Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/86

 The Religion of the Veda following appeal to Ushas: "Arouse, O Ushas, liberal goddess, them that give; the niggards shall sleep unawakened!"¹ That is to say, what is the use of waking the stingy man, he is not going to give us any. thing anyhow. Another stanza states this even more emphatically: "O shining Dawns, ye liberal god- desses, do ye to-day suggest to the rich that they shall give bounty! Let the stingy, unawakened, sleep in the depths of obscure darkness!* 70 The very first hymn in the Rig-Veda that is ad- dressed to Ushas presents in its opening strain the ritual, serving, economic goddess, in an inextricable tangle with the poetic divinity. Almost do we feel that economic advantage and aesthetic delight are much the same thing to the soul of such a poet: " With pleasant things for us, O Ushas, Shine forth, O Daughter of Heaven, With great and brilliant wealth, of which, O luminous goddess, thou art the giver !! (Rig-Veda 1. 68. 1.) And immediately after, in the next stanza, the significant words, "Arouse thou the benevolence of our patrons!" And so another time," "To these nobles give thou glory and fine sons, O patroness Dawn, to them that have given us gifts that are not 1 Rig-Veda 1. 124. 10. 2 Rig-Veda 4. 51. 3. & Rig-Veda 5. 79.6.