Satapatha Bramhana Part 02

Author(s): Julius Eggeling
Publisher: Oxford

Page 17

xiv
SATAPATHA-BRÂHMANA.
Iguvian tablets. M. Bergaigne has also carefully collected the passages of the Rik in which Soma appears either compared or identified with the sun. Although a mere comparison of Indu-Soma with the sun can scarcely be considered sufficient evidence on this point, since such a comparison might naturally enough suggest itself even to one who had the identity of Soma and the moon in his mind, there still remain not a few passages where no such ambiguity seems possible. Somewhat peculiar are the relations between Soma and Surya's daughter (probably the Dawn), alluded to several times in the Rik. In one passage (IX, 1, 6) she is said to pass Sarya through the perpetual filter (sasvat våra); whilst in another (IX, 113, 8) Surya's daughter brought the bull (Soma?), reared by Parganya (the cloud); the Gandharvas seized him and put him, as sap, into the Soma (plant ?). A combination of this female bearer of Soma with the eagle (or falcon) who carried off Soma (IV, 27, &c.) seems to have supplied the form of the myth, current in the Brahmanas, according to which Gayatri fetched Soma from heaven. The hymn X, 85, on the other hand, celebrates the marriage ceremony of Soma and Sarya, at which the two Asvins act as bride'smen, and Agni as the leader of the bridal procession to the bridegroom's home.
There are, however, other passages in the Rig-veda, in which Soma, so far from being identified with the sun, seems to be regarded as some sovereign power which originates or controls that luminary, as well as the other lights of heaven. Thus in Rig-veda IX, 61, 16 Soma is represented as producing (ganayan) the bright light belonging to all men; in IX, 97, 41 as producing the light in the sun (aganayat sûrye gyotir induk); in IX, 28, 5; 37, 4 as causing the sun to shine (rokayan); in IX, 86, 22; 107, 7 as making him rise (å-rohayan) in the sky; in IX, 63, 6
1 M. Bergaigne, II, p. 149, identifies with Sürya's daughter the girl (? Apala) who, going to the water, found Soma, and took him home, saying, I'll press thee for Indra l' On this hymn see Prof. Aufrecht, Ind. Stud. IV, 1 seq.
On this hymn see A. Weber, Ind. Stud. V, 178 seq.; J. Ehni, Zeitsch. der D.M.G. XXXIII, p. 166 seq.
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