Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 6 (Indian and Iranian).djvu/138

94 INDIAN MYTHOLOGY the Rgveda (x. 129) where Desire is said to be the first seed of Mind. This god has arrows, and though he is a cosmic power, he is to reappear as a lesser god in a Sutra and in the epic period. The other deity is Sri ("Prosperity"), who, as we know from the Buddhist sculptures, was a prominent divinity in the following age.

It is a natural sign of growing formalism that the gods should now be grouped in classes : the eight Vasus (now in connexion with Agni, not with Indra), the eleven Rudras, and the twelve Adityas, corresponding to earth, air, and sky respectively. The Chandogya Upanisad shows a further progress in adding two new groups — the Maruts with Soma, and the Sadhyas with Brahman. The Maruts are now usually distinguished from the Rudras, although they are still connected with them.

When we pass to the minor deities of the period of the Brahmanas, we find a certain development clearly marked in the case of the Gandharvas and the Apsarases. The solitary Gandharva, who is only thrice made plural in the Rgveda, is now regularly transformed into a body of beings who can be placed together with the gods, the fathers, and the Asuras. Visvavasu, however, is still frequently mentioned, and appears to have been conceived as one of the chief guardians of the soma, by whom, indeed, in one account he was stolen. Soma is, therefore, besought to elude him in the form of an eagle in the Taittiriya Saihhita (I. ii. 9. 1), and the Taittiriya Aranyaka (I. ix. 3) tells us that Krsanu, the archer who shot at the eagle which carried the soma to earth, was a Gandharva. Yet in one account the gods succeed in buying the soma from the Gandharvas by means of Vac, for the Gandharvas are lovers of women; with the Apsarases they preside over fertility, and those who desire offspring pray to them. The Atharvaveda declares them to be shaggy and half animal in form, though elsewhere they are called beautiful. The Apsarases now appear in constant conjunction with water, both in rivers, clouds, lightning, and stars; while the Satapatha Brahmana describes them as trans-