THE GREAT GODS OF THE EPIC 105

this epoch virtue declines by a quarter from its full perfection
in the golden age. Sacrifices come into existence, and with
sacrifices the attaining of salvation, not as before by mere
meditation and renunciation, but by the positive actions of
offering and generosity. Moreover, duty is still strictly per-
formed, and asceticism is normally practised. In the next age,
the Dvapara, the bull of justice stands on two feet only, for
another quarter of virtue has departed. The Vedas are multi-
plied to four, yet many men remain ignorant of them alto-
gether or know but one or two or three. Ceremonies increase,
and treatises on duty multiply, but disease and sin grow rife,
and sacrifice and asceticism alike are performed not, as for-
merly, disinterestedly, but in hope of gain. It is in this age
that the need for marriage laws first makes itself felt, and the
dawn and twilight alike shrink to two hundred years, while
the age itself is reduced to two thousand. A dawn of only a
hundred years serves to introduce the Kali and worst of the
ages, when virtue has but one leg to stand upon, when religion
disappears, when the Vedas are ignored, when distress pre-
vails, and when the confusion of the castes begins. But the
age lasts only a thousand years, and its brief twilight of a hun-
dred years is a prelude to the absorption of all in the Absolute
Spirit. Seven suns appear in the heaven, and what they do not
burn is consumed by Visnu in the form of a great fire, the de-
struction being made complete by a flood. A new Krta age
cannot commence to dawn before the lapse of a period equal to
the thousandfold repetition of the total of the ages, that is,
twelve million years. In this complete reabsorption the gods
no less than men are Involved, to be reborn again in the course
of the ages.

The doctrine of the ages is only an emphatic assertion of the
idea which underlies all the mythology of the epic, that the
gods themselves are no longer independent eternal entitles,
but, however glorious and however honoured, are still, like
man, subject to a stronger power. Indeed, In the epic the



io6 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY

gods are chiefly conspicuous by reason of their impotence to
intervene in the affairs of men: with the exception of Visnu
they can merely applaud the combatants and cannot aid or
succour them, in strange contrast with the gods of Homer.
There are real gods, however, as well as phantoms, and their
existence is clearly revealed to us in the legend of the churning
of the ambrosia which is preserved in the Rdmdyana (i. 45;
vii. i) and, in a more confused and fragmentary form, in the
Mahdbhdrata. The gods and Asuras were sprung from one
father, Kasyapa Marica, who married the daughters of Daksa
Prajapati, the gods being the children of Aditi, while the
Asuras (the children of Diti) were the older. They lived in
happiness in the Krta age, but being seized with the desire to
attain immortality and freedom from old age and sickness,
they decided that they should seek the ambrosia which was
to be won by churning the milky ocean, and accordingly they
set about this task by making the serpent Vasuki the churning
rope and Mount Mandara the churning stick. For a thousand
years they churned, and the hundred heads of Vasuki, spitting
venom, bit the rocks, whence sprang the deadly poison called
Halahala, which began to burn all creation, gods, men, and
Asuras alike. They fled to Rudra, "the Lord of Cattle,"
"the Healer" (Sankara), and at the request of Visnu, who
hailed him as chief of the gods, he drank the poison as though
it were the ambrosia. The churning then proceeded, but Mount
Mandara slipped into hell. To remedy the disaster Visnu lay
in the ocean with the mountain on his back, and Kesava pro-
ceeded to churn the ocean, grasping the top of Mandara with
his hand. After a thousand years there appeared the skilled
physician Dhanvantari, then the Apsarases, who were treated
as common property by the gods and the Asuras, and next
Varuna's daughter. Sura, whom the sons of Aditi married, thus
attaining the name of Sura, while those of Diti declined to
marry, whence their name of Asura (here popularly etymolo-
gized as "Without Sura"). Then came out the best of horses,



THE GREAT GODS OF THE EPIC 107

Uccalhsravas, and the pearl of gems, Kaustubha, and the am-
brosia itself. But over it strife arose between the half-brothers,
so that in the end Visnu by his magic power {mdya) secured
the victory of the gods and bestowed upon Indra the sover-
eignty of the three worlds.

Such in essence is the attitude of the epic to the Vedic gods,
who appear as feeble creatures, unable to overpower the Asuras
or to effect their purpose of winning immortality by the use of
the ambrosia until they are aided by Siva and Visnu, though
in the genealogy these two are no more divine than the others.
Indra himself who, as the god of the warrior, might have been
expected to retain some degree of real authority, can hold his
position only by the favour of Visnu and can exercise his
shadowy sway merely as a vicegerent. Beside Siva and Visnu
no Vedic god takes equal rank, and the only power which
can for a moment be compared with these two deities Is
Brahma, the personal form of the absolute Brahman, a god,
that is to say, of priestly origin and one who could never have
any real hold on the mythological instinct. Visnu and Siva,
on the contrary, were too real and popular to sink into the
deities of priestly speculation, and round them gathers an
evergrowing body of tales.

It is characteristic of the feeble personality of Brahma
that he finds a connexion with the classes of the gods only
through identification with Tvastr, who counts as one of the
twelve Adityas, the narrower group of the children of Aditi
and Kasyapa Prajapati. In reality, however, he Is a personifica-
tion of the abstract Absolute which is often described In the
Mahdhhdrata. It is eternal, self-existing, invisible, unborn,
unchanging, imperishable, without beginning or end; from it
all is sprung, and It is embodied in the whole universe; yet in
itself it has no characteristics, no qualities, and no contrasts.
As all springs from It, so Into It all Is resolved at the end of the
four ages. Thus it can be identified with Time and with Death,
both of which, like Itself, absorb all things and bring them to



io8 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY

nothingness. Into the Brahman the Individual self may be
resolved when it casts aside even the apprehension of its own
Identity with the Brahman, abandons all resolves of body or
mind, and frees Itself from every attachment to objects of
sense. When a man withdraws all his desires as a tortoise all
its limbs, then the self sees the self in Itself; when a man fears
no one and, when none fear him, when he desires nothing and
has no hatred, then he attains the Absolute. Personified as
Brahma, the Absolute appears as a creator, as PrajapatI, the
maker of the worlds, the grandfather of the worlds. He creates
the gods, seers, fathers, and men, the worlds, rivers, oceans,
rocks, trees, etc. In other passages he created first the Brah-
mans called Prajapatis — endowed with radiance like the sun —
truth, law, penance, and the eternal Brahman, customs, puri-
fications, the Devas, Danavas, Gandharvas, Daityas, Asuras,
Mahoragas, Yaksas, Raksasas, Nagas, Pisacas, and the four
castes of men. It is characteristic that the Brahman is here
created by the personal Brahma who is sprung from Itself.
Brahma also appears as only one — and that the highest — of
the Prajapatis, and elsewhere we find an enumeration of
seven Prajapatis who are called his spiritual sons, Marici,
Atri, Anglras, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, and Vaslstha, even
longer lists being given elsewhere.

Beyond this creative power mythology has little to say of
Brahma. Above heaven lie his beautiful worlds, and his as-
sembly hall stands on Mount Meru. Yet, as accords with one
who created the world by virtue of his magic power of Illusion,
the form of his palace is such that it cannot be described:
neither cold nor hot, it appears to be made of many brilliant
gems, but It does not rest upon columns; it surpasses In
splendour the moon, the sun, and fire, and In it the creator
ever dwells. Brahma's wife Is Savltri, and swans are harnessed
to his chariot, which is swift as thought. His altar Is called
Samantapaficaka, and It was from a great sacrifice which he
performed on the top of Mount Himavant (roughly to be Iden-



THE GREAT GODS OF THE EPIC 109

tified with the Himalayas) that there came into being a crea-
ture with the colour of the blue lotus, with sharp teeth and
slender waist, of enormous strength, at whose birth the earth
trembled, and the ocean rose in great waves. This being was
Asi ("the Sword"), born to protect the gods, and it was given
to Rudra by Brahma. Rudra handed it on to Visnu, and he to
Marici, whence it came to the seers, from them to Vasava and
the world guardians, and then to Manu in the shape of the law.

As contrasted with the Vedic gods Brahma shows some of
the features of the greatness of a creator. Thus in time of
distress the gods are apt to turn to him and to seek his advice,
but he yields in importance to the two great gods, Siva and
Visnu, even though here and there in the Mahdbhdrata phrases
occur which suggest that these gods owed their origin to him,
or rather to the Absolute, of which he is the personal form.
When worshipped as the greatest of gods, he himself responds
by adoration of Visnu, who, though sprung from the Brahman,
has created him as a factor in the process of world creation;
and it is stated that Brahma was born from the lotus which came
into being on the navel of Visnu as he lay sunk in musing.
Once only in the epic is the doctrine of a triad of Brahma,
Visnu, and Siva laid down in a passage of the Mahdbhdrata
(iii. 18524), where it is said: "In the form of Brahma he creates;
his human form [i.e. Visnu] preserves; in his form as Rudra
[i.e. Siva] will he destroy; these are the three conditions of
Prajapati." This view, however, is foreign to the epic as a
whole and to the Rdmdyana, and the creator-god is at most
regarded as one of the forms of the two great sectarian divinities.

It accords well with the faded position of the creator-god
that the account of Indian religion which we owe to the Greek
writer Megasthenes (about 300 b.c.) makes no mention of him
as a great god, even when it tells us of two deities who are
identified with Dionysos and Herakles and in whom we must
recognize Siva and Visnu, rather than, as has also been sug-
gested, Visnu and Siva, though the possibility of the double



no INDIAN MYTHOLOGY

identification reminds us that there is much in common in the
two Indian as in the two Greek gods themselves. The divinity
whom Megasthenes calls Dionysos was at home where the vine
flourished in the Asvaka country, north of the Kabul river,
in the north-west country north of Delhi, and further north
in Kasmir; and his worship also extended east to Bihar and
even as far as Kalinga in the south-east, and was prevalent
round Gokarna in the west. Herakles again was worshipped
in the Ganges valley and had as chief seats of his cult the towns
of Methora and Kleisobora, in which have been seen (doubt-
less rightly) Mathura and the city of Krsna, both on the
Jumna, the former being the capital of the Yadavas, among
whom Krsna ranked as hero and god. Consistent with this is
the fact that Megasthenes ascribes to Herakles a daughter
Pandale, for this accords with history, since the Pandyas of
southern India, whose connexion with the Pandavas of the epic
was recognized, were worshippers of Krsna, and In their coun-
try a second Mathura is found.

In the epic Siva, the ten-armed, dwells on the holy Himavant,
on the north side of Mount Meru, In a lovely wood, ever full of
flowers and surrounded by divine beings; or, again, he lives on
Mount Mandara. He is said to be born of Brahma, but also
from the forehead of Visnu. His hair flashes like the sun, and
he has four faces which came into being when he was tempted
by Tllottama, a beautiful nymph created by Brahma from all
that was most precious In the world. As she walked round the
great god, a beautiful countenance appeared on each side: of
the four, those facing east, north, and west are mild, but that
which faces south Is harsh; with that which faces east he rules,
with that which faces north he rejoices in the company of his
wife Uma; that which faces west is mild and delights all beings,
but that which faces south is terrible and destructive. He has
three eyes which shine like three suns, while, again, it is said
that the sun, moon, and fire are his three eyes. His third eye
he owes to the playful act of Uma. One day In jest she suddenly



THE GREAT GODS OF THE EPIC iii

placed her hands over his eyes, whereupon the world was
plunged in utter darkness, men trembled from fear, and all
life seemed to be extinct, so that, to save the world, a third
eye flamed forth on the god's forehead. His neck is blue, whence
his name Nilakantha, either because in the churning of the
ocean he swallowed the poison produced by the biting of the
rocks by the teeth of the serpent Vasuki when he was being
used as the churning string, or because Indra hurled his thun-
derbolt at him, or because he was bitten by the snake which
sprang from Usanas's hair.

Siva is clothed in skins, especially those of the tiger; but his
garments are also described as white, while his wreaths, his
sacred cord, his banner, and his bull are all said to be white,
and on his head he bears the moon as his diadem. His steed is
his white bull, which serves likewise as his banner and which,
according to one legend, was given to Siva by Daksa, the divine
sage; it has broad shoulders, sleek sides, a black tail, a thick
neck, horns hard as adamant, and a hump Hke the top of a
snowy mountain. It is adorned with a golden girth, and on its
back the god of gods sits with Uma. Siva's weapons are the
spear — named Pasupata because of his own title of Pasupati,
or "Lord of Creatures" — the bow Pinaka, the battle-axe, and
the trident. With the spear he killed all the Daityas in battle
and with it he destroys the world at the end of the ages; it is
the weapon which he gave to the heroic Arjuna after his con-
test with him. It was with his axe, which he gave to Rama,
that Parasu-Rama ("Rama of the Axe") annihilated the race
of warriors. His bow is coloured like the rainbow and is a
mighty serpent with seven heads, sharp and very poisonous
teeth, and a large body; and the weapon never leaves his
hand. The trident served to slay king Mandhatr and all his
hosts; it has three sharp points, and from it Siva derives his
names of Sulin, Sulapani, and Suladhara ("Owner of the
Spear," "With the Spear in his Hand," and "Spear-Holding").

As a ruler over Mount Himavant Siva is rich in gold and is



112 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY

hailed as a lord of gold, wearing mail of gold, and golden-
crested, and is a close friend of Kubera, lord of treasures.

The names of Siva are countless and his shapes many: of the
former now one thousand and eight, now one thousand, are
mentioned, but names and forms alike simply illustrate either
the mild or the terrible aspect of his nature. The terrible
form is declared to be fire, lightning, and the sun; the mild
form is Dharma (or "Justice"), water, and the moon; or,
again, the terrible form is fire, and the mild is Soma as the
moon. His sovereign power gives him the name Mahesvara
("the Great Lord"); his greatness and omnipotence cause him
to be styled Mahadeva ("the Great God"); and his fierceness,
which leads him to devour flesh, blood, and marrow, is the
origin of the name Rudra; while his desire to confer blessings
on all men makes him to be termed "the Auspicious" (Siva),
or "the Healer" (Sahkara). As the devastating power which
finally destroys the universe he is Hara ("the Sweeper Away"
of all beings). Moreover he sends disease and death; the
deadly fever is his deputy, and he is actually personified as
death and disease, destroying the good and the bad alike.
As Kala ("Time") he is lord of the whole world, and as Kala
("Death") he visits impartially the young, children, the old,
and even those yet unborn. As Kala he is the beginning of the
worlds, and the destroyer; on the instigation of Kala everything
is done, and all is animated by Kala. He created the whole
world indeed, but at the end of the ages he draws it in and
swallows it; yet all that is thus absorbed is born again, save
only the wise who understand the origin and disappearance of
all things and so attain full union with him. He is the "Lord
of Creatures" (Pasupati), a term not merely denoting "the
Lord of Cattle" as a pastoral deity, but signifying also the com-
plete dependence of all human souls upon him.

Other epithets which proclaim his might are Isana ("the
Ruler"), Isvara ("the Lord"), Visvesvara ("the Lord of All"),
Sthanu ("the Immovable"), and Vrsa ("the Bull"), a name



THE GREAT GODS OF THE EPIC 113

which is also significant of the close connexion and partial iden-
tification of the god with the beast which he rides. The terrible
aspect of his character is likewise reflected in the nature of his
appearance: his ears are not merely large, but are shaped like
spears or pegs (sankti), or basins (kumbha); his eyes and ears
are frightful; his mouth is mis-shapen, his tongue is like a
sword, and his teeth are both large and very sharp.

On the other hand, in his mild form as Siva or Sankara, he
is friendly to all beings, bears a mild countenance, and re-
joices over the welfare of men. He is gay and is fond of music,
song, and dance; indeed, he is said to imitate the noise of the
drum with his mouth and to be skilled in song and dancing and
music, arts to which his followers are also addicted.

In the Mahdbhdrata (xiii. 7506) part of his mild form Is
reckoned to be his practice of the asceticism of a brahmacdririy
or chaste Brahmanical scholar, but his self-mortification is
distinctly of the horrible type and sets an example for the
worst excesses of the Indian fakir. The most fit place for
sacrifice which he can find in his wanderings over all the earth
is none other than the burning ghat, and he is believed to be
fond of ashes from the funeral pyre and to bear a skull in his
hand. He lives in burning ghats, goes either shaved or with
uncombed hair, is clothed in bark or skins, and is said not only
to have stood on one foot for a thousand years, but also to
endure heavy penances on Mount Himavant. All this is done
for the good of the world, but it affords a precedent for the
most painful renunciation and the most appalling austerities,
features which endear Siva to the Brahman as the ideal of the
true yogin, or ascetic.

It is characteristic of the god that the tales of him dwell
rather on his power than on his gentleness, although there is a
striking exception in a legend told in the Mahdbhdrata (xii.
5675 if.) which shows both Siva and his consort in a tender light.
After a long time a Brahman had been blessed with a son, but
the child soon died and was carried to the burning place. A

From the Atharvaveda onward there is a distinct develop-
ment of Siirya as the sun-god par excellence, whether under
that name or under that of Aditya; and the Aitareya Brdhmana
(iii. 44) explains that there is no real rising or setting of the
sun, for it always shines, though it reverses its sides, so that
the shining one is now turned to and now from the earth,
whence comes the discrepancy of day and night. The same
Brdhmana is responsible for the view that the distance between
the earth and the heaven is that of a thousand days' journey
by horse, while the Pancavim'sa Brdhmana reduces it to the
height of a thousand cows standing one on top of another, a
mode of reckoning which has modern parallels. Naturally
enough, with the growth of importance of Surya as such
Savitr tends more and more to become the god of instigation,
and his solar character is not marked. Pusan is quite often
mentioned, but his nature is not appreciably altered.

Of the other denizens of the skies Dyaus is more evanescent
than ever, but Dyavaprthivl occupy a fair place in the ritual
and receive frequent shares in the offering. Usas steadily di-
minishes in importance, thus continuing a devolution which
had begun in the R.gveda itself, and no new mythology is made
regarding her. On the other hand, the Asvins are popular
gods, and the references to their activity in the Rgveda are
supplemented by further details, the most remarkable of these



THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE BRAHMANAS 87

stories being that of the rejuvenating of Cyavana, which is
told in the Jaiminlya Brdhmana and elsewhere. The account
of the Satapatha (IV. i. 5) is that when the Bhrgus or Angirases
went to heaven, Cyavana was left behind, old and decrepit.
Saryata Manava came to his place of abode, and the youths
of the tribe mocked the old man, who in revenge brought dis-
cord among the clan; but, when Saryata learned this, he pro-
pitiated the seer by the gift of his daughter Sukanya and hastily
departed to avoid further chance of discord. The Asvins,
however, wandering among men, came upon Sukanya, and after
seeking to win her love, agreed to make her husband young
again if she would tell them of a defect which she alleged in
them. They made Cyavana bathe in a pool whence he emerged
with the age desired, and in return she told them that they were
incomplete because the gods shut them out from the sacrifice.
They accordingly went to the deities, and by restoring the head
of the sacrifice obtained a share in it. The reason for their
exclusion from the sacrifice is interesting and is given re-
peatedly: they wandered too much among men to be pure, a
sign of the growing decline of the physician's standing as a
member of the highest class. Though the Asvins share in the
soma, the special offerings in their honour are surd (a kind of
brandy) and honey, and the Asvina ^astra, which is sung to
them in the Atiratra form of the Soma sacrifice, is recited by
the priest in the posture of a flying bird.

Of the gods of the atmosphere Indra is still in the height of
his power and develops an elaborate mythology in which the
old motives are rehandled. Of the new stories regarding him
the most noteworthy is that of his struggle with Tvastr's
son Visvarupa, whom he slew, and with Vrtra, who was created
by Tvastr from the remains of the soma left undrunk by
Indra. Visvarupa's avenger became very powerful and mas-
tered Agni and Soma, all sciences, all fame, and prosperity;
and gods, men, and fathers brought him food. But Indra at-
tacked Vrtra, and having obtained the aid of Agni and Soma
VI — 7



88 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY

by the promise of a share In the cake at the sacrifice, he van-
quished Vrtra, who apparently then became his food. The
story of the death of Visvarupa, the three-headed son of Tvastr,
is variously told, but it is clear that Indra was afraid that this
demon was likely to betray the gods to the Asuras, whence
he cut off his three heads, which turned into different birds.
Nevertheless by this act Indra had been guilty of the sin of
slaying a Brahman, and, since all beings cried out upon him
for his deed, he besought the earth, trees, and women, each of
which took to themselves a third of the blood-stain which had
fallen on the deity. The slaying of Tvastr's son, however, is
only one of the sins of Indra known to the Brdhmanas: it is
said that he insulted his teacher Brhaspati; gave over the
Yatis, who are traditionally sages, to the hyenas; and slew the
Arurmaghas or Arunmukhas, of whom no further data are
recorded. For these sins, according to the Aitareya Brdhmana
(vi. 28), he was excluded by the gods from the soma, and with
him the whole of the warrior race; but later he managed to se-
cure the soma for himself by stealing it from Tvastr, though, if
we may believe one account, he paid dearly for the theft by
being seriously affected by the drink and requiring to be cured
by the Sautrdmanl rite.

Other new features of the Indra myth are the prominent
parts played by other gods in the conflict with Vrtra: the ap-
pearance of Agni and Soma as helpers is paralleled by the stress
laid on the aid of Visnu or of the Maruts. Moreover we hear
now of the consequences of his slaying of the dragon, which
is no longer regarded merely as a triumph. Indra himself flees
to the farthest distance, thinking that he has failed to lay his
opponent low, and all his strength passes from him and en-
ters the water, the trees, the plants, and the earth; or, again,
he feels that he has sinned in his action, which is parallel
to his disgrace for slaying Visvarupa. All the gods save the
Maruts abandon him at the decisive moment; and, when Vrtra
has been struck, it is Vayu who is sent to see if he is really dead.



THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE BRAHMANAS 89

On the other hand, the figures of Trita Aptya, Aparh
Napat, Aja Ekapad, and Ahi Budhnya become fainter and
fainter. Trita naturally leads to the invention of a legend ac-
cording to which there were three brothers, Ekata, Dvita, and
Trita, two of whom threw the third into a well. The gods of
the wind also, Vayu and Vata, remain unchanged, but Matari-
svan assumes the distinct new feature of a wind-god pure and
simple without trace of any connexion with the fire. Parjanya
as the rain is still recognized just as he is in the Buddhist texts,
and we find the importance of the waters duly acknowledged
by the many spells of various kinds devised to secure rain, In
one of which the colour black Is used throughout to resemble the
blackness of the clouds whence the rain must descend. In close
association with the waters stand the frog, which is used in
several cooling rites; the ants, who exact, In return for their
action In gnawing the bow-string which cuts off the head of
Visnu, the privilege of finding water even in the desert; many
plants; and the "Serpent of the Deep," Ahi Budhnya.

The Satarudriya litanies show us the Importance of the nu-
merous Rudras, who must be propitiated no less than Rudra
himself, and give them countless places of origin. They
dwell on earth, as well as In the atmosphere and In the sky,
and vex men on the roads and at sacred places, besides dis-
turbing them in the platters from which they eat. The ritual
of the householder provides that blood is to be offered to them
in all four directions, and they are described sometimes as
snakes and elsewhere as noisy eaters of raw flesh, etc. Despite
their connexion with the great god, they are no more than
imps and trolls, and It Is no high honour for the Maruts to
receive the same name as "the children of Rudra," as they
are called even in the Jigveda. Besides their special associa-
tion with Indra the Maruts now appear regularly as the sub-
jects among the gods, quite like the Vaisyas among men, and
they are said to dwell in the asvattha, or Ficus religiosa, which
is the tree normally found in an Indian village enjoying the



90 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY

honour accorded in England to the oak. It may easily be that
it was the kinship of these gods, as the common folk of
heaven, to the Vaisyas of the village that helped the theolo-
gians to locate them there, while the popular imagination could
readily fancy that the storm-gods dwelt in the tree through
which their winds would whistle in time of tempest.

Of the terrestrial divinities Soma has converted himself into
a celestial deity by his definite identification with the moon,
which begins In the latest hymns of the Rgveda and is quite
common in the later VedIc literature; though of course the
plant itself still remains sacred and in a sense is Soma, just as
it was in the earlier period. There are few legends told re-
garding Soma which are of any interest, the most important
being that which concerns the buying of it. It is an essential
part of the ritual that the soma-plant should be represented
as bought; but that the seller should be reprobated, and his
price afterward even taken away from him. In this has been
seen a representation, one of the beginnings of Indian drama, of
the obtaining of the soma from the Gandharvas who, in the
Yajurveda, guard it. The price is a cow, which is, therefore,
called the soma-purchase cow, but in the Brdhmanas It appears
that Vac ("Speech") was the price with which the gods bought
the soma from the Asuras in days gone by, when she lived
with the Asuras, and that the cow is the modern representa-
tive of Vac. The reason why the gods had to purchase soma
with Vac was that the Gandharvas were fond of women and
would, therefore, prefer a woman as a price; but the divinities
parted with Vac only on the distinct secret agreement that
when they desired her she would return again, and she did so.
Hence in this world it is legitimate to repurchase the cow paid
for the soma, though normally a cow so given could not be
taken back again. It may be that the legend contains some
faint indication that it was necessary to buy the plant from the
hill tribes among whom it grew. But if Soma is the moon,
the moon and Soma also are Identified in whole or in part



THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE BRAHMANAS 91

with the demon Vrtra : in one passage (I. vi. 3.17) the Satapatha
Brdhmana divides the dead Vrtra into two parts, one of which
goes to make the moon, and the other (the belly) to trouble
mankind. The conception is also found in the Maitrdyanl
Samhitd (H. vii. , and it is clear proof that terror of the moon
was not unknown to the Indians of the Vedic period. The
moon as Candramas often appears with the sun, and the
Aitareya Brdhmana (viii. 24) — though in a passage which
may be a priestly fiction rather than a genuine belief — states
that the moon is born from the sun. A more important con-
ception, which figures largely in the eschatology of the Upani-
sads, is that the sun is the light of the gods and the moon the
light of the fathers, from which it is an easy step to the doc-
trine that the righteous dead dwell especially in the moon.
On the other hand, in its more primitive sense Soma still figures
as the heavenly drink in the story of his descent to earth, which
is now attributed to the Gayatrl metre; and since this metre
is used at the morning pressing of the soma and is closely as-
sociated with Agni, we thus have a variant of the legend which
is seen in the Rgveda (iv. 27) when Soma is brought down by
the eagle. The Gayatri is shot at by the archer who guards the
soma, and a nail of her left foot, being cut off, becomes a
porcupine, while the goat is born of the fat that drips from the
wound. The other metres, Jagati and Tristubh, failed in the
effort to obtain the soma, being wearied by the long flight to
heaven.

Agni does not change his essential features in the later Vedic
period, but his character is more fully set out. Thus while
the Rgveda mentions only one of the three fires, the Garhapatya,
the later texts name also the Ahavanlya and the Daksinagni;
and the three are brought into conjunction wilh the earth, the
sky, and the atmosphere respectively, besides being associated
with the three categories of men, gods, and fathers, and with
Agni, Siirya, and Vayu. It is a question how far in these equa-
tions we have to see mere priestly schematism: it has been sug-



92 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY

gested that in the connexion, which is thus shown, of the
fathers and the wind (Vayu) we have a trace of the concep-
tion (which is certainly not the normal one of this period) that
the fathers live in the wind; and the Narasamsa has been re-
garded as a name of the fire for the fathers. The fire naturally
and inevitably serves to show the establishment of Aryan
civilization, and a famous story of the eastward movement of
the Aryans in the Satapatha Brdhmana (I. iv. i) tells of the
fire which Videgha Mathava ^ and Gotama Rahugana fol-
lowed and which introduced the Aryan beliefs into new lands.
Yet the Brdhmanas show no trace of any evolution of a public
as opposed to a private fire of the king. There is, however, a
new development of Agni, for his numerous aspects are fre-
quently described by epithets, such as "Lord of Vows,"
"Desire," or "the Pure"; and the ritual prescribes different
offerings to these several sides of his nature. This fact lends
plausibility to the view that the origin of Brhaspati ("Lord
of Devotion") lies in a feature of Agni which was developed
more completely into an independent deity. Brhaspati him-
self assumes in this period two of his later characteristics. He
is declared to be "Lord of the Metres," and also "Lord of
Speech" (Vacaspati), which is his prominent aspect in post-
Vedic literature, and he becomes the deity of the constellation
Tisya; while in post-Vedic literature he is the regent of the
planet Jupiter, although the suggestion that he is himself a
planet is inadmissible.^ The worship of the planets does not
appear for certain in any Vedic text, and is clearly set forth
for the first time in the law-book of Yajfiavalkya in the third
century a.d.

Though there is no real increase in the position of the god-
desses in this period, the wives of the gods obtain a definite
part in the ritual. Some importance attaches to Ida, the deity
of the oblation, who is described as the daughter of Manu,
with whom he re-created the world after the deluge, although
she also passes as the child of Mitra and Varuna. Aditi loses



THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE BRAHMANAS 93

anything of mystery which may have been hers in the Rgveda
and is constantly identified with the cow at the sacrifice. Sara-
svatl appears as in the Rgveda, and sacrifices on the banks of
the Sarasvati of special holiness are mentioned in the Brdh-
manas and described at length in the ritual texts. She is also
seen, however, in a new light: when Indra is compelled to resort
to the Sautramani to be cured from the ill efi"ects of drinking
soma, she, together with the Asvins, aids his recovery; and the
fact that her instrument was speech seems to have given rise
to her identity with Vac ("Speech"), as asserted by the
Brdhmanas, as well as to her later elevation to the rank of a
goddess of learning and culture. The prominence of the moon
in the mythology of the time may explain the appearance of the
names Anumati and Raka, Sinlvali and Kuhu as the deities
presiding over the two days of full and new moon respectively.
Of the gods who may be called personifications of abstrac-
tions Tvastr remains active as the creator of the forms of
beings and the causer of the mating of animals. His chief
feature is his enmity with Indra, who steals the soma when
Tvastr seeks to exclude him from it and slays his son Visvarupa
of the three heads, who has been interpreted (though with little
likelihood) as the moon, but who seems to be no more than
proof of the cunning of Tvastr's workmanship. His creation
of Vrtra for vengeance on Indra is likewise a failure. His ulti-
mate fate, as shown by the Kausika Sutra, is to be merged in
the more comprehensive personality of Prajapati, and the
same doom befalls Dhatr, Visvakarman, and Hiranyagarbha.
The Atharvaveda, with that curious mixture of theosophy and
magic which characterizes it, creates some new gods, such
as Rohita ("the Sun"), Kala ("Time"), Skambha (the "Sup-
port" which Prajapati used for fashioning the world), Prana
("Breath"), the Vratya (possibly Rudra under the guise of
non-Brahmanical Aryans), and others. The really important
figures thus created, however, are Kama and Sri. The former,
"Desire," perhaps has its origin in the cosmogonic hymn of



94 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY

the Rgveda (x. 129) where Desire is said to be the first seed
of Mind. This god has arrows, and though he is a cosmic power,
he is to reappear as a lesser god in a Sutra and in the epic
period. The other deity is Sri ("Prosperity"), who, as we know
from the Buddhist sculptures, was a prominent divinity in the
following age.

It is a natural sign of growing formalism that the gods should
now be grouped in classes : the eight Vasus (now in connexion
with Agni, not with Indra), the eleven Rudras, and the twelve
Adityas, corresponding to earth, air, and sky respectively.
The Chdndogya Upanisad shows a further progress in adding
two new groups — the Maruts with Soma, and the Sadhyas
with Brahman. The Maruts are now usually distinguished from
the Rudras, although they are still connected with them.

When we pass to the minor deities of the period of the Brdh-
manas, we find a certain development clearly marked in the case
of the Gandharvas and the Apsarases. The solitary Gandharva,
who is only thrice made plural in the J^gveda, is now regularly
transformed into a body of beings who can be placed together
with the gods, the fathers, and the Asuras. Visvavasu, how-
ever, is still frequently mentioned, and appears to have been
conceived as one of the chief guardians of the soma, by whom,
indeed, in one account he was stolen. Soma is, therefore, be-
sought to elude him in the form of an eagle in the Taittiriya
Samhitd (I. ii. 9. i), and the Taittiriya Aranyaka (I. ix. 3)
tells us that Krsanu, the archer who shot at the eagle which
carried the soma to earth, was a Gandharva. Yet in one account
the gods succeed in buying the soma from the Gandharvas
by means of Vac, for the Gandharvas are lovers of women;
with the Apsarases they preside over fertility, and those who
desire ofi'spring pray to them. The Atharvaveda declares them to
be shaggy and half animal in form, though elsewhere they are
called beautiful. The Apsarases now appear in constant con-
junction with water, both in rivers, clouds, lightning, and
stars; while the Satapatha Brdhmana describes them as trans-

A more perplexing figure and one famous in later literature
is Namuci, which Indian etymology renders as "He Who Will
Not Let Go." He is at once Asura and Dasa, and in vanquish-
ing him Indra has the aid of NamI Sapya. The peculiarity of
his death is that his head is not pierced, like Vrtra's, but is
twirled or twisted with the foam of the waters, and that Indra
is said to have drunk wine beside him when the Asvins aided
and Sarasvati cured him.

The king of the dead is Yama, who gathers the people to-
gether and gives the dead a resting-place in the highest heaven
amid songs and the music of the flute. He is the son of Vivas-
vant, just as in the Avesta Yima is the son of Vivanghvant, the
first presser of the soma. His sister is Yami, and a curious
hymn (x. lo) contains a dialogue in which she presses her
brother to wed her and beget offspring, while he urges religious
objections to her suit. The story suggests what is confirmed by
the later Persian record that Yama and Yima were really the
twin parents of mankind. The Avesta also tells us that he lives



GODS OF EARTH, DEMONS, .\XD DEAD 69

in an earthly paradise which he rules, ^ and though this trait is
not preserved in the Rgveda, it is hinted at in the epic. His real
importance, however, is that he is the first man who died and
showed to others the way of death. Death is his path, and he
is once identified with death. As death the owl or the pigeon
is his messenger, but he has two dogs, four-eyed, broad-nosed,
one brindle {sahala) and one brown, sons of Sarama, who watch
men and wander about as his envoys. They also guard the
path, perhaps hke the four-eyed, yellow-eared dog of the
Avesta, who stands at the Cinvat Bridge to prevent e\dl spirits
from seizing hold of the righteous. Yet it may be that, as is
suggested by Aufrecht,^^ the object of the dogs' watch is to
keep sinful men from the world of Yama. It does not seem that
the souls of the dead have (as in the epic) a stream Vaitarani to
cross, though it has been suggested that in X. x\-ii. 7 ff. Saras-
vati is none other than this river.

Though Yama is associated with gods, especially Agni
and Varuna, and though there is an obvious reference to his
connexion with the sun in the phrase "the heavenly courser
given by Yama," still he is never called a god, and this fact
lends the greatest probability to the view that he is what he
seems to be, the first of men, the first also to die, and so the
king of the dead, but not a judge of the departed. Nevertheless,
his connexion with the sun and with Agni has suggested that
he is the sun, especially conceived as setting, or that he is the
parting day, in which case his sister is the night. The only
other theor>' which would seem to have any plausibility is that
he is the moon, for the connexion of the moon with the souls of
the dead is deeply rooted in the Upajiisads. Moreover, the
moon actually dies and is the child of the sun. This identifica-
tion, however, rests in large measure on the unproved hypothe-
sis that the few references in the Rgveda to Soma as associated
with the fathers are allusions to their abode in the moon.

It is in keeping with the belief in the heaven of Yama that
the burning of the body of the dead is the normal, though not



70 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY

the exclusive, mode of disposing of the corpse. The dead were,
however, sometimes burled, for the fathers are distinguished as
those who are burned by fire and those who are not burned.
The dead was burned with his clothes, etc., to serve him In the
future life; even his weapons and his wife. It would seem, were
once incinerated, although the Rgveda has abandoned that
practice, of which only a symbol remains In placing the wife
and the weapons beside the dead and then removing them from
him. Agni bears the dead away, and the rite of burning is thus
In part like a sacrifice; but as "eater of raw flesh" In this rite
Agni Is distinguished from that Agni who carries the oblations.
With the dead was burned a goat, which Agni is besought to
consume while preserving the body entire. On the path to the
world of the dead Pusan acts as guide, and Savitr as conductor.
A bundle of fagots Is attached to the dead to wipe out his track
and hinder the return of death to the living. Borne along the
path by which the fathers went In days gone by, the soul
passes on to the realm of light and In his home receives a rest-
ing-place from Yama. Though his corpse Is destroyed by the
flame, still In the other world he is not a mere spirit, but has
what must be deemed a refined form of his earthly body. He
abides In the highest point of the sun, and the fathers are united
with the sun and its rays. The place Is one of joy: the noise of
flutes and song resounds; there soma, ghee, and honey flow.
There are the two kings, Varuna and Yama, and the fathers are
dear to the gods and are free from old age and bodily frailty.
Another conception, however, seems to regard the fathers as
being constellations In the sky, an Idea which Is certainly found
In the later Vedic period.

Those who attain to heaven are, above all, the pious men who
offer sacrifice and reward the priest, for sacrifice and sacrificial
fee are indlssolubly connected; ^^ but heroes who risk their
lives in battle and those who practise asceticism also win their
way thither. Of the fate of evil-doers we hear very little, and
it would appear that annihilation was often regarded as their



GODS OF EARTH, DEMONS, AND DEAD 71

fate. Yet there is mention of deep places produced for the evil,
false, and untrue, and Indra and Soma are besought to dash
the evil-doers into the abyss of bottomless darkness, while the
prayer is uttered that the enemy and the robber may lie below
the three earths. From these obscure beginnings probably
arose the belief in hell which is expressed in clear terms in the
Atharvaveda and which is later elaborated at length in the epic
and in the Puranas.

But the fathers are more than spirits living in peace after the
toils of life. They are powerful to aid and receive offering,
while they are invoked with the dawns, streams, mountains,
heaven and earth, Pusan, and the Rbhus. They are asked to
accord riches, offspring, and long life; they are said to have
generated the dawn and, with Soma, to have extended heaven
and earth. They especially love the soma and come for it in
thousands. Yet though they are even called gods, they are
distinguished from the true divinities; their path is the Pitr-
yana, or "Way of the Fathers," as contrasted with the Deva-
yana, or "Way of the Gods"; and the food given to them is
termed svadhd, in contrast with the call svdhd with which the
gods are invited to take their portion. The fathers are de-
scribed as lower, higher, and middle, and as late and early; and
mention is made of the races of Navagvas, Vairupas, Athar-
vans, Angirases, Vasisthas, and Bhrgus, the last four of which
appear also in the Rgveda as priestly families.

In one passage of the Rgveda (X. xvi. 3) an Idea occurs which
has been thought to have served in some degree as stimulating
the later conception of metempsychosis, of which there is no
real trace in that Samhitd. It is there said, in the midst of
verses providing for the dead being taken by Agni to the world
above,

"The sun receive thine eye, the wind thy spirit; go, as thy merit is,

to earth or heaven.
Go, if it be thy lot, unto the waters; go, make thine home in plants

with all thy members." ^^
VI — 6



72 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY

The conception seems natural enough as an expression of the
resolution of the body into the elements from which it is de-
rived, just as in later Sanskrit it is regularly said of man that
he goes to the five elements when he dies; and it is, therefore,
much more likely that the phrase is thus to be interpreted than
that we are to see in it the primitive idea that the soul of the
dead may go into plants and so forth. The passage is almost
isolated, however, so that the sense must remain uncertain.



CHAPTER III
THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE BRAHMANAS

WITHOUT exception the Brdhmanas presuppose the exist-
ence of a Rgveda Samhitd, in all probability similar
in essentials to the current text, and it is more than likely that
the other Samhitds — the Sdmaveda, the two schools of the
Yajurveda, and the Atharvaveda — were composed after the
formation of the Samhitd of the Rgveda. Nor can there be
much doubt that, while the Rgveda shows many traces of being
the product of an age which was far from primitive, the later
Samhitds, in those portions which do not accord with texts
already found in the Rgveda, stand generally on precisely the
same level as the leading Brdhmanas, or at least the oldest of
these texts. The most essential characteristic of them all from
the point of view of mythology is that the old polytheism is no
longer as real as in the Rgveda. It is true that there is no ques-
tion of the actuality of the numerous gods of the pantheon, to
whom others are indeed added, but the texts themselves show
plain tendencies to create divinities of more imposing and
more universal power than any Vedic deity. There are three
figures in the pantheon who display the results of this en-
deavour, those of Prajapati, Visnu, and Rudra. Of these the
first is distinguished from the other two by the essential fact
that he is a creation not so much of popular mythology as of
priestly speculation, and the result, as was inevitable, is that
his permanence as a great god is not assured; while the two
other divinities, being clearly popular deities in their essence,
have survived to be the great gods of India throughout the



74 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY

centuries with only so much change as has proved unavoidable
in the development of creed during hundreds of years.

The essential feature of Prajapati is that he is a creator, a
"Lord of Offspring," and offspring includes everything. Yet
there is no consistent account of creation in the Brdhmanas,
nor even in any one text. Nevertheless, the importance of the
concept Prajapati does appear in the fact that he is definitely
identified with Visvakarman, the "All-Creator" of the Rgveda
(x. 8i, 82), or with Daksa, who is at once son and father of
Aditi in that Samhitd (x. 72); and the later Samhitds repeat
the hymn of the Rgveda (x. 121) which celebrates the "Golden
Germ," Hiranyagarbha, and identify with Prajapati the in-
terrogative Ka ("Who"), which in that hymn heads each line
in the question, "To what god shall we oifer with oblation.''"
Among the variants of the story of the creation of the world
there is one which becomes a favourite and which assigns to
the waters or the ocean the first place in the order of exist-
ence. The waters, however, desire to be multiplied, and produce
a golden egg by the process of tapas, a term which, with its
origin in the verb tap, "heat," shows that the first conception
of Indian ascetic austerity centres in the process of producing
intense physical heat. From this egg is born Prajapati, who
proceeds to speak in a year, the words which he utters being
the sacred vydhrtis, or exclamations, "Bhuh," "Bhuvah,"
and "Svar," which become the earth, the atmosphere, and
the sky. He desired offspring and finally produced the gods,
who were made divinities by reaching the sky; and he also
created the Asuras, whereby came the darkness, which re-
vealed to Prajapati that he had created evil, so that he pierced
the Asuras with darkness, and they were overcome. The tale,
one of many, is important in that it reveals qualities which
are permanent throughout Indian religion: the story of crea-
tion is variously altered from time to time and made to ac-
cord with philosophical speculation, which resolves the waters
into a primitive material termed Prakrti; but the golden egg,



THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE BRAHMANAS 75

though spiritualized, persists in the popular conception, while
the place of the creation of the god is taken by the concept
of Purusa, or "Spirit," which is one of the names of Prajapati,
entering into the material Prakrti. The creative power of Praja-
pati exercised by himself is actually compared to child-birth
and serves as the precursor of the androgynous character of
the deity, which is formally expressed in the figure of Siva
as half man and half woman both in literature and in art.

Another conception of the creative activity of Prajapati is
that he took the form of a tortoise or a boar: thus in the Sata-
patha Brdhmana (VH. v. i. 5) we learn that he created off-
spring after he had assumed the form of a tortoise; and that
as the word kasyapa means "tortoise," people say that all
creatures are descendants of Kasyapa. This tortoise is also
declared to be one with the sun (Aditya), which brings Praja-
pati into connexion with the solar luminary, just as he is iden-
tified with Daksa, the father or son of Aditi, the mother of
Aditya. The same Brdhmana (XIV. i. 2. 11) tells us that the
earth was formerly but a span in size, but that a boar raised
it up, and that Prajapati, as lord of earth, rewarded him.
In the Taittiriya Samhitd (VII. i. 5. i) and the Taittiriya
Brdhmana (I. i. 3. i) this boar is definitely identified with
Prajapati, and the later Taittiriya Aranyaka states (X. i.
that the earth was raised by a black boar with a hundred arms.
From these germs spring the boar and tortoise incarnations
of Visnu in the epic and in the Purdnas. Yet another avatar
is to be traced to the story in the Satapatha Brdhmana (I. viil.
I. i) of the fish which saves Manu from the deluge, though
that text does not give the identification of the fish with Praja-
pati, which is asserted in the epic.

There is, however, another side to the character of Prajapati
which exhibits him in an unfavourable light. The Brdhmanas
tell that he cast eyes of longing on his own daughter, reproduc-
ing here, no doubt, the obscure references in the Rgveda (X.
Ixi. 4-7) to the intercourse of Dyaus ("Sky") with his daughter



76 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY

Usas ("Dawn"). The gods were deeply indignant at this
deed, and Rudra either threatened to shoot him, but was in-
duced to desist by being promised to be made lord of cattle; or
actually shot him, though afterward the wound thus caused
was healed. In the Aitareya Brdhmana (iii. 33) the story takes
a very mythic aspect: Prajapati turns himself into a deer to
pursue his daughter in the guise of an antelope (rohini), and
the gods produce a most terrible form to punish him, in the
shape, it is clear, of Rudra, though his name is too dangerous
to be mentioned; he pierces Prajapati, who flees to the sky
and there constitutes the constellation Mrga ("Wild Animal"),
while the archer becomes Mrgavyadha (" Piercer of the Mrga "),
the antelope is changed into Rohini, and the arrow is still to
be seen as the constellation of the three-pronged arrow.

Despite his creative activity, Prajapati was not immortal by
birth, for the conception of the Brdhmanas, as of India in later
days, does not admit of immortality won by birth alone. When
he had created gods and men, he formed death; and half of
himself — hair, skin, flesh, bone, and marrow — was mortal,
the other half — mind, voice, breath, eye, and ear — being
immortal. He fled in terror of death, and it was only by means
of the earth and the waters, united as a brick for the piling of
the sacred fire which forms one of the main ceremonies of the
sacrificial ritual, that he could be made immortal. But at the
same time Prajapati himself is the year, the symbol of time,
and by the year he wears out the lives of mortals, whether men
or gods. The gods, on the contrary, attained immortality from
Prajapati; they sought in vain to do so by many sacrifices,
but failed, even when they performed the piling of the fire
altar with an undefined number of fire-bricks, until at last
they won their desire when they followed the proper numbers
of the bricks. Death, however, objected to this exemption
from his control, for it left him without a portion; and the gods,
therefore, ordained that thenceforth no man should become
immortal without parting with his body, whether his immor-



THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE BRAHMANAS ^J

tallty was due to knowledge or to works. Thus it happens
that after death a man may either be reborn for immortality,
or he may be born only to be fated to die again and again.
This is but a specimen of the various means by which the gods
escape death, for they are ever afraid of the Ender and must
adopt rites of many kinds to be freed from his control.

Since both the gods and the Asuras ("Demons") were the
offspring of Prajapati, it becomes necessary to explain why they
are differentiated as good and bad, and this is done in several
ways. In one case the Asuras kept sacrificing to themselves
out of insolence, while the gods sacrificed to one another; and
as a result Prajapati bestowed himself upon them, and sacrifice
became theirs only. In another version the gods adopted the
plan of speaking nothing but the truth, while the Asuras re-
sorted to falsehood: because of this for a while the gods became
weaker and poorer, but in the end they flourished, and so it
is with man; while the Asuras, who waxed rich and pros-
perous, like salty ground came to ruin in the end. The gods,
again, won the earth from the Asuras: they had only as much
of it as one can see while sitting, and they asked the Asuras
for a share; the latter replied that the gods could have as much
as they could encompass, whereupon the gods encompassed
the whole earth on four sides. Another legend accounts for
the differences in greatness of the gods by the fact that three
of them — Indra, Agni, and Siirya — desired to win superior-
ity, and for that purpose they went on sacrificing until in the
long run they attained their aim.

Prajapati might, it is clear, have become a much greater figure
had it not been for the fact that the philosophic spirit which
conceived him soon went beyond the original idea and trans-
formed the male, as too personal for the expression of the ab-
solute, into the neuter Brahman Svayambhii ("Self-Existent
Prayer"). It still remained possible to ascribe the origin of the
world to this Brahman and to account for it by ascetic austerity
on its part, but the way was opened for the development of the

GODS OF EARTH, DEMONS, AND DEAD 51

"In the beginning rose Hiranyagarbha, born only lord of all created

beings.
He fixed and holdeth up this earth and heaven. What god shall we

adore with our oblation?
Giver of vital breath, of power and vigour, he whose commandments

all the gods acknowledge:
Whose shade is death, whose lustre makes immortal. What god shall

we adore with our oblation.''
Who by his grandeur hath become sole ruler of all the moving world

that breathes and slumbers;
He who is lord of men and lord of cattle. What god shall we adore

with our oblation?
His, through his might, are these snow-covered mountains, and men

call sea and Rasa his possession:
His arms are these, his are these heavenly regions. What god shall we

adore with our oblation?
By him the heavens are strong and earth is stedfast, by him light's

realm and sky-vault are supported:
By him the regions in mid-air were measured. What god shall we

adore with our oblation?
To him, supported by his help, two armies embattled look while

trembling in their spirit.
When over them the risen sun is shining. What god shall we adore

with our oblation?
What time the mighty waters came, containing the universal germ,

producing Agni,
Thence sprang the gods' one spirit into being. What god shall we

adore with our oblation?
He in his might surveyed the floods, containing productive force and

generating Worship.
He is the god of gods, and none beside him. What god shall we adore

with our oblation? ,

Ne'er may he harm us who is earth's begetter, nor he whose laws are

sure, the heavens' creator,
He who brought forth the great and lucid waters. What god shall we

adore with our oblation?
Prajapati! thou onlycomprehendest all these created things, and none

beside thee.
Grant us our hearts' desire when we invoke thee: may we have store

of riches in possession."^

This passage is the starting-point of his great history which
culminates in the conception of the absolute but personal
Brahma.



52 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY

Another personification of the tenth book which later is
merged in the personality of Prajapati is Visvakarman ("All-
Maker"), whose name is used earlier as an epithet of Indra
and the sun. He is described as having eyes, a face, arms, and
feet on every side, just as Brahma is later four-faced. He Is
winged, and Is a lord of speech, and he assigns their names to
the gods. He is the highest apparition, establisher, and dis-
poser. Perhaps in origin he Is only a form of the sun, but in his
development he passes over to become one side of Prajapati
as architect.

Another aspect of the Supreme Is presented by the Purusa
Sukta, or "Hymn of Man" (x. 90), which describes the origin
of the universe from the sacrifice of a primeval Purusa, who is
declared distinctly to be the whole universe. By the sacrifice
the sky was fashioned from his head, from his navel the at-
mosphere, and from his feet the earth. The sun sprang from
his eye, the moon from his mind, wind from his breath, Agni
and Soma from his mouth; and the four classes of men were
produced from his head, arms, thighs, and feet respectively.
The conception Is important, for Purusa as spirit throughout
Indian religion, and still more throughout Indian philosophy,
is often given the position of Prajapati. On the other hand,
there Is primitive thought at the bottom of the conception of
the origin of the world from the sacrifice of a giant.''

Another and different abstraction Is found in the deification
of Manyu ("Wrath"), a personification which seems to owe
its origin to the fierce anger of Indra and which is Invoked in
two hymns of the Rgveda (x. 83-84). He Is of irresistible might
and Is self-existent; he glows like fire, slays Vrtra, Is accom-
panied by the Maruts, grants victory like Indra, and bestows
wealth. United with Tapas ("Ardour"), he protects his wor-
shippers and slays the foe. Other personifications of qualities
are In the main feminine and will be noted with the other
female deities.

The goddesses In the Rgveda play but a small part beside the



GODS OF EARTH, DEMONS, AND DEAD 53

gods, and the only great one Is Usas, though Sarasvati is of
some slight importance. To Indra, Varuna, and Agni are as-
signed IndranI, VarunanI, and Agnayi respectively, but they
are mere names. Prthivi ("Earth"), who is rather frequently
named with Dyaus, has only one hymn to herself, while RatrT
("Night") is invoked as the bright starlit night, at whose ap-
proach men return home as birds hasten back to their nests,
and who is asked to keep the thief and the wolf away. Orig-
inally a personification of the thunder. Vac ("Speech") is
celebrated in one hymn (x. 125) in which she describes herself.
She accompanies all the gods and supports Mitra and Varuna,
Indra and Agni, and the Asvins, besides bending Rudra's bow
against the unbeliever. Purandhi, the Avestan Parendi, is the
goddess of plenty and is mentioned with Bhaga, while Dhisana,
another goddess (perhaps of plenty), occurs a dozen times.
The butter-handed and butter-footed Ila has a more concrete
foundation, for she is the personification of the offering of but-
ter and milk in the sacrifice. Brhaddiva, Sinlvali, Raka, and
Gungii are nothing but names. Prsni is more real: she is the
mother of the Maruts, perhaps the spotted storm-cloud.
Saranyu figures in an interesting but fragmentary myth.
Tvastr made a wedding for his daughter with Vivasvant, but
during the ceremony the bride vanished away. Thereupon the
gods gave one of similar form to Vivasvant, but in some way
Saranyu seems still to have borne the Asvins to him, as well
perhaps as Yama and Yami, for the hymn (x. 17) calls her
"mother of Yama." The fragmentary story is put together by
Yaska in the following shape. Saranyu bore to Vivasvant
Yama and Yami, and then substituting one of like form for
herself, she fled away in the guise of a mare. Vivasvant, how-
ever, pursued in the shape of a horse and united with her, and
she bore the Asvins, while her substitute gave birth to Manu.
The legend may be old, for it has a curious similarity to the
story of the Tilphossan Erinys,^ though the names do not
philologically tally. At any rate the legend seems to have no



54 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY

mythical intention, but to contain some effort to explain the
name of Manu as " Son of Her of Like Shape," which appears to
be known as early as the ^gveda. Perhaps she is another form
of the dawn-goddess.

Other goddesses are personifications of abstract Ideas, such
as Sraddha ("Faith"), who Is celebrated In a short hymn
(x. 151). Through her the fire Is kindled, ghee Is offered, and
wealth is obtained, and she is invoked morning, noon, and
night. Anumati represents the "favour" of the gods. Aramati
("Devotion") and Sunrta ("Bounteousness") are also per-
sonified. Asunltl ("Spirit Life") is besought to prolong life,
while NIrrti ("Decease" or "Dissolution") presides over death.
These are only faint figures in comparison with AdItI, if that
deity Is to be reckoned among the personifications of abstract
concepts. She Is singularly without definitive features of a
physical kind, though, in contrast to the other abstractions,
she Is commonly known throughout the Rgveda. She is ex-
panded, bright, and luminous; she Is a mistress of a bright stall
and a supporter of creatures; and she belongs to all men. She
Is the mother of MItra and Varuna, of Aryaman, and of eight
sons, but she is also said to be the sister of the Adityas, the
daughter of the Vasus, and the mother of the Rudras. She is
often Invoked to release from sin or guilt, and with MItra and
Varuna she is Implored to forgive sin. Evil-doers are cut off
from Aditi; and Varuna, Agni, and Savitr are besought to free
from guilt before her. She is Identified with the earth, though
the sky is also mentioned under the name Aditi. In many
places, however, she Is named together with (and therefore as
distinct from) sky and earth; and yet again It is said (I. Ixxxix.
10): "Aditi is the sky; Aditi is the air; Aditi Is the mother,
father, and son; Aditi is all the gods and the live tribes; ^ Aditi
is whatever has been born; Aditi Is whatever shall be born."
Elsewhere Aditi Is made both mother and daughter of Daksa
by a species of reciprocal generation which is not rare in the
Rgveda; and In yet other passages she Is hailed as a cow.



GODS OF EARTH, DEMONS, AND DEAD 55

The name AditI means "Unbinding" or "Boundlessness,"
and the name Aditya as applied to a group of bright gods de-
notes them, beyond doubt, as the sons of Aditi. Hence she has
been regarded as a personification of the sky or of the visible
infinite, the expanse beyond the earth, the clouds and the sky,
or the eternal celestial light which sustains the Adityas. Or,
if stress be laid not on her connexion with the light, but on the
view that she is a cow, she can be referred to earth, as the
mother of all. In these senses she would be concrete in origin.
On the other hand, she has also been derived from the epithet
Aditi, the "boundless," as applied to the sky, or yet more ab-
stractly from the epithet "sons of Aditi," in the sense of "sons
of boundlessness," referring to the Adityas. As Indra is called
"son of strength," and later "Strength" (Sad) is personified
as his wife (perhaps not in the Rgveda itself), so Aditi may have
been developed in pre-Rgvedic times from such a phrase, which
would account for her frequent appearance, even though a
more concrete origin seems probable for such a deity. On the
other hand, from her is deduced as her opposite Diti, who occurs
twice or thrice in the Rgveda, though in an indeterminate sense.

Another goddess of indefinite character is Surya. She cannot
be other than the daughter of the Sun, for both she and that
deity appear in the same relation to the Asvins. They are
Surya's two husbands whom she chose; she or the maiden as-
cended their car. They possess Surya as their own, and she ac-
companies them on their car, whose three wheels perhaps cor-
respond to its three occupants. Through their connexion with
Surya they are invoked to conduct the bride home on their car,
and it is said that when Savitr gave Surya to her husband, Soma
was wooer, while the Asvins were the groomsmen. The gods are
also said to have given Piisan to Surya, who bears elsewhere the
name Asvinl. The sun as a female is a remarkable idea, and
therefore Surya has often been taken as the dawn, but the
name presents difficulties, since it does not contain any patro-
nymic element; and, moreover, the conception contained in



56 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY

the wedding-hymn of the union of Soma (no doubt the moon)
and the dawn would be wholly unusual.

The constant grouping of gods in the Rgveda comes to formal
expression In the practice of joint invocation, which finds its
natural starting-point in the concept of heaven and earth, who
are far oftener worshipped as joint than as separate deities.
Even Mitra and Varuna are much more frequently a pair than
taken individually, and this use may be old, since Ahura and
MIthra are thus coupled in the Avesta. A more curious com-
pound Is Indra and Varuna, the warlike god and the slayer of
Vrtra united with the divinity who supports men In peace and
wisdom. Indra is much more often conjoined with Agnl, and
the pair show In the main the characteristics of the former god,
though something of Agni's priestly nature is also ascribed to
them. With Visnu Indra strides out boldly, with Vayu he
drinks the soma, with Pusan he slays Vrtras, and to their joint
abode the goat conveys the sacrificial horse after death. Soma
is invoked with Pusan and with Rudra, Agni very rarely with
Soma and Parjanya. A more natural pair are Parjanya and
Vata ("Rain" and "Wind"), and similar unions are Day and
Night, and Sun and Moon. Naturally enough, these dualities
develop little distinct character.

Of groups of gods the most important are the Maruts, who
are numbered now as twenty-one and now as a hundred and
eighty and who are Indra's followers, although as Rudras they
are occasionally associated with Rudra as their father. The
Adityas are smaller in number, being given as seven or eight,
while the Vasus are indeterminate In number as in character,
the name denoting no more than "the Bright Ones." All the
deities are summed up in the concept Visve Devah ("All-
Gods"), but though originally intended to include all, the term
even in the Rgveda becomes applied to a special body who are
named together with other groups, such as the Vasus and the
Adityas.

An odd and curious group of deities is that of the Sadhyas,



GODS OF EARTH, DEMONS, AND DEAD 57

who occur in the Rgveda and occasionally in the later literature.
Neither their name nor the scanty notices of them justify any
conclusion as to their real nature, though it has been sug-
gested ^° that they may possibly be a class of the fathers (the
kindly dead).

Beside the great gods the Vedic pantheon has many minor
personages who are not regarded as enjoying the height of
divinity which is ascribed to the leading figures. Of these the
chief are the Rbhus, who are three in number, Rbhu or ELbhu-
ksan, Vibhvan, and Vaja. They are the sons of Sudhanvan
("Good Archer"), though once they are called collectively the
sons of Indra and the grandchildren of Might, and again they
are described as sons of Manu. They acquired their rank as
divine by the skill of their deeds, which raised them to the sky.
They were mortal at first, but gained immortality, for the gods
so admired their skilled work that Vaja became the artificer of
the gods, Rbhuksan of Indra, and Vibhvan of Varuna. Their
great feats were five: for the Asvins they made a car which,
without horses or reins, and with three wheels, traverses space;
for Indra they fashioned the two bay steeds; from a hide they
wrought a cow which gives nectar and the cow they reunited
with the calf, the beneficiary of this marvel being, we infer,
Bfhaspati; they rejuvenated their parents (apparently here
sky and earth), who were very old and frail; and finally they
made into four the one cup of Tvastr, the drinking- vessel of
the gods, this being done at the divine behest conveyed by
Agni, who promised them in return equal worship with the
gods. Tvastr agreed, it seems, to the remaking of the cup, but
it is also said that when he saw the four he hid himself among
the females and desired to slay the Rbhus for the desecration,
though the latter declared that they intended no disrespect.

In addition to their great deeds a wonderful thing befell
them. After wandering in swift course round the sky windsped,
they came to the house of Savitr, who conferred immortality
upon them: when, after slumbering for twelve days, they had



58 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY

rejoiced in the hospitality of Agohya, they made fields and de-
flected the streams; plants occupied the dry ground and the
waters the low lands. After their sleep they asked Agohya who
had awakened them; In a year they looked around them; and
the goat declared the dog to be the awakener. Agohya can
hardly be anything but the sun, and the period of their sleep
has been thought to be the winter solstice, and has been com-
pared with the Teutonic twelve nights of licence at that period.
The nights, it has been suggested, ^^ are Intended to make good
the defects of the Vedic year of 360 days by Inserting Intercalary
days; and the goat and the dog have led to still wilder flights
of speculative Imagination. But as rbhu means "handy" or
"dexterous" and Is akin to the German Elbe and the English
elf, and as the ^bhus are much more than mere men, It Is not
improbable that they represent the three seasons which mark
the earliest division of the Indian year, and their dwelling in
the house of Agohya signifies the turn of life at the winter sol-
stice. The cup of Tvastr may possibly be the moon, and the
four parts Into which It is expanded may symbolize the four
phases of the moon. They may, however, have had a humbler
origin as no more than elves who gradually won a higher rank,
although their human attributes may be due to another cause:
it is possible that they were the favourite deities of a chariot-
making clan which was admitted into the VedIc circle, but
whose gods suffered some diminution of rank in the process, for
it is a fact that In the period of the Brdhmanas the chariot-
makers, or Rathakaras, form a distinct class by themselves.

Even more obscure than the Rbhus is the figure of the Gan-
dharva; he bears the epithet Visvavasu ("Possessing All
Good"), and this is later a proper name, while at the same time
the single Gandharva is converted into many. This idea is not
absolutely strange to the Rgveda, but it is found only thrice,
and the name Gandharva is practically unknown to books
ii-vii, the nucleus of the collection. Yet the figure Is old, for the
Gandarewa is found in the Avesta as a dragon-like monster.



GODS OF EARTH, DEMONS, AND DEAD 59

The Gandharva is heavenly and dwells In the high region of the
sky; he Is a measurer of space and Is closely connected with
the sun, the sun-bird, and the sun-steed, while in one passage
he Is possibly Identified with the rainbow. He is also associated
with the soma; he guards its place and protects the races of
the gods. It is In this capacity, it would seem, that he appears
as an enemy whom Indra pierces, just as in the Avesta the
Gandarewa, dwelling In the sea Vourukasha, the abode of the
White Haoma, battles with and is overcome by Keresaspa.^^
From another point of view Soma Is said to be the Gandharva of
the waters, and the Gandharva and the Maiden of the Waters
are claimed as the parents of Yama and YamI, the first pair on
earth. So, too, the Gandharva is the beloved of the Apsaras,
whence he is associated with the wedding ceremony and in the
first days of marriage is a rival of the husband.

The Gandharva has brilliant weapons and fragrant garments,
while the Gandharvas are described as wind-haired, so that it
has been suggested that the Gandharvas are the spirits of the
wind, closely connected with the souls of the dead and the
Greek Centaurs, with whose name (In defiance of philology)
their name is identified. Yet there is no sufficient ground to
justify this hypothesis or any of the other divergent views
which see In the Gandharva the rainbow, or the rising sun or
the moon, or the spirit of the clouds, or Soma (which he
guards).

The companion of the Gandharva, the Apsaras, is likewise an
obscure figure, though the name denotes "moving in the
waters," and the original conception may well be that of a
water-nymph, whence the mingling of the water with the soma
Is described as the flowing to Soma of the Apsarases of the
ocean. Of one, UrvasI, we have the record that she was the
mother of the sage Vaslstha, to whose family are ascribed the
hymns of the seventh book of the Rgveda, and an obscure hymn
(x. 95) contains a dialogue between her and her earthly lover
Pururavas, whom she seems to have forsaken after spending

32 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY

between the unity of the Asvins and the diversity of the two
stars, which Is only slenderly diminished by the curious traces
of separate birth and worship in the Rgveda.

There is but one goddess of the celestial world, the maiden
Usas, the most poetical figure in the whole pantheon. Decking
herself In gay attire like a dancer, she displays her bosom, and
like a maiden adorned by her mother she reveals her form.
Clothed in light, she appears in the east and shows her
charms; immortal and unaging, she awakes before the world.
When she shines forth, the birds fly up, and men bestir them-
selves; she removes the black mantle of night and banishes
evil dreams and the hated darkness. She follows ever the path
of Order, though once she is asked not to delay lest the sun
scorch her as a thief or an enemy. She is borne on a car with
ruddy steeds or kine, and the distance which the dawns trav-
erse in a day is thirty yojanas (leagues). She is the wife or the
mistress of the Sun who follows her, but sometimes is also his
mother; she is the sister of Bhaga, the kinswoman of Varuna,
and the mightier sister of Night. She is likewise closely associ-
ated with Agni, as the fire of the sacrifice which is Ht at dawn,
and with the Asvins, whom she is besought to arouse. Her
name denotes "the Shining" and is in origin one with Aurora
and Eos.^^

Of the gods of the atmosphere by far the greatest is Indra,
whose name occurs among the list of MItannian gods. He Is
more anthropomorphic than any other Vedic deity. His head,
his arms, and his hands are mentioned, as is his great belly in
which he puts the soma; he moves his jaws after drinking
soma, and his lips are beautiful. His beard waves in the air,
he has tawny hair and beard. His long, strong, well-shaped
arms wield the thunderbolt, which was fashioned for him by
Tvastr or Usanas. This Is his chief weapon, and it is described
as a stone, as hundred-jointed and thousand-pointed, hundred-
angled, sharp, and metallic; rarely it is said to be of gold.
Occasionally he bears a bow and arrows, hundred-pointed and



GODS OF SKY AND AIR 33

winged with a thousand feathers, and sometimes he carries a
goad. He travels in a golden chariot drawn by two or more
horses, as many as eleven hundred being mentioned. He is a
gigantic eater and drinker; at his birth he drank soma and for
the slaying of Vrtra he drank three lakes or even thirty. He
eats the flesh of twenty or a hundred buffaloes, and when he
was born the worlds quaked with fear. His mother is described,
as a cow and he as a bull; she is also called Nistigri, and he
willed to be born unnaturally through her side. His father is
Dyaus or Tvastr; from the latter he stole the soma and even
slew him and made his mother a widow; more than this he
fought against the gods, perhaps for the soma. His wife In-
dranl is mentioned, and he is often called Sacipati, or "Lord of
Strength," whence later mythology coined a wife SacI for him.
He is closely connected with the Maruts and with Agni, and is
actually identified with Surya.

The might and power of Indra are described everywhere in
terms of hyperbole. He is the greatest of the gods, greater even
than Varuna, lord of all that moves and of men, who won in
battle wide space for the gods. Occasionally he bears Varuna's
title of universal ruler, but more often he has his own of inde-
pendent ruler. The epithet "of a hundred powers" is almost his
alone, and his also is that of "very lord." The deed which wins
him his high place is the feat, ever renewed, of slaying the
dragon which encompasses the waters. He smites him on the
head or on the back, he pierces his vitals. After slaying Vrtra
he lets loose the streams; he shatters the mountains, breaks
open the well, and sets the waters free; he kills the dragon
lying on the waters and releases the waters. He cleaves the
mountain to liberate the cows; he loosens the rock and makes
the kine easy to obtain; he frees the cows which were fast within
the stone; he slays Vrtra, breaks the castles, makes a channel
for the rivers, pierces the mountain, and makes it over to his
friends the cows. Again, however, he wins the light by his deed;
he gains the sun as well as the waters by freeing the demons;



34 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY

when he slew the chief of the dragons and released the waters
from the mountain, he generated the sun, the sky, and the
dawn; he finds the light in the darkness and makes the sun to
shine. He also wins the dawns; with the sun and the dawn he
discovers or delivers or wins the cows; the dawns again go
forth to meet Indra when he becomes the lord of the kine.
Moreover he gains the soma and he establishes the quaking
mountains, a feat which the Brdhmanas explain as denoting
that he cut off their wings. He supports the earth and props up
the sky, and is the generator of heaven and earth.

Indra, however, does not war with demons only, for he at-
tacked Usas, shattered her wain with his bolt, and rent her
slow steeds, whereupon she fled in terror from him, this being,
perhaps, a myth of the dawn obscured by a thunder-storm or
of the sunrise hastening the departure of the lingering dawn.
Indra also came into conflict with the sun when he was running
a race with the swift steed Etasa, and in some unexplained way
Indra caused the car of the sun to lose a wheel. He also seems
to have murdered his father Tvastr, and, though the Maruts
aid him in his struggle with Vrtra, in a series of hymns we
find a distinct trace that he quarrelled with them, used
threatening language to them, and was appeased only with
difficulty.

Other foes of Indra's were the Panis, who kept cows hidden
in a cave beyond the Rasa, a mythical stream. Sarama, Indra's
messenger, tracks the kine and demands them In Indra's name,
only to be mocked by the Panis, but Indra shatters the ridge of
Vala and overcomes his antagonists. Elsewhere the cows are
said to be confined by the power of Vala without reference to
the Panis and are won by Indra, often with the help of the
Angirases. Vala ("Encircler") is clearly the name of the
stronghold in which the cows are confined.

As becomes so great a warrior, Indra is a worthy helper to
men on earth. He is the chief aid of the Aryans in their
struggles against the Dasas or Dasyus, and subjects the black



PLATE IV

Indra

The deity appears crowned as king of the gods
and enthroned on his vahana (" vehicle "), the
elephant Airavata. The middle one of his left hands
holds the thunderbolt. He is further characterized
by the multitude of marks on his body, which origi-
nally represented the yoni (possibly because of the
fertility which the rain brings to earth), though later
they were changed into eyes. The heavy beard shows
the Persian influence in the painting. From an oil-
painting of the Indo-Mughal school in the collection
of the Editor. See pp. 32-35.



GODS OF SKY AND AIR 35

race to the Aryan; he leads Turvasa and Yadu over the rivers,
apparently as patron of an Aryan migration. Moreover he as-
sists his favourites against every foe; and his friend Sudas is
aided in his battle with the ten kings, his foes being drowned
in the Parusni. To his worshippers he is a wall of defence, a
father, mother, or brother. He bestows wealth on the pious
man, and, as with a hook a man showers fruit from a tree, so he
can shower wealth on the righteous. He is the lord of riches
and at the same time is "the Bountiful One," whence in later
literature the epithet Maghavan becomes one of his names.
He richly rewarded a maiden who, having found soma beside a
river, pressed it with her teeth and dedicated it to him. Yet he
has few moral traits in his character and is represented as
boasting of his drinking feats. Indeed it is most significant that
we have proof, even in the Vedic period, of men doubting his
existence.

It is almost certain that In Indra we must see a storm-god,
and that his exploit of defeating Vftra Is a picture of the burst-
ing forth of the rain from the clouds at the oncoming of the
rainy season, when all the earth Is parched, and when man and
nature alike are eager for the breaking of the drought. The
tremendous storms which mark the first fall of the rain are
generally recognized as a most fitting source for the conception
of the god, while the mountains cleft and the cows won are the
clouds viewed from different standpoints. But Indra appears
also as winning the sun, a trait representing the clearing away
of the clouds from the sun after the thunder-storm, with which
has been confused or united the idea of the recovery of the sun
at dawn from the darkness of night. That some of the terminol-
ogy reflects an earlier view that Vrtra is the winter ^'^ which
freezes the stream, and that Indra Is the sun, is not proved, nor
need we hold that the poets of the Rgveda really meant only
that the god freed the rivers from the mountains and did not
realize that the mountains were clouds, as even the commen-
tators on the Rgveda knew.



36 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY

In the ^gveda we find a close parallel of Indra, though in a
faded form, in Trita Aptya. He slays the three-headed son of
Tvastr as does Indra; Indra impels him and he Indra, who is
twice said to act for him. He is associated with the Manits, but
especially with soma, which he prepares; and this last feature
associates him with Thrita in the Avesta, who was the "third
man," as his name denotes, to prepare soma, the second being
Athwya. His slaying of the demon identifies him with the
Thraetaona of the Avesta, who kills the three-headed, six-
mouthed serpent, and he has a brother Dvita, " Second," while
Thraetaona has two, who seek to slay him as in the Brdhmanas
his brothers seek to murder Trita. ^^ The parallelism points
strongly to his identification with the lightning which is born
among the waters, as his second name, Aptya ("Watery"),
indicates; but he has been held to be a water-god, a storm-
god, a deified healer, and the moon. In all likelihood much of
his glory has been taken from him by the growth of Indra's
greatness.

The lightning seems also to lie at the base of the deity Apaih
Napat, who likewise appears in the Avesta, ^^ where he is a spirit
of the waters, dwelling in their depths and said to have seized
the brightness in the abysses of the ocean. He is also " Son of
the Waters," born and nourished in them, but he shines and is
golden, and is identified with Agni, who is often described as
abiding in the waters of the air. The identification with a water-
spirit pure and simple is, therefore, improbable, nor has he any
clear lunar characteristics. Yet another form of the lightning
is Mararisvan ("He that Grows in his Mother"), the thunder-
cloud. He is the messenger of Vivasvant and he brings Agni
down to men, as the Prometheus of India; by friction he pro-
duces Agni for the homes of men. The lightning may likewise
be represented by the "One-Footed Goat" (Aja Ekapad),
which is occasionally mentioned among aerial deities, the goat
symbolizing the swift movement of the flash and the single foot
the one place of striking the earth, although this obscure god



GODS OF SKY AND AIR 37

may also be a solar phenomenon. With Aparh Napat and Aja
Ekapad occurs the "Serpent of the Deep" (Ahi Budhnya), who
is born in the waters and sits in the bottom of the streams in the
spaces, and who is besought not to give his worshippers over to
injury. Such an invocation suggests that there is something
uncanny about the nature of the god, and his name allies him
to Vrtra, whose beneficent aspect he may represent, the dragon
in this case being conceived as friendly to man.

The other great aspect of the air, the wind, is represented by
Vata or Vayu, the former being more markedly elemental, the
latter more divine. So Vayu is often linked with Indra, being,
like him, a great drinker of soma, but Vata is associated only
with Parjanya, who is, like himself, a god of little but nature.
Vayu, the son-in-law of Tvastr, is swift of thought and thousand-
eyed; he has a team of ninety-nine or even a thousand horses
to draw his car; he drinks the clear soma and Is connected with
the nectar-yielding cow. Vata rushes on whirling up the dust;
he never rests; the place of his birth is unknown; man hears
his roaring, but cannot see his form. He is the breath of the
gods; Hke Rudra, he wafts healing and he can produce the
light. The identification with the Eddie Wodan or Odhin is
still unsubstantiated.

Parjanya personifies the cloud, flying round with a watery car
and drawing the waterskin downward. He Is often viewed as a
bull or even as a cow, the clouds being feminine. He quickens
the earth with seed, and the winds blow forth and the lightnings
fall; he Is a thunderer and a giver of Increase to plants, to grass,
to cows, mares, and women. He is even called the divine father
whose wife is the earth, and he Is said to rule over all the world;
he produces a calf himself, perhaps the lightning or the soma. He
is sometimes associated with the Maruts and is clearly akin to
Indra, of whom he later becomes a form. It is doubtful If the
Lithuanian thunder-god Perkunas can be identified with him.

The waters are also hailed as goddesses on their own account
and they are conceived as mothers, young wives, and granters of



38 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY

boons. They nourish Agni and they bear away defilement and
purify; they bestow remedies and grant long life. They are
often associated with honey, and it may be that they were
sometimes regarded as having the soma within them.

Though Rudra, the prototype of Siva, is celebrated in only
three hymns of the Rgveda, he already bears remarkable traits.
He wears braided hair, hke Pusan; his lips are beautiful, and
his colour is brown. His car dazzles, and he wears a wonderful
necklace. He holds the thunderbolt and bears bow and arrows;
and his lightning-shaft shot from the sky traverses the earth.
He generated the Maruts from Prsni, and himself bears the
name Tryambaka (VII. lix. 12), denoting his descent from
three mothers, presumably a reference to the triple division of
the universe. He is fierce and strong, a ruler of the world, the
great Asura of heaven, bountiful, easily invoked and auspi-
cious, but this latter epithet, Siva,^^ is not yet attached to him
as his own.

None the less, Rudra is a very terrible deity and one whose
anger is to be deprecated, whence he is implored not to slay or
injure in his wrath the worshippers, their parents, men, children,
cattle, or horses. His ill will is deprecated, and his favour is
sought for the walking food, and he is even called man-slaying.
On the other hand, he has healing powers and a thousand reme-
dies; he is asked to remove sickness and disease; and he has a
special remedy called jaldsa, which may be the rain. This side
of his nature is as essential as the other and lends plausibility
to the view that he is the lightning, regarded mainly as a de-
stroying and terrible agency, but at the same time as the power
by which there is healing calm after storm and as propitious
in that the lightning spares as well as strikes. Yet his nature
has also been held to be a compound of a god of fire and a god
of wind, his name denoting "the Howler" (from rud, "to cry"),
as the chief of the spirits of the dead who storm along in the
wind, and as a god of forest and mountain whence diseases
speed to men.



GODS OF SKY AND AIR 39

Rudra's sons are the Maruts, the children of Prsni, the
storm-cloud, the heroes or males of heaven, born from the
laughter of lightning. All are equal In age, in abode, in mind,
and their number is thrice seven or thrice sixty. They are asso-
ciated with the goddess IndranI, though their lovely wife is
RodasI, who goes on their car. They are brilliant as fire; they
have spears on their shoulders, anklets on their feet, golden
ornaments on their breasts, fiery lightnings in their hands, and
golden helmets on their heads. Spotted steeds draw their
chariots. They are fierce and terrible, and yet playful like chil-
dren or calves. They are black-backed swans, four-tusked boars,
and resemble lions. As they advance they make the mountains
to tremble, uproot trees, and like wild elephants hew the forest;
they whirl up dust, and all creatures tremble before them.
Their great exploit is the making of rain, which they produce
amid the lightning; and a river on earth is styled Marudvrdha
("Rejoicing in the Maruts"). They are close associates of
Indra, whose might they increased when they sang a hymn;
singing they made the sun to shine and clove the mountain.
Not only do they help Indra to slay Vftra, but now and then
the exploit seems attributed to them alone; yet they failed
him once in the moment of struggle, whence, it seems, a quarrel
arose. When not associated with Indra they exhibit, in less
degree, the malevolent side of their father Rudra. Thus they
are implored to avert the arrow and stone which they hurl;
their wrath, which is like that of the serpent, is deprecated;
and evil is said to come from them; although, again like
Rudra, they have healing remedies which they bring from the
rivers Sindhu, Asikni, the sea, and the mountains.

There can be little doubt that the Maruts are the storm-gods,
the winds in this qualified use. The only other view of impor-
tance is that they are the souls of the dead who go in the storm-
wind,^^ but of this at least the Rgveda has no hint; nor is the
etymology from mr, "to die," enough to serve as a base for the
explanation, since their appellation may equally well come

VI — 4



40 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY

from a root mr, "to shine," or "to crush," either of which
meanings would well enough accord with their figure. In later
days they sank from their estate, as we shall see, and became
the celestial counterparts of the Vaisyas, the common folk of
earth as distinguished from the two higher castes of Brahmans
(priests) and Ksatriyas (warriors). Finally they degenerated
into mere wind-godlings, their very name becoming a synonym
for "wind"; and at the present day memory of them has all
but vanished.

INDIAN MYTHOLOGY

CHAPTER I
THE RGVEDA

GODS OF SKY AND AIR

IN his Nirukta (the oldest extant Vedic commentary, written
about 500 B.C.) Yaska tells us that earlier students of the
mythology of the Rgveda had resolved all the deities into three
classes according to their position in the sky, in the atmosphere,
or on the earth; and he further treats all the different mem-
bers of each class as being only divergent aspects of the three
great gods, Agni ("Fire") on earth, Indra ("Storm") or Vayu
("Wind") in the atmosphere, and Surya ("Sun") in the sky.
This apportionment of the universe is, in fact, widely accepted
in the Rgveda, where, as a rule, a threefold distribution is pre-
ferred to the simpler view which contrasts the earth with all
that is seen above it. To the division immediately over the
earth are referred the manifestations of wind, rain, and light-
ning, while solar phenomena are assigned to the highest of the
three parts. Each of these three classifications may again be
subdivided into three: thus it is in the highest luminous space
or sky that the "fathers" (the kindly dead), the gods, and
Soma reside. In the atmosphere also there are three spaces, or
often only two — one the heavenly and one the earthly — and
in either case the highest is sometimes treated as if it were the
heaven or sky itself. Like the earth it has rocks and mountains;
streams (clouds) flow in it; and the water-dripping clouds are
constantly compared to and identified with cows. It seems
clear that the earthly as well as the heavenly portion of the



i6 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY

atmosphere is above, not below, the earth, so that the sun does
not return from west to east under the earth, but goes back
by the way it came, turning its light side up to the sky and
thus leaving earth in darkness. The earth, conceived as ex-
tended, broad, and boundless, is compared in shape to a wheel,
but no ocean surrounds it, as in Greek and later Indian myth-
ology. The earth has four points, or five when we include the
place where the speaker stands.

An older conception is that of the earth and the sky alone as
constituting the universe. In that case the idea of the shape of
the earth varies, for when it is united with the sky, it is com-
pared to two great bowls turned toward each other; while from
another point of view earth and sky are likened to the wheels
at the ends of an axle. So closely united are the pair that, as a
deity, Dyavaprthivl ("Sky and Earth") is far more frequently
invoked than either Dyaus ("Sky") or Prthivl ("Earth").
The joint deity can claim six hymns in the Rgveda, the Earth
only one, and the Sky none. Even in her solitary hymn (v. 84)
the Earth is praised for sending the rain from her cloud, though
that is, as a matter of fact, her husband's function. The two
are called the primeval parents, who make and sustain all crea-
tures; and the gods themselves are their children: they are the
parents of Brhaspati ("Lord of Devotion") and with the waters
and Tvastr ("Fashioner") they engendered Agni. Yet with
characteristic Impartiality they are said themselves to be
created, for a poet marvels at the skill which wrought them,
and others attribute their fashioning to Indra, to Visvakarman
("All-Maker") or to Tvastr. They are far-extending, unaging,
yielding milk, ghee (clarified butter), and honey in abundance.
The one is a prolific bull, the other a variegated cow; and both
are rich in seed. They are wise also, and they promote right-
eousness and accord protection and aid to their worshippers.

The constant problem of the fashioning of the world is ex-
pressed in many ways. With the suns Varuna measures the
WQrld; Indra made the wide expanse of earth and the high



GODS OF SKY AND AIR 17

dome of the sky after measuring the six regions; or, again, the
earth is said to have been spread out, as by Agni, Indra, the
Maruts (storm-deities), and other gods. The similitude of a
house leads to the question from what wood it was fashioned,
and the doors of this house of the world are the portals of the
east, through which comes the morning light. Both sky and
earth are often said to be propped up, but the sky is also de-
clared to be rafterless, and the marvel of its being unsupported
is remarked. The earth is made fast with bands by Savitr (a
form of the sun), and Visnu fixed it with pegs. In the last and
latest book of the Rgveda, however, these simple concepts are
replaced by speculations in which mythology passes into phi-
losophy. The most important of these theorizings is that
contained in x. 129, which tells that nothing existed in the be-
ginning, all being void. Darkness and space enveloped the
undifferentiated waters. By heat the first existing thing came
into being, whereupon arose desire, the first seed of mind, to
be the bond of the existent and the non-existent. Thus the gods
had their origin, but at this point the speculation concludes
with an assertion of doubt. The hymn itself runs thus, in Muir's
metrical rendering:

"Then there was neither Aught nor Nought, no air nor sky beyond.

What covered all? Where rested all? In watery gulf profound?

Nor death was then, nor deathlessness, nor change of night and day.

That One breathed calmly, self-sustained; nought else beyond It lay.

Gloom hid in gloom existed first — one sea, eluding view.

That One, a void In chaos wrapt, by inward fervour grew.

Within It first arose desire, the primal germ of mind.

Which nothing with existence links, as sages searching find.

The kindling ray that shot across the dark and drear abyss, —

Was it beneath? or high aloft? What bard can answer this?

There fecundating powers were found, and mighty forces strove, —

A self-supporting mass beneath, and energy above.

Who knows, who ever told, from whence this vast creation rose?

No gods had then been bom, — who then can e'er the truth disclose?

Whence sprang this world, and whether framed by hand divine or

no, —
It's lord in heaven alone can tell, if even he can show."



i8 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY

As in this hymn the gods are said to come into being after the
creation of the universe, so in other philosophic hymns they are
brought into existence from the waters, and in one place they
are divided into groups born from Aditi ("Boundless"), the
waters, and the earth. The Adityas in particular are constantly
derived from Aditi. Yet speculation is free and changes easily:
Dawn is the mother of the sun and is born of Night, by reason
of temporal sequence; while for local causes Sky and Earth are
the all-parents. Or the greatest of a class is parent of the rest,
as the storm-god Rudra ("Roarer") of the Rudras, the wind
of the storm-gods, Sarasvati of rivers, and Soma of plants.
A certain mysticism and love of paradox result in a declaration
that Indra produced his parents, Sky and Earth, or that Daksa
(a creator-god) is at once father and son of Aditi. Similar
vagueness prevails regarding men. They must be included in
the general parentage of Sky and Earth, but the priestly family
of the Angirases are sprung directly from Agni, and the sage
Vasistha is the child of Mitra and Varuna by UrvasI, an
Apsaras, or heavenly nymph. Yet they are also descended
from Manu, son of Vivasvant, or from Yama, the brother of
Manu, and his sister Yami, and this pair claim kinship with the
Gandharva (celestial bard) and the water-nymph.

There is too little distinction between gods and men for us
to be surprised that the gods were once mere mortals, or that
there are ancient as well as more recent gods. How they won
immortality is uncertain: Savitr or Agni bestowed it upon
them, or they obtained it by drinking soma, whereas Indra
gained it by his ascetic practices. Yet it seems clear that they
did get it and that when the gods are called unaging, it does
not mean, as in the mythology of the epic, that they endure
only for a cosmic age; for this latter concept is bound up
with the philosophy which sees no progress in the world and
which, therefore, resolves all existence into a perpetual series of
growth and passing away.

Many as are the names of the gods, there Is much that they



GODS OF SKY AND AIR 19

have in common as they are presented to us In a poetry which
has gone so far as to recognize an essential unity among the
multiplicity of the divine forms. "The bird — that is, the sun
— which is but one, priest and poets with words make into
many," we are told, and "Priests speak in diverse ways of that
which is but one: they call it Agni, Yama, Matarisvan." Yet
this is not so much monotheism as pantheism, for we learn
that Aditi is everything, gods and men, that which has been
and that which shall be; and that Prajapati ("Lord of Crea-
tures") embraces all things within himself. From this point of
view it is easy to understand the fact ^ that here and there one
god is treated as if he were the highest god, or that one god can
be identified with any of the others, and all the others be said to
be centred in him. There is no real monotheistic strain in a
declaration that "Agni alone, like Varuna, is lord of wealth."
The same syncretism is seen in the constant addressing of
prayers to groups of gods, In the stereotyping of the invocation
of the gods in pairs, and in the reckoning of the gods as thirty-
three, i.e. three sets of eleven each in the sky, the waters of the
air, and the earth.

Normally, and subject to certain exceptions, the gods are
conceived as anthropomorphic; they wear garments, carry
weapons, and drive in cars. Yet their personality is very differ-
ently developed in the several cases: Indra Is much more an-
thropomorphic than Agni, whose tongue and whose limbs merely
denote his flames. The abode of the gods Is In the highest realm
of sky, and the offerings of men are either carried thither to them
by Agni or, in a concept which is perhaps older, they are deemed
to come to the straw on which the pious worshipper has set out
his gifts. The food which they eat Is that of man — milk, bar-
ley, butter, cattle, sheep, and goats — chosen now and then for
special fitness, as when Indra, often called a bull, receives heca-
tombs of bulls. The drink of the gods is the soma.

Of feuds among the gods we hear little or nothing: Indra
alone reveals traits of disorderliness, perhaps not unnatural In



20 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY

one who boasts of having drunk himself into intoxication with
soma. He seems once to have fought with all the gods, to have
shattered the car of Dawn, and even to have slain his father;
and he actually quarrelled with his faithful henchmen, the
Maruts. To their worshippers the gods are good and kind, and
for them they slay the demons, with whom they wage a war
which is triumphant if seemingly incessant. They richly bless
the sacrificer and punish the niggard. They are true and not
deceitful, although Indra again departs from the highest stand-
ard by his use of wiles, even without a good end to justify
the means. Moral grandeur is practically confined to Varuna,
and the greatness and the might of the gods are extolled far
more often than their goodness. Their power over men is un-
limited: none may defy their ordinances or live beyond the
period allotted by them, nor is there aught that can subdue
them, save in so far as they are said sometimes not to be able to
transgress the moral order of Mitra and Varuna.

The pantheon which the J^gveda presents is essentially arti-
ficial, for as regards by far the greater part of the collection it
contains hymns used in the Soma ritual, whence it gives only
an imperfect conception of the gods as a whole. Thus, except-
ing in the tenth book, which contains a short group of hymns
(14-18) constituting a sort of collection for Yama (the prime-
val man and the king of the departed), we learn nothing of
the dead and very little of the spirits. Moreover, It is only in
quite Inadequate measure that we meet with the more domestic
side of religion or with the belief in magic and witchcraft in
their application to the needs of ordinary life. We cannot,
therefore, feel any assurance that the comparative importance
of the gods as they might be judged from their prominence in
the Rgveda affords any real criterion of their actual position in
the life of any Vedic tribe, though doubtless it does reflect
their rank in the views of the group of priestly families whose
traditions, united in a whole, are presented to us in the Rgveda.
From the text Itself it would seem that Indra, Agnl, and Soma



GODS OF SKY AND AIR 21

are by far the greatest gods; then come the Asvins (the twin
celestial "Horsemen"), the Maruts, and Varuna; then Usas
("Dawn"), Savitr, Brhaspati, Surya, Pusan ("Nourisher");
then Vayu, Dyavaprthivl, Visnu, and Rudra; and finally Yama
and Parjanya (the rain-god). Even this list, based on numeri-
cal considerations, is open to objection, for some of the deities,
such as Varuna, are obviously greater, though less closely con-
nected with the sacrifice, so that, despite their true rank, they
are less often mentioned than others, such as the Asvins, who
are more frequently invoked in the sacrifice.

Of the gods of the sky Dyaus ("Sky") corresponds In name
to Zeus, and like Zeus he is a father. Indeed, this is by far the
most important characteristic of Zeus's counterpart in the
Rgveda. Usas ("Dawn") is most often the child mentioned,
but the Asvins, Agnl, Parjanya, Surya, the Adltyas,the Maruts,
Indra, and the Angirases are among his ofi'spring, and he Is the
parent of Agni. Normally, however, he is mentioned with Earth
in the compound Dyavaprthivl, and on the solitary occasion
when he Is hailed In the vocative as Dyaus pitar ("Father Sky,"
the exact equivalent of the Greek ZeO irdrep and the Latin
luppiter), "Mother Earth" Is simultaneously addressed.
Scarcely any other characteristic is ascribed to him; it Is simply
stated that he is a bull who bellows downward, or a black steed
decked with pearls (I.e. the dark sky set with stars), that he
smiles through the clouds, and that he bears the thunderbolt.
Thus he Is hardly anthropomorphized at all, whether named
alone, or when conjoined with earth, and his worship is little
removed from the direct adoration of the sky as a living being.
No moral attribute belongs to him, nor is there any trace of
sovereignty over the world or the other gods. The position of
power and elevation which Greek mythology ascribes to Zeus
is not accorded in full to any Vedic deity, but in so far as Zeus
has a parallel, It Is in Varuna, not In Dyaus.

In comparison with Dyaus Varuna has far more anthropo-
morphic traits. He wears a golden mantle and a shining robe;



22 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY

with Mitra ("Sun") he mounts his shining car; in the highest
heaven they abide in a golden mansion, with a thousand pillars
and a thousand doors; and the all-seeing Sun, rising from his
abode, goes to the dwellings of Mitra and Varuna to tell of the
deeds of men; the eye of Mitra and Varuna is the sun, and
Varuna has a thousand eyes. Both gods have fair hands, and
Varuna treads down wiles with shining foot. Yet no myths are
told of him, and the deeds ascribed to him are all intended to
show his power as a ruler. He is lord of all, both gods and men —
not only an independent ruler, a term more often given to Indra,
but a universal ruler, an epithet used also of Indra, though
peculiarly Varuna's. Moreover, the terms Ksatriya ("Ruler")
and Asura ("Deity") are his, the first almost exclusively, and
the second predominantly. As Asura he possesses, in company
with Mitra, the mdyd, or occult power, wherewith they send
the dawns, make the sun to cross the sky, obscure it with cloud
and rain, or cause the heavens to rain. The worlds are sup-
ported by Varuna and Mitra; Varuna made the golden swing
(the sun) to shine in the heaven and placed fire in the waters;
the wind is his breath. He establishes the morning and the
evening; through him the moon moves and the stars shine at
night; he regulates the months of the year. He is only rarely
connected with the sea, for the Rgveda knows little of the ocean,
but his occult power keeps the ever-flowing rivers from filling
it up. Despite this, Varuna and Mitra are greatly concerned
with the waters of the atmosphere and make the rain to fall;
they have kine yielding refreshment and streams flowing with
honey.

So great is Varuna that neither the flying birds nor the flow-
ing rivers can reach the limit of his dominion, his might, and his
wrath. The three heavens and the three earths alike are depos-
ited in him; he knows the flight of the birds in the sky, the path
of the ships, the track of the wind, and all secret things. The
omniscience and omnipotence, no less than the omnipresence,
of Varuna receive admirable expression in a hymn which, by



PLATE II

Idol Car

In the worship of many deities an important occa-
sion is their ceremonial visit to other divinities, and
for this purpose elaborate vehicles are requisite for
their conveyance. This car, whose wheels are of
stone, has been chosen to illustrate the intricacy
of Indian carving in wood. After Architecture of
Dharwar and Mysore^ Photograph L.



THE NEW YORK

PUBLIC LlBKAKr



A«roB, LBNOX AND

HLDlia* FOUNDAnONS
* L



GODS OF SKY AND AIR 23

accident, is preserved only as degraded into a spell in the
Atharvaveda (iv. 16), and thus rendered by Muir:^

"The mighty Lord on high, our deeds, as if at hand, espies:

The gods know all men do, though men would fain their deeds disguise.

Whoever stands, whoever moves, or steals from place to place,

Or hides him in his secret cell, — the gods his movements trace.

Wherever two together plot, and deem they are alone,

King Varuna is there, a third, and all their schemes are known.

This earth is his, to him belong those vast and boundless skies;

Both seas within him rest, and yet in that small pool he lies.

Whoever far beyond the sky should think his way to wing,

He could not there elude the grasp of Varuna the king.

His spies descending from the skies glide all this world around,

Their thousand eyes all-scanning sweep to earth's remotest bound.

Whate'er exists in heaven and earth, whate'er beyond the skies,

Before the eyes of Varuna, the king, unfolded lies.

The ceaseless winkings all he counts of every mortal's eyes:

He wields this universal frame, as gamester throws his dice.

Those knotted nooses which thou fling'st, o god, the bad to snare, —

All liars let them overtake, but all the truthful spare."

https://archive.org/details/mythologyofallra71gray/page/101






AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY


BY

ALICE WERNER


Sometime Scholar and Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge
Professor of Swahili and Bantu Languages, University of London


I


To E. T. C. W.

Peking

Go, little Book, and pass to Kambalu

Greet him who dwells beside the Peaceful Gate,

Hard by the sheep-mart, in the ancient town.

May Peace be his, and happy springs renew
Earth’s beauty, marred by foolish strife and hate: —
On his fair garth sweet dews glide gently down.

He loves the ancient lore of Chou and Han
And eke the science of the farthest West;

High thought he broods on ever — yet maybe
He will not grudge an idle hour, to scan
These childlike dreams — these gropings for the Best
Of simple men beyond the Indian sea.




AUTHOR’S PREFACE


HERE may perhaps be an impression in the minds of


most readers that Africa, with its practically unwritten
languages and comparatively undeveloped religious ideas, can
have little or nothing which can properly be described as myth-
ology, or at any rate that the existing material is too scanty to
justify a volume on the subject.

I must confess that, until I actually undertook the work, I
had no conception of the enormous amount of material that
is in fact available — a great deal of it in German periodicals
not always readily accessible. The limitations of time, space,
and human faculties have prevented my making full use of
these materials: I can only hope to supply clues which other in-
vestigators may follow up if I cannot do so. I intend, however,
should I live long enough, to work out in detail some of the
subjects here presented in a very imperfect sketch — for in-
stance, the distribution of the Chameleon-myth in Africa;
the “ Exchanges ” story (fresh material having come to
hand since I wrote the article in the African Monthly , 1911)5
the Swallower-myth as exemplified in Kholumolumo of
the Basuto and its various African modifications; and several
others.

I have not attempted to state any theories or to work out
comparisons with any folklore outside Africa, though here
and there obvious parallels have suggested themselves. Any
approaches to theorising — such as the occasional protests I
have felt compelled to make against the assumption that simi-
larity necessarily implies borrowing — must be regarded as
merely tentative.



io6


AUTHOR’S PREFACE


Since completing the chapter on the “ Origin of Death,”
I have found among my papers a Duruma Chameleon-story
(kindly supplied to me in MS., with interlinear translations
into Swahili, by Mr. A. C. Hollis), which is so interesting that
I may perhaps be excused for inserting it here. The Duruma
are one of the so-called “ Nyika ” tribes living inland
from Mombasa, neighboured on the east by the Rabai and
on the southwest (more or less) by the Digo: they have not
been very fully studied up to the present. The legend is as
follows:

When man was first made, the Chameleon and the Lizard
(dzonzoko or gae — called in the Swahili translation mjusika-
firi ) were asked their views about his ultimate fate. The Cha-
meleon answered : “ I should like all the people to live and not
to die,” while the dzonzoko said: “ I wish all people to die.”
The matter was settled by the two running a race, a stool ( chin )
being set up as the goal; the one who reached it first was to have
his desire granted. As might be expected, the Lizard won, and
ever since, the Chameleon walks slowly and softly, grieving
because he could not save men from death.

The mention of the stool is curious, because it affords a point
of contact with a Chameleon-story of a widely different type,
current both in East and West Africa, but hitherto, so far as I
am aware, not much noticed by folklorists. It seems to be an
independent form of the idea contained in the well-known
Hare and Tortoise race. Pre-eminence among the animals is
to be decided by a race to a stool (the chief’s seat of honour) :
the Dog thinks he has won, but the Chameleon gets in first by
clinging to his tail and leaping in front of him at the last mo-
ment. Of course this folklore tale has, so far as one can see,
nothing to do with the older myth.

The author desires to express her most cordial thanks to all
who have contributed to the embellishment of this volume:
in the first place to Miss Alice Woodward for her beautiful


AUTHOR’S PREFACE


107


drawings ; then to Messrs. E. Torday, P. Amaury Talbot, and
F. W. H. Migeod, for the use of original photographs 5 and to
the Clarendon Press for permitting the reproduction of plates
from Bushman Paintings copied by Miss M. H. Tongue.

ALICE WERNER

School of Oriental Studies
London, January 23, 1922


INTRODUCTION


T O TREAT the mythology of a whole continent is a task
not to be lightly undertaken. In the case of Africa,
however, there are certain features which make the enterprise
less formidable than it would be if directed elsewhere. The
uniformity of Africa has become a commonplace with some
writers; and, indeed, when we compare its almost unbroken
coast-line and huge, undifferentiated tracts of plain or table-
land, with Europe and Asia, we cannot picture it as divided into
countries occupied by separate nations. This feeling is intensi-
fied, if we confine our view to Africa south of the Sahara, as we
shall practically have to do for the purposes of this book, which
omits from consideration both Egypt and (except for incidental
references) the Islamised culture of the Barbary States.
Broadly speaking, the whole of this area (which we might de-
scribe as a triangle surmounted by the irregular band extending
from Cape Verde to Cape Guardafui) is occupied by the black
race, and as, to the casual European, all black faces are as much
alike as the faces of a flock of sheep, it is a natural infer-
ence that their characters are the same. The shepherd, of
course, knows better; so does the white man who has lived long
enough among “ black ” people (comparatively few are black
in the literal sense) to discriminate between the individual and
the type . 1 But, in any case, the inhabitants, even of the limited
Africa we are taking for our province, are not all of one kind.
We have not only the black Africans, but the tall, light-com-
plexioned Galla, Somali, and Fula, with their Hamitic speech,
the Hottentots, whose Hamitic affinities, suspected by Moffat,
have been strikingly demonstrated in recent years, the little


INTRODUCTION


109


yellow Bushmen, who are probably responsible for the non-
Hamitic elements in the Hottentots, and others. Moreover,
there is a very distinct cleavage of speech — though not, per-
haps, of race, among the black Africans themselves: between
the monosyllabic, uninflected languages of the Gold Coast and
the upper Nile, and the symmetrically-developed grammati-
cal structure of the Bantu tongues. And, even taking the
Bantu by themselves, we may expect to find great local differ-
ences. As the late Heli Chatelain remarked, speaking of a
writer who has not greatly advanced the cause of research:
“ The material on which he worked consisted of but a few
volumes on South African tribes, and he often fell into the
common error of predicating of the whole race, the Bantu, and
even of all Africans, what he had found to hold true in several
South African tribes. To this habit of unwarranted generali-
sation must be attributed, very largely, the distressing inaccu-
racy and the contradictory statements with which books and
articles on Africa are replete.” 2

At the same time, a study of African folk-lore extending
over many years has gradually produced the conviction that
both sections of the African race, the Bantu-speaking and the
Sudanic, have many ideas, customs and beliefs in common.
Some of these may be due to independent development , 3 others
to recent borrowing, but there is a great deal which, I feel
certain, can only be accounted for by some original community
of thought and practice. This will appear, over and over again,
in connection with various stories which we shall have to dis-
cuss. But this is not all. We shall find that both Negro and
Bantu have some elements in common with Galla, Masai, and
other Hamitic or quasi-Hamitic peoples (I here leave out
of account matter demonstrably introduced by Arabs or Euro-
peans at a more recent date) ; and some very interesting prob-
lems of diffusion are connected with tales originating, perhaps,
in the Mediterranean basin and carried to the extreme south of


no


INTRODUCTION


the continent by the nomad herdsmen whom Van Riebeek
found in possession at the Cape of Good Hope. The Hausa,
whose linguistic and racial affinities have long been a puzzle,
have evidently been influenced from both sides — the black
aboriginal tribes from whom they are in great part descended,
and the pastoral Hamitic immigrants.

Here let me remark in passing that I use the word “ aborig-
inal ” in a purely relative sense and without intending to ex-
press any opinion on this point. Neither shall I attempt to deal
with the vexed question of race. What really constitutes
“ race ” is by no means clear to me, nor, I imagine, can the ex-
perts agree on a definition. Whether there is any real distinc-
tion of race between Bantu-speaking and other (Sudanic)
Negroes , 4 I very much doubt, and, in any case, the problem;
lies outside our present scope.

As suggesting a common fund of primitive ideas in widely
separated parts of the continent, let us take the case of the
Zulu word inkata and the thing denoted by it. The word is
also found in Nyanja as nkata , in Swahili khata (with aspir-
ated k ), in Chwana as khare (kx#re), in Herero as ongata ,
and in similar or cognate forms elsewhere. Its original
meaning seems to be a “ coil ” or “ twist but it generally
stands for the twisted pad of grass or leaves used by people
who carry heavy loads on the head. But the Zulu inkata
has another and more recondite meaning. The inkata yezwe
( u coil of the country ”) or inkata yomuzi (“ coil of the
clan ”) is both “ a symbol of unity and federation of the
people ” 6 and an actual talisman to ensure the same, together
with the personal safety of the chief. It is a large twist or
cushion of grass, impregnated with powerful u medicines ”
and made with special ceremonies by professional “ doctors ”
( izinnyanga ), on which the chief, at his installation, has to
stand. At other times it is kept, carefully hidden from view,
in the hut of the chief wife. I do not know whether the inkata







; ir: : . ... ; i


: : ? [ ' ; • ? Ti<! il l A

1 it. ' -



PLATE VII


A Somali, member of a typically Hamitic tribe,
who inhabit the “ Eastern Horn of Africa.” After
a photograph by Dr. Aders.












INTRODUCTION


hi


has everywhere the same ritual significance: I strongly suspect
that, where such is not recorded, it has either become obsolete
or escaped the notice of inquirers, as — belonging to the most
intimate and sacred customs of the people — it would be quite
likely to do. But, in Uganda, enkata means, not only the
porter’s head-pad, but the topmost of the grass rings forming
the framework of the house and supporting the thatch. This
“ was of equal importance with the foundation of a brick
house,” 6 and, in building the house of the King’s first wife —
the Kadulubare — had to be put in position with special cere-
monies. Now, we find that, on the Gold Coast, where the
head-pad is called ekar in Twi, it has some ritual connection
with the succession to the chieftainship, while it (or something
representing it) figures in some curious magical ceremonies of
the Ibibio (Calabar), described by the late Mrs. Amaury
Talbot . 7

Some other facts, interesting in this connection, will come in
more fittingly when considering the numerous animal-stories
of the “ Uncle Remus ” type, which are found in these areas.

Whether one studies Africa geographically, ethnologically,
or psychologically, one feels the absence of definite frontiers
more and more acutely as one goes on. We can recognize
Abyssinia or Basutoland as a separate country, just like Switzer-
land or Denmark; but such cases are infrequent, and this ap-
plies even more strongly to thought, belief and custom, than to
physical configuration. Hence I have been forced to give up
as hopeless the geographical or “ regional ” treatment of the
subject, and shall attempt, instead, to trace a few main groups
and ideas through the different strata of which the African
population is made up.

It will make clearer what I have been trying to say, if we
picture these strata, not as regular, superimposed beds of hard
stone, but as composed of different coloured sands, spread in
successive layers, some of each penetrating those below


1 12


INTRODUCTION


and the lighter particles of the lower beds working up
into the higher at every jar or disturbance. And here we come
back to our starting-point. With all the diversity to be found
in Africa, on which, as we have seen, it is necessary to insist,
there is some indefinable quality inherent in the whole of it, as
though the continent imparted its own colour and flavor to
whatever enters it from the outside. The white man who has
grown up among the Zulus very quickly feels at home with
Yaos or Giryama, though he may know nothing of their lan-
guage j and there is always a certain community of feeling be-
tween “ old Africans,” in whatever part of the continent their
experiences may have lain.

Without wasting time in speculation on the past, we may
now briefly survey the state of things as known at present.
In the main, the area we have mapped out, from the Cape of
Good Hope to Lake Victoria, and thence eastward to the Tana
River and westward to the Cameroons, is occupied by Bantu-
speaking tribes. North of these, the peoples of “ Negro,”
“ Sudanic,” or “ Nigritian ” speech extend in an irregular
band from Cape Verde to the confines of Abyssinia, even to
some extent penetrating the latter. The “ Eastern Horn,”
which ends in Cape Guardafui, is inhabited by the Hamitic
Somali, while their kinsmen the Galla, and other tribes, prob-
ably more or less allied to them (Samburu, Rendile, Turkana,
Nandi), spread out to the north, west, and south, their fringes
touching on the areas of Bantu and Negro tribes — Pokomo,
Kikuyu, Kavirondo, and others.

But these areas are not completely uniform. In South
Africa we have two non-Bantu elements, though both are now
almost negligible except within a very limited area. The
Bushmen, who would seem to have been the oldest inhabitants,
are now practically confined to the Kalahari Desert and the ad-
jacent regions, though a few fwho have quite lost all memory
of their own language and traditions) are to be found scattered


INTRODUCTION


H3

about the Cape Province and Orange Free State. If they are
the Troglodytes alluded to by Herodotus, whose speech was
“ like the squeaking of bats,” they must either have at one time
overspread the greater part of the continent, or migrated
southward from the Sahara within historic times. The
wretched Troglodytes were hunted with chariots by the Gara-
mantes, and I remember being told of a Natal farmer (by one
of his own relatives) that he used to talk cheerfully of having
shot a Bushman or two before breakfast. Here is at least one
additional point of resemblance.

The treatment of the South African Bushmen by the colo-
nists is one of the most disgraceful pages in Colonial history.
Particulars may be found in G. W. Stow’s Native Races of
South Africa — it is no part of our plan to give them here;
but there is another point of which we must not lose sight.
To speak of “ extermination ” in connection with the Bushmen,
though only too true as regards a limited area of South Africa,
is somewhat misleading when we come to survey a larger ex-
tent of the continent. In the earlier stages of the Bantu migra-
tion into South Africa, the relations between the Bushmen and
the newcomers appear to have been friendly, and intermar-
riage frequently took place. There is reason to think that some
Bechwana tribes — e.g. the Leghoya, are largely of Bushman
descent; and the same probably applies to large sections of the
Anyanja, in the districts west of the Shire. The importance of
this point will appear when we have to come back to it in the
chapter on Creation-Legends.

Whether the Bushmen have anything beyond their small
stature and their mode of life, in common with the Pygmies
of the Congo basin and other small races known or reported
to exist in various parts of Africa, remains, at least, doubtful;
but anatomists, I believe, hold that their physical evolution has
proceeded on entirely different lines. Both, in any case, are
interesting, not only as living representatives of a prehistoric