Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/88

 The Religion of the Veda in this instance to go to the school of the late great French interpreter of the Rig-Veda, Abel Bergaigne, who, in a fashion quite his own, transports too many of the events in the eartlily life of the Vedic Hindu to heaven. He sees clearly enough that dakshina means "sacrifice fee," and nothing else, but opines that Dawn is called dakshina because she is the gift of heaven bestowed upon pious men as a recompense for their picty. This is all too roundabout, and unnecessary, and un-Vedic. Still less can we assent to the statement of another very sane and enlight- ened critic of the Vedas, Professor Oldenberg, who declares that "the hymns to Dawn waft to us the poetry of the early morn; that they steer clear of the mystic sophistries of sacrifice technique; and that they have a charm that is wanting in the sac- rificial hymns proper." Professor Oldenberg takes the usual view of this interesting goddess. I would advocate precisely the opposite view, namely, that the hymns to Dawn, their many intrinsic beautics to the contrary notwithstanding, represent the first, the keenest, so to speak, the least tired sacrificial mood of these poet-priests as they enter upon the absorbing business of the day; and that never has the battledoor and shuttlecock of really fine poetic 72 2 La Religion Védique, vol. i., p. 127 f. Die Religion des Veda, p. 237. !