280 
Wendic Boom. The “name became at an early date a 
O %j 
general designation of the gods among the Slavs.”* 
Bmhmancispati. “ The Lord of spells.” A phase of Agni. 
Brihaspati. “ The Lord of prayer.” A phase of Agni. 
Dakslia. “ The Intelligent ” (Roth). “ The Power ” (Tiele). 
“ The Powerful in will ” (Lenormant) . “ Insight ” 
(Whitney). “ Dakslia sprang from Aditi and Aditi 
from Daksha. Aditi was produced, she who is thy 
daughter, O Daksha. ”f 
Dyaus. “ The Shiner.” “ The Bright.”! The heaven and 
bright heaven god, Zeus. 
Hiranyagarbha. “ Golden embryo.” “The source of golden 
light ” (Muller). A very remarkable hymn § is addressed 
to this divinity. The poet exclaims : — 
“ In the beginning there arose the source of golden-light — 
He was the one born Lord of all that is. 
He established the earth, and this sky ; — 
Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice? 
He who gives life. He Avho gives strength ; 
Whose command all the bright gods revere : 
Whose shadow is immortality; whose shadow is death ; 
He through whom the sky is bright and the earth firm — 
He through whom the heaven was ’stablished — nay the 
highest heaven. 
lie ivho is the sole life of the bright gods ; 
He who alone is God above all gods; 
He the Creator of the earth ; He the Righteous, who 
created the heaven.” || 
Indra. “ The Rain-giver.” The name is probably derived 
from indu, ‘ drop/ The Zeus Ombrios, Jupiter Pluvius, who 
with his thunderbolt destroys the rain-concealing demon and 
sets free the refreshing waters. A peculiarly Indian divinity 
who, from the local characteristics of the country, became 
almost the head of the Pantheon. If the Iranians knew him 
at all, which is very doubtful,^ they degraded him by making 
him into a demon.** 
Maruts. “The Crushers.” ff The Storm-winds. Greek, 
Ares. Latin, Mars. 
* Tiele, Outlines of the History of the Ancient Religions, 109. 
I Rig-Veila, X. lxxii. 14. $ Vide sup. bcc. 12. 
5 Rig-Vcda, X. exxi. 
I! Translated by Prof. Max Miiller in his History of Ancient Sanskrit 
Literature , 569. 
Vide Darmesteter, Omazd et Ahriman, 260, et seq. 
** Vide Hang, Essays, 272. 
++ The above is the generally-received interpretation. M. Darmesteter pre- 
fers, however, to render marat or marut “man” (vid o Ormond et Ahriman, US 4). 
