MARUTS, THE WINDS.

25

my friend, treat me with disregard; verily we know what is in thy mind. Thou dost not intend to give us anything."

Agastya's reply is:

"Let the priests decorate the altar; let them kindle the fire to the east ;" ... but he still declares "Indra along with the Maruts."1

Mr. Muir points to half a dozen other passages in which the Maruts are said to worship Indra.

Nevertheless, Indra's greatness was assailed; for in Book viii. hymn 89, doubts are raised concerning his existence. "Present to Indra a hymn, soliciting food, a true (hymn), if he truly exists." "Indra does not exist," says some one: "who has seen him? whom shall we praise?" "I am here, worshipper," answers Indra; "behold me. I surpass all creatures in greatness. ..... Some few doubted and some few rebelled; but Indra-worship continued to increase in importance and magnitude for centuries after the Rig-Veda period, until at length it was superseded by the worship of powers but little recognised in the early hymns.

993

Hymns addressed to Adjuncts of Sacrifice.-Symbols.- Fire produced from Wood. -Horse Sacrificial Post.-Ladle-Mortar.-Soma-Plant.-Abstract Conceptions of Deity.-Origin of Universe.-Sin.

Ir may be said that in our first chapter we placed the three gods, Agni, Indra, and Savitri on pedestals, grouping around them other gods seen less distinctly. This is substantially the idea which forces itself upon us whilst reading the Rig-Veda hymns. Sun, Fire, and the Firmament (or Heavens) represent distinct powers, or gods, and are invoked under various aspects, whilst the beautiful appearances of daybreak and the terrible sounds of thunderstorms are but attendant deities. Mitra, Aryaman, Vishnu, are often only synonymes for the Sun, and Heaven, and Earth,-Aditi and the Adityas are indistinct.

Of these three principal gods, Agni appears with less of regal

ASWAMEDHA, THE HORSE-SACRIFICE.

27

pomp than Indra, or the Sun; but, at the same time, one feels that Agni symbolises grander conceptions of infinitude. Agni is fire. Agni carries prayer to Heaven, invisible deity. Agni is the progenitor of Heaven and Earth." Agni forgives sin. And this same Agni "exists as a germ in the wood, and is generated by attrition." Sacred fire was procured by the same fashion of churning as that by which milk is converted into butter, and Indra is therefore invited to "partake of the effusions of the mortar, when they bind the churning-staff with a cord like reins." And when, "engendered by force," the flame appeared, the priests and assistants clapped their hands, and exclaimed, “Mortals have begotten the immortal."

Rig-Veda hymns abound in worship offered to symbols-a curious instance of which is afforded by worship addressed to a horse. The horse is viewed as a symbol of the Sun; but a real horse is worshipped and also sacrificed.

In later Sanskrit literature this sacrifice, called the Aswamedha, is constantly alluded to. Its due performance, with profuse liberality to officiating priests, was supposed to secure paramount sovereignty for the royal sacrifice. We will give two hymns which describe an ideal horse or a real horse idealised.o In the one ascribed to the Rishi Dîrghatamas, "the victim, or horse, is considered to be the deity." It runs as follows:

3

"May Mitra, Varuna, Aryaman, Ayu, Indra, the Lord of the Ribhus and the Maruts, not rebuke us because we shall proclaim at the sacrifice the virtues of the swift horse sprung from the gods.

"When they lead before the horse, which is decked with pure gold

In an article by Mr. Muir, published in J. R. A. S., New Series, vol. i. p. 59, this arrangement is justified; for he tells us that the ancient grammarian Yaska, in his Nirukta, says:

"There are three deities according to the expounders of the Veda, viz. Agni, whose place is on the carth: Vâyu, or

Indra, whose place is in the atmosphere; and Surya (the sun), whose place is in the sky."

2 Wilson's trans., vol. i. p. 72; R. V. i. 28.

3 Max Müller, A. S. L., p. 553; R. V. i. 162.

ornaments, the offering firmly grasped, the spotted goat bleats while walking onward; it goes the path beloved by Indra and Pûshan.1

This goat, destined for all the gods, is led first with the quick horse, as Pûshan's share; for Tvashtri himself raises to glory this pleasant offering which is brought with the horse.

"When thrice at the proper seasons men lead around the sacrificial horse which goes to the gods, Pûshan's share comes first, the goat which announces the sacrifice to the gods.

“Hotri, Adhvaryu, Avayaj, Agnimindha, Grâvagrabha, and the wise Sanstri,3 may you fill the streams (round the altar) with a sacrifice well prepared and well accomplished.

They who cut the sacrificial post, and they who carry it, they who make the ring for the post of the horse, and even they who bring together what is cooked for the horse, may their work be with us.

"He came on-(my prayer has been well performed)—the brightbacked horse goes to the regions of the gods. Wise poets celebrate him, and we have won a good friend for the love of the gods.

66

The halter of the swift one, the heel-ropes of the horse, the headropes, the girths, the bridle, and even the grass that has been put into his mouth, may all these which belong to thee be with the gods!

"What the fly eats of the flesh, what adheres to the stick, or to the axe, or to the hands of the immolator, and his nails, may all these which belong to thee be with the gods!"

Two verses follow in the same strain, desiring that even the juice which flows from the roasted limb on the spit should be saved for the gods. "They who examine the horse when roasted, they who say 'it smells well,' &c., may their work also be with us. The ladle of the pot, the skewers, the knives, even the foot-fastening of the horse, may all these which

belong to thee be with the gods!"

Verse 15 says: "May not the fire with smoky smell make thee hiss, may not the glowing cauldron smell and burst." And again at verse 17 an apology is made for treating the divine. offering as a horse.

1 Pûshan rides or drives a goat. This is another name for the sun.

2 Twashtri is a divine artificer.

These are the names of the classes of priests employed.

ASWAMEDHA, THE HORSE-SACRIFICE.

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"If some one strike thee with the heel or the whip, that thou mayest lie down, and thou art snorting with all thy might, then I purify all this with my prayer."

The second of the Aswamedha hymns we give from the translation of the late Professor Wilson.' The Rishi is the

same.

"Thy great birth, O Horse, is to be glorified, whether first springing from the firmament or from the water, inasmuch as thou hast neighed (auspiciously), for thou hast the wings of a falcon and the limbs of a

deer.

"Trita harnessed the horse which was given by Yama: Indra first mounted him, and Gandharba seized his reins. Vasus, you fabricated

the horse from the sun.

"Thou, horse, art Yama: thou art Aditya: thou art Trita by a mysterious act: thou art associated with Soma."

In verse 4 it is said: "Thou declarest to me, Horse, who art (one with) Varuna, that which they have called thy most excellent birth." In allusion to verse 6, Professor Max Müller writes in his "Comparative Mythology:"

"In the Veda, where the sun is addressed as a horse, the head of the horse is an expression meaning the rising sun. Thus the poet says: 'I have known through thy mind thyself when it was still far-thee the bird flying up from below the sky. I saw a head with wings proceeding on smooth and dustless paths.""

After this recognition of the horse as the symbol of the sun, we are carried back in verse 7 to behold him "coming eagerly to receive food." And then, after alluding to "the fullhaunched, slender-waisted" coursers (of the sun), which "; "gallop along like swans in rows," the divine horse is described with his body "made for motion;" his "mind rapid in intention as the wind;" "the hairs of his mane tossed in manifold directions."

Wilson's trans., vol. ii. p. 121; R. V. i. 163.