> 
14. The Hero-Gods of the Rigveda—Trita. 
By A. C. Sun, M.A., M.R.A.C. 
The character of T'rita is one of the puzzles of the Rig- 
veda. There are riks which leave us no alternative but to take 
him for one of the early sacrificers and a king. On the other 
hand, in some of the verses, he appears unmistakably as a god 
of the atmosphere—the scene of the thunderstorms, clouds and 
rain. He is also represented to have been the first to perform 
some of the most important valorous deeds that were after- 
wards ascribed to the mighty god Indra. 
Both the eastern and the western scholars at Ait ry a 
) fee 
following Yaska has taken him for a ctrsf#:—a sacrificer and 
in such passages adjective to some other god and 
meaning ‘‘ living in aces,’’ ‘‘most intelligent,’’ ete. 
Professor Macdonell! on the other hand, starting from the 
The information regarding Trita given in the Rigveda is 
meagre. There is not a single entire hymn addressed to him. 
1 Professor Macdonell’s Monogram on Trita published in the Journal 
of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1893 being the most elaborate and 
arned paper on the subject, I shall have to refer to it a ieneree 4 
