Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 6 (Indian and Iranian).djvu/82

50 they represent the development of aspects of more concrete deities which have come to be detached from their original owners. Of these the most famous is Savitṛ, who is the sun, and yet is a distinct god as the stimulating power of the solar luminary. Tvaṣṭṛ represents a further stage of detachment from a physical background. He is essentially the cunning artificer, who wrought the cup which contains the ambrosia of the gods, and which the Ṛbhus later divided into four; he made the swift steed and the bolt of Indra, and he sharpens the iron axe of Brahmaṇaspati. He shapes all forms and makes the husband and wife for each other in the womb; and he also creates the human race indirectly, for Yama and Yamī, the primeval twins, are children of his daughter Saraṇyū. It seems even that he is the father of Indra, though the latter stole the soma from him and even slew him, as afterward he certainly killed his son, the three-headed Viśvarūpa. He is also closely associated with the wives of the gods. Obscure as is his origin, he presents many features of a solar character, and with this would accord well enough the view that his cup is the moon, where the ambrosia is to be found.

Much feebler personalities are those of Dhātṛ ("Establisher"), an epithet of Indra or Viśvakarman, of Vidhātṛ ("Disposer"), also an epithet of these deities, Dhartṛ ("Supporter"), and Trātṛ ("Protector"), an epithet of Agni or Indra, and the leader-god who occurs in one hymn. Of these Dhātṛ alone has a subsequent history of interest, as he later ranks as a creator and is a synonym of Prajāpati. That god's name, "Lord of Offspring," is used as an epithet of Soma and of Savitṛ, but as an independent deity he appears only in the tenth and latest book of the Ṛgveda, where his power to make prolific is celebrated. In one hymn (x. 121) is described a "Golden Germ," Hiraṇyagarbha, creator of heaven and earth, of the waters and all that lives. The "Golden Germ" is doubtless Prajāpati, but from the refrain "What god" (kasmai devāya) a deity Who (Ka deva) was later evolved.