To All the Gods 1 Not one of you, gods, is small, not one a little child; all of you are truly great. ^ 2 "'Therefore you are worthy of praise and of sacrifice, you thkty-three gods of Manu, arrogant and powerful.
^ Protect us, help us and speak for us; do not lead us into the ^stance far away from the path of our father Manu.
^ You gods who are all here and who belong to all men, give far-reachmg shelter to us and to our cows and horses.
CREATION The R/^ Veda refers glancingly to many different theories of creation. Several of these regard creation as the result - often apparently a mere by-product - of a cosmic battle, such as those mentioned in the hymns to Indra, or as a result of the apparendy immotivated act of separating heaven and earth, an act attributed to several different gods. These aspects of crea- tion are woven m and out of the hymns m the older parts of the Rjg Veda, books a through 9 But in the subsequent tenth book we encounter for the first time hymns that are entirely devoted to speculations on the ongms of the cosmos.
Some of these hymns seek the ongms of the existence of existence itself (10.129) or of the creator himself (10.121). Others speculate upon the sacrifice as the origin of the earth and the people m it (10.90), or upon the ongms of the sacri- fice (10.130, 10.190). Sacrifice is central to many concepts of creation, particulady to those exphady linked to sacrificial gods or instruments, but it also appears as a supplement to other forms of creation such as sculpture (10.81-2) or anthro- pomorphic birth (10.72).
10.129 Creation Hymn (Nasadiya) This short hymn, though hngnistically simple (with the exception of one or two troublesome nouns), is conceptually extremely provocative and has, mdeed, provoked hundreds of complex commentaries among Indian theolo.gians and Western scholars. In many ways, it is meant to puzzle and challenge, to raise unanswerable questions, to pile up para- doxes.
I There was neither non-existence nor existence then, there was neither the realm of space nor the sky which is beyond. What stirred?^ Where? In whose protection? Was there water, bottomlessly deep?
z There was neither death nor immortality then There was no distmgmshmg sign^ of mght nor of day. That one breathed, wmdless, by its own impulse Other than that there was nothmg beyond J Darkness was hidden by darkness m thcJjeginning; with ■no’dlstin^ishing^i^n,^ all this was water The life force that was covered with emptmess, that one arose through the power of heat.^ 4 Desire came upon that one in the beginmng; that was the first seed of mind Poets * scckmg in their heart with wis- dom found the bond of existence in non-existence.
/ Their cord® was extended across Was there below? Was there „abqvc? There were seed-placers; there were powers.® There was impulse beneath, tlicrc \vas g^tng- forth above.
(f Who really knows? Who will here proclaim it? Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation? The gods came aftcrw ards, with the creation of this universe." Who then knows whence it has arisen?
7 Whence this creation has arisen - perhaps it formed itself, or pcrliaps it did not — the one who looks down on it, m 25 THE RIG VEDA tlie highest heaven, only he knows - or perhaps he docs not know.
NOTES 1. The verb is often used to describe the motion of breath. The verse implies that the action precedes the actor.
2. That is, the difference between night and day, light or dark- ness, or possibly sun and moon.
3. Tapas designates heat, in particular the heat generated by ritual activity and by physical mortification of the body.
4. Kavi designates a poet or saint.
5. Possibly a reference to the ‘bond* mentioned in verse 4, or a kind of measuring cord by which the poets delimit — and hence create - the elements.
6. Through chiasmus, the verse contrasts male seed-placers, giving-forth, above, with female powers, impulse, below.
7. That is, the gods cannot be the source of creation since they came after it.
10.121 The XJnknown God, the Golden 'Embryo This creation hymn poses questions about an tuinamed god (whom Max Muller first dubbed Deus Ignotus); later tradition (beginning with the subsequent appending of the final verse of this hymn, a verse that ends with a phrase used to conclude many other VJg Veda hymns) identified this god with Praja- pati and made the question in the refrain (who?) into an answer: ‘Who’ (Ka) is the name of the creator, a name ex- plicitly said, in later texts, to have been given to Prajapati by Indra (as agnostics are sometimes accused of praying ‘to whom it may concern’). But the original force of the verse is speculative: since the creator preceded all the known gods,i creating them, who could he be? In verse 7, he seems to appear after the waters; in verse 9, the waters appear from They are born from one another, a common paradox.^ The creator m tins hymn is caUed Hiranyagarbha. a truly pregnant term. It is a compound noun, whose fcst element z6 CREATION means ‘gold’ and whose second element means ‘womb, seed, embryo, or child’ m the Ej^ Veda and later comes to mean ‘egg’; this latter meaning becomes promment in the cosmogomc myth of the golden egg that separates, the two shells becoming sky and earth, while the yolk is the sun.® In the present hymn, the compound functions straight- forwardly: the god ts the golden embryo or seed. Later, it IS glossed as a possessive compound, he is the god who (more anthropomorphically) possesses the golden seed or egg. Sayana suggests that the compound may be mterpreted possessively even here, makmg it possible to mclude several levels of meanmg at once - ‘he m whose belly the golden seed or egg exists like an embryo’. This seed of fire is. placed in Ae wateis_o£,the_WQmb,-it-islalso-the_embryo_with which the waters become pregnant (v. 7). So, too, Agoi is the child of ^jvaters but alsojthe_godj.vho spills_his_seed_m.the waters. These are interlockmg rather than contradictory concepts, m the late Vedas, the father is spcafically identified with the son. Furthermore, the egg is both a female image (that which is fertilized by seed and which contains the embryo that IS hke the yolk) and a male image (the testicles containing seed) Thus the range of meanmgs may be seen as a continuum of androgynous birth images • seed (male egg), womb (female egg), embryo, child.
1 In the beginrung the Golden Embryo arose. Once he was bom, he was the one lord of creation He held in place the eartl;i and this sky.^ Who is the god whom we should worship with the oblation?
2 He who gives life, who gives ^engA, whose command ^ the gods, his own, obey, his shadow is immortality - and death.® Who is the god whom we should worship with the oblation?
J He w'ho by his greatness became the one kmg of the W'orld that breathes and blinks, who rules over his tw o- footed and four-footed creatures - w'ho is the god whom we should worship with die oblation?
*7 THE RIG VEDA 4 He who through his power owns these snov/y mountains, and the ocean together with the river Rasa,® they say, who has the quarters of the sky as his two arms ^ - who is the god whom we should worship with the oblation?
/ He by whom the awesome sky and the earth were made firm, by whom the dome of the sky was propped up, and the sun, who measured out the middle realm of space® - who is the god whom we should worship with the oblation?
6 He to whom the two opposed masses looked with trembling in their hearts, supported by his help,® on whom the rising sun shines down - who is the god whom we should worship with the oblation?
7 When the high waters came, pregnant with the embryo that is everything, bringing forth fire, he arose from that as the one life’s breath of the gods. Who is the god whom we should worship with the oblation?
8 He who in his greatness looked over the waters, wHch were pregnant with Daksa,’-® bringing forth the sacri- fice, he who was the one god among all the gods - who is the god whom we should worship wfith the oblation?
4 Let him not harm us, he^ who fathered the earth and created the sky, whose laws are true, who created the high, shining waters. Who is the god whom we should worship -with the oblation?
10 O Prajapati, lord of progeny, no one but you embraces all these creatures. Grant us the desires for which we offer you oblation. Let us be lords of riches.
WUTJbSS I. Cf. 10.129.6. Here and throughout these notes, numbers with- out a designated test refer to Rig Vedic hymns translated in this volume.
4. This traditional TOsmogonic act is often credited to Visnu Yaruna, Indra, and other gods. vi§nu.
28 CREATION ' j. This may refer to the world of gods and the world of humans, or it may have some subtler and darker metaphysical sigmficance.
6. The river Rasa surrounds heaven and earth, separating the dwelling-place of men and gods from the non-space m which the demonic powers dwell. Cf lo 108.2.
7 A reference to the cosmic giant, Putu$a (cf. 10 90), whose arms arc in that part of space which the four cardinal directions span.
8. This act of measuring out space, closely connected with the propping apart of sky and earth (cf v. i), is also attributed to Vitoh and Vanina, who are said to set up the sun and then to measure out a space for him to move through, a space which (un- like sky and earth) has no fimte boimdanes The sun itself also functions both as a prop to keep sky and earth apart and as an instrument with which to measure space. Cf. 1.154 i and i 154.3.
9. This verse presents an image on two levels The two opposed masses are armies, the polati2cd forces of gods and demons (Asuras) who turn to the creator for help (as in 2 12.8) But they also represent the parted sky and earth, who seek htcral ‘support’ (the pillar to keep them apart) The images combmc in a metaphor suggesting that sky and earth themselves form a phalanx m the fight between gods and demons 10. Daksa represents the male prinaple of creation and is later identified with Prajapati As the embryo of the waters, he is identi- fied with the seed or fire (v. 7), the latter then explicitly defined in this verse as the sacrifice, or sacnficial fire. Sacrifice is often an clement m primeval creation (cf. 10 90 6-9) 11 In this verse, the abstract tone vanishes and the poet lapses back into a more typical Vedic fear (and particularly tyrpical of book 10), the fear of a persomfied, malevolent god 10.90 ’Purnsa-Sfikta, or The Hymn of Man In this famous hymn, the gods create the world by dis- membering tlie cosmic giant, Puruja, the primeval nude who IS the victim m a Vcdic sacrifice.* Though the theme of die cosmic sacnficc is a widespread mythological motif, this hymn is part of a ptrticuHrly Indo-European corpus of iwths of dismemberment.^ TTic underlvmg concept is, tlicrciorc, quite anaent; yet the fact that this is one of the 29 THE RIG VEDA latest hytntis in the R/^ Veda is evident from its reference to the three Vedas (v. 9) and to the four social classes or varnas (v. 12, the first time tiiat this concept appears In Indian civilization), as well as from its generally monistic world- view.
1 The Man has a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet. He pervaded the earth on all sides and extended beyond it as far as ten fingers.
2 It is the Man who is all this, whatever has been and what- ever is to be. He is the ruler of immortality, when he grows beyond everything through food.® ^ Such is his greatness, and the Man is yet more than this. AIL creatures are a quarter of him; three quarters are what is immortal in heaven.
4 With three quarters the Man rose upwards, and one quarter of him still remains here. From this ^ he spread out in all directions, into that which eats and that which does not eat.
/ From him Viraj® was born, and from Viraj came the Man. When he was born, he ranged beyond the earth behind and before.
6 When the gods spread® the sacrifice with the Man as the offering, spring was the clarified butter, summer the fuel, autumn the oblation.
7 They anointed'^ the Man, the sacrifice® born at the beginning, upon the sacred grass.® With bim the gods, Sadhyas,^® and sages sacrificed.
8 From that sacrifice® in which everything was offered, the melted fat^ was collected, and he^ made it into those beasts who live in the air, in the forest, and in villages. 7 From that sacrifice in which everything was offered, the verses and chants were born, the metres were born from it, and from it the formulas were born.^ 10 Horses were born from it, and those other animals that have two rows of teeth;i^ cows were born from it, and from It goats and sheep were born.
30 CREATION 11 When they divided the Man, into how many parts did they apporOdh him? What do they call his mouth, his two arms and thighs and feet?, 12 His mouth became the Brahmin; his arms were made mto the Warrior, his thighs the People, and from his feet the Servants were born.^® 1} The moon was bom from his mind; from his eye the sun was bom. Indra and Agm came from his mouth, and from'his vital breath the Wmd was born.
14 From his navel the middle realm of space arose; from his head the sky evolved. From his two feet came the earth, and the quarters of the sky from his ear. Thus they set the worlds m order.
ij There were seven enclosmg-sticks^'^ for him, and thrice seven fuel-sticks, when the gods, spreadmg the sacrifice, bound the Man as the sacrifiaal beast.
16 With the sacrifice the gods sacrificed to the sacrifice,^® These were the first ritual laws.^® These very powers reached the dome of the sky where dwell the Sadhyas,^® the anaent gods.
NOTES 1 Cf the horse as the primeval sacrificial victim in i 162 and 1 i6j 2 The dismemberment of the Norse giant Ymir is the most striking parallel, but there are many others 3. This rather obscure phrase seems to imply that through food (perhaps the sacrificial offering) Puruja grows beyond the world of the immortals, even as he grows beyond the earth (v i and v, 5) He himself also transcends both what grows by food and what docs not (v. 4), 1 e. the world of ammatc and inanimate creatures, or Agm (eater) and Soma (eaten) 4. That IS, from the quarter still remaining on earth, or perhaps from the condition in which he bad already spread out from earth With three quarters of his form.
5. The active female creative principle, Virjj is later replaced by Prakni or material nature, the mate of Putu'a in Sinkhj'a philosoph}.
THE RIG VEDA | 6. This is the word used to indicate the performance of a Vedic ^ sacrifice, spread or stretched out (like the earth spread upon the cosmic waters) or woven (like a fabric upon a loom). Ci.
7. The word actually means ‘to sprinkle’ with consecrated water, but indicates the consecration of an initiate or a king.
8. Here ‘the sacrifice’ indicates the sacrificial victim; they are explicitly identified with one another (and with the divinity to whom the sacrifice is dedicated) in verse 16.
9. A mixture of special grasses that was strewn on the ground for the gods to sit upon.
10. A class of demi-gods or saints, whose name literally means ‘those who are yet to be fulfilled’.
11. Literally, a mixture of butter and sour milk used in the sacrifice; figuratively, the fat that drained from the sacrificial vic- tim.
12. Probably the Creator, though possibly Puru§a himself.
13. The verses are the elements of the Rig Veda^ the chants of the Sama Veda, and the formulas of the Yajur Veda. The metres often appear as elements in primeval creation; cf. 10.130.3-5 and 14. That is, incisors above and below, such as dogs and cats have.
15. The four classes or varnas of classical Indian society, 16. The gods.
17. 'Hie cnclosing-sticks are green twigs that keep the fire from spreading; the fuel sticks are seasoned wood used for kindling.
18. The meaning is that Puru§a was both the victim that the gods sacrificed and the divinity to whom the sacrifice was dedicated; that is, he was both the subject and the object of the sacrifice. Through a typical Vedic paradox, the sacrifice itself creates the sacrifice.
19. Literally, the dharmas, a protean word that here designates the archetypal patterns of behaviour established during this first sacrifice to serve as the model for all future sacrifices.
3^ CREATION 10,130 The Creation of the Sacrifice The image of weaving the sacrifice (cf. 10.90.1 5) is here joined with exphat identifications of ntual and divine, anaent and present, elements of the sacrifice.
I The sacrifice that is spread out with threads on all sides, drawn tight with a hundred and one divme acts, is woven by these fathers as they come near: ‘Weave forward, weave backward,’ they say as they sit by the loom that is stretched tight.
z The Man^- stretches the warp and draws the weft; the Man has spread it out upon this dome of the sky. These are the pegs, that are listened m place; they^ made the melodies mto the shuttles for weaving, 3 What was the onginal model, and what was the copy, and what was the connection between them? What was the butter, and what the enclosmg wood?® What was the metre, what was the mvocaOon, and the chant, when all the gods sacrificed the god?* 4 The Gayatrl metre® was the yoke-mate of Agm; Savitf jomed with the Ujm metre, and with the Anu$tubh metre was Soma that reverberates with the chants. The Byhati metre resonated m the voice of Bfhaspati.
j The Viraj * metre was the privilege of Mitra and Varuna; the Tnjpibh metre was part of the day of Indra. The Jagat! entered mto all the gods. That was the model for the human sages.’
6 That was the model for the human sages, our fathers, when the primeval sacrifice was born. With thc-cvc-that is mind.-jn-thought-1-sec-thosc-who-wcrc the_^^ m offer thi5_sacrificc.
7 The ntual repetitions harmonized with the chants and with the metres; the seven divine sages harmonized tnth the onginal models When the wise men looked back along tlie path of those who went before, they took up the reins like chanoteers.
33 THE RIG VEDA NOTES 2. The gods who first performed the sacrifice. Cf. io.90*i4* 4. The circular sacrifice of the god to the god, as in 10.90., 5. The metres alluded to in 10.90.9 are here enxrmerated an associated with particular gods.
6. Viraj, a female cosmic principle in 10.90.5, is here merely a metre.
7. Sages (rfis) are seers as well as poets.
10.190 Cosmic Heaf^ 1 Order^ and truth were born from heat as it blazed up. From that was born night; from that heat was bom the billowy ocean.
2 From the billowy ocean was born the year, that arranges days and nights, ruling over all that blinks its eyes.® j The Arranger has set in their proper place the sun and moon, the sky and the earth, the middle realm of space, and finally the sunlight, \ NOTES 1. Tapas, the heat produced by the ritual activity of the priest, is equated with the primeval erotic or ascetic heat of the Creator.
2. cosmic order. Truth (saijd) is, like ria, also a term for reality.
3. For blinking as a sign of a living creature, cf. 10. 12 1.3.
10.81-2 The JUl-lS/laker {Visvakarmaii) Tlicsc ^vo hymns to the artisan of the gods speculate on the mysterious period of the ancient past, now veiled from the pnests of the present (10.81.1 and 10.82.7). The Creator is imagined concretely as a sculptor (1 o. 8 1. 2), a smith (10.81.3), or 34 CREATION as a woodcutter or carpenter (10.81.4), but also as the primeval sacnficer and victim of the sacrifice (10.81. i, 10.81 5-6, 10.82.1), assisted by the seven sages (10.81.4, 10.82.2 and 10.82.4). Finally, he is identified with the one who propped apart sky and earth (10.81.2-4, 10.82), the one who mspires thought (10 81.7) and answers questions (10.82) but is himself beyond understanding (10.82.5 and 7).
1 The sage, our father, who took his place as priest of the oblation and offered all these worlds as oblation, seeking nches through prayer, he entered those who were to come later, concealing those who went before.^ 2 What was the base,® what sort of raw matter was there, and preasely how was it done, when the All-Maker, casting his eye on all, created the earth and revealed the sky m its glory?
3 With eyes on aU sides and mouths on all sides, with arms on all sides and feet on all sides, the One God created the sky and the earth, fanrung them with his arms ® 4 What was the wood, and jvhat-was-the tree jromjwluch tey* carved the sl^and the carthiP-You deep thinkers, ask yourselves m your own hearts, what base did he stand on when he set up the worlds?
/ Those forms of yours that are highest, those that are lowest, and those that are m the middle, O All-Maker, help j^our friends to recogni2c them in the oblation. You who follow your own laws, sacrifice your body yoursclf,making it grow great ® ^ All-Maker, grown great through the oblation, sacrifice the earth and sky yourself. Let other men go astray all around;® let us here have a nch and generous patron.
7 The All-Maker, the lord of sacred speech, swift as thought - we will call to lum today to help us in the contest. Let him who Is the maker of good things and is gentle to cvcrj'onc rejoice in all our invocations and help us.
THE RIG VEDA 1 The Father of the £70,"^ who is wise in his heart, created as butter® these two worlds that bent low. As soon as their ends had been made fast in the east, at that moment sky and earth moved far apart.
2 The All-Maker is vast in mind and vast in strength. He is the one who forms, who sets in order, and who is the highest image. Their® prayers together with the drink they have offered give them joy there where, they say, the One dwells beyond the seven sages.
^ Our father, who created and set in order and knows all forms, aU worlds, who all alone gave names to the gods, he is the one to whom all other creatures come to ask questions.
^ To him the ancient sages together sacrificed riches, like the throngs of singers who together made these things that have been created, when the realm of light was still immersed in the realm without light.^® jr That which is beyond the sky and beyond this earth, beyond the gods and the Asuras^ - what was that first embryo that the waters received, where all the gods together saw it?^^ d" He was the one whom the waters received as the first embryo, when all the gods came together. On the navel of the Unborn was set the One on whom all creatures rest.i3 7 You cannot find him who created these creatures; another has come between you. Those who recite the hymns are glutted with the pleasures of life; they wander about wrapped up in mist and stammering nonsense.
rsu 1 ts 1. The early stages of creation remain in shadow, perhaps because the All-hfakcr destroyed them by sacrificing them anc then prayed anew for the materials of creation.
2. The question, to which Terse 4 returns, *is the problem o 36 ' CREATION What the primeval sculptor stood on before there was aayttog 'T Though he has arms on all sides, here the anthropomorphic sndth has^o arms and ‘..mgs', probably the feathers used to 4 The assistants of the Creator, perhaps the seven sages fct.
5. Here and in the next verse, the Creator is both the sacnUcct and the sacrificial victim, as Purufa is In 10 90.16.
6. Here, and m 10 82 7, the enemies of the poet in the contest are mocked 7. That is, creator of the sun 1 v v.
8. Butter is symbohe of pnmeval chaotic matter, the seed of me creator, and the sacrificial oblation The creator chums chaos 4 5 8 for butter.
9. The wishes and sacrifices of the first sacrificers, the pious dead, are fulfilled in heaven 10. Day and mght separated, hke sky and earth 1 1 The Asuras ate the ancient dark divinities, at first the elder brothers and then the enemies of the gods (Devas) 13 The navel is the centre of the wheel, cf 1.164 i5> ^ 14 Another creator has come between you, or, more likely C or the noun is neuter), another thmg - ignorance - has come you as an obstacle, or a bad pnest (such as are mentioned in second half of the verse) has obscured the way to the gods 1 5 A double meaning here the priests are glutted 'they have stolen from the saenfida! beast and with the big luxury they have bought with their undeserved fees ^ caning speaks of his pnesdy enemies, who do not understand e of the sacrifice. ^Thc mist is both the miasma of thcif minds and the smoke from the useless sacrifice.
m 7t AMi and the Birth oj the Gods This creation hymn poses several different tlic tone answers to tlic nddlc of origins. It is eviden vs v of the very first verse that tlie poet hj P*^*^*^*},t mj-stcnoussubicct.andadcspcratcscncso nut ng (perhaps cpiotcd from various sources) 37 THE RIG VEDA away: the craftsman ’ image (the priest, Brahmanaspali or Brhaspati, lord of inspired speech); the philosophical paradox of non-existence;^ or the paradox of mutual creation (Aditi and Daksa, the female principle of creation or infinity and the male principle of virile efficacy, creating one another) or contradiction (the earth born from the crouching divinity and then said to be bom from the quarters of the sky).
At this point, the speculations give way to a more anthropomorphic creation myth centring upon the image of the goddess who crouches with legs spread (Uttanapad); this term, often taken as a proper name, designates a position associated both with yoga and with a woman giving birth, as the mother goddess is often depicted in early sculptures: literally, with feet stretched forward, more particularly with knees drawn up and legs spread wide. Since she is identified with Aditi, the hymn moves quickly to the myth of Aditi and Daksa (in which the paradox of mutual creation is given incestuous overtones) and the creation of gods and men.
The creation of the universe out of water (w. 6-7) and the rescuing of the sun from the ocean (v. 7) are well-known Vedic images that move the hymn back to the cosmic level, from wMch it then returns to anthropomorphism and to the myth of Aditi, when the sun reappears as Martanc^ whose birth from Aditi is the subject of the final two verses.
/ Let us now speak with wonder of the births of the gods - so that some one may see them when the hymns are chanted in this later age.^ ^ The lord of sacred speech, like a smitli, fanned them together.^ In the earhest age of the gods, existence was born from non-existence.® ^ In the first age of the gods, existence was bom from non-cxistcncc. After this the quarters of the sky were born from her who crouched with legs spread The earth was bora from her who crouched 'with legs spread,.and from the earth the quarters of the sky were 38 CREATION bom, Ftom Aditi, Dakga -was bom, and from Dakga Aditi. wis~Bom]23 / For Aditi was bom as your daughter, O Daksa, and after ber were bom the blessed gods, the kinsmen of immortahty, 6 When you gods took your places there in the water with your hands jomed together, a thick doud of mist’ arose from you like dust firom dancers.
7 When you gods like magicians® caused the worlds to swell,® you drew forth the sun that was hidden m the ocean.
S Eight sons are there of Aditi, who were bom of her body. With seven she went forth among the gods, hut she threw Martanda,’® the sun, aside.
9 With seven sons Aditi went forth into the earhest age. But she bore Martanda so that he would in turn beget offepnng and then soon die.
NOTES 3. The idea of ‘seeing’ the births of the gods may refer not to emg actually present at that early time but rather to the poet’s gift of seeing’ mythic events by means of his mspired vision.
4- Them’ must refer to the two worlds, heaven and earth, rather than to the gods, the lord of sacred speech is here regarded as rcspioasiblc for manual rather than spintual creation.
6 Sayana remarks that Yaska’s Ntriik/a 11 23 states that by the gods, two births can be mutually productive of one th^' ‘dust’ refers to the atomic particles of water, a mist 2 pkys an important part in creation by virtue of its ambiva- ^tc, half Water and half air, mediating between matter and spirit, us the steam rising from the asceticism of the Brahmacartn in e water (cf 10 129 3-4) or the foam that appears when Prajl- waters is the source of matter for creation • These ate Yatis, who may be a class of sages or ascetics; more 59 THE RIG VEDA 59 THE RIG VEDA likely, however, they ate magicians, among whose traditional hag of tricks in ancient India was the ability to make plants suddenly grow. They may be linked with the dancers in verse 6, another aspect of creative shamanism.
9. The verb {pinv) implies swelling up as with milk from the breast.
10. Martanda’s name originally meant ‘born of an egg’, i.e. a bird, and is an epithet of the sun-bird or fire-bird of Indo-Euro- pean m3rthology. The verb describing what his mother did to, him may mean either to throw aside or to miscarry, and a later etymology of Martanda is ‘dead in the egg’, i.e. a miscarriage. The story of Martanda’s still-birth is well known in Hindu mythology: Aditi bore eight sons, but only seven were the Adityas; t e eighth was unformed, unshaped; the Adityas shaped him and made him into the sun. On another level, Martanda is an epithet of man, bom from the ‘dead egg’ that is the embryo; he is thus the ancestor of man, like Yama or Manu (both regarded as his sons), bom to die.
40 DEATH