The Religions of India: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume 1, Edited by Morris JastrowHopkins, Edward Washburn
Religion
The Religions of India: Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume 1, Edited by Morris Jastrow
Hopkins, Edward Washburn
India -- Religion
Bergaigne identifies P[=u]shan with Soma, with whom the poets were apt
to identify many other deities, but there seems to be little
similarity originally.[29] It is only in the wider circles of each
god's activity that the two approach each other. Both gods, it is
true, wed S[=u]rya (the female sun-power), and Soma, like P[=u]shan,
finds lost cattle. But it must be recognized once for all that
identical attributes are not enough to identify Vedic gods. Who gives
wealth? Indra, Soma, Agni, Heaven and Earth, Wind, Sun, the Maruts,
etc. Who forgives sins? Agni, Varuna, Indra, the Sun, etc. Who helps
in war? Agni, P[=u]shan, Indra, Soma, etc. Who sends rain? Indra,
Parjanya, Soma, the Maruts, P[=u]shan, etc. Who weds Dawn? The Açvins,
the Sun, etc. The attributes must be functional or the identification
is left incomplete.
The great disparity in descriptions of P[=u]shan may be illustrated by
setting VI. 48. 19 beside X. 92. 13. The former passage merely
declares that P[=u]shan is a war-leader "over mortals, and like the
gods in glory"; the latter, that he is "distinguished by all divine
attributes"; that is to say, what has happened in the case of Savitar
has happened here also. The individuality of P[=u]shan dies out, but
the vaguer he becomes the more grandiloquently is he praised and
associated with other powers; while for lack of definite laudation
general glory is ascribed to him. The true position of P[=u]shan in
the eyes of the warrior is given unintentionally by one who says,[30]
"I do not scorn thee, O P[=u]shan," _i.e.,_ as do most people, on
account of thy ridiculous attributes. For P[=u]shan does not drink
_soma_ like Indra, but eats mush. So another devout believer says:
"P[=u]shan is not described by them that call him an eater of
mush."[31] The fact that he was so called speaks louder than the pious
protest. Again, P[=u]shan is simply bucolic. He uses the goad, which,
however, according to Bergaigne, is the thunderbolt! So, too, the cows
that P[=u]shan is described as guiding have been interpreted as clouds
or 'dawns.' But they may be taken without 'interpretation' as
real cows.[32] P[=u]shan drives the cows, he is armed with a goad, and
eats mush; bucolic throughout, yet a sun-god. It is on these lines
that his finding-qualities are to be interpreted. He finds lost
cattle,[33] a proper business for such a god; but Bergaigne will see
in this a transfer from P[=u]shan's finding of rain and of _soma_.[34]
P[=u]shan, too, directs the furrow[35]
Together with Vishnu and Bhaga this god is invoked at sacrifices, (a
fact that says little against or for his original sun-ship),[36] and
he is intimately connected with Indra. His sister is his mistress, and
his mother is his wife (Dawn and Night?) according to the meagre
accounts given in VI. 55. 4-5.[37] As a god of increase he is invoked
in the marriage-rite, X. 85. 37.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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