Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 6 (Indian and Iranian).djvu/99

Rh, in so far incarnate in these animals, not indeed permanently, but from time to time. Accordingly, in the later ritual, which seems faithfully to represent in this regard the meaning of the Ṛgveda, the horse is not always or normally divine, but it is so when a special horse is chosen to be sacrificed at the horse-sacrifice and for this purpose is identified with the god. It is possible, too, that direct worship of the cow and the frog (at least in the rainy season) is recorded. The question then arises whether the Vedic Indians were totemists. Did they conceive a tie of blood between themselves and an animal or thing which they venerated and normally spared from death, and which they might eat only under the condition of some sacrament to renew the blood bond? We can only say that there is no more evidence of this than is implied in the fact that some tribal appellations in the Ṛgveda are animal names like the Ajas, or "Goats," and the Matsyas, or "Fishes," or vegetable like the Śigrus, or "Horse-Radishes"; but we have no record that these tribes worshipped the animals or plants whose name they bear. Neither do we know to what extent these tribes were of Aryan origin or religion. There may well have been totemistic non-Aryan tribes, for we know that another worship which is now accepted and bound up with the form of Śiva—the phallic cult—was practised in the time of the Ṛgveda, but by persons whom it utterly disapproved and treated as hostile.

Beside the gods some priests and priestly families who are more than real men figure in the Ṛgveda. Prominent among these are the Bhṛgus, whose name denotes "the Bright," and who play the role of those who kindle Agni when he is discovered by Mātariśvan and establish and diffuse his use upon earth. They find him in the waters; they produce him by friction and pray to him. They are invoked to drink soma with all the thirty-three gods, the Maruts, the waters, and the Aśvins; they overcome the demon Makha and are foes of the historic king Sudās. They are mentioned in connexion with Atharvan, among others, and like them Atharvan is associated