Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/168

 I52 The Religion of the Veda

trace some of the most advanced products of re-

ligious thought to simple and tangible beginnings in nature and in human consciousness.

Comparative mythology has inﬂuenced these studies profoundly by extending the ﬁeld and the time within which we may carry on our observations. At the risk of seeming too insistent, let one point out once more, how it has spanned the distance be» tween prehistoric “Father Sky ” and the strenuous human personality of the Olympian Zeus of the poets. News visit to the Vedic Pantheon brings us into the very workshop Where the gods are made.

We have encountered before some transparent gods. “Father Sky ” (Dyaush Pitar), who comes from olden times, and does not grow in the Veda into anything like the personality of Greek Zeus Pater, but is there submerged by other formations that have gained ground at his expense. We have seen what his daughter Ushas is: Eternally young and beautiful, ageless in distinction from the wither-— ing race of man, she appears as a lovely maiden dis- playing her charms to the world. While doing this she caters at the same time to interests which are the reverse of poetic. She starts the day of sacriﬁce, her face set towards very practical performances. She secures rewards for pious men and their agents with the gods, namely the priests. Yet, on the whole, the