MR J. MUIR ON THE PRINCIPAL DEITIES OF THE RIGVEDA. 563 



the sky, he, men, is Indra. Not all the gods are able to frustrate the counsels 

 of Indra, who established the earth and this sky, and, wonder-working, produced 

 the sun and the dawn. Through fear of thee, Indra, all the mundane regions, 

 however steady, begin to totter ; heaven and earth, mountains, forests, all that 

 is fixed, is afraid at thy coming. Indra is not to be overcome, Sakra (another 

 name of Indra) is not to be overpowered ; he hears and sees all things. At the 

 birth of thee, the glorious one, the heavens trembled, and the earth, through fear 

 of thy wrath. Heaven and earth are not sufficient for his girdle. All the gods 

 yield to him in power and force. The two worlds are equal to but the half of 

 him. Which of the poets who were before us have found out the end of all thy 

 greatness? seeing that thou didst produce at once the father and the mother 

 {i.e., heaven and earth) from thine own body." 



These passages afford a fair specimen of the strains in which Indra is most 

 commonly celebrated in the hymns. It will be observed that the attributes 

 which are assigned to this deity are chiefly those of physical superiority and 

 dominion over the external world. In fact, he is not generally represented as 

 possessing the spiritual elevation and moral grandeur which are so strikingly 

 characteristic of Varuna. There are, however, many texts in which his close 

 relations with his worshippers are described, and a few in which an ethical char- 

 acter is attributed to him. Faith in him is confessed or enjoined in various 

 passages; the reality of his existence and power is asserted in opposition to 

 sceptical or faithless doubts. He is the friend, and even the brother, of his pre- 

 sent worshippers, as he was the friend of their forefathers ; but he desires no 

 friendship with the man who offers no oblations. He is reminded that he him- 

 self has friends, while his adorers are friendless. His friend is never slain or 

 conquered. It is he almost exclusively who is invoked as the patron of the 

 Arian Indians, or civilized invaders of Hindostan, and their protector against their 

 barbarous aboriginal foes, or their unseen and supernatural enemies. He is 

 invoked by men as a father ; he is embraced by the hymns of his votaries as a 

 husband is embraced by his wives ; his right hand is seized by suppliants for 

 riches ; his powerful arms are resorted to for protection, and he is a deliverer 

 easy to be entreated. He is implored not to slay for one, two, three, or even for 

 many sins. Destruction faUs upon the man who offers him no libations, while 

 he richly rewards his faithful servants. Yet he is sometimes naively importuned 

 to be more prompt in his generosity, and is even given to understand that his 

 worshipper, if in his place, and possessed of his means, would be more liberal. 

 He is supplicated for all sorts of temporal blessings, and, among the rest, for 

 victory in battle. As a man, in walking, puts first one foot forward and then 

 the other, so Indra, by his power, changes men's relative positions ; he subdues 

 the fierce, and puts others in the foremost ranks; he is the enemy of the 



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