Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 6 (Indian and Iranian).djvu/58

30 and a brew of milk belonging to the boar (i.e. Vṛtra), while Indra, shooting across the cloud-mountain, slew the fierce boar. In the period of the Brāhmaṇas Viṣṇu is conceived as assuming the form of a boar, and the way for such transformations is paved by the view of the Ṛgveda (VII. c. 6) that in battle Viṣṇu assumes a different shape and has to be asked to reveal his own form to the worshipper. Though, therefore, not yet in Vedic circles one of the great gods, his relation to man, his close connexion with the three worlds, and his power of change of form are traits which explain that in other circles he may have been a much greater deity.

Among the gods listed in the Mitanni inscription we find the Nāsatyas, thus confirming the early existence of the divine pair who in the Avesta have degenerated into a demon, Nāonghaithya. Their normal name in the Ṛgveda is the Aśvins ("Horsemen"), though they are also called "the Wonder-Workers" (Dasra), and later mythology has invented Dasra and Nāsatya as the names of the pair. They are beautiful, strong, and red and their path is red or golden. They have a skin filled with honey and touch the sacrifice and the worshipper with their honey-whip. Their chariot alone is described as honey-hued or honey-bearing, and it also has the peculiarity of possessing three wheels, three felloes, and all the other parts triple. The time of the Aśvins' appearance is at dawn; they follow dawn in their car; at the yoking of their car the dawn is born; but yet, despite this, they are invoked to come to the offering not only at the morning but also at noon and at sunset. Their parentage is not definitely decided: they are children of Sky or of Ocean, or of Vivasvant and Saraṇyū, or of Pūṣan; and though normally inseparable like the eyes or the hands, nevertheless they are once or twice said to be variously born or born here and there. They are wedded to a deity described as Sūryā, the sun-maiden, or the daughter of the Sun, and it is for her perhaps that their car has three seats and three wheels. In the marriage-rite they are accordingly invoked to conduct the bride