334 
Iranian equivalent is Asha. 1 * Rita, from the Sanskrit root ri, 
“to go /’ signifies (1) going, motion, flowing ; (2) a stream, 
i.e., that which is ever going and flowing ; (3) a course, line, 
i.e., the way taken in going; (4) method, manner, fashion, 
i.e., the usual way in which people go ; and hence (5) usage, 
observance, custom. Derivatives prove that along with asha, 
existed a variant form arta, and the Sanskrit root ri sprang 
directly or indirectly from a Proto-Aryan root ar, “to go ;”f 
so that rita (arta) and asha have a common origin, the word 
and the idea alike belonging to the period of Indo-Iranian 
unity, J and doubtless also to a much earlier stage of Aryan 
history. Rita is used in the Rig -Veda as a representation of 
kosmic order ;§ “the going, the procession, the great daily 
movement, or the path followed every day by the sun from 
his rising to his setting, followed also by the dawn, by day and 
night, || and their various representatives, a path which the 
powers of night and darkness could never impede.'”^]' This 
Rita-path is said to have been made by Varuna** for the sun 
to follow ;ff the dawn also follows it, J J but evil-doers never 
cross it ;§§ and “ the law of Rita ” is identified with “ the law 
of Varuna,” || || that is to say, kosmic order is an ordinance of 
the Supreme. 
When considering the myth of Kadmos, “ the Easterner/’ 
and his bride Harmonia, a Phoenician personage with an 
Hellenic name, I observed that the term harmonia includes 
“ any means of joining things,” as a joint or clasp. “Hence 
it is used of immaterial clasps, as covenants, leagues, laws ; 
and these strongly conveying the idea of orderly management, 
it becomes connected with proportion, i.e., due proportion in 
architecture, sound, or character. Hence it is more specially 
applied to cadence and modulation, and so the full meaning 
of the word is That-which-is-fitted-together-in-due-propor- 
tion. But in a Phoenician and kosmogonical connection that 
which is fitted together in due proportion is the Kosmos 
itself; and similarly the Pelasgoi called the gods Disposers 
(theoi)/1f1f “ because they had disposed and arranged all 
things in such a beautiful order.”*** In this connection let 
* Vide Zoroaster, sec. 14. 1 f Vide Appendix B. 
f Vide Darmesteter, Ormazd et'Ahriman , 16. § Ibid. 1. 
|| Kosmic Night (Hodhr), distinct from the malignant aspect of darkness. 
Prof. Max Muller, Lectures on the Origin and Groivth of Religion , 239. 
** Gk. Ouranos (vide Zoroaster , secs. 26, 33), the Asura, 
ft Rig-Veda, I. xxiv. 8. JJ Ibid. I. cxxiv. 3. §§ Ibid, IX. lxxiii. 6. 
HD Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion, 243. 
IT IT The Great Dionysiah Myth, ii. 236. 
*** Herodotos, ii. 52. A derivation, of course, ‘‘purely fanciful.” 
