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Original Sanskrit Texts on the Origin and History of the People of India, their Religion and Institutions v5: Volume 5

Original Sanskrit Texts on the Origin and History of the People of India, their Religion and Institutions v5

Language
English

Contents

Volume 5

Front matter

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in 2016

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https://archive.org/details/originalsanskrit05muir_0

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An empty page (blank leaf).

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ON THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, THEIR RELIGION AND INSTITUTIONS.

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COLLECTED, TRANSLATED, AND ILLUSTRATED

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BY J. MUIR, D.C.L., LL.D., PH.D.

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VOLUME FIFTH. CONTRIBUTIONS TO A KNOWLEDGE OF THE COSMOGONY, MYTHOLOGY, RELIGIOUS IDEAS, LIFE AND MANNERS, OF THE INDIANS IN THE VEDIC AGE.

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LONDON: TRÜBNER & CO., 8 AND 60, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1872. (*All rights reserved.*)

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Οὐ γὰρ οὖν οὐδὲ ἄψυχον ἀνθρώποις ὁ θεὸς ὑποχείριον· ἀπὸ τούτων δὲ τοὺς χρωμένους αὐτοῖς καὶ δωρουμένους ἡμῖν καὶ παρέχοντας ἀένναα καὶ διαρκῆ θεοὺς ἐνομίσαμεν, οὐχ ἑτέρους παρ’ ἑτέροις οὐδὲ βαρβάρους καὶ Ἕλληνας οὐδὲ νοτίους καὶ βορείους· ἀλλ’ ὥσπερ ἥλιος καὶ σελήνη καὶ οὐρανὸς καὶ γῆ καὶ θάλασσα κοινὰ πᾶσιν, ὀνομάζεται δὲ ἄλλως ὑπ’ ἄλλων, οὕτως ἑνὸς λόγου τοῦ ταῦτα κοσμοῦντος καὶ μιᾶς προνοίας ἐπιτροπευούσης, καὶ δυνάμεων ὑπουργῶν ἐπὶ πάντας τεταγμένων, ἕτεραι παρ’ ἑτέροις κατὰ νόμους γεγόνασι τιμαὶ καὶ προσηγορίαι· καὶ συμβόλοις χρῶνται, καθικώμενι μὲν ἀμυδροῖς, οἱ δὲ τρανωτέροις, ἐπὶ τὰ θεῖα τὴν νόησιν ὁδηγοῦντες οὐκ ἀκινδύνως. Ἔνιοι γὰρ ἀποσφαλέντες παντάπασιν εἰς δεισιδαιμονίαν ὤλισθον· οἱ δὲ φεύγοντες ὥσπερ ἕλος τὴν δεισιδαιμονίαν, ἔλαθον αὖθις ὥσπερ εἰς κρημνὸν ἐμπεσόντες τὴν ἀθεότητα.—Plutarch, de Iside et Osiride, section 67.

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[In opposition to those who represented Dionysos, the wine-god, as meaning merely wine, Hephaistos fire, Demeter corn, etc., Plutarch urges]:—

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“For the god is not a lifeless thing, subject to human handling and control. But from the fact that they dispose of, and bestow upon us, these objects, and preserve them to us perpetual and constant,

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In the present volume I have reprinted, with the addition of some new materials, subsequently collected, and of the texts on which they are founded, a series of papers on the theogony, mythology, and religious ideas of the Vedic poets, and other subjects, which originally appeared in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland for 1864, and the two following years: and I have appended a new section, on life and manners during the Vedic age.

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I have not thought it necessary to translate all the texts to which I have referred in proof of the representations I have made. To have done so would have extended the work to an unnecessary length, as numerous verses are cited for the sake of a single epithet. Some of the texts are rendered in full; but in many, perhaps most, cases I have contented myself with giving the substance of several passages of similar or identical purport.

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Nor have I considered it necessary to supply here any summary of the contents of the volume, such as was given in the prefaces to the third and fourth volumes, and in that to the second edition of the first volume. The summary given in the Table of Contents seems sufficiently ample to afford the reader the means of readily ascertaining what he may expect to find in the body of the work.

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I have tried to exhibit, in a metrical form, the substance of the ideas regarding Indra and some other deities, which are more fully illustrated in the prose sections.

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I should also further remark that in this volume I have attempted nothing more than to exhibit the most prominent features of the gods,—such as display themselves on the surface. It must remain for some more profound and critical scholar, after maturer investigation, to penetrate more deeply into the nature and essence of the Vedic mythology, to estimate and represent it in a more philosophical spirit, to investigate the age of the different hymns, and to determine how far it may be possible to trace in them a development of the mythology, from a simpler to a more complex state, or any other modification of its character or elements, even before it began to show any tendency towards monotheism.

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Meanwhile, and until the subject shall have been treated in a manner more befitting its importance, the materials which I have brought together, arranged, and interpreted, will enable those students of mythology who are themselves unable to consult the originals, to form, I trust, a not inaccurate, and a tolerably complete, conception of the character and attributes of the Indian deities in the earliest form in which they are represented to us by written records.

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v., vi. PREFACE. 1 — 7. INTRODUCTION.
2. (1) Affinities of the Indian and Grecian mythologies.
3. (2) Antiquity and peculiarity of the Vedic mythology.
4. (3) Origin of cosmogonic and mythological speculation.
6. (4) Variety in the conceptions of the Vedic poets.

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8 — 20. SECTION I. THE INDIAN GODS GENERALLY, AS REPRESENTED IN THE RIG-VEDA.
8. (1) Yāska's classification of the gods.
9. (2) Their number.
12. (3) Their origin and immortality.
16. (4) Different generations of gods and their mutual relations.
18. (5) Their powers and prerogatives.

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21 — 34. SECTION II. DYAUS AND PṚITHIVĪ (HEAVEN AND EARTH).
22. (1) Heaven and Earth described as the universal parents.
24. (2) Passages to the same effect from the classical authors.
30. (3) Heaven and Earth elsewhere spoken of as created.
32. (4) Speculations about their origin.

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35 — 53. SECTION III. ADITI.
35. (1) The epithets by which she is characterized.
37. (2) Origin of the conception of Aditi according to Professors Roth and Müller.

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37. (3) Aditi as the mother of the Ādityas.
38. (4) Is Aditi ever identified with the sky?
40. (5) Aditi seems to be distinguished from the Earth.
42. (6) Aditi and Diti.
43. (7) Aditi may be a personification of universal nature.
46. (8) Aditi as a forgiver of sin.
47. (9) Aditi's position is sometimes a subordinate one.
48. (10) Creation as described in Rig-veda, x. 72; birth of Aditi, Daksha, the gods, and the Ādityas.

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54—57. SECTION IV. THE ĀDITYAS.

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58—76*d*. SECTION V. MITRA AND VARUṆA.
58. (1) General idea of these two gods.
59. (2) Their chief characteristics.
61. (3) Functions and attributes of Varuṇa.
68. (4) Conjoint functions and attributes of Mitra and Varuṇa.
69. (5) Hymn addressed to Mitra alone.
69. (6) Professor Roth's remarks on Mitra and Varuṇa.
71. (7) The Indian Mitra and the Zoroastrian Mithra.
72. (8) Is there any historical connection between Varuṇa and Ahura Mazda?
72. (9) Varuṇa connected with the element of water, even in the Rig-veda.
75. (10) Explanations by Professors Roth and Westergaard of the process by which Varuṇa came to be regarded as the regent of the sea.
76. (11) Correspondence of Varuṇa with the Greek Uranos. 76*a*. (1) Varuṇa, as represented in the hymns,—a metrical sketch.

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77—139. SECTION VI. INDRA.
77. (1) His origin and parents; his wife.
83. (2) His attributes, physical and mental.
84. (3) His chariot and horses.
86. (4) His thunderbolt and other weapons and instruments.
88. (5) His love of soma-juice; his combats with the cloud-demons: explanation of the myth.

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98. (5*a*) Indra's greatness.
103. (6) His relations with his worshippers.
115. (7) Apparent mutual incongruity of some of the preceding representations of Indra.
116. (8) Professor Roth's theory of the supersession of the worship of Varuṇa by that of Indra.
118. (9) Supersession of Dyaus by Indra according to Professors Benfey and Bréal.
120. (10) Opinions of Professors Roth, Whitney, Spiegel, and Dr. F. Windischmann on the question whether Varuṇa and Ahura Mazda are historically connected.
121. (11) Whether there are any passages in the hymns which decisively show that Indra was superseding Varuṇa.
126. (12) Indra as represented in the hymns,—a metrical sketch. (1) Invitation of Indra to the sacrifice. (2) His birth. (3) His arrival. (4) Indra invited to drink the soma-draught. (5) Praise of Soma. (6) Indra's drinking song. (7) He drinks the libation. (8) Indra, attended by the Maruts, sets out to encounter Vṛitra. (9) His conflict with Vṛitra. (10) His greatness. (11) His relation to his worshippers.

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140—142. SECTION VII. PARJANYA.

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143—146. SECTION VIII. VĀYU.

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147—154. SECTION IX. THE MARUTS.
147. (1) Their parentage, epithets, characteristics, and action.
153. (2) Their relations to Indra, and the rival claims of the two parties.

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155—161. SECTION X. SŪRYA.
155. (1) The two sun-gods separately celebrated in the hymns.
157. (2) Sūrya's parentage, relations to the other gods, epithets, and functions.
158. (3) Subordinate position sometimes assigned to him.
159. (4) Translations in prose and verse of a hymn to Sūrya.

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162—170. SECTION XI. SAVITṚI.
162. (1) His epithets, characteristics, and functions.
165. (2) Passages in which the derivation of his name seems to be alluded to.
168. (3) Savitṛi sometimes distinguished from, sometimes identified with, Sūrya.

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171—180. SECTION XII. PŪSHAN.
171. (1) Functions and epithets of Pūshan.
174. (2) Hymns addressed to him (i. 42; vi. 53–vi. 58, and portions of others) quoted and translated.

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181—198. SECTION XIII. USHAS.
181. (1) Three hymns to Ushas (i. 48; i. 92; i. 113), and portions of others quoted and translated.
190. (2) Relations of Ushas to other deities.
193. (3) Her epithets, functions, and characteristics.
196. (4) Ushas, as represented in the hymns,—a metrical sketch.

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199—223. SECTION XIII A. AGNI.
199. (1) His functions.
204. (2) His births, and triple existence.
211. (3) His epithets and characteristics.
214. (4) High divine functions ascribed to him.
216. (5) His relations to his worshippers.
221. (6) Agni,—a metrical sketch.

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224—233. SECTION XIV. TVASHTṚI.
224. (1) His epithets, functions, and relations.
227. (2) His daughter and her wedding.
229. (3) Hostility of Indra and Tvashtṛi.

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234—257. SECTION XV. THE AŚVINS.
234. (1) Their character and parentage, their relations to Sūryā, their attributes and accompaniments.
235. (2) Legends regarding different persons delivered or favoured by them.

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248. (3) Their connection with other deities.
249. (4) Their relations to their worshippers.
250. (5) Legend of Chyavana and the Aśvins, according to the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa and the Mahābhārata.
255. (6) Remarks on the Aśvins by Professor Goldstücker.

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258—271. SECTION XVI. SOMA.
259. (1) Quotation from Euripides relating to the Greek god Dionysus.
261. (2) Prevalence and enthusiastic character of the ancient Soma-worship.
262. (3) How the soma-plant was brought to the earth.
264. (4) Soma's wives.
265. (5) Properties ascribed to the soma-plant or its presiding deity.
266. (6) Divine powers attributed to Soma.
269. (7) Soma associated with other gods.
270. (8) Soma in the post-vedic age a name of the moon.

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272—283. SECTION XVII. BṚIHASPATI AND BRAHMAṆASPATI.
272. Professor Roth's account of this deity.
274. (1) Passages in which he is celebrated (R.V. ii. 23; ii. 24, 1 ff.; iv. 50, 1, 4 ff.; x. 68, 6 ff.; i. 40, 5 f.; i. 190, 1 f.; v. 43, 12; x. 98, 7) quoted and translated.
280. (2) Parentage and attributes of the god.
281. (3) Whether Bṛibaspati and Brahmaṇaspati are identifiable with Agni;—opinions of M. Langlois, and Professors H. H. Wilson and Max Müller.

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284—335. SECTION XVIII. YAMA AND THE DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE.
284. (1) References to immortality in the earlier books of the Rig-veda.
286. (2) References to the Fathers (the souls of departed ancestors) in the earlier books of the Rig-veda.
287. (3) Hymns and portions of hymns relating to Yama and the Fathers, viz., x. 17, 1 f.; x. 10; x. 14; x. 15; x. 16, etc., quoted and translated.

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305. (5) Further quotations from the hymns on the subject of paradise, its pleasures, the continuance there of the family relations, and on future punishment.

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314. (6) Quotations from later Indian works, the Brāhmaṇas, etc., with some remarks of Professor Weber on their doctrines regarding the destiny of the soul.

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327. (7) Yama and a future life,—a metrical sketch.

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329. (8) Nachikétas, an ancient theosophic story, metrically rendered from the Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa and the Kaṭha Upanishad.

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336. SECTION XIX. Minor Divinities: Trita Āptya, Ahirbudhnya, and Aja Ekapād.

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337—349. SECTION XX. The Goddesses mentioned in the Vedic hymns.

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337. (1) Sarasvatī, Iḷā, Bhāratī, Mahī, Hotrā, Varūtrī, and Dhishaṇā.

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343. (2) Āpas, the Waters; hymn to the Sindhu, Gaṅgā, Yamunā, and other rivers.

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345. (3) The Apsarases.

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345. (4) Agnāyī, Varuṇānī, Aśvinī, Rodasī.

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346. (5) Araṇyānī; (6) Rākā, Sinīvālī, and Gungū; (7) Śraddhā.

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348. (8) Lakshmī and Śrī.

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350—420. SECTION XXI. Progress of the Vedic Religion towards abstract conceptions of the Deity.

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350. Introductory remarks, embracing references to some texts indicating a tendency in this direction.

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353. (1) Texts of a more decidedly monotheistic or pantheistic character.

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354. (2) Viśvakarman.

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355. (3) Hiraṇyagarbha; (4) Brahmaṇaspati, Daksha, and Aditi.

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356. (5) Nonentity, entity, and the One, R. V. x. 129, with illustrations from the commentary on the Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa, etc.

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367. (6) The Purusha-sūkta, R. V. x. 90; the hymn on Purusha, A. V. x. 2, etc.

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378. (7) Skambha and Brahma, A.V. x. 7; x. 8, etc; with remarks by Professor Goldstücker on Skambha, etc.

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393. (9) Prāṇa, as celebrated in A.V. xi. 4.
395. (10) Rohita, as celebrated in A.V. xiii. 1, and xiii. 2.
396. (11) The Uchhishṭa, as celebrated in A.V. xi. 7.
398. (12) Sacrificial implements, etc.; (13) Anumati.
399. (14) The Ox or Kettle; (15) the Brahmachārin.
402. (16) Kāma, as celebrated in A.V. ix. 2.
407. (17) Kāla, or Time, as celebrated in A.V. xix. 53 and 54.
410. (18) General remarks on the preceding passages.
412. (19) Whether polytheism or monotheism was the earliest form of the Aryan religion: opinions of Messrs. Pictet, Pfleiderer, Scherer, Réville, and Roth on this subject.

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421—449. SECTION XXII. Miscellaneous Hymns from the Rig- and Atharva-vedas.

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421. Introductory remarks.
422. (1) Hymn to Araṇyānī, R.V. x. 146.
424. (2) R.V. ix. 112, on the variety of human aims.
425. (3) R.V. x. 34, the gambler's lament, with quotations from the A.V. regarding the prevalence of gaming.
431. (4) R.V. x. 117, in praise of liberality.
433. (5) R.V. x. 107, in praise of liberality to priests.
435. (6) R.V. vii. 103, Frogs reviving in the autumn, compared to Brāhmans celebrating their rites.
438. (7) A.V. vii. 12, relating to social meetings.
439. (8) A.V. iii. 30, incantation for concord in a family.
440. (9) A.V. v. 30, incantation to preserve the life of a sick man, or recall the spirit of a dead man.
442. (10) A.V. vii. 53, on the same subject.
443. (11) A.V. viii. 1, ,, ,, ,,
446. (12) A.V. viii. 2, ,, ,, ,,

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450—473. SECTION XXIII. Brief Notes on Society and Life in the Vedic age, as represented in the hymns.

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450. (1) The country occupied by the Vedic people, their villages and cities.

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451. (2) Their religious worship.
453. (3) Did the Vedic Indians make images of their gods ?
454. (4) Kings and principalities.
457. (5) Different ranks in society,—rich and poor; (6) Domestic relations, polygamy, remarriage of widows, freedom of women, levirical marriages, sexual immorality.
461. (7) Dress, ornaments, etc.
463. (8) Food and drink; use of wine.
464. (9) Professions and trades,—carpentry, agriculture, etc.
466. (10) Amusements, gambling, dancers or actors; (11) Crime.
467. (12) Animals, wild and tame.
469. (13) Wars, armies, armour, and weapons.
472. (14) Poetry and speculation.
473. (15) Conclusion.
474. APPENDIX.

Errata et Corrigenda

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Page 22 In the page-headings from here to p. 96, for "The Indian gods generally" substitute the headings of the several subsections. „ 36, line 4, for "*stānāḥ*" read "*sthānāḥ*." „ 46, „ 19, for "*Varuṉauta*" read "*Varuṉa uta*." „ 63, „ 10, after "foolish" insert "*vii*. 61, 5." „ 85, „ 3 from bottom, after "Indra" insert "*vi*. 21, 4." „ 93, „ 9 from bottom, for "*jaghrusho*" read "*jaghnusho*." „ 134, „ 6 from bottom, for "dare" read "brave." „ 350, „ 21, after "quoted" insert "above, p. 50, and."

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VOLUME FIFTH.

Introduction

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<sc>In</sc> the Fourth Volume of this work I have collected the principal passages of the Vedic Hymns which refer to the origin of the universe, and to the characters of the gods Hiraṇyagarbha, Viśvakarman, Vishṇu, Rudra, and the goddess Ambikā; and have compared the representations there given of these deities with the later stories and speculations on the same subjects which are to be found in the Brāhmaṇas, and in the mythological poems of a more modern date. In the course of these researches, I have also introduced occasional notices of some of the other Vedic deities, such as Aditi, Indra, Varuṇa, etc.

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In the present volume I propose to give a further account of the cosmogony, mythology, and religious ideas exhibited in the hymns of the Rig-veda,¹ and to compare these occasionally with the corresponding conceptions of the early Greeks.

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¹ This subject has been already treated by Professor Roth in his dissertations on "The Legend of Jemshid" and on "The Highest Gods of the Arian Races," in the Journal of the German Oriental Society, iv. 417 ff. and vi. 67 ff.; by the same writer, and by Professor Whitney, in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, iii. 291 ff., and 331 ff.; by Professor Roth in the Journal of the German Oriental Society, vii. 607 ff.; by Professor Max Müller in the Oxford Essays for 1856 (reprinted in Chips from a German Workshop, vol. ii. pp. 1 ff.), and in his History of Anc. Sansk. Lit. pp. 531 ff.; by Professor Wilson in the Prefaces to the three vols. of his translation of the Rig-veda; by M. Langlois in the notes to his French translation of the Rigveda; by Professor Weber, and by Drs. Kuhn and Bühler, etc. etc. The substance of some of the following sections is repeated or condensed in a paper which I read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1864. See the Transactions of that Society, vol. xxiii. part iii. pp. 547 ff.

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(1) *Affinities of the Indian and Grecian mythologies.*

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In the Second Volume of this work I have stated the reasons, drawn from history and from comparative philology, which exist for concluding that the Brahmanical Indians belong to the same race as the Greek, the Latin, the Teutonic, and other nations of Europe. If this conclusion be well-founded, it is evident that at the time when the several branches of the great Indo-European family separated to commence their migrations in the direction of their future homes, they must have possessed in common a large stock of religious and mythological conceptions. This common mythology would, in the natural course of events, and from the action of various causes, undergo a gradual modification analogous to that undergone by the common language which had originally been spoken by all these tribes during the period of their union; and, in the one case as in the other, this modification would assume in the different races a varying character, corresponding to the diversity of the influences to which they were severally subjected.

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We shall not, therefore, be surprised to find that even the oldest existing mythology of the Indians differs widely from the oldest known mythology of the Greeks, any more than we are to find that the Sanskrit in its earliest surviving forms is a very different language from the earliest extant Greek, since the Vedic hymns, the most primitive remains of Sanskrit poetry, date from a period when the two kindred races had been separated for perhaps above a thousand years, and the most ancient monuments of Greek literature are still more recent. Yet, notwithstanding this long separation, we might reasonably anticipate that some fragments of the primitive Indo-European mythology should have remained common to both the eastern and the western branches of the family; while, at the same time, we should, of course, expect that such traces of common religious conceptions would be more distinctly perceptible in the older than in the more recent literary productions of the several peoples. And such, in point of fact, turns out to be the case. The mythology of the Veda does exhibit in some points a certain similarity to that of Homer and Hesiod, and the mutual resemblance between the religious ideas of those ancient works is, upon the whole, greater than that existing between the later Indian and the Greek pantheons. I say that, upon the whole, the older Indian mythology coincides more nearly with the Greek than the later Indian mythology does.

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But, on the other hand, the later Indian system presents some points of resemblance with the Greek which the Vedic system does not exhibit. I allude to the fact that we find in the Indian epic poems and Purāṇas a god of the sea, a god of war, and a goddess of love, who (the last two, at least,) are unknown to the oldest parts of the Veda, and yet correspond in a general way to the Poseidon, the Ares, and the Aphrodite of the Greeks. Personifications of this sort may, however, be either the product of an early instinct which leads men to create divine representatives and superintendents of every department of nature, as well as of human life and action; or they may arise in part from a later process of imagination or reflection which conducts to the same result, and from a love of systematic completeness which impels a people to fill up any blanks in their earlier mythology, and to be always adding to and modifying it. Resemblances of this last description, though they are by no means accidental, are not necessarily anything more than the results of similar processes going on in nations possessing the same general tendencies and characteristics. But the older points of coincidence between the religious ideas of the Greeks and the Indians, to which reference was first made, are of a different character, and are the undoubted remains of an original mythology which was common to the ancestors of both races.

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This is shown by the fact that, in the cases to which I allude, it is not only the functions, but the names, of the gods which correspond in both literatures.

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(2) *Antiquity and peculiarity of the Vedic mythology.

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But the value of the Vedic mythology to the general scholar does not consist merely in the circumstance that a few religious conceptions, and the names of two or three deities, are common to it with the Greek. It is even more important to observe that the earliest monuments of Indian poetry, consisting, as they do, almost exclusively of hymns in praise of the national deities, and being the productions of an age far anterior to that of Homer and Hesiod, represent a more ancient period of religious development than we discover in the Greek poets, and disclose to us, in the earliest stages of formation, a variety of myths which a few centuries later had assumed a fixed and recognised form.² It is also to be noticed that, from the copiousness of the materials they supply, the hymns of the Rig-veda furnish us with far more minute illustrations of the natural workings of the human mind, in the period of its infancy, upon matters of religion than we can find in any other literature whatever. From their higher antiquity, these Indian hymns are also fitted to throw light on the meaning of a few points of the Greek system which were before obscure. Thus, as we shall see, the Indian Dyaus (sky, or heaven) explains the original meaning of the Greek Zeus, and the Sanskrit Varuṇa gives a clue to the proper signification of Ouranos.

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² See Professor Max Müller's essay on "*Comparative Mythology*," in the Oxford Essays for 1856, p. 47, and the reprint in Chips from a German Workshop, p. 75 f.

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As in the first volume of this work, 2nd edition, pp. 2–4,³ I have stated the grounds on which the Vedic hymns are assumed to have been composed at a period considerably more than a thousand years before our era, I shall here take their great antiquity for granted, and proceed to give some account of their cosmogony and mythology.

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³ See also Vol. II. pp. 206 ff. and Vol. III. 2nd ed. 217 f. and 224.

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(3) *Origin of cosmogonic and mythological speculation.

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To a simple mind reflecting, in the early ages of the world, on the origin of all things, various solutions of the mystery might naturally present themselves. Sometimes the production of the existing universe would be ascribed to physical, and at other times to spiritual, powers. On the one hand, the various processes of growth and change which are constantly visible in all the departments of nature might have suggested the notion of the world having gradually arisen out of nothing, or out of a pre-existing undeveloped substance. Such an idea of the spontaneous evolution of all things out of a primeval principle, or out of indiscrete matter, called Prakṛiti, became at a later period the foundation of the Sānkhya philosophy. Or, again, perceiving light and form and colour and beauty emerge slowly every morning out of a gloom in which all objects had before appeared to be confounded, the early speculator might conceive that in like manner the brightness and order of the world around him had sprung necessarily out an antecedent night in which the elements of all things had existed together in indistinguishable chaos. And, in fact, this idea of the universe having arisen out of darkness and chaos is the doctrine of one of the later hymns of the R.V. (x. 129). Or, on the other hand, contemplating the results effected by human design and energy, and arguing from the less to the greater, or rather impelled by an irresistible instinct to create other beings after his own likeness,⁴ but endowed with higher powers, the ancient thinker might feel that the well-ordered frame of nature could not possibly have sprung into being from any blind necessity, but must have been the work of a conscious and intelligent will. In this stage of thought, however, before the mind had risen to the conception of one supreme creator and governor of all things, the various departments of nature were apportioned between different gods, each of whom was imagined to preside over his own especial domain. But these domains were imperfectly defined. One blended with another, and might thus be subject, in part, to the rule of more than one deity. Or, according to the various relations under which they were regarded, these several provinces of the creation might be subdivided among a plurality of divinities, or varying forms of the same divinity. These remarks might be illustrated by numerous instances drawn from the Vedic mythology. In considering the literary productions of this same period, we further find that as yet the difference between mind and matter was but imperfectly conceived, and that, although, in some cases, the distinction between some particular province of nature and the deity who was supposed to preside over it was clearly discerned, yet in other instances the two things were confounded, and the same visible object was at different times regarded diversely, as being either a portion of the inanimate universe, or an animated being, and a cosmical power. Thus, in the Vedic hymns, the sun, the sky, and the earth, are severally considered, sometimes as natural objects governed by particular gods, and sometimes as themselves gods who generate and control other beings.

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⁴ Arist. Pol. i. 2, 7. Καὶ τοὺς θεοὺς δὲ διὰ τοῦτο πάντες φασὶ βασιλεύεσθαι, ὅτι καὶ αὐτοὶ οἱ μὲν ἔτι καὶ νῦν, οἱ δὲ τὸ ἀρχαῖον ἐβασιλεύοντο· ὥσπερ δὲ καὶ τὰ εἴδη ἑαυτοῖς ἀφομοιοῦσιν οἱ ἄνθρωποι, οὕτω καὶ τοὺς βίους τῶν θεῶν. "And all men represent the gods as being ruled by a king, because they themselves, either now, or formerly, were so governed. And just as men regard the forms, so also they consider the lives, of the gods, to be similar to their own."

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(4) *Variety in the conceptions of the Vedic poets.

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The varieties and discrepancies which are in this way incident to all nature-worship, are, in the case of the Vedic mythology, augmented by the number of the poets by whom it was moulded, and the length of time during which it continued in process of formation.

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The Rig-veda consists of more than a thousand hymns, composed by successive generations of poets during a period of many centuries. In these songs the authors gave expression not only to the notions of the supernatural world which they had inherited from their ancestors, but also to their own new conceptions. In that early age the imaginations of men were peculiarly open to impressions from without; and in a country like India, where the phenomena of nature are often of the most striking description, such spectators could not fail to be overpowered by their influence. The creative faculties of the poets were thus stimulated to the highest pitch. In the starry sky, in the dawn, in the morning sun scaling the heavens, in the bright clouds floating across the air and assuming all manner of magnificent or fantastic shapes, in the waters, in the rain, in the storm, in the thunder and lightning, they beheld the presence and agency of different divine powers, propitious or angry, whose characters corresponded with those of the physical operations or appearances in which they were manifested. In the hymns composed under the influence of any grand phenomena, the authors would naturally ascribe a peculiar or exclusive importance to the deities by whose action these appeared to have been produced, and would celebrate their greatness with proportionate fervour. Other poets might attribute the same natural appearances to the agency of other deities, whose greatness they would in like manner extol; while others again would devote themselves in preference to the service of some other god whose working they seemed to witness in some other department of creation. In this way, while the same traditional divinities were acknowledged by all, the power, dignity, and functions of each particular god might be differently estimated by different poets, or perhaps by the same poet, according to the external influences by which he was awed or inspired on each occasion. And it might even happen that some deity who had formerly remained obscure, would, by the genius of

Section I. The Indian Gods Generally, as Represented in the Rig-Veda

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Before proceeding to offer some description of the powers, functions, characters, and mutual relations of the several deities celebrated in the Rig-veda, I shall give some account of the general conceptions entertained by the Vedic poets and some later Indian writers, regarding their classes, numbers, origin, and duration.

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(1) *Yāska's classification of the gods.

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The following classification of the Vedic gods is adduced by Yāska⁵ in his Nirukta (vii. 5), as being that given by the ancient expositors who preceded him: *Tisraḥ eva devatāḥ iti Nairuktāḥ Agniḥ pṛithivī-sthāno Vāyur vā Indro vā antariksha-sthānaḥ Sūryo dyu-sthānaḥ | tāsām māhābhāgyād ekaikasyāḥ api bahūni nāmadheyāni bhavanti api vā karma-pṛithaktvād yathā hotā adhvaryur brahmā udgātā ity apy ekasya sataḥ | api vā pṛithag eva syuḥ | pṛithag hi stutayo bhavanti tathā abhidhānāni |* "There are three deities according to the expounders of the Veda (*Nairuktāḥ*), viz. Agni, whose place is on the earth; Vāyu, or Indra, whose place is in the air; and Sūrya (the sun), whose place is in the sky.⁶ These deities receive severally many appellations, in consequence of their greatness, or of the diversity of their functions, as the names of *hotṛi*, *adhvaryu*, *brahman*, and *ud-* *gātṛi*, are applied to one and the same person, [according to the particular sacrificial office which he happens to be fulfilling]. Or these gods may all be distinct, for the praises addressed to them, and also their appellations, are distinct.'"⁷ Pursuing the triple classification here indicated, Yāska proceeds in the latter part of his work to divide the different deities, or forms of the same deities, specified in the fifth chapter of the Naighaṇṭuka or Vocabulary, which is prefixed to his work, into the three orders of terrestrial (Nirukta vii. 14–ix. 43), intermediate or aerial (x. 1–xi. 50), and celestial (xii. 1–46). I shall not reproduce these lists, which could not in some places be thoroughly understood without explanation, as they include several deities whose precise character and identification with other divinities are disputed, and embrace a number of objects which are not gods at all, but are constructively regarded as such from their being addressed in the hymns.⁸

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⁵ For some account of Yāska's work see the second vol. of this work, pp. 162 and 173, and my article "On the Interpretation of the Veda" in the Journ. R. A. S. for 1866, pp. 319 ff.

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⁶ Compare R.V. x. 158, 1. *Sūryo no divas pātu Vāto antarikshāt | Agnir naḥ pārthivebhyaḥ |* "May the Sun preserve us from the sky, Vāyu from the air, and Agni from things on earth."

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⁷ This passage is quoted more at length in the 4th vol. of this work, pp. 133 ff.

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⁸ The following is the manner in which Yāska classifies the hymns. I quote the classification as interesting, though unconnected with my present subject:—He divides (Nir. vii. 1) the hymns, or portions of hymns, devoted to the praise of the gods into three classes, viz. (1) those in which the gods are addressed in the third person as absent, as "Indra rules over heaven and earth" (x. 89, 10), etc.; (2) those which address them in the second person as present, such as "O Indra, slay thou our enemies" (x. 152, 4), etc.; and (3) those in which the author speaks in the first person, and about himself. Of these the first two

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(2) *Their number.

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The gods are spoken of in various texts of the Rig-veda as being thirty-three in number. Thus it is said in R.V. i. 34, 11: "Come hither, Nāsatyas, Aśvins, together with the thrice eleven gods,⁹ to drink our nectar" (*ā nāsatyā tribhir ekādaśair iha devebhir yātam madhupeyam Aśvinā*).

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⁹ That is, as Sāyaṇa explains, those included in the three classes, consisting each of eleven gods, specified in the verse (i. 139, 11), "Ye eleven gods who exist in the sky," etc.

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Again, in i. 45, 2: "Agni, the wise gods lend an ear to their worshipper. God with the ruddy steeds, who lovest praise, bring hither those three and thirty" (*śrushṭivāno hi dāśushe devāḥ Agne vichetasaḥ | tān rohidaśva girvaṇas trayastriṁśatam ā vaha*).

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i. 139, 11 (=Taitt. S. i. 4, 10, 1). "Ye gods, who are eleven in the sky, who are eleven on earth, and who in your glory¹⁰ are eleven dwellers in the (atmospheric) waters, do ye welcome this our offering" (*ye devāso divi ekādaśa stha pṛithivyām adhi ekādaśa stha | apsukshito mahinā ekādaśa stha te devāso yajnam imaṁ jushadhvam*).

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¹⁰ On this Sāyaṇa remarks, "Although, according to the text, 'There are only three gods,' (Nirukta, vii. 5), the deities who represent the earth, etc., are but three, still through their greatness, *i.e.* their respective varied manifestations, they amount to thirty-three, according to the saying, 'other manifestations of Him exist in different places.'" Compare S'p. Br. xi. 6, 3, 4 ff. The Atharva-veda (x. 9, 12) divides the gods into dwellers in the sky, air, and earth (*ye devāḥ divishado antarikshasadaś cha ye ye cha ime bhūmyām adhi*). And the same Veda i. 30, 3, speaks of the gods who dwell in the sky, on earth, in the air, in plants, animals, and waters (*ye devāḥ divi stha ye pṛithivyāṁ ye antarikshe oshadhīshu paśushu apsu antaḥ*).

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iii. 6. 9. "Agni bring hither according to thy wont and gladden the three and thirty gods with their wives" (*patnīvatas triṁśataṁ trīṁś cha devān anushvadham āvaha mādayasva*).

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viii. 28, 1. "May the three over thirty gods who have visited our sacrificial grass, recognize us, and give us double"¹¹ (*ye triṁśati trayas paro devāso barhir āsadan | vidann aha dvitā 'sanan*).

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¹¹ Roth says that *dvitā* does not mean *double*, but *assuredly*, *especially*.

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viii. 30, 2. "Ye who are the three and thirty gods worshipped by Manu (or man), when thus praised, may ye become the destroyers of our foes" (*iti stutāso asatha riśādaso ye stha trayaś cha triṁśach cha | manor devāḥ yajniyāsaḥ*).

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viii. 35, 3. "Aśvins, associated with all the thrice eleven gods, with the Waters, the Maruts, the Bhṛigus, and united with the Dawn and the Sun, drink the soma" (*viśvair devais tribhir ekādaśair iha adbhir marudbhir Bhṛigubhiḥ sachābhuvā | sajoshashā Ushasā Sūryeṇa cha somam pibata Aśvinā*).

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ix. 92, 4. "O pure Soma, all these gods, thrice eleven in number, are in thy secret," etc.¹² (*tava te, Soma pavamāna ninye viśve devās trayaḥ ekādaśa*).

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¹² This number of thirty-three gods is referred to in a hymn to the sun in the Mahābhārata iii. 171, as joining in the worship of that deity: *Trayas triṁś'ach cha vai devāḥ*. See also v. 14019 and 15465 of the same third book; book iv. 1769, and book xiii. 7102. According to the Rāmāyaṇa, Aranyakāṇḍa 14, 14 f. (Bombay ed.) Aditi was the mother of thirty-three gods, Ādityas, Vasus, and Rudras, and of the two Aśvins (*Adityām jajnire devās trayastriṁśad arindama | Ādityāḥ Vasavo Rudrāḥ Aśvinau cha parantapa*). In Gorresio's edit. the verse occurs in 20, 15. See also the Ś'p. Br. xii. 8, 3, 29. The Taittirīya Sanhitā, ii. 3, 5, 1, says that Prajāpati had thirty-three daughters, whom he gave in marriage to Soma. The A.V. xi. 3, 52, says that Prajāpati made thirty-three worlds out of the odana oblation. See also R.V. viii. 39, 9, Vālakhilya, 9, 2. The Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, ii. 18, says: *trayas-triṁśad vai devāḥ somapās trayastriṁśad asomapāḥ | ashṭau Vasavaḥ ekādaśa Rudrāḥ dvādaśa Ādityāḥ Prajāpatiś cha Vashaṭkāraś cha ete devāḥ somapāḥ | ekādaśa prayājāḥ ekādaśa anuyājāḥ ekādaśa upayājāḥ ete asomapāḥ paśu-bhājanāḥ | somena somapān prīṇāti paśunā asomapān |* "Thirty-three gods are drinkers of Soma, and thirty-three are not. The eight Vasus, the eleven Rudras, the twelve Ādityas, Prajāpati and Vashaṭkāra are the soma-drinkers. The eleven Prayājas, the eleven Anuyājas, and the eleven Upayājas are those who do not drink it, but receive animal sacrifices. He (the sacrificer) satiates the soma-drinkers with soma, and those who do not drink it with animal-sacrifices." For an explanation of the terms *prayāja*, *anuyāja*, and *upayāja* see Professor Haug's translation of the Ait. Br. ii. 110, notes.

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This number of thirty-three gods is in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (iv. 5, 7, 2) explained as made up of 8 Vasus, 11 Rudras, and 12 Ādityas, together with Dyaus and Pṛithivī (Heaven and Earth), while Prajāpati makes a thirty-fourth (*ashṭau Vasavaḥ ekādaśa Rudrāḥ dvādaśa Ādityāḥ ime eva dyāvā-pṛithivī trayastriṁśyau | trayastriṁśad vai devāḥ | Prajāpatiś chatustriṁśaḥ*). Or, according to another passage (xi. 6, 3, 5), the thirty-three are made up in the same manner with the exception of Indra and Prajāpati, who are substituted for Heaven and Earth (*te ekatriṁśad Indraś chaiva Prajāpatiś cha trayastriṁśau*).¹³

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¹³ Compare Taitt. Br. ii. 7, 2, 4. In the sequel of the above passage (Ś'atap. Br. xi. 6, 3, 6) Dyaus, Pṛithivī, and Āditya are said to be included among the Vasus. So that it is clear there is no consistency in these accounts.

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This enumeration could scarcely have been the one contemplated in the hymns, as we have seen that one of the texts above quoted (R. V. i. 139, 11) assigns eleven deities, who must probably have been all of the same class, to each of the three spheres, sky, air, and earth.¹⁴ It is also clear that this number of thirty-three gods could not have embraced the whole of the Vedic deities, as in some of the preceding texts Agni, the Aśvins, and the Maruts are separately specified, as if distinct from the thirty-three. Further, Indra could not have been, in the opinion of the author of the Brāhmaṇa, at least as expressed in this passage, xi. 6, 3, 5, one of the twelve Ādityas (as he was regarded at a later period), since he is separately specified as making up the number of thirty-three gods.

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¹⁴ On this division of the universe into three domains, see the remarks of Professor Roth in his dissertation on "The Highest Gods of the Arian Races." Jour. Germ. Or. Society, 1852, p. 68.

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In the R. V. iii. 9, 9 (= R. V. x. 52, 6 and Vāj. S. 33, 7) the gods are mentioned as being much more numerous: "Three hundred, three thousand, thirty and nine gods have worshipped Agni,"¹⁵ etc. (*trīṇi śatā trī sahasrāṇi Agniṁ triṁśach cha devāḥ nava cha asaparyan*).

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¹⁵ The commentator remarks here that the number of the gods is declared in the Bṛihad Āraṇyaka Upanishad. See pp. 642 ff. of the text of this Upanishad, printed in the Bibl. Ind.; and pp. 205 ff. of the English translation in the same series. The same passage occurs in nearly the same words in the S'atapatha Brāhmaṇa, xi. 6, 3, 4 ff. On the numbers of the gods, see a note of Professor Haug in his Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, ii. 212, note, and the remarks by Dr. Kuhn in his notice of this paper in his Zeitschrift, p. 223.

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In another passage (i. 27, 13) the gods are spoken of as divided into great and small, young and old: "Reverence to the great, reverence to the small: reverence to the young, reverence to the old. Let us worship the gods if we are able; may I not, o gods, neglect the praise of the greatest" (*namo mahadbhyo namo arbhakebhyo namo yuvabhyo namaḥ āśinebhyaḥ | yajāma devān yadi śaknavāma na jyāyasaḥ śaṁsam ā vṛikshi devāḥ |*).

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I am not aware, however, that this latter classification of the gods is alluded to in any other of the hymns. In fact this distinction among the deities is denied in another passage, viii. 30, 1: *na hi vo asti arbhako devāso na kumārakaḥ | viśve satomahāntaḥ it |* ("None of you, o gods, is small or young: you are all great").

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(3) *Their origin and immortality.

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In the Rig-veda the gods are spoken of as immortal¹⁶ (as in i. 24, 1; i. 72, 2, 10; i. 189, 3; iii. 4, 11; iii. 21, 1; iv. 42, 1; vii. 11, 1; vii. 17, 4; x. 13, 1; x. 65, 15; x. 69, 9; x. 72, 5; but they are not regarded in general as unbeginning or self-existent beings.¹⁷ There are, as we shall see in the next section, many passages in which they are described as being the offspring of Heaven and Earth. In i. 113, 19, Ushas, the Dawn, is characterized as the mother of the gods (*devānām mātā*); in ii. 26, 3, Brahmaṇaspati is called their father (*devānām pitaram*); in ix. 87, 2, Soma is said to be the father and skilful generator of the gods (*pitā devānām janitā sudakshaḥ*; see also ix. 42, 4; ix. 86, 10; and ix. 109, 4); in ix. 96, 5, the same deity is described as the generator of Heaven, Earth, Agni, Sūrya, Indra, and Vishṇu (*janitā divo janitā prithivyāḥ* | *janitā Agner janitā Sūryasya janitā Indrasya janitota Vishṇoḥ*); in x. 72, 5, the gods are declared to have been born after Aditi (*tāṁ devāh anv ajāyanta*); in x. 97, 1, certain plants appear to be described as produced three ages (*yugas*) before the gods (*yāḥ oshadhīḥ pūrvāḥ jātāḥ devebhyas triyugam purā*); whilst in x. 129, 6, the gods are said to have been born subsequently to the creation of the universe, so that in consequence no one can declare its origin (*arvāg devās tasya visarjanena atha ko veda yataḥ ā babhūva*).¹⁸ Varuṇa, Mitra, Aryaman, Bhaga, Daksha, and Aṁśa are designated, in R. V. ii. 27, 1, and some of them elsewhere, as Ādityas, or sons of Aditi. The birth of Indra is mentioned in various texts, and his father and mother alluded to, though not generally named¹⁹ (iv. 17, 4, 12; iv. 18, 5, 12; viii. 45, 4; viii. 66, 1; x. 134, 1 ff.). In vi. 59, 1, Indra and Agni are addressed in these words: *Hatāso vām̃ pitaro devaśatravah Indrāgnī jīvatho yuvām* | "Your fathers, who had the gods for foes, have been slain, o Indra and Agni; but you survive." But in the next verse both gods are said to have had one generator and to be twin-brothers (*samāno vām̃ janitā bhrātarā yuvām̃ yamāv ihehamatarā*). The A. V. i. 30, 2, speaks of some of the gods as being fathers and others as being sons (*ye vo devāḥ pitaro ye cha putrāḥ sachetaso me śṛinuta idam uktam*). See also R. V. x. 63, 2, which will be quoted in the Section on Aditi.

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¹⁶ In the Atharva-veda i. 31, 1, four immortals are spoken of as the guardians of the four quarters of the sky (*āśānām āśāpālebhyaś chaturbhyo amṛitebhyaḥ*).

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¹⁷ This is not, however, admitted by Professor Max Müller, who says (Chips from a German Workshop, i. 38) "passages in which the birth of certain gods is mentioned have a physical meaning: they refer to the birth of the day, the rising of the sun, the return of the year."

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¹⁸ In the Atharva-veda xi. 7, 23, all the gods are said to have been born from *Uchchhishta* or the remains of the oblation (*Uchchhishtāj jajnire sarve divi devāḥ diviśritāḥ*); and in verse 27 the same assertion is repeated regarding them in conjunction with the fathers, men, Gandharvas, and Apsarases (*devāḥ pitaro manushyāḥ Gandharvāpsarasas' cha ye* | *uchchishtāj jajnire sarve divi devāḥ diviśritāḥ*). Compare Taitt. Br. iii. 12, 3, 2, 3. In the S'atapatha Brāhmaṇa xiv. 2, 2, 2, it is said: *Ayaṁ vai samudro yo 'yam pavate* | *etasmād vai samudrāt sarve devāḥ sarvāṇi bhūtāni samuddravanti* | "This which is purified is the ocean (*samudra*). From this ocean all the gods, all creatures issue forth" (*samuddravanti*). The gods are said to have been born in pairs according to a passage of the Taittirīya Saṁhitā (vi. 5, 6), referred to by Sāyaṇa on R. V. viii. 72, 8.

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¹⁹ In R. V. x. 101, 12, a goddess called *Niśtigrī* is mentioned, apparently as the mother of Indra: *Niśtigryāḥ putram ā chāvaya ūtaye Indram* | "draw hither Indra the son of Nishtigrī to aid us," etc. Sāyaṇa on this passage identifies her with Aditi, viz.: "She who swallows up her rival wife *Nishṭi*, *i.e.* Diti." Indra is in fact addressed as an Āditya along with Varuṇa in vii. 85, 4. He is not, however, as we have seen above, considered as such in the S'p. Br. xi. 6, 3, 5, where he is mentioned as distinct from the twelve Ādityas.

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In iv. 54, 2 (=Vāj. S. 33, 54) it is said that Savitṛi bestows immortality, an excellent lot, on the gods (*devebhyo hi prathamaṁ yajniyebhyo amṛitatvaṁ suvasi bhāgam uttamam*).²⁰ Agni is also said, vi. 7, 4, by his power or skill, to confer immortality on the gods, who worship him when he is born like an infant and shines forth from out of his parents (*tvām̃ viśve amṛita jāyamānam̃ śiśum̃ na devāḥ abhi sam̃ navante* | *tava kratubhir amṛitatvam āyan vaiśvānara yat pitror adīdeḥ*). In ix. 106, 8 the gods are said to drink Soma to obtain immortality (*tvām̃ devāso amṛitāya kam papuḥ* | compare ix. 109, 2, 3).²¹ In x. 53, 10 some means are alluded to (it is not clear what) by which the gods attained immortality (*yena devāso amṛitatvam ānaśuḥ*). In x. 167, 1 Indra is said to have conquered heaven by austere fervour (*tvam̃ tapaḥ paritapya ajayaḥ svaḥ*); and in x. 159, 4 he is said to have become glorious and exalted by the offering of some oblation (*yenendro havishā kṛitvī abhavad dyumnī uttamaḥ*).

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²⁰ Sāyaṇa interprets this by saying that he gives them soma and other means of attaining immortality (*amṛitatvaṁ tat-sādhanam uttamam utkṛishṭatamam bhāgam somādi-lakshaṇam suvasi anujānāsi*). The same deity is said i. 110, 3, to have conferred immortality on the Ṛibhus (*tat Savitā vo amṛitatvam āsuvat*).

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²¹ See S'atapatha Brāhmaṇa ix. 5, 1, 1–8, where it is said that immortality departed from the gods (*devebhyo ha vai amṛitatvam apachakrāma*), when they set themselves to recover it by religious observances. They poured out soma into Agni and thus infused immortality into him, and by so doing acquired it themselves, as he is the soul of all the gods. Soma is the principle of immortality (*abhishutya agnāv ajuhuvuḥ* | *tad agnāv amṛitam adadhuḥ* | *sarveshām u ha esha devānām ātmā yad agniḥ* | *tad yad agnāv amṛitam adadhus tad ātmann amṛitam adadhata* | *tato devāḥ amṛitāḥ abhavan* | *tad yat tad amṛitam Somaḥ saḥ*).

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In the A. V. iv. 23, 6 Agni is said to have been the author of the immortality of the gods (*yena devāḥ amṛitam anvavindan*); in the same Veda, xi. 5, 19, the gods are said to have overcome death by continence and austere fervour (*brahmacharyena tapasā devāḥ mṛityum apāghnata*); and, ibid. xiii. 1, 7, to have acquired immortality through Rohita (*yena devāḥ amṛitam anvavindan*). Compare the same Veda iii. 22, 3; iv. 11, 6; iv. 14, 1; S'atap. Br. i. 7, 3, 1; Ait. Br. vi. 20; Taitt. Sanh. i. 7, 1, 3, and vi. 5, 3, 1; and the Mahābhārata xiv. 1444: *Tathaiva tapasā devāḥ mahāmāyāḥ divaṁ gatāḥ* |.

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I have elsewhere quoted a number of passages from the S'atapatha Brāhmaṇa, in which it is related how the gods became immortal; and how, though of the same parentage, and originally on a footing of equality, with the Asuras, they became superior to them.²² (See the 4th vol. of this work, pp. 47–53; and the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xx. pp. 41–45.)

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²² In S'atapatha Brāhmaṇa ii. 4, 2, 1, it is said that all creatures came to Prajāpati, and asked that they might live. To the gods he said, “Sacrifice is your food, your immortality is your support, the sun is your light,” etc. (*yajño vo 'nnam amṛitatvaṁ vaḥ ūrg vaḥ sūryo vo jyotiḥ* | To the passages of the S'. P. Br. regarding the manner in which the gods acquired immortality, above referred to, I may add one as yet unpublished from the India Office MS. of the Taittirīya Sanhitā vii. 4, 2, 1: *Yathā vai manushyāḥ evaṁ devāḥ agre āsan* | *te 'kāmayantāvarttim pāpmānaṁ mṛityum apahatya daivīṁ saṁsadaṁ gachhema iti* | *te etaṁ chaturviṁśatirātram apaśyaṁs tam āharaṁs tena ayajanta tato vai te 'varttim pāpmānam mṛityum apahatya daivīṁ saṁsadam agachchan* | “The gods were formerly just like men. They desired to overcome want, misery, death, and to go to the divine assembly. They saw, took, and sacrificed with, this Chaturviṁśatirātra, and in consequence overcame want, misery, and death, and reached the divine assembly.” In the Taitt. Sanh. v. p. 43*a* (of India Office MS.) we are told that “the gods and Asuras contended together; and that the former were less numerous than the latter, when they took some bricks which they saw, and placing them in the proper position to receive the sacrificial fire, with the formula ‘Thou art a multiplier,’ they became numerous” (*Devāsurāḥ saṁyattāḥ āsan* | *kanīyāṁso devāḥ āsan bhūyāṁso 'surāḥ* | *te devāḥ etāḥ ishṭakāḥ apaśyan* | *tāḥ upādad hanta* “*bhūyaskṛid asi*” *ity eva bhūyāṁso 'bhavan*). In the Mahābhārata, S'āntip. 1184, it is said that in the battle which they had with each other “the Asuras were the elder brothers and the gods the younger” (*idaṁ tu śrūyate pārtha yuddhe devāsure purā* | *asurāḥ bhrātaro jyeshṭhāḥ devāś chāpi yavīyasaḥ*).

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According to the Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa the gods obtained their divine rank by austerity (*tapasā devāḥ devatām agre āyan* | iii. 12, 3, 1).

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