Page:Monier Monier-Williams - Indian Wisdom.djvu/66

14 sessor of it with divine attributes. Hence the other great god of Vedic worshippers, and in some respects the most important in his connection with sacrificial rites, is Agni (Latin Ignis), 'the god of fire.' Even Sūrya, 'the sun' (Greek ), who was probably at first adored as the original source of heat, came to be regarded as only another form of fire. He was merely a manifestation of the same divine energy removed to the heavens, and consequently less accessible. Another deity, Ushas, goddess of the dawn'—the  of the Greeks,—was naturally connected with the sun, and regarded as daughter of the sky. Two other deities, the Aśvins, were fabled as connected with Ushas, as ever young and handsome, travelling in a golden car and precursors of the dawn. They are sometimes called Dasras, as divine physicians, 'destroyers of diseases;' sometimes Nāsatyas, as 'never untrue.' They appear to have been personifications of two luminous points or rays imagined to precede the break of day. These, with Yama, 'the god of departed spirits,' are the principal deities of the Mantra portion of the Veda.

But here it may be asked, if sky, air, water, fire, and the sun were thus worshipped as manifestations of the supreme universal God of the universe, was not the earth also an object of adoration with the early Hindūs? And it should be stated that in the earlier system the earth under the name of Pṛithivī, 'the broad one,' does receive divine honours, being thought of as the mother of all beings. Moreover, various deities were regarded as the progeny resulting from the fancied union of earth with