After the horse the cow takes an important place in the mythology. The rain-clouds are cows, and the gods fight for them against the demons. The beams of dawn are also clouds, but it is possible that the cow in itself had begun to receive reverence, being addressed as Aditi and a goddess, and being described as inviolable, nor later is there any doubt of direct zoölatry. Indra, Agni, and rarely Dyaus are described as bulls; the boar is used as a description of Rudra, the Maruts, and Vṛtra. Soma, Agni, and the sun are hailed as birds, and an eagle carried down the soma for Indra, apparently representing Indra's lightning. The crow and the pigeon are the messengers of Yama, the god of death, and a bird of omen is invoked. The "Serpent" (Ahi) is a form of the demon Vṛtra, but there is no trace of the worship of snakes as such. Animals serve also as steeds for the gods: the Aśvins use the ass, and Pūṣan the goat, but horses are normal. Yama has two dogs, the offspring of Saramā, though she does not appear in the Ṛgveda as a bitch. Indra has a monkey, of whom a late hymn (x. 86) tells a curious story. Apparently the ape, Vṛṣākapi, was the favourite of Indra and injured property of Indra's wife; soundly beaten, it was banished, but it returned, and Indra effected a reconciliation. The hymn belongs to the most obscure of the Ṛgveda and has been very variously interpreted,[1] even as a satire on a contemporary prince and his spouse.
The same vein of satire has been discerned in a curious hymn (vii. 103) where frogs, awakened by the rains, are treated as able to bestow cows and long life. The batrachians are compared to priests as they busy themselves round the sacrifice, and their quacking is likened to the repetition of the Veda by the student. The conception is carried out in a genial vein of burlesque, yet it is very possible that it contains worship which is serious enough, for the frogs are connected with the rain and seem to be praised as bringing with their renewed activity the fall of the waters.
We have seen gods conceived as of animal form and, there-
- ↑ See L. von Schroeder, Mysterium und Mimus im Rigveda, pp. 304-25.
