The Religions of India Part 4

50 (see above) may be reckoned early, while I. 115, where the sun is the soul of the universe, and at the same time the eye of Mitra-Varuna, is probably late; and I. 163 is certainly so, wherein the sun is identified with Yama, Trita, etc.; is 'like Varuna'; and is himself a steed, described as having three connections in the sky, three in the waters, three in the sea. In one of the hymns in the tenth book, also a mystical song, the sun is the 'bird' of the sky, a metaphor which soon gives another figure to the pantheon in the form of Garutman, the sun-bird, of whose exploits are told strange tales in the epic, where he survives as Garuda. In other hymns S[=u]rya averts carelessness at the sacrifice, guards the wors.h.i.+pper, and slays demons. A mechanical little hymn describes him as measuring the 'thirty stations.' Not one of these hymns has literary freshness or beauty of any kind. They all belong to the cla.s.s of stereotyped productions, which differ in origin and content from the hymns first mentioned.[20]

SAVITAR.

Turning to Savitar one finds, of course, many of the same descriptive traits as in the praise of S[=u]rya, his more material self. But with the increased spirituality come new features. Savitar is not alone the sun that rises; he is also the sun that sets; and is extolled as such.

There are other indications that most of the hymns composed for him are to accompany the sacrifice, either of the morning or of the evening. In II. 38, an evening song to Savitar, there are inner signs that the hymn was made for rubrication, but here some fine verses occur: "The G.o.d extends his vast hand, his arms above there--and all here obeys him; to his command the waters move, and even the winds'

blowing ceases on all sides." Again: "Neither Indra, Varuna, Mitra, Aryaman, Rudra, nor the demons, impair his law" We call attention here to the fact that the Rig Veda contains a strong(stong in the original) current of demonology, much stronger than has been pointed out by scholars intent on proving the primitive loftiness of the Vedic religion.

In III. 62. 7-9 there are some verses to P[=u]shan, following which is the most holy couplet of the Rig Veda, to repeat which is essentially to repeat the Veda. It is the famous G[=a]yatr[=i] or S[=a]vitr[=i]

hymnlet (10-12):

Of Savitar, the heavenly, that longed-for glory may we win, And may himself inspire our prayers.[21]

Whitney (loc. cit.) says of this hymn that it is not remarkable in any way and that no good reason has ever been given for its fame. The good reason for this fame, in our opinion, is that the longed-for glory was interpreted later as a revealed indication of primitive pantheism, and the verses were understood to express the desire of absorption into the sun, which, as will be seen, was one of the first divine bodies to be accepted as the type of the All-G.o.d. This is also the intent of the stanzas added to I. 50 (above, p. 17), where S[=u]rya is "the highest light, the G.o.d among G.o.ds," mystic words, taken by later philosophers, and quite rightly, to be an expression of pantheism. The esoteric meaning of the G[=a]yatr[=i] presumably made it popular among the enlightened. Exoterically the sun was only the goal of the soul, or, in pure pantheism, of the sight. In the following[22] the sin-forgiving side of Savitar is developed, whereby he comes into connection with Varuna:

G.o.d Savitar deserveth now a song from us; To-day, with guiding word, let men direct him here.

He who distributes gifts unto the sons of men, Shall here on us bestow whatever thing is best; For thou, O Savitar, dost first upon the G.o.ds Who sacrifice deserve, lay immortality, The highest gift, and then to mortals dost extend As their apportionment a long enduring life.

Whatever thoughtless thing against the race of G.o.ds We do in foolishness and human insolence, Do thou from that, O Savitar, mid G.o.ds and men Make us here sinless, etc.

But if this song smacks of the sacrifice, still more so does V. 81, where Savitar is the 'priest's priest,' the 'arranger of sacrifice,'

and is one with P[=u]shan. He is here the swift horse (see above) and more famous as the divider of time than anything else. In fact this was the first ritualistic glory of Savitar, that he divides the time for sacrifice. But he receives more in the light of being the type of other luminous divinities. In the next hymn, another late effort (V.

82; see the dream in vs. 4), there may be an imitation of the G[=a]yatr[=i]. Savitar is here the All-G.o.d and true lord, and frees from sin. There is nothing new or striking in the hymns VI. 71; VII.

38 and 45. The same golden hands, and references to the sacrifice occur here. Allusions to the Dragon of the Deep, who is called upon with Savitar (VII. 38. 5), and the identification of Savitar with Bhaga (ib. 6) are the most important items to be gleaned from these rather stupid hymns. In other hymns not in the family-books (II.-VIII.), there is a fragment, X. 139. 1-3, and another, I. 22.

5-8. In the latter, Agni's (Fire's) t.i.tle, 'son of waters,' is given to Savitar, who is virtually identified with Agni in the last part of the Rig Veda; and in the former hymn there is an interesting discrimination made between Savitar and P[=u]shan, who obeys him. The last hymn in the collection to Savitar, X. 149, although late and plainly intended for the sacrifice (vs. 5), is interesting as showing how the philosophical speculation worked about Savitar as a centre.

'He alone, he the son of the waters, knows the origin of water, whence arose the world.' This is one of the early speculations which recur so frequently in the Brahmanic period, wherein the origin of 'all this'

(the universe) is referred to water. A hymn to Savitar in the first book contains as excellent a song as is given to the sun under this name. It is neither a morning nor an evening song in its original state, but mentions all the G.o.d's functions, without the later moral traits so prominent elsewhere, and with the old threefold division instead of thrice-three heavens.

TO SAVITAR (I. 35).

I call on Agni first (the G.o.d of fire) for weal; I call on Mitra-Varuna to aid me here; I call upon the Night, who quiets all that moves; On Savitar, the s.h.i.+ning G.o.d, I call for help.

After this introductory invocation begins the real song in a different metre.

Through s.p.a.ce of darkness wending comes he hither, Who puts to rest th' immortal and the mortal, On golden car existent things beholding, The G.o.d that rouses, Savitar, the s.h.i.+ning; Comes he, the s.h.i.+ning one, comes forward, upward, Comes with two yellow steeds, the G.o.d revered, Comes s.h.i.+ning Savitar from out the distance, All difficulties far away compelling.

His pearl-adorned, high, variegated chariot, Of which the pole is golden, he, revered, Hath mounted, Savitar, whose beams are brilliant, Against the darksome s.p.a.ces strength a.s.suming.

Among the people gaze the brown white-footed (Steeds) that the chariot drag whose pole is golden.

All peoples stand, and all things made, forever, Within the lap of Savitar, the heavenly.

[There are three heavens of Savitar, two low ones,[23]

One, men-restraining, in the realm of Yama.

As on (his) chariot-pole[24] stand all immortals, Let him declare it who has understood it!]

Across air-s.p.a.ces gazes he, the eagle, Who moves in secret, th' Asura,[25] well-guiding, Where is (bright) S[=u]rya now? who understands it?

And through which sky is now his ray extending?

He looks across the earth's eight elevations,[26]

The desert stations three, and the seven rivers, The gold-eyed s.h.i.+ning G.o.d is come, th' Arouser, To him that wors.h.i.+ps giving wealth and blessings.

The golden-handed Savitar, the active one, Goes earth and heaven between, compels demoniac powers, To S[=u]rya gives a.s.sistance, and through darksome s.p.a.ce Extends to heaven, etc.[27]

P[=U]SHAN AND BHAGA AS SUN-G.o.dS.

With P[=u]shan, the 'bestower of prosperity,' appears an ancient side of sun-wors.h.i.+p. While under his other names the sun has lost, to a great extent, the attributes of a bucolic solar deity, in the case of P[=u]shan he appears still as a G.o.d whose characteristics are bucolic, war-like, and priestly, that is to say, even as he is venerated by the three ma.s.ses of the folk. It will not do, of course, to distinguish too sharply between the first two divisions, but one can very well compare P[=u]shan in these roles with Helios guiding his herds, and Apollo swaying armed hosts. It is customary to regard P[=u]shan as too bucolic a deity, but this is only one side of him. He apparently is the sun, as herdsmen look upon him, and in this figure is the object of ridicule with the warrior-cla.s.s who, especially in one family or tribe, take a more exalted view of him. Consequently, as in the case of Varuna, one need not read into the hymns more than they offer to see that, not to speak of the priestly view, there are at least two P[=u]shans, in the Rig Veda itself.[28]

As the G.o.d 'with braided hair,' and as the 'guardian of cattle,'

P[=u]shan offers, perhaps, in these particulars, the original of Rudra's characteristics, who, in the Vedic period, and later as Rudra-civa, is also a 'guardian of cattle' and has the 'braided hair.'

Bergaigne identifies P[=u]shan with Soma, with whom the poets were apt to identify many other deities, but there seems to be little similarity originally.[29] It is only in the wider circles of each G.o.d's activity that the two approach each other. Both G.o.ds, it is true, wed S[=u]rya (the female sun-power), and Soma, like P[=u]shan, finds lost cattle. But it must be recognized once for all that identical attributes are not enough to identify Vedic G.o.ds. Who gives wealth? Indra, Soma, Agni, Heaven and Earth, Wind, Sun, the Maruts, etc. Who forgives sins? Agni, Varuna, Indra, the Sun, etc. Who helps in war? Agni, P[=u]shan, Indra, Soma, etc. Who sends rain? Indra, Parjanya, Soma, the Maruts, P[=u]shan, etc. Who weds Dawn? The Acvins, the Sun, etc. The attributes must be functional or the identification is left incomplete.

The great disparity in descriptions of P[=u]shan may be ill.u.s.trated by setting VI. 48. 19 beside X. 92. 13. The former pa.s.sage merely declares that P[=u]shan is a war-leader "over mortals, and like the G.o.ds in glory"; the latter, that he is "distinguished by all divine attributes"; that is to say, what has happened in the case of Savitar has happened here also. The individuality of P[=u]shan dies out, but the vaguer he becomes the more grandiloquently is he praised and a.s.sociated with other powers; while for lack of definite laudation general glory is ascribed to him. The true position of P[=u]shan in the eyes of the warrior is given unintentionally by one who says,[30]

"I do not scorn thee, O P[=u]shan," _i.e.,_ as do most people, on account of thy ridiculous attributes. For P[=u]shan does not drink _soma_ like Indra, but eats mush. So another devout believer says: "P[=u]shan is not described by them that call him an eater of mush."[31] The fact that he was so called speaks louder than the pious protest. Again, P[=u]shan is simply bucolic. He uses the goad, which, however, according to Bergaigne, is the thunderbolt! So, too, the cows that P[=u]shan is described as guiding have been interpreted as clouds or 'dawns.' But they may be taken without 'interpretation' as real cows.[32] P[=u]shan drives the cows, he is armed with a goad, and eats mush; bucolic throughout, yet a sun-G.o.d. It is on these lines that his finding-qualities are to be interpreted. He finds lost cattle,[33] a proper business for such a G.o.d; but Bergaigne will see in this a transfer from P[=u]shan's finding of rain and of _soma_.[34]

P[=u]shan, too, directs the furrow[35]

Together with Vishnu and Bhaga this G.o.d is invoked at sacrifices, (a fact that says little against or for his original sun-s.h.i.+p),[36] and he is intimately connected with Indra. His sister is his mistress, and his mother is his wife (Dawn and Night?) according to the meagre accounts given in VI. 55. 4-5.[37] As a G.o.d of increase he is invoked in the marriage-rite, X. 85. 37.

As Savitar and all sun-G.o.ds are at once luminous and dark, so P[=u]shan has a clear and again a revered (terrible) appearance; he is like day and night, like Dyaus (the sky); at one time bright, at another, plunged in darkness, VI. 58. 1. Quite like Savitar he is the s.h.i.+ning G.o.d who "looks upon all beings and sees them all together"; he is the "lord of the path," the G.o.d of travellers; he is invoked to drive away evil spirits, thieves, footpads, and all workers of evil; he makes paths for the winning of wealth; he herds the stars and directs all with _soma_. He carries a golden axe or sword, and is borne through air and water on golden s.h.i.+ps; and it is he that lets down the sun's golden wheel. These simpler attributes appear for the most part in the early hymns. In what seem to be later hymns, he is the mighty one who "carries the thoughts of all"; he is like _soma_ (the drink), and attends to the filter; he is "lord of the pure"; the "one born of old," and is especially called upon to help the poets' hymns.[38] It is here, in the last part of the Rig Veda, that he appears as [Greek: psuchopompos], who "goes and returns,"

escorting the souls of the dead to heaven. He is the sun's messenger, and is differentiated from Savitar in X. 139. 1.[39] Apparently he was a G.o.d affected most by the Bharadv[=a]ja family (to which is ascribed the sixth book of the Rig Veda) where his wors.h.i.+p was extended more broadly. He seems to have become the special war-G.o.d of this family, and is consequently invoked with Indra and the Maruts (though this may have been merely in his rote as sun). The goats, his steeds, are also an attribute of the Scandinavian war-G.o.d Thor (Kaegi, _Rig Veda_, note 210), so that his bucolic character rests more in his goad, food, and plough.

Bhaga is recognized as an [=A]ditya (luminous deity) and was perhaps a sun-G.o.d of some cla.s.s, possibly of all, as the name in Slavic is still kept in the meaning 'G.o.d,' literally 'giver.' In the Rig Veda the word means, also, simply G.o.d, as in _bhagabhakta_, 'given by G.o.ds'; but as a name it is well known, and when thus called Bhaga is still the giver, 'the bestower' _(vidhart[=a])_. As _bhaga_ is also an epithet of Savitar, the name may not stand for an originally distinct personality. Bhaga has but one hymn.[40] There is in fact no reason why Bhaga should be regarded as a sun-G.o.d, except for the formal identification of him as an [=A]ditya, that is as the son of Aditi (Boundlessness, see below); but neither S[=u]rya nor Savitar is originally an [=A]ditya, and in Iranic _bagha_ is only an epithet of Ormuzd.

HYMNS TO P[=U]SHAN AND BHAGA.

To P[=U]SHAN (vi. 56).

The man who P[=u]shan designates With words like these, 'mush-eater he,'

By him the G.o.d is not described.

With P[=u]shan joined in unison That best of warriors, truest lord, Indra, the evil demons slays.

'T is he, the best of warriors, drives The golden chariot of the sun Among the speckled kine (the clouds).

Whate'er we ask of thee to-day, O wonder-worker, praised and wise, Accomplish thou for us that prayer.

And this our band, which hunts for kine,[41]

Successful make for booty's gain; Afar, O P[=u]shan, art thou praised.

We seek of thee success, which far From ill, and near to wealth shall be; For full prosperity to-day; And full prosperity the morn.[42]

To BHAGA (vii. 41).

Early on Agni call we, early Indra call; Early call Mitra, Varuna, the Hors.e.m.e.n twain; Early, too, Bhaga, P[=u]shan, and the Lord of Strength; And early Soma will we call, and Rudra too.

This stanza has been prefixed to the hymn by virtue of the catch-word 'early' (in the morning), with which really begins this prosaic poem (in different metre):

The early-conquering mighty Bhaga call we, The son of Boundlessness, the gift-bestower,[43]

Whom weak and strong, and e'en the king, regarding, Cry _bhagam bhaks.h.i.+_, 'give to me the giver.'[44]