8 III. RELIGION, WELTL. WISSENSCH. u. KUNST. i A. VEDIC MYTHOLOGY.
air; Apam napat, the Son of Waters = Apam napat; Gandharva = Gandarewa
and Krsanu = Keresani are divine beings connected with soma = haoma.
To Trita Aptya correspond two mythical personages named Thrita and Athwya,
and to Indra Vrtrahan the demon Indra and the genius of victory Verethragna.
Yama, son of Vivasvat, ruler of the dead, is identical with Yima, son of
Vivanhvant, ruler of paradise. The parallel in character, though not in name,
of the god Varuna is Ahura Mazda, the wise spirit. The two religions also have
in common as designations of evil spirits the terms druh = druj and ydtu
i BARTIIOLOMAE in GEIGER and KUHN S Grundriss der iranischen Philologie,
vol. i, p. i. 2 SPIEGEL, Die Arische Periode, Leipzig 1887, p. 155. 3 SPIEGEL,
op. cit. 225 33; GRUPPE, Die griechischen Culte und Mythen, I, 8697; ORV. 26
33; HRI, 1678.
6. Comparative Mythology. In regard to the Indo-European period we are on far less certain ground. Many equations of name once made in the first enthusiasm of discovery and generally accepted, have since been rejected and very few of those that remain rest on a firm foundation. Dyaus = Ze6; is the only one which can be said to be beyond the range of doubt. Varuna = Oupavo? though presenting phonetic difficulties, seems possible. The rain-god Parjanya agrees well in meaning with the Lithuanian thunder-god Perkunas, but the phonetic objections are here still greater. The name of Bhaga is identical with the Slavonic bogu as well as the Persian bagha, but as the latter two words mean only god , the Indo-European word cannot have designated any individual deity. Though the name of Usas is radically cognate to Aurora and Hu>c, the cult of Dawn as a goddess is a specially Indian development. It has been inferred from the identity of mythological traits in the thunder-gods of the various branches of the Indo-European family, that a thunder-god existed in the Indo-European period in spite of the absence of a common name. There are also one or two other not im probable equations based on identity of character only. That the conception of higher gods, whose nature was connected with light (]A//V, to shine) and heaven (div) had already been arrived at in the Indo-European period, is shown by the common name deivos (Skt. deva-s, Lith. deva-s } Lat. deu-s) } god. The conception of Earth as a mother (common to Vedic and Greek mytho logy) and of Heaven as a father (Skt. Dyaus pitar, Gk. Zsu iraiep, Lat. Jupiter) appears to date from a still remoter antiquity. For the idea of Heaven and Earth being universal parents is familiar to the mythology of China and New Zealand and may be traced in that of Egypt *. The practice of magical rites and the worship of inanimate objects still surviving in the Veda, doubtless came down from an equally remote stage in the mental development of mankind, though the possibility of a certain influence exer cised by the primitive aborigines of India on their Aryan conquerors cannot be altogether excluded.
1 GRUPPE op. cit. I, 97 121; ORV. 33 8; HRI. 168 9. 2 TYLOR, Primitive Culture I, 326; LANG, Mythology. Encyclopaedia Britannica, p. 150 I.
II: VEDIC CONCEPTIONS OF THE WORLD AND ITS ORIGIN.
7. Cosmology. - - The Universe, the stage on which the actions of the gods are enacted, is___regarded by the Vedic poets as divided into the three domains 1 of earth, air or atmosphere, and heaven 2 . The sky when regarded as the whole space above the earth, forms with the latter the entire universe consisting of the upper and the nether world. The vault (ndkd) of the sky is regarded as the limit dividing the visible upper world from the
