Vedic India as embodied principally in the Rig-Veda / [Zénaïde A. Ragozin].

  • Ragozin, Zénaïde A. (Zénaïde Alexeïevna), 1835-1924.
Date:
[1895]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vedic India as embodied principally in the Rig-Veda / [Zénaïde A. Ragozin]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    only, after the manner of the Rig-Veda, we do not get it in a connected form, but must fish it out in bits from texts out of the different books. There is nothing there that does not fit in beautifully with the identification of Tvashtar as a Sky-god of sombre and malevolent aspect, supplanted in the devotion of the Indian Aryas by the more popular—and more immediately useful—Warrior-god. Many more short texts could be picked out which would confirm this remarkable myth, but could not make it more com- plete. And what more natural than that the Light- ning—for the god who wields the thunderbolt is nothing else in reality—should be the son of the frowning, angry sky ? 13. But we have not done with Tvashtar yet. He figures in another story-myth, as remarkable as that of the cup, and one that has given as much food to disputed interpretations, both among native com- mentators and modern European scholars. It is the myth of the birth of the Ashvins. The story is told completely, though, as usual, not without obscurity, in the following too famous passage (X., 17, 1-2) : “ Tvashtar makes a wedding for his daughter and all the world comes to it. The mother of Yama, the wedded wife of the great Vivasvat, disappeared.—They [the gods] hid the immortal one from mortals and having created another just like her, they gave her to Vivasvat. Then Saiianyu bore the two Ashvins and, having done so, she deserted the two twins.” 1 1 “ Or the two pairs of twins.” This would include Yama’s twin- sister Yami, though she is not named in the text. She does, however, appear once in the Rig, in a most peculiar dialogue with Yama. But this piece is of very uncertain date, and bears the imprint of quite late Brahmanism. So that Yami may very well have been a subsequent addition, for symmetry’s sake, and also because the name of Yama generally means “ a twin.”