Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 6 (Indian and Iranian).djvu/136

92 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY gested that in the connexion, which is thus shown, of the fathers and the wind (Vayu) we have a trace of the conception (which is certainly not the normal one of this period) that the fathers live in the wind; and the Narasarhsa has been regarded as a name of the fire for the fathers. The fire naturally and inevitably serves to show the establishment of Aryan civilization, and a famous story of the eastward movement of the Aryans in the Satapatha Brahmana (I. iv. i) tells of the fire which Videgha Mathava 2 and Gotama Rahugana followed and which introduced the Aryan beliefs into new lands. Yet the Brahmanas show no trace of any evolution of a public as opposed to a private fire of the king. There is, however, a new development of Agni, for his numerous aspects are frequently described by epithets, such as "Lord of Vows," "Desire," or "the Pure"; and the ritual prescribes different offerings to these several sides of his nature. This fact lends plausibility to the view that the origin of Brhaspati ("Lord of Devotion") lies in a feature of Agni which was developed more completely into an independent deity. Brhaspati himself assumes in this period two of his later characteristics. He is declared to be "Lord of the Metres," and also "Lord of Speech" (Vacaspati), which is his prominent aspect in post-Vedic literature, and he becomes the deity of the constellation Tisya; while in post-Vedic literature he is the regent of the planet Jupiter, although the suggestion that he is himself a planet is inadmissible. 3 The worship of the planets does not appear for certain in any Vedic text, and is clearly set forth for the first time in the law-book of Yajnavalkya in the third century a.d.

Though there is no real increase in the position of the goddesses in this period, the wives of the gods obtain a definite part in the ritual. Some importance attaches to Ida, the deity of the oblation, who is described as the daughter of Manu, with whom he re-created the world after the deluge, although she also passes as the child of Mitra and Varuna. Aditi loses