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race of gods We do in foolishness and human insolence, Do thou from that, O Savitar, mid gods and men Make us here sinless, etc.
But if this song smacks of the sacrifice, still more so does V. 81, where Savitar is the 'priest's priest,' the 'arranger of sacrifice,' and is one with P[=u]shan. He is here the swift horse (see above) and more famous as the divider of time than anything else. In fact this was the first ritualistic glory of Savitar, that he divides the time for sacrifice. But he receives more in the light of being the type of other luminous divinities. In the next hymn, another late effort (V. 82; see the dream in vs. 4), there may be an imitation of the G[ra]yatr[=i]. Savitar is here the All-god and true lord, and frees from sin. There is nothing new or striking in the hymns VI. 71; VII. 38 and 45. The same golden hands, and references to the sacrifice occur here. Allusions to the Dragon of the Deep, who is called upon with Savitar (VII. 38.5), and the identification of Savitar with Bhaga (ib. 6) are the most important items to be gleaned from these rather stupid hymns. In other hymns not in the family-books (II.-VIII.), there is a fragment, X. 139. 1-3, and another, I. 22. 5-8. In the latter, Agni's (Fire's) title, 'son of waters,' is given to Savitar, who is virtually identified with Agni in the last part of the Rig Veda; and in the former hymn there is an interesting discrimination made between Savitar and P[=u]shan, who obeys him. The last hymn in the collection to Savitar, X. 149, although late and plainly intended for the sacrifice (vs. 5), is interesting as showing how the philosophical speculation worked about Savitar as a centre. 'He alone, he the son of the waters, knows the origin of water, whence arose the world.' This is one of the early speculations which recur so frequently in the Brahmanic period, wherein the origin of 'all this' (the universe) is referred to water. A hymn to Savitar in the first book contains as excellent a song as is given to the sun under this name. It is neither a morning nor an evening song in its original state, but mentions all the god's functions, without the later moral traits so prominent elsewhere, and with the old threefold division instead of thrice-three heavens.
TO SAVITAR (1.35).