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than the presentation, through fire, of clarified butter and the juice of the Soma plant, to the gods, who are invoked to be present, whose power and benevolence are glorified, whose protection against enemies and misfortunes is implored, whose displeasure and anger are deprecated, and who are solicited to bestow food, cattle, riches, and posterity upon the individuals who conduct the worship, or on whose behalf it is performed: occasional intimations of the hope of happiness hereafter occur, but they are not frequent, nor urgent, and the main objects of every prayer and hymn are the good things of this present life.

The chief individual objects of worship are the same as in the former volume, even in a still more engrossing proportion: of the hundred and eighteen hymns of the Second Ashtaka, thirty are dedicated to AGNI in his own form or subordinate manifestations, whilst to INDRA by himself or with other divinities, and especially with the winds or the Maruts, his attendants, there are appropriated thirty-nine of the remaining hymns, six are addressed to the AśWINS, five to MITRA and VARUŝa, five to BRIHASPATI and BRAHMAÑASPATI, five to the Viswadevas, and three to VÁYU; VISHNU has two, the Dawn two, Heaven and Earth three: the rest are distributed, for the most part singly, amongst a variety of personations, some of which are divine, as RUDRA, VARUÑA, SAVITRI, the A'DITYAS, and PUSHAN, each having one hymu: some of the objects are human beings, as the Rájá SWANAYA who is the

hero of two Súktas, AGASTYA and his wife who are the interlocutors in one, and the Ribhus, or deified sons of SUDHANWAN, to whom one hymn is addressed some of the number are fanciful, as Pitu, Food; Water, Grass, and the Sun; the supposed divinities of a Súkta each; whilst two hymns, as will be presently more particularly noticed, are dedicated to the Horse, who is the victim of the Aswamedha sacrifice.

The particulars that are related of AGNI are little else than repetitions of those ascribed to him in the First Ashtaka, told with rather less detail, the language of general panegyric being much more diffuse in this Ashtaka than in the First, whilst the legendary incidents are comparatively scanty: the same may be said of the Hymns addressed to INDRA; such of his exploits as are alluded to are those which have been previously particularized, but fewer of them are specified, and some of them have been ascribed in the preceding book to other agents, as, for instance, to the Aświns (p. 242). There are a few hymns in this book which evidently imply a recent grafting of the worship of the Maruts upon that of INDRA, an innovation of which the Rishi AGASTYA appears to have been the author, and which was not effected without opposition on the part of the worshippers of INDRA alone (pp. 145163): the Maruts are here, as well as in the First Book, termed the sons of Rudra.

There is but one hymn addressed to the A'dityas collectively, but the chief divinities of the class are

the subjects severally of other hymns, or of scattered stanzas, such as MITRA, VARUÑA, ARYAMAN, and VISHNU; the latter, in one place, appears as identical with Time (p. 97), in which capacity his three paces, which are repeatedly alluded to, may be intended to allegorize the past, present, and future. VARUÑA, besides being characterized by the same attributes as those formerly attached to him, is represented as the especial resource of persons in debt, or of those who have been reduced from affluence to poverty (pp. 278-280).

The AśWINS are described in the same strain as in the First Ashtaka, and various of their exploits are repeated, but with less copiousness and distinctness although it is rather vaguely intimated, they are regarded mythologically as born in the firmament and the sky (p. 179); and in one place they are called the grandsons of heaven, being identified, according to the Scholiast, as on a former occasion, with the sun and moon, or being, in fact, mythological personations of the former.

SAVITRI, the Sun, has but one Hymn addressed to him, and this offers fewer particulars than occur in the three Súktas, of which he is the deity, in the First Book the principal attribute noticed is his defining the day and distinguishing it from the night it is said, also, to be his office to effect the generation of mankind, but this seems to be little else than an etymological conceit, the noun being derived from the root sú, to bring forth: he is called also the husband or protector of the wives of

the gods, usually considered to be personations of the metres of the Veda.

BRAHMANASPATI is in this Ashtaka identified with BRIHASPATI, and both receive more honour than in the former Book, in which BṚIHASPATI is named only incidentally in single verses of hymns to INDRA, or the Viswadevas, and one hymn only is dedicated to BRAHMANASPATI; the former, when treated of separately, is identical with INDRA, by his attributes of sending rain (p. 199) and wielding the thunderbolt (p. 285); but he is hymned indiscriminately with BRAHMANASPATI, who is styled the lord of the Ganas, or companies of divinities, and also, which is in harmony with his former character, chief or most excellent lord of mantras, or prayers of the Vedas (p. 262); he also, in some of his attributes, as those of dividing the clouds, and sending rain, and recovering the stolen kine (p. 268), is identical with INDRA, although, with some inconsistency, he is spoken of as distinct from, although associated with him (p. 270); but this may be a misconception of the Scholiast his attribute of father, or cherisher, and purohita, or family priest of the gods, may be merely figurative as connected with his presiding over prayer.

RUDRA is described as in the first book by rather incompatible qualities, as both fierce and benignant, but his specific province is here also the tutelarship of medicinal plants, and administration of medicine, and he is designated as a physician of physicians (p. 290). With respect also to his presiding over

medicinal plants, there occurs a passage worthy of note, as among the herbs are those, it is said, which MANU selected, alluding, most probably, to the seeds of the plants which MANU, according to the legend as related in the Mahábhárata, took with him into his vessel at the time of the deluge. There are more particulars of the person of RUDRA than usual. He is sometimes said to be brown or tawny, but he is also said to be white-complexioned (p. 291): he is soft-bellied and handsome-chinned; he is armed with a bow and arrows, and brilliant with golden ornaments. He is also called the father of the Maruts. There is little however in all this except his fierceness to identify him with the RUDRA of the Puráñas.

Of the remaining persons of the Vaidik pantheon, who appear in this portion, the notices that occur conform generally to those of the preceding Ashtaka, and require no remark. There are several hymns, however, of a peculiar character, some of which deserve notice. The two hymns, of which the Rájá SWANAYA, the son of Bhávayavya, is the patron or deity, record the munificence of a Hindu prince to the Rishi, DÍRGHATAMAS, and furnish, apparently, the model of the many similar acts of regal liberality which are narrated in the heroic poems and Puráñas, as well as of the family alliances of royal and saintly, or military and Brahmanical races by marriage, the daughters of Rájás being wedded to holy Rishis. It also affords evidence of the prevalence of polygamy at this early date, as DÍRGHA

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