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mystic conjunction with the dread deities of the Moon, and the Sun, and Mother Earth.' Even these other three, though noticed in the Veda, are put far into the background compared with Indra, Agni, Soma, and Varuna; but it is highly probable that they really occupied a very much larger share in the minds of the people of India than these sparse notices in the Veda would tend to show. In mod
ern mythology Sirī or Śrī is regarded as a consort of Vishnu.
The other two passages, in verse, form whole Suttantas the Mahā Samaya Suttanta, No. 20, in the Digha, now edited for the Pali Text Society, and translated in my Dialogues of the Buddha, vol. ii.; and the Aṭānāṭiyā Suttanta, No. 32, in the same collection. In the first of these two poems some unknown early Buddhist poet describes how all the gods of the people come to pay reverence, at Kapilavastu, to the new teacher, and to his order of mendicant recluses. In the second of them another unknown poet describes how certain of the gods come to ask him to adopt a form of words which will turn the hearts of other deities unfriendly to the new doctrine, and make them leave it and its followers in peace. And the form of words gives the names of all the gods whom it is considered desirable thus to propitiate.
RELIGION-ANIMISM
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These two poems form a suggestive parallel to the method followed by the brahmins of adopting, one by one, the popular faiths. It shows how similar are the motives that influence religious 1 Taittiriya Up. I. 4.
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
