Gods and Saints of the Great BraJunana. 25 



life (5. 10. 2-3; 6. 8. 5 and 7j.i "The worlds are three, but God 

 is one," 16. 16. 4. In less magificent phrase he is described as 

 being " as broad as he is high,'' 18. 6. 2 (so the worlds are as many 

 sideways as they are upwards, 18. 6. 3). 



The modification of the creation-idea to one of the self-sacrifice 

 of the Creator, who " sacrificed himself to the gods," 7. 2. 1—2, is 

 a priestly version of the myth of a dismembered god, the savage 

 pantheism of an earlier age (the gods race for shares in the great 

 offering), which is otherwise expressed at this date in the thought 

 that the Creator is sacrifice (personified with two breasts, etc., 13. 

 11. 18). But a higher plane is reached in the conception that the 

 creation is a mental act, and that the firstborn son of the Creator 

 is the Word Divine. 



This conception appears in several passages, interwoven with 

 ritualistic ideas, '-^ more or less crude, but at bottom expressing the 

 great Logos doctrine or philosophy. The bathos of the ritualist 

 cannot wholly conceal this. The Creator desired to be many, to 

 be multiplied. Silent, with the mind he thought, and of that which 

 was in his mind arose the great Saman (the Brhat Saman). He 

 thought, " Verily I have here conceived ; now with the Word let 

 me bring forth." He brought forth the Word (as another .Saman), 

 and after it the great one (the Brhat Saman) which was "as his 

 eldest son " (because first conceived) 7. 6. 1 f. These Saman forms 

 are tunes or chaunts of great efficacy, which are said to have been 

 born from the Creator in this order in other passages (e. g. TS. 7. 

 1. 1. 4). At 10. 2. 1, there is another account: "The Creator cre- 

 ated his creatures and grew weary. The Word took from him his 

 light. He said, ' Who has taken my light ? ' ' Thy own Word,' 

 said (the Word). Then he said to the Word, " they shall worship 

 thee as the Light" — and here the priest adds " of metres " ; for the 

 metres are holy, divine, and the great Viriij metre, called the Light, 

 is mystically identified with God himself. Again, the Creator is 



^ He is viriipa ?iS the year; but this is not "formless," but variegated, 

 14. 9. 8 ; 10. 6. 7 ; 12. 4. 18, like " food," which the gods call prsnt 12. 



10. 24 {deva arka iti vadanti, 15. 3. 23 ; 5. 1-9), fivefold, 5. 2. 7 ; 12. 1. 9 ; 

 14. 7. 7, etc. 



- Especially prominent in the form that the word is food, 5. 8. 1, or, 



11. 10. 19, etc., a rite, and especially a chaunt or metre, as Word and 

 Voice are expressed by the same vdciyo-K). Of all the metres, the funda- 

 mental Anustubh is particularly identified with Far, 8. 7. 3 ; 16. 11. 17 ; 

 18. 8. 16. " The Anustubh is Vac and Visnu is the sacrifice ", 9. 6. 10. 



