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JULY, 1903.]
their fertility. And perhaps we may descry in Varuna the celestial reflex and god-head of the king, in Mitra that of the contumacious nobility, and in Aryaman that of a loyal populace.
THE RELIGION OF THE IRANIAN PEOPLES.
293
For, that Varuna is of the cycle of the East Aryans reposes on a well-founded hypothesis. We may leave it undecided whether he was so early adored under that appellation or whether this designation is still older and is connected with the Greek Uranos. The first alternative has the weight of greater probability. We believe that the personified abstraction which passes under the name of Varuna in the Vedic times is more primival than the religions, either Vedic or Avestaic. So its absence among the Iranians is tolerably explicable. Such as embraced the Zarathushtrian creed were unable to place another supreme deity in juxtaposition with Mazda Ahura, the omniscient Ahura. In the new scheme Varuna is superseded by a god, who is his equal in several respects, and who, similarly to him, is Ahura (Asura) par excellence. Varana among the Indians was so intimately associated with the ethical and phenomenal world (which they denoted by the word ṛta) that he to a certain extent coincides with the latter, so much so that not without a show of reason is he characterized a personification of rta. Analogously, Mazda is as good as identical with Asha, the Iranian parallel of ṛta, whom the Zarathushtrians have also in a manner personified. Again, as Mitra is associated with Varuna in the Veda, so too is Mitra with Ahura in the younger Avesta. It is neither proved nor probable that this Ahura is another being than Ahura Mazda. There is equally meagre evidence for the supposition that the highest God of Zarathushtrian system has supplanted Dyaus 65 (who is conspicuous by his absence among the Persians), but was not able to supersede the celestial deity Varuna. On the contrary, he unites in himself the importance of both who both are many times curtly styled Asura. But in most aspects Ahura Mazda iz in unison with Varuna, Dyaus is a most primiveel nature-god dating back to anti-East Aryan times. In the Veda he occupies a place in the dogma, but in the liturgical exercitation he has sunk into nonentity. Not, however, that Mazda Ahura is distinguishable from Varuna-Asura only by name. Mazda is a creation of the Zarathushtrian protestantism. But they are too similar the one to the other for both to be simultaneously adored; and thus Varuna bad to yield. When latterly Mitra was transferred from the popular creed to the Zarathushtrian scheme of religion, he could not remain conjoined with Varuna, but must stand in the same relation to Mazda which formerly he occupied with regard to Varuna,67
Recently the hypothesis has been assailed which imputed to the Indo-Iranian the loan of the sacred number seven from the Semites, and which sought to explain the figure by a reference to nothing more than the sun, moon, and the five planets. Varuna (and Ahura Mazda ?) was supposed to be the moon, Mitra the sun, the remaining five the real or apparent minor luminaries. This theory gives
CA In the dual number and in different cases. Yasna, I. 11.
[Mill notes, 8. E. E. XXXI. 199: The star Jupiter has been called Ormuzd by the Persians and Armenians, and it may be intended here, as stars are next mentioned, but who can fail to be struck with the resemblance to the Mitra-Varuna of the Rig-Veda. Possibly both ideas were present to the composer.-TR.]
Yasna, II. 11.
Yasht, 10, 113.
3
[This passage is remarkable as showing the struggles of the faithful with the unbelievers may Mitra and Ahura, the high gods, come to us for help when the poniard lifts up its voice aloud, when the nostrils of the horses quiver. when the strings of the corns whistle and shoot sharp arrows; then the brood of those whose libations are hated fall smitten to the ground, with their hair torn off (S. B. E. XXIII. 148-49). TB.] Atá, in Herod. I. 131, is the accusative of Zeus, not of Dyaus. Herodotus means to express Ahura Mazda. The view here opposed is advanced by P. von Bradke, Dyaus Asura, Ahura Mazda und die Asuras; Halle, 1885. 7 With reference to the whole problem, consult H. W. Wallis, The Cosmogony of the Rig-Veda, p. 100-about Rta and Varuna, ibid. p. 52. See A. Hillebrandt, Mitra und l'aruna; Bobenberger, Der Altindische Gott Varuna nach den Liedern des Rig-Veda, 1893. Spiegel, who first in his Eranischen Alterthumskunde accepted the original unity of the Amesha Spentas and Adityas, has latterly receded from his position. Cf. Die Arische Periode und ibre Zustände; Leipzig, 1887, p. 19, and comp. C. Harles, Les Origines die Zoroastrianisme. The text will show that I am unable to second the latest theories.
Oldenberg, Die Relegion des Veda, pp. 185 and 193 seq. See my notice of it in the Theol. Tigdache, 1895.
