2: VEDIC CONCEPTIONS OF THE WORLD AND ITS ORIGIN

  1. Cosmology. - - The Universe, the stage on which the actions ofthe gods are enacted, is___regarded by the Vedic poets as divided into thethree domains 1 of earth, air or atmosphere, and heaven 2. The sky whenregarded as the whole space above the earth, forms with the latter the entireuniverse consisting of the upper and the nether world. The vault (ndkd) ofthe sky is regarded as the limit dividing the visible upper world from the>. COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY. 7. COSMOLOGY.

third or invisible world of heaven, which is the abode of light and the dwelling place of the gods. Heaven, air, and earth form the favourite triad of the RV., constantly spoken of explicitly or implicitly (8, io 6. go6 &c.). The s&ter S^ phenomena which appear, to take place on the vault of the sky, are referred to heaven, while those of lightning, rain, and wind belong to the atmosphere. But when heaven designates the whole space above the earth both classes of phenomena are spoken of as taking place there. In a passage of the AV.

(4, i4 3 = VS. 17, 67) the vault of the sky comes between the triad of earth, air, heaven and the world of light, which thus forms a fourth division 3. Each of the three worlds is also subdivided. Thus three earths, three atmo spheres, three heavens are sometimes mentioned; or when the universe is looked upon as consisting of two halves, we hear of six worlds or spaces (rajdmsi). This subdivision probably arose from the loose use of the word prthivl earth (i, io8 9> I0; 7, I04 11 ) 4 in the plural to denote the three worlds (just as the dual pitarau, two fathers regularly denotes father and mother ). The earth is variously called bhumi, ksam, ksd, gmd, the great (ma/iT), the broad (prthivl or urvi), the extended (uttdna), the boundless (apdra), or the place here (idam} as contrasted with the upper sphere (i, 22 1 ?. i54 T>3 ). The conception of the__e_arth being a disc surrounded by an ocean does . not appear in the Samhitas. But it was naturally regarded as circular, being compared with a wheel (io, 89 4 ) and expressly called circular (parimandald)

in the SB. 6 ^ The four points of the compass are already mentioned in the RV. in an adverbial form (7, 72 s; io, 36 14 . 42") and in the AV. as substantives (AV. 15, 2T ff.). Hence four quarters? ^(pradisali) are spoken of (io, i98), a term also used as synonymous with the whole earth (i, i64* 2), and the earth is described as four-pointed (io, 58 3). Five points are occasionally mentioned (9, 86 29; AV. 3, 24^ &c.), when that in the middle (10,42",), where the speaker stands, denotes the fifth. The AV. also refers to six (the zenith being added) and even seven points 5. The same points may be meant by the seven regions (disaJi) and the seven places (dhdmd) of the earth spoken of in the RV. (9, ii4 3; i, 22 l6). Heaven or div is also commonly termed vyoman, sky, or as pervaded with light, the luminous space , rocana (with or without divah}. Designations of the dividing firmament besides the vault are the summit (sdnu], surface (vistap}, ridge (prstha), as well as the compound expressions ridge of the vault (i, i25 5 cp. 3, 212) and summit of the vault (8, 922)3. Even a "third ridge in the luminous space of heaven is mentioned (9, 86 27). When three heavens are distinguished they are very often called the three luminous spaces (frTrocana}) a highest (uttama), a middle, and a lowest being specified (5, 6o 6). The highest is also termed uttara and pdrya (4, 26 6; 6, 40 5). In this third or highest heaven (very often parame rocane or vyomari) the gods, the fathers^ and Soma are conceived as abiding. Heaven and earth are coupled as a dual conception called by the terms rodasi] ksom, dvydvaprthivi and others ( 44), and spoken of as the two halves (2, 27^). The combination with the semi-spherical sky causes the -R^o notion of the earth s shape to be modified, when the two are called the two great bowls (camva) turned towards each other (3, 5520). Once they are compared to the wheels at the two ends of an axle (io, 89 4). The RV. makes no reference to the supposed distance between heaven and earth, except in such vague phrases as that not even the birds can soar to the abode of Visnu (i, 1555). But the AV. (io, 8l8) says that the two wings of the yellow bird (the sun) flying to heaven are 1000 days journey

io III. RELIGION, WELTL. WISSENSCH. u. KUNST. i A. VEDIC MYTHOLOGY.

apart . A similar notion is found in the AB., where it is remarked (2, iy8)that 1000 days journey for a horse the heavenly world is distant from here. Another Brahmana states that the heavenly world is as far from this worldas 1000 cows standing on each other (PB. 16, 86; 21, i 9).

The air or intermediate space (antariksd) is hardly susceptible of personification. As the region of mists and cloud, it is also called rajas whichis described as watery (i, i24 5 cp. 5, 852j and is sometimes thoughtofas dark, when it is spoken of as black (i, 35 2>4 9; 8, 436). The triplesubdivision is referred to as the three spaces ^or rajdmsi (4, 53 5; 5, 69x ).The highest is then spoken of as uttama (9, 22 5j, parama (3, 302 ), or trtlya,the third (9, 746; io, 45 3 . I238;, where the waters and Soma are _> andthecelestial Agni is produced. The two lower spaces are within the rangeofour perception, but the third belongs to Visnu (7, 99r cp. i, i55 5). Thelatter seems to be the mysterious space once referred to elsewhere (io, io57).The twofold subdivision of the atmosphere is commoner. Then the lower(upard) or terrestrial (parthiva) is contrasted with the heavenly (divyamordivah) space (i, 62 s; 4, 53 3). The uppermost stratum, as being contiguouswith heaven (div) in the twofold as well as the triple division, seems oftento be loosely employed as synonymous with heaven in the strict sense.Absolute definiteness or consistency in the statements of different poetsoreven of the same poet could not reasonably be expected in regard to suchmatters.

The air being above the earth in the threefold division of the universe,its subdivisions, whether two or three, would naturally have been regardedas above it also; and one verse at least (i, 8i 5 cp. 90 7) clearly shows thatthe terrestrial space is in this position. Three passages, however, of theRV. (6, 91; 7, So 1; 5, 8i 4) have been thought to lend themselves to the-view 7 that the lower atmosphere was conceived as under the earth, to accountfor the course of the sun during the night. The least indefinite of fhesethree passages (5, 8i 4 ) is to the effect that Savitr, the sun, goes round nighton both sides (ubhayatah). This may, however, mean nothing more thanthat night is enclosed between the limits of sunset and sunrise. At any rate,the view advanced in the AB. (3, 44 *) as to the sun s course during the nightis, that the luminary shines upwards at night, while it turns round so astoshine downwards in the daytime. A similar notion may account for thestatement of the RV. that the light which the sun s steeds draw is sometimesbright and sometimes dark (i, H5 5), or that the rajas which accompaniesthe sun to the east is different from the light with which he rises (io, 373).There being no direct reference to the sun passing below the earth, thebalance of probabilities seems to favour the view that the luminary wassupposed to return towards the east the way he came, becoming entirelydarkened during the return journey. As to what becomes of the stars duringthe daytime, a doubt is expressed (i, 24), but no conjecture is made.The atmosphere is often called a sea (samudra) as the abode of thecelestial waters. It is also assimilated to the earth, inasmuch as it hasmountains (i, 322 &c.) and seven streams which flow there (i, 3212 &c.),when the conflict with the demon of drought takes place. Owing to theobvious resemblance the term mountain (parvata) thus very often in theRV. refers to clouds 8, the figurative sense being generally clear enough. Theword rock (adri) is further regularly used in a mythological sense for cloudas enclosing the cows released by Indra and other gods 9. The rainclouds as containing the waters, as dripping, moving and roaring,are peculiarly liable to theriomorphism as cows 10, whose milk is rain.

  1. COSMOGONY. n

Line cosmic order or law prevailing in nature is recognised under the name of rta (properly the course of things), which is considered to be under the guardianship of the highest gods. The same word also designates

order in the moral world as truth and right , and in the religious world as sacrifice or rite . ^J

i ROTH, ZDMG. 6, 68. 2 Cp. Sp.AP. 122; KRV. 34, note 118. 3 HOPKINS, AJP. 4, 189. 4 BOLLENSEN, ZDMG. 41, 494. 5 BLOOMFIELD, AJP. 12, 432. 6 Cp. WEBER, IS. 10, 35864. 7 AIL. 3579. 8 KHF. 178; DELBRUCK, ZVP. 1865, pp. 2845. 9 KHF. 187; Zft. f. deutsche Mythologie, 3,378. 10 GW., s. v. go; WVB. 1894, p. 13. JI LUDWIG, Religiose und philosophische Anschau- ungen des Veda (1875), P- ^5; LRV. 3, 2845; HARLEZ, JA. (1878), n, 1056; DARMESTETER, Ormazd et Ahriman, 134; OGR. 198. 243; KRV. 28; BRV. 3, 220; WC. 917. 100; Sp.AP. 139; ORV. 196201; JACKSON, Trans, of loth Or. Con gress, 2, 74.

BRUCE, Vedic conceptions of the Earth, JRAS. 1862, p. 321 ff.; BRV. I, 13; WALLIS, Cosmology of the Rigveda (London 1887), ill 17.

  1. Cosmogony. The cosmogonic mythology of the RV. fluctuates between two theories, which are not mutually exclusive, but may be found combined in the same verse. The one regards the universe as the result of mechanical production, the work of the carpenter s and joiner s skill; the other represents it as the result of natural generation.

The poets of the RV. often employ the metaphor of building in its various details, when speaking of the formation of the world. The act of measuring is constantly referred to. Thus India measured the six regions, made the wide expanse of earth and the high dome of heaven (6,473-4). Visnu measured out the terrestrial spaces and made fast the abode on high (i, I541). The measuring instrument, sometimes mentioned (2, i5 3; 3, 38 3), is the sun, with which Vaiuna performs the act (5, 85 5). The Fathers measured the two worlds with measuring rods and made them broad (3, 38 3 cp. i, i9o2 ). The measurement naturally begins in front or the east. Thus Indra measured out as it were a house with measures from the front (2, 15^ cp. 7, 992). Connected with this idea is that of spreading out the earth, an action attributed to Agni, Indra, the Maruts, and others. As the Vedic house was built of wood, the material is once or twice spoken of as timber. Thus the poet asks: What was the wood, what the tree out of which they fashioned heaven and earth? (10, 317= 10, 8i 4). The answer given to this question in a Brahmana is that Brahma was the wood and the tree (TB. 2, 8, 96). Heaven and earth are very often described as having been supported (skabh or stabh) with posts (skambha or skambhana), but the sky is said to be rafterless (2, 15*; 4, 56^; 10, 149 ), and that it never falls is a source of wonder (5, 29^; 6, i7 7; 8, 456). The framework of a door is called dtd; in such a frame of heaven Indra fixed the air (i, 5$). The doors of the cosmic house are the portals of the east through which the morning light enters (1,1134; 4,51*; 5,4s1 ). Foundations are sometimes alluded to. Thus Savitr made fast the earth with bands (10, 149*), Visnu fixed it with Pegs (7; 99 3)j and Brhaspati supports its ends (4, 5** cp. 10, 89T ). The agents in the construction of the world are either the gods in general or various individual gods; but where special professional skill seemed to be required in details, Tvastr, the divine carpenter, or the deft-handed Rbhus are mentioned. Little is said as to their motive; but as man builds his house to live in, so of Visnu at least it is indicated that he measured or stretched out the regions as an abode for man (6, 49 I3. 69 5, cp. i, I55 4). The notion of parentage as a creative agency in the universe, chiefly connected with the birth of the sun at dawn and with the production of rain

1 2 III. RELIGION, WELTL. WISSENSCH. u. KUNST. i A. VEDIC MYTHOLOGY.

after drought, has three principle applications in the RV. The first is temporal, as involving the idea of priority. One phenomenon preceding anotheris spoken of as its parent. Thus the dawns generate (Jan) the sun and themorning sacrifice (7, 78 3), while Dawn herself is born of Night (i, 1239).As the point of view is changed, contradictions with regard to such relationships naturally arise (cp. p. 48). When the rising of the dawn is ascribedto the sacrifice of the Fathers, the explanation is to be found in this notionof priority. Secondly, a local application frequently occurs. The space inwhich a thing is contained or produced is its father or mother. Illustrationsof this are furnished by purely figurative statements. Thus the quiver iscalled the father of the arrows (6, 755) or the bright steeds of the sun aretermed the daughters of his car (i, so9). This idea of local parentage isespecially connected with heaven and earth. Paternity is the characteristicfeature in the personification of Dyaus (see n), and Dawn is constantlycalled the daughter of Heaven . Similarly the Earth, who produces vegetationon her broad bosom (5, 84 3), is a mother (i, 89 4 &c.). Heaven and earthare, however, more often found coupled as universal parents, a conceptionobvious enough from the fact that heaven fertilizes the earth by the- descentof moisture and light, and further developed by the observation that bothsupply nourishment to living beings, the one in the form of rain, the otherin that of herbage. They are characteristically the parents of the gods ( 44).As the latter are often said to have created heaven and earth, we thus arriveat the paradox of the Vedic poets that the children produced their ownparents; Indra, for instance, being described as having begotten his fatherand mother from his own body (i, i592; 10, 54 3). Again, the raincloudcow is the mother of the lightning calf, or the heavenly waters, as carryingthe embryo of the aerial fire, are its mothers, for one of the forms of thefire-god is the son of waters ( 24). Son of the steep also appears tobe a name of lightning in the AV. (i, i32 3; cp. 26 3 and RV. 10, i422).Thirdly, the notion of parentage arises from a generic point of view: hewho is the chief, the most prominent member of a group, becomes theirparent. Thus Vayu, Wind, is father of the Storm-gods (i, I34 4), Rudra,father of the Maruts or Rudras, Soma, father of plants, while SarasvatI ismother of rivers.

There are also two minor applications of the idea of paternity in theRV. As in the Semitic languages, an abstract quality is quite frequently employed in a figurative sense (which is sometimes mythologically developed)to represent the parent of sons who possess or bestow that quality inan eminent degree. Thus the gods in general are sons (sunavah or pitrdJi)of immortality1 as well as sons of skill, daksa (8, 25 5; cp. 19). Agniisthe son of strength or of force ( 35). Pusan is the child of settingfree 2. Indra is the son of truth (8, 58 4), the child of cow-getting (4, 3222),and the son of might (savasah, 4, 24x; 8, Si *, his mother twice being calledsavasi, 8, 45 5. 66 2). Mitra-Varuna are the children of great might . Anotherapplication is much less common. As a father transmits his qualities to hisson, his name is also occasionally transferred, something like a modern surname. Thus visvarupa, an epithet of Tvastr, becomes the proper nameofhis son. Analogously the name of Vivasvat is applied to his son Manuinthe sense of the patronymic Vatiasvata (Val. 41 ). A mythological account of the origin of the universe, involving neithermanufacture nor generation, is given in one of the latest hymns of the RV.,the well-known purusa-sukta (10, 90). Though several details in this mythpoint to the most recent period of the RV., the main idea is very primitive,

  1. COSMOGONY.

as it accounts for the formation of the world from the body of a giant. With him the gods performed a sacrifice, when his head became the sky, his navel the air, and his feet the earth. From his mind sprang the moon, from his eye the sun, from his mouth Indra and Agni, from his breath, wind. The four castes also arose from him. His mouth became the brahmana, his arms the rdjanya or warrior, his thighs the vaisya, and his feet the sudra. The interpretation given in the hymn itself is pantheistic, for it is there said (v. 2) that Purusa is all this, both what has become and what shall be . In the AV. (10, 17) and the Upanisads (Mund. Up. 2, i10) Purusa is also pantheistically interpreted as identical with the universe. He is also identified with Brahma (Chand. Up. i, 75). In the SB. (n, i, 6x ) he is the same as Prajapati, the creator.

There are in the last book of the RV. some hymns which treat the origin of the world philosophically rather than mythologically. Various passages show that in the cosmological speculation of the RV. the sun was regarded as an important agent of generation. Thus he is called the soul (dtmd) of all that moves and stands (i, 115*). Statements such as that he is called by many names though one (i, 164^; 10, ii4 5 cp. Vol. io 2 ) indicate that his nature was being tentatively abstracted to that of a supreme god, nearly approaching that of the later conception of Brahma. In this sense the sun is once glorified as a great power of the universe under the name of the golden embryo , hiranya-garbha, in RV. io, 121. -3 It is he who measures out space in the air and shines where the sun rises (vv.5> 6). In the last verse of this hymn, he is called Prajapati 4, lord of created beings , the name which became that of the chief god^ of the Brahmanas. It is significant that in the only older passage of the RV. in which it occurs (4, 532), prajdpati is an epithet of the solar deity Savitr, who in the same hymn (v.6)is said to rule over what moves and stands 5 .

There are two other cosmogonic hymns which both explain the origin of the universe as a kind of evolution of the existent (sat) from the non-existent (asat). In io, 726it is said that Brahmanaspati forged together this world like a smith. From the non-existent the existent was produced. Thence in succession arose the earth, the spaces, Aditi with Daksa; and after Aditi the gods were born. The gods then brought forward the sun. There were eight sons of Aditi, but the eighth, Martanda, she cast away; she brought him to be born and to die (i. e. to rise and set). Three stages can be distinguished in this hymn: first the world is produced, then the gods, and lastly the sun.

In RV. io; 129, a more abstract and a very sublime hymn, it is affirmed that nothing existed in the beginning, all being void. Darkness and space enveloped the undifferentiated waters (cp. io, 82 6. i2i 7, AV. 2, 8). The one primordial substance (ekam) was produced by heat. Then desire (kama), the first seed of mind (inanas) arose. This is the bond between the non existent and the existent. By this emanation the gods came into being. But here the poet, overcome by his doubts, gives up the riddle of creation as unsolvable. A short hymn of three stanzas (io, 190) forms a sequel to the more general evolution of that just described. Here it is stated that from heat (tapas) was produced order (rta)-, then night, the ocean, the year; the creator (dhdta) produced in succession sun and moon, heaven and earth, air and ether.

In a similar strain to RV. io, 129 a Brahmana passage declares that formerly nothing existed, neither heaven nor earth nor atmosphere, which being non-existent resolved to come into being (TB. 2, 2, 9x ff.). The regular cosmogonic view of the Brahmanas requires the agency of a creator, who is

14 HI. RELIGION, WELTL. WISSENSCH. u. KUNST. i A. VEDIC MYTHOLOGY.

not, however, always the starting point. The creator here is Prajapati orthe personal. Brahma, who is not only father of gods, men, and demons, butis the All. Prajapati is here an anthropomorphic representation of the desirewhich is the first seed spoken of in RV. 10, 129. In all these accounts thestarting point is either Prajapati desiring offspring and creating, or else theprimeval waters, on which floated Hiianyagarbha the cosmic golden egg,whence is produced the spirit that desires and creates the Universe. Thisfundamental contradiction as to the priority of Prajapati or of the watersappears to be the result of combining the theory of evolution with that ofcreation. Besides this there are many minor conflicts of statement, as, forinstance, that the gods create Prajapati and that Prajapati creates the gods7.The account given in the Chandogya Brahmana (5, 19) is that not-beingbecame being; the latter changed into an egg, which after a year by splittingin two became heaven and earth; whatever was produced is the sun, whichis Brahma 8 (cp. Ch. Up. 3, I91" 4). Again, in the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad(5, 61 ), the order of evolution is thus stated: In the beginning waters werethis (universe); they produced the real (satyam)-, from this was producedBrahma, from Brahma Prajapati, from Prajapati the gods.

The All-god appears as a creator in the AV. under the new namesofSkambha, Support, Prana q, the personified breath of life (AV. n, 4), Rohita,as a name of the sun, Kama, Desire, and various others I0. The most notablecosmogonic myth of the Brahmanas describes the raising of the submergedearth by a boar, which in post-Vedic mythology developed into an Avatarof Visnu. 11.

i OST. 5, 52. 2 OST. 5, 175, note 271; BRV. 2, 422 ff.; DARMESTETER, Haur vatat et Ameretat, 83; ORV". 232, note 2. 3 SPH. 278; HRI. 208. 4 SPH.29. 5 OGR. 295; \VC. 501. 6 OST. 5, 48. 7 OST. 4, 20 ff.; HRI. 208-9.- 8 WEBER, IS. i, 261. 9 SPH. 6972. 10 HRI. 209. " MACDONELL,JRAS. 1895, PP- 178-89.

HAUG, Die Kosmogonie der Inder, Allgemeine Zeitung, 1873, P- 2373 ff-; WEBER,IS.9, 74; LUDWIG, Die philosophischen und religiosen Anschauungen des Veda; AIL.217; BRI. 30 I; SCHERMAN, Philosophische Hymnen aus der Rig- und Atharva-veda Samhita, Miinchen 1887; LUKAS, Die Grundbegriffe in den Kosmogonien deralten Volker, Leipzig 1893, pp. 6599.

  1. Origin of gods and men. As most of the statements contained in the Vedas about the origin of the gods have already been mentioned,only a brief summary need here be added. In the philosophical hymns theorigin of the gods is mostly connected with the element of water 1. In theAV. (10, 725) they are said to have arisen from the non-existent. Accordingto one cosmogonic hymn (10, 129) they were born after the creation ofthe Universe. Otherwise they are in general described as the children ofHeaven and Earth. In one passage (10, 632) a triple origin, apparentlycorresponding to the triple division of the universe, is ascribed to the gods,when they are said to have been born from Aditi, from the waters, fromthe earth (cp. i, 139"). According no doubt to a secondary conception,certain individual gods are spoken of as having begotten others. Thus theDawn is called the mother of the gods (i, ii3 19) and Brahmanaspati (2, 263),as well as Soma_-(9, 872), is said to be their father. A group of seven oreight gods, the Adityas, are regarded as the sons of Aditi. In the AV. somegods are spoken of as fathers, others as sons2 (AV. i, 3o2). The Vedic conceptions on the subject of the origin of man are ratherfluctuating, but the human race appear generally to have been regarded asdescended from a first man. The latter is called either Vivasvat s son Manu,who was the first sacrificer (10, 637) and who is also spoken of as father

  2. ORIGIN OF GODS AND MEN. 10. GENERAL CHARACTER AND CLASSIFICATION. 15

Manus (i, 80 l6 ); or he is Yama Vaivasvata, Vivasvat s son, who with his twin sister Yam! produced the human race. The origin of men, when thought of as going back beyond this first ancestor, seems to have been conceived as celestial. Vivasvat ( 18) is the father of the primeval twins, while once the celestial Gandharva and the water nymph are designated as their highest kin (10, io*). Men s relationship to the gods is sometimes also alluded to 3; and men must have been thought of as included among the offspring of Heaven and Earth, the great parents of all that exists. Again, Agni is said to have begotten the offspring of men (i, 96 2-4 ), and the Angirases, the semi-divine ancestors of later priestly families, are described as his sons. Various other human families are spoken of as independently descended from the gods through their founders Atri, Kanva, and others (i, i39 9). Vasistha (7, 33JI) was miraculously begotten by Mitra and Varuna, the divine nymph Urvasi having been his mother. To quite a different order of ideas belongs the conception of the origin of various classes of men from parts of the world giant Purusa 4( 8, p. 13).

i SPH. 32. 2 OST. 5, 13 f., 23 f., 38 f. 3 BRV. i, 36. 4 ORV. 275 7. 125-8.