Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/217

Rh While legends and sacrificial rites thus multiplied in the Brahmanic Period, religion was still the same as in the Vedic Period. The gods of the Rig-Veda were still worshipped, and the hymns of the Rig, Sama, or Yajur were still uttered as texts, but the veneration with which the gods were looked up to in the Vedic Period was now merged in the veneration for the sacrificial ceremonies.

New gods, however, were slowly finding a place in the Hindu pantheon. Arjuna was another name of Indra, even in the Satapatha Brahmana. In the White Yajur-Veda we find Rudra already assuming his more modern Puranic names, and acquiring a more distinct individuality, while in the Rig-Veda, as we have already seen, Rudra is the father of the storms, and typifies the thunder. In the White Yajur-Veda he is also described as the thunder-cloud, although his chief aspect is that of a god of destruction and the deity of thieves and criminals. Among his epithets are Girisha (because clouds rest on mountains), Tamra, Aruna, Babhru (from the colour of the clouds), Nilakantha, or blue-necked (for the same reason), Kapardin, or the long-haired, Pasupati, or the nourisher of animals, Sankara, or the benefactor, and Siva, or the beneficent. Yet nowhere in Brahmana literature do we find Rudra represented as the Puranic Siva, the consort of Durga or Kali. In the Kaushitaki Brahmana we find great importance attached in one passage to Isana, or Mahadeva, and the Satapatha Brahmana contains the remarkable passage: "This is thy share, Rudra! Graciously