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Transparent and Opaque Gods
155

That glow above the darkness we Beholding upward soar to thee, For there among the gods thy light Supreme is seen, divinely bright.


And there are other gods, not a few, whose origin in nature is positively on the surface. So the two wind-gods Vāta and Vāyu, the former of whom, on the likely evidence of Teutonic Wotan-Odhin, is probably prehistoric. A good bit of profound human philosophy is contained in the mere fact that Vāta is described as a real person in language such as that of the following hymn,[1] and that he may finally be invited to partake of oblations:


Hymn to Vāta

Now Vāta's chariot's greatness! Breaking goes it, And thunderous is its noise. To heaven it touches, Makes light lurid, and whirls the dust upon the earth.

Then rush together all the blasts of Vāta: To him they come as women to their trysting; With them conjoint, on the same chariot travelling, Hastes the god, the king of all creation.

Sleepless hastes he on his pathway through the air, Companion of the watery flood. First-born and holy,

  1. ↑ Rig-Veda 10.168, reproduced with some changes from Professor Hopkins's translation, The Religions of India, p. 88.
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