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ANCIENT GODS

VARUNA

Varuna, the greatest of the celestial gods, as the guardian of the cosmic order (rita), was responsible for the maintenance of both the physical and moral order. He caused the sun to rise and set; the stars shone at his command; he bestowed the rains that gave life to the earth. The moral laws of the universe were no less fixed and immutable than those that governed the natural world, and Varuna administered these with the same unswerving regularity. For this reason, prayers for forgiveness for wrongs done to others were addressed to Varuna, since wrongdoing disturbed the order of the universe. Varuna eventually faded out of the Indian religious consciousness, but the emphasis on man's participation in an ordered cosmos became an enduring part of the Hindu tradition.

Unto the sovereign lord sing a sublime and solemn prayer (brahman), one dear unto glorious Varuna, who has spread out the earth, as the butcher does the hide, by way of a carpet for the sun.

Varuna has extended the air above the trees; he has put strength in horses, milk in cows, will-power in hearts, fire in waters, the sun in the heaven, and soma upon the mountain.

Varuna poured out the leather-bag, opening downward, upon the heaven and the earth and the mid-region. Thereby does the lord of the whole creation moisten thoroughly the expanse of earth, as rain does the corn.

He moistens the broad earth and the heave. When Varuna would have it milked [i.e., would shower rain] then, indeed, do the mountains clothe themselves with clouds and the heroes, showing off their might, loosen those clothes [i.e., disperse the clouds].

This great magic-work (maya) of renowned spiritual Varuna will I proclaim loudly; of Varuna, who, standing in the mid-region, has measured the earth with the sun as with a measuring rod.

No one, indeed, dare impugn this great magic-work of the wisest god, namely, that the many glistening streams, pouring forth, do not fill up one ocean with water.

If we, O Varuna, have offended against a friend, befriended through Aryaman or through Mitra [i.e., gods of hospitality and friendship], or if we have offended against an all-time comrade or a brother or an inmate - whether belongings to us, O Varuna, or a stranger - do you remove that offense from us.

If we have deceived, like a gamblers in a game of dice, and whether we really know it or not, all that do you unbind from us, like loosened fetters, O god. Thus may we be dear unto you, O Varuna.

(from Rig Veda V:85)

USHA, THE DAWN

In the many hymns to the goddess Usha, or Dawn, the descriptions of the beauty of the early morning show the sensitivity of the ancient Indian peoples to the natural world. They are more than nature poems, however, for as elsewhere in the Vedic literature, there is a strong sense of the close relation of the phenomenal world to the deepest concerns of human life. Dawn comes, like a maiden dressed in light, dispelling darkness and driving away evil spirits, making possible a life of ordered regularity. In another poem, the thought that Dawn, the symbol of youthful loveliness, was also ancient, being constantly reborn, suggested to a poet the contrast between the "wasting away of the life of mortals" while the human race itself remained (Rig Veda I:92). Perhaps at this very early stage can be seen the characteristic tendency of Indian literature to see nature as a frame for human emotions. The natural world is not understood as something apart from man, but as a reflection of his moods and passions.

This light has come, of all the lights the fairest:
The brilliant brightness has been born effulgent.
Urged onward for god Savitar's uprising,
Night now has yielded up her place to morning.
Bringing a radiant calf she comes resplendent:
To her the Black One has given up her mansions.
Akin, immortal, following each the other,
Morning and Night fare on, exchanging colours.
The sisters' pathway is the same, unending:
Taught by the gods alternately they tread it.
Fair-shaped, of form diverse, yet single-minded,
Morning and Night clash not, nor do they tarry.
Bright leader of glad sounds she shines effulgent:
Widely she has unclosed for us her portals.
Pervading all the world she shows us riches:
Dawn has awakened every living creature.
Men lying on the ground she wakes to action:
Some rise to seek enjoyment of great riches,
Some, seeing little, to behold the distant:
Dawn has awakened every living creature.
One for dominion, and for fame another;
Another is aroused for winning greatness;
Another seeks the goal of varied nurture:
Dawn has awakened every living creature.
Daugther of Heaven, she has appeared before us,
A maiden shining in resplendent raiment.
Thou sovereign lady of all earthly treasure,
Auspicious Dawn, shine here to-day upon us.....
Gone are those mortals who in former ages
Beheld the flushing of the early morning;
We living men now look upon her shining:
Those will be born who shall hereafter see her.
Dispelling foes, observer of world order,
Born in due season, giver of enjoyment,
Wafting oblations, bringing wealth and fortune,
Shine brightly here to-day, O Dawn, upon us....
In the sky's framework she has gleamed with brightness;
The goddess has cast off the robe of darkness.
Rousing the world from sleep, with ruddy horses,
Dawn in her well-yoked chariot is arriving.
She brings upon it many bounteous blessings;
Brightly she shines and spreads her brilliant lustre.
Last of innumerable morns departed,
First of bright morns to come, has Dawn arisen.
Arise! The vital breath again has reached us:
Darkness has gone away and light is coming.
She leaves a pathway for the sun to travel:
We have arrived where men prolong existence.

(from Rig Veda I:113)

INDRA

While Varuna was perhaps the most honored of the Vedic deities, it was Indra who was regarded as the particular god of the Aryan peoples. Since his name, unlike that of most of the other gods, does not indicate any connection with a natural phenomenon, it is conceivable that Indra may have been an actual historic figure, a leader of the Aryans who was deified after the defeat of the indigenous people of India by the invaders. In any case, he was clearly the God of Battles, to whom men, "rushing to deadly combat, will cry aloud for protection" (Rig Veda IV:24). Indra is also a personification of the thunderstorm, and his weapon is a bolt of lightning. Offerings of the intoxicating soma drink are also closely associated with his character, and he is frequently portrayed as a drunken brawler.

A vast number of myths and legends have gathered around this complex figure. The story of his slaying of the demon Vritra is the most important of these, for while its meaning for the Vedic peoples is not altogether clear, the many references to it in the hymns establishes its fundamental character. Vritra in the form of a serpent or dragon, has shut up the waters and the sun, but after a fierce battle Indra slays him, releasing the life-giving forces. Among the many interpretations that have been made of this myth is the suggestion that it represents the renewal of the year, either through the ending of winter or the coming of the monsoons. Another possibility is that it represents the actual conflict between the Aryan peoples and those of the Indus Valley civilization. In a wider sense, Vritra may stand for chaos, upon which Indra imposes form and order.

Indra's heroic deeds, indeed, will I proclaim, the first ones which the wielder of the thunderbolt accomplished. He killed the dragon, released the waters, and split open the sides of the mountains.

He killed the dragon lying spread out on the mountain; for him Tvashtar fashioned the roaring thunderbolt. Like bellowing cows, the waters, gliding, have gone down straightway to the ocean.

Showing off his virile power he chose soma; from the three bowls he drank of the extracted soma. The bounteous god took up the missile, the vajra; he killed the firstborn among the dragons.

When you, O Indra, killed the first-born among the dragons and further overpowered the wily tricks (maya) of the tricksters, bringing forth, at that very moment, the sun, the heaven, and the dawn - since then, indeed, have you not come across another enemy.

Indra killed Vritra, the greater enemy, the shoulderless one, with his mighty and fatal weapon, the thunderbolt. Like branches of a tree lopped off with an axe, the dragon lies prostrate upon the earth.

For, like an incapable fighter, in an intoxicated state, he [Vritra] had challenged the great hero [Indra], the mighty overwhelmer, the drinker of soma to the dregs. He did not surmount the onslaught of his fatal weapon. Indra's enemy, broken-nosed, was completely crushed.

Footless and Handless he gave battle to Indra. H [Indra] struck him with the vajra upon the back. The castrated bull, seeking to become a compeer of the virile bull, Vritra lay shattered in many places.

Over him, who lay in that manner like a shattered bull flowed the waters for the sake of man. At the feet of the very waters, which Vritra had once enclosed with his might, the dragon now lay prostrate.

Vritra's mother had her vital energy ebbing out; Indra had hurled his fatal weapon at her. The mother lay above, the son below; Danu, his mother lay down like a cow with her calf.

In the midst of the water-streams, which never stood still nor had any resting place, the body lay. The waters flow in all directions over Vritra's secret place; Indra's enemy lay sunk in long darkness.

With the demon as their lord and with the dragon as their warder, the waters remained imprisoned...Having killed Vritra, [Indra] threw open the cleft of waters which had been closed.

You became the hair of a horse's tail, O Indra, when he [Vritra] struck at your sharp-pointed vajra - the one god though you were. You won the cows, O brave one, you won soma; you released the seven rivers, so that they should flow.

Neither did lightning nor thunder, nor mist nor hailstorm, which he [Vritra] had spread out, prove efficacious when Indra and the dragon fought. And the bounteous god remained victorious for all time to come.

Whom did you see, O Indra, as the avenger of the dragon, that fear entered into your heart, after you had killed the dragon, and frightened, you crossed nine and ninety rivers and the aerial regions like the falcon?

Indra, who wields the thunderbolt in his hand, is the lord of what moves and what remains rested, of what is peaceful and what is horned. He alone rules over the tribes as their king; he encloses them as does a rim the spokes.

(fromRig Veda, I:32)

ANGI

The god Agni has a special place in the Vedic attempt to create a model of an ordered cosmos. Although addressed as a person, the description given of him is that of the sacrificial fire; many-tongued, he is the mouth by which the gods eat the sacrifices made to them. While in this form he is an earth god, he is also the link with other realms, since he appears in the atmosphere as lightning and in the heavens as the sun. The epithet given to him, "Offspring of the Waters," indicated his relationship with the primeval waters. On earth, his hidden home was wood, out of which he could reveal himself as flame, particularly as the flame of the altar. He is both bearer of the offerings of men to the gods, and the one who brings the gods down to the altar. One may see in these characteristics of Agni the blurring of distinctions and function, and the attribution of essentially contradictory qualities, which in later developments was carried to the logical conclusion of denying the validity of any ultimate differentiation between the gods and, finally, for the quest for a statement of the unity of all being.

I extol Agni, the household priest, the divine minister of the sacrifice, the chief priest, the bestower of blessings.

May that Agni, who is to be extoled by ancient and modern seers, conduct the gods here.

Through Agni may one gain day by day wealth and welfare which is glorious and replete with heroic sons.

O Agni, the sacrifice and ritual which you encompass on every side, that indeed goes to the gods.

May Agni, the chief priest, who possesses the insight of a sage, who is truthful, widely renowned, and divine, come here with the gods.

O Agni, O Messenger, whatever prosperity you bring to the pious is indeed in accordance with your true function.

O Agni, illuminator of darkness, day by day we approach you with holy thought bringing homage to you,

Presiding at ritual functions, the brightly shining custodian of the cosmic order (rita), thriving in your own realm.

O Agni, be easy of access to us as a father to his son. Join us for our wellbeing.

(from Rig Veda, I:1)

SOMA

Like Agni, Soma has few anthropomorphic characteristics, and is usually described either in terms of the effect the beverage known as soma had on those who drank it or of its power over the gods, especially Indra. Just what soma was cannot be decided with certainty, but it was apparently a drink made from a plant, and produced hallucinations of the kind made familiar by modern experiments with a variety of drugs and herbs. It was the essential ingredient of the Vedic rituals, and while it was preeminently the offering made to Indra, it was used in the sacrifices made to all the gods. It conferred on men some of the qualities of gods, including immorality. It had, moreover, the power to cause the sun to rise and set, as well as the ability to confer the blessings of riches and long life. One sees here, then, the tendency already noted of assigning the same functions to different gods - in this case, Soma is given powers normally ascribed to Indra and Varuna. The verses that follow here are from a hymn addressed to Soma. They express very vividly the effects soma was supposed to have.

We have drunk Soma and become immortal; we have attained the light the Gods discovered.

Now what may foeman's malice do to harm us? Why, O Immortal, mortal mans deception?

Absorbed into the heart, be sweet, O Indu, as a kind father to his son, O Soma,

As a wise Friend to friend: do thou, wide ruler, O Soma, lengthen out our days for living.

These glorious drops that give me freedom have I drunk. Closely they knit my joints as straps secure a car.

Let them protect my foot from slipping on the way: yea, let the drops I drink preserve me from disease.

Make me shine bright like fire produced by friction: give us a clearer sight and make us better.

For in carouse I think of thee, O Soma: Shall I, as a rich man, attain to comfort?

May we enjoy with an enlivened spirit the juice thou givest like ancestral riches.

O Soma, King, prolong thou our existence as Surya makes the shining days grow longer.

King Soma, favour us and make us prosper: we are thy devotees; of this be mindful.

Spirit and power are fresh in us, O Indu: give us not up unto our foeman's pleasure.

For thou hast settled in each joint, O Soma, aim of men's eyes and guardian of our bodies.

When we offered against thine holy statues, as a kind Friend, God, best of all, be gracious.

May I be with the Friend whose heart is tender, who, Lord of Bays! when quaffed will never harm me-

This Soma now deposited within me. For this, I pray for longer life to Indra.

Our maladies have lost their strength and vanished: they feared, and passed away into the darkness.

Soma hath risen in us, exceeding mighty, and we are come where men prolong existence.

Fathers, that Indu which our hearts have drunken, Immortal in himself, hath entered mortals.

So let us serve this Soma with oblation, and rest securely in his grace and favour.

Associate with the Fathers thou, O Soma, hast spread thyself abroad through earth and heaven.

So with oblation let us serve thee, Indu, and so let us become the lords of riches,

Give us your blessing, O ye Gods, preservers. Never may sleep or idle talk control us.

But evermore may we, as friends of Soma, speak to the assembly with brave sons around us.

On all sides, Soma, thou art our life-giver: aim of all eyes, light-finder, come within us.

Indu, of one accord with thy protections both from behind and from before preserve us.

(from Rig Veda, VIII:48)