Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 6 (Indian and Iranian).djvu/56

28 of men, gracious to them in marriage, and the leader of their souls in death to the world of the sun and heaven. The Avestan Mithra has the characteristics of increasing cattle and bringing them back home.

Yet another form of the sun is Vivasvant, the father of Yama and of Manu, and thus in a sense the forefather of the human race. He is identical with the Avestan Vīvanghvant, the father of Yima, who first prepared the haoma, and in the Ṛgveda also he is connected with the sacrifice. His messenger is Agni or Mātariśvan; in his abode the gods rejoice; and Soma, Indra, and the Aśvins are his close companions; yet his nature must have had a dread trait, for a worshipper prays that the arrow of Vivasvant may not smite him before old age. He shines out at the beginning of the dawn as Agni, nor is it improbable that he is no more than the rising sun. His character as sacrificer, which is not as prominent in the Ṛgveda as in the Avesta, can easily have been a special development, while, if he was no more in origin than the first of sacrificers like Manu in the Ṛgveda, his celestial character becomes difficult to explain.

Much more faint are the figures of Bhaga ("Bountiful"), Aṁśa ("Apportioner"), Aryaman ("Comrade"), and Dakṣa ("Skilful"), who with Mitra and Varuṇa are hailed in one hymn (II. xxvii. 1) as the Ādityas. Aryaman is a faint double of Mitra, but is the wooer of maidens. Aṁśa is practically a mere name, but is called bountiful. Bhaga is the giver of wealth whom men desire to share, and Dawn is his sister. In the Avesta his name is Bagha, an epithet of Ahura Mazda, and it corresponds to the Old Church Slavonic word bogŭ, "god." Dakṣa is born of Aditi, although he is also her father. His existence is probably due to the fact that the Ādityas are called "having intelligence" for their father, thus giving rise to the conception that Dakṣa is a person.

The Ādityas, however, are a group of uncertain number and sense. Once only in the Ṛgveda are they said to be seven, and once eight, the eighth being Mārtāṇḍa, the setting sun, whom