HYMN TO WIND (V[=a]ta).

  Now V[=a]ta’s chariot’s greatness!  Breaking goes it,
  And thundering is its noise; to heaven it touches,
  Goes o’er the earth, cloud[1] making, dust up-rearing;
  Then rush together all the forms of V[=a]ta;
  To him they come as women to a meeting. 
  With them conjoint, on the same chariot going,
  Is born the god, the king of all creation. 
  Ne’er sleepeth he when, on his pathway wandering,
  He goes through air.  The friend is he of waters;
  First-born and holy,—­where was he created,
  And whence arose he?  Spirit of gods is V[=a]ta,
  Source of creation, goeth where he listeth;
  Whose sound is heard, but not his form.  This V[=a]ta
  Let us with our oblations duly honor.

In times later than the Rig Veda, V[=a]yu interchanges with Indra as representative of the middle sphere; and in the Rig Veda all the hymns of the family books associate him with Indra (vii. 90-92; iv. 47-48).  In the first book he is associated thus in the second hymn; while, ib. 134, he has the only remaining complete hymn, though fragments of songs occasionally are found.  All of these hymns except the first two simply invite V[=a]yu to come with Indra to the sacrifice, It is V[=a]yu who with Indra obtains the first drink of soma (i. 134. 6).  He is spoken of as the artificer’s, Tvashtar’s, son-in-law, but the allusion is unexplained (viii. 26. 22); he in turn begets the storm-gods (i. 134. 4).

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.