92 The Religion of the Veda

v.1— ~—

end the later Vedic texts insist that Agni. “ Fire” belongs to, or is typical of the earth; Vem or Vfiyu, “Wind,”of the midoir, and Sfirya, “ Sun,” of the eky.‘ So for it is the philosophy of the obvious. They continue cleverly along that line in the following arrangement. I state only the more important members of each class:

Celestial gods: Dyoue or Dyeush I’iter (“Sky” or “Father Sky”), Verona, Mitre. Sorye and the Adityas, Savitar, Poslmn, Vishnu, Uellas, and the Agorillas»?t

Atmospheric gode : Vi‘ita. or Vflyu (” Wind”) Indra, Parjanye, Rudre, and the Maruts.

Terrestrial gods: Prithiv‘f (“ Earth”), Agni, and Some...

This threefold division, in order to be consistent, would have to be carried on to the end, so as to in... clude all the gods. As a matter of fact it is uncertain in many places, even when carried no farther. We are not so certain as are the Hindus that Indra, for instance, is a god of the mid-airf even though we must admire this, on the whole succeesful, oppreeiou tion of the place in nature that belongs to a goodly proportion of the chief gods.

1 Cf} Brihaddevatii I. 5 f. 9 See the index at the end of this book for these and most of the

following gods. 3 See but-:lmv1r p. 173.