who occur in the Ṛgveda 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 suggested[1] 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 Ṛbhus, who are three in number, Ṛbhu or Ṛbhukṣan, Vibhvan, and Vāja. 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 Vāja became the artificer of the gods, Ṛbhukṣan of Indra, and Vibhvan of Varuṇa. Their great feats were five: for the Aśvins 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, Bṛhaspati; 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 Tvaṣṭṛ, 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. Tvaṣṭṛ 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 Ṛbhus 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 Savitṛ, who conferred immortality upon them: when, after slumbering for twelve days, they had
- ↑ See A. Hillebrandt, Vedische Mythologie, iii. 418-19.
