Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/105

Rh of prayer is personified in the Vedic god Brahmanaspati.

He was a humble god in the Rig-Veda, but in the course of centuries the thinkers of the Upanishads conceived of a Supreme Universal Being and gave him the Vedic name Brahma; and when at last Puranic Hinduism supplanted Buddhism in India, the Puranic thinkers gave the name of Brahma to the Supreme Creator of the Universe.

These are the important gods of the Rig-Veda. Of the goddesses there are only two who have any marked individuality, Ushas, the dawn, and Sarasvati, the goddess of the river of that name, who afterwards became the goddess of flowing speech.

There is no lovelier conception in the Rig-Veda than that of the dawn. There are no hymns in the Veda more truly poetical than those dedicated to her, and nothing more charming is to be found in the lyrical poetry of any ancient nation, though here we can make room for only a single extract:—

"She, the young, the white-robed daughter of the sky, the mistress of all earthly treasure, dawns upon us, dissipating darkness! Auspicious Ushas! shine upon us to-day on this spot.

"Following the path of mornings that have passed, to be followed by endless mornings to come, bright Ushas dispels darkness and awakens to life all beings, unconscious like the dead in sleep.

"How long have the Dawns risen? How long will the Dawns arise? The present morning pursues those