INDIA. of Mysterious atas water. tributes of Water a purifier of and a household necessity. by the currents rivers generally separated into individual abstractions. god of the ocean. to fire, perhaps water has always occupied the most HISTORY OF prominent place in the religious worship of nations PART I. in general. It purifies, and it is an emblem purity; and is as necessary in every household fire. At the same time, the ever-flowing current a great river awakens ideas of life and infinity; of Ideas awakened a past and a future; of going on ever and ever, we of great rivers. know not whence and we know not where, but ever flowing. Springs and rivers, however, are generally Springs and separated into individual abstractions, which are personified as divine beings; and the highest conception of one universal god of the waters seems to Conception of a have been gathered from a familiarity with the sea. Thus amongst a maritime people, the god of the ocean, the lord of tempests, the ruler of the rushing, boiling waves, ever occupies an important place in the sphere of religious thought; and here it should be remarked that the Vedic Aryans were evidently acquainted with the sea, for the hymns contain allusions to merchants, to sea voyages, and to ships with a hundred oars. In a more material or credulous Distinction beage this deity might be depicted as a mere monster, half fish and half human; but in the higher Aryan conception he is represented as a spiritual existence, powerful to destroy but mighty to save, that could sink the strong man into the depths of the sea, or bear him in safety to the shore. In a later stage the conception rises higher and higher, until a deity is shadowed forth that rewards goodness and punishes sin. The following hymn to Varuna, felicit- Deep religious ously translated by Prof. Max Müller, exhibits this hymn addressed deity in the two-fold character of controlling tem to the personification of day. In the Epics he is invariably regarded as water, and is emphatically the god of the ocean. tween a material conception of a sea monster, and the Aryan con ception of a spi ritual existence. Varuna congoodness and sidered as a deity who rewards punishes sin. feeling in a to Varuna. HISTORY OF pests and punishing sin; and in so doing indicates INDIA. a tone of religious feeling not so far removed from modern ideas as might have been expected: PART I. Characteristics of Surya, or the Sun. the Sun in allan "Let me not yet, O Varuna, enter into the house of clay; have mercy, almighty, have mercy! "If I go along trembling, like a cloud driven by the wind; have mercy, almighty, have mercy! "Through want of strength, thou strong and bright god, have I gone to the wrong shore; have mercy, almighty, have mercy! "Thirst came upon the worshipper, though he stood in the midst of the waters; have mercy, almighty, have mercy! "Whenever we men, O Varuna, commit an offence before the heavenly host, whenever we break thy law through thoughtlessness; have mercy, almighty, have mercy."29 Súrya, or the Sun, is another important Vedic deity; and indeed seems under different names Prominence of to have always held a high place amongst the cient religions. primitive gods of every nation, by virtue of its prominence in the heavens, and the extent to which its influence is felt upon earth. Its daily course and its annual course, its welcome rising in the morning and its glorious setting in the evening, must all have excited the keenest curiosity amongst a child-like and inquisitive people; and, at the same time, the imagination alone was left to account for the existence of phenomena which in a non-scientific age Thus it seems of the Sun one earliest bards. Personification are altogether beyond human ken. efforts of ancient extremely probable that one of the earliest efforts of poetical genius was to personify the Sun as the deity of light, travelling through the blue ether in a The golden cha- golden chariot which all men might see, drawn however by steeds which were invisible to the out riot and invisi ble steeds., 29 Max Müller, History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 540. INDIA. PART I. Surya similar to personification ward eye, but which were easily assumed to be HISTORY OF white, resplendent, and beautiful beyond expression. In the Vedas the attributes of this deity are fre- Attributes of quently the same as those of Agni, especially that those of Agni. of originating and diffusing light; but still the Sun Súrya a distinct stands forward as a deity altogether distinct from from Agni. Fire, when described as journeying through the firmament in an upward and downward course, and especially in his character of measuring days and nights. This god is apparently addressed under a variety of names, such as Súrya, Savitri, Mitra, Aryaman, and others; but in the Epics he is chiefly known by the name of Súrya, and was regarded as Surya regarded the great ancestor of the solar race who appear in the Rámáyana. In the higher conceptions Divine Sun is regarded and invoked as a spirit vading all things, as the soul of the world and supporter of the universe; 30 and this idea is said to be indicated in the celebrated Vedic verse known as The Gayatri. the Gayatri, which down to the present day still forms a part of the daily devotions of the Bráhman.31 as the mythical ancestor of the the Surya regarde race of Ayodhya. as a divine spirit per- pervading all things. In connection with the worship of the Sun, The twelve Adithere are some obscure deities, known as the 30 Rig-Veda, Mand. I. Hymn 73, v. 3. 31 Rig-Veda, Mand. III. Hymn 62, v. 10. The original Sanskrit of this verse appears to be simple enough. Wilson's translation is as follows ::- "We meditate on that desirable light of the divine Savitri, who influences our pious rites." Sir William Jones's paraphrastic translation was as follows :-" Let us adore the supremacy of that divine sun, the godhead, who illuminates all, who recreates all, from whom all proceed, to whom all must return, whom we invoke to direct our understandings aright in our progress towards his holy seat." Colebroke proposes the following version :-"Earth! Sky! Heaven! Let us meditate on (these and -on) the most excellent light and power of that generous, sportive, and resplendent Sun, (praying that) it may guide our intellects." From information gathered personally from educated Brahmans, the writer has been led to infer that Colebroke's translation exhibits the nearest approximation to the religious ideas involved in the words. The verse is apparently an invocation to the several deities who are implored by the worshipper to aid his intellect in the apprehension and adoration of God. tyas. INDIA. 32 HISTORY OF Adityas. These are said to be the sons of Aditi, PART I. who is apparently identified with the universe.33 It is not sufficiently clear how these Adityas were regarded by the Vedic worshippers, but at a later period they were represented as being twelve in number, and were apparently identified with the twelve signs of the zodiac, or rather with the sun in twelve different characters, each character corresponding to the sign through which it passed in The god Vishnu Succession. The most important fact connected with this circle of divinities is that the god Vishnu, so prominent in the later mythology, appears in the Rig-Veda merely as one of the Adityas. Also Aryaman, Mitra, Varuna, and Savitri, are identified both with the Sun and with certain of the Adityas. originally an Aditya. Characteristics of the minor Vedic deities. Soma, or Chan- deities already described. dra,or the Moon. Of the remaining Vedic deities but little remains to be said. Their individual character may be easily inferred from their names, whilst their form of worship appears to differ in no way from that of the Soma, or the Moon, which appears in some Pantheons as a female divinity corresponding to the male personification of the Sun, is chiefly celebrated in the Vedas in Connected in the connection with the soma plant; but it appears in the Mahá Bhárata, indifferently under the names of Chandra and Soma, as the mythical progenitor of the Bharata. great Lunar race of Bhárata. Two obscure deities, The two Aswins. known as the Aswins, are apparently a personifica Vedas with the soma plant. Regarded as the mythical progenitor of the Lunar race of 32 Comp. Wilson, Rig-Veda, Vol. I. Introd. p. xxxiii. Also Muir's Sanskrit Texts, Part IV. p. 101. 33 The Vedic verse is as follows :-“ Aditi is heaven; Aditi is the firmament ; Aditi is mother, father, and son; Aditi is all the gods; Aditi is the five classes of men; Aditi is generation and birth." Upon this verse Sayana remarks:-" Aditi is hymned as the same with the universe." Wilson, Rig-Veda, Vol. I. p. 230, and note. INDIA. PART I. tion of light and moisture, and as sons of the Sun HISTORY OF seem sometimes to be identified and multiplied as the sun's rays.34 They are invoked in several hymns, but do not appear to have been invested with any peculiar attributes, beyond that of being young and handsome, and riding on horses. The deifications of Váyu, or the air, and of the Maruts, váyu. or the winds, are frequently invoked, in many instances, in conjunction with Indra and Agni. The Maruts especially, whose power was manifest, The Maruts. are described in such figurative language as is usually applied to the strong and impetuous winds by poets of all nations and ages. In this way they are depicted as roaring amongst the forest trees, and blowing up the clouds for rain; but they are also personified in the imaginations of the Vedic psalmists as youthful warriors bearing lances on their shoulders, delighting in the soma juice like Indra, and, like him, the bestowers of benefits upon their worshippers. of Ushas, or the tween the con ception of Ushas and that of Indra. The next Vedic deity who may be taken into Characteristics consideration is Ushas, or the personification of the dawn. dawn. This divinity scarcely appears in the Epics, Contrast beand can hardly have been extensively worshipped, but yet is especially deserving of notice from the remarkable contrast which the conception presents to those of other gods, and especially to the idea of Indra. In the place of the impetuous warrior, strong and drunk with wine, and cleaving the clouds with his thunderbolt, we have the vision of early morning, of the first pale flush of light, imaged as a pure and lovely maiden awakening a sleeping In the Epics they are said to have been the physicians of the gods, and are constantly represented as twins. |