Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/256

 240 The Religion of the Veda

to perform it. Creation of the world; production of the sun; spreading out of the sky and the earth; and lordship over all that moves or standswthese are some of the grander acts in world life. Even in the Rig-Veda these acts are bunched and thrown into the lap of a divinity by the name of Prajapati “Lord of Creatures.” Various earlier divinities of a more or less abstract and specialistic character, especially Savitar, the inspiring, enlivening principle of the sun, and Tvashtar, a kind of divine carpenter or artiﬁce-r of less important objects, are blended in this product; it goes as far to realise personal mono- theism as was ever possible in India. One hymn“ pictures Prajapati in very glowing colors; he is a true creator, ruler, and preserver, and yet, it is very interesting to observe, that the description of him does not, after all, differ very materially from that of the polytheistic god Indra in the hymn, Rig-Veda a. 12, as may be seen from a comparison of the two.“ Some of the stanzas of the Prajapati hymn are as

follows : Riga- Wain 10. 121'.

r. “ A golden germ arose in the beginning, Born he was the one lord of things existing, The earth and yonder sky he did establish-- What god shall we revere with our oblation P

1 Rig-Neda IO. 12!. 9 See Deussen, Gawain/it: o’er Pﬁifnroplzir, vol. i., part i,p. 1'23