There is here, no more than in the early hymn from the first book, translated in the first chapter, any worship of material phenomena.  S[=u]rya is worshipped as Savitar, either expressly so called, or with all the attributes of the spiritual.  The hymn that follows this[19] is a bald imitation.  In V. 47 there are more or less certain signs of lateness, e.g., in the fourth stanza ("four carry him, ... and ten give the child to drink that he may go,” etc.) there is the juggling with unexplained numbers, which is the delight of the later priesthood.  Moreover, this hymn is addressed formally to Mitra-Varuna and Agni, and not to the sun-god, who is mentioned only in metaphor; while the final words namo dive, ‘obeisance to heaven,’ show that the sun is only indirectly addressed.  One cannot regard hymns addressed to Mitra-Varuna and S[=u]rya (with other gods) as primarily intended for S[=u]rya, who in these hymns is looked upon as the subject of Mitra and Varuna, as in VII. 62; or as the “eye” of the two other gods, and ‘like Savitar’ in VII. 63.  So in VII. 66. 14-16, a mere fragment of a hymn is devoted exclusively to S[=u]rya as “lord of all that stands and goes.”  But in these hymns there are some very interesting touches.  Thus in VII. 60. 1, the sun does not make sinless, but he announces to Mitra and Varuna that the mortal is sinless.  There are no other hymns than these addressed to S[=u]rya, save those in the first and tenth books, of which nine stanzas of I. 50 (see above) may be reckoned early, while I. 115, where the sun is the soul of the universe, and at the same time the eye of Mitra-Varuna, is probably late; and I. 163 is certainly so, wherein the sun is identified with Yama, Trita, etc.; is ‘like Varuna’; and is himself a steed, described as having three connections in the sky, three in the waters, three in the sea.  In one of the hymns in the tenth book, also a mystical song, the sun is the ‘bird’ of the sky, a metaphor which soon gives another figure to the pantheon in the form of Garutman, the sun-bird, of whose exploits are told strange tales in the epic, where he survives as Garuda.  In other hymns S[=u]rya averts carelessness at the sacrifice, guards the worshipper, and slays demons.  A mechanical little hymn describes him as measuring the ‘thirty stations.’  Not one of these hymns has literary freshness or beauty of any kind.  They all belong to the class of stereotyped productions, which differ in origin and content from the hymns first mentioned.[20]

SAVITAR.

Turning to Savitar one finds, of course, many of the same descriptive traits as in the praise of S[=u]rya, his more material self.  But with the increased spirituality come new features.  Savitar is not alone the sun that rises; he is also the sun that sets; and is extolled as such.  There are other indications that most of the hymns composed for him are to accompany the sacrifice, either of the morning