THE SPIRITUAL VARUŅA. I. 155 of all the gods. The fact is startling; but, in Professor Müller's CHAP. words, "the thoughts of primitive humanity were not only different from our thoughts, but different also from what we think their thoughts ought to have been. The poets of the Veda indulged freely in theogonic speculations without being frightened by any contradictions. They knew of Indra as the greatest of gods, they knew of Agni as the god of gods, they knew of Varuņa as the ruler of all; but they were by no means startled at the idea, that their Indra had a mother, or that their Agni was born like a babe from the friction of two fire-sticks, or that Varuna and his brother Mitra were nursed in the lap of Aditi." Hence Aditi was contrasted with Diti, the unbounded with the definite, while it became more and more a name for the distant east from which all the bright gods seem to come, and for the boundless space beyond the east, drawing a sharp distinction between "what is yonder, and what is here."1 But the process could not be stopped at this point. The gods had been called dákshapitar, the fathers of strength, the mighty; and the same equivocation which made Odysseus spring from Autolykos converted the epithet Daksha into the father of the gods. It followed that Aditi was sprung from Daksha, or Daksha from Aditi, who also owed his existence to Bhu, being, and the conclusion was reached that "Not-being and Being are in the higher heaven, in the birth-place of Daksha, in the lap of Aditi." But more especially Aditi became the mother of the bright gods, of Varuna, Mitra, Aryaman, and, in fact, of the seven Adityas, although their names are not definitely given in the hymns of the Rig Veda. On the one side, then, Diti was growing into " a definite In his lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion, Professor Max Müller contends that the name Aditi belongs to the oldest age of Vedic thought, being found in invocations together with Dyaus, Prithivi, Sindhu, and other really primitive deities, all of whom, and not the Adityas only, are said to be her children, pp. 227-229. He regards it therefore as one of the oldest names of the dawn, "or, more correctly, of that portion of the sky from whence every morning the light and life of the world flashed forth." 2 Why the Adityas should be seven or eight in number, is a question of which Professor Max Müller, whom here I have simply to follow, admits the difficulty. The number seven, though a sacred number, is not more sacred than other numbers in the Rig Veda, and he contents himself with suggesting "the seven days or tithis of the four parvanas of the lunar month as a possible proto- BOOK II. The physical and spiritual Varuna. person, one of the daughters of Daksha, the wife of Kasyapa, the mother of the enemies of the gods, the Daityas" (such, Professor Müller remarks, being "the growth of legend, mythology, and religion"), while on the other, Aditi herself was fast becoming "one of those deities, who would best remove the bonds of sin or misery." Thus the poet prays to Agni,- "Whatever, O youthful god, we have committed against thee, men as we are, whatever sin through thoughtlessness, make us guiltless of Aditi, loosen the sins on all sides." All this, however, simply reproduces the Hesiodic theogony, in which Eros precedes Ouranos, to be represented again in Himeros. Some light is thrown on the relations of Varuņa with Mitra by the Hesiodic description of Ouranos as the lover of the earth over which he broods each night; and thus Varuņa, like Ouranos, is specially the veiling heaven whose presence is most felt at nightfall, when the sky seems to descend nearest to the earth, while Mitra, like Dyu and Zeus, represents the firmament glistening with the splendour of noon-day. But although the same root which furnished the names of Varuņa and Ouranos yielded a name also for the evil power, first of physical, and afterwards of moral darkness, still the idea of Varuņa has nothing in common with that of Vritra. His destructive nooses are prepared for the wicked only. They ensnare the man who speaks lies and pass by the man who speaks truth." Like the Greek Poseidôn Pylaochos, he holds the unrighteous fast in prison but it is as the punisher of iniquity which cannot be hidden from his piercing eye, and not as the gloomy and inflexible Hades of the nether world. He is the omniscient Asura or spirit who props up the sky, and this epithet may almost suffice to identify him with the Zendic Ahura who appears commonly in conjunction with Mithras, as Varuņa is linked with Mitra. From the simple germ R. V. viii. 42, 1. Muir, Sanskrit Texts, part iv. chap. ii. sect. 2. The name Asura belongs to the same root with that of the Teutonic Æsir. The reasons urged in support of this conclusion are given by Dr. Muir, Principal Deities of R. V., 556, as follows: (1) the name Asura, etymologically identical with Ahura, is a common epithet of Varuna; (2) the class of Indian gods called Adityas, of whom Varuna is the highest, bears a certain analogy to the Zendic Amshaspands, of whom Ahura-Mazdão is the highest ; (3) a close connexion exists between Varuna and Mitra, just as Ahura and Mithra are frequently associated in the VARUNA AND INDRA. 157 thus afforded by mythical phrases which described the various CHAP. changes of the heaven, sprung the metaphysical refinements of later Hindu philosophers, and the wild and cumbrous developements of later Hindu mythology. The true greatness of Varuna belongs to the earliest phase of Hindu thought. He is eclipsed first by Indra, and at length is overthrown by Krishna beneath the waters of the ocean.1 SECTION III.-INDRA. If Dyaus and Varuņa were alike doomed to lose their ancient The primajesty, a brighter lot was in store for Indra; and the picture which on of ception the oldest Vedic hymns present to us of this god has a special value Indra purely as enabling us to determine the measure in which religion and mytho- physical. logy affected each other. That a moral or spiritual element may be discerned in some of the characteristics of this deity, is beyond question that the whole idea of the god can be traced to the religious instinct of mankind, the boldest champions of the theory which ascribes the growth of all mythology to the direct action of religious impulse or revelation will scarcely venture to affirm. The true religious instinct must point to the absolute rule of one righteous God, and cannot itself originate the idea of many independent centres of action. If this instinct furnished the true germ of all mythology, then the mythology of the Iliad and Odyssey is far older than that of the Veda; in other words, the crystallised granite is older than the ingredients of which it is composed. In our Homeric poems, in the midst of abundant signs indicating the later growth of the notion, we have an acknowledged King of heaven, from whom all the Olympian gods derive their power, or whose will they are at least bound to perform, and who alone retains unimpaired his full characteristics as lord of the bright heaven. Although Phoibos Zendavesta, though the position of the two has otherwise become altered, and Mithra, who is not even reckoned among the Amshaspands, is placed between the two powers of good and evil. "Zwischen Ormuzd (Licht) und Ariman (Finsterniss) steht Mithras mitten inne, heisst darum Mittler, Meairns, Plut. de Is."-Nork, Real Wörterbuch, s. v. Mithrascult. Amshaspands, or Immortal Benefactors, are the six spirits created by AhuraMazdão, the spirit known as the Good Mind (Vohumanô, Bahman); the spirit of Truth; of Good Government; of Wisdom; of Wealth; of Health; of Immortal Happiness, Ameretad. These The six with Ormuzd himself make up Muir, Sanskrit Texts, part iv. ch. BOOK II. Action of the Vedic and Achaian deities. still bears his unerring weapons, yet his arrows lie within the quiver until some wickedness of man compels him to draw them forth. The superhuman action of the Iliad and Odyssey, in short, has reference strictly to the deeds and fortunes of men; the age of conflicts between the gods has almost passed away. The conspiracy of Hêrê, Poseidôn, and Athênê to bind Zeus, is amongst the latest of those struggles which had culminated in the wars of the Titans, for when in the last great battle of Achilleus the gods turn against each other in the fray, there is still no thought of assailing the great King who sits in his serene ether far above the turmoil raging beneath him.1 The true mythical action of the Achaian deities is thus intermittent. In the hymns of the Rig Veda it is continuous, and their action is but remotely concerned with human interests. Like the Hesiodic Zeus, they love the savour of burnt-offerings, and hasten to receive their share of the sacrifice: but as soon as the rites are over, they return to their own proper work as wielding the forces which are manifested in the changing heavens. The Vedic gods are thus, preeminently, transparent. Instead of one acknowledged king, each is lord in his own domain; each is addressed as the maker of all visible things, while their features and characteristics are in almost all cases interchangeable. Dyaus and Indra, Varuna and Agni are each in his turn spoken of as knowing no superior, and the objects of their chief care are not the children of men, but the winds, the storms, the clouds, and the thunder, which are constantly rising in rebellion against them. No sooner is one conflict ended than another is begun, or rather the same conflict is repeated as the days and seasons come round. Whenever the rain is shut up in the clouds, the dark power is in revolt against Dyaus and Indra. In the rumblings of the thunder, while the drought still sucks out the life of the earth, are heard the mutterings of their hateful enemy. In the lightning flashes which precede the outburst of the pent-up waters are seen the irresistible spears of the god, who is attacking the throttling serpent in his den; and in the serene heaven which shone out when the deluging "L'Olympe, dans Homère, ressemble à une monarchie établie de longue date, où chaque personnage a, par droit de naissance, son emploi, ses titres invariables, et son rang dont il ne songe pas à se départir. Dans cette sorte de cour que les dieux tiennent autour de Jupiter, ils se sont dépouillés de leur caractère propre et de leur originalité native... Comme ces dignitaires des anciennes monarchies qui continuent à porter des titres depuis longtemps vides de sens, ils ont des surnoms dont ils semblent ignorer la valeur."— Bréal, Hercule et Cacus, 81. The very fact that the mythical attributes of these gods become less and less defined, while their subordination to Zeus becomes more and more marked, is the strongest evidence of the mythological origin of the whole. INDRA A GOD OF THE HEAVENS. 159 I. clouds had passed away, men beheld the face of the mighty deity CHAP. who was their friend. So completely does the older mythology of the Veda carry us away from the one idea which must be first awakened by the genuine religious instinct of mankind. not bor the mythology who rowed from the The Vedic. No stronger evidence than that which is furnished by this con- The Greek trast could be adduced to show that in no single feature is mythology of our Homeric poems borrowed from the people betook themselves to the banks of the Indus and the Ganges. Vedic Dyaus may in all essential features be reproduced in the Hellenic Zeus. Like Phoibos Chrysâôr, Indra may bear a lance or an arrow, which can never miss its mark: but in the one case we have a mere sketch, in the other a finished picture; and the differences in the character of the detail preclude all idea that for either Zeus or Hermes, Helen or Paris, Erinys or Achilleus, the Achaian poets were indebted to the Vedic Dyaus or Sarameya, to Pani or Saramâ, to Saranyû or Aharyu. To one common source they do indeed point; and the several stages of developement which mark the early mythologies of India and Hellas leave us in no doubt of the nature of the germ from which they spring. At once, then, we turn away from the cumbrous and complicated Indra, a god of the mythology of the later Vedic literature,1 as from the uncouth out- Bright growths of the Orphic theogony we turn to the earlier phases in heaven. which the Greek epic and lyric poets exhibit their ancestral deities. We are not concerned with the later conflicts of Indra, which end in his being bound by Indragit, while we have before us a series of songs which speak of him simply as the invincible god of the bright heaven. Yet, although there still remains a large difference between Indra and Apollôn, too great stress can scarcely be laid on the fact that as we trace the Vedic gods as far back as the Veda itself will carry us, the essential likeness between the Hindu and the Hellenic deities becomes more and more striking. If further we find that, when thus examined, their functions become, if the expression may be used, more and more atmospheric,-if they become the powers which produce the sights of the changing sky,-if their great wars are waged in regions far above the abodes of men, the last blow is given to the theory which by the most arbitrary of assumptions finds the root of all mythology in the religious instincts of mankind. In the Vedic Indra there is this further peculiarity, that, although Meaning his name ceased, like that of Dyaus, to be chiefly a name for the sky, name. See the remarks quoted by Professor Max Müller from Professor Roth (Sanskrit Literature, 60). 2 A summary of the story of Indra and Indragit is given by Dr. Muir, Sanskrit Texts, iv. p. 422. of the |