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The Religion of the Veda

It would seem possible to present the Vedic gods in the order of their importance, but many are equally, or nearly equally, important. We find nearly a dozen of them engaged in creating the world, and rather more than a dozen engaged in producing the sun, placing it on the sky, or preparing a path for it; under these circumstances it is not easy to rank them.[1] The gods have not all of them come into existence at the same time. Some belong to Indo-European times; others to Indo-Iranian times. Of the rest some come from an earlier, some from a later period of the Veda. If we had all the dates we might try a chronological arrangement pure and simple, but we do not have all the dates.

A celebrated ancient Hindu glossographer and etymologer of the name of Yāska reports three lists, respectively of 32, 36, and 31 gods, or semi-divine beings.[2] The last of these seems to begin to tell us in what succession the Vedic gods appear on the stage day by day, especially in the morning.[3] He begins well with the Açvins, or "Horsemen" (the Vedic Dioscuri),[4] Ushas, the Goddess Dawn, and Sūryā,

  1. ↑ See Macdonell, Vedic Mythology, p. 15.
  2. ↑ Nighantu 5. 4-6.
  3. ↑ Cf. Nirukta 12. 1. Brhaddevatā 2. 7 ff.
  4. ↑ See below, p. 112.
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