The Religions of India Part 13

[Footnote 33: Otherwise it is the 'bonds of sin' which are broken or loosed, as in the last verse of the first Varuna hymn, translated above. But the two views may be of equal antiquity (above, p. 69, note). On Trita compare JRAS. 1893, p. 419; PAOS. 1894 (Bloomfield).]

CHAPTER V.

THE RIG VEDA (CONTINUED).--THE LOWER G.o.dS.

AGNI.

Great are the heavenly G.o.ds, but greater is Indra, G.o.d of the atmosphere. Greatest are Agni and Soma, the G.o.ds of earth.

Agni is the altar-fire. Originally fire, Agni, in distinction from sun and lightning, is the fire of sacrifice; and as such is he great. One reads in v. 3. 1-2, that this Agni is Varuna, Indra; that in him are all the G.o.ds. This is, indeed, formally a late view, and can be paralleled only by a few pa.s.sages of a comparatively recent period.

Thus, in the late hymn i. 164. 46: "Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni, they say; he is the sun (the bird in the sky); that which is but one they call variously," etc. So x. 114. 5 and the late pa.s.sage iii. 38. 7, have reference to various forms of Agni.

Indra had a twofold nature in producing the union of lightning and Agni; and this made him mysteriously great. But in Agni is found the first triality, which, philosophically, is interpreted as a trinity.

The fire of the altar is one with the lightning, and, again, one with the sun. This is Agni's threefold birth; and all the holy character of three is exhausted in application where he is concerned. It is the highest mystery until the very end of the Vedic age. This Agni it is that is the real Agni of the Rig Veda--the new Agni; for there was probably an Agni cult (as simple fire) long before the _soma_ cult.

Indra and Agni are one, and both are called the slayers of the demons[1]. They are both united as an indissoluble pair (iii. 12, etc.). Agni, with, perhaps, the exception of Soma, is the most important G.o.d in the Rig Veda; and it is no chance that gives him the first place in each family hymn-book; for in him are found, only in more fortunate circ.u.mstances, exactly the same conditions as obtain in the case of Indra. He appealed to man as the best friend among divine beings; he was not far off, to be wondered at; if terrible, to be propitiated. He was near and kind to friends. And as he seemed to the vulgar so he appealed to the theosophy which permeates the spirit of the poets; for he is mysterious; a mediator between G.o.d and man (in carrying to heaven the offerings); a threefold unity, typical of earth, atmosphere, and heaven. From this point of view, as in the case of Indra, so in the case of Agni, only to a greater extent, it becomes impossible to interpret Agni as one element, one phenomenon. There is, when a distinction is made, an _agni_ which is single, the altar-fire, separate from other fires; but it is seldom that Agni is not felt as the threefold one.

And now for the interpretation of the modern ritualists. The Hindu ritual had 'the three fires,' which every orthodox believer was taught to keep up. The later literature of the Hindus themselves very correctly took these three fires as types of the three forms of Agni known in the Rig Veda. But to the ritualists the historical precedence is inverted, and they would show that the whole Vedic mythological view of an Agni triad is the result of identifying Agni with the three fires of the ritual. From this cra.s.s method of interpretation it would result that all Vedic mythology was the child of the liturgy[2].

As earthly fire Agni is first ignis:[3] "Driven by the wind, he hastens through the forest with roaring tongues.... black is thy path, O bright immortal!" "He mows down, as no herd can do, the green fields; bright his tooth, and golden his beard." "He devours like a steer that one has tied up." This is common fire, divine, but not of the altar. The latter Agni is of every hymn. For instance, the first stanza of the Rig Veda: "Agni, the family priest, I worship; the divine priest of sacrifice; the oblation priest, who bestows riches,"

where he is invoked under the names of different priests. But Agni is even more than this; he is the fire (heat) that causes production and reproduction, visibly manifest in the sun. This dual Agni, it is to be noticed, is at times the only Agni recognized. The third form is then added, lightning, and therewith Agni is begotten of Indra, and is, therefore, one with Indra: "There is only one fire lighted in many places" (V[=a]l. 10. 2). As a poetical expression, Agni in the last form is the 'Son of Waters,' an epithet not without significance in philosophical speculation; for water, through all periods, was regarded as the material origin of the universe.

Agni is one with the sun, with lightning (and thunder), and descends into the plants.[4] To man he is house-priest and friend. It is he that has "grouped men in dwelling-places" (iii. 1. 17) like Prometheus, in whose dialectic name, Promantheus, lingers still the fire-creator, the twirling (_math_) sticks which make fire in the wood. He is man's guest and best friend (Mitra, iv. 1. 9; above).

An hymn or two entire will show what was Agni to the Vedic poet. In the following, the Rig Veda's first hymn, he is addressed, in the opening stanza, under the names of house-priest, the chief sacrificial priest, and the priest that pours oblations. In the second stanza he is extolled as the messenger who brings the G.o.ds to the sacrifice, himself rising up in sacrificial flames, and forming a link between earth and heaven. In a later stanza he is called the Messenger (Angiras =[Greek: aggelos]),--one of his ordinary t.i.tles:

To AGNI (i. 1).

I worship Agni; house-priest, he, And priest divine of sacrifice, Th' oblation priest, who giveth wealth.

Agni, by seers of old adored, To be adored by those to-day-- May he the G.o.ds bring here to us.

Through Agni can one wealth acquire, Prosperity from day to day, And fame of heroes excellent.

O, Agni! whatsoe'er the rite That thou surround'st on every side, That sacrifice attains the G.o.ds.

May Agni, who oblation gives-- The wisest, true, most famous priest-- This G.o.d with (all) the G.o.ds approach I

Thou doest good to every man That serves thee, Agni; even this Is thy true virtue, Angiras.

To thee, O Agni, day by day, Do we with prayer at eve and dawn, Come, bringing lowly reverence;

To thee, the lord of sacrifice, And shining guardian of the rite,[5]

In thine own dwelling magnified.

As if a father to his son, Be easy of access to us, And lead us onward to our weal.

This is mechanical enough to have been made for an established ritual, as doubtless it was. But it is significant that the ritualistic G.o.ds are such that to give their true character hymns of this sort must be cited. Such is not the case with the older G.o.ds of the pantheon.

Ritualistic as it is, however, it is simple. Over against it may be set the following (vi. 8): "Now will I praise the strength of the variegated red bull (Agni), the feasts of the Knower-of-beings[6]

(Agni); to Agni, the friend of all men, is poured out a new song, sweet to him as clear _soma_. As soon as he was born in highest heaven, Agni began to protect laws, for he is a guardian of law (or order). Great in strength, he, the friend of all men, measured out the s.p.a.ce between heaven and earth, and in greatness touched the zenith; he, the marvellous friend, placed apart heaven and earth; with light removed darkness; separated the two worlds like skins. Friend of all men, he took all might to himself.... In the waters' lap the mighty ones (G.o.ds) took him, and people established him king. M[=a]taricvan, messenger of the all-shining one, bore him from afar, friend of all men. Age by age, O Agni, give to poets new glorious wealth for feasts.

O ever-youthful king, as if with a ploughshare, rend the sinner; destroy him with thy flame, like a tree! But among our lords bring, O Agni, power unbent, endless strength of heroes; and may we, through thy a.s.sistance, conquer wealth an hundredfold, a thousandfold, O Agni, thou friend of all; with thy sure protection protect our royal lords, O helper, thou who hast three habitations; guard for us the host of them that have been generous, and let them live on, friend of all, now that thou art lauded."

Aryan, as Kuhn[7] has shown, is at least the conception if not the particular form of the legend alluded to in this hymn, of fire brought from the sky to earth, which Promethean act is attributed elsewhere to the fire-priest.[8] Agni is here Mitra, the friend, as sun-G.o.d, and as such takes all the celestials' activities on himself. Like Indra he also gives personal strength: "Fair is thy face, O Agni, to the mortal that desires strength;--they whom thou dost a.s.sist overcome their enemies all their lives" (vi. 16. 25, 27). Agni is drawn down to earth by means of the twirling-sticks, one the father, one the mother[9].

"The bountiful wood bore the fair variegated son of waters and plants;[10] the G.o.ds united in mind, and payed homage to the glorious mighty child when he was born" (iii. 1. 13). As the son of waters, Agni loves wood but retreats to water, and he is so identified with Indra that he 'thunders' and 'gives rain' (as lightning; ii. 6. 5; iii. 9. 2).

The deeper significance of Agni-worship is found not alone in the fact that he is the G.o.d in whom are the other G.o.ds, nor in that he is the sun alone, but that "I am Agni, immortality is in my mouth; threefold my light, eternal fire, my name the oblation (fire)," iii. 26. 7. He is felt as a mysterious trinity. As a sun he lights earth; and gives life, sustenance, children, and wealth (iii. 3. 7); as lightning he destroys, as fire he befriends; like Indra he gives victory (iii. 16.

1); like Varuna he releases the bonds of sin; he is Varuna's brother (v. 2. 7; vi. 3. 1; iv. 1. 2); his 'many names' are often alluded to (iii. 20. 3, and above). The ritualistic interpretation of the priest is that the sun is only a sacrificial fire above lighted by the G.o.ds as soon as the corresponding fire is lighted on earth by men (vi. 2.

3). He is all threefold; three his tongues, his births, his places; thrice led about the sacrifice given thrice a day (iii. 2. 9; 17. 1; 20. 2; iv, 15. 2; 1. 7; 12. 1). He is the upholder of the religious order, the guest of mortals, found by the G.o.ds in the heavenly waters; he is near and dear; but he also becomes dreadful to the foe (iii. 1.

3-6; 6. 5; vi. 7. 1; 8. 2; iii. 1. 23; 22. 5; vi. 3. 7; iii. 18. 1; iv. 4. 4; 1. 6).

It is easy to see that in such a conception of a triune G.o.d, who is fearful yet kind, whose real name is unknown, while his visible manifestations are in earth, air, and heaven, whose being contains all the G.o.ds, there is an idea destined to overthrow, as it surpa.s.ses, the simpler conceptions of the naturalism that precedes it. Agni as the one divine power of creation is in fact the origin of the human race: "From thee come singers and heroes" (vi. 7. 3). The less weight is, therefore, to be laid on Bergaigne's 'fire origin of man'; it is not as simple fire, but as universal creator that Agni creates man; it is not the 'fire-principle'[11] philosophically elicited from connection of fire and water, but as G.o.d-principle, all-creative, that Agni gets this praise.

Several hymns are dedicated to _Indr[=a]gni_, Indra united with Agni; and the latter even is identified with Dyaus (iv. 1. 10), this obsolescent G.o.d reviving merely to be absorbed into Agni. As water purifies from dirt and sin (Varuna), so fire purifies (iv. 12. 4). It has been suggested on account of v. 12. 5: 'Those that were yours have spoken lies and left thee,' that there is a decrease in Agni worship.

As this never really happened, and as the words are merely those of a penitent who has lied and seeks forgiveness at the hands of the G.o.d of truth, the suggestion is not very acceptable. Agni comprehends not only all naturalistic G.o.ds, but such later femininities as Reverence, Mercy, and other abstractions, including Boundlessness.

Of how great importance was the triune G.o.d Agni may be seen by comparing his three lights with the later sectarian trinity, where Vishnu, originally the sun, and (Rudra) civa, the lightning, are the preserver and destroyer.

We fear the reader may have thought that we were developing rather a system of mythology than a history of religion. With the close of the Vedic period we shall have less to say from a mythological point of view, but we think that it will have become patent now for what purpose was intended the mythological basis of our study. Without this it would have been impossible to trace the gradual growth in the higher metaphysical interpretation of nature which goes hand in hand with the deeper religious sense. With this object we have proceeded from the simpler to the more complex divinities. We have now to take up a side of religion which lies more apart from speculation, but it is concerned very closely with man's religious instincts--the worship of Bacchic character, the reverence for and fear of the death-G.o.d, and the eschatological fancies of the poets, together with those first attempts at creating a new theosophy which close the period of the Rig Veda.

SOMA.

Inseparably connected with the worship of Indra and Agni is that of the 'moon-plant,' _soma_, the intoxicating personified drink to whose deification must be a.s.signed a date earlier than that of the Vedas themselves. For the _soma_ of the Hindus is etymologically identified with the _haoma_ of the Persians (the [Greek: omomi] of Plutarch[12]), and the cultus at least was begun before the separation of the two nations, since in each the plant is regarded as a G.o.d. The inspiring effect of intoxication seemed to be due to the inherent divinity of the plant that produced it; the plant was, therefore, regarded as divine, and the preparation of the draught was looked upon as a sacred ceremony[13].

This offering of the juice of the _soma_-plant in India was performed thrice daily. It is said in the Rig Veda that _soma_ grows upon the mountain M[=u]javat, that its or his father is Parjanya, the rain-G.o.d, and that the waters are his sisters[14]. From this mountain, or from the sky, accounts differ, _soma_ was brought by a hawk[15]. He is himself represented in other places as a bird; and as a divinity he shares in the praise given to Indra, "who helped Indra to slay Vritra," the demon that keeps back the rain. Indra, intoxicated by _soma_, does his great deeds, and indeed all the G.o.ds depend on _soma_ for immortality. Divine, a weapon-bearing G.o.d, he often simply takes the place of Indra and other G.o.ds in Vedic eulogy. It is the G.o.d Soma himself who slays Vritra, Soma who overthrows cities, Soma who begets the G.o.ds, creates the sun, upholds the sky, prolongs life, sees all things, and is the one best friend of G.o.d and man, the divine drop (_indu_), the friend of Indra[16].

As a G.o.d he is a.s.sociated not only with Indra, but also with Agni, Rudra, and P[=u]shan. A few pa.s.sages in the later portion of the Rig Veda show that _soma_ already was identified with the moon before the end of this period. After this the lunar yellow G.o.d regularly was regarded as the visible and divine Soma of heaven, represented on earth by the plant[17].

From the fact that Soma is the moon in later literature, and undoubtedly is recognized as such in a small number of the latest pa.s.sages of the Rig Veda, the not unnatural inference has been drawn by some Vedic scholars that Soma, in hymns still earlier, means the moon; wherever, in fact, epithets. .h.i.therto supposed to refer to the plant may be looked upon as not incompatible with a description of the moon, there these epithets are to be referred directly to Soma as the moon-G.o.d, not to _soma_, the mere plant. Thus, with Rig Veda, X. 85 (a late hymn, which speaks of Soma as the moon "in the lap of the stars,"

and as "the days' banner") is to be compared VI. 39. 3, where it is said that the drop (_soma_) lights up the dark nights, and is the day's banner. Although this expression, at first view, would seem to refer to the moon alone, yet it may possibly be regarded as on a par with the extravagant praise given elsewhere to the _soma_-plant, and not be so significant of the moon as it appears to be. Thus, in another pa.s.sage of the same book, the _soma_, in similar language, is said to "lay light in the sun," a phrase scarcely compatible with the moon's sphere of activity[18].

The decision in regard to this question of interpretation is not to be reached so easily as one might suppose, considering that a whole book, the ninth, of the Rig Veda is dedicated to Soma, and that in addition to this there are many hymns addressed to him in the other books. For in the greater number of pa.s.sages which may be cited for and against this theory the objector may argue that the generally extravagant praise bestowed upon Soma through the Veda is in any one case merely particularized, and that it is not incongruous to say of the divine _soma_-plant, "he lights the dark nights," when one reads in general that he creates all things, including the G.o.ds. On the other hand, the advocate of the theory may reply that everything which does not apply to the moon-G.o.d Soma may be used metaphorically of him.

Thus, where it is said, "Soma goes through the purifying sieve," by a.n.a.logy with the drink of the plant _soma_ pa.s.sing through the sieve the poet may be supposed to imagine the moon pa.s.sing through the sieve-like clouds; and even when this sieve is expressly called the 'sheep's-tail sieve' and 'wool-sieve,' this may still be, metaphorically, the cloud-sieve (as, without the a.n.a.logy, one speaks to-day of woolly clouds and the 'mare's tail').

So it happens that, with an hundred hymns addressed to Soma, it remains still a matter of discussion whether the _soma_ addressed be the plant or the moon. Alfred Hillebrandt, to whom is due the problem in its present form, declares that everywhere[19] in the Rig Veda Soma means the moon. No better hymn can be found to ill.u.s.trate the difficulty under which labors the _soma_-exegete than IX. 15, from which Hillebrandt takes the fourth verse as conclusive evidence that by _soma_ only the moon is meant. In that case, as will be seen from the 'pails,' it must be supposed that the poet leaps from Soma to _soma_ without warning. Hillebrandt does not include the mention of the pails in his citation; but in this, as in other doubtful cases, it seems to us better to give a whole pa.s.sage than to argue on one or two verses torn from their proper position:

HYMN TO SOMA (IX. 15).

QUERY: Is the hymn addressed to the plant as it is pressed out into the pails, or to the moon?

1. This one, by means of prayer (or intelligence), comes through the fine (sieve), the hero, with swift car, going to the meeting with Indra.

2. This one thinks much for the sublime a.s.sembly of G.o.ds, where sit immortals.