Hindu mythology, Vedic and Purânic . sfy. 44 The Vedic Deities. Bright goddess, let thy genial raysTo us bring store of envied wealthIn kine and steeds, and sons with health,And joy of heart, and length of days. In the later writings we find merely the name of Ushas. Thepeople lost much of their poetic fire ; hence the more humanand practical deities caused the more poetical ones to pass intooblivion. Some of the figures in the preceding extracts are mostbeautifully drawn. The changing colours of the dawn are com-pared to the many-coloured robes of the dancing-girl; the goldentipped clouds tha
Hindu mythology, Vedic and Purânic . sfy. 44 The Vedic Deities. Bright goddess, let thy genial raysTo us bring store of envied wealthIn kine and steeds, and sons with health,And joy of heart, and length of days. In the later writings we find merely the name of Ushas. Thepeople lost much of their poetic fire ; hence the more humanand practical deities caused the more poetical ones to pass intooblivion. Some of the figures in the preceding extracts are mostbeautifully drawn. The changing colours of the dawn are com-pared to the many-coloured robes of the dancing-girl; the goldentipped clouds that appear ere the sun shines in his strength, arelike the jewels of a bride decked for her husband ; whilst thequiet modesty of the dawn herself is like a shy maiden, consciousindeed of her beauty, entering society under the protection ofher mother. And from the last four lines of the metrical sketchit will be noticed, that she was believed to be able to bestowupon her worshippers cattle, horses, sons, health, joy, and lengthof ( 45 ) CHAPTER VII. THE STORM DEITIES. I. INDRA. As was noticed previously, Indra, together with Agni and Surya,by means of sacrifice obtained supremacy over the other gods ;and if we may judge from thenumber of hymns addressedto him in the Vedas, he wasthe most popular deity. He is the god of the firma-ment, in whose hands are thethunder and the lightning; atwhose command the refreshingshowers fall to render the earthfruitful. When it is borne inmind that in India for monthstogether the earth is exposedto the scorching rays of thesun, sometimes without a singleshower, so that it is impossiblefor the fields to be ploughed orthe seed to be sown, it will notbe regarded as wonderful, thatthe god who is supposed tobestow rain should frequently be appealed to, and that the most laudatory songs should beaddressed to him. To the poetic minds of that age, the clouds
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