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 INDIA (RELIGIONS AND RELIGIOUS LITERATURE) of the world is principally clue to him. In the Vedas he is the friend of Indra, whose place in the worship of the Indian people he after- ward usurped. In the sphere of air there are demons, dark beings, Eakshasas and Asuras. The other gods of this region have to battle with them in order to chase them away. They receive new vigor for these contests from the sacrifices which man offers up to them. In course of time they became more popular than the Adityas, but they grew also more human- like than they. Their chief was Indra, the god of thunder storms. Though the Marnts and Vishnu were at his side, it was he alone who conquered the demons, and therefore it is he who shields man in battle. His principal an- tagonist among the demons is Vritra, or he who covers up or hides. This Vritra disposes the clouds so that the waters of heaven cannot descend upon the earth. Pani imprisons the waters like cows in the caverns of the rocks, but Indra liberates them and makes them flow upon man over the corpse of Vritra. Indra moves about in a golden chariot, drawn by reddish horses with golden manes and hair like the plumes of a peacock. Prayer har- nesses Indra's horses; Tvashtri, the artist of heaven, fashioned a thunderbolt for him ; and heaven and earth, and even Tvashtri himself, tremble when his thunder rolls. The gods of wind and rain compose Indra's suite; they are Vayu, the Maruts or Rudras, and Rudra himself. Vayu is the wind, but little else is known of him. He was succeeded in the ven- eration of the people by Vata, who is the soul of the gods and the source of the world. There are 27 or three times 60 Maruts or Rudras, sons of Rudra and Prieni, the kind gods of the rain; they form Indra's armed body guard, have iron teeth and roar like lions, and they sometimes darken the sun, hut always remove their curtains after a while. Rudra, the strongest of them all, roars the loudest; he is the god of storms, whom man must fear, and whose sacrifices must not be neglected. He is besought to spare the lives of the members of the family, and also of the cattle. In course of time he came to be re- garded as the forerunner of Siva (Civa). The third division, that of the gods of the earth, is the pantheism of the Hindoo religion. Light is the revelation of the divine, and as far as man can produce light, so far can he attain toward the divine. Agni, the god of fire, was let down from heaven by Matarigvan, the messenger of Vivasvat. The Rislii (pious) Atharvan found him concealed in wood, and by friction induced him to come out. Indra probably begat him between two stones, or perhaps the aurora gave birth to him, or he may be a child of Indra and Vishnu. His origin is threefold: of heaven, of earth, and of air. He has a twofold activity. He is a messenger between the gods and man, not as a low subordinate, but as a viceroy and guardian of the heavenly light on earth ; he pierces the demons with his arrows, and he keeps man from evil ; in a word, he is the protector of human beings. His other office is to act as messenger between man and the gods ; when- ever a tire is lit, the gods must come, for Agni calls them ; what the gods do for man is due to his intercession. The consequence was that soon the merits of Indra came to be those of Agni; he became the Vritra-killer. Sdmaisalso a god. It is a beverage prepared from the plant asclepias acida or from sarcostemma viminale ; the juice of these plants was fermented, mixed with milk and flour, and offered to the gods. It was the hidden fire, its intoxicating power, which man adored. Soma lends immortality as well to man as to the gods. His works are as great as those of Agni, for even Indra must first he intoxicated to gain strength to kill Vri- tra. The gods were thus considered to be in need of the offerings of man to carry out their purpose. In fact, without prayer and sacri- fice the gods cannot rule the world. Prayer necessitates their fulfilling man's wishes. Con- centrated devotion and penance are mightier than irll the gods, and hence the priest, the hermit, the devotee, and the wise are greater and more powerful than the gods themselves. This is the key of Brahmanism. The Vedic hymns speak also of minor gods of nature, like Trita and Sarasvati, the goddess of the river' of that name. The Sindhu, or Indus, is the most impetuous of them all. The Asparasas are female spirits of the air, much to be fear- ed ; but like the nymphs of the Greeks they of- ten bring joy and happiness. The great Veda gods must have wives, and accordingly the names Indranl, Agnayi, Varunani, Acvini, and Rodasi occur in the hymns. Lakshmi appears in later times as the wife of Vishnu, and acts as a goddess of fortune. The Ribhus are men who have been raised to the nature of gods on account of their great piety. The Athar- va-Veda mentions a few names which seem to represent similarly deified personifications. Every object used in sacrificing was considered in some degree divine, and hence the Brahmans came to be looked upon as the real gods of the earth. Brahmanaspati or Brihaspati, the god of prayer, was subsequently turned into the great god Brahma. His works arc sometimes ascribed to Indra, and also to Agni and S6ma ; but he is quite as often said to be the father of the gods. Prayer and sacrifice have a creative power, and thus Brahmanaspati, the personified lord of prayer, is considered to be the father of the gods, or the pantheistic principle of the world. Vateh, the goddess of the word or of speech, plays a similar part. The word, whether spoken by man or by the gods, has also a crea- tive power. Similarly Prana, life or breath, Kama, love and desire, Kala, time and the pro- ducer of heaven and earth, and Purusha, the ideal man or the spirit of the world, appear in the Vedas as creative principles. Hiranya- garbha, the golden-wombed, and Prajapati, the lord of creatures, represent the creator as a