general as unbeginning or self-existent beings." There are, as we shall see in the next section, many passages in which they are described as being the offspring of Heaven and Earth. In i. 113, 19, Ushas, the Dawn, is characterized as the mother of the gods (derānām mātā); in ii. 26, 3, Brahmanaspati is called their father (devānām pitaram); in ix. 87, 2, Soma is said to be the father and skilful generator of the gods (pitā devānāṁ janitā sudakshaḥ; see also ix. 42, 4; ix. 86, 10; and ix. 109, 4); in ix. 96, 5, the same deity is described as the generator of Heaven, Earth, Agni, Surya, Indra, and Vishnu (janita divo janitā pṛithivyāḥ | janitā Agner janitā Sūryasya janitā Indrasya janitota Vishnoḥ); in x. 72, 5, the gods are declared to have been born after Aditi (tām devāh anv ajāyanta); in x. 97, 1, certain plants appear to be described as produced three ages (yugas) before the gods (yāḥ oshadhiḥ pārvāḥ jārāḥ devebhyas triyugam purā); whilst in x. 129, 6, the gods are said to have been born subsequently to the creation of the universe, so that in consequence no one can declare its origin (arvāg devās tasya visarjanena atha ko veda yataḥ à babhuva).18 Varuna, Mitra, Aryaman, Bhaga, Daksha, and Am̃śa are designated, in R. V. ii. 27, 1, and some of them elsewhere, as Adityas, or sons of Aditi. The birth of Indra is mentioned in various texts, and his father and mother alluded to, though not generally named "9 (iv. 17, 4, 12; iv. 18, 5, 12; viii. 45, 4; viii. 66, 1; x. 134, 1 ff.). In vi. 59, 1, Indra and Agni are ad

19

17 This is not, however, admitted by Professor Max Müller, who says (Chips from a German Workshop, i. 38) "passages in which the birth of certain gods is mentioned have a physical meaning: they refer to the birth of the day, the rising of the sun, the return of the year."

18 In the Atharva-veda xi. 7, 23, all the gods are said to have been born from Uchchhishta or the remains of the oblation (Uchchhishṭāj jajnire sarve divi devāḥ divisritāḥ); and in verse 27 the same assertion is repeated regarding them in conjunction with the fathers, men, Gandharvas, and Apsarases (devāḥ pitaro manushyāḥ Gandharvāpsarasaś cha ye | uchchishṭāj jajnire sarve divi devāḥ diviśritāḥ). Compare Taitt. Br, iii. 12, 3, 2, 3. In the S'atapatha Brāhmaṇa xiv. 2, 2, 2, it is said: Ayam vai samudro yo'yam pavate | etasmād vai samudrāt sarve devāḥ sarvāṇi bhūtāni samuddravanti | "This which is purified is the ocean (samudra). From this ocean all the gods, all creatures issue forth" (samuddravanti). The gods are said to have been born in pairs according to a passage of the Taittirīya Sam̃hitā (vi. 5, 6), referred to by Sayana on R. V. viii. 72, 8.

19 In R.V. x. 101, 12, a goddess called Nishțigrī is mentioned, apparently as the mother of Indra: Nishṭigryāḥ putram ā chāvaya utaye Indram | "draw hither Indra the son of Nishtigri to aid us," etc. Sayana on this passage identifies her with Aditi, viz.: "She who swallows up her rival wife Nishți, i.e. Diti." Indra is in fact

dressed in these words: Hatāso vām pitaro devaśatravaḥ Indrāgnī jīvatho yuvām "Your fathers, who had the gods for foes, have been slain, o | Indra and Agni; but you survive." But in the next verse both gods are said to have had one generator and to be twin-brothers (samāno vām janitā bhrātarā yuvām̃ yamāv ihehamatarā). The A.V. i. 30, 2, speaks of some of the gods as being fathers and others as being sons (ye vo devāḥ pitaro ye cha putrāḥ sachetaso me śṛinuta idam uktam). See also R.V. x. 63, 2, which will be quoted in the Section on Aditi.

In iv. 54, 2 (=Vāj. S. 33, 54) it is said that Savitri bestows immortality, an excellent lot, on the gods (devebhyo hi prathamam yajniyebhyo amritatvam suvasi bhāgam uttamam).20 Agni is also said, vi. 7, 4, by his power or skill, to confer immortality on the gods, who worship him when he is born like an infant and shines forth from out of his parents (tvām viśve amṛita jāyamānam śiśum na devāḥ abhi sam navante tava kratubhir amritatvam āyan vaiśvānara yat pitror adideḥ). In ix. 106, 8 the gods are said to drink Soma to obtain immortality (tvām devāso amṛitāya kam papuḥ | compare ix. 109, 2, 3).1 In x. 53, 10 some means are alluded to (it is not clear what) by which the gods attained immortality (yena devāso amṛitatvam anaśuḥ). In x. 167, 1 Indra is said to have conquered heaven by austere fervour (tvam tapaḥ paritapya ajayaḥ svaḥ); and in x. 159, 4 he is said to have. become glorious and exalted by the offering of some oblation (yenendro havishā kritvi abhavad dyumni uttamaḥ).

In the A.V. iv. 23, 6 Agni is said to have been the author of the immortality of the gods (yena devāḥ amṛitam anvavindan); in the same

addressed as an Aditya along with Varuna in vii. 85, 4. have seen above, considered as such in the S'p. Br. xi. 6, as distinct from the twelve Adityas.

He is not, however, as we 3, 5, where he is mentioned

20 Sayana interprets this by saying that he gives them soma and other means of attaining immortality (amṛitatvam tat-sādhanam uttamam utkṛishṭatamam bhāgam somādi-lakshanam suvasi anujānāsi). The same deity is said i. 110, 3, to have conferred immortality on the Ribhus (tat Savitā vo amṛitatvam āsuvat).

21 See S'atapatha Brāhmaṇa ix. 5, 1, 1-8, where it is said that immortality departed from the gods (devebhyo ha vai amṛitatvam apachakrāma), when they set themselves to recover it by religious observances. They poured out soma into Agni and thus infused immortality into him, and by so doing acquired it themselves, as he is the soul of all the gods. Soma is the principle of immortality (abhishutya agnāv ajuhuvuḥ | tad agnāv amṛitam adadhuḥ | sarveshām u ha esha devānām ātmā yad agniḥ | tad yad agnāv amṛitam adadhus tad ātmann amṛitam adadhata | tato devāḥ amṛitāḥ abhavan | tad yat tad amṛitam Somaḥ saḥ).

Veda, xi. 5, 19, the gods are said to have overcome death by continence and austere fervour (brahmacharyena tapasā devāḥ mṛityum apāghnata); and, ibid. xiii. 1, 7, to have acquired immortality through Rohita (yena devāḥ amritam anvavindan). Compare the same Veda iii. 22, 3; iv. 11, 6; iv. 14, 1; Satap. Br. i. 7, 3, 1; Ait. Br. vi. 20; Taitt. Sanh. i. 7, 1, 3, and vi. 5, 3, 1; and the Mahābhārata xiv. 1444: Tathaira tapasā devāḥ mahāmāyāḥ divam gatāḥ |.

I have elsewhere quoted a number of passages from the Satapatha Brahmana, in which it is related how the gods became immortal; and how, though of the same parentage, and originally on a footing of equality, with the Asuras, they became superior to them.22 (See the 4th vol. of this work, pp. 47-53; and the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xx. pp.41-45.)

According to the Taittiriya Brahmana the gods obtained their divine rank by austerity (tapasā devāḥ devatām agre āyan | iii. 12, 3, 1).

In other places some of the gods, as Indra (iii. 46, 1; v. 42, 6), are spoken of as undecaying; and in vi. 24, 7 it is said of that god that neither autumns nor months wear him out, nor do days cause him to decay (na yam jaranti śarado na māsāḥ na dyāvaḥ Indram avakarśayanti). Whether or not the Vedic poets had any conception of an

22 In S'atapatha Brāhmaṇa ii. 4, 2, 1, it is said that all creatures came to Prajāpati, and asked that they might live. To the gods he said, "Sacrifice is your food, your immortality is your support, the sun is your light," etc. (yajno vo 'nnam amṛitatvam vaḥ ūrg vaḥ sūryo vo jyotiḥ | To the passages of the S'. P. Br. regarding the manner in which the gods acquired immortality, above referred to, I may add one as yet unpublished from the India Office MS. of the Taittirīya Sanhitā vii. 4, 2, 1: Yathā vai manushyāḥ evam devāḥ agre āsan | te 'kāmayanṭāvarttim pāpmānam mṛityum apahatya daivīm samsadam gachhema iti | te etam chaturvimśatirātram apasyams tam aharams tena ayajanta tato vai te 'varttim pāpmānam mṛityum apahatya daivīm samsadam agachchan | "The gods were formerly just like men. They desired to overcome want, misery, death, and to go to the divine assembly. They saw, took, and sacrificed with, this Chaturviñsatirātra, and in consequence overcame want, misery, and death, and reached the divine assembly." In the Taitt. Sanh. v. p. 43a (of India Office MS.) we are told that "the gods and Asuras contended together; and that the former were less numerous than the latter, when they took some bricks which they saw, and placing them in the proper position to receive the sacrificial fire, with the formula 'Thou art a multiplier,' they became numerous (Devāsurāḥ samyattāḥ āsan | kanīyāmso devāḥ āsan bhūyāmso 'surāḥ | te devāḥ etāḥ ishṭakāḥ apaśyan | tāḥ upādadhanta “bhūyaskṛid asi" ity eva bhūyamso 'bhavan). In the Mahābhārata, S'antip. 1184, it is said that in the battle which they had with each other "the Asuras were the elder brothers and the gods the younger" (idam tu śrūyate pārtha guddhe devāsure purā | asurāḥ bhrātaro jyeshṭhāḥ devāś chāpi yavīyasaḥ).

absolute future eternity of the gods, does not appear. But, as we have seen, the authors of the Brāhmaṇas did not regard them as naturally and essentially immortal; and it is at all events evident that in later times their immortality was regarded as only relative, as according to the Puranic representation the gods are only a portion of the existing system of the universe, and are therefore subject, as regards their corporeal part, to the same law of dissolution as other beings. See the 1st vol. of this work, 2nd ed. p. 49, and Professor Wilson's Sankhya Kārikā, p. 14. Thus, in a verse quoted in the commentary of that work (p. 3 of the Sanskrit), it is said: "Many thousands of Indras and of other gods have, through time, passed away in every mundane age; for time is hard to overcome (bahūnindra-sahasrāni devānāṁ cha yuge yuge | kālena samatītani kālo hi duratikramaḥ).

And in the

Sankhya Aphorisms, iii. 53, it is said that "the suffering arising from decay and death is common to all" (samānam jarā-maraṇādi-jam duḥkham); which the commentator interprets to mean that such suffering is "the common lot of all beings, both those who go upwards and those who go downwards, from Brahma to things without motion" (ūrddhvādho-gatānām Brahmādi-sthāvarāntānāṁ sarveshām eva jarāmaraṇādi-jam duḥkham sadhāranam).23 The souls which have animated the gods, however, like those which animate all other corporeal beings, being eternal and imperishable, must of course survive all such dissolutions, to be either born again in other forms, or become absorbed in the supreme Brahma. See Wilson's Vishnu Pur. p. 632, note 7; and the 3rd vol. of this work, 2nd ed. p. 99, where it is shewn, on the authority of the Brahma Sutras or of Sankara their commentator, that the gods both desire and are capable of final emancipation.

(4) Different generations of gods and their mutual relations.

Two of the passages above quoted (in p. 14), R.V. vi. 59, 1, and A.V. i. 30, 2, imply that the existing gods were successors of others who had previously existed. The former verse is perhaps illustrated (as Prof. Aufrecht has suggested to me) by R.V. iv. 18, 12: Kas te mātaram vidhavām achakrat sayum kas tvām ajighāmsat charantam | kas te devo adhi marḍike asid yat prākshināḥ pitaram pādagrihya | "Who (o

23 Compare Ritter's History of Philosophy, Engl. transl. vol. 3, p. 538.

Indra) made thy mother a widow? Who sought to kill thee lying or moving? What god was present in the fray, when thou didst slay thy father, seizing him by the foot? "24 In vii. 21, 7, mention is made of earlier gods: "Even the former gods 25 admitted their powers to be inferior to thy divine prowess" (devāś chit te asuryāya pūrve anu kshattrāya mamire sahāmsi). Earlier gods are also mentioned in x. 109, 4, though in conjunction with (unless we are to understand them as identified with) the seven rishis: "In regard to her the former gods said, the seven rishis who sat down to practise austerity," etc. (devāḥ etasyām avadanta pūrve saptaṛishayas tapase ye nisheduḥ). An earlier age of the gods is mentioned in x. 72, 2 f.: "In the former age of the gods, the existent sprang from the non-existent. In the first age of the gods the existent sprang from the non-existent" (devānām pūrvye yuge asataḥ sad ajāyata | 3. Devānām yuge prathame asataḥ sad ajāyata). And in R.V. i. 164, 50 we have the following verse, which is repeated in x. 90, 16 (the Purusha Sūkta): yajnena yajnam ayajanta devās tāni dharmāni prathamāni āsan | te ha nākam mahimānaḥ sachanta yatra pūrve sādhyāḥ santi devāḥ | "With sacrifice the gods worshipped the sacrifice these were the earliest rites. These great powers sought after the sky, where are the early Sadhyas, gods." 26

24 In explanation of this legend Sayana refers to the Taittirīya Sanhitä vi. 1, 3, 6. The following is the passage referred to, which I quote to show how little light it throws on the text of the R.V.: Yajno dakshinām abhyadhāyat | tām samabhavat | tad Indro 'chayat | so 'manyata "yo vai ito janishyate sa idam bhavishyati” iti | tām prāviśat | tasyā Indra evājāyata | so 'manyata “yo vai mad ito 'paro janishyate sa idam bhavishyati” iti | tasyā anumṛiśya yonim āchhinat | sā sūtavaśā’bhavat | tat sūtavaśāyai janma | tām haste nyaveshṭayata | tām mṛigeshu nyadadhāt | sā kṛishnavishānā 'bhavat | Indrasya yonir asi mā mā himsīr" iti | "Yajna (sacrifice) desired Dakshina (largess). He consorted with her. Indra was apprehensive of this. He reflected: whoever is born of her will be this.' He entered into her. Indra himself was born of her. He reflected: 'whoever is born of her besides me will be this.' Having considered, he cut open her womb. She produced a cow," etc. No mention is here made of his killing his father.

25 Sayana in loco says this means Asuras.

* I quote here part of a note from my article On the Interpretation of the Veda, Jour. R.A.S. for 1866, p. 395: Yāska tells us (Nirukta xii. 41) that the Nairuktas understood the Sadhyas to be "the gods whose locality is the sky," dyusthāno devagaṇaḥ, whilst, according to a legend (ākhyāna) the term denoted a former age of the gods." Professor Wilson translates the word Sadhyāḥ in R.V. i. 164, 50 by "who are to be propitiated," a sense not assigned by Sayana, who proposes, first, that of sādhanā yajnādisādhana-vantaḥ karmadevāḥ, “performers, performers of sacrifices, etc., work-gods." These words are rendered by Prof. Wilson in his note on i. 164, 50, "divinities presiding