verses to that of Pṛthivī. So hard was it for the poets to dissociate the two, that even in this hymn Pṛthivī is praised for sending the rain of heaven from her cloud (5, 84³). The dual compound, moreover, occurs much more frequently than the name of Dyaus as a god. It occurs, including the comparatively rare synonyms *Dyā́vākṣā́mā* and *Dyā́vābhū́mī*, about a hundred times, or more frequently than the name of any other pair. Heaven and Earth are also called *rodasī*, the two worlds (spoken of as sisters, 1, 185⁵, owing to the gender of the word), an expression occurring at least a hundred times in the RV. Heaven and Earth are parents, being often styled *pitarā*, *mātarā*, *janitrī*, and also separately addressed as father and mother (1, 159¹⁻³. 160²). They are primeval parents (7, 53²; 10, 65⁸). Their marriage is referred to in the AB. (4, 27⁵⁻⁶)⁴.