86 The Religion of the: Veda

and was beginning to enter upon a earner nf rigmm role... Thus the Itig~Vnda says at" Gnd Savitat, the sun cunccivcd as the: promoter 01' life: “‘ find Savitar, apprnaching un tin: dark him: salty, anataining mnrtals and immortals, (:0ng cm his gnidnn charint, beholding all the warlda'” It is; the: fiat}? ball that rises from the sea nr over the hills, anything: nmrt: in the first place. Thu ordinary way of mythnlng}: would be to make of this Savitar a wnnclnrfui chariw otaer, given over, say, to racing or in warlike claaclat Instead, this process is, as I say, armatcd. The natural phenomenon remains thn repositnry at run newed and deepening thought. Even in the Rig» Veda itself the cancnptinn of the: nun makes great onward strides as the most prominent symbnl of tha ultimate force at work in the: universe. An" other stanza, speaking of Sfirya, annthnr sunugnd, says, “The sun is the Self nr Soul nf all that moves or atandaM And yet another, the {am- 0113 so~called Savitrt, or Gayatrr, which remains sacrmsanct at all times, and is recited daily even now by every orthodox Hindu,” again turns to Savitar:

‘Rig-Neda I. 35. 2.. 9 Rig-Veda I. 115. I. 38cc Monier Williams, Transacfiam af 2%: Fifik International

Congress of Orientalz'51'3, v01. ii., p. 163