Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 6 (Indian and Iranian).djvu/35



N his Nirukta (the oldest extant Vedic commentary, written about 500 B.C.) Yāska tells us that earlier students of the mythology of the Ṛgveda had resolved all the deities into three classes according to their position in the sky, in the atmosphere, or on the earth; and he further treats all the different members of each class as being only divergent aspects of the three great gods, Agni ("Fire") on earth, Indra ("Storm") or Vāyu ("Wind") in the atmosphere, and Sūrya ("Sun") in the sky. This apportionment of the universe is, in fact, widely accepted in the Ṛgveda, where, as a rule, a threefold distribution is preferred to the simpler view which contrasts the earth with all that is seen above it. To the division immediately over the earth are referred the manifestations of wind, rain, and lightning, while solar phenomena are assigned to the highest of the three parts. Each of these three classifications may again be subdivided into three: thus it is in the highest luminous space or sky that the "fathers" (the kindly dead), the gods, and Soma reside. In the atmosphere also there are three spaces, or often only two—one the heavenly and one the earthly—and in either case the highest is sometimes treated as if it were the heaven or sky itself. Like the earth it has rocks and mountains; streams (clouds) flow in it; and the water-dripping clouds are constantly compared to and identified with cows. It seems clear that the earthly as well as the heavenly portion of the