History of India/Volume 1/Chapter 7
CHAPTER VII
VEDIC RELIGION
THE religion of the Rig-Veda is well known. It was pre-eminently the worship of nature in its most imposing and sublime aspects. The sky which bends over all, the beautiful and blushing dawn which like a busy housewife wakes men from slumber and sends them to their work, the gorgeous tropical sun which vivifies the earth, the air which pervades the world, the fire which cheers and enlightens man, and the violent storms which in India usher in those copious rains which fill the land with plenty—these were the gods whom the early Hindus loved to extol and to worship. And often when an ancient Rishi sang the praises of any of the gods, he forgot that there was any other god besides, and his hymn had the character and the sublimity of a prayer to the one God of the universe. Indeed the seers themselves often rose higher than the level of nature-worship and boldly declared that the different gods were but different manifestations or different names of the one Primal Cause.
The sky was naturally the most prominent object of worship, and as the sky assumes various aspects, various names were given to it, and the conception of various deities was formed. The oldest is probably Dyu, but in India he soon lost his place, and the sky in one of its peculiar functions soon usurped his place. For in India the annual rise of rivers, the fertility of land, and the luxuriance of crops depend, not on the sky which shines above us, but on the sky that rains, and Indra soon became the first among the Vedic gods.
Another ancient name of the sky was Varuna, the sky which covered the earth, probably the sky without light, the nightly sky. Both the idea and the name of Varuna as a god of sky were known to the ancestors of the Aryan nations before the Indo-Aryans and the Iranians separated. In that remote period Varuna was the highest and holiest of the gods, and represented the spiritual aspect of religion. After the separation had taken place, this deity of righteousness was translated in Iran into Ahura Mazda, the supreme deity, while to the Hindu Varuna the Vedic bard sang:—
"O Varuna! the birds that fly have not attained thy power or thy vigour; the water which flows ceaselessly and the moving wind do not surpass thy speed.
"King Varuna of unsullied power remains in the firmament and holds on high the rays of light.
"King Varuna has spread out the path for the course of the sun. He has made the path for the sun to traverse in pathless space.
"O King Varuna! a hundred and a thousand medicinal drugs are thine; may thy beneficence be vast and deep. Keep unrighteousness away from us, deliver us from the sins we have committed.
"Yonder stars which are placed on high and are seen by night—where do they go by day? The acts of Varuna are irresistible; the moon shines brightly by his mandate."
Elsewhere, in more ethical strain, the poet prays forgiveness for his sins:—
"O Varuna! with an anxious heart I ask thee about my sins. I have gone to learned men to make inquiry; the sages have all said to me, 'Varuna is displeased with thee.'
"O Varuna! what have I done that thou wishest to destroy thy friend, thy worshipper? thou of irresistible power, declare it to me, so that I may quickly bend in adoration and come unto thee.
"O Varuna! deliver us from the sins of our fathers. Deliver us from the sins committed in our persons. royal Varuna! deliver Vasishtha, like a calf from its tether, like a thief who has feasted on a stolen animal.
"O Varuna! all this sin is not wilfully committed by us. Error or wine, anger or dice, or even thoughtlessness, has begotten sin. Even an elder brother leads his younger astray; sin is begotten even in our dreams.
"Freed from sin, I will faithfully serve, as a slave, the Varuna who fulfils our wishes and supports us. We are ignorant, may the Arya god bestow on us knowledge. May the wise deity accept our prayer and bestow on us wealth."
Still more poignant is the entreaty:—
"O King Varuna! may I never go to the earthen home! thou of great power! have mercy, have mercy!
"O Varuna with thy weapons! I come trembling even like a cloud driven by the wind. O thou of great power! have mercy, have mercy!
"O rich and pure Varuna! I have been driven against righteous acts through weakness. O thou of great power! have mercy, have mercy!
"Thy worshipper hath thirsted even when living in water. O thou of great power! have mercy, have mercy!
"O Varuna! we are mortals. In whatever way we have sinned against gods, in whatever manner we have through ignorance neglected thy work—O do not destroy us for these sins."
Despite the sanctity invariably ascribed to Varuna, however, he was less popular than Indra, who is peculiarly Indian and is unknown to other Aryan nations. One of the most famous legends about Indra, probably the most famous legend in the Aryan world, is the myth of his destruction of the demon Vritra, who confined the waters and would not let them descend until Indra struck the monster with his thunderbolt. The captive waters then descended in copious showers, rivers rose almost instantaneously, and gods and men rejoiced over the changed face of nature. The Maruts, or storm-gods, helped Indra in the battle; sky and earth trembled at the noise. Vritra long waged an unequal combat, only to fall and die at last—the drought was over, and the rains began. Many are the hymns in the Rig-Veda which recount this conflict, but here we have space to cite only one:—
"We sing the heroic deeds which were performed by Indra the thunderer. He destroyed Ahi (the cloud-serpent) and caused rains to descend and opened out the paths for the mountain streams to roll.
"Indra slew Ahi, who rested on the mountains; Tvashtri had made the far-reaching thunderbolt for him. Water in torrents flowed towards the sea, as cows run eagerly towards their calves.
"Impetuous as a bull, Indra quaffed the Soma-juiee; he drank the Soma libations offered in the three sac-
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A SCENE IN THE HIMALAYAS.
rifices. He then took the thunderbolt and therewith slew the eldest of the Ahis.
"When you killed the eldest of the Ahis, you destroyed the contrivances of the artful contrivers. You cleared the sun and the morning and the sky, and left no enemies behind.
"Indra with his all-destructive thunderbolt slew the darkling Vritra (cloud) and lopped his limbs. Ahi now lies touching the earth like the trunk of a tree felled by the axe.
"The proud Vritra thought that he had no equal, and defied the destroyer and conqueror Indra to combat. But he did not escape destruction, and Indra's foe fell, crushing the clouds in his fall.
"Glad waters are bounding over the prostrate body as rivers flow over fallen banks. Vritra when alive had withheld the water by his power; Ahi now lies prostrate under that water.
"The prostrate body lies concealed and nameless under ceaseless and restless waters, and the waters flow above. Indra's foe sleeps the long sleep."
It would be easy to multiply such legends, but our limits forbid such a course. We will therefore only make a passing mention of the legend of the recovery of light by Indra after the darkness of night. The rays of light are compared to cattle which have been stolen by the powers of darkness, and Indra seeks for them in vain. He sends his messenger Sarama (probably the dawn) after them, and she finds the fortress where the Panis, or powers of darkness, have concealed the cattle. The Panis try to tempt Sarama, but in vain. She returns to Indra, and Indra marches with his forces, destroys the fort, and recovers the cattle; darkness is gone, and the day has dawned. The legend is related in its fullest form in the following hymn:—
The Panis say:—"O Sarama! why hast thou come here? It is a long distance. He who looks back cannot come this way. What have we with us for which thou hast come? How long hast thou travelled? How didst thou cross the Rasa?"
Sarama replies:—"I come as the messenger of Indra. O Panis! it is my object to recover the abundant cattle which you have hidden. The water has helped me; the water felt a fear at my crossing, and thus I crossed the Rasa."
Panis.— "What is that Indra like, whose messenger thou art and for whom thou hast come from a long distance? How does he look? (To one another) Let her come, we will own her as a friend. Let her take and own our cows."
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INDRA.
From a modern Hindu drawing.
Sarama.—"I do not see any one who can conquer the Indra whose messenger I am and for whom I have come from a long distance. It is he who conquers everybody. The deep rivers cannot restrain his course. Panis! you will surely be slain by Indra and will lie down."
Panis.—"O beautiful Sarama! thou hast come from the farthest ends of the sky; we will give thee without any dispute these cows as thou desirest. Who else would have given the cattle without a dispute? We have many sharp weapons with us."
Panis.—"Sarama! thou hast come here because the god threatened thee and sent thee here. We will accept thee as a sister; do not return. O beautiful Sarama! we will give thee a share of these cows."
Sarama.—"I do not comprehend your words about brothers and sisters. Indra and the powerful sons of Angiras know all. They sent me here to guard the cattle until its recovery. I have come here under their shelter. O Panis! run away far, far from here."
Indra is, in fact, the most vigorous of the Vedic gods, fond of Soma wine, delighting in war, leading his comrades, the Maruts, to fight against drought, leading hosts of the Aryans against the black aborigines, and helping them to win the most fertile spots along the five rivers of the Panjab. The sky and earth gave him birth as a cudgel for their enemies, but when the child went to his mother Aditi for food, he saw Soma wine on her breast and thus drank Soma before he drank his mother's milk.
We now turn to a group of deities who have a more distinctly solar character, some of whom are classed together under the common name of Adityas, or sons of Aditi, the undivided, the unlimited, the eternal.
There is much confusion in the Rig-Veda as to who the Adityas are the sons of this celestial light. Some lists name Aryaman, Bhaga, Daksha, Ansa, Varuna, and Mitra, while elsewhere the Adityas are said to be seven in number, but are not named. We have already seen that Indra is called a son of Aditi. Savitri, the sun, is often described as an Aditya, and so are Pushan and Vishnu, who are also different names of the sun. When, in course of time, the year was divided into twelve months, the number of the Adityas was fixed at twelve, and they became the suns of the twelve months.
Surya and Savitri are the most common names of the sun in the Rig-Veda, and commentators draw a distinction between Savitri, the rising or the unrisen sun, and Surya, the bright sun of day. The golden rays of the sun were naturally compared with arms, until a story found its place in Hindu mythology that Savitri lost his arm at a sacrifice and that it was replaced by a golden arm.
The only extract we will make from the hymns to the sun will be that most celebrated of the many stanzas in the Rig-Veda, the Gayatri, or the morning hymn of the later Brahmans. It is found in the third book and runs as follows:—
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SURYA.
Tat savitur varenyam
Bhargo devasya dhimahi
Dhiyo yo nah prachodayat.
"We meditate on the desirable light of the divine Savitri who influences our pious rites."
Pushan is the sun as viewed by shepherds in their wanderings in quest of fresh pasture-lands, and the hymns in his honour are all pastoral in their tone. He travels in a chariot yoked with goats, guides men and cattle in their travels and migrations, and knows and protects the flocks. Vishnu has obtained such a prominent place as the Supreme Deity in later Hinduism that there is a natural reluctance among orthodox modern Hindus to accept him in his Vedic character as a mere sun-god. Yet such he is in the Rig-Veda, and he is a very humble deity in the Vedic pantheon, far below Indra or Varuna, Savitri or Agni. It was not till the Puranic times, long after the Christian Era, that Vishnu was considered a Supreme Deity. In the Veda, Vishnu is said to traverse space in three steps, and
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A LATE CONCEPTION OF VISHNU.
From Moor's Hindu Pantheon.
is thus to be identified with the sun at dawn, at noon, and at sunset.
Fire was an object of worship in ancient India, where sacrificial fire received the highest regard. As no sacrifice could be performed without fire, Agni, or fire, was called the invoker of the gods. So high was the esteem in which fire was held among the gods of the Rig- Veda, that when the ancient commentator Yaska tried to reduce the number of the Vedic gods to three, he named Agni, or fire, as the god of the earth, Indra or Vayu as the god of the firmament, and the Sun as the god of the sky. But Agni is not only the terrestrial fire in the Rig-Veda; he is also the fire of the lightning and the sun, and his abode is the invisible heaven. The Bhrigus discovered him there, Matarisvan brought him down, and Atharvan and Angiras, the first sacrificers, first installed him in this world as the protector of men.
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AGNI.
Vayu, or the air, has received less consideration from the Vedic bards, and there are but few hymns assigned to him. But the Maruts, or the storm-gods, are oftener invoked, probably because they inspired more terror; and they are considered as the companions of Indra in obtaining rain from the reluctant clouds. The earth trembles as they move in their deer-yoked chariots, and men see the flashing of their arms or the sparkle of their ornaments, the lightning. Yet they are benevolent, and they milk from the udder of their mother Prisni (the storm-cloud) copious showers for the benefit of man.
Rudra, a storm deity, is the father of the Maruts. Like Vishnu, he is a humble deity in the Rig-Veda, and only a few hymns are assigned to him. But like Vishnu,' Rudra has attained prominence in later times, and is one of the Hindu Trinity of the Puranic religion, a portion of the Supreme.
Another god who has also changed his character in the Puranas (and very much for the worse!) is Yama, the king of the dead. Whatever the original conception of Yama may be, there is no doubt that in the Rig-Veda he is the king of the departed and the beneficent king of the happy world where the virtuous live and enjoy themselves in after-life. Clothed in a glorious body, they sit by the side of Yama in the realms of light and sparkling waters, they enjoy endless felicity there, and are adored here below under the name of Pitris, or fathers. In the Puranas, on the other hand, Yama, later called the child of the Sun, is the stern avenger of sin and the god of death and hell. The older conception of Yama, whom the Rig-Veda regards as the offspring of Vivasvat (the rising sun) and Saranyu (the dawn), may be illustrated by the stanzas:—
"Worship Yama, the son of Vivasvat, with offerings. All men go to him. He takes men of virtuous deeds to the realm of happiness. He clears the way for many.
"Yama first discovered the path for us. That path will not be destroyed again. All living beings will, according to their acts, follow by the path by which our forefathers have gone."
As a more complete allusion to the future life we may quote here another passage from a hymn to Soma, the juice of a plant made into wine and used as libation in sacrifices:—
"O flowing Soma! take me to that immortal and imperishable abode where light dwells eternal, and which is in heaven. Flow, Soma, for Indra.
"Take me where Yama is king, where there are the gates of heaven, and where mighty rivers flow. Take me there and make me immortal. Flow, Soma, for Indra.
"Take me where there is the third heaven, where there is the third realm of light above the sky, and where one can wander at his will. Take me there and make me immortal. Flow, Soma, for Indra.
"Take me where every desire is satiated, where Bradhna has his abode, where there is food and contentment. Take me there and make me immortal. Flow, Soma, for Indra.
"Take me where there are pleasures and joys and delights, where every desire of the anxious heart is satiated. Take me there and make me immortal. Flow, Soma, for Indra."
In addition to Yama and his twin sister, Yami, Vivasvat and Saranyu had another pair of twins, the Asvins, who appear in the Rig-Veda as great physicians, healers of the sick and the wounded, and tending many persons with kindness. Long lists of the kind acts of the Asvins are given in several hymns, and the same cures are spoken of over and over again. On their three-wheeled chariot they make the circuit of the world day by day and succour men in their distress.
Brihaspati, or Brahmanaspati, is the lord of hymns, brahma in the Rig-Veda meaning hymn. The conception of this deity arose in much the same way as the conception of the deities Fire and Soma. As there is power in the flame and the libation of the sacrifice, so there is power in the prayer uttered; and this power of prayer is personified in the Vedic god Brahmanaspati.
He was a humble god in the Rig-Veda, but in the course of centuries the thinkers of the Upanishads conceived of a Supreme Universal Being and gave him the Vedic name Brahma; and when at last Puranic Hinduism supplanted Buddhism in India, the Puranic thinkers gave the name of Brahma to the Supreme Creator of the Universe.
These are the important gods of the Rig-Veda. Of the goddesses there are only two who have any marked individuality, Ushas, the dawn, and Sarasvati, the goddess of the river of that name, who afterwards became the goddess of flowing speech.
There is no lovelier conception in the Rig-Veda than that of the dawn. There are no hymns in the Veda more truly poetical than those dedicated to her, and nothing more charming is to be found in the lyrical poetry of any ancient nation, though here we can make room for only a single extract:—
"She, the young, the white-robed daughter of the sky, the mistress of all earthly treasure, dawns upon us, dissipating darkness! Auspicious Ushas! shine upon us to-day on this spot.
"Following the path of mornings that have passed, to be followed by endless mornings to come, bright Ushas dispels darkness and awakens to life all beings, unconscious like the dead in sleep.
"How long have the Dawns risen? How long will the Dawns arise? The present morning pursues those that are gone, future mornings will pursue this resplendent Ushas.
"Mortals who beheld the pristine Ushas have passed away; we behold her now; and men will come after us who will behold Ushas in the future."
Sarasvati, as her name implies, is the goddess of the river of that name, which was considered holy because of the religious rites performed on its banks and the sacred hymns uttered there. By a natural development of ideas, she was considered the goddess of those hymns, or in other words the goddess of speech, in which character she is worshipped now. She is the only Vedic goddess whose worship continues in India to the present day; all her modern companions, Durga, Kali, Lakshmi, and others, are creations of a later day.
There are no indications in the Rig-Veda of any "temples reared by mortal hands" and consecrated as places of worship. On the contrary, every householder, every patriarch of his family, lighted the sacrificial fire in his own home and poured libations of the Soma-juice and prayed to the gods for happiness to his family, for abundant crops and wealth and cattle, for immunity from sickness, and for victory over the black aborigines. There was no separate priestly caste, and men did not retire into forests and subject themselves to penances in order to meditate on religion and chant these hymns. On the contrary, the old Rishis were worldly men, men with considerable property in crops and in cattle and surrounded by large families, men who in times of danger exchanged the plough for the Reciting the Sacred Texts at Benares
As comparatively few of the orthodox Hindus are able to read, they are dependent for a knowledge of the sacred texts on the pandits, or scholars, who choose suitable spots on the banks of the Ganges and there repeat the hallowed words to those that assemble about them to listen with devotion to their recitation.
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KALI AS WORSHIPPED TO-DAY.
Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, New York.
But though each householder was himself the priest, the warrior, and the cultivator, yet we find evidence of kings performing rites on a large scale by help of men specially proficient in the chanting of the hymns and in other religious rites and specially engaged and paid for the purpose. And as we go towards the later hymns of the Rig-Veda, we find this class of professional priests gaining in reputation and in wealth, honoured by
and rewarded by princely gifts of cattle and chariots. We find mention of particular families specially proficient in the performance of religious rites and ceremonies and in the composition of hymns, and it is more than probable that the existing hymns of the Rig-Veda were composed by members of these families and were traditionally learnt by rote and preserved in those families.
It is to these and other venerable houses that the Aryan world owes the preservation of the most ancient compositions of the Aryan race. From century to century the hymns were handed down without break or intermission, and the youths of the priestly houses spent the prime of their life in learning by rote the sacred songs from the lips of their gray-headed sires. It was thus that the inestimable treasure, the Rig-Veda, was preserved for hundreds of years.
In course of time the priests boldly grappled with the deeper mysteries of nature, they speculated about creation and about the future world, and they resolved the nature-gods into the Supreme Deity.
"That all-wise Father saw clearly, and after due reflection created the sky and the earth in their watery form and touching each other. When their boundaries were stretched afar, then the sky and the earth became separated.
"He who is the Creator of all is great; he creates and supports all, he is above all and sees all. He is beyond the seat of the seven Rishis. So the wise men say, and the wise men obtain fulfilment of all their desires.
"He who has given us life, he who is the Creator, he who knows all the places in this universe—he is one, although he bears the names of many gods. Other beings wish to know of him.
"You cannot comprehend him who has created all this; he is incomprehensible to your mind. People make guesses, being shrouded in a mist; they take their food for the support of their life and utter hymns and wander about."
This sublime hymn teaches us in unmistakable words that the different Vedic gods are but different names of the one incomprehensible Deity. We quote another such hymn:—
"At that time what is, was not, and what is not, was not. The earth was not, and the far-stretching sky was not. What was there that covered? Which place was assigned to what object? Did the inviolate and deep water exist?
" At that time death was not, nor immortality; the distinction between day and night was not. There was only One who lived and breathed without the help of air, supported by himself. Nothing was, excepting Him.
"At first darkness was covered in darkness. All was without demarcation; all was of watery form. The world that was a void was covered by what did not exist and was produced by meditation.
"Desire arose in the mind, the cause of creation was thus produced. Wise men reflect and in their wisdom ascertain the birth of what is from what is not.
"Males with generating seed were produced, and powers were also produced. Their rays extended on both sides and below and above, a self-supporting principle beneath, an energy aloft.
"Who knows truly? Who will describe? When was all born? Whence were all these created? The gods have been made after the creation. Who knows whence they were made?
"Whence all these were created, from whom they came, whether any one created them or did not create, is known only to Him who lives as Lord in the highest place. If He knows not (no one else knows)."
We will quote here one more hymn, which shows how the later Rishis soared beyond the conception of the nature-gods to the sublime idea of One Deity:—
"In the beginning the Golden Child existed. He was the Lord of all from his birth. He placed this earth and sky in their respective places. Whom shall we worship with offerings?
"Him who has given life and strength, whose will is obeyed by all the gods, whose shadow is immortality and whose slave is death. Whom shall we worship with offerings?
"Him who by his power is the sole king of all the living beings that see and move; him who is the Lord of all bipeds and quadrupeds. Whom shall we worship with offerings?
"Him by whose power these snowy mountains have been made, and whose creations are this earth and its oceans. Him whose arms are these quarters of space. Whom shall we worship with offerings?
"Him who has fixed in their places this sky and this earth; him who has established the heavens and the highest heaven; him who has measured the firmament. Whom shall we worship with offerings?
"Him by whom the sounding sky and earth have been fixed and expanded; him whom the resplendent sky and earth own as Almighty; him by whose support the sun rises and gains its lustre. Whom shall we worship with offerings?
"Mighty waters pervaded the universe, they held in their womb and gave birth to fire. The One Being, who is the life of the gods, appeared. Whom shall we worship with offerings?
"He who by his own prowess controlled the waters which gave birth to energy, he who is the Lord above all gods, he was One. Whom shall we worship with offerings?
"He, the True, who is the creator of this earth, who is the creator of the sky, who is the creator of the glad and mighty waters may he not do us harm! Whom shall we worship with offerings?
"O Lord of creatures! None but thee has produced all these created things. May the object with which we worship be fulfilled! May we acquire wealth and happiness!"
Thus the religion of the Rig-Veda ascends from nature up to nature's God. The worshipper appreciates the glorious phenomena of nature, and rises from these phenomena to grasp the mysteries of creation and its great Creator.