With V[=a]yu is joined Indra, one of the popular gods. These divinities, which are partly of the middle and partly of the lower sphere, may be called the popular gods, yet were the title 'new gods' neither wholly amiss nor quite correct. For, though the popular deities in general, when compared with many for whom a greater antiquity may be claimed, such as the Sun, Varuna, Dyaus, etc., are of more recent growth in dignity, yet there remains a considerable number of divinities, the hymns in whose honor, dating from the latest period, seem to show that the power they celebrate had been but lately admitted into the category of those gods that deserved special worship. Consequently new gods would be a misleading term, as it should be applied to the plainer products of theological speculation and abstraction rather than to Indra and his peers, not to speak of those newest pantheistic gods, as yet unknown. The designation popular must be understood, then, to apply to the gods most frequently, most enthusiastically revered (for in a stricter sense the sun was also a popular god); and reference is had in using this word to the greater power and influence of these gods, which is indicated by the fact that the hymns to Agni and Indra precede all others in the family books, while the Soma-hymns are collected for the most part into one whole book by themselves. But there is another factor that necessitates a division between the divinities of sun and heaven and the atmospheric and earthly gods which are honored so greatly; and this factor is explanatory of the popularity of these gods. In the case of the older divinities it is the spiritualization of a sole material appearance that is revered; in the case of the popular gods, the material phenomenon is reduced to a minimum, the spirituality behind the phenomenon is exalted, and that spirituality stands not in and for itself, but as a part of a union of spiritualities. Applying this test to the earlier gods the union will be found to be lacking. The sun's spiritual power is united with Indra's, but the sun is as much a physical phenomenon as a spirituality, and always remains so. On the other hand, the equation of Varunic power with Indraic never amalgamated the two; and these are the best instances that can be chosen of the older gods. For in the case of others it is self-evident. Dyaus and Dawn are but material phenomena, slightly spiritualized, but not joined with the spirit-power of others. Many have been the vain attempts to go behind the returns of Vedic hymnology and reduce Indra, Agni, and Soma to terms of a purely naturalistic religion. It cannot be done. Indra is neither sun, lightning, nor storm; Agni is neither hearth-fire nor celestial fire; Soma is neither planet nor moon.