the name Ind-ra, in which we unhesitatingly recognize a word (which arose in some local dialect, and was then diffused with the spread of the worship) standing for sind-ra, which again was derived from syand, 'to drop.'... 208 The conceptions which had been attached to Dyaus, Jous, Zeus, were then transferred to Indra, and accordingly we find the epithet stator, which in Latin is attached to Juppiter, applied to him." In this view Professor Benfey is followed by M. Michel Bréal, in his "Hercule et Cacus," p. 101. After giving in Section V. an account of the myth of Indra and Vṛittra, this able writer proceeds in the following section to explain its formation. I translate a few sentences from p. 101: "The first thing which ought to strike us is that the hero of the myth is not the same in the Indian, as in the classical mythology. The name Indra has nothing in common with Zeus; further Indra is an exclusively Indian god, created at an epoch when the ancestors of the European races had been already separated from their brothers in Asia; in reading the Vedas we are in some sort spectators of his first appearance, which nearly coincides with the composition of the earliest hymns. But we have already said that the Vedic mythology is extremely floating, that the attributes of one god are easily transferred to another, and that in place of Indra, other gods are often invoked as the conquerors of Vrittra. We are authorized then to think that in this myth Indra occupies the place of some more ancient divinity. The name of this god, which we may give with perfect certainty, is Dyaus, or Dyaushpitar, the Heaven, father of beings. Dyaus is the first god of the Indo-European nations: maintained in his supreme rank by the Greeks and Latins, he has fallen from it in the Vedas, although he is there sometimes invoked, chiefly in company with the goddess Prithivi (the Earth)."

209 Professor Müller assigns the same sense to Indra, in his Lectures on Language, ii. 430, note, where he writes: Indra, a name peculiar to India, admits but of one etymology, i.e. it must be derived from the same root, whatever that may be, which in Sanskrit yielded indu, drop, sap. It meant originally the giver of rain, the Jupiter pluvius, a deity in India more often present to the mind of the worshipper than any other. Cf. Benfey, Orient und Occident, vol. i. p. 49." Professor Roth, in his Lexicon, s.v. thinks the word comes from the root in or inv, with the suffix r, preceded by epenthetic d, and means "the overcomer," "the powerful." The old Indian derivations may be found, as he remarks, in Nir, x. 8. See also Sayana on R.V. i. 34, referred to by Roth, Illust. of Nir., p. 136.

But whatever may be the case as regards Dyaus, the increasing popularity of Indra may, no doubt, as Professor Roth supposes, have tended also to eclipse the lustre of Varuna.

(10) Opinions of Professors Roth, Whitney, Spiegel, and Dr. F. Windischmann, on the question whether Varuna and Ahura Mazda are historically connected.

If Professor Roth's opinion,209 that there is not merely an analogy, but an actual historical connection between the Adityas and the Amshaspands of the Zend Avesta, be well founded, it will be made out that Varuna, who is one of the Adityas, must have been worshipped by the Aryans before the separation of the Persian from the Indian branch of that family. And this conclusion will be confirmed if we adopt the suggestion of Professor Whitney,210 that Ahura-Mazda is a development of Varuna.

I learn, however, from a communication with which I have lately been favoured by Professor Spiegel, of Erlangen, that that eminent Zend scholar is unable to recognize any similarity between AhuraMazda and Varuna, and considers the connection of the Amshaspands with the Adityas to be very doubtful.211 The late Dr. Windischmann

209 Journ. Germ. Orient. Society, vi. 69, 70.

210 Journal of the American Oriental Society, iii. 327. "Ahura Mazdā, Ormuzd, himself is," he writes, "as is hardly to be doubted, a development of Varuna, the Adityas are correlatives of the Amshaspands, there even exists in the Persian religion the same close connection between Ahura Mazda and Mithra as in the Indian between Mitra and Varuna." There is no doubt that the term Asura, "spirit," which is frequently applied to Varuna and to Mitra, and also to Indra and others of the Vedic gods, is the same word which, in its Zend form, Ahura, makes up, with the addition of Mazda, the appellation of the supreme and benevolent deity of the Iranian mythology. Professor Müller regards the names Ahuro Mazdão as corresponding to the Sanskrit Asuro-medhas, the "wise spirit" (Lectures on the Science of Language, first series, 1st edition, p. 195). See also Professor Benfey's Glossary to the Samaveda (1848) s.v. medhas, from which it appears that that scholar had adopted the same identification, and considers the existing reading of R.V. viii. 20, 17, asurasya vedhasaḥ, to be a corruption of asurasya medhasaḥ. But vedhas occurs elsewhere as an epithet of the gods, e.g. of Vishnu in i. 156, 2, 4. In the last of these verses he is styled mārutasya vedhasaḥ.

211 In regard to Ahura-Mazda and the Amshaspands, Professor Spiegel has, as he informs me, collected all the positive information he could obtain in the Avesta, in the Introduction to the 3rd vol. of his translation, pp. iii. ff.

also, as Professor Spiegel informs me, held Ahura Mazda to be a purely Iranian god (Zoroastrische Studien, p. 122). And such of the grounds for regarding Varuna as an older deity than Indra as might otherwise have been derived from the Zend Avesta, would be a good deal weakened if we could look upon the Indra or Andra of the Zend books as standing for the same god who was known in India under the former name (see Spiegel's Avesta, i. 10), and as representing a deity who had at one time been an object of worship common both to the Indian and Persian Aryans, but who after the separation of the two tribes was degraded by the latter into an evil spirit. For while Indra would thus be proved to have been known before the period of that separation, he might also have been at one time a god held by both divisions of the Aryas in high consideration as well as Varuna. I learn, however, from Professor Spiegel, that the materials afforded by the Zend books in reference to this name are not sufficient to afford a basis for any positive conclusions.212

(11) Whether there are any passages in the hymns which decisively shew that Indra was superseding Varuna.

Beyond the fact noticed by Roth, that Varuna is much less frequently mentioned in the last than in the earlier books of the Rigveda, I have not observed in the hymns themselves anything that can

212 The identification of Andra with Indra was, as Professor Spiegel tells me, first proposed by Burnouf (Yaśna 526 ff.), where a translation is given of the passage in which Andra is mentioned. It is rendered thus by Spiegel himself, in hisAvesta, i. 176: "I fight with Indra, I fight with S'auru, I fight with the Daeva Naoghaithi, to drive them away from the dwelling, the village, the castle, the country." The name Indra or Andra, as Prof. Spiegel further informs me, occurs only in one other passage (Westergaard, Zendavesta, p. 475), which he (Prof. S.) believes to be interpolated. It contains merely the name, and consequently throws no further light on the position of the god in the Avesta. The information found in the later Parsee books regarding Indra or Andra is also meagre (compare Spiegel's Avesta, ii. 35). On this subject Professor Spiegel makes the following remarks, in the Introduction to the 3rd vol. of his Avesta, p. lxxxi.: "It is said by some that the Andra of the Avesta is the Indra of the Vedas, that Nãoghaithya answers to Nasatyas, and Saurva to Sarva. Here from a real fact a quite incorrect conclusion is drawn. The names are the same in both religious systems; but how far the things resemble each other can never be shown in the same manner as the similarity of Soma and Haoma, etc.; for the Avesta tells as nothing more than the name of any of the beings in question."

ness.

be construed as a decisive proof that the worship of Indra was superseding that of Varuna during the period of their composition. It is true that even in the earlier parts of the Veda the number of hymns addressed to the former god is much greater than that in which the latter is celebrated. But I have not discovered any expressions which would distinctly indicate that the popularity of the one was waning, and that of the other increasing. There are, however, some passages which, though they do not afford any clear indications in support of such a supposition, are, at all events, not inconsistent with its correctThus there are several hymns in which Indra is associated with Varuna 213 as an object of celebration, and where the two are described as acting in concert, viz., i. 17; iv. 41; iv. 42; vi. 68; vii. 82; vii. 83; vii. 84; vii. 85; etc.; and this association of the two might have arisen from the worshippers of Indra desiring to enhance the dignity of that god by attaching him to the older and more venerable deity. In vii. 34, 24, Varuna is said to have Indra for his friend (Varunaḥ Indrasakha), but this cannot well bear the interpretation that some of their worshippers had been in the habit of regarding them as rivals and enemies, as in i. 22, 19, Vishnu is called the intimate friend of Indra (Indrasya yujyaḥ sakhā). Indra and Varuna are called the two monarchs, samrājā, and the supporters of all creatures 214 (i. 17, 1, 2); fixed in their designs, dhṛita-vratā (vi. 68, 10). Varuna is supplicated along with Indra to discharge a gleaming and violent thunderbolt against the worshippers' enemy (didyum asminn ojishṭham ugrā ni vadhishṭam vajram, iv. 41, 4), though in most other places (see above) Indra alone is regarded as the thunderer. In vii. 82, 2, it is said that one of the two, Varuna, is called samrāṭ, monarch (as he is in various places, see above, p. 60), and the other, Indra, is called svarāț, independent ruler (iii. 46, 1, and elsewhere; see i. 61, 9, above); and their separate relations and functions are described in other parts of this and the following hymns, vii. 82, 5: Indrā-varuṇā yad imāni chakrathur viśnā jātāni bhuvanasya majmanā | kshemena Mitro Varunam duvasyati Marudbhir ugraḥ śubham anyaḥ iyate | 6. Ajāmim aryaḥ śnathayantam atirad dabhrebhir anyaḥ pra vṛinoti bhūyasaḥ | "Indra

213 In A.V. iv. 25, 1, 2, Varuna and Vishnu are worshipped together.

214 Dhartṭārā charshanīnām. The same epithet is applied to Mitra and Varuna in v. 67, 2; and Varuna is called charshani-dhrit, "supporter of creatures," in iv. 1, 2.

and Varuna, when ye formed all these creatures of the world by your power, Mitra waits upon Varuna with tranquility, whilst the other fierce (god i.e. Indra) is resplendent along with the Maruts. 6. The one overcomes the destructive enemy; the other with few repels many." vii. 83, 9: Vrittrāni anyaḥ samitheshu jighnate vratāni anyaḥ abhi rakshate sadā | "The one (Indra) loves to slay enemies in battle; the other (Varuna) always maintains his ordinances." vii. 84, 2: Pari no helo Varunasya vrijyāḥ urum naḥ Indraḥ kṛinavad u lokam | "Do thou remove from us the wrath of Varuna; may Indra open to us an ample space." vii. 85, 3: Krishțir anyo dhārayati praviktāḥ vṛittrāni anyaḥ apratīni hanti | "The one sustains the separate creatures; the other slays unequalled enemies." So, too, their joint action is described in other verses. Thus they are said to have dug the channels of the rivers, to have impelled the sun in the sky (vii. 82, 3: anu apām khani atṛintam ojasā ā sūryam airayatam divi prabhum), and to have made all creatures (ibid. 5). All the other gods are said to have infused strength and vigour into these two in the highest heaven (ibid. 2: viśve devāsaḥ parame vyomani sam̃ vām ojo vṛishanā sam balam dadhuḥ). These passages are consistent with the supposition that the two gods were felt to have been rivals, and that the author of the hymn sought to reconcile their conflicting claims, but they are not conclusive, for Vishnu and Indra are also joined together in the same way in some hymns, i. 155; vi. 69; vii. 99, 4 ff. (see the 4th Vol. of this work, pp. 64, 71, 74 ff.); as are also Agni and Indra in others, i. 21; i. 108; i. 109; iii. 12; v. 86; vi. 59; Indra and Vayu in iv. 46-48; Indra and Pushan in vi. 57; Indra and Soma in vi. 72; vii. 104.

A number of verses occur in different parts of the Rig-veda (viz. i. 133, 1; iv. 23, 7; v. 2, 3, vii. 18, 16; x. 27, 6; x. 48, 7) in which the epithet anindra, "one who is no worshipper of Indra," is employed; but it does not appear that it is applied to persons who were not worshippers of Indra in particular, as distinguished from other Āryan gods, but either to the aboriginal tribes, who did not worship either him or any other Aryan god, or to irreligious Āryas, or rather, perhaps generally, to evil spirits as the enemies of Indra. In other places (as I have above noticed, p. 104,) we find sceptical doubts expressed regarding Indra.

The twelfth hymn of the second book is devoted to the glorification