288 
The assembler of men, who departed to the mighty 
streams,* 
And spied out the road for many, 
Yama was the first who found for us the way. 
This home is not to be taken from us. 
Depart thou, depart by the ancient paths whither our 
early fathers have departed. 
There thou shalt see the two kings, f Yama and the god 
Varuna, 
Meet with the fathers, meet with Yama, in the highest 
heaven. 
Throwing off all imperfection go to thy home. 
Become united to a body, and clothed in a shining 
form/-’ J 
According to the Atharva- Veda, “ death is the messenger 
of Yama, who conveys the spirits of men to the abode of their 
forefathers. ”§ Here, then, is the august figure of the sun-god 
dwelling in celestial light, in the inmost sanctuary of heaven, || 
with the Asura Varuna and the elder worthies of the human 
race. In the sun-god we met with a second undoubted 
divinity. 
25. The Semi-solar Light Gods. 
I pass on to the semi-solar light gods. Aryaman, “ The 
Favourer,” one of the Adityas, is seldom mentioned, and 
generally with Varuna and Mitra, of whom he is a phase. 
The favourers of man are the Asura of heaven and the kindly 
sun-god. The mysterious Asvins are emanations of the bright 
gods, and have been defined as “ the two powers which seemed 
incorporated in the coming and going of each day and each 
night.”^[ Indra, the god of the bright heaven and slayer of the 
monster of darkness, is a purely Indian divinity, unknown 
even to the period of Indo-Iranian unity ; he is another aspect 
of Varuna-Dyaus, whom he to a great extent superseded, and 
affords a good example of the polytheistic advance. He was 
certainly regarded as a distinct personage ; but as he is not 
pre-Vedic, the circumstance is immaterial to the monotheistic 
position. Mitra, the Iranian Mithra, is a veritable divinity, 
belonging to the period of the Indo-Iranian unity. I shall 
notice him further when speaking of Varuna, with whom he is 
* E 7 t’ 'QiceavoTo poaiov (II. iii. 5). 
f I think it quite possible that originally “ the Twins ” were Varuna and 
Yama-Savitri. Cf. “ the two divine Mithras” (sup. sec. 15). 
t Rig-Veda, X. xiv. § Muir, Sanskrit Texts, v. 303. 
|| Rig-Vcda, IX. cxiii. 7. 
If Prof. Miiller, Lectures on the Science of Language, ii. 53. 77, 
