Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 6 (Indian and Iranian).djvu/133

THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE BRAHMANAS 89 On the other hand, the figures of Trita Aptya, Aparh Napat, Aja Ekapad, and Ahi Budhnya become fainter and fainter. Trita naturally leads to the invention of a legend according to which there were three brothers, Ekata, Dvita, and Trita, two of whom threw the third into a well. The gods of the wind also, Vayu and Vata, remain unchanged, but Matarisvan assumes the distinct new feature of a wind-god pure and simple without trace of any connexion with the fire. Parjanya as the rain is still recognized just as he is in the Buddhist texts, and we find the importance of the waters duly acknowledged by the many spells of various kinds devised to secure rain, in one of which the colour black is used throughout to resemble the blackness of the clouds whence the rain must descend. In close association with the waters stand the frog, which is used in several cooling rites; the ants, who exact, in return for their action in gnawing the bow-string which cuts off the head of Visnu, the privilege of finding water even in the desert; many plants; and the "Serpent of the Deep," Ahi Budhnya.

The Satarudriya litanies show us the importance of the numerous Rudras, who must be propitiated no less than Rudra himself, and give them countless places of origin. They dwell on earth, as well as in the atmosphere and in the sky, and vex men on the roads and at sacred places, besides disturbing them in the platters from which they eat. The ritual of the householder provides that blood is to be offered to them in all four directions, and they are described sometimes as snakes and elsewhere as noisy eaters of raw flesh, etc. Despite their connexion with the great god, they are no more than imps and trolls, and it is no high honour for the Maruts to receive the same name as "the children of Rudra," as they are called even in the Rgveda. Besides their special association with Indra the Maruts now appear regularly as the subjects among the gods, quite like the Vaisyas among men, and they are said to dwell in the asvattha, or Ficus religiosa, which is the tree normally found in an Indian village enjoying the