Page:Vedic Mythology.djvu/23

[The cosmic order or law prevailing in nature is recognised under the name of ṛta11 (properly the 'course' of things), which is considered to be under the guardianship of the highest gods. The same word also designates 'order' in the moral world as truth and 'right', and in the religious world as sacrifice or 'rite'. ]

I ROTH, ZDMG. 6, 68. 2 Cp. SP.AP. 122; KRV. 34, note 118. 3 HOPKINS, AJP. 4, 189.4 BOLLENSEN, ZDMG. 41, 494. 5 BLOOMFIELD, AJP. 12, 432. — 6 Cp. WEBER, IS. 10, 358-64. 7 AIL. 357-9. - 8 KHF. 178; DELBRÜCK, ZVP. 1865, pp. 284-5. 9 KHF. 187; Zft. f. deutsche Mythologie, 3, 378. - 10 GW., s. v. go; WVB. 1894, p. 13. 11 LUDWIG, Religiöse und philosophische Anschau- ungen des Veda (1875), p. 15; LRV. 3, 284-5; HARLEZ, JA. (1878), 11, 105—6; DARMESTETER, Ormazd et Ahriman, 13-4; OGR. 198. 243; KRV. 28; BRV. 3, 220; WC. 91-7. 100; SP.AP. 139; ORV. 195-201; JACKSON, Trans. of 10th Or. Con- gress, 2, 74. - BRUCE, Vedic conceptions of the Earth, JRAS. 1862, p. 321 ff.; BRV. I, 1-3; WALLIS, Cosmology of the Rigveda (London 1887), 111-17. § 8. Cosmogony. - The cosmogonic mythology of the RV. fluctuates between two theories, which are not mutually exclusive, but may be found combined in the same verse. The one regards the universe as the result of mechanical production, the work of the carpenter's and joiner's skill; the other represents it as the result of natural generation.

The poets of the RV. often employ the metaphor of building in its various details, when speaking of the formation of the world. The act of measuring is constantly referred to. Thus Indra measured the six regions, made the wide expanse of earth and the high dome of heaven (6, 473-4). Visņu measured out the terrestrial spaces and made fast the abode on high (1, 154). The measuring instrument, sometimes mentioned (2, 153; 3, 38³), is the sun, with which Varuņa performs the act (5, 855). The Fathers measured the two worlds with measuring rods and made them broad (3, 383 cp. 1, 1902). The measurement naturally begins in front or the east. Thus Indra measured out as it were a house with measures from the front (2, 15³ cp. 7, 992). Connected with this idea is that of spreading out the earth, an action attributed to Agni, Indra, the Maruts, and others. As the Vedic house was built of wood, the material is once or twice spoken of as timber. Thus the poet asks: 'What was the wood, what the tree out of which they fashioned heaven and earth?' (10, 317 = 10, 814). The answer given to this question in a Brāhmaṇa is that Brahma was the wood and the tree (TB. 2, 8, 96). Heaven and earth are very often described as having been supported (skabh or stabh) with posts (skambha or skambhana), but the sky is said to be rafterless (2, 15²; 4, 563; 10, 149¹), and that it never falls is a source of wonder (5, 294; 6, 177; 8, 45°). The framework of a door is called ātā; in such a frame of heaven Indra fixed the air (1, 565). The doors of the cosmic house are the portals of the east through which the morning light enters (1, 1134; 4, 51²; 5, 45¹). Foundations are sometimes alluded to. Thus Savitṛ made fast the earth with bands (10, 149¹), Visņu fixed it with pegs (7, 993), and Bṛhaspati supports its ends (4, 5.1 cp. 10, 89³). The agents in the construction of the world are either the gods in general or various individual gods; but where special professional skill seemed to be required in details, Tvaştr, the divine carpenter, or the deft-handed Ṛbhus are mentioned. Little is said as to their motive; but as man builds his house to live in, so of Visņu at least it is indicated that he measured or stretched out the regions as an abode for man (6, 49 13. 695, cp. 1, 1554).

The notion of parentage as a creative agency in the universe, chiefly connected with the birth of the sun at dawn and with the production of rain