Page:Myth, Ritual, and Religion (Volume 2).djvu/174

160 says "that the Maruts (their name being derived from mar, 'to die') are personifications of the souls of the departed." Their numbers are variously estimated. They are the sons of Rudra and Prisni. Rudra as a bull, according to a tale told by Sayana, begat the Maruts on the earth, which took the shape of a cow. As in similar cases, we may suppose this either to be a survival or revival of a savage myth or a merely symbolical statement. There are traces of rivalry between Indra and the Maruts. It is beyond question that the Rishis regard them as elementary and mainly as storm-gods. Whether they were originally ghosts (like the Australian Mrarts, where the name tempts the wilder kind of etymologists), or whether they are personified winds, or, again, winds conceived as persons (which is not quite the same thing), it is difficult, and perhaps impossible, to determine.

Though divers of the Vedic gods have acquired solar characteristics, there is a regular special sun-deity in the Veda, named Surya or Savitri. He answers to the Helios of the Homeric hymn to the sun, conceived as a personal being, a form which he still retains in the fancy of the Greek islanders. Surya is sometimes spoken of as a child of Aditi's or of Dyaus, and Ushas is his wife, though she also lives in Spartan polyandry with the Asvin twins. Like Helios Hyperion, he beholds all things, the good and evil deeds of mortals. He is often invoked in language of religious fervour. The English reader is apt to confuse Surya with the female being Surya. Surya is regarded by Grassmann