Page:A history of Sanskrit literature (1900), Macdonell, Arthur Anthony.djvu/102

 They ride on golden cars which gleam with lightning, while they hold fiery lightnings in their hands:—


 * The lightnings smile upon the earth below them
 * What time the Maruts sprinkle forth their fatness.

—(i. 168, 8).

They drive with coursers which are often described as spotted, and they are once said to have yoked the winds as steeds to their pole.

The Maruts are fierce and terrible, like lions or wild boars. With the fellies of their car they rend the hills:—


 * The Maruts spread the mist abroad,
 * And make the mountains rock and reel,
 * When with the winds they go their way (viii. 7, 4).

They shatter the lords of the forest and like wild elephants devour the woods:—


 * Before you, fierce ones, even woods bow down in fear,
 * The earth herself, the very mountain trembles (v. 60, 2).

One of their main functions is to shed rain. They are clad in a robe of rain, and cover the eye of the sun with showers. They bedew the earth with milk; they shed fatness (ghee); they milk the thundering, the never-failing spring; they wet the earth with mead; they pour out the heavenly pail:—


 * The rivers echo to their chariot fellies
 * What time they utter forth the voice of rain-clouds.

—(i. 168, 8).

In allusion to the sound of the winds the Maruts are often called singers, and as such aid Indra in his fight with the demon. They are, indeed, his constant associates in all his celestial conflicts.

The God of Wind, called Vāyu or Vāta, is not a