Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/99

Rh until its recovery. I have come here under their shelter. O Panis! run away far, far from here."

Indra is, in fact, the most vigorous of the Vedic gods, fond of Soma wine, delighting in war, leading his comrades, the Maruts, to fight against drought, leading hosts of the Aryans against the black aborigines, and helping them to win the most fertile spots along the five rivers of the Panjab. The sky and earth gave him birth as a cudgel for their enemies, but when the child went to his mother Aditi for food, he saw Soma wine on her breast and thus drank Soma before he drank his mother's milk.

We now turn to a group of deities who have a more distinctly solar character, some of whom are classed together under the common name of Adityas, or sons of Aditi, the undivided, the unlimited, the eternal.

There is much confusion in the Rig-Veda as to who the Adityas are the sons of this celestial light. Some lists name Aryaman, Bhaga, Daksha, Ansa, Varuna, and Mitra, while elsewhere the Adityas are said to be seven in number, but are not named. We have already seen that Indra is called a son of Aditi. Savitri, the sun, is often described as an Aditya, and so are Pushan and Vishnu, who are also different names of the sun. When, in course of time, the year was divided into twelve months, the number of the Adityas was fixed at twelve, and they became the suns of the twelve months.

Surya and Savitri are the most common names of the sun in the Rig-Veda, and commentators draw a distinction between Savitri, the rising or the unrisen