Wendy Doniger Rig Veda on Sky and Earth

Table Of Contents

CREATION
DEATH
THE ELEMENTS OF SACRIFICE
THE HORSE SACRIFICE
GODS OF THE SACRIFICE: AGNI AND SOMA
SOMA
INDRA
GODS OF THE STORM
SOLAR GODS
SKY AND EARTH
VARUNA
RUDRA AND VISNU
REALIA
WOMEN
INCANTATIONS AND SPELLS

SKY AND EARTH

THE Sky (Dyaus) was an important god in Indo-European mythology and remained so in Greece, in the figure of Zeus. In India, his scope is greatly reduced, most aspects of his mythology being taken over by Indra, but he remains enshrined in several hymns as one half of the androgynous pair, Sky-and-Earth (often expressed as a single noun in the dual). This pair is essential not only to the cosmogony (1.160) but to the safety and well-being of mortals on earth, who invoke their help as one would ask parents for comfort (1.185). Like parents, too, they are described as being made of food and nourishment for mankind (6.70).

1.160   Sky and Earth

These divinities, referred to in the dual, are alternately characterized as male and female, parents of the sun, or as two sisters.

1 Sky and earth, these two who are good for everyone, hold the Order and bear the poet of space.¹ Between the two goddesses, the two bowls that give birth magnificently, the pure sun god moves according to the laws of nature.

2 Wide and roomy, strong and inexhaustible, the father and mother protect the universe. The two world-halves are as bold as two wonderful girls² when their father³ dresses them in shapes and colours.

3 The son of these parents,⁴ their clever charioteer with the power to make things clear, purifies the universe by magic.⁵ From the dappled milk-cow and the bull with good seed,⁶ every day he milks the milk that is his⁷ seed.

4 Most artful of the artful gods, he⁸ gave birth to the two world-halves that are good for everyone. He measured apart the two realms of space⁹ with his power of inspiration and fixed them in place with undecaying pillars.

5 Sky and earth, you mighty pair whose praises we have sung, grant us great fame and high sovereignty, by which we may extend our rule over the peoples for ever. Give us enormous force.

NOTES

1. The sun, in the space between sky and earth.

2. These are the two goddesses of the previous verse, sky and earth as two bowls.

3. Tvastr or the creator.

4. The sun, child of sky and earth as parents again.

5. The sun’s magic dispels darkness, thus both clarifying and purifying the world.

6. The dappled cow (Psšni) is the earth, the bull the sky.

7. The milker is the child, the sun; ‘his’ seed refers probably not merely to the bull but to the joint, androgynous creature that gives a fluid simultaneously milk (from her) and seed (from him).

8. Probably Tvastr or the creator. If it is the sun, he is giving birth to his own parents, an idea not without precedent in the Rig Veda. The sun is the subject of the second half of the verse.

9. Between sky and earth.

1.185   Guard Us from the Monstrous Abyss¹

1 Which of these two was first, and which came later? How were they born? Who, O poets, really knows? They themselves bear whatever has a name. The two halves of the day² roll past one another like two wheels.

2 These two³ who do not move, who have no feet, receive the teeming embryo⁴ that moves and has feet, like a natural son in the parents’ lap. Sky and earth, guard us from the monstrous abyss.

3 I call upon Aditi’s gift⁵ that dispels evil and repels assault, the celestial, awe-inspiring gift that saves us from violent death. Sky and earth, guard us from the monstrous abyss.

4 We wish to please the two world-halves whose sons are the gods, the two among the gods who free us from suffering and help the helpless, with the two rotating halves of the days. Sky and earth, guard us from the monstrous abyss.

5 The two young women, true sisters who join in the lap of their parents,⁶ share a common boundary⁷ and kiss the navel of the world.⁸ Sky and earth, guard us from the monstrous abyss.

6 With truth I call upon the two wide and high mansions⁹ who give birth¹⁰ with the help of the gods, the two whose faces are lovely and who have received immortality. Sky and earth, guard us from the monstrous abyss.

7 With reverence in this sacrifice I speak in prayer to the two who are wide, vast, and massive, whose boundaries are far distant, who having received immortality bring good fortune and dispel evil. Sky and earth, guard us from the monstrous abyss.

8 Whatever wrong we have ever done to the gods, or to an old friend, or to the master of the house, for all of these let the thought in this hymn be an apology. Sky and earth, guard us from the monstrous abyss.

9 Let both sides of the praise of heroes¹¹ be kind to me. Let both of them¹² stay near me with help and favour. There is plenty for the patron who is more generous than a stranger.¹³ Let us become ecstatic, O gods, and invigorated by the drink of ecstasy.

10 I have in my wisdom spoken this truth¹⁴ to heaven and earth, so that they will hear it first. Let them protect us from the blame and evil that we face. Let father and mother guard us with helping favours.

11 Let this come true,¹⁵ what I have said here in prayer to you, sky and earth, father and mother. Become the closest of the gods with your helping favours. Let us nd the drink whose luscious drops give strength and ecstasy.

NOTES

1. The word (abhvam) designates a dark, formless, enormous and terrifying abyss, particularly associated with night (1.92.5) and the underworld, and hence opposed to the light of the worlds of sky and earth.

2. Day and night, loosely associated with heaven and earth through their duality rather than through a literal identification of day with heaven and night with earth.

3. Sky and earth.

4. The embryo, or seed (garbha), is the sun or Agni, here symbolic of all creatures (hence teeming).

5. As mother of the gods, Aditi gives the blessings of life and nature.

6. Cf. 1.160.2.

7. The line where sky and earth meet.

8. The axis mundi, here identified with the sun.

9. Sky and earth.

10. They give birth to the gods.

11. Praise given by the poet to heroes and gods, and praise given to him by heroes and gods.

12. Sky and earth, or both men and gods.

13. The stranger is the ‘best enemy’ or ritual competitor. Cf. 10.86.1.

14. The word for truth here (rta) designates actual reality and order, a statement about sky and earth as well as to them.

15. True here in the sense of physical actuality.

6.70   The Two Full of Butter

1 The two full of butter, beautiful masters of all creatures, broad and wide, milked of honey, beautifully adorned – sky and earth have been propped apart, by Varuna’s law ; unageing, they are rich in seed.

2 Inexhaustible, rich in streams, full of milk, the two whose vows are pure are milked of butter for the one who does good deeds. You two world-halves, rulers over this universe, pour out on us the seed that was the base for mankind.¹

3 The mortal who makes an offering to you world-halves, sources of strength, so that he may walk on the right path, he succeeds: he is reborn through his progeny according to the law. Creatures with various forms but with a common vow have been poured out from you.

4 Enclosed in butter are sky and earth, beautiful in butter, gorged on butter, grown on butter. Broad and wide, they are the first priests² in the choice of the priest of the oblation. They are the ones that the priests invoke when they seek kindness.

5 Sky and earth that stream with honey, that are milked of honey, that have honey for their vow, let them soak us with honey, bringing sacrifice and wealth to the gods, great fame, the victory prize, and virility to us.

6 Sky and earth, the all-knowing father and mother who achieve wondrous works – let them swell up with food to nourish us. Let the two world-halves, that work together to give bene ts to all, together thrust toward us gain, and the victory prize, and wealth.

NOTES

1. The seed from which mankind (or Manu) originally grew.

2. The Purohitas who cast the first vote in choosing the oblation priest to assist them.