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162
LECTURES ON THE SCIENCE OF RELIGION.
yet, without very definite reasons, as a repository of more modern poems.
The very name of the deity, addressed in this hymn, Visvakarman, indicates that the poet did not belong to the earliest period of Vedic religion. It occurs as a proper name in the tenth Mandala only. Originally Visvakarman, the maker of all things, is an epithet of several old gods. Indra is called Visvakarman', likewise Sûrya, the sun, and Visvakrit, he who makes everything, occurs in the Atharva-veda 3 as an epithet of Agni, the fire, who in the Brâhmanas o also is identified with Visvakarman. Visvakarman, as an independent, but very abstract deity appears, like Pragapati and similar divine individuals, as the creator, or, more correctly, as the fashioner and architect of the universe. In the hymns dedicated to him some rays break through here and there from the dark mythological background through which and from which the concept of Visvakarman arose. Sometimes we are still able to recognise the traces of Agni, sometimes of Sûrya, although the poets themselves think of him chiefly as the Creator. Thus we read in one verse:
The seer and a priest, who offering all the worlds as a sacrifice, came down as our father, he, appearing first, entered among mortals, desiring wealth with blessing.'
This, at first sight, is not very clear, nor do I pretend to say that this verse has as vet been rendered quite intelligible, in spite of the efforts of various translators and commentators. Still we may see a little light, if we remember that Visvakarman, the Rig-Veda, viii. 98, 2.
? Ibid. x, 170, 4. Atharva-veda, vi. 47, 1. Satapatha-brahmana, ix, 2, 2.
