T H E R IK S

P RIME VA L GL E AMS O F L IGH T AND

P A R A M A S IV A I Y E R

Distric t a n d S e ssio n s Ju dge of B a n ga l o re

B A N G A L O R E M Y S O R E G O V E RN ME N T P RE S S 1 9 1 1

[ C o p yright R e giste re d]

CO

t he memory Of

K . HE L T M I S O F I N G . T A E ARQU R PO , ,

THE SAINTLY A ND ILLUSTRIOU S V IC EROY O F INDIA (1880

THE LATE MAHARAJA S RI C HA MA RA JA WA DIA R B D U AHA R ,

THE W S A ND SW - P U O F GOOD , I E EET TEM ERED R LER MY SORE (1881

‘ THE LATE RA JYA DHUR A NDHA RA HE HA D RI Y IR K . S I S S ER ,

THE GREAT AND HIGH -MINDED DEWAN TO HIS HIGHNE SS T HE LATE CHA MA RA JA WA DIAR B D AHA UR ,

(1883 AND DEWAN O F MY SORE (1895—1901) DURING THE MINORITY O F HIS HIGHNE SS SRI KRISHNA RA JA WA D IA E B D U AHA R ,

THE SE DISC OVERIE S ARE DEDIC ATED AS A TRIBUTE F O ADMIRATION AND RE V ERENC E .

20049 5 3

’ A U T H O R S P R E FA C E .

I o SEND out this b o o k in its crude and semi digested form for reasons which will be o bvio u s I on reading any one of its chapters . If succeed in m o difyin g human thought in regard

m tho l o to ancient religion and y gy , the credit will be entirely due to the western learning I I have imbibed , and ever cherish the day when

- my good and strong willed Professor Dr . Wilson practically carried m e away to his Phys ical Science class and facilit ated my realising nearly a quarter of a century later the iden tity o f Védic and Puranic stories with geo logical and chemical phenomena . A full and accurate exposition of the Ve das and the Brahmanical literature based on the Ve das

scie n will demand the aid of a plastic intellect , tific n imaginatio , expert knowledge , practical and theoretical , of Geology , Mining, Organic

Chemistry , Agriculture , and Astronomy as well as close familiarity with high mountains and petroliferous regions . Above all , the student o f the Ve da should possess supreme capacity for putting himself in the place of o u r o ld world forefathers . I have but exposed the main lodes and reefs by superficial trench ing , and though a few more readings of the Samhitas would have given me a firmer grasp o f e the details of V dic technology , the prospect o f returning to my bread-winning duty forced me five months ago to commence putting my ideas into shape for publication to ensure against the great mine o f ancient knowledge re maining fo r ever at the bottom o f the sea o f obli I vion . When made my first discovery twenty

I to two years ago , resolved avoid confusing my head with commentaries and translations of I all kinds . made no notes lest my first crude ideas might blind me to the perception of the truth , and it was only after two dozen continu ous readings o f the Riks and a dozen of the white and black Y aj u s spread over eight years o f I active and varied service , that ventured to

’ look into Griffith s translation o f the Rig Ve da ’ and Professor Macdo n n e ll s Ve dic An thology fo r purposes of reference and verification . My grateful acknowledgments are due to these

o f ! great scholars , the former whom , alas is t n o w no more . I have dedica ed this work to the great English gentleman who recently passed into the bosom o f the Lord full o f years

o f di and honours , and who as Viceroy In a from 1880 to 1885 so truly represented the S pirit o f o ur revered Empress - Mother Victoria o f blessed

o f memory . The late Marquis Ripon gave effect to the Rendition o f Mysore to my late

C h am ara a Wadiar good and wise Maharaj a Sri j , who more than j ustified it with the help of

n the great and good Brahman , o whom shortly before his lam ented demise he conferred the f appropriate title o Raj y a dhu ran dh ara . With

‘ o f the Marquis Ripon , therefore , I have associ ated my late gracious Maharaj a of blessed memory and his great minister Sir K . Shesha dri Iyer , the splendid works of whose powerful ,

m - co prehensive and far seeing intellect , inspired by a heart which ever beat in active sympathy

o f with all classes people , are indelibly stamped o n o f the Mysore plateau , the beautiful Aditi

Southern India . My gratitude is due to Mr .

Y o f ates , Superintendent the Mysore Govern

fo r ment Press , the fatherly care with which

he piloted this rough - hewn and uncouth work

u thro gh the Press . ’ With my young and gracious Maharaj a s good wishes and the blessings and approval of my saintly and learned elder brother , Mr .

S adasiva I Iyer , now give this book to the world .

T PARAMA I A E . S V IY R .

A L BE RT VICTO R RO AD , H M C A ARA JPET , BANGA L O RE . N C O T E N T S .

PAGE DEDICATION PRE FAC E INTRO D UCTION

P CHA TER I .

Vritra-Ahi

P II CHA TER .

R ra Prismi an d ud ,

P CHA TER I II .

Dy ava Prithivi o r He ave n an d Earth

H I C APTER V .

I n dra

CHAPTER V .

I n dra an d Se m a

CHAPTER VI.

Twas htar the A it as R ras a n d Va u , d y , ud s s I CHAPTER V I.

Vishn u

CHAPTER VIII .

Th e Te n Avatars

! CHAPTER I .

T he L r A an d Krish n a o d , pollo

CHAPTER ! .

Y agn a -H e roe s an d Wars

CHAPTER ! I.

The O rigin of Man

! II CHAPTER .

Misce llan e ou s

CHAPTER ! III .

T he Rik s Th e ir Pre se r a ti n an d I n te r re tati n , v o p o

CHAPTER ! IV .

T he H an Min Its O ri in um d , g

! CHAPTER V .

The Comm an dme n ts I N T R O D U C T I O N .

‘ ’ T HE Riks literally mean gleams . They are gleams O f light and life which issued o u t o f decay and darkness , united with the gods

Vi wak arm an born of s , and created the living species now flourishing o n this earth . The

o f S Om a Rishis were producers , and the Great Architect who produced heaven and earth and produced the gods in heaven and earth in his

f T r form o was ht a was Agni . Heaven and earth had been produced long before the birth o f the d go s , but they were swallowed up by the monstrous serpent and its brood who prevented w m the sun from ar ing and lighting the earth , and destroyed light and life . The mightiest

’ f Vi w k r o s a a m an s sons was Indra . Others o f his mighty children were Aryaman , Mitra

n o f . and Varu a . They were the sons Aditi Indra bore the brunt of battle and destroyed the great serpent as well as numerous smal l

th e in snakes , let loose imprisoned waters , tro du ce d the sun into the earth and destroyed an d the towers , castles walls , within whose deep , w sunless shadows , the serpents gre in size and

In power . this be n e fice n t work Indra was

r helped by the Maruts , by the Rishis with thei o f n . e S ma O ferings , and by Vish u To put thes

Pu ri n ic l u was facts in ang age , when the earth swallowed up by the serpent she appealed to

i k arm Lord V swa an . He produced gods in three regions , the heaven , the waters , and the

- t mid region , sacrificed his energy in the figh with the dragon , restored motion to the waters , and light and heat to the earth . Having per formed this great sacrifice and having created the living species out of his sacrificed energy , h e made a gift o f the earth to Kasyapa who was to wed her and propagate he r children . The earth (Bhfi m i) first declined the appointed bridegroom and threatened to sink into the sea ! she was lifted up and resigned herself to e her fate . This is the main burden of the V dic song . We have now to answer the riddle of

Vritra the Rishis . Who was the serpent that swallowed up the earth ? Who was Viswa karman that produced the gods ? ’ Who is Twash tar who divided the heaven i s and earth , produced the Jan s (the mother o f the gods) , wedded them to Vayu , and produced the host o f divine beings ? Who was Indra and who were the Maruts that helped h im in the fight w ith Vritra ? Who was the mighty Vishnu whose true greatness and s to uperiority Indra himself , only a few Rishis ,

D ir h atam as Bh aradwa a chiefly g , j and Vasi s h h a ? t , fully realised Who was the omniform

S Om a o f , the food the gods , who helped the

Vritra gods to destroy and his castles , and engendered creation by uniting with the gods ? ’ These and several other questions incidental to

them I will answer in the following chapters . The questions framed with a full knowledge of the answers will themselves suggest the replies to the Ve dic scholar of general culture and

e x si penetration . I had hoped to give a full p o tion o f the substance o f the Riks with their intensely interesting details in so far as those details can be realised under present conditions

o f life , but health and life being uncertain , I con tent myself with a relation of the main

facts embodied in the hymns , as those facts are

all - important to the human race and carry the

impress of truth o n their face . I will not criticise the criticisms to which the Riks have t been subj ected by modern scholars , as tha

be to would extremely unfair the latter , and I ,

o f to as a child Kasyapa , like them , happen know the difficulty o f unravelling Viswa

’ ’ karman s works with Kasyapa s needle . These revelations have n o originality except in the sense that they , for the first time , reveal the main features o f the original snow- ocean w whence all religions have flo ed , in pure or polluted streams according to the nature o f the receiving grounds . Though the matter is every thing and I can give a connected view o f the n Riks begin ing at the beginning , I will give my discoveries in the order in which I made them , as otherwise an altogether erroneous view o f the credit due to me will be created , and these discoveries are not the result o f a study o f the Ve das and Ve dic literature with a view to ‘ d interpreting them . My first discovery (an curiously en ough it was the serpent that I

first discovered) was the result of an accident . I slept over it for a decade and took up my

1901 . Riks in I discovered Rudra , the Maruts ,

ROdasI D av a i A n tarik sh a , y and Prithiv , and

R o chan as fo r the , in succession while looking co nfirmation O f my idea of the Ahi and then I could proceed no further . so In far as these entities were concerned , I found the Rishis were consistent and sensibl e

n o t e and they were the silly , senseless , savag children from whom (as we all believed) n o consistency was to be expected . I felt it was

- all important to discover the identity of Indra , the o d o f o f d g might , the victor a thousan battles , whose name has become synonymous with imperial greatness . His multitudinous works and qualities resound in thunderous

n o f songs from the beginni g to the . end the

e bu t fo r V das , he eluded m e a whole year , and it was while studying the Agni hymns that a f suspicion o his true nature gleamed upon me .

' A n d the n such a blaze o f light poured into m e

n from the i ner darkness , and I repeated the words of the Katha Vallis : The sun does n o t m ’ illu inate it , neither do the moon and stars , nor these lightnings ! Whence is this Agni ?

’ He shines and everything shines after him . I then discovered almost immediately that Vishn u was the greatest and mightiest re alis able form of Agni , the unknown . I knew the

S Om a omniform , the king of the Brahmans , the Lord of life and the invigorating food and d drink of the gods . And then I marvelle t hat all this which looked so clear and simple in the dry daylight of common sense was n o t discovered long before . A great Ve dic scholar who closes the chapter on Vritra and cogi tates o n the Riks will quickly discover all that I have discovered and much more that my imperfect culture keeps concealed from me . d As it is , what I have iscovered is due to the

Western learning that is in me , and it is my hope that that light and the light of the East it has uncovered may lead to more light and s teep the so - called E ast and West in the c ommon ever -living light o f the Lord of all nations .

RIKS was the great hymn o f Viswam itra which is the thirty - third hymn of the third mandala of the Rig Ve da . The hymn runs as follows z ‘ m o f 1 . Fro the hollow the mountains laughing like two mares let loose , like two o u Vi at pure white cows licking their calf , y , p i ’ S fi tfidr . and , hasten with your milk ‘

2. Prompted by Indra , desiring outlet , freely y o u flow towards the sea as by a car road : rejoicing together and s welling with ’

o n e . waves , you pass under the other We have reached unimpeded the most motherly tireless Sindhu and the great blessed Vipas who lick their calf like mothers and ’ fl o w after their common womb . These are the three verses addressed by the Rishi Viswam itra to the rivers Be e s and Sutlej bu t before he proceeded with his in v o c ation the rivers exclaimed ‘ fl o 4. We rivers swelling with milk w towards the womb prepared for us by the gods . The primary outlet of creation may not be turned aside ! what can be the Brah man ’ s obj ect in invoking the rivers ? ’ i r Viswam t a then unfolds his prayer .

5 . Helpfully still your waters for a 0 re while and lie low , vivifying streams , in sp o n se to my soft words ! the son of Ku sik a desiring protection calls upon you with all his ’ great soul .

The rivers reply in the following verses , to which in all probability Lord Avebury referred in referring to the triumphs of science RIKS

‘ 6 - o u r . Thunder armed Indra bit out V ritra paths . He beat aside who encompassed

the rivers . God Savitar (producer or creator) led us on and by Savitar ’ s creative power we ’ grow in volume and flow . ‘ ' - f dr 7 . o That hero work In a , his rending f r o f o . the Ahi , must be noised ever With his t hunder he broke the besiegers , and the waters

longing fo r their home flowed o n . In those songs of yours which will resound through the

future centuries , do not omit these words of o u rs . In your outbursts of song unite with r D us (or em body o u praise of Indra) . o not by carelessness (natural to man) O Jarita ’

o r . (decayer rotter) , suppress our words These words o f the rivers were echoed by Lord Avebury six o r seven millenniums after they were sung but only to be brushed aside k with contempt . I new at once that this ser

pent Vritra was glacier ice . It was not the difficulty o f fitting the Ve dic description of Vritra - Ahi and the rive rs he surrounded and

set free to flow when vanquished by Indra , with a dark rain - cloud and the rain - drops it

loosens , that put the truth into my mind . As in m other hu an dwellers of the plains , the leaden haze of the dark rain -cloud which is always with us and is the mainstay o f o u r

lives , had sunk deep into my brain and the cloud would not permit me to be fair to the an d Rishis , I consoled myself for my want of c ommon sense by imagining that the Rishis w e re silly savage children as they must have B 2 RIKS

f B u been in the infancy o the human race . t I knew that Vipas and Sfitfidri were the two , rivers Be e s and Sutlej . I knew they were fed by snow and ice , I knew that glaciers obstruct the course of the Sutlej and other Himalayan rivers and I kne w that the glaciers of the H i malayas came down to much lower levels far during times not removed from us , as vouched for by the great Hooker in his Hima layan Journals , and it was all this knowledge that flashed the idea into my mind that the serpent - surroun der of the waters must be e f r o f glaci r ice . I then sent o topo sheets the

Himalayan regions , and when I saw the gla ciers variously named as they are in the Riks , when I sa w the glaciers of the A lak an an da valley drawing their sustenance from the stratified snow - beds above and filling the upper valleys with their uncouth tortuous bodies . like serpents and crocodiles , I knew what the Riks meant by the word Ahi and I knew si m u ltan e o u sly what the Greeks meant by the

Python destroyed by Apollo , the Hebrews by the Serpent that invaded Paradise , and the ancients and the first climbers o f the Alps by the word Dragon . I remembered at once the lines of my favourite poet ‘ The glaciers creep

Like snakes that watch their prey , from their far fountains ’ Slow rolling on . How appropriate was the name th e RIKS a ncient Rishis invented for the glacier ! Cold blooded , swallowing its prey in its j aws , creep o n ing tortuously its belly like a python , its back set with bands transverse and longi t u din al , tapering towards the end as it descends to the lower regions , swallowing its victim a live and entire and digesting it leisurely and laboriously , adj usting itself to the varying o f - width the valley , with wide opened j aws at the head o f the valley known to modern s cience as the bergschrun d and named by the A hirb u dhn a Rishis y , the normal glacier is a python o r serpent as the scientific genius of Professor Tyndall realised long after the tran s c e n de n t poetic genius o f Shelly . I make no apology for giving the following extracts from ’ ! Tyndall s Glaciers o f the Alps ‘

1 . The stratified snow precipices , the glaciers issuing from the hollows o f the eternal hills and stretching like serpents through the ’ sinuous valleys . 2 ‘ . It lay couched like a reptile in a wild gorge as if it had split the mountain by ’ its frozen snout . ‘ h n r 3. Immediately below is t e U te aar glacier with a long , black streak upon its back , bent hither and thither like a serpent in the ’ act o f wriggling down the valley . ‘ 4. The glacier excited the admiration o f us all not as in summer shrunk and sullied like a spent reptile steam ing under the in fl u o f co m ence the sun , its frozen muscles are ’ pact . RIKS

i As for the banded structure of a glac er , the same eminent authority vouches for it ‘ A t o f o f I the base the fall ice , the ce undergoes an extraordinary transformation .

It reaches this place more or less amorphous , it quits it most beautifully laminated . The o f th e wrinkling glacier was quite visible , the dwindling of the wrinkles into bands and the sub - division of these bands into lines which mark the laminae Of which the glacier at thi s ’ place is composed . ’ We now realise that V ritra s mother Danu IS é é o r firn the stratified n v , made up of hard A hirb u dhn a granular snow , that y is the great hollow at the head o f the glacier and that Aj a Ek r n - - apad o o e footed goat is the ice fall . Danu and V ritra are compared to a cow and c o w its calf , the being above and the calf below . When the mother cows are separated ’ s from their calves by Indra s might , the cow an av an ta low ( gavah) , and curiously enough Tyndall says in the book above quoted that the little sounds consequent upon the rupture o f the the snow , reinforced by echoes from o f a surfaces the granules , were blended to note resembling the lowing of cows . The fol ’ lowing extract from Griffith s rendering of the graphic description o f Vritra in the thirty second hymn of the fifth mandala will speak for itself ‘ Thou Indra laying the great mountain e open , slaying the Danava , didst loos the torrents RIKS

Him as he lay there huge in length ex tended still waxing in ’ The gloom which no sun lighted . What an accu rate description of a glacier and the loosening o f the snow - streams when

the obstructing glacier is broken down , and yet this was supposed to represent the bursting of the rain -cloud by lightning ’ i we m itra s and thunder . Examining V s hymn ’ closely it was clear that the payas of Vipas and Sfitfidri was melted snow and V ritra who lies couched in darkness , swallows up the heavenly streams produced by the melting of the snows by the sun . These waters are some times said to wander about in the recesses of i V r tra .

‘ ’ r r in i h r n h V it asy a n y am v c a a ty ap a .

o f These are , course , streams which flow Vritra w over , enter a crevasse , and ander about ’ i r in the dark hollows of V ritra . Vr t a s abdo men is said to engulf a m ou ntain which no M doubt rose as a nunatak . Professor acdo n ! ” nell in his Ve dic Mythology has marshalled in a masterly manner the characteristics of V ritra o r Ahi as it is represented in the Ve das . ! The serpent ’ is another designa tion of the demon V ritra who probably received his name as a formidable enemy of mankind e n v e I in O p g his prey in his coils like a serpent . In several passages the words are in apposition ‘ ’ and may be tran sl ate d the serpent Vritra . The waters are described as encompassed by the serpent . They are simultaneously said to RIKS

ri be swallowed by the serpent . V tra has a hidden abode whence the waters when released by Indra escape overflowing the demon . Vri o n o r tra lies , the waters enveloped by the f waters at the bottom o the Rajas . He is described as lying on a summit when Indra o r n made the waters flow , as havi g been cast i r down by Indra from lofty heights . Vr t a has fortresses which Indra shatters when he r r slays him . The word V it a comes from the ’

Vr o r . root , to cover encompass Poets several times speak of Vritra as having e n co m passed th e waters or as being an encompasser ri r o f ri vers . V t a is also said to be an encloser of streams . ’ i r Vr t a s . Of course , darkness is element

He is the child of darkness . The north sides o f mountains abo ve the equator frequently bear glaciers while the south sides exposed to h l the sun bear none . Coming to other my t o o gies it is hardly necessary to say that Azb i of the Z end - Avesta and Ve re thra where it Ve re thra hn a occurs in g (Indra) are glaciers . f I now come to the Python o the Greeks . In th e hymn o f Callimachus to Delos

M . b . . A . translated y the Rev J Banks , , the fol o f lowing description the Python appears , and I rejoiced when I read it ‘ Nor yet is the tripod ’ s seat at Pytho a care to me , nor yet hath died the huge serpent , but still that m onster with dreadful j aws creep Plistu s w ing down from , enwreaths sno y Par ’ n assu s with nine coils .

RIKS the name o f the author o r the periodical in which it occurred , but it was probably from the Nin e te e n th C e n tury a n d Afl e r that I made notes o f it In the beginning the earth was a barren wilderness in which there dwelt a dragon alone . Then God came down from heaven ,

r . fought the d agon , and vanquished it From ’ the dragon s blood which was water , the bar ’ ren rocky wilderness was made fertile . That dragon unqu estionably was the con tin e n tal glacier o u t o f whose destruction and debris the largest portion o f the habitable portions of the earth have been fashioned . In the Masai legend it was a three -headed serpent that tempted the first-created woman Naite o ro b i y correspond ng to the Biblical Eve , and the serpent was correctly described as a bright angel which preferred darkness and dirt to th e pure air and bright light which clothed it with di o u t unpaintable beauty and ra ance , pressed the bright vivifying air O f the heavens which b e au tifie d debris purified and it , shrunk into a clothed reptile and sank into the dark gorge s f w e ffu l o . hell The angels ere , of course , the o f gent snows , the brilliant beauties the m ountains . The snows by their pressure are compacted into firn and the latter give birth to ice -serpents descending into the dark valleys where they are chilled and hardened by dark ness and pressure and blackened by stones and debris falling from the enclosing rock walls . Vritras - D av s as Hence are dark , hard skinned RIKS

debris e made up of ice , erratics , dust and , whil

- the snows are soft , bright complexioned , spot less , and unstained . Intrinsically there is no

- difference between angels and devils . What ’ makes the difference is heaven s light and air . ‘ Arya Vritras take an intermediate place between D as as and snows . I now close this chapter and will answer in the following o n e ‘ do o u the question , Where y find these angelic snows which became Danus and gave birth to these monstrous and terrible serpents T CHAP ER II .

D A PRISNI A A T U M U . R R , ND R S

WH EN the Maruts were questioned about t Pri n i heir lineage , they declared that s was t heir mother and Rudra , the impetuous , their father . I had a firm belief even w hen I was a schoolboy that Rudra was lightning , and that was confirm ed by a study of the few

Ve dic hymns solely devoted to his praise . I was familiar with the Rudra section o f the Y a u s Krishna j Samhita , which is my family ed o d V a , and I knew that the fierce g who dazzles and shoots his arrows , who glares with a thousan d eyes and has hundreds o f quivers o f full arrows , who kills cattle , and who marks o u t fo r u n the tallest men his shafts , was

- doubtedly lightning . He is pre eminently a o d b e n e fice n t g both and destructive , and when o u o u t he marks y from his station above , there is nothin g to be done but to prostrate and to keep prostrate with outstretched arms as low as the earth will permit , till his blazing eyes are turned elsewhere . The Rudra section , therefore , begins with prostrations , and pro stratio n s run right through the long chapter , as prostration is the sole and only means of propitiating this brilliant deity who from his RIKS

o n o u t . vantage ground high , deals instantaneous death . But Parjanya is also the thunder m . e cloud The V dic hy ns to Parj anya , though an o f few in number , give accurate description

- - t a rain charged thunder cloud , its ligh nings , thunders and fertilizing powers . There is n o reference to Rudra o r the Maruts in the Par j anya hymns , but the Maruts are distinguished from Parj anya as favouring us with heavenly

- showers , as producing the water bearing Par the j anya and darkening day thereby , and as driving Parjanya along the Re dasi. The

- Maruts are described as sun skinned , self th e luminous , spotless , brilliant , beautiful , o f i beauteous boys heaven , bright ch ldren playing in balconies , never quarrelling with o n e n m s a other , accu ulating in great masse like great hills , and marrying a common

. wife ROdasi. They are arranged in troops and battalions and their rush is irresistible , shaking the heavens and earth . Why anybody should have imagined that the Rishis raved about rain -dr ops in this fashion when sane scientific men and staid soldiers like Sir Martin Conway describe th e snows in rapturous language , applying the identical epithets the Rishis have used , is inexplicable but fo r the fact that the leaden rain - cloud has sunk deep into o u r souls generation after generation : It is particularly hard on the self -luminous dustless Maruts that those who o we their bright white skins ( o f which they are naturally proud) to their proximity to the RIKS

n o t Maruts , should recognise their benefactors a n d confound the calm wondrous white cheru bim with leaden dusty rain - drops from a black

- rain cloud . I must , however , to satisfy the e general reader , furnish proof from V dic scholars and extract the following from Pro ’ ” fe sso r Macdo n n e ll s Ve dic Mythology z The Maruts are promin ent deities in the

Rig Veda . They form a troop o r Sardha s of deities mentioned only in the plural . The cow

Prisn i is their mother . The co w presumably the - represents mottled storm clouds , and the fl am in g c o ws h av in g diste n de du dde rs with who m they come can hardly refer to anything but the c louds charged with rain and lightning . When Pri n i born from s , the Maruts are compared to t fires . They are also said o have been born from the laughter o f lightning . They are c alled sons o f heaven and heroes Of heaven . They are brothers o f whom none is eldest o r youngest . They have grown together and are o f o n e mind . They are spoken of as dwelling in the three heavens . They are also once h described a s dwe llin g in t e mo u n ta in s . Their c onnection is closest with the goddess Re dasi she appears to have been regarded ’ as their bride . The brilliance o f the Maruts is constantly referred to . They are golden , of sunlike bright

o f . ness like blazing fires , ruddy aspect They m shine like tongues o f fire . They have the for o r brilliance o f Agni with whom they are c ompared in brightness . They have the RIKS

The s hin e in the brilliance Of serpents . y - i — an mo un ta in s . They are self lum nous epithet a lmost e x cu l siv e ly applied to them . They are frequently spoken of in a more general way as shining and brilliant . The lightnings shine down o n earth when the Maruts shed their ghee . The lightning lows like a cow when they shed their rain . They are like lightnings shining with rain . Lightning is so charac te ristic of them that all the five compounds o f Vidy u t in the Rig Ve da are connected with the Maruts . Their lances are Often mentioned .

- they are lightning speared , and they have go lde n axes . The Maruts are decorated with

garlands and other ornaments . Armlets o r a nklets are an ornament peculiar to them . With these they shine like the sky with stars

an d glitter like showers from the clouds . They o n o n have spears their shoulders , anklets their t feet , golden ornam ents on heir breasts , fiery

lightnings in their hands , and golden helmets — o n their heads . They have spotted steeds an pithe t which is several times and exclusively

connected with the Maruts . They surpass

heaven and earth , are immeasurable in great o f ness , and no others can reach the limit their

m ight . The Maruts are young and unaging . di They are vine , vigorous , impetuous , with

o u t . soil , and dustless They are fierce , irascible , t o f errible , of terrible aspect , fearful form ,

and are terrible like wild beasts . They are r playful like children o calves . They are ’ - - c N . B . It black ba ked swans . ( was quite RIKS natural for Professor Macdonnell to render V arsha (shower) by rain , but why he made o u t blue to be black is more than I can understand . The original is a h am sase n il ap rishtha a a tan — - p p the blue backed swans fell down .

I will continue the extract . The noise they make is called thunder : but it is also the f o . roaring the winds At their coming , heaven , as it were , roars with fear . They are often described as causing the mountains as well as m o r two aking the earth the worlds , tremble . With the fe llies o f their cars they rend the mountains o r the rock . They rend trees an d like wild elephants devour the forests . The forests bow down before them through fear .

Resistless as mountains , they cast down ter re strial and celestial creatures . The sweat of the sons o f Rudra became rain . The rain m ilk ~ shed by the Maruts is referred to as ghe e . They cause winds and lightnings and with their an d might , milk heavenly gifts from the udder ,

fill the earth with milk . As shedders of rain ’ D ra sah the Maruts receive the epithet Puru p , ’ — B . abounding in drops . (N . The epithet m eans having big drops . They are said to have the wrath of the serpent . Like Agni they are several times ’ said to be pure or purifying . I may at once say that ‘ Bukma ’ is not ’ ‘ ’

w . yello , but ruddy It is applied to red gold ‘ ’ Hir n a a . as distinguished from y , yellow gold

Of course , the snows are pure and unspotted, o n e as every knows , they burn like strontian

RIKS with which the atmosphere in the high moun tains is charged and is associated with the production of snows as distinguished from R . e dasi Parjanya , the common mistress , with whom the snows mix indiscriminately , which they m ake their special seat (sadas) is always a dual . Re dasi is also the seat o f A hirb u dhn y a R o r . Odasi bergschrund is , therefore , a great snow pass where , by preference , the snows accumulate in huge masses . Rudra and the Maruts are great healers and medicine - men as a snow - storm accompanied by copious dis charges O f electricity clears and purifies earth and air and makes medicinal herbs spring up f like magic . This e fect is specially associated with Rudra who , the Rishis realised , was the ‘ ’ f Bhi h ak am am tv am doctor o doctors . s t bhishaj am The Maruts are a fasci nating study and great is the temptation to write down extracts from poets and scientific men , but I restrain myself . The lofty , high born , delicate lady with her translucent bril lian tly -coloured veil who produ ced these r n glorious sons by mar yi g the dazzling Rudra , m the i personation of virility , requires , however , special homage and attention . Let Mr . Arthur ”

l . W . C ayde n answer from his Cloud Studies She is the cirrus cloud with her brilliant veil lit up by halos known as mock - suns and mock moons . Her dress is made up of the thinnest

filaments , the fibres crossing and interlacing , di n - n ra ati g in fan like ma ner , and curling and - twisting like a well trimmed ostrich feather . RIKS

to This great lady never descends the earth , but ever floats above the highest mountains , o ccasionally descending to the tops o f the mountains to m eet her consort Rudra . Her s emi - transparent skin never causes a shadow To o n the landscape . those who wish to know m o re about this great lady who produced the a brilliant soldiers of fascin ting form , dread might and disciplined valour , I recommend a study o f the delightful vol ume from which I have made the above extract . These brave s o f Pri n i - ons s , the bright spotted lady , fashion e d O f m detached cloudlets , are reckless fro t heir infancy . They are not afraid to be born

while their mother is moving about , according o f to the mightiest the later Rishis , and purify them selves of all dirt while yet in their m other ’ s Triam b ak a wom b . Rudra is having three

- Pri n i - wives , the high throned s , the alto clouds

- next in rank , and the stratus clouds consti

tuting his inferior wife . They all produce ’ Pri n i s childre n Rudras , but s are the perfect

j ewels . His wives are necessarily his sisters

and marrying sisters is prohibited only to men . It goes without saying that the ruddy chest of the Maruts is the front o f Mars that threatens M and commands , and that ars and the Maruts

are identical . Sir Thomas Holdich has de scribed the Himalayan snows which in serried

battalions guard the gates of India . The effects of a snow avalanche which is the ’ Rishis sudden movement o f the Maruts with ! out car or horses , is thus described in The ” Story of Ice by W . A . Brend . RIKS

In spring and summer especially , sheets o f snow break away from their positions and tumble headlong down the valleys sweeping r away trees , rocks and homesteads in thei progress . Further harm may result from the blocking of streams or ri vers which happen to cross its path giving rise to disastrou s

floods . The sudden movement of a vast mass o f o f o f snow , perhaps hundreds thousands fre tons in weight , through a narrow ravine quently gives rise to a violent blast of wind Men and animals have been carried through the air and buildings blown dow n . Once a sledge with the driver and horse was swept by the whirlwind for three hundred yards and then dee ply buried in the snow . In wooded regions branches are broken o ff and even entire trees borne down by the weight of the snow which accumulates o n them . A curious effect o f wind and snow has been noticed . The little crystals of ice of which the flakes o f snow are composed , driven at a great rate through the passes , act like saws upon the trees , wearing away the bark and foliage and even ’ cutting into the wood . Professor Tyndall speaks o f long spears of ice and fretted cornices from which depend ed long clear icicles tapering from their abut ’ ments like sp e a rs o f crystal . The Vedic Rishis are sufficiently justified and let us see how the Greeks described Mars . In Calli ’ m achu s hymn to Delos , the river , Peneus describes M ars as below RIKS

Behold from far what a watcher keeps a look - o u t from the topmost part o f the moun t ain who would with ease tear me out from h F r t e lowest depths . o thy sake I will e o f ndure the day fate havinog the ebbing n channel dried up . But Mars havi g lifted the uprooted peaks o f Pan gae u m was about to hurl them into his tide and bury his floods beneath them . Then from on high he rattled and struck his shield with the point f o his spear . S O it clang like a warlike sound . o f C ran o ian Trembled the mountains Ossa , the

plain and the stormy edges Of Pindus . The ’ whole o f Thessaly danced with fear . The watcher keeping a look - out from the o f o f topmost part the mountain is , course , a sentinel aiguille peering into the valley and threatening snow avalanches on whoever dared

to scale the heavens . His spear is a snow cornice which is loosened , strikes on his chest

- (snow slope) , and starts an avalanche which with thunderous rattle aided by furious winds shakes and overwhelms everything . A graphic description o f a snow - avalanche is given in ’ ! ” Hesiod s Shield Of Hercules and I quote it : ‘ As when from high ridge , Of some hill - top abrupt tumbles a crag Precipitous and sheer a giddy space Bounds in a whirl an d rolls impetuous

down , Shrill rings the vehement crash till some steep cliff Obstructs : to this the mass is borne along RIKS

This wedges it immovabl e even so

Destroyer Mars . The above qu otations are from the book

f . . o the Rev J Banks referred to above . Of course Mars and the Maruts are destroyers . They have a thousand tricks as those wh o have toiled among the Alpine sn ows know . bu t They not only overwhelm everything , they are also masters of strategy . They lure y o u to their frail snow - bridges and precipitate you into crevasses . They trip you up by the feet , pounce upon you like robbers and strip e you of everything . They have innumerabl man oeuvres which the Rishi describes in his o wn q uaint way in the R u dradhy ay a o f the

Yaj u s . I will close this chapter with a quo tatio n from Tyndall , which will naturally lead us to the next

Surely if beauty be an obj ect of worship , those glorious mountains with rounded o f - shoulders the purest white , snow crested , - e and star gemmed , were well calculated to excit ’ sentiments of adoration . CHAPTER III .

i DYAVA PRITH Iv O R H EAVEN A ND EARTH .

are These are associated constantly , and

expressly declared to be father and mother . Several heavens are frequently referred to and i a great heaven is also referred to as B rihadd va . This great heaven is the seat o f the greater th e gods , the seven sons of Aditi and Savitar ,

chief of whom are Indra , Varuna , Mitra , and A th arv a Aryaman . The great priest who declares his body to be identical with Indra ‘ ’ is a Brihaddiva or belonging to the great i . Urv as heaven , the celestial nymph whom Pu rfi ru vas , the ancestor of the human race ,

captured and made his wife , is similarly called

- Brih aiva . Dyay a is the birth place of the gods and D e va means the son of D y ava and the gods

are expressly called sons o f Dyaus . Dyay a is D the Asura full o f the breath of life . y av a ‘ ’ contains R aj am si an d the Raj as or dust is

arranged in strata ( Vimana) . Between the

’ Dy av a above and the Prithivi below are in i R Odasi as descend ng order the , the Raj , and the ‘

A n tarik sha . A n tarik sh a The (literally , visible ' ’ in o r D ava i the middle between y and Prithiv ) , th e middle region , is the region of trees or

Vanaspatis . ‘ ’ Van e sh u k h Vy an tari s am tatana . [He RIKS

A n arik h m (Varuna) spread the t s a in the fo re sts . ] We already know the ROdasi in which the D Maruts pile their splendours . y av a is there a Re dasi fore snow range , the dual lady is the pass where two transverse valleys meet , the Rajas is the region of dust and debris varie gated by O sh adhis (plants and herbs) and P r A n tarik sham is the forest belt . a vata is a m assif and Giri a hill . Dy av a is a range o f snow - clad peaks and Brihaddiva is a dominant f P r central chain o crystalline massifs ( a v atas) . That B rih addiv a is made up o f great massifs (Parvatas) is clear from verse 5 in the fifty fourth hymn o f the delightful singer Vam ade v a in the fourth mandala o f the Rig Ve da . The god Savitar who produced the great gods has three e heavens , and the verse abov referred to explicitly states ‘ O u t o f great mountains (Brih adbhy ah p arvate bhy o ) you produced those o f whom Indra is the greatest and made homes fo r ’ them over (a foundation o f) pasty as .

i . Prithiv is , therefore , a longitudinal valley Atri correctly described Prithivi as made up o f ‘ P r the hollows o f mountains ( a v atas) . Badit i h h ’ tha Parv atan am Khidram B b ars i Prithivi .

Agastya , in his hymn to heaven and earth , declares that Dy av a and Prithivi alternate like day and night and roll up and down ‘ v like a wheel . To call the blue sky hea ens in the pl u ral is patently inappropriate . The rIh sky does n o t alternate with the earth . e v the alley is dark , and the range is bright and

RIKS my self so much nearer heaven that I was sure ’ that my prayer would be heard . ’ Take Prask a n va s hymn to the dawn 1 ‘ She is desired to come with good things ’ even from the glitte re r above the heaven . ‘ i hi R h i ’ ‘ D v asc d o c an adadh . Dawning fully o f with your rays , you illuminate all the world ’ li r r d f tte e s . o g The awn is , course , the daughter of the mountain . She first illuminates the glittering peaks and then comes down

to . the men in the valleys (Mandala I , 49 1 D av a t Hymn , Verses and y canno mean the dark blue sky and the Re ch an as can n o t be stars , which grow dim with the bright n in T e g dawn . o the dweller in the m ountains the dawn is born in the high range , first set ting ablaze the shining peaks , then the gate ways o f heaven (Diva atasu Vy an j ati) which are the passes , before she comes down to the

- l . humble mortal in the val eys A snow range , blue in the far distance and melting into the sky with glittering peaks does bear a close resemblance to the blue void illuminated by stars . Bathed in sunlight which is reflected

- a thousandfold by the self luminous snows , ‘ a m ountain range is appropriately called Dyav a o r Shining — an epithet to which the blue void has n o t equal claim . The fresh upper snows according to Professor Tyndall emit a blue light , and I quote the following from his ” Glaciers of the Alps : I was continually surprised and delight ed by the blue gleams which issued from RIKS

the broken or perforated stratum of new snow . Each hole made with the stafl was filled with a light as pure and nearly as deep as that of the unclouded firm am e n t . A s his f eet rose o u t o f the snow and shook o ff m them in frag ents , sudden and won de rfu l gl eams o f blue light flashed from them . Doubtless the blue Of the sky has much to do m with ountain colouring , but in the present instance , not only was there no blue sky but the air was so thick with fogs and descend ing snow -fl ak e s that we could not see twenty ’ yards in advance o f us . The Rudras are said to possess blue necks

- (Nila grivas) in the R u dradhy ay a . ‘ When the Creator under the waters (apam n ap at Savitar) began his creation where the sea with fixed shores began to recede , first the Bh fi land ( ) rose out Of the waters , then there was dry sediment (Raj as) and then the heaven ’ i wak arm an and the earth multiplied . So V s began to multiply the earth and heaven when the o ld shorelines hardened . Yatra S am u drah Sk abhitO Vy au n at apam na pat S av itata sy a Ve da A te bhurata a u tth itam raj ah ate dy av a ’ prithivi apratheth am . 149 (Mandala X , Hymn , Verse ‘ Yadahy an taadadrih an ta p u rv e adiddy av a ’ prithivi ap rathe th am . 82 (Mandala X , Hymn , Verse

‘ ’ Griffith has rendered Pu rv e Antah by eastern ends ’ while the context which was RIKS n o t understood by him shows it means the Old o r r former edges o shorelines . The Dy av a Prithivi of the Riks and the heavens and earth o f the o ld mythologies are the snowy ranges and their co rre sp o n din g lo n gi a l ta din a l v l e y! s . It goes without saying the snowy range is the father and the valley the mother . The father melts and the living waters charged with fertilising silt impregnate the Prithivi and produce life o n her The crystalline m ountains cannot themselves pro i duce l fe , but supply the vivifying liquid which i flows into the Prithiv . A mountain and val ‘ ley are , in the highest sense , father and ’ mother to living creatures . To us in the plains even hills which catch up the rains and send them down in torrents charged with the disintegrated substance of their body are fathers o f the valleys below and deserve rever e nce as fathers . India is blessed with the m o f o f ightiest fathers , the mighty chain the o f Himalaya , and my countrymen Northern India may appropriately include Father Hima - o f laya , the wide stretched seat Rudra and his In children , in their songs of honour to Mother dia . This idea o f th e fatherhood Of snow ranges and the motherhood of the great pri m ary valleys is so natural that I wondered I never came across it in the course o f my read ing , scanty as that has been , but quite recent ly I read in a delightful book o f exploration ” called The Andes and the Amazon by Regi n ald Enoch , the following , conceived in the common - sense spirit o f the Rishis : RIKS

Let us ascend and cross the huge co rdil o f o f lera the Andes , the father the country ! n o f ra iso n for the A des is its source life , the ’ ’ d etre of its being .

The Rishis saw the gods created , fed and be n e fi strengthened them , and shared their

cence . They did not see the heavens and

earths created . They speculated o n their origin in the tenth Mandala and concluded that the great ranges and the primary valleys were created by Viswak arm an and that th e ro m u n de r the Universal Architect , creating f

wa te rs . S o to o , produced them , , in the begin ’ ning God created the heavens and the ear t h

in the Old Testament . S O it is in most my tho firm m n logies . Aditi is the a e t of the Bible as distinguished from the cut - u p Diti on the ‘ ’ other side of a divide . The waters above the firm am e n t - are the snow ocean , which is the O k e a no s of the Greeks whence pure rivers flow , as distinguished from the waters below the rm m fi a e n t . , collected in the briny sea The Yajur Ve da expressly declares ‘ Dyaus Samu ’ - dra Samam Saras . The snow range is a lake equal to the sea and the range with its crests and hollows is a sweet -water ocean lashed into fury by a storm and overspread with foam and suddenly stilled by the Al mighty as the great Ruskin again and again impresses on ! us in his wondrous work of genius , The ” Modern Painters . The higher mountain ran

ges , such as the Alps , the Andes , and the e le va te d ta ble la n d Himalayas , are set upon an , RIKS

which is the Aditi of the Rishis , Diti being the r precipitous slope above a sea o a desert . Now we understand the swallow myth , and the great serpents that covered up heavens and e - arth and united them in a close , never ending e mbrace . I give below fo r the convenience of those e unfamiliar with the V das and Physiography , a n explanatory table of the Ve dic words given a bove with the meanings :

L n a d . E e at n l v e d table la d .

pl ate au . ‘ ’ Th e re ci it s si e a di i e p p ou d of v d . A n ran s owy ge . Hi h n - g s ow pass . Re i n r ck -debris hic h g o of o , w some tim e s de ve lops in to love ly A s th e O shadhi Re i n an d lp , g o h ik Swarga of t e R s . Mi -r i n r r - d e g o o fo e st be lt . Gre at lon gi tudin al valle y in a lin e with th e strik e of the r n a ge . i r Glac e .

Néve be ds . Atmosph e ric e le ctricity in the i r n h ghe r e gio s .

Maruts an dRudras S n ows . S u dan u Ea si in n -fi l ly m e lt g s ow e d. D as u rra ti k y E c bloc s . Dasa Vritra Vritra dark e n e d an d h arde n e d by r in i ri mo a c mate al . Ar a ritr i r y V a A glac e of pure ice . Ahirb u dhn a B r ch r n y e gs u d . A a Ek a ad - j p Ice fall . RIKS

i S ndhu , where it is used as generic for

w. river , is a stream of melted sno The Athar vana Ve da says that the names of rivers are Sin dh u s and they became Nadis (noisy ones) Vritra when . Indra broke up and they cata

racte d down the valleys . That is an appropri a te distinction between the pure snow - stream and the noisy river where it enters the valley and gallops till it emerges as a Vahini in

the plains . It is clear from all this that the old Rishis invented their o wn common -sense technique o u t of their limited vocabulary for physical features o f the earth with which the - h plain dweller is not familiar , and that wit out realising this fact scholars have vapourised the

hard serpent into the dark cloud , though both

are substantially the same , and the great solid

granite ranges at once beautiful and terrible , b e n e fice n t u n su b stan destructive and , into the ‘ h ’ tial void called Na has by the Rishis . Now this discovery o f the identity o f father heaven with a mountain range and mother earth with a primal longitudinal valley p o s

sesses the greatest significance , and if my n o t education , poor as it was , had been mostly

literary , I should have unravelled all the

o f . tangled mysteries the Riks As it was , while I had a correct conception o f the swal ho w low myth , the monstrous serpent froze n the waters . swallowed the waters and bu ded up the waters created by the melting o f the o f snows , and froze life and sunlight out the

valleys , I could not make out how the heaven RIKS

e and earth were separated , how the gods wer h w s produced and o the glacier were destroyed . I may add for the benefit of some O f my readers that in the hottest plains we can have n o conception o f the intolerable heat o f the sun , direct and reflected , on the high moun tains , how the snow under its influence passes into vapour without passing through the inter ho w mediate liquid state , and at midday , as a o n e man walks , side of the face may be blis te re dwhile the other in the shadow gets frozen . th e By this time , however , I realised that

Rishis were not children , that we , their chil dren treated them too lightly , and I was even satisfied they lived during the glacial period , saw the dread serpents creeping down the o f the valleys , freezing life and sunlight out o f habitable surface the earth , survived the ' the de stru ctio n the crisis , and witnessed of serpents and the creation o f light and life o u t of ’ the chaos of de bris and waters resulting from ri that destruction . I must add some de sc p tion to show what sort of castles (Puras) they were in which the serpents were entrenched . At the head are the wide gaping j aws of the bergschrund and innumerable fissures all over the body like the j aws o f hell int o o r - which a slippery , erratic a frail snow bridge (D u radhy a se tu) may precipitate you and slowly squeeze life out o f you in its gloomy and horrible entrails making saliva out of your animal heat the better to digest you . Round ‘ - d the neck (ice fall) are lowering seracs , detache

RIKS gerated description o f a stupendous phe n o m e non contrasting favourably with the ravings o f moderns about the petty snakes that lurk in the low Alps , that I was sure they would have called S firy a o r Sara a Vritraghn a in the hymns devoted to him , if he really destroyed the glaciers and set free the obstructed rivers , and they would have told us how the snakes shrivelled up under his hot , steady and tireless ae v a gaze , and how like a leopard or hy na (s gh n i) he returned to his kill and sliced the serpent bit by bit through many a millen

- m . niu There was no question of rain storms , as in that period o f intense cold there would be only snow - storms which would only contri

to o f . bute the growth the glaciers After all , the glaciers were there in spite of the sun and if the sun destroyed them it must have been slowly and imperceptibly and progressively in the course o f ages and the mighty din o f In dra ’ s battle that has resounded through the ages as prayed for by the Beas and Sutlej , the b thunder , the lightning , the shaking of the eav ens and earth , mountains and hills , was alto gether meaningless as a description o f the steady and slow shrinkage of the glaciers under the influence of the sun . In the high moun tains the sun is practically powerless except during the middle stage o f his daily activity (Madhya karte h) when he is high in the b eav D e vatvam Mahitv am ens ( ) and of great might ( ) . I disco v e re d a That midday sun , _ , was the P shan o f A hrin i h o t the Riks , the g (the very ) , the RIKS

V im u chO n apat at whose coming everybody D hi am in va stops work , y j , the sweller of streams who made the highest heaven his seat , went round the houses o f the gods gazing from o n h i h fl o u rishin - fis g , . g his many thonged whip , suring the rocks with his awl , and creating f fertility . He is the god o herdsmen in the high Alps and the agriculturist in the higher

- . a a r glens He is P shan , the crop ripener p l n e x ce l e ce . It is when he arrives , that stolen , s trayed and mixed - u p cattle are discovered and ‘ a man can tell his neighbour positively , these ’ Pfi h n are mine . s a has two forms like day and o n e night , white (sukra) and the other melting

h o t . ( though dark) He is drawn by goats , j umps down precipices from his high station , unlike the morning and evening sun which o n b travel slopes and are broken y shadows . This Pfishan who loosens everything with his awl is Indra ’ s friend and helped him to destroy

Vritras . It is the great Bharadwaj a that has brought o u t in full these characteristics o f the midday sun who was everything to the herds Vri an a man and agriculturist in the Raj as , j - ariv (cross valley) and the V a (glen) . Let us n o w proceed to consider who this Indra is , to whom the sun in his midday height and glory played the part of a humble helper whom many Rishis neglected as men are wont to neglect silent faithful servants ever ready fo r duty at their appointed time and place , and whom Bh aradwaj a condescendingly assured he n o t o u t o f would cheat him his dues . I will D 2 RIKS end this chapter by a few extracts from the o f great Ruskin , illustrating the power the cloud even over one who saw deeper into the root o f things than most men . In para 8 6 ! Chapter , Part V of his Modern Painters ,

Ruskin says . ’ s I would desire , therefore , to receive God account o f His o wn creation as under the ordina ry limits of human knowledge and im agin atio n it would be received by a simple minded man ! and finding that the heavens and the earth are always spoken o f as having something like equal relation to each other thus the heavens and the earth were fin ish ed and all the host o f I reject at once ‘ ’ all idea o f the heavens signifying the in

fin ity o f space inhabited by countless worlds . But I suppose the heavens to mean that part o f creation which holds equal companionship ‘ with o u r globe . I understand the rolling of those heavens together as a scroll ’ to be an equal and relative destruction with the ‘ melt ing o f the elements in a fervent heat and I understand the making of the firm am e n t to signify that , so far as man is concerned , most magnificent ordinance of the clouds— the ordi nance that as the great plain o f the waters o n o f was formed the face , so also a plain waters should be stretched along the height o f air and the face o f the cloud answer the face o f the ocean and that this u pp e r a n d he a ve n ly l a in o f lo ri e d p should be waters as it were , g fi ” in their nature . RIKS

When Ruskin could n o t see that the u e r he a ve n l la in lo ri e d wa te rs the p p y p of g fi , irm a m e n t f , is the great elevated tableland

(Aditi) of snows , and that the heavens and e arth and the ho st of the m with e q u a l re la tio n to e a ch o the r are the great mountain chains a n d i their correspond ng longitudinal valleys , when he makes o u t the most magnificent o rdinance o f the sn o ws o n the firm a m e n t to be the ve il o f clo u ds t hat conceals the l heavens from the va leys , lesser mortals may f r be excused o their succumbing to the cloud . u n a e ha Dru ade shu S ss p , who was embogged ( p b addhah) put it in a nutshell when he prayed that he might be restored to Aditi so that he m ight gaze on the father and the mother D a i ( y va Prithiv ) . C HA PTER IV

ND A I R .

As I remarked in the Introduction , it was while I read the Agni hymns that a suspicion th e o f dawned on me as to true nature Indra . Agni too is frequently called Vritraghn a both by his o wn power and in association with f Indra . All trials o life are as nothing to the intense strain of struggling fo r existence amid the deadly cold . Fire in the ordinary sense was precious above all things and the sun being weak , fire naturally dominated the souls

o f . e the Rishis He was the H ta or the heater , a word identified with Go d. He was the Y a ata o r j melter , and these words correspond f h Z to th e Z ao tar and Yazata o t e end Avesta .

was Y ahva o r ! He also bird , as he blazed up like a bird . There can be little doubt that this is the Yahve o f the Hebrews . He is the Grih ap ati (Lord o f the house) and it was natural that the Rishis should concentrate all their affection o n his life - preserving warmth and shower a thousand endearing epithets on ’ ff . e a e c him S ma , equally rooted in the Rishis Gin sh e n tions , I took to be Panax g, about which I had read as fo llows ‘ The Chinese prize it so highly as a . RIKS

stimulant , etc . , that they will pay for it its ff in vi . o weight in gold It wards fatigue , g

orates the enfeebled frame , restores exhausted

powers and rej uvenates the old . Doctor Smith mentions cases in which life appears to be Th prolonged by its use . e Chinese believe firm l v that life can be indefinitely prolonged ’ by its use . I thought that fire and Gin sh e n g (Agni and S Om a) enabled the Rishis to tide over the n glacial period . The o e kept them warm and stim u melted the ice for them , the other was a

lant and food , prolonging their lives . But these were in my unregenerate days when I tho u ght o f the Rishis as western scholars had in taught me to think . Extraord ary assertions were made about Agni . He was identified — in with the great gods , he was born thrice the n high heave s , in the Rajas and in the waters i e x am in and once again above the Prithiv . I ed the Agni hymns with some care and found that his movements as messenger between heaven and earth and between the mortals and the immortals were underground j ourneys , that he was established firmly in a platform (A dh e vara) , fed with ghee , fat , S ma , firewood , and o f every kind combustible , invoked to take up the offerings — identical with his food— to the gods through the D e vay an a paths and to d Y n bring own the gods to help the ag a . All this is meaningless when applied to a house hold fire kept up with difficulty in icy surround an d ings , equally meaningless when applied to RIKS

a forest fire . A forest fire itself , amid great

' glaciers , is practicably unthinkable and when Re dasi o r Agni is desired to go to the (pass) , i u f d n ary fire is absolutely o t O the question .

He is constantly designated like Indra , who is ’ S ahasah S fin u called his brother , , or child of h h . 6 7 t 8t pressure When reading the th , and o f Bh aradwa so n o f hymns j a , Brihaspati (the o f preceptor the great gods) , it struck me that the description of Agni contained in them imperfectly as they were then understood by me— could apply only to volcanic fire and that

o it wa s . Indra might be a mighty volcano . S

Indra was a mighty volcano and , reading the

Indra hymns , the truth shone clear as day h light , t ough the far more obscure hymns to

Agni first suggested it . Here then is the central fact o f the Riks . The surface of the o f i earth , the seat l fe , was concealed from her vivifying lord , the sun , and weighed down by re ss ure serpents , and in response to her p , her father Viswak arm a raised up mighty volcanoes which fought the glaciers , lifted up the earth , o u t loosened the rivers , cut new beds for them high above the o ld rivers overwhelmed by the glaciers , fertilised her and restored her to the embraces o f her distant husband . There in a nutshell is the Rig Veda . Before unravel ling the details of the process I will ask the reader to cast his e y e s o v e r the great A n tarc tic ice sheet , the serpent Anantha . There , r where Anantha eigns supreme , two volcanic peaks rear their heads above the ice . They

RIKS

L o u t ord called unto him of the mountain , For the Lord will com e down i n the sightof all the people upon Mount

Sinai . And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about , saying , Take heed to your m selves that ye go not up into the ount , or touch the border o f it whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death There shall n o t an hand touch it , but he shall surely be o r th e stoned , shot through when trumpet soundeth long , they shall come up to the mount . And it came to pass o n the third day in the morning that there were thunders and lightnings , and a thick cloud upon the mount , and the voice of th e trumpet exceeding loud ! so that all the people that was in the camp trembled .

And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke , because the Lord descended upon it in fire : and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace , and the whole mount quaked greatly . And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long , and waxed louder and louder , And the Lord came down upon o n to o f : Mount Sinai , the p the mount and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount ! An d and Moses went up . the Lord said unto Go Moses , down , charge the people lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze , and many o f them perish . And let the priests also i y wh ch come near to the Lord , sanctif them selves , lest the Lord break forth upon them . e And Moses said unto the Lord , The peopl RIKS

‘ cannot come up to Mount Sinai : for Tho u char e de st g us , saying , Set bounds about the m ount and sanctify it . And the Lord said unto him , Away , get thee down , and thou shalt come : up , thou , and Aaron with thee but let not the priests and the p eople break through to come up unto the Lord , lest he break forth upon ’ them . Then come the great commandm ents during the delivery o f which there were th e o f thunderings , the lightning , and the noise the m o ff d tru pet , the people stood afar and tol

Moses to speak unto the Lord . Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was . ‘ And the Lord said unto Moses : Thus o f thou shalt say unto the children Israel , Ye have seen that I have talked with you from

Heaven . An altar o f earth thou shalt make unto me and shalt sacrifice thereon thy f ff burnt o ferings , and thy peace o erings , thy sheep and thine oxen : In all places where I ’ record my name I will bless thee . When the Lord took Moses and the o u t o f h e Israelites Egypt through the Red Sea , went before them by day in a pillar o f cloud to lead them the way , by night in a pillar Of light

to give them light . Moses and his people followed the Lord and his advancing pillar (fiery by n ight and cloudy by day) till they came to the seashore ! the Lord divided the dr sea , Moses and the Israelites passed over y ground into the midst of the sea with the waters l b wa led up on either side , but v the time RIKS

Pharaoh and his multitudinous host could cross o o f ver , the Lord moved away , the waters the sea returned , and engulfed his host . Now , who is this Lord and what are the phenomena a o n h ttendant his appearance , so grap ically described in the above extracts ? I will give ’ ! a n few extracts from Judd s Volca oes , and all my readers can solve the problem j ust as well as myself . ‘ Before the outburst numerous light , curling wreaths o f vapour were seen ascending f from the sides and bottom o the crater .

Suddenly a sound was heard , a sound as when a locomotive blows o ff its steam ! a great volum e o f watery vapour was thrown violently into the atmosphere and with it there were hurled upwards a number o f dark fragments 400 o r 500 which rose feet above the crater , describing curves in their course falling back m upon the mountain . Most of these frag ents tumbled into the crater with a loud rattling noise , but some fell outside the crater and a few rolled down the steep s10pe of the Sciarra n into the sea , some of the falli g fragments ’ - were still in a semi molten condition . This was why bounds were set unto the people and they were not to go up the mount o r touch the border of it on pain of being s to n e d r h h o s o t t r u h . o g That is the first stage , and then the thick cloud and the thunders and lightnings . Now to Judd . The uprushing current of steam and rock fragments forms a vertical column . RIKS

Around this column of vapour , the most vivid lightning constantly plays . The restoration o f electrical stability between this column and the surrounding air is at tended with the pro duction o f frequent lightning -fl ash e s and n - o f thu der claps , the sound the latter being the s till lo u de r usually , however , drowned in ro a r o f the uprushing steam column . Although this roaring sound appeared at a to distance be continuous , yet those upon the mountain could perceive that it was produced by detonations o r explosions rapidly following ’ each other .

This latter is the trumpet , and when the trumpet sounds long and loud and the steam column has lifted the Lord to the to p o f the mount , it is safe to go up , as there is no more

- stone throwing . But the Lord might break l - fl d forth upon the peop e , the fiery lava o o s might overwhelm them and so Moses and

Aaron alone went up . The Lord spoke to ‘ ’ Moses from Heaven , which is thus the top o f the mount . The vertical column o f vapour glows with the reflected light o f the Lord below and hence is a pillar of fire by night and o f a pillar cloud by day , revealing by that banner His subterranean movements to Moses

. l a v and his comrades The Lord is therefore a .

And verily the lava , plutonic and volcanic , laid o f the foundations the earth , produced the o f earth , and is the source all its wealth and energies . The earth on which we live is the O f o r h body the Lord , lava old young , and t e RIKS

Lord is o u r Father in the mountain -tops who c omes down to the earth and invigorates it . It is only lava that could part the waters of the sea , make dry land appear, move on and let the parted sea close again . He could stay o f the waters the Jordan , make it go back or u — in t go aside , dry it p fac do j ust as he pleased with it . He is the living Lord that n o inspired the Jews , and I have doubt it is basaltic lava that helped the Jews . It alone possesses t he mobility and energy required ’ to raise a Graham s Island within the short fo r period postulated by the Bible , and the benefit of those unacquainted with Geology I will give an account of the origin and de ’ u struction of Graham s Island . I q ote from ’ ! Bonney s Volcanoes . 10 o f 800 On July , a column water yards in circumference was seen spouting up from the sea to a height o f 60 feet which was re placed by dense clouds o f steam which rose 1 . 8 feet above the sea By July , a small island appeared a dozen feet above the water m o f with a central crater ej ecting scoria , uch it floating o n water . Till early in August it grew and reached its maximum size o f 3 miles in circumference and above 200 feet in height . The new island began to disappear rapidly

. 8 before the waves On September , when it l was careful y examined , it had become reduced to 2mile circumference and 107 feet in greatest f height . By the end o October it was almost ’ gone . RIKS

This was in the Mediterranean , but across the shallow Red Sea and with basalt as the o f agent , the Biblical account the providential

f . e scape o the Jews is rendered trustworthy . ’ ’ By the blast of the Lord s nostrils , this work . - hahiro tb i f was done . If Pi and El m o the

Bible have been identified , I feel sure basalt would be foun d near about and Sinai itself is probably a basaltic volcano . Of course , Mount Sinai quaked greatly as eruptions are preceded by and attended with earthquakes . When

Moses went to Mount Sinai a second time , the sight o f the glory of the Lord was like devour o f o f ing fire in the eyes the children Israel , and Moses communed with the Lord forty days and forty nights . The Lord , like Indra , was a man of war . He set up and pulled down the nations . He worked marvels fo r the Jews though on a smaller scale than Indra . Vam a de va sang of the glory o f Indra ' ‘ When your fumes of anger and your ro tato r y columns (of lava) shoot up , that is in ’ y o u and that is in the sun .

I will now take up Indra and Ahi . In volcanic eruptions we have a sufficient cause for the destruction of the glaciers and the o f l rather sudden cessation the glacia period ,

which is a puzzle to modern Geology . The Rishis saw this fearful agent at work o n the

ice , faced it manfully , survived the great war o f lava and glacier and recorded their ex p e rie n ce s o f it in the immortal Riks fo r the o f benefit their children , who treat them with RIKS

contempt . Before detailing the characteristics o f Indra I wish to impress o n m y readers that the lava coming down from the mountains was a b e n e fice n t saviour in t h e highest sense o f the word to all life on earth threatened with extinction by the dread agent of darkness and death . It must be remembered that lava rapidly disintegrates , and during the mighty and long -continued rush of the melted waters most o f the lava -fl o ws must have been was hed away and mixed up indistinguishably with the rock sediment that constitutes the great alluvial

. Y a u s o f plains As the j puts it , the energy Indra spent in fighting Vritra passed into the waters and the vegetable world . During the o f progress the war of lava and ice , the plains were vast swamps , and in the valleys Indra was food and drink to the human race . The

- snow streams he loosened , the springs and tanks he raised up and warmed from below , and the ashes and fertilising mud he supplied , these were the s tay of life . As the poet b o ldy says : S ray an ta iva S fi ryam Visv edin drasy a bh k h ’ ‘ a s ata . As though you break up the sun f ’ (conceived as a cake) all o you eat of Indra . The reader will do well to digest the following passages from Judd Tufas scoria and lavas usually crumble down to form a very rich soil and many of the choicest wines are produced from grapes grown in the fertile slopes of volcanic mountains . The island o f Java is situated near the

RIKS

re a glacier is destroyed , the sun is literally stored to the bosom of the earth . When Indra Vritra destroyed he restored to us , the chil o f O f dren the valleys , the sight , light and heat H e r a h r . T the sun c e te d t e su n f o u s . o us in o f is the plains , this way looking at things difficult . But take the case o f the dwellers in the dark valleys o f Dharma and Byans in the

- north eastern corner of British Gharwal . In the first volume o f th e Imperial Gazetteer o f ” India , we find the following ‘ With a climate and vegetation ranging between arctic and tropical , the conditions of life within the valleys overshadowed by the gigantic peaks of the Himalayas are infinitely varied . Even the accidents of position in relation to the sun ’ s rays are recognised by the natives as requiring special terms to denote them , so obvious is their influence in moulding human form an d ch aracte r. Within the limits o f a valley (where there may , however , be space enough to accommodate the whole Alpine

System) , there will often be found varieties o f human type which might almost indicate ’ divergency of origin . If in Dharma and Byans o u r b e n e fice n t Government were to arrange fo r the destruo o f - tion the stupendous mountain walls , and ‘ ’ give the human dwellers in hell an extra. he hour of the sun , they would certainly cele b rate d for ages to come as the cre a to rs of the su n . S O Indra created the sun for us in a o u t double sense , by melting , rooting , and RIKS breaking up V ritra and by breaking down the - ri r mountain walls . When he melts V t a it is Vritra - Turya or A p - Tfi ry a ( the hastenin g of V ritra - the waters) , and he is Tura when he breaks : up V ritra by his explosive lava and

Vritra hn a . bombs , he is g When the dawn concealed her lover , the sun , and was gaily driving along the southern side o f the great m ountain - wall of the Viv asv a p arv atas with out condescending to look over , Indra broke o f the car the lofty lady , and from far the dawn glissaded down to us abandonin g in fear her

- smashed u p wain . As Indra broke down range ‘ ’ ’ e e su r e darsatO bhii t after range , din din y day by day the sun became more and more visible . o f Vritra The destruction , the production of o f the sun , the release the waters , and the res to ratio n of the daylight are cl ear enough . r h When Ind a was born , the eavens and earth , firm -fixe d the massifs , all trembled , and mas m sifs swayed , rocked and sank like te porary n kitchens , their foundations remai ing intact . ‘ arv ata adm asadO s edu h Ni p na , ’ Ni p arv atas sadya p rayu ch ch an . Then the child made a feedin g bottle (cone) fo r himself to take in his first draughts u o f Soma . This cone he wove o t of his own body by fighting (other cones) and then he

o n . rose , placing the heaven his head He first found it very difficult to issue o u t at the top of the cone and threatened to issue out o f the sides of his mother ( the old crater correspond ing to the Somma Of the Vesuvius ) . He was E 2 RIKS told h e should issue o u t at the top like all the gods , and when he saw his mother about to collapse he took in copious dr aughts of Soma manufactured in the home o f Twashtar and in then issued forth full might and maj esty . Then he perform ed his first mighty deed : to the to p o f this great cone he raised himself by o u t o n Brahman , stood his car and scattered ashes far in quick succession in all directions . 1 m 7 3. Mandala II , Hy n , Verse He flowed in fiery floods drawn by Haris (horses o r firm e st i monkeys) , broke down the th ngs , filled the passes and valleys , and both the transverse valleys below the great pass could only hold a ’ part o f Indra s body . ’ r h i s R dasi b A d am da y a prati O ub e . Nav a v as With his friends , the g and D a a vas s g , he created the waters , the sun , and the cows . It is unnecessary to give further f proofs o f the identity o Indra with a volcano . ’ r And if I recite all Ind a s deeds , the many glaciers he destroyed , the many black moraines and erratics he shattered to let in th e dawn Svah and sun , the daylight ( ) and the wider fo r horizons , he thus created those immured in dark gorges , the wealth Of soil (Vaj a) he sup plied , the precious stones (Ratna) and metallic D rav in a ores ( ) he scattered in profusion , the copious springs he raised up , the bridges he made across rivers , the warm streams he loos o u t o wn ened of his body , and by melting the

Maruts and Danus , the multitudinous bene fice n ce of this mighty multiform RIKS

Ma hava - o g (largess giver ) , of many man euvres t K (maya) , and manifold activity (Sa a ratu) , I could fill a whole volume , but I have neither time n o r health to detail fully the works o f this great Saviour o f the! human race whom Viswak arm an created with such a store of aliment that he ensured his immortality and indestructibility . ‘ Viswak arm an h avisha v ardhan en a trata ’ In m k rin r h m ram dra a O av ad y a . What is this aliment which m ade Indra the most powerful of volcanoes ? This question

I answer in the next chapter . CHAPTER V .

INDRA AND SOMA .

I T is practically impossible to give a full trans lation of even a single hymn to Indra , or even a few connected verses of a hymn , without a n k owledge of his horses (Haris) , the Brahman that yokes his horses and that enabled him , to begin with , to force up his energy to the top o f his cone Yad asyagre brahman a hm m ir h f m u s a a a a o SO a . s y and above all , Visvam itra is called J aritar (rotter) and Karu by the rivers . The Rishis designate themselves as such . Their chief work is to produce Se ma Gih e and fill Indra with Riks , , St mas , and h i Uk as . d G rvan a t In ra is a , winner , absorber ’ b T a h ar s e ? T sh o f Gi . What is w s t S ma wa ’ Vi varfi a A n irah tar s sons are s p , g , represented ' hm ti h r o r Bra an as a A a va. by Brihaspati p , and t A t a e - With Trita p y , another S ma maker , Indra ’ n i e m destroyed Twashtar s first so V sv arfi p a . S a is stored in Adris , and is concealed by Panis which are niggardly in parting with it . Se ma is the father (Pitri) of the Rishis . ’ Yfiy am hi sOm a pitare m am asthan a . e Se ma is a fertiliser . S ma shoots up to the sky . The flying falcon brings up Se ma e between his feet . The falcon (Sy na) was RIKS imprisoned in a hundred ferruginous castles and then he flew up when Indra forced him out . Satam m apu ra ay asir arak sh an adha ’ r Sye ne Javas a n i adiy am . S e ma m ust be purified of dregs and effervesce a n dthen Indra rejoices mightily when he drinks . ‘ Na S e ma In dram asu tO mamada nabrah ’ n h mano m aghava am S u tasa . Vi ras SOm a p , Brahmanas , are purified by ’ Agni s filter . Y atte p av itram archivat agne t e na pu n ihi h ’ aih Pu n i i . nah . Brahma S av nah They pray to Indra and Agni to absorb n them , and they attract Indra , stre gthen him ,

and lead him . There is rivalry between the various Rishis as to whose Se ma Indra would

- prefer . S e ma produces the well feathered

Gayatri T rishtu p and Jagati . These are the

o f S u arn a. e children p If S ma is not supplied , r e o . Indra is powerless paroxysmal S ma is , o f f the food the gods , and by o fering it and filling the gods with its products the skilful

. e Brahmans controlled the gods S ma is , to r K according the child en of asyapa , the o f S a rco s te mm a moon , the expressed j uice the vimin a l is n or any other lear ed plant ! in fact , a nything but what it is . What then is S e ma o n e o f o f In the hymns the tenth mandala ,

when the gods had established peace on earth , agriculture became possible and the marriage c eremonial was instituted , the Rishi sneeringly ‘ s ays , They crush a plant and imagine they

have dru nk S e ma . The S e ma that Brahmans ’ know , nobody eats of it . RIKS

Who is this omniform S Om a which flie s rise s a n d lo a ts in the wa te rs s like a bird , f , shoot up unprompted in great fountains (ache dase n e dh an v an twin davah s ) flows in great rivers , form great lakes and forms solid accumulations in hills ? It is Se ma that arms Indra with Vajra o f ( explosive power) . Out the very bones o f D adh ach o f A h arva y , the son t , Indra destroyed

99 Vritras . Sema too is the Prince of Me h e ? dicin e s . What is t is S ma I will answer in the language of the Frenchmen Ne u b u ry e r M I and Noalhat (translated by J . G . c n to sh) in their exhaustive treatise o n the technology o f ‘

. ? petroleum What is petroleum Ah well , f a petroleum is a thousand di ferent things , ! n f Proteus under a hu dred dif erent aspects . e e S ma is , therefore , Bitumen ! and now I hop I will not take away the breath o f my reader when I state in barest fashion the technology of the Rishis .

Jaritas D e ca in r an ic atte r c hie fl e at y g o g m , y p

mos s . n t re r tr A m a ufac u of pe ole um . C avitie s formin g in de cay in g organ ic

m atte r. r i fi i I n te st ce s ll e d w th gas .

Ve n t.

i in in n t Vip ra ss u g gas o u t of a ve . Tin y bubble s of hy dro l carbo n gas fl ashin g from the surfa ce of de n c ay i g m atte r. ch a Bubble s of su g s . n - h Ste a dy s i g s on g iss ue s of t e gas . - Marsh gas (O H 4) . n H A ce ty le e (Cs a) . H Ethy le n e (CQ 4) .

RIKS robbers (Dasyus) who rolled down upon their

fields and rendered them waste . It is probable the explosive was u tilised in an offensive ‘ ’ weapon called ap va and Ugram an y u is Vajra (explosive) and acquires more energy when s truck . No wonder Z arathfi shtra cursed the D eva - worshippers and made the Saviour V ritraghn a a devil when the eastern Aryas under Indra - agni arm ed Indra with Ugra n ma yu and made him paroxysmal . With the R athan tara Vasish h a Saman , t led a ’ m ighty current o f Indra s lava over preci pio es and through cols when Visvam itra w as w Virfi a powerless to do so ith his p Saman , though helped by his nephew Jam adagn i with Vira a his j Saman , which is probably the F r Nith a naphthalene series . o (leading over R athan tara - Obstacles) , Saman (motor car spirit) was most powerful and for arming Indra with V Brihat ajra (explosive power) , Saman was k th a ha sa . U Va best The gods are sometimes , V sish h a . a travelling by explosive motors t , who R athan tara co n was richest in Saman , s tituted a great reservoir o f distilled petro o f leum rich in gasoline , and says at the end h is great R athan tara Saman hymn : ‘ Tv aya vayam pravatah Sasvatir ape ati ’ a tar S ra am asi. o u ! (With y , O brave Indra we cross over the eternal snows o f the precipices) and the greatness o f V asishtha and his branches is de - : scribed by Sudas , their king cone , as below ‘ Their splendours are like the light of a RIKS

moving sun , their mighty mass is like the deep s e a Va ish has ! , and , O s t nobody can follow the ’ - e normous wind like rapidity o f your praises .

The more the Riks Indra absorbs , the more the bubbles that pass into him , the more the praises that are blown into him , the more intimately the Rishi unites with him , the S Om a more his stomach is filled with , and ‘ ’ makes his kukshi (stomach) swell like the sea , ’ th e greater is Indra s delight and power and the mightier are the' works he accomplishes fo r i An d mank nd . then when he accomplishes his work an d his intoxication subsides (rana av e o ld y ) and he crumbles down , then too the Rishis as well as Bharadvaj a found he was ‘ ’ h o f good . He broke down into t e richest s oils o f which all ate as though they had broken

. e down the sun himself S ma , the summation O f - the hydro carbon gases , vesiculates Indra , renders him far more powerful for explosive a n d journeying work than mere steam , and what is more , fertilises him , while with steam a lone Indra frequently spreads wolves ( v rik a tati) from which the Rishis pray to be protect e d. The frightful bristling Scoria which tear and lacerate the skin are appropriately termed wolves (Vrik a) and Vayu is steam . Consist K ently with other . errors , the children of asyapa have confounded the steam which issues from volcanoes (by the contact o f sinking waters with the living Lord) with vata , the wind . E ven in the later hymns o f the tenth m andala the imitators of the o ld Rishis began to confound Vata an dVayu as they began to con found S e ma with the juice of a plant . Vayu f Hir a is the breath O the gods . In the great an y garbha hymn is the following verse : ! When the great waters held Agni in their womb and gave birth to him when o f the gods saw the light day) , then issued ‘ ’ ” forth the great asu (breath) of the gods . Hence volcanic gods are Asuras and ordi h nary steam is svad a. It surprised me when ‘ ’ A hfi r Mazda was not interpreted as the great in (mahat) asura , a name applied to Varuna the Riks j ointly with his good brother Mitra .

Mahan tav asu rafi Ritavridhafi .

(The great asuras who increase life . )

Angra Manyu is , of course , Ugra Manyu . The water which is held absorbed in underground

' T n lava is a im apat . When it flashes as steam or a mixture o f oxygen and hydrogen it is Nara am a is s s , when it carves in the mother it Matari v a o u t s s , and when it issues , it mixe with the air or creates currents of wind .

This distinction is brought o u t by Visv am itra . o f Indra is , course , supplied with steam power him by the Maruts , and in the q uarrel between s and the Maruts , Agastya makes the Marut ‘ : Y o u o u r S vadha say certainly followed , O ’ i . h s Indra T is Vayu , the breath of the gods , ’ Twas h - - Twash ar tar s son in law . Who is this t who had Vayu for his son -in -law ? What is his Se ma which first raised up Indra ? What ‘ ’ is the Brahman o f which he is made ? Twa shtar is the parent o f the gods and made special RIKS s tore houses o f his S Om a in the Brahmans

Vi v arfi a A h arva . s p , t and Brahmanaspati His daughters are Janis (literally breedin g -woman

a s i n . opposed to Star , a sterile woma ) These Jan is ‘ h e gives un to Vayu for wife and Vayu produces sons and daughters known as Naras a n d . Gnas and the gods are produced by the

- s elf hollowing of the Naras . I will give the T ash ar r fi u r n . w o ss e r i terpretation at once t , Hephaestus and Vulcan is the mass of elastic gases accumulating in subterraneous cavities o ver the great reservoirs of lava . These gases ‘ ’ a re known as Brahman or the expanders . This Twashtar fissures from below and the g reat primary fissures , his daughters , are the fi . s Janis , mothers of the gods When these s ures are made , the waters go in into the lava , a n d Matarisv an o r Vayu operating o n the Janis produces hot springs (Gnas) and fumaroles

( Naras) . These fumaroles rear themselves up into hollow cones . The elastic gases are mostly hydro - carbons and are identical with the s ubstance o f S Om a and the vapours produced n f by its distillation . Great accumulatio s o bitumen solid , liquid and gaseous , are produced

in the region o f the primary fissures . There is every probability that before the access of waters the fissu rin g gas was hydrogen and that it is t o this that the word Param Brahma

was first applied . Purusha (lava) is described n as Rita , Satya and Param Brahma , meani g i s . he liquid , solid and gaseous Hydrogen is a r e x ce l le n ce the Brahman (expansive gas) p , RIKS and hydrogen absorbed in lavas under stu p e n dous pressure was probably responsible for the great lines of primary fissures with which Purusha encircled the globe (Bhumi) - the o f fissures out which he rose with many heads , many eyes and many feet te n fin ge r- breadth s Bhfi m i above the level of the . This , if. the maximum height o f a volcano were taken at -fiv e five miles , would give forty miles distance for the boundary line where the crust of the - o f earth and the central , deep seated reservoir fin e r- s lava come into contact , ninety g breadth o f the rising Purusha being underground and ’ T h r ten above the earth . was ta s Se ma is thus S e ma formed by the contact o f water with was lava and the probabilities are , this naphtha formed by the condensation of Gayatri and ri h u H H T s t p (C 4 and C Q Q) produced by the action o f water on metallic carbides chiefly carbides of calcium and iron . Of course , if Twashtar cut his fissures in sedimentary beds of a coal or fish , these aloneby destructive distill tion under the combined influence o f steam and lava would yield all forms of bitumen . Thus A th arva D adh ach is vapourising naphtha ! y , his son , is viscous lubricating oil , produced by na hth a Path a p coming in contact with air and y , D adh ath o r the son of y , is pitch asphalt , being , as its name implies , useful for paving roads . VastOsh ati o f p (lord house) Indu is pitch , which keeps out cold and keeps the house A tharva Brihad firm . I will repeat that of A n irah diva , g chiefly as Brihaspati , and RIKS

Visvarfip a were the three Se ma children of Om a r s Twashtar. What is the S stored in Ad i and guarded by Panis ? Adri is an absorbent f rock to eat) . It is a reservoir rock o porous conglomerate , sandstone , or limestone chiefly in the form o f dolomite ! Pan i m e an s im

- v . permeable shale , the co er rock There is good reason to believe that the Vala who retained the cows (S Om a) guarded by Panis was dolomitic limestone and Trita A pty a was a pure naphtha distilled up to the crystalline peaks in num m u litic o f beds E ocene age , elevated to the very tops of the mountains . He is n o t only in the highest peaks (divi - re chan e sh u ) but he falls and is engulfed in darkness . ‘ ’ D u sv a n a He is the seat of p , bad sleep , which I have n o doubt represents carbonic acid gas . The Rishi prays that all carbonic acid may be absorbed by Trita A pty a whose body contains it . Next we come to Sarama , n o f the messe ger Indra , who preceded him in the undergr ound search for S Om a . Of course Sarama is hot water charged with sulphurous acid . Her children are the dogs , Swana n u t being sulphur . Sarama havi g worn o the o f panis (shale) and_ exposed the great stores A n irasas petroleum , the g break up the rock with words (explosions) and the cows j oyously issue from their stalls (anticlin es) and m i x ’ with Twashtar s children who accompany

Indra In the quest . Having helped Indra and A n iras as i the g to d scover petroleum , Sarama r found plenty of beds to lay her child en on , RIKS

‘ ’ i tan a h i V dat a a d as m . Sarama y y Hermes is , t - herefore , sulphurous acid , the arch thief and m essenger who c an break into the best -guarded places and conceals m etallic wealth in o u t- o f t h e way places as sulphides . The Bhrigu s - are also S e ma producers . The Bhrigu s are coal , probably lignite as they are in the middle ( Forest) region and they produce S e ma by contact with lava . If you wish to understand e Pavam an a the S ma hymns properly , you must not only read a full description of the O il fountains o f Baku and Of the oil and gas bub bling through the Caspian Sea and covering o f whole square miles with sheets flame , but you must also imagine what the Rishis saw , the S e ma filtering through o il s an ds (avy O vara) in the high ranges , rising through the snows GO ( ) , sprayed and purified by fumaroles lining ’ o f the slopes volcanoes , and entering as Havis great hollows in the mighty bosom o f Indra

. re and Varuna Jaritas (decayers) are , as I marked , decaying organic matter and mostly - hi hl bi u min peat moss which is g y t o u s . Vayu is the vapour column which shoots out of a volcano and it reaches S Om a before the gods ( lava) o r passes underground producing fuma ’ ‘ ’ roles n iy u ts literally hollowing within ) o n its line o f march . Vayu frequently leaves e Indra behind , and then it is S ma that keeps them together and helps and persuades Vayu to lift him and carry him . ‘ Tritasy a nama j an ay an madhu p riy am ’ k h k r In drasy a Vaye ssa k yay a a tave .

RIKS

F r l was ended . o the good of the present genera tion o f their children the Rishis have taught

the simple lesson which they practised on a .

large scale , that volcanoes can be partially

controlled by petroleum . The lava follows

petroleum like a hungry horse . During the o f - s wars the earth born heroes , the great god were controlled and led and utilised by supply

- ing petroleum and hydro carbon vapours . ‘ D fi radin dram an ay an n asu te n a tire vai san tam atipan tam u gram Pasady u m n asy a Va atas a e m S u tadin dro avri ita y y S at , n Vasi ’

shthan .

V asish has They (the t ) led Indra from afar , - n r Indra the straight tu neler , the great d inker , d si h h the fierce . In ra preferred the V a s t as to b P ad um n the S e ma pressed y as y a Vay ata .

This is the real meaning of Jupiter , and Poseidon (originally Ouranos) being enslaved

by mortals . Indra was for a long time enslaved by Kutsa and his wife and the Rishi says ‘ I have heard y o u were master of your o wn movements ! come away here from Kutsa !

a great man like you should not sit idle , tied ’ m va to a woman . Va ade was so impudent as ’ to offer to sell Indra s services for ten cows . He says I Who will buy this my Indra from me for ten cows ? When he has broken up all your ’ glaciers you must give him back to me . 24 (Mandala IV , Hymn , Verse

A line of gasoline (Vasishtha) and ben z ine RIKS

(Bharadwaj a) reservoirs commencing from the o r active vents of Vesuvius E tna , laid along the desired direction with a gas -pipe inserted into the vent to determine the initial m ove w ment , ill enable us to lead the lava like an animal and break up the lava into the richest o f n o w soils , far richer than what modern lava produces . The great inky column of steam , dust and gases (Vayu) shooting up double , treble and quadruple the height of the highest mountains o n the globe and overwhelming s earth and air with darkness , dust and flood cannot be controlled , and Agastya , who could do pretty much as he liked with the gods , fer v e n tly prayed to heaven and earth to be saved ’ abhva from the , ’ r k h m Dy ava a s ata Prithivi no abhv at . I will now proceed to consider in the next chapter the greater and the lesser gods , and ’ the earth -born heroes produced by Twashtar s dividing the heaven and earth . CHAPTER VI .

TWA SH TA R THE ADITYA R DRA A ND A S US . , s , u s V

HE Twash ar T reader already knows t , who wh o fissures the earth and heaven , produces m - mineral petroleu and hydro carbons , and arms Indra with explosive Vajra made up chiefly of ih Br at Saman . It is not necessary to say that this Twashtar is Vulcan who forges thunder bolts for Jove from under the entrails of Etna . ’ Twashtar s first effort in Aditi produced the

Sadhy a D e vas who did not see the light of day .

These lavas did n o t rise above the surface . Their position is in all probability the parting line between the slaty crystallines and the s c o h r n t f laty e e s o the great mountain range , to use the sim ple and intelligible technology invented by Ruskin for ordinary men . This is ‘ e ’ the div naka , where the heaven j oins the an tarik sh a o f and this line weakness , strength ened by dykes and forming the junction b e tween the heaven and middle region , is the seat o f Gandharvas , which are salses in which petro leum predominates . The origin of these e e Gandharvas is V na , and this V na produces the o x in the hills which is probably Ozokerit . ‘ Divo nake madhu j ihv a as asch ato Vena ’ u h n u d a ty k shan am giris tham . RIKS

D ava - (At the j unction of y , sweet tongued

Ve n as milk o u t the o x in the hills . ) One form o f S o ma is expressly declared to be produced by the action o f steam on Vena .

Ve n ad ekam S vadh aya n iratak sh an . In hymn 123 of the tenth mandala is a o f e full description V na , in which his position is the highest raj as (region between forest bel t and permanent snow - line) and how along the lines of rest o f the raj as ( raj as v im an e) he rises enveloped in splendour , rousing the children o f Prisn i when the sun meets the e ’ waters , and how armed with his (V na s) weapons the Gandharva rose above the naka and a banner of white steam displayed b e au te ous forms in the third raj as . These Gan dharv as were older than the gods and o n e o f these mighty Gandhar vas which had n ever been stretched low was destroyed by Indra . th e e S O m a When Sy na brings for Indra , the

Gandharva who shoots high , as salses naturally it do , attacked and reduced its flying power

- probably by currents Of sulphur di oxide . This Vena then must issue from the S adhy a D evas stored up in the lowest hollow (Parame ‘ ’

V Om an . V o m an y ) y means break , fissure , o f being literally absence protection (uma) . ‘ ’

. e n i s The gods are Omas , protectors V a , i i therefore , hydro carbon gas ssu ng from under fis su re d ground lava which the crust , but did n o t reach the surface . This was the great reservoir o u t of which the other Agnis were ‘ e ’ made . V na means desire , love , and is RIKS

identical with Kama , the son of Vishnu , and the Yaj u s has it Venas tad veda p aram am guha yad yatra ’ rfi visvam bhav atyek a pam . Ve na knows what is in the deepest o f depths where the universe merges in a single form . He is the child of Vishnu and is the primeval source o f life and intelligence and the probabilities are that the Apsaras (Wingless nymphs) , who hold him in the lowest cavity ,

i . e . raise him to their balconies , , tops , of anticlinals ( h arm y a) and cajole him to remain with them for ever , are brine springs . Venus and Aphrodite born of the ocean foam is , of e course , V na , though the Greek conception is not carefully thought out . In the last verse ’ o f the Purusha Sukta hymn , the place where h l Sad as O d . the y of dwelt , is declared to be Naka o f The oldest the volcanic gods , the Adityas , were produced by Aditi desirous of progeny Offering Brahm e dan am ( food rich in Brahman) to th e Sadhy a D e vas . Then a mighty fissure was opened in the Brihaddiva and the modi fi e dl ava was Savitar who produced Aryaman ,

Mitra , Varuna , and Indra . These great vol canoes were produced in the granite of the c entral range right at the crest . They were produced in the order I have given , from west r d to east . For when Purusha o ve fl o we he did ‘ ’ so first in the p aschad bhfim i and then in ‘ e ’ the pur bhumi . Aryaman became mori - o f l u b ri bund first , but was a great store house Cating oil an d warm springs and was as such RIKS

regarded as the guardian of un married eligibl e

girls fit for rearing cones upon . Mitra and u Var na , a twin volcano , rose higher than all f o o . thers , and Varuna was the highest all Va a ch a ata an ta His high top , ( y s nami p y apuh) e did ven the flying birds not reach . So ‘ Vishnu ’ s highest station is not reached by ’ ‘ v a asch a ata an tah atatrin ah y na p y p , the ’ a a winged birds that fly . Mark the word p t y a t u wa rd for flight . It is p flight and literally m eans making oneself fall ’ and implies raising o to neself a height , falling by gravity , in fact

progressing by series of rises and falls , the rise being due to the energy o f the bird and the

fall to gravity . That was how the gods were

p ro du cgd. How did Savitar produce the ’ g reat Adityas ? Vam ade va s immortal verse ( 54 Mandala IV , Hymn , Verse to which I

have already referred , runs as follows ‘ Out o f the great massifs (Brih at p arv atas) o u o f y create the gods whom Indra is greatest , a n d for these you create homes over fissures . As they flew up and settled apart they stood ’ helpfully to promote your creation . Pa Pfi h n s tya is a fissure . s a (midday sun) f ast a o d o . is Vaj a p y , the g fertile fissures Varuna sat down for universal dominion over P as tyas . Varun a made his platform over most

m otherly fissures . ‘ Nish asada dhritavrate Varu n ah p asty asva ’ r un S am a aj yay a S fik ratu h . (S asse pa) Pastyasu ch ak re Varu n assadh astham i ’ Apam S su r Matritam asvan tah .

(Sukla Y aj u s . ) RIKS

The former is the verse used when a n e w king is established o n the throne . The forma tion and rise o f a cone is exactly similar to th e process by which birds elevate themselves . Yahv a a Hence Agni is a bird ( , Jehovah) in

o . double sense , as he is also the heater (H t a

Ya ata . god) and ( j ) melter Of course , all these e u s gods , as well as S ma and Vay , are kavi

(poets) because of their metamorphic action . u They transform and prod ce new shapes , sub stances and wealth o f all kinds . In another v erse o f the same —immortal hymn the great seer tells Savitar ‘ O n th e Y agn a -helping gods y o u bestow the highest form o f immortality . Then you l to extend your rope (Dama) , bespeaking ife ’ mortals .

o f . r The rope is , course , ropy lava The orde o f succession of these great volcanoes , as already a noted , is Aryaman , Mitra , Varuna and Indr from west to east . They decayed in that order till Varuna and Indra became the sole rival s and Indra finally established his greatnes s to o o f th e over Varuna , with the help Agni in m iddle region and above all o f mighty Vish n u .

It is always Varuna , Mitra , Aryaman in speaking o f these three gods together . Kanva n says that Indra , Varu a , Mitra and Aryaman made homes in Brahma n aspati . ‘ Pran fi n am B rahm an asp atir mantram at u k h vad y t am . Yasmin Indro V aru n o Mitre Aryama ’ D e va o k am si chak rire .

RIKS s ister was passionate and persistent , and then Yama was blown o ff in a series of explosions a n d then commenced the series of engulf m ents which produced Nirriti ( bottomless pit) where Yama reared his splendid head . Yama Ban daish n perished even as a perished in Japan . It was the saddest event in the history o f the f O ld . O u t o Rishis Savitar , partly through Manu an d partly through Yama and partly ’ through Man n s daughter Ila were produced an d o n men , these flourished exceedingly the f o f who ertile slopes Yama , was a king unto SOm a f them , absorbing their of erings , supplying them crystal snow streams , splendid springs , magnificent soil , and all desirable things . Many o f o u r ancestors perished and that is ‘ the even t we celebrate in th e Mahalay a ’ A m av as a - y , the new moon day of the great

- s inking . They tried to re establish with Havis him (the son of Visv asvan ) who sank far down ‘ to perdition , down precipitous slopes spying this way and that for help , even he the great Yama round whose mighty bosom were ’ gathered the tribes o f men . Great was the lamentation , for Yama first established the ways o f civilisation and the splendid pastures that belted his base afforded grazing grounds for innumerable herds o f cattle . Yame n O gatum prath am O viveda naisha ’ ’ v g avy ri tir ap abh arta au . Even as the great mountain ranges are immortal as compared with the face o f the v o r alleys they vivify overwhelm , the great RIKS volcanoes born in the highest mountains are immortal as compared with volcanoes o f the ‘ ’ m rt as valleys . These latter are the a y (mortal ‘ ’ m rt as a n d bo rn o f m rit or tuff) . Great a y are - D iv e das a the earth born heroes , kings like , A A tithi va K S u ra Bharata , yu , g , utsa , and s o f vas . They are born gods , the latter being s econdary cones thrown on the slopes o f the f great gods . And the sons o God went unto the daughters of men and produced mighty heroes in the Prithivi . These are the Par

D ait as . t hiv as . Those born in Diti are y ‘ Titanian or eart h - born that warred on ’ ‘ Jove is Daitya o r Parthiv a that warred o n ’ Indra . Of course , Agni produces these heroes . E ven the gods sought their friendship and f respected their prowess . Out o Saraswati a n d the shattered cone of V adhry aswa Agni ’ D i V adhr a wa s produced v o das or Bharata . y s greatness is detailed in hymn 69 o f the tenth m andala , while his origin is celebrated in a m hy n to Saraswati . ‘ Iyam adadat rabha sam Rin achy u tam D iv o dasam Vadhry asvay a dasu sh e ya sas v an tam achak hadav a S am p a n im ta tO datran i ’ t avisha Saraswati . ‘ Yo u 0 gave , Saraswati , to liberal V adhry asva a debt - discharging forceful son D iv o dasa o u t , you who constantly wear the Pani (shale) and produce splendid gifts (of

Why are the gods immortal and the e arth -born mortal ? The gods are seated high RIKS

above clouds and storms , where there is eternal day during the day . The snows that envelop them as a splendid j ewelled robe afford them ’ f Pri n i a regular supply o steam power . s s an d lovely children but thicken their coat , snowstorms do not injure them . Raised high on granite platforms , they are practically beyond the reach o f lower volcanoes . When their supply o f S Om a is exhausted they cease to grow and erupt lava but continue to breathe like splendid high - born kings calmly A n watching the progress of mankind . earth to born hero is essentially earthy , he is liable be attacked by storms , he is easily washed out , h e gets into paroxysms and blows himself o ff . The gods of th e Andes who rose o u t of th e crest of the Cordillera and outtop the crys

tallin e . peaks , still rest in peace Many o f them still breathe and Cotopaxi - still erupts occasionally . But earth born m r Vesuvius is very different . A a ty a is so well described by Sir Martin Conway that I will give an extract from his work on the Alps . ‘ ’ c From a climber s point of view , volcani

. They rocks seem very hard and very ' brittle fracture with an astonishingly sharp edge which cuts like a knife the fingers and clothes ’ o f o f v o lcan ic de bris are the climber . Slopes h very unstable . T e foot sinks into them almost as into sand and they cut the boots an d To is gaiters to pieces . wade up such a slope a to o o f the worst kind of purg tory , provocative , , more sins of language than it can purge in the RIKS

f fr time . The lower slopes o volcanoes are e quently most fertile , but higher up all that a volcano produces is toilsom e for the foot o f ' I man . t follows that volcanoes are peaks of a n unstable character . They are upstarts by n ature and are easily pulled down . Among t - mo un tains they are the mos short lived . It y ields willingly to decay . The debris o f its upper rocks flow down its face almost like i d water . They gr nd together into ust and are blown away by the winds . Yet these mush room monsters are not without their co m

e n s atio n . p When active , they enjoy a magni fi c e n c e o f public advertisement that n o other kind o f peak can ever hope to rival . They grow in height o r are blown to perdition a midst earthquakes and terrific thunders . The storm clouds enveloping snowy peaks are n othin g to the smoke and darkness that wreath the brows o f an erupting volcano . Blasts o f fi re shoot from them and fo r glaciers their sides are flooded with molten lava . Few o f us can hop e to see such sights in the fulness o f

n - their glory . When the mou tain is full grown a n d fo r its days of activity are done , a while , it reigns a figure of perfect grace , a very queen fo r elegance and beauty o f form . Probably no s n owy peaks in the world are more absolutely perfect i n form than the white clad giant volcanoes of Kam asc hatk a . The outline of the i cone rising gently at the foot , then steepen ng

e. in its incomparabl logarithmic curve , is the l gracefu lest nature produces on a large scale . RIKS

Even the effulgent domes of the greatest cumulus clouds that soar into the clearest blue sky o n a faultless summer afternoon are not to be compared with volcanoes at their best . They have the aspects of works of art made expressly to incorporate an idea of beauty . o f They possess the symmetry a fine crystal , but a grace far beyond what is possi ble for any crystalline form . And then how they soar ! How their beautiful heads seem almost to float in the blue ! ’ The robing and j ewelling o f a king find a close analogy in a volcano . Sir Martin Conway says : ‘ In volcanic districts the colouring o f the w m rocks is almost al ays remarkable . It see s as though nature had emptied her whole palette upon them . Other mountains depend for their colour on the atmosphere . These are f independent o that source . Their o wn colour is predominant . All they ask for is trans n parent air and bright su shine to display them .

Their combination is so unusual , their chord so unlike anything we are accustomed to in i di to ord nary surroun ngs , that they cannot fail be the chief element in the view . They bring together , combine and contrast a whole series ’ of unusua l tints . If Sir Martin Conway could write thus of modern volcanoes (and other equally sober writers deify the imperial sovran , Mount m an Blanc) , it is well for modern and his sanity that Mitra and Varuna do not exist . RIKS

The Rishis who describe these mighty an desitic brothers who shone golden in the brightening dawn and blazed like burnished copper o r 1 molten ron at sunrise , who rose higher than any kn own volcanic mountain and looked o n down both Aditi and Diti , who saw the be lo w o n birds flying them , saw the ships an d the sea , from whom the sun , moon stars were never concealed , on whose beauty e dawn lighted first , and ven lingered longest , o u t while all below was dark , who rose right of the highest range in the greatest plateau o f e (Thibet) the earth , who had great aiguill spies to guard them from intruders and report i all that men were do ng in the valleys , the

Rishis who describe Mitra and Varuna , espe iall f r c y the latter , will compare favourably o sobriety and accuracy with the sanest of

moderns . The exquisite beauty of these hy mn devoted to Varuna an d Mitra -Varuna cannot

be given in a translation , and I will not attempt

it even on a small scale . The m arty a vo l. canoes are made up mostly of t u ffs and frag mental materials while the great a n desitic volcanoes are made up of l ava flows intercalated with beds o f ashes and strengthened by dykes o f a the lav , which latter frequently breach

m art a . an d in y cone Varuna , a lesser degree

Mitra , was the type of imperial sovereignty .

Sublime he rose , high above all his peers . The splendour o f his bejewelled robe was in de

scribable . Nothing escaped his searching eyes . Thrice a day he gave audience to his people in RIKS the valleys below who came up with their f prayers and o ferings , and thrice he rose in his throne as regularly as the sun himself and b e n e fice n ce scattered to his subjects below . ‘ Triradi vo Savita s Osh avIti raj ana mitra ’ Varuna Supani .

- - Golden eyed , golden handed and golden a rmed , the Savitar lava rose thrice and sent down splendid snow - streams to the frozen r v alleys at the foot of his throne . An o st itch feather in the shape of a thin snow cloud (Prisn i GOp a) floated over his brillian t head dress . His kingdom he created out of his

o wn . t body Its fertility , wealth and irriga ion works were all due to him . Great warriors ( secondary cones) born o f his own body guarded f him . He was the father o his people . No wonder Brahmans loved to chant the Varuna hymn when they established a king o n a throne . ‘ Nish asada dh rita v ratO V aru n ah Past ’ y aswa S am raj y a S u k ratu h . ‘ Varuna was entitled to say , The State ! ’ I am the State . Such a king who took in the S e ma o f his organic subjects and returned it in thousand - fold b e n e fice n ce was the emperor h h p a r e x ce ll e n ce and was a Mag ava of m ag avas .

! Such a king was Yama to o to the men who . m ultiplied in him . The gods to o had formidable enemies , but I will finish with Savitar before

I deal with them . When Yama perished , the S aran u Vivasv an great fissure y closed up in , but widened a bo ve . This widened fissure

RIKS his position in gn eiss and cry stalline schists an d o f the stupendous might his snowstorms , and h e the floods and stone avalanches he created , f was the most dreaded form o Agni . When king S Om a would not rise up and had to be A as beaten up , the gods appeal to Varuna ditya a their chief, but he was ever merciful and v forgiver of sins (risada) , and finally he lea es it ‘ ’ to Rudra the Krura (cruel) to do the work ’ Ghatuk a an d Rudra was a great , destroyer , the other gods selected him for the worst

- kind o f work . It was out of this Rudra Agni - e wh o that the six headed Kartik ya was born , e s rose in six cones , drank S ma of six reservoir SOm a o f of and water , the wives six great Rishis (sweet water springs out o f which - an d petroleum and hydro carbon gases issue) , rose in might and m aj esty after a day ’ s draught of the invigorating juice to destroy the enemies . of the gods . There is every reason to believe that Rudra - Agni is rhyolite and Vasu -Agni is - y s trachy_te , just as Savitar Agni , synon mou di Vi van ara clo se l with A tya and s , is andesite y

a llie d to ba sa l t. e V dic scholars will , of course , know by this time that a volcanic cone is

Bhu v an a . ‘ Divas ari ratham am a n e A n ih p p j g g , as m adviti am v edah Triti am y pari jata , y apsu ’ n rim a n a adhatta . n Agni was born first along the heave , then round us and a third time in the (massed) snows . Kartike ya is rhyolite lava which developed into a six -headed volcano with the RIKS

- n help of Vasu Agni below , and hence is know ’ ’ as Rudra s son as well as Agni s son . The work of Visvak arm an is su mm arised in the o f very first verse the hymn devoted to him . ! o u r who He , Father , transformer and heater , sublimed all these volcanoes and sat within them , he desiring to produce wealth as a ” blessing (to us his children) entered inferior lower ones under cover of his first Visvak arm an created cones in the central u range , then went underground raising p cones in the descending line o f his march for ’ i k arm an o f . V va a the benefit life s is our Janit , n fissu re d creator , he is the volca ic god who t earth and heaven , produced the great gods o ritra fight V and his castles , and produced mortal kings (m arty as) in the earth for the

. w progress of life , fertility and wealth He as the tectonic god and his energy passed into the waters and the world of life on the surface of the earth . The Riks j ustify the mythologies o f the Greeks and the brave Maoris as to the partin g o f heaven and earth and the creation of the gods . The Rishis frequently discuss the question o f the origin o f heaven and re s sl earth , but they nowhere ex y state that Vi v ak arm an dit a s , who in his y , Rudra and Bhu van as Vasu forms rose in frail , created the mou ntain ranges and the primary longitudinal f valleys . That was the work o a higher than h e — the mighty Vishnu , of whom he was the overflow , and to whom the next chapter will be devoted . CHAPTER VII.

VISHNU .

HN V IS U is the source of all the gods . There is good reason to believe that he is the Lord o f the Old Testament . He is the Apollo of the

Greeks . He is basaltic lava . For brilliancy , o d o r o f energy and size , no g host gods can approach him . To us mortals o f this re o se fu l p period , he condescends to show himself o n V aik u n h as a small scale chiefly in two t , pit - shaped cauldrons in the Pacific island o f

Hawaii . I will first describe the living Lord ’ ! from Dana s Characteristics of Volcanoes .

The craters are Mount Loa and Mount Kilauea . ‘ The south -west and northern parts of the crater were one vast flood of liquid fire in a state - n o f terrific ebullition . Fifty o e craters of varied form and size rose like so many conical islands f from the surface o the burning lake . Twenty s two constantly emitted columns of gray smoke o r brilliant flam e and many vomited from their ignited mouths streams o f florid lava which rolled in blazing torrents down their black in dented sides into the boiling mass below . In a night scene , the agitated mass of liquid lava like a fl o o d of m e ta l raged with tumultuous -h s whirls . The red o t lavas would dart upward and boil with terrific grandeur . Close by stood

RIKS s urface 10 to 15 feet across in which the lava a fter heaving up and down for a few seconds burst into a fountain of 20 to 30 feet and then m falling back , the spot beca e quiet and the red s urface quickly took on its gray filmy covering . The alternations from the crusted to the com ’ l e te l p y molten state took about three minutes . ’ (This is Vasishtha s Sipiv ishta Vishn u . ) The wall of Halemaumau was tufted with Pele ’ s hair which was perpetually being formed from ’ the lava proj ected into the air . (This is ‘ H ri h k o f 1832 Vishnu s i e sa . ) The lava was much weathered and mostly u nder dense - r vegetation . Half char ed trunks of trees were s tanding in 1887 with a rough cylindrical ’ encasement o f lava about the stumps . (Agni munching the trees with his teeth . ) One 12 typical cone of beehive shape , feet high , 40 about feet deep within , and having walls ’ ’ ‘ 2 feet thick (Vish n u s Sankha o r conch) was throwing up j ets and clots o f lava through holes in its sides with a deafenin g or rather s tunning roar and subterranean rumblings and o f th e detonations . Where the lavas lake went is the o ld question again unanswered ! perhaps into some cavernous subterranean region o r perhaps into the sea by some opened fi ssure . Though a stick could be lighted by thrusting it down a crack , there was scarcely a place from which I was prevented access on ’ a n ccount of the heat . (Vish u is a kind and - good natured god , not a scorcher like other

Agnis . ) The lavas dashed up in spray and RIKS s s pla hed noisily , seemingly with the liquidity f r l r o . o do e te water Basalt y is the lava , and the heat is suffi cient for the perfect mobility o f the lavas and therefore for the fullest and freest action ! though there is not the fusion of a ll o f its minor ingredients , its chrysolite and magnetite . The temperature needed for this mobility is to F . We are certain a white heat exists within a few inches of the s r o f l - u face , for the play j ets in a ava lake m akes a dazzling network o f fine lightning l ike lines over the surface and white heat is e quivalent to F . Considering the height o f Mount Loa and the greatness o f its crup tions and the vastness of basaltic outflows over h the globe , we may reasonably assume t at the temperature needed for the normal basalt volcano has long been and is now , easy of s upply by the earth for any volcanic region . It cannot be affirmed that this higher heat re « ’ quired fo r the complete fusion o f trachyte ‘ ’ ‘ (Indra) o r rhyolite (Rudra -A gn i) is wanting at convenient depths below , for it has been manifested in the outpo u ring of vast floods o f these lavas through opened fissures . The s pecial eruptive characteristics of a basalt volcano are first , greater velocity on like s lopes with less liability to be impeded by o u u bstr ctions , a lower minim m angle of flow a n d hence a less angle o f slope for the lava c ones . The crater of a great volcano has a lways its beginning in a great discharging ’ fissure (Dhishan a) or in the crossing of two RIKS

’ i fissures (Aran in the dual) . The crater is n t f the i dicator and fu ure builder o the cone . The liquid material o f the extremity of a conduit works outward from the hotter centre through the fusing heat and the boiling and - e other cauldron like movements , and henc where the mobility favours freedom of action in these respects it tends to give the basin o r ’ crater a nearly circular form with steep sides . ‘ (Vaik u n th a ) Such pit craters are normally

- C ircular . The lava lakes send forth vapours which produce the play o f j ets over lava - lakes with the muffled sounds and the tremor o f ’ ebullition . Pra tad Vish n us stavate Viry e n a m rige ‘ ’ na bhim ah k u charo girishth ah . (Vishnu fumes with energy like a dread ‘ u beast moving in the hollow of the hills . ) B t these vapours have not produced the great eruptions in Kilauea . They occasion only its quiet pr lively activity in periods o f regular th work between eruptions . I may add that e vapours are bad for fuel as they tend to pu t ’

. e the fires out , but good for work (S ma is good ‘ an d as fuel a n dfo r wo rk . ) There is another perhaps perpetual source o f work during the e life of a volcano , as it is a perpetual sourc o f o f the heat , namely , the ascensive force conduit lavas . But , unlike the vapours , it is an invisible agency slow in its irresis tible movements . What its limitations are and ’ what its source , still remain undetermined . (The primary source is expansive Brahman o r

RIKS s coria the vesicles are 98 to 99 per cent of the ’ mass .

The above extracts refer to Mount Kilauea . ‘ The following are taken from the description ’ ‘ o f Param am Mount Loa , which is Vishnu s ’ padam (highest place) in these days . ‘ During the night a brilliant light ap p e are d at the summit looking like a small — fir . beacon e In a week the light disappeared . In the meantime the lavas had commenced their discharge . The lava rushed along the tunnel - like way with awful speed an d large s tones thrown on the surface were carried instantly out of sight without sinking into the ’ s tream . ‘ Fo r two or three weeks a brilliant and l ofty column o f light was seen over the moun ’ tain . ! From Hilo a column of clouds was seen ’ b y day which was fiery by reflection at night . ( This is the Lord ’ s pillar of cloud by day and f o . pillar fire by night ) When first seen , the light looked like a planet j ust setting over the t o p of the mountain . In a few minutes the whole summit was brilliant and a stream of lava commenced its flow . Forty hours later t he fires had apparently become extinct , but a o n 2oth c fter three days , the , the hief flow began at a point o n the eastern side feet above sea -level near the terminus o f a l ine o f fissures leading down from the place f o the first outbreak . The escaping lavas rose a t first in a lofty fountain and then flowed RIKS

27 th . 20 . e astward for miles On the , Mr Coan found the lavas playing to a height of four to five and seven hundred feet in ever -varying

form s of towers , pyramids and spires with variations also in colours from white heat to red above and then to grayish red and gray . Great volumes o f lava were ascending and d n o t escending , intermittently but continuous l y , and the surging roaring , booming sounds bu t witho u t e a rth u a k e were almost deafening , q ’ r m in in e n f o be g n g to d. (These rotatory fountains o f lava playing to seven hundred feet are the ‘ Chakra ’ of the mighty chakra ‘ f . . K o yudha ) Mr inney , speaking the s n m ou d fro the cataract of liquid lavas , says , ! Its deep unearthly roar , which we began to o n hear early the day before , waxed louder and louder as we drew nearer the a r o f ction , until it esembled the roar the ’ o cean s billows when driven by the force o f a hurricane against a rock - bound coast ” r o like the deafening roar o f Niagara . ‘ This description attests the fountain - like c o f K haracter the discharge . Mr . inney made th e o f to . height the jets , four eight hundred feet He reported also that the heat created terrific whirlwinds which stalked about like so many s entinels bidding defiance to the darin g visitor . T he diameter o f the crater from which the o n e fountain rose was about thousand feet , t h e o f height the crater , hundred to hundred a n d fifty feet height of the fountain , two to s w u even hundred feet , rarely belo three h ndred RIKS

di e feet ! ameter of the fountain , one to thre r hundred feet , and rarely perhaps reaching fou hundred feet . The j et of fire sometimes shot up into a tapering gothic spire of seven hun e dred feet , then rose into a great mass thre to hundred feet in diameter , but varied at p with points and jets like the ornaments o f r gothic architecture . He adds that to app e ciate the most te rrific element in the su blim e co mp o sitio n you should stand at the foot of ! Niagara or o n a tempest - lashed shore ! for the force necessary to raise two hundred thousand to five hundred thousand tons of lava at once into the air would n o t be silent in its

- operations . The lava stream is stated to have a depth , in some places , of two or three hundred fe e tf ‘ A glowing point of light was seen , which rapidly extended an d it was soon evident a . lava - stream was o n its way down the moun 7 s tain . No earthquake had announced thi l h . w t e eruption After flowing free y for a hile , stream often cooled and hardened along th e front and remained inactive several days ! at o f so lidi e d length immense areas the fi lava , four , five or six miles from the extremity , are s again in motion , cones are uncapped , dome t crack , hills and ridges of scoria m ove and grea slabs o f lava are raised vertically or tilted in ’ a an n ath every direction . (That is the great J g ‘ 9th s car of Vishn u . ) On February the lava issued at a white heat apparently as liquid as water and dashed along in cataracts and rapids

RIKS

‘ When your fumes of anger glow and your o f wheels (rotatory fountains lava) shoot up , m ’ in you we see the and in the sun . The sun ‘ i v in the above verse is the Va s an ara . When the gods established this Vaisvan ara in the heaven as the sun born o f Aditi and when the couple (heaven and earth) began to move (having been united in a close embrace by ’ Vrita) , then all volcanoes saw the light of day . 88 (Mandala X , Hymn , Verse This is why the week commences with Adity avara or Sun day . There can be no doubt these fountains were due to Vishnu , who , greater far than e trachytic Indra , took second place as Up ndra j u st as h e took the place of charioteer to m al e fice n t Arjuna , son of Indra , destroyed the volcanoes which disturbed northern India and gave peace to the river valleys from Kashmir arasan da to Raj garh , whence mighty J threw a bom b which reached to within a few miles o f Muttra . ‘ The lava flowed at 10 to 25 miles an hour in a rapid stream to the sea . A cinder or tuft- cone was first made which was first an island and then became joined to the mainland by the flowing lava . The eruption ceased ’ ’ after five days activity . (The reader will have noted how quickly the crust cools and can easily realise how Lord Vishnu bridged over the Red Sea for his chosen by dividin g it with his own body , and overwhelmed their enemies by letting the seas return and reunite . ) Mr . Coan observes that the lofty columns of light RIKS

about the summit at night were proof o f vio lent ebullition and for nin e months the action ' ’ ‘ within th e great crater (Vaik u n tha) had not remitted . The great marvel was its duration , without any outside results . Within two miles . of the crater monitions of activity were in o n apparent a distant vibrating roar , and reaching the crater edge the roar was like that ! of an ocean rising and falling like the

- thunder music of windward Hawaii . ‘ n Occasional detonatio s were heard , but no shakings except the tremor from the throw

and fall of the lavas . At one time the j ets , after long playing at a height of three hundred

feet , suddenly became quite low and for a few ! seconds there were cones o f fire wallowing in ” a sea of light , a description which , like most ’ o f - is to the li e Miss Bird s word pictures , f , and then with a roar like the sound of gathering o f waters , nearly the whole surface the lake was lifted up by the action o f some powerful internal force and its whole radiant mass rose thre e times in one glorious upward burst esti mated by the height o i surrounding cliffs to a

height o f six hundred feet . Am ong the varied forms o f the fountain there were the low

rounded dome ! a spire at the centre with a . fountain on either side in the form o f a wheat ’ n - sheaf ! and o e great wheat sheaf . A great upstart volcano like Sisu pala may rear his

head to regal heights , shake the earth and spit contemptuous ashes and loud words of insult

- at the mighty low lying Lord , may for a time RIKS c verwhelm his glorious body with stones and c H rishik urrents of mud , but when e sa at his o wn time chooses to blow his Pan chaj an y a k t i u al a and rotates his Cha ra hrice , S s p then realises the might of the Lord who established the foundations o f this contemptible crust and issues from the lowest depth of depths adhe k sh a a ( j ) , and he then says Lord Vishnu ! absorb me into your mighty bosom from

- which I rose . I am but as an ant hill unto ’

. u . _you Of course , Vishn is not a fair fighter

Stupendous in might and mass , quick in movement , the source and regulator of all things into whom all creation finally merges , he is here , there , and everywhere . He hides his light in a bushel when his silly enemy glares and thunders , does not produce the faintest tremor , the enemy thinks he has m 10 ! triu phed over Vishnu , when he rises right under his enemy and round him and o r absorbs him , undermines him , and throws aside his carcass to be a warning to all crea tion of the might o f the Lord and the folly o f those who would measure their might with his . But let me continue the description of the living Lord by those privileged to see him in these degenerate days . ‘ 14th ’ The display of light on the , says ‘ Mr . Coan , was most glorious . The columns of illuminated steam rose with fearful speed to a height o f 14 to 17 thousand feet and then spread out into a vast fiery cloud . A remarkable bub o f b ling was seen in the sea , blocks lava two feet

RIKS the gods follow me behind ! when you bore a m e r share of me in you , by you performed you ’ hero works . Vasishtha realised the full greatness of ‘ ’ i Vishnu . Vish n u is from Vish to n te rp e n e trate in a sheet . He flows between beds of sediments and these Vik ram as called step flows o r sheet -fl o ws in Geology are the chief support o f this earth . In hymn 99 o f his Vasish h a : mandala , t praised him thus Y o u who swell and swell with your im r measurably great body , nobody enjoys you greatness . We know you in these two banks o f i the Prithiv , you alone know your birth in the

. is highest heaven O Vishnu , nobody that o r o f r born is being formed , reached the end you Y u greatness . o pillared up the great line of j unction (naka or the meeting line o f weak ness along the central range) and supported the ’ n eastern elevation of the Prithivi . (The easter elevation of Prithivi is probably the May u m l a pass where the O ld Sutlej valley is parted from the new Brahmaputra valley . It is the meet ing place of two great longitudinal valleys ‘ s sacred to man . ) Yo u fixed and pillared thi 0 ! e great pass , Vishnu and the two transvers valleys became fertile , full of hot springs , pro du ctive fo r of good barley and fit gifts man , and you supported the Prithivi (longitudinal valley) ’ with dykes (May fik ha) alon g and against it . In hymn 100 Vasishth a say s ‘ a -h o wn Thrice this he ven orn , by his great i h ness , flowed in steps through this Prithiv , wit RIKS

’ hundreds o f Riks (from decomposing peat ‘ moss) ! . let Vishnu be stronger than the strong ! est and the name o f this heavy God is dazzling ” i fo r brilliancy . Wishing to gift this Prithiv ’ cultivation to man this Vishnu flowed in steps . Even the little ones (cones) born of him are firm and long - lived V a sishth a and all the Rishis associat e Vishnu with every great work accomplished by e Indra ! and as already r marked, Vishnu himself tells Indra that it was because he (Vishnu) was a kind enough to flow with him , Indra became di . dr hero In a and Vishnu , accor ng to the a n a Rishi , widened the landsca pe for y g by

the . r creating sun , dawn and Agni Togethe they broke down the hardened (note the word drim hitah) moraines nine and ninety o f Sam bara . In the later samhitas Vishnu became

- the sole y agn a p u rasha and ran high above . ‘ all the gods , submerging their flows . ( Upa ry u p ari a dhavat . This association of Vishnu with Indra in the latest eruptive flows an d overwhelming them later o n has been noticed ’ ! l all over the world . I quote from Hull s Vo canoes Past and Present . h i The p l a te a u co u n try o f Uta a n d A r z o n a .

Roun d its margin extensive volcanic tract s are found with numerous peaks and truncated o f cones , which Mount San Francisco is the f culminating eminence . South o the Wasatch o f and occupying the high plateau U tah , enormous masses o f volcanic products have H 2 RIKS b o f een spread over an area square miles , a ttaining a thickness of between and e a rlie r f feet . The o these great lava floods appear to have been tra chytic but the - l l a te r ba sa ltic . fie ds , Extensive lava surmount e d by cinder - cones occupy the plateau on the f western side o the grand cah on . Other parts o f Arizona are overspread by sheets of basaltic ’ o f lava , through which old necks eruption formed of more solid lava than the sheets rise o ccasionally above the surface and are promi ’ nent features in the landscape . Dirgh atam as says o f Vishnu : D v e id asya k ram an e svardrise u p as thay a ’ m arty o bhu ran y ati. Two o f his sheet - fl o ws which have reach ed the surface , mortal cones stand under and ’ - pierce . Aditi , the great mountain plateau , is , o f V n - i asVish n u course , ish u patn by his sheet

fl o ws is her Bharta (supporter) . ‘ Mount Shasta is a very lofty mountain o f volcanic origin and has a secondary crater cone named Shastina , round whose inner side the stream o f glacier -ice winds itself surmount ing the rim o f the crater and shooting down ’ masses of ice into the great cauldron . (Just ’ like Vy am sa glacier covering Indra s mother . ) o f 3 Length the glacier , miles ! breadth , about

feet . Another very lofty volcanic moun tain is Mount Ranier consisting of three peaks . This mountain appears to be formed mainly o f trachytic matter . The present Great Salt Lake and the smaller neighbouring lakes called

RIKS

The lavas appear to have swelled up in m ighty floods without any of that explosive v iolence generally characteristic of volcanic ’ a . ction (This , of course , applies only to ‘ Vishnu . ) This extravasated matter spread o ver wide fields deluging the surrounding country like a tide in ' a bay and o v e rfl o w ’ ing all inequalities . (This was why Aditi was ‘ Here also we have evi dence of older volcanic cones buried beneath ’ s e a s o l a va . f subsequently extruded Sir A . Geikie has described the Utah region o f the

S nake River as below . We found that the trachytic lavas of the hills had been de ep ly tre n che d by the l a te ra l va ll e ys and that all these valleys had floors of black basalt that had been poured o u t as the last o f the molten materials . There were no visible cones or vents from which these floods of basalt could have proceeded . We rode for hours by the margin of a vast plain o f basalt stretching as far as the eye could reach , and I ’ o f realised the truth Richthofen s assertion , that Vesuvius and Etna present us by no means with the grandest type of volcanic ao activ tion , but rather belong to a time of failing ity and there have been periods of tremendous e nergy when the lava found its way to the surface by innumerable fissures open ed in the s olid crust of the globe over thousands o f square ’ m iles .

When Maha Vishnu (Pe ru m al) flowed in . intrusive an d far - extending sheets between RIKS

s edimen tary beds he gave u s su pport . His w as the highest Dharma for the living crea tion . Through his body under Aditi and with h is magma modified and weakened rose the gods and earth -born heroes who ostensibly fought and destroyed the glaciers . He was r i T iv k ram a Vishnu who rose as a dwarf . Of c ourse great Vishnu is a humble d warf . He does not rear himself up like the other gods into a sky -piercing cone and issue his thunder n o u s challenges to o e and all . He comes out o f his little hole and asks for a little breathing s t pace , and then the reader knows wha hap p ened to the Emperor Mahabali . As a trap rock he has given support and scattered bene n h fi ce c e over t e black cotton country . But K n when as black rish a , Vishnu overwhelms the living creation as in Idaho and in Brinda vana he is Jan ardan a and for many centuries nothing grows o n his huge body but purple

Tulasi (brinda) , the basil plant . To write a b ook about Vishnu is a presumptuous super

fl u ity . He has written his name all over the f o f ace the earth and below it , and he is the C haitanya at the centre o f the earth as well as h t e sun . In two mighty tomes he has written h is Adivaraha name in his o wn way . As he Hiran ak sh a wrote with his tusk in y , and as Nrisimh a he wrote his name in Hiran y ak asipu a n d tore , sheared , and crumpled the books w hich he fashioned . I will now describe these m n ighty deeds of Vish u . Hir ak i an y as pu is literally the .golden RIKS

fl ak e r o r Hiran a coloured splitter peeler , and y ‘ ’ - k sh a is golden eyed . The former is crystalline schist and the latter gneiss . Ruskin thus de scribes them in his chapter on slaty crystal lines : The color o f their own mass when freshly broken is nearly the same as the compact crystal lines ! but it is far more varied by veins and zones o f included m inerals and contains usually rich bro wn o r o lde n more iron , which gives a g co lou r to their exposed sides , so that the colour ing o f these rocks is the m o st glo win g to be found f r in the mountain world . They form also soil o vegetation more quickly and o f a more fruitful n o n ki d than the granites and appear , the whole , intended to u nite every character o f grandeur and beauty and to constitute the loveliest as well as the noblest scenes which the earth ever unfolds to the eyes of men . The central gran to o ites are too far removed , the lower rocks commonplace and these slaty crystallines form the noblest hills that are easily accessible .

Well , we begin to examine them . We find a notable hardness in them and a thorough bold ness o f general character . They have nothing like the look of dried earth ’ (manu) about o r o f them , nothing petty limited in the display their bulk . Where they are , they seem to form the world ! from the lowest valley to the high est clouds a ll is the irs— o n e a da ma n tin e do min o r io n a n d rigid a u th ity of ro ck . We yield ourselves to the impression o f their e te rn a l ’ u n co n q u e ra ble stu bbo rn n e ss of stre n gth.

RIKS

The hardness of the substance o f the higher m ountain s renders it a matter of great difficulty f o r the peasant to break them into such masses d as are required for his aily purposes . The fl attened arrangement of the layers of mica al w ays causes the rock to break into fl attish frag ments requiring hardly any pains in placing t hem so as to lie securely in a wall , and fur n ishin u n fl awe d g light , broad , and pieces to s erve for slates upon the roof ! for fences , when o r set edgeways into the ground ! for pavements , when laid flat . Farther , whenever rocks break o f into utterly irregular fragments , the masses debris which they form are n o t only excessively f t dif icult to walk on , but the pieces ouch each o f ther in so few points , and su fer water to run h so easily and so far through their cavities , t at it takes a long series of years to enable them either to settle themselves firmly , or receive the smallest covering o f vegetation . Where the s o f ubstance the stone is soft , it may soon be m worn down , so that the irregular for is of less conseq uence . But in the hard crystallines , unless they had a tendency to break into fl attish fragments , their ruins would remain for centu ries in impassable desolation . The flat shape o f the separate pieces prevents this it permits , almost necessitates , their fitting into and over e ach other in a tolerably close mass , and thus they become comparatively easy to the foot , less permeable to water, and therefore retentive b oth of surface moisture and of the seeds o f ’ v egetation . RIKS

‘ The re is another result o f nearly equal importance as far as regards habitableness on h h t e ills . When stones are thrown together in n o r rou ded massy blocks , like a heap of h di azelnuts , small force will sometimes sturb

their balance ! and when once set in motion , a s quare -built and heavy fragm ent will thunder d own even a slightly sloping declivity , with an impetus as unlikely to be arrested as fatal in it s . w increase But hen stones lie flatly , as

dead leaves lie , it is not easy to tilt any one o f to them upon its edge , so as set it in motion !

and when once moved , it will nearly always s n o t lide , roll , and be stopped by the first o bstacle it encounters , catching against it by the edge or striking into the turf where first fo r it falls , like a hatchet . Were it not the merciful ordinance that the slaty crystallines s fl attish hould break into thin and fragments , th e frequent falls of stones from the hill sides w ould render many spots among the greater n - mou tain chains utterly uninhabitable , which ’ a r e now comparatively secure . It is Nrisim ha that produced the ser e n t ine and horn blende schists an d gabbro di ’ - Varab a) the gabbro gneiss with brown eyes . T he reader will n o w realise that the Riks have t he authority o f men who witnessed the phe n o m e n a described in them , while .the Puranas relate to events anterior to the Riks but s tudied as a modern geologist studies the e arth . To understand the Puran as a knowledge o f the Riks and its technology is obviously RIKS essential and it was because I was : assured o f the identity of Vishnu by reading the Riks I was equally sure of the iden tity of Hira n y ak asip u Hir is and a n yak sha . Mahabali Chakravarti the grandson of the crystalline schists and is the younger granite or granulite distinct from the ancient intrusive granite which forms th e deepest portions o f the crust o f the earth as well as its highest in the loftiest peaks of sky who piercing Himalaya . I do not understand ’ H irany ak asip u s son Prahlada is and how Nrisim h a compacted a constituent o f the crystalline schists he crushed and pierced into the strong metamorphic granite through ’ Prahlada s son o r derivative VrOch an a . It was this younger granite which afforded a good s upport for soil and life which Vishnu over Trivik ram a Nam bfi ris flowed as , and which the of Malabar believe will em erge into the light o f day in the near future when his covering f ’ o Vishn u s sole is worn away .

RIKS

V araha gave a series of tangential thrusts which threw the sediment into ridges and longitu dinal e valleys . The later V dic Rishis speculated o n the origin . o f the mountain ranges and valleys and arrived at the conclusion that Visvak ar man elevated the earth and produced them , ‘ h ‘ ’ Yada hy an ta adadri an ta pii rv e . This inference was fully developed by the

Pau ran ik as . This great fish , about ten miles e o s n in depth , is called by the geologists a g y - clinal (earth trough) . The mighty boar by its thrusts converted the fish into a land tortoise (Karm a) which is called a geanticlinal in geo

- logy . Look at the back of a land tortoise and you will realize the wonderful appropriateness o f the name the Pau ran ik as gave to the gean i r t clin al . They took these names from thei familiar surroundings with an unerring e y e to appropriate analogies as they wrote for all the ages and for all classes of men . As I said, the Matsya and Kfi rm a are not forms of Vishnu and this is called Sve tavaraha Kalpa and n o t Matsya Kalpa and I do not believe that among the Vaishnavas proper anybody is called

Matsya Char o r Matsya Rao . I have no idea why this Varab a is called Sv etavaraha . It , may be that it issued mixed with the n um m uli tic chalk and was o f a pale colour compared with the Adi Varab a (intrusive gabbro) which crushed Hiranyak sh a . The next great appear ance o f Vishnu at and near the surface was as

Nrisim ha . This I have identified with peri do tite u h , tho gh it may be basaltic porphyry ric RIKS

Nri im h in olivine . s a was probably associated with granitic intrusives and that perhaps is the Ie aso n why the Vaishnavas recognise that Nrisim ha is closely connected with Siva . Th e next great form o f Vishnu is Trivik ram a Vishnu when he took his mighty strides under Aditi , rising higher and higher till he reached the highest crystalline peaks where even the birds . could n o t reach him . Owing to his weight and n his enormous mass , Vish u cannot rise very n - high , though in a lo g distance race he can beat any competitor owing to his perfect liquidity and energy . But as Triv ikram a he rose as a Brahman from great reservoirs o f petroleum

- and hydro carbon gases . Big of body and good - tempered and with all the underground world and its hollows and lines o f weakness to roam over , he rarely issues at the surface o f the earth (his o wn light being far more bril liant than the sunlight) and prefers to energise r and support the earth f o m be l o w . When he does issue and he is obstructed by rocks he takes an easier way by some underground

passage . This time he rose winged with hydro -carbon gases and when Mahabali per m itte d b e him to advance three feet , complete ly overran Mahabali and rose to the third o f A heaven diti , the central crystallines whence he long shone from his vents as brilliant eye

lighted up and fed by ever awake Brahmans .

(naphtha) . ‘ Tad Vishn e h param am padam sada p as y an ti sfiray ah RIKS

h k shu r m D iviva c a atata . Tad Vip raso vip an y av ah j agrivam sassam in ’ dhate .

Of course , when Vishnu reached the n arik sh am hi A t , the Maruts too helped m with their Svadb a (steam) as they helped Indra in later days . I have already noted that this p rogress of Vishnu to the heavens is described in the E v ay a Marut hymn of Atri . I strongly suspect that when he took his second step he flowed between the great beds o f lignitic coal which formed prolific sources o f petroleum and the Brahmans to whom petro leum was everything in the glacial period , prayed that Vishnu might never more ascend into the mountains in his true form and full might , when they found that his mighty mass cut o ff for ever a most valuable bed o f coal (mother o f the Bhargava Brahmans) and put it out o f their reach . This probably is the origin o f the curse of Bhrigu and the appearance o f the next great avatar of Vish n u o f as Rama in the Purang valley Thibet , h o f drained by t e upper streams the Sarayu . The Indian reader will note that the Vishnu pada of Gaya representing the Trivik ram a ’ s step flow , figures the sole of Vishnu s uplifted foot as he flowed from the earth to the mid n v n - region and o to hea en as Utta a pad . Parasu ram a was but a minor manifestation of o f Vishnu . Towards the end the Samhita period the Rudras (rhyo lites) grew in might and power simultaneously with Vishnu ’ s

RIKS this globe was Savitar V aisvan ara who rose t hrice a day regularly as the sun , through Mitra and Varu na and sent down sweet streams for the valleys below . ‘ Trir a divo Savita S e sh aviti ’ R a ana Mitra Varuna S apani . Vaisvan ara S arya o r Savitar was the more b e n e fice n t as his activity was also sub a terranean and he gave us therm l springs , ores and precious stones as Bhaga , fertile soil o f out his own body , and elevated the earth , while the sun in the sky gives only heat an d light from above , creates soil by slow weathering and reduces everything to a dead level . The sun , however , asks for no food , V ai van ara s takes no taxes , while s absorb S e ma and snows to energise him and enable him to continue his ordered activity . The sun in the sky and the Vaisvan ara A ditey a sun in the highest heaven are the two well - winged birds referred to in the famous verse o f blind

Dir h atam as . g When a volcano , however! takes to divert or destroy a most motherly t river like the Ganges , or to overwhelm grea o f o r o r beds petroleum , crude distilled (Rishis

Brahmanas) , he is a wicked king and an enemy f f o the human race o the worst kind . As stated in text -books o f Geology he may throw himself as a great embankment across a great river , pond back the waters , and form a lake His molten current may usurp the channel of has the stream and bury the whole valley , as happened again and again in the vast lava RIKS

o f . in fields .Iceland No change Physiography is so rapid o r so fraught with disaster to life as this . The channel excavated by thousands of years o f labour is filled up in a few hours f with hundreds o feet of stone . The b e n e fi n w cent operations of ru ning water , flo ing springs and lakes , and all the glad life that springs therefrom are destroyed in a fit o f fury and overwhelmed in a stony sheet hundreds o f feet thick . This is what the Rishis mean R ak shasvi when they say that Agni became a , r o a good king became a Rakshasa . A rock throwing king who destroys women and Brah mans (rivers and petroleum) must be destroyed . If Indra o r Rudra (trachyte o r rhyolite) him o r strengthens , Brahman (when he rises through petroleum beds) gives him vigour and

long life , he sometimes becomes to o powerful fo r di the or nary gods , and then the living de file s creation which he and destroys , wails for mighty Vishnu and the very gods who created and strengthened the monster pray to V ishnu for help to destroy him . Kartaviry ar I j una was a good king first , and extract the followin g description o f this king from the ! - second volume of the Indo Aryan Mythology , a book of great erudition written by my good r and saintly friend Mr . Na ay an ie n gar: ‘ Arj una conquered the whole earth and

became emperor . At the time of battle shoulders would sprin g up in his body by his

power as a yo gin . T he contrary current o f the tide produced when he bathed in the sea

1 9. RIKS

beating the water with his shoulders , rushed into the river Narmada , wave after m wave , and the com otion of his bathing in the sea was like that caused by Mount Mandara o f in the churning the milky ocean for nectar . To satisfy the hunger of Agni he gave all the continents to him who blazed everywhere with his flame and ate many forests incl uding ’ ’ V asish th a s forests . H ariv m This is extracted from the a sa . h N r From the Vac asp aty a Mr . a ay an ie n gar extracts the significant assertion that Arjuna was an incarn ation of the Chakra weapon o f n fi a lmighty Vishnu . His b e e c e n ce during his period o f regimen was unequ alled according to e Narada , but exhausting his S ma supplies , he became paroxysmal and began to satisfy the A gni within him b y invading and destroying beds of coal and petroleum and he was cursed ’ by the Rishi Vasishth a whose forest A rj u n a s

Agni destroyed . He rose near the j unction o f a river with an inland sea which must have been the sea round V aruna as Arjuna is said to Havan a have conquered and surrounded him , though he abstained from destroying him at ’ the intercession o f Havana s Brahman ancestor Pu l asty a who probably turned him aside by

S o ma offerings . When Arjuna attacked and o f Jam ada n i led away the sacrificial cow g , and his sons and warriors destroyed Jam adagn i him Para u ram a self , Vishnu then rose as s through ’ o f di o u t A r u n a s beds stilled lignite , cut j thou sand shoulders with naphtha - charged basaltic

RIKS

A o u t gni and shot with various degrees o f force . A m ere fissure amid rocks without a cone is a female yatu dhan i These hot rocks falling down o r rolling down o n th e human settle ments destroyed everything and charred all

flesh and vegetation . At ordinary times and m uninspired by lava , rocks and rock frag ents are a source o f perpetual dread to the moun tain e e r. To enable the comfortable dweller in the plains to realise the position o f the mountain - de we lle r I will quote from Tyndall once again . ‘ While we stood pondering here a deep and confused roar attracted o u r attention . From a point near the summit o f the Weiss horn a rock h ad been discharged . It plunged down a dry couloir raising a cloud o f dust at each bump against the mountain . A hundred similar ones were immediately set in motion , while the spaces between the larger masses were filled by an innumerable flight of smaller stones . Each o f them shakes its quantum o f dust in the air , until finally the avalanche is enveloped in a vast cloud . The clatter o f this ’ Devil s Cavalry was stunning . Black masses o f rock emerged here and there from the cloud and sped through the air like flyin g fie n ds . Their motion was n o t o n e o f translation the whiz z e d a n d vibra te d in the ir merely , but y ’ fl ight ( L8 if u rge d by win gs . Vasish h a d Yatu s t escribes the as owls , doves , kites , and eagles who flew by night and de stro ve d in a moment settlements created by RIKS

years o f intelligent labour out o f the action of o n o o r o n ( Agni S ma , lava the Pitris decaying

remnants o f old life) . If ordinary rocks are so

dreadful as described by a sober man of science , they were necessarily armed with thousandfold t errors , when heated and rounded by Agni , and Agni producing cones and fissures in rocks a n d m ultiplying their powers o f destruction is K rav ad fl e sh - A su tri o n th e y ( eater) , p (feeds breath o f life) and A siv a These Y atu dhan as overwhelmed Indra to o some ti m es and without S o ma to explode and po wder

t t . hem , even Indra was powerless against hem T hese R ak shasvis or Yatu dhan as were the great e o f a n a nemies life and y g , of the work of the o three great Ritas , liquid waters , liquid S ma ’ i k rm a n d l . V v a a a s iquid lava Verily s shadow , o u t as the Rishi sang , deals death as well as

immortality . When a great Yatu dhan a like Ravana is elevated into a mighty cone with the h elp o f S oma and strengthened by lava -fl o ws a n d dykes , Agni develops into a mighty engine o f destruction and the gods themselves are n powerless against him . I have o idea what P u l asty a Brahma (the old organic bituminous re re remains) through which Ravana rose , p s e ents , but there can be no doubt the V dic composers and their Puranic successors gave s to m pecial names the various bitu inous coals , s hales , sandstones , conglomerates and lime s tones o f different ages and these with the h ydro - carbons produced by Agni himself were k nown collectively in the later Puranas as RIKS

- Brahma (the seat of hydro carbon gases) . When Ravan a rose in the waters Agni in Indra had degenerated into pale obsidian and Indra moved o n his high - fronted whit e le ph an t in slow ponderous fashion swaying t from side o side and comparatively powerless . Varuna (Ouranos) had become a Pasa -hasta

. t (Poseidon) He , with his brothers Mi ra and Aryaman had commen ced to deliquesce e even during the V dic period , his splendid cir c u mfe re n ce was bored and mined for petroleum ,. precious stones and metals , and Rishis like u b Ruskin c rsed the wicked sinners , who y their e nas and agas (u p - thrusts and side ‘ thrusts constituting f a u l ts) produced A m h as (subsidence) in level Aditi whose m pst splendid who son Varuna was , and the great Aditya boasted of a leg - cover as fertile as an artifi c ially ploughed and manured field (R aj am i Krishte r u p am a sy a v avréh) dressed himself in swamps .

(D ru h ah pasan pratim u n ch ate k av ih . ) m e n s The treacherous who took his oil , ore o il - and precious stones and left holes , sands debris sridha u and ( ) behind , he p nished with bogs and dropsy . What a swamp is to fertile - to well drained land , that is dropsy the human n sis h h h e body . Even his own so Va t a whom distilled with his lava and purified through great snow -beds which rocked like a cradle fo r m Vi ra the im ortal p , even him whom he raised through beauteous Urv asi Varuna embogged fo r his m n m a i portunities , renderi g hi self in c

RIKS

‘ ’ h k h d su hih C a s a e Mitro V a b s u j atah . Well -born Mitra with his V asu s was wounded . Against the outposts of the great - m n i sea born onster Rava a , against Mar cha Ta ak a who th e and t , destroyed life , polluted

- ~ living streams , and desolated the life support o f Vi va ing valleys our ancestors , the great s L k h m . a s itra led the mighty Rama Rama , ma n a and Sita are not yet forgotten in the land of their birth . The Gurla Mandhata o f massif represents old Manu , the brother m so n o f the Viv asv an Ya a and the range , who rose higher than the gods and gave birth Ik shvak u S ar ati Y u v an a v a to , y , s , Mandhata and other great kings of th e Solar race . It was below this great mountain which Savi tar lava first penetrated and impregnated with the seeds o f human life (borne along the aran u Matarisv an S y fissure by winged ) , that Rama was born o n the banks o f the Karnali

River , which is the upper Sarayu and drains the fertile valley of Purang before piercing the m ighty Himalayan wall in its progress towards the Ganges . Great Rama was born right under the eye o f stupendous Man dhatar who rears his head nearly four thousand feet above o f Mount Kailas . The three great rivers the

Bi V eda d . g are the Sin hu , Sarasvati and Sarayu n The Si dhu is the Sutlej , the Sarasvati is the

Brahmaputra , and the Sarayu , the Karnali . n The Sindhu had its source chiefly in Varu a , the Sarasvati in Brihaspati , and the Sarayu in r V iv asvan . These were the three great rive s RIKS w hich saw the birth and early development o f

the A ryan race during the glacial period . As n o t remarked above , the Purang valley has

forgotten her mighty warrior o f the olden days . I quote as below from the intensely interesting ! book Western Tibet an d the British Border h r in . S e r : land , by Charles A g ‘ A visit to the monastery at Ko j arn ath gave us the opport u n ity o f seeing the country with its picturesque hamlets and beautiful green fields along the banks o f the Karn ali i n o f River . The monastery s o the banks the river , which here makes a great bend and the red colouring o f the buildin g set o ff by the paler hues o f the village dwellings is charmingly o f reflected in the blue waters the stream , while the great mountains in their m any shades o f i s sepia , red , and yellow make an mpo ing back n ground . We could not find o e Lamaist o r in Buddhist image , the pr cipal idols being o f Hindu representations Ram , Lachman and the goddess Sita (no o n e could tell u s which w as S ita who was so like the male gods) and ’ o f the seven Rishis o r the sages o f Hinduism . Rama was olivine basalt and the an thro m o r phism o f the poet o f the Ramay an a is o f the

- most transparent character , not even skin deep . The Brahmans an d the painters who painted o f to their instructions , represent Rama as a dark - green colour and that is exactly the colour o f recently cooled chrysolitic o r olivine basalt . It is this basalt known as greenstone which c ontains all the inorganic elements o f fertility RIKS

and breaks down into the richest of soils . Rama was a Kshatriya riding o n horses born of Vayu (steam) and not a Brahman like Vam an a Vishnu soaring on Garuda to the highest heaven . The reader probably kn ows who the Haris (monkey -horses) are that helped

. him in the war with Ravana . They are the ’ r identical Haris who d agged Indra s car , fumaroles born of the snows an d waters by the f f action o underground lava . The pu fing pro gress o f the steam j ets that drag a current o f lava was likened to the progress o f a monkey and the Van aras o f the Ram ayana represent the Ribhus of the Riks whom the A gohy a (Irre pressible) Agni raised up when he reposed from o u t his eruptive activity of volcanic gods , and are differentiated from the Naras ’ which usher o f in an outbreak volcanic activity , by the ‘ ’ va to prefix , signifying similarity as opposed e identity . The Ribhus of the Rig V da are stu fa s Ribh u , geysers and mud volcanoes , being Vibhv a a stufa , a geyser and Vaj a a mud

. S au dh an v an s volcano These were , sons of S u dhan v a ( good archer) as they shot u p straight and high . When after paroxysmal outbursts the great gods and kings reposed leaving heaven and earth a desert o f volcanic debris and dust , they carved out the Father and Mother (Dyava-Prithivi ) into beautiful terraces variegated with bright - tinted preciou s Twash stones . They made the original cup of the ho t- r tar , steaming siliceous calcareous wate ( spring gna) into four cups , a stufa , geyser ,

RIKS

- . b Jews This dark green Rama , vesiculated y o f steam , who destroyed innumerable hosts scoria cones by his multitudinous and far extending dykes shot out o f fissures shaped like o his K danda bow , fertilised whatever he touch o u t o f ed the materials of his own body , and his be n e fice n ce to the human race was never approached by any other manifestation of Agni . Sita was in all probability the subterranean stream born in a neighbouring volcanic zone which became Rama ’ s wife and energised and regulated his normal activity as a householder l dwelling in his vo canic home . This stream which followed him in his exile was diverted by Ravana and caused the mighty upheaval of Vishnu ’ s force which finally annihilated

Ravana . I may note one fact in connexion with Rama ’ s brother before I finish with the m descent o f Rama . Basaltic lava comes up fro in unknown depths , from Narayana himself the centre o f the earth . The uprooting there fore o f Vishnu is an impossibility . A great fl o w of rhyolite may overwhelm a smaller volume of basaltic lava on the surface ! but b while basalt can surround , root out and absor o r throw aside any other volcano and its Agni , the mightiest o f volcano es is powerless to harm

Vishnu at his source . This is beautifully brought out in the war chapter of the Rama yana . When Ravana threw the Brahman in spired Sakti weapon at L ak shm an a and tem o raril p y disabled him , he tried to follow up his success by rooting out L ak shm an a with his RIKS

i mighty arms . But says Valmik with full ’ knowledge of Vishnu s greatness . ‘ Him avan e u h , Mandara and M r , the eart , m iddle region and heaven with the im mortal v h gods , it was possible for Ra ana to lift up wit n o t o un his arms , but the y ger brother of Bharata . ‘ ’ Though struck in the chest by Brahma Sakti , L ak shm an a remembered he was a branch of ‘ ’ am im m s a the immeasurable ( a y ) Vishnu . Yu ddh a K 59 1 10 65 ( anda , Sarga , Verses n w I will o come to Krishna . He is

- always painted dark blue . Vish n u is always black (Krishna) touched with green or blue while Rudra and Siva (rhyolite and granite )

are white . That shows how true the Brahmans

were to truth . If Krishna and Rama were human beings their colour as perfect Ksh a ‘ triy as would have been ruddy like nar o agni ’ varna o r as they were special lovers of Brali mans the latter might have made them

translucent white , their own favourite com B plexion that o f pure distilled naphtha . efore

Vishnu s manifestation as mighty Rama , the Prithu s and Parsu s (Parthians and Persians) whose ancestors were Kutsa and S u sravas (kings) and A tharva and U sana Kavi (Rishis) had been driven west o f Varuna on their way to Central Asia and they found types of their great Asura in Elburz and of their dread enemy the friend o f the A n girasas in Maz e n de ran

(Mahe ndra) . Both these mountains are volca th r nic . Between e A v ata as of Rama and Kri t shna , the eastern Aryans descended from Thibe RIKS

o f J into the Himalayan valleys the umna , the B ha irathi A l ak an an da o g , Sarayu , K si and

Gandaki . Through the great Shipki pass they o o f ccupied the valleys the Sutlej , Beas and

Ravi . Some tribes who had settled north of the S udarsan (Kailas) Range and in the G artok valley in the rear o f the retreating A hu rian s (Persians) , migrated along both tributaries o f the Indus and settled in the western Punjab and Afghanistan . The Prithu s a n d Parsu s must have migrated to Cen tral Asia and Persia over the Pamirs and through Chinese Turkestan . Before the departure o f the Persians from the great

Thibetan plateau , there is reason to believe that the T u rv asu s and most o f the Anus and D ru hy u s were driven west after the great o f V asis h ha battle Sudas , t and Indra with ten o f T u rvasu kings whom was the leader , the Pak th as and other tribes who followed T u rv asu representing the modern Pathans ( Afghans) a n d the tribes o f the North -west Frontier o f

India . The Greeks are said to be the de s ce n dan ts o f T u rvasu and this statement o f the

Mahabharata may be correct . They are n known as Y av a as in Sanskrit literature . It is hardly necessary to note that these emi grants carried the names o f rivers and settle ments in their motherland o f Thibet to their new settlements and when they found mani testations o f volcanic activity in the new c ountry named them after the great originals - ff in far o Thibet . It may safely be assumed

RIKS

m Thibet the Sutlej , the Sarayu , the Brah a putra (Sarasvati) and the Indus discharged into four great inland lake s as the Rhone dis charges into the Lake of Geneva and that it was the emptying and drying up o f these lake s when the Himalayan wall was tunnelled o r broken through , that converted the splendid h - plateau of Thibet , the mig ty high born mother of gods , heroes and the human race , into the de sicc ate d dry , chill , treeless , , inhospitable , wind

- swept region that we find her to day . It was mighty Krishna who in conj unction with o f rh o l 1te cones trachyte , y and andesite , the o f Yam a A vi11 s derivatives Thibetan Indra , , s , o f and Vayu , finally laid the dust volcanic sovereignty in the south o f the Himalayas and the materials o f these volcanic ranges washed o u t by the great Himalayan rivers and com c o n mingled with the mountain sediment , stitu te the compacted alluvium extending from the Indus to the Brahm aputra . Krishna was ‘ ’ J an ardan a o r destroyer o f surface -born

. o f beings , especially volcanic life Out de he n struction established fi al peace , and made good the gift o f the Bhumi by Visv ak arm an t n o . to Kasyapa . He was a fertiliser like Rama Once when he rushed over a beauteous stream and all the glad life that laughed round her , the result was a scorched black plateau like the Idaho plams and as in those plains , Brinda k f alone (blac basil) rose out o his body . This last incarnation o f Vishnu wh o blessed and delighted the eyes of a long - past generation RIKS

with his enchanting brilliancy and play fulness who destroyed many a glacier (Danava) and many a Rakshasa (rock - born volcano) in Hima K to layan Diti , who wandered from ashmir Maga dh a as a humble helper and charioteer o f high - crested volcanoes who owed their strength o u t and greatness to him , who burnt the Hima

layan forests and made the glaciers recede , who gave the final quietus to volcanic action K who and peace to India , this rishna filled the souls of saints with ecstatic rapture and pro he tic o f p visions , is , course , the prime favourite

of the Hindu heart and soul . The Krishna 24 50 B . manifestation took place about C . o r n 653 o f the Kali Era . It is o w 5012 of the Kali Era and the prophecy o f the Pau ran ik s was that the foundations established by ’ Vishnu s step - fl o ws and dykes would dis 5000 ‘ appear by of Kali , that adharma (absence o f subterranean support and con sequent earthquakes) will reign over the

earth , and that as promised by Krishna in i K the G ta , he will create himself as alki when

the Dharmas are loosened . Kalki will be born 5000 o f K Tish a after ali when the Sun , Moon , y co n u n (or Pushya) and Brihaspati meet , a j c in tion which happ ens once twelve years , the G o davari Pu shk ara falling in that conj unction K o f alki will be a mixture basalt and rhyolite , the latter being the complement of Krishna like his white brother Balarama who was ’ - Rudra Agni . Kalki s motor po wer will be a - e av am white horse (steam power) , as S ma p an a K 2 RIKS

has been practically exhausted . He will still h r - t e quaking earth and e establish peace . How th e o ld Brahmanas made these calcula tions I do not know , but I know to the cost of n t m y vanity that they were o fanciful vapourers . o Pu shk ara One G davari , after the appointed period , has passed away and we may in the not distant future go in for a period o f earth o f quakes , the opening vents and the creation o f a chain o f volcanoes in a line with the

Himalayan S e walik s . The Nam bfi ris of b di Mala ar , who have retained the old tra tions i and inst ncts intact , may be right when they believe that Vishnu will make way for Maha bali (the younger granite) and the Arabian Sea o f Parasu ram a recede , enlarging the splendid gift to their ancestors . So m uch fo r Kalki . I may summarise this chapter by stating t hat there were only five manifestations o f Vishnu proper s in ce th e e - b - miocene (Sv ta vara a kalpa) age , that the Varab a o f stupendous energy acted chiefly underground and produced t he great Kurma (mountain chains and strike -valleys) by its Nrisim ha tangential thrusts , that pierced and crumpled Hiran y ak asip u (crystalline schists) u from below , but frequently reached the s rface o f Vam an a o ve rfl o we d the earth , that Vishnu and in te rfl o we d the sedimentary beds (manu) and soared up to the highest heaven winged t wi h Garuda , and that Rama and Krishna ’ alone were avatars in the proper sense o f the word operating mainly o n the surface of P r u r m a the earth . a as a was a comparatively

CHAPTER IX .

THE L OR APOL L O A RI H A . D , ND K S N

I HAVE already identified the Lord of the an d n o w Old Testament with Vishnu , I will e stablish th e identity o f Phoe bus Apollo with

Vish n u . Latona produced Apollo in an island

floating in the sea . This island known as Aste ria became the famous Delos whose fo u n da tions , directly Apollo was born , became golden ,

- and its circu lar crater lake flowed golden lava . Apollo was led to Thera much as Indra was led by the Rishis . If this Thera is identical with the principal island in the Santorin group , then the proof o f his volcanic character is complete . His sister Artemis visited the cyc lops in the Lipari Islands . She found them at o f s tan din ro u n d the anvils Vulcan , g the red hot mass . Latona took her to Vulcan who wished to present Artemis with natal gifts j u st ‘ ’ as Twashtar prepared V ahatu for his dau gh te r S aran yu when she was reborn in the heaven ly region after abandoning her twin children

Yama and Yami . The three cyclops , Arges ,

Steropes and Brontes , are patently the three o f volcanoes the Lipari Islands , Vulcano , L o f ipari and Stromboli , which the two former e rupt rhyolite (Rudra) and the last basalt . It is .a marvel this did not strike western scholars . ‘ An Apollo is golden as the golden sun . d ever do hast thou eternal Fire , nor ever ashes con ’ ’ ‘ s ume yesterday s coal . Apollo is ever beau te o u s and ever young ! never hath so much as a little down come upon the soft cheeks o f ’ i f Ph oebus . That is the d f erence between pure brilliant basalt which never gathers ashes and other lavas like Indra ’ s whose brightness is almost immediately shrouded in ashes , who rise like warriors twirling their moustaches

- (Pra sm a sru do dh u v at) . Vishnu is a Yuva (youth) and Kumara (boy) according to the

Ve dic Rishi . It is possible that the depilating ’ o f the chest of Bron tes by Apollo s sister Arte mis may refer to the conversion o f rhyolite into basalt in Stromboli . In Callimachus ’ hymn to Apollo I find that men were wont to measure out cities following Apollo , that Apollo himself laid their o ld foundations , that when he was four years , Apollo laid the foundations o f O rtygia n ear the c ircular lake . Apol lo gave walls to sovereigns . What kind of walls Apollo can give to sove reigns I will illustrate by an extract from

Bonney . ‘ Fo r o f Ge r o v ia instance , the historic hill g where the o ldramparts o f rough stone can still be traced , owes its strength to the fact that it is an isolated fragment of o n e o f these ancient l basa tic flows . So great indeed is the n a tu ra l s trength of the fortress that in it Vercingetorix was able to repel the attacks of the army of ’ C aesar . RIKS

’ Vishnu s step -fl o ws are the surest fo u n da tions to build upon and his dykes are the ’ strongest o f walls and ramparts . Apollo s lyre and his fertilising cattle o n which he casts his eyes read strangely like Krishna ’ s Ve nu (flute) and the fascinating in fluence he possessed over cows . Krishna destroyed the black serpent Kaliya who thrust his frozen snout into a pool o f the Jumna even as Apollo destroyed the

Python . o f Of course , Apollo sits at the right hand f . o Jove as Vishnu sat near Indra Apollo was , course , the only god who could be identified with the sun when his real identity was forgot

. o r ten When , unaided by steam combustible , he filled and o v e rfl o we d his circular pit with his golden lustrous lava illuminating the land

o n . scape , he was the sun earth The birth , wanderings and works o f Apollo like those of Krishna cannot possibly be attributed to the sun , but then there was the consolation that Homer and Hesiod were fanciful silly savage children . Apollo in Greece was probably contemporaneous with Krishna in Northern India and with the Biblical Lord in Egypt and the sacred land o f the Jews . Apollo had a sister Artemis born of Latona as Krishna had a sister Durga born of Yaso da . Durga preferred to live in and roam over the Vindhya mountains just as Artemis preferred the moun tains for her home and cared not for cities . The Christ that the jews expect is the Kalki d that the Brahmans expect . The Jews rej ecte

CHAPTER X .

YA GNA — HEROE A AR S ND W S .

YA GNA is the preparation of the earth for the o f n p rogress vegetable , animal and huma life by heating , softening , and melting the hard an d surface (hard with rock ice) , and the pro d o f uction fertile soil and fertilising waters . - r Vaj a Sati means the growth of soil o fertility . When the contin ental Vritra was broken up and Aditi was an endless succession o f ridges o f and furrows covered by a chaos errati cs , s tones and debris and cut up by a m aze of lateral s purs and valleys in which smaller glaciers still o f fo r found a home , the reclamation the valleys agriculture and human habitation was a task o f stupendous difficulty far beyond the powers o f mere human energy . Spots were selected where subterranean Savitar showed himself in warm springs (Ritus) and mud - volcanoes i h r (Vaj s) . An A d v a a (firm platform) was e rected in the midst o f soft peat -moss (urna m r i dh r ada b arh h) . The A v a a was built round the vent o r crossing fissures where Agni had re vealed himself and from above , below and the

- sides , solid , liquid , and gaseous hydro carbons were introduced into the hollow and Agni H o tar (heater) was invited to occupy the RIKS

A dh vara . When lava rose through the fissure , libation s o f S oma were poured into the Agni ‘ ’ and the H o ta became a Duta (messenger) carrying up the distilled and vapourised S o r na to the various gods through underground path to ways and inviting them come down , visit and strengthen the mortal ( m arty a) cone that was being created in the lower regions . This is the significance o f the Apri hymns corres ponding to the Afri Gan o f the Avesta . The a great gods , chiefly Indra , Mitr , Varuna and the Asvins come down each from his o wn quarter propitiated and softened by the S o ma dv aro carried by Agni , the subterranean doors ( de vih) open wide when they knock at them like o Ph ebus with beauteous feet , the bolts and bars fall back o f their o wn accord and each go d is welcomed (vita) by special libations o f

S oma . With the gods come underground o f Vasu s streams from the region the Rudras , ,

a n d A I a . dityas ( l , Sarasvati , and Bharati) The peat -moss which gathered hundreds of feet thick in the interglacial periodis the ‘ Jari ta ’ which Agni and the gods distil and is it s a o elf principal source of S ma , and constitutes the pabulum o u t o f which the new species o f m life are evolved . A great A dhv ara o n a co parative ly high pass through which a great king —cone is raised by upthrows o f scoria and ashes alternating with lava -fl o ws and strength ‘ ’ ened by dykes is a V e radhv ara o r b ird s plat ’

a o n . form , Agni elevating himself like bird it m It is ost important that the Brahman , he RIKS who sits and blows steadily the Chch an das O H C H C H m o f ( 4, Q Q , 2 4) and Sa ans (higher series the above gases) into the Agni , should never s remit his activity , that the naphtha supplie from below should be regular and unfailing when the cone is being reared . What the elastic gases o f Twashtar are to the divine Vi ra is cones in heaven , the p and Brahmana to the mortal cones in the lower regions . The king is therefore born of the Brahman , the Brahman blows him into shape even as Erihas Twash ar pati , son of t , blew into shape under o f ground currents lava from Indra , Varuna ,

m . Mitra , and Arya an B rahm an aspatir e ta sam k arm ara ivadha

Pra nunam Brahm an asp atir mantram va d t u k h a y t y am . Yasmin Indro Varu n o Mitro Aryama D e va ’ k m si h k ri o a c a re .

S o ma is crude petroleum . Indu is petro o f - b leum purified dregs , Brahman is hydro car on o f o gases produced by the distillation S ma , and Vipra or Brahmana is naphtha o f various kinds condensed in the course o f fractional distilla n - tion . The Pratassava a (morning pressed) Gav a ira - s represents the water white series , the Madhy an din a (midday) D adhyasira (curd the mixed) , the viscous middle series , and

Sa am sav an a n Y avasira . y , the gra ular Astatki ( ) o f co m lic at But verily , the full unfolding the p ed technology of the Yajur Veda will require a whole volume and much o f it is still obscure

RIKS

rises above them . It would n o t do to have to o many rival cones playing at dice , and Bh ratrivy as (rival cousins) are destroyed o r th e suppressed , and triumphant cone succeeds to th e kingship . There were also wars b e tween rival cones in different v alleys helped by rival Rishis , and during these wars , the divine volcanoes were brou ght down by copious sup plies o f S e ma and the Rishi whose S e ma was most powerful and attractive secured the ser o f vices Indra , the rival king was annihilated ’ and his kingdom added to the V ictor s . The later Rishi regrets that in his days there were to o many kings warring o r playing at dice (throwing up stones ) while in the g ood o ld days there were great and mighty kings , few in A number , like Yama , Manu , Kutsa , yu , round whose broad bosom m e n flourished in peace . The Lord in the Bible was a man o f war and so was Indra in the Ve da . He pulled down one cone to -day and set up another . He j oined one volcano and destroyed another . He raised up a fresh cone in the latter and then destroyed his old friend . He unsettled settlements , but all the same , as he was so wealthy and powerful and was profuse b e n e fice n ce in his , scattering mineral and agri fo r cultural wealth without stint , asking only e the S ma in return , Rishis had nothing but praise for him though they frequently grum bled against his inconstancy , partiality , pro longed inactivity and paroxysmal outbursts . This was the dread process by which o u r RIKS

ancestors in Thibet evolved settlements , agri culture and civilisation . No wonder the burden of their later literature was S vas ti and Santi f ( ) . o q uiet and peace It was in the _ course these wars that Z arathustra and his A tharvan a Persians helped by Varuna were driven west by the A n girasa Brahmans helped by Indra . The rivalry of Indra and Varuna appears o n th e u n face of many of the Indra , Var na hym s in which the Rishi carefully balances their rela h tive greatness . In t e forty second hymn o f Vam ade v a (Mandala IV) that rivalry is put int o

. Pu ru k u tsa their own mouths by the Rishi , o f D u r ah a w son g , perished and his wido (crater - lake) prayed to the seven Vip ras (seven vented n av agvas born o f A n giras) to help her so n I to produce a by ndra and Varuna . Varuna describes his own greatness in two ver ses . Indra follows declaring he was greater than Varuna and that he raised volcanoes like h ar T was . t himself , their common father Varu na follows in the fourth verse by describing th e support he gave to life and the heavens and the

splendid streams he loosened . Indra follows

bragging about his victories in war , how enemies equally matched always invoked his he l o f ho w p , how he raised the dust battle and in the intoxication o f S o m a nothing could

obstruct him . The Rishis then praise and

pacify Indra , the boisterous , and the lavas of Indra and Varuna jointly raised through Pu ru k u tsan i oiled by the seven Rishis , the T rasadas u - o d mighty y , a half g who destroyed RIKS

glaciers even like Indra . This story is typical o f the birth of a great semi - divine hero - king and foreshadows the growing rivalry o f the two great heaven - born volcanoes which resulted in the worsted A h u rian s identifying Indra and his frien ds the Asvins wh o distilled alcohol fo r him , with the devil and all evil , the Brahmans making Asura a term o f reproach A h u rian s in the Brahmana literature , and the wiping o u t o f their sacred literature the very name o f Varuna because the hated Brahmanas c ontinued to call and invoke him by that ancient name .

RIKS dust produced by the sun and meteorological m ’ agencies . I quote fro Joh n ston s A gric u l tural Chemistry ‘ Every gardener knows how much bo tto m heat forces the growth especially of young plants ! and wherever a natural warmth exists the in the soil , independent of the sun , as in o f vo lca n o e s the re s neighbourhood , it exhibit ’ h x e r ili t e m o st e u be ra n t f t ty . Who is this Kasyapa Prajapati to whom the virileAgniPraj apati gifted the earth and the fruits o f his yagua Kasyapa is literally the

n o r . peeler , fragme ter disintegrator The Brah ‘ ’ mana says Kasyapa p asy ak o bhav ati (Kas yapa is the gazer) . Kasyapa Prajapati is - ff l therefore the sun . This was the far o imperia h u sb an dto whom Visv ak arm an gifte dhis dau gh h e ter the earth , and the beauteous children had reared o n her for propagation . till the ser pent returned to overwhelm her o r she passed h under the waters . The Bhumi ad known this Kasyapa before He merely gazed and with hi drew his gaze . He pricked her with s far travelled rays and chilled her by withdrawing f them . Out o this alternate heating and chilling he produced the meteorological agencies which would wear out her beauteous frame paint n ed in manifold colours , and de ude and degrade her day after day . The mighty heaven

- piercing gods she , the great earth born _ bore heroes , the lovely Ribhus and the first genera tions of the new life produced on her and o u t. e of her by Agni would all perish , and her futur RIKS children would be born not of the hot embraces o f a h husband who made her rise , flus , quiver and swell with life and j oy , but like worms out of the slow decay of her body on its way to its watery grave . Her beauty would be the beauty of decay and her children the children o f decay . She shrank with all her soul from this dreary prospect and shuddered to think o f a husband who , millennium after millennium , would glare at her by day , neglect her at night and return to see her beauteous skin cracked and shrivelled . She told her father and husban d ‘ Vi vak arm an Vi v ak arm at au s Praj apati , O s o vana (born in volcanoes) , I will rather g down under the wat ers at once and nullify your ’ words o f promise to Kasyapa . ‘ Nim an k shy e ham s alil asy a m adhy e . ’ M h h K a stu og as ta e s a asy paya sangirah . It is a noteworthy fact that at the close o f the glacial period the land did sink partially Bhiim i under the waters , the did attempt to drown herself . Verily the living species were not created by evolution under the influence of f . o the distant sun The sun , course , is our mighty grandfather in the sky . Our great father Vi vak arm an o u r in heaven , s , as well as Supreme

Lord Vishnu below are a bit o f his body . 92 From a distance , however , of million miles n he ca n o t create species . He can only main tain life and prolong it indefinitely through progressive decay till a great cataclysm over whelms the species created by his son Visv a b karman who is right below us , of whose ody L 2 RIKS

we are made and whose energy inspires us . The creation of new species is by evolution spelt at definite intervals with an Visva karman raising the earth reduced to a dead level by Kasyapa , bursting over it in mighty storms of lava , inspiring the world of the dead

(Pitris) with new life , and creating the new species o u t o f the o ld. Pitris are his Pitu (food) and out o f that food cooked into S oma and Prish adaj y a he produces the newer races H e 1s o f living beings . the creator of species . There 1s good reason to believe that A ryan man was born round the sacred Man assaro var Lake by the action o f Savitar Lava (Vaisva o n the o f nara) born of Aditi , remnants pre glacial life . In hymn 124 o f the tenth mandala of the

Riks , there is unmistakable proof of the deca o f o dence and depletion Agni , Varuna and S ma ,

- and a re advan ce o f Vritra . ’ abhfi n Nir maya u ty e asura va . Those Asuras lost their skill and Agni shrinks into his Arani (source) powerless o f ri against the irresistible advance V tra . - o f The great snow streams , the daughters mighty Varuna go up to their father and seek his protection from the ade v a ( ungodly) in vader even as oppressed subj ects appeal to f their sovereign . Varuna makes a great e fort , calls upon S oma to rise and they would both ri destroy V tra . ‘ ’ n ir i H an ava Vritram e h S e m a .

He rose even as Mount Erebus erupts , and

RIKS

The greatness of Nah u sh a and Y ayati was therefore carefully kept in the background by h t e Ve dic Rishis . The origin of P u rurav as was in Savitar lava above the Man as sarO var

Lake . ‘ Tvam Agne p u sk aradadhi A tharva nira ’ manthata . ( A th arv a , O Agni , churned you out , - above the l ake . ) Pu ruravas in conjunction with Urv a si n B rih addiva ( the divi e stream f_rom the great heaven) produced Ayu . Urvasi was born o f the snows o f Mitra and Varu n a as a travertine spring and after a stay of fou r years with Pu rfi rav as receded higher and higher u p as springs in travertin e terraces do . Yama and o f Manu were , course , produced by Savitar lava as they were the children o f S aran y u by

Vivasvan the eighth Adi tya . The races o f A ryan man were born o f these three -volcanoes by the action o f Savitar Agni on S o ma and Jaritas or decaying beds o f preglacial and inter P u rfi rav as glacial organic matter . , Yama and f Manu were the ancestors o the human race . The Sukla Y aj u s after describing in detail the - n o f production of king cones , the distillatio pet ro l e u m o f , the processes carving out glens and clearing them o f erratics (dasyus) rocks (rakshas) Vritra and glaciers ( ) , the preparation of the soil fo r o f - agriculture , the raising food crops and n cattle , and the beginni gs of peace and civilisa o f tion under a king , lays down rules conduct drawn from the fatherhood o f god and de clares in the simple downright language of RIKS

‘ h h c Y o sav adit e Pu ru sh a s o sava am . onviction _ y ’ n i n Ad1t a ) (_Yo der lava y I am He This Savitar A ditey a V aisv an ara I have already identified with the essence of basaltic lava which accu m u l ate d in the central cry tallin e s (Brihaddiv a ) when Vishnu took his third step into heaven winged with hydro carbon vapours . This Aditya Surya was the source of mind endowed P u ru rav as 1n m an . Yama and were born the lowest longitudinal valley below the third i heaven of Savitar in the descend ng order , and a bo ve the Viv asvan range , Manu was born in the inferior plateau below Visv a sv an out o f beds o f unmixed sediment . Yama and Manu were first- Pu rurav as the born , being born later of il - Ila an o stream which had its source in Manu . T he Persians who trace their descent from Viv an gh an t and Yima were the children o f S avitar by Yama and their first settlements o n were the Sutlej between Yama and Varuna , between Mount Kailas and the R ak astal Lake . o n the S arasv ati first To the east and _ were the born o f Pu rurav as by Urvasi and in the south o n the Sarayu (Karnali) were the children o f

Manu . The Krishna Y aj u s Samhita gives us an unmistakable clue to the period o f greatest extension o f the ice - sheet when it declares that when A sl e sha (literally all - embracing) was the precessional star , Ahi . or Sarpa was the pre s iding deity . This gives us between 8000 and

B . . 7 000 C as the period o f greatest frigidity . 0 7 00 B . Between and 6000 C . Brihaspati rose in splendour o u t of Aditi and helped the RIKS

Ti h reborn Indra to destroy the serpents . s y a r o Pushya was then the precessional star . Having regard to the commencement o f the week in Aditya and the commencement of the year in Pushya (January) there is inherent probability that o u r ancestors intended to in dicate that Aditya Savitar first created m an when Pushya was th e precessional star com m e n cin g the vernal equinox and year . The Gayatri Maha Mantra 1s a verse of Visvamitra e in adoration of Aditya Savitar . Though ther are greater Savitars (creators) like Twashtar n a at the and apam p , he is Savitar to us men gifted with the mind . I have qualified man by the word aryan as the war o f volcano and ice extended over nearly two - thirds of the northern hemisphere and man might have been produced simultaneo usly o r at short intervals in the o f o f course the conflict , in the Rockies the o f the United States , the Alps Europe , and

Caucasus Range , as well as in the great table f land o Thibet . The Biblical version that the Lord who ‘ rained down brimstone and fire out o f the Lord in Heaven ’ produced Adam in the Eu hrate s p valley , may be true and the Egyptians may have been born similarly and earlier and the question of the inscrutable Sphinx may refer to the origin of man . If the Sphinx is of th e volcanic origin , she carries the answer to query o n her inscrutable face in her own body . I may add that the chronology o f the Ve da dealing with the creation and activity o f Agni

RIKS o f fundamental facts , minute details , and first principles . ‘ Was the world anciently in a more o r less perfect state than it is n o w ? Was it less o r more fitted fo r the habitation of the human race ? and are the changes which it is now undergoing favourable to that race or not ? Is this the earth ’ s prime into which we are o r born ! is it , with all its beauty , only the wreck of Paradise ? ’ ‘ I cannot entangle the reader in the in tri cacy of the inquiries necessary for anything like a satisfactory solution of these questions . to n But , were he e gage in such inquiries , their ' result would be his strong c o n v ic tio n o f the ’ e arth s having been brought from a state in which it was utterly uninhabitable into o n e o f h fitted for man , its having been , w en first n o w inhabitable , more beautiful than it is ! and o f its gradually ten ding to still greater in fe rio rit o f u n fitn e ss y aspect , and for ‘ o n e o f In one sense and only , the idea a continuous order o f things is admissible in so f a r a s the p he n o m e n a which in tro du ce d a n d tho se which a re to te r min a te the e xistin g disp e n sa tio n m a ha ve be e n a n d m a in u tu re be y , y f , n o thin g m o re tha n a giga n tic de ve lop m e n t of «a ge n cie s which a re in co n tin u a l o p e ra tio n a r u n d u We s o f o s . The experience posses vol canio agency is not yet large enough to enable u s to set limits to its force ! and as we see rarity o f subterraneous action generally pro the re m a be a o in te d portioned to violence , y pp , RIKS in the n a tu ra l o rde r o thin s co n vu lsio n s to f g , ta k e la ce a te r ce rta in e o chs o n a sca l e which p f p , the hu m a n ra ce ha s n o t ge t live d lo n g e n o u gh to witn e ss . The soft silver cloud which o n o f writhes innocently the crest Vesuvius , rests there without intermission ! but the fury which lays cities in se phu l chre s o f lava bursts forth only after intervals o f centuries a n d the s til l e rce r in di n a tio n o the re a te r vo lca n o e s fi g f g , which m a ke s ha lf the gl o be vibra te with e a rth q u a k e a n d shri ve l s u p who l e kin gdo m s with l a m e o f f , is recorded only in the dim distances his tory ! so that it is not irrational to admit h that t ere may yet be powers dormant , not

destroyed , beneath the apparently calm o f who se da te o re s t is the surface the earth , f e n du ra n ce o the hu m a n ra ce a n d who se da te f , a i n h o its m o f ct o m u st be t a t f do o . But whether such colossal agencies are indeed in o f o r the existing order things not , still the ff f o r u s o n e . e ective truth , , is and the same The

earth , as a tormented and trembling ball , may have rolled in space fo r myriads o f ages be fo re humanity was formed from its dust ! and as a d evastated ruin it may continue to roll , when all that dust shall again have been mingled with ashes that n ever were warmed by life o r polluted with sin . Bu t for us the intelligible and substantial fact is that the earth has been b o rce s we kn o w n o t o in to a brought , y f f , fo rm fitte d fo r o u r ha bita tio n o n tha t fo rm a ra du a l bu t de stru ctive cha n e is co n tin u a ll g , , g y ta kin la ce a n d the co u rse o tha cha n e g p , f t g RIKS p o in ts cl e a rly to a p e rio d whe n it will n o m o re ’ r we l lin l a be fitte dfo the d g p ce of m e n . ‘ m e It is therefore , not so uch what thes o f l forms the earth actual y are , as what they to are continually becoming , that we have observe n o r is it possible thus to observe them witho u t a n in s tin ctive ref e re n ce to the firs t sta te u t h h ha o of w ich t e y ve be e n bro u ght. The ex istin g torrent has dug its bed a thousand fe et deep . But in what form was the mountain originally raised which gave the torrent its track and power ? The existing precipice is wrought into towers and bastions by the per m p e tu al fall o f its fragments . In what for did it stand before a single fragment fell ? ’ ‘ Yet to such questions , continually suggest n a ing themselves , it is ever possible to give h . t e complete answer For a certain distance , past work o f existing forces can be traced but there gradually the mist gathers , and the foot steps o f m ore gigantic agencies are traceable to in the darkness ! and still , as we endeavour penetrate farther and farther into departed the thu n de r o the A l mi ht o we r so u n ds time , f g y p lo u de r a n d lo u de r ! an d the clouds gather d the broa er and more fearfully , until at last S in a i o f the wo rld is se e n a l to ge the r u p o n a sm o k e a n d the e n ce o its o o t is re a che d , f f f , ’ whi h n o k h c n e ca n bre a thro u g .

RIKS and granite) and has been an unfortunat e source of religious dissension in this distressful country . Narayana is the seat o f Brahman and this Brahman is no doub t hydrogen gas as the heaviest and most deep - seated gabbros as well as meteorites which have the same com position as gabbros are full of this lightest o f all gases , and Narayana literally means the hom e o f Naras o r gases . The Smriti declares that the waters were born o f Naras contained ’ K i in Vishnu s primeval form . In the Gita r sh na says O m ity e k ak sh aram Brahma Vyaharan ’ Mam an u sm aran [Pronouncing the one lettered Brahma ‘ ’ Om and remembering me (its Thi s one lettered word Om must therefore be hydrogen . All the hymns of the Rig Veda ‘ o f the song creation , commence with Om , the root o f the earth Narayana is full o f ’ o f th e hydrogen , the sun s chromosphere is full ’ same gas and Twashtar s fissu rin g power must be chiefly due to hydrogen , the Brahman ( ex an siv e ar e x ce lle n ce p gas) p , and hydrogen pro i n du c e d the waters . Hydrogen was therefore ’ o f all probability the sound Om , the unit weight for the other Brahmans and the first word - god and the Holy Ghost of the New

Testament . The heavens and earth are the first creation of the Old Testament just as the D ava- i u y prithiv , the endless s ccession of ridge o f and furrow, was the first creation out which

s . the gods , heroes and mortals aro e RIKS

The he a ve n - tre e .

In the great hymn 164 of blind Mam ate y a D i r h atam as an d g , the sun in the sky the Aditya V aisvan ara sun are said to embrace the Pi l same tree and this tree is the sweet pp a a .

According to the Katha Vallis the roots o f this . Pipp al a or A sv a th a tree are above and the branches slope down from the root at th e to p . ‘ Urdhv a m ul e ava n sak hah e sh o sv ath ah ’

s an atan a h . In the same hymn o f blind o ld D irgh a tamas , who probably possessed the most powerful intellect with which Agni - Vaisvan ara inspired the human race , it is declared that this tree which the sweet - eating birds enter creating - to the all gods , bears its fruit at the p and that those who do not know the ‘ father ’ have no f D o f . o ava idea it The father is , course , y and the tree is therefore the great mountain range crowned with sweet ice f1 u its which the sun in o n the sky merely gazes , but which the Vai v an ara A s sun penetrates generating the dityas , asu s e e V and Rudras who are the Visv D vas . I once believed that the word B hudh ara ap plied to mountains was wrong , but it is literal ly true that the mountains carry o n their sub o n terranean feet , the contemptible diluvium which we dwell and the central granites not only tower above the plains and hills but actually support them from below . The great central ranges with their innumerable spurs branching down o n all sides are therefore RIKS correctly co mp are dto a Pe e p al tree with its hard

- g ranite root bearing sweet ice fruits at the top .

h - T e C a r fe stiva l .

The car -festival represents the slow flow o f a lava -current in a prepared track above the s ettlements created at the base of a volcano . Utsa va is the sub -aerial flow o f lava o ve rfl o w ing the top o f the cone with attendant thun ~ ders , lightnings and earthq uakes represented in a car - festival by gun -firin g rockets and fire ff o r r works . Each householder o ers S ma e p e sented by cocoanuts to the slow -moving car which stops before each house like Jupiter

Stator for motor power , and is rewarded by fertile ashes (vibhuti) . Prasava is underground flow o f the Mul a Vigrah a raising up new cones at a distance or lodes and veins of mineral wealth . So far as the ‘ Jagat ’ (the world of life) is con e cerned it is comprised in Agni and S ma , the lava furnishing the inorganic constituents of the soil and S e ma the organic humus . The gods supply (isha) agricultural clay which is e m at asvav a t g (containing lime) and (loamy) , b arhis (peat -moss soft as wool) supplies the humus and between lava and peat -moss the o ld Rishis manufactured the food of m an n a n d beast . The ceremonies attendant o birth - h o tra and death , the Agni at home , the car festival in the streets , in fact everything that a n orthodox Brahman does from birth to death is founded o n the analogy and experiences of his a ncient surroundings created by the dynamic

RIKS to penetrate a spring through which pure naphtha (Vipra) is produced o u t of the Rishi de fil e m e n t o f below , it constitutes the a Brah ' man woman by a Kshatriya . A V ipra is a ‘ Vi a chit Vi an p s (flashing with purified life) , p ’ u y (becoming valuable by distillation) , and Brahma n aspati was a mighty stretch o f such o f all k in ds distilled naphtha and Samans , rising through innumerable siliceous and travertine o f Twash ar springs and streams , the Gnas t as u well as the Visv ar p a cow of the Ribhus . O f B rihat Sam these Samans , the an ( benzine series) that supported the sovereign ty o f the gods was predominated in Brahmanaspati , and he therefore called also Brihaspati (the Vin ay ak a of later literature . ) These springs and underground streams are Brihaspati ’ s wife which king S o ma (crude petroleum) de fil e d and diverted from the seat or Brahmanaspati . Brihaspati (whose sources were the primary fissures over which the gods rose) when he was dissociated from the springs and streams that cooled and purified him , developed heat (tapas) and explosive power dangerous to the gods , till his wife was restored to him . A suppressed solitary Rishi sulking in caverns develops dangerous heat and explosive power ! he can shake the earth and destroy creation till he is wedded to springs e - and streams . He is a tap dhana . His wealth is heat and the gods deprived him o f his ‘ tapas ’ by sending beauteous dancing girls of n divine origin , playing fountai s having their d origin in snow . The art of dancing was evolve R I KS o u t o f the graceful play o f iridescent snow streams and springs , which rise and fall , spread and contract , advance and recede with the varying power of the sun , and are frosted ai and prostrated by his neglect . With V sva o f nara Surya or lava as the inspirer the snow , the evolutions were infinitely varied and

supremely fascinating . No wonder the supreme goal o f the lover o f beauty was the great hall of Indra where Vanis and A p sarasas f h danced and sang . The seven Vanis o t e e Rig V da are seven sporting fountains , which rose out o f the seven mouths o f Brihaspati and formed the main source of the Sarasvati o r Brahmaputra . The fountains were charged ’ with Twashtar s S amans embodied in Erihas pati and Sarasvati was therefore the e m b o di ment of song and virility and flowing in a suc cession of pools (saras) with a mixture of melted

snow and naphtha , Agni produced many a mighty volcano like D iv o dasa o n her . The science o f music was evolved from the gaseou s

emanations of petroleum . The flashing burst in g bu bbles Riks and Gib being represented e by the Tambur , the monotonous st mas by s the bagpipe , the Saman by the musical cadence of the Vina and the voice swelling under pres sure ! and the Uk th a (explosions) by the drum accompaniment . Rishis and Brahmans are the great singers as they are o f the essence of petroleum and dancing girls like the Vanis u born of Brahman are sweet singers , tho gh

their power and range are limited . RIKS

f Playing at dice , the primeval form o gam bling , is peculiar to Kshatriyas and represents the progress of Yatu - throwing by a number o f - fis su re cones born of the same cross , which results in the mastery and absorption of the

- brother cones by the conquering cone . The f form o the contending pieces is conical . The two cross -pieces constituting the board are the crossing fissures , the various cones move about to the upthrow of the dice till o n e cone is firmly established in the centre . So in the Riks there is a reference to 34 warriors of whom seven rose from the south , eight from the north , nine in the west and ten in the east who played at dice and o f whom o n e well - fashioned cone o u t o f the ten

- in the east was raised up into the king cone . This probably refers to the birth o f Indra as Vasava as in another place Indra is said to glare all round with his 34 eyes . The Rishis protest with all their soul against multiple cones creat ing confusion and misery by constant stone throws , and advise the minor cones to plough the ground in preference to playing at dice . ‘ Ak sh air ma divya k rishim it krisha dh ’ vam .

A rchite ctu re .

The art o f architecture was evolved by study and imitation o f the works of Visva n karman a dVishnu . In later literature when ever a Bh avan a carved by Visvak arm an is mentioned (n irm itam Visvak arm an a) the reference is to a volcano , and volcanoes and basaltic dykes taught them to build the great monuments of architecture .

RIKS porous rock shoot forth sweet streams of n aph tha . ) In the hymns above referred to they a ppear to have invented drilling with derricks , rigid rods and free fall bits , the bit being crys tallin e granitic quartz of the compact crystal f . o lines These latter , the fathers the boring a u -k she m a Gr va , are laid to stand firm (Dhr va ) c entury after century (yuge yuge ) . The Gra v a (identical with gravel) , is compacted Adri (sandstone) and is said to be tireless and to h s . cratch everyt ing , while it cannot be scratched

The bits prick the mother (earth) , make the Pri

' hivi t reverberate with their noise , discover the e o Madhu , taste the S ma before the H ta (lava) , ’ e - require no food , treat Indra s S ma distilling - o f steam horses with contempt , raise a shout j oy when the A dhavra is expressed (when the o il - stone is reached) by the process o f pricking and pinching the mother like playful children , and return to the surface after performing their great work o f tapping the deep - seated stores of D r h n petroleum . I am n o t sure if by u g a a in Mu d alan i 100 the g hymn (Mandala X , Hymn ) the Rishis refer to the sand pump , though there can be no doubt that in hymns 7 6 and 94 o f the same mandala they refer to drilling - bits with which they bored fo r and found under ground stores of petroleum below platforms in which it was intended to invite H o tar Agn i and Indra , the lucky but unselfish and bene fice n t Grave s enj oying the deep - seated Havis even before the H o ta (H o tu schit p u rve havir ad am an a u h y s ) , though they consumed no RIKS drop o f the divine food which they discover a n d munch (na minanti bap satah) . The distino tion between Up abdi (subterranean sounds) debris when boring through rock and , and the A dhivak (shouting up) when the final to u gh b it o f rock is broken through and the soft S e ma o r stone sand is reached , should be carefully noted . luk U a a n d K ap e ta . Uluka and Kap o ta are the two messengers

o f o f . Yama , death , ruin and subsidence When the Uluka screeches and the Kap o ta sits above fire - di sin te the place , these are signs of the ’ gratio n of a volcano s frame and the forerun ners o f its dissolution . They are also signs o f approaching death to man fashioned after a

l . volcan o . The Uluka is the o w Shakespeare has it ‘ And the scritch - owl scritching loud Puts the wretch that lies in woe ’ In remembrance o f a shroud . ‘ ’ What is the Kap o ta ? A great injustice

has been done to the innocent beauteous dove , o f K o the bird love by identifying it with ap ta ,

o f . K o the messenger death Of course , ap ta is

- the hoot o wl . The dove is the Paravata (Pari vala in Kanarese an d Para in Tamil) and not K o Go o b a K ap ta , which is the y of anarese and f K o tt an o Tamil . This was brought home to n me when , in a swer to a plea of interruption t o f adverse possession , it was explained that the house in dispute was temporarily vacated as

.a o o b a G y sat over the chimney . It is hardly RIKS needful to add that the hoot -o wl is of the same genus as the screech - owl and even more fright ful in appearance and is therefore fitly associ o f ated with the latter as a messenger death . When these birds find warm hollows in a m art a y cone , it is a sign that the cone is weakening , that its frail sides are breaking up and that it begins to stink o f sulphuretted! hydrogen an d mephitic vapours like the foul dying breath of a decayed human being .

K a shmir lle The Va y . In the great work of Kalhana called3 R a ataran in i j g , Kashmir is said to have been formed o u t of a great lake known as Sati saras which was once occupied by a water born monster (Jal o dbh ava) and that Kasyapa e with the help of Brahma , Vishnu and Mah n dra destroyed the monster and carved the lake into the Kashmir mandala . This shows that the great Kalhana had an accurate conception . o f the great outstandin g facts o f the Rig Ve da

K alidasa a n d His Him ala a n H u n te rs y .

Ku m arasam bhava In his immortal , Kalidasa , o f the greatest later poets , when describing the Himalayan range stretching like earth ’ s ’ o wn ro d . measuring from sea to sea , asserts that it is the home o f mighty hunters who track elephant - killing lions by the pearls dropped i from the hollows of the r nails , though the trail o f blood-marks is wiped o u t by the melting of the snow and lost . The sapient ,

RIKS

S u re . This word representing alcohol occurs o nly in o n e hymn o f the first and tenth mandalas (Hymns 166 The Asvins or Nasaty as manufactured methyl alcohol for Indra when he u Nam u c hi fo ght , which filled the pass leading from Aditi to the manava region through the n Vivasva range south o f the Man assaro var lake . The Asvins normally erupted hot water o r rose in mighty sky - piercing colum ns o f pure s team which first iridised the rays o f the sun long before he rose and this iridescence I have already identified with Surya , the daughter of the sun . The Asvins sometimes erupted s o f m u d l treams , but chiefly they whee ed round l o f - the s opes the heavens , and mid region , warming and melting everything their vapour o u s u e o u t columns to ched , and distilling S ma n o f shales and sandstones . Their undergrou d activity was supremely b e n e fice n t . They are n o w represented by the h o t springs in the ridge between the two shrunken lakes below th e Kailas . They raised up many a submerged

Rishi , distilled many beds of coal and to p etroleum , gave rise multitudinous mineral springs , hot , lukewarm and cold , charged with borax and other medicinal salts and distilled numerous varieties o f naphtha and were thus famous doctors of medicine . They sometimes p roduced poisonous mephitic vapours and destroyed the fish in the lakes . ‘ ’ Jatam vishv acho ah atam v ishe n a . R I KS

’ Jatam is genus . These Asvins were the c hief friends of Indra in his days of mild and regular activity when the two steam steeds of

the Ribhus dragged his car . They distilled methylated S pirits o u t of the pinewood engulfed by Nam u c hi and this s u re was even more helpful to Indra than S e ma fo r destructive work on erratics and moraines . With the f o help o sure. and S ma Indra penetrated the neve beds feeding Nam u chi and raised such a s well o f boiling foam that the head o f the Nam u chi glacier clean turned round and Na n o t di muchi , who till then could be slodged D e v a an a from the y pass , was destroyed once

for all . Sura is dealt with in detail in the Y a u s Sukla j , but I will quote only one mantra from the Vaj asan e y a samhita in proof of its

identity , position and nature . ‘ Nana hi vam D e v ahitam sadah k ritam Ma sam srik sh ath am param e vy Om an i Sura tv am asi su shm in i S e ma e sh a ’ Ma ma him sih svam y e n im av isan ti. The Rishis h ad experience o f the terrific explosive power of a mixture o f alcohol and pet ro l e um and addressing them they prayed : ‘ D ifl e re n tly have seats placed in Gods been ’ f r m ade o y o u . Don t commingle in the deep Y subterranean fissures . o u are the very ener

e . g etic sura , and this is S ma Do not injure ’ n by entering your o w source . ’ o f T ht ar S ma is the source o sura . was s e u to o S ma prod ced sura , , in contact with water i i ru and organic sed ments . The great V sv a pa RIKS

o f a erupted sura by one his three mouths . It w s because Indra and the eastern gods absorbed fiery sura they were known as suras in the later literature of the Brahmans . The manufacture of intoxicating spirits as part o f their ritual probably led to the Sukla Y aj u s Brahmans of the Madhy an din iy a branch to be regarded as Pariahs at midday time when they distilled e sura with viscous S ma for Indra , to whom the A s midday distillation is solely appropriated . o f b e n e fice n t Indra , the embodiment and vic to rio u s sovereignty became paroxysmal and destructive under the influence of sura and e l m S ma , a cohol and petroleu were prohibited to kings as the addition of intoxicating spirits to the intoxication o f power and position spelt a fierce explosive oppressor to the subj ects . The wise o ld Brahmans o f the A itare y a Brah mana substituted fo r inflammatory S o ma an d its worse derivative alcohol , a mixture of the virile juices of the fruits and aerial roots o f the A swath a N a ro dha Udu m b ara Pl ak sh a , y g , and as the invigorating draught preliminary to his ascent o f the throne corresponding to ’ Twashtar s S o ma which first raised Indra to t s the o p o f his brilliant cone . These tree belong to the genus Ficus and are respectively the species known as Religiosa , Benghalensis , ’

. Pe ar s Glomerata , and Infectoria In y North Pole expedi tion petroleum formed o n e o f the items o f the daily dietary of the brave party led by the great explorer through the Arctic ice .

RIKS

‘

f . O King , your intellect , like that o a Sro triy a Brahman who does not know what is feasible and what is not , stifled by an unbroken o f chain constant recitation , does not see the f ’ inner truth o things .

With all this , even Sudra kings like Magadi Ke m e o wda o f p g , the famous founder Banga b e n e fice n t to ro tri as lore , were as S y as the blue blooded Kshatriyas . The Brahmans and learned Kshatriyas knew they could n o t understand the mantras . They did not pretend t o understand the Riks and did n o t establish schools in o f e which the meaning the V das was taught . Why then did they lavish so much care and motherly love on these Samhitas ? It was not solely because it was a record o f the origin of the human race . Not merely because it was a record of the mighty struggle o f stu p e n do u s forces by which our ancestors were confronted which they had to face , study , o f combat and regulate on pain extinction , individual and racial . It was because they knew that when the twenty - seven precessional stars went their round , when they completed -five m ille n iu m s their cycle of over twenty , when A sl e sh a once again commenced the vernal equinox , the serpents will once more coil round the mountains and invade the plains , and once more Kasyapa Prajapati will be impotent and Visvak arm an o r Agni Praja pati will supersede him and take out o f his e n feebled hands the regulation o f the seasons an d e the propagation o f the S pecies . An accurat RIKS record o f the history of the glacial period and of the y agn am s which prepared the crust for human habitation and enabled the human sin e u a n o n species to survive , was a q of the l o f o f future surviva the human race , the o f divine mind of man , the light lights which

roamed through eternity and immensity . The difficulty o f interpreting the Riks is twofold !

' 0n e inherent in the Riks themselves and the other in modern man and his inherited pre o n e j udices . The Rishis had only language to draw upon when they were threatened and

confounded by novel and dreadful phenomena . They had j ust begun to develop the elements of civilisation and social order in Yama and

. n o r Manu They had neither time , leisure facilities to invent a new technology of strange words like the modern scientist whose j argon is a babel o f more tongues than B abylon k new , and they threw their experiences into hymns drawing upon their normal domestic and natural surroundin gs and feelings fo r ap pro priate analogies in the hope that when next

the great danger threatened , their distant -o ff posterity , their far children would realise o n descriptions based the universal needs , sur

roundings and feelings of the human race . ‘ ’ Thus asva horse is used for horse power as ’ ’ - it is to day . Go and D he n u are used for anything that has to be milked o r swells and oozes at intervals like the udder o f a co w ! for e e cows , snows , n v , viscous and crude petroleum , fo r s for lime in soils , and springs and stream RIKS

o f all kinds which overflow and subside ‘ ’ at intervals . Asva is light liquid petroleum

as well as horse power , generally , and is also h fertilising silt , w ile Arvat or race horse is a «c ataractin g river with its burden of mountain ‘ ’ ir A rv adbh a. s ilt . vaj am sanit I have al

ready interpreted the wolf spread by Gods , the o f bitch Sarama that went in advance Indra , h o f t e . dogs born this bitch , the goats drawing Pfi sh an - , and the one footed goat which is the

- neck o f the ice serpent . The later Puranas

followed the Ve das faithfully . Vish n u was D e m o dara as he sent forth ropy lava which ‘ ’ Am erican Geology calls Pahoehoe o u t o f his abdomen exactly similar to the intestinal con!

volutions . Vishnu was Padmanabha as the great nummulitic beds o f Brahman under the Eocene seas emerged and gathered round his navel like a white lotus before they hardened

into the miocene fish . This period of his sleep in the endless waters is the Padma Kalpa which preceded the Varab a and Vishnu i s

then Ananta Padmanabha . The first difficulty in interpreting the Riks is therefore due to poverty of language and the user it invol ved o f words with a familiar meaning fo r more

than one unfamiliar object . The other dith c ulty is incidental to the change in human o f e surroundings , the environment the V dic Rishis being so different from that o f their suc r c e sso s . This difficulty is therefore common to modern scholars as well as compara t ive ly ancient scholars who flourished after the

RIKS

cutting , wounding and mangling , of seas reced o f ing and overflowing in quick succession , dr th earthquakes and gaping fissures , ove e earth and the human race She bore to Visy a fi ’ k arman mad , and when nally by Vishnu s m ight and grace Visv ak arm an withdrew into his lair and Kasyapa was firmly established as o f a o f the Lord Creation , a great p eon thank m fo r fulness arose , the addened men prayed peace and comfort (S vasti and se v adhi) and their song was as the song of the lotus - eaters of Tennyson . They recoiled in terror and dl s o f gust from the latest exhibitions the Lord , e forgot the glaciers , volcanoes and explosiv S o ma as an ugly dream an d hailed the sun an d his rain - cloud as the new gods of light and k rm n . Vi v a a a his life s was a mighty poet , creations were mighty and magnificent , his wars were o n a stupendous scale and his metamorphoses were sudden , striking , and hi splendid . Kasyapa too is a poet with s S l pretty carvings , ow transformations and petty wars amid general peace . The great poet s who dealt with the tectonic go d and the wars o f and fortunes his powerful brood , poets like i Homer , Virgil , Dante , Milton , Valm ki and Kalidasa are necessarily the greatest poets of i k rm an i . V va a all time s insp red the energy . o u r physical and mental , of ancestors which ’ decays under Kasyapa s rule even as the earth which Agni lifted up and carved in relief into many a figure strange , sweet and of unspeakable power and beauty , gets degraded day by day RIKS

- and decays under the pin pricks of the sun . The Samhitas and supplemental Brahmanas were preserved to prevent the extinction of the human type when next Visvak arm an create s new species out o f the coming confusion and - o f hotch potch , out the existing species over whelmed by glaciers and glacial debris . CHAPTER XIV

THE H MA MI IT ORI I U G . N ND, S N

HAVE I alr_eady stated that man was born o f Savitar Aditya lava , that this lava was the essence o f Vishnu in the central crystallines deposited by his third Vik ram a in the highest heaven . Man was made in the image of a volcano (god) and o f the Brahmanda (the globu lar earth) . At the surface of th e earth the ’ energy o f the lava which is pure chaitanya (living intellect) deteriorates into and develops heat , light , electricity and mechanical force as o f well as forms matter known as liquid , solid and gaseous (Rita , Satya and Brahman) . This is what is meant by ‘ D e v an am Pratham e yuge asatas sadaj a

During the first generation o f the gods the f n n - material was born o the o material . This is the becoming o u t of nothing of the Maoris . The b forms , qualities and energies exhi ited by the lava on the surface cannot be predicated o f the deep - seated magma under stupendous pressure ’ below the earth s crust . In the centre o f the human head is the intellect . In the centre of the highest crystalline mountains was Savitar lava instinct with intellect representin g the c o n vo l u

RIKS s ensory forms and created man in His o wn ’ image , man looks without for the truth , though the true self is within and can be k nown o nly by introspection . The source o f the earth o n is not the crust , but within the crust , com m e n cin g in the interior of the top of the crust

a s . Savitar lava The Upanishads deal , as their ‘ n ame literally means , with what is seated under within . The great Upanishad has it Paranchi khani vy atrin at sv ay am bhuh Tasmat paran p asy ati n an taratm an Kaschiddhirab praty agatm an am aichch at ’ ri h k h m ri Av tta c a s u r a tatvam ichchan . (The self-born bored holes away from the centre and hence one looks outwardly and not within himself ! some strong soul desirin g im m ortality and turning his eye into himself longed for the inner self . ) ‘ e Kham is literally a ho l . As the Athar van a has it Kas sapta khani vitatarda Sirshan i ’

Kar avim au n asik e chak sha i m u k ham . n , n (Who bored these seven holes in the ? head the ears , the noses , eyes and mouth ) The who of course is Praj apati who is Agni

Praj apati and not Kasyapa Praj apati . The

Hebrew Prophets , the ancient Greeks and the Hindu Rishis and Munis learnt by experience that the energy of the Lord , of Apollo and of Vishnu within a short distance of the brilliant surface which has a temperature of 2500° was chaitanya or intellectual energy and that proximity to Vishnu , the Lord and Apollo who RI KS degenerate into inferior forms of m atter and e nergy at the surface inspired the human mind o f with a knowledge the past , present and f i uture . Moses again and aga n impresses on his contumacious followers the great miracle o f his inspiration by the Living Lord on Mount Sinai ! the Greeks had absolute faith in the O racle at Delphi , under which was the eternal golden Fire of Apollo ! Vishnu in all ages in s Mark an de a pired the Hindu seers and y , the

- beauteous , eternal and ever young Muni , a sserted as a matter o f fact that the great Narayana under the Eocene seas who glowed like the sun out of the top -leaf of the su b aq u e o u s nummu litic banyan tree was no other th an ’ - Yu dhishthira s dark blue cousin Krish n a . Of t he living forms of Vishnu , the pure blue basalt was nearest the central Vishnu . Balakrishna

‘ s an d parkled , coruscated , dazzled with chai tanya and m addened with intellectual ecstasy a n d expansive individuality (Love) the world o f life blessed by his s al e k ya and say uj y a K ( proximity and contact ) ! youthful rishna , o f o u t more worldly and less purity , gave the i K immortal G ta ! while , omniform rishna after c lose association in the Maha Bharata war with Trachyte Arj una and inferior magmas had but a faint perception of the eternal truth of things and declares his decadence to Arj una An i before chanting the inferior ug ta . Chry s o litic Rama after the war with Ravana forgot his identity with Vishnu and believed he was an i u f D r h ndivid al entity sprung o asa at a . As RIKS

d L o rd A o ll o already remarke , the , p , and Krishna were in all probability contemporaries . So long as the Living Lord gratified the mind , heart , and senses o f man there was n o need fo r fi l symbols o f the Lord . But whent the Lord na ly o u t disappeared under the earth , man sought and cherished his representatives especially specimens o f those lasting deep - seated plutonic forms which best typified his might and b e n e fi cence and o f which the mighty floods of lava were but the sweat and vesiculated overflow .

o f . This is the origin stone worship Narayana , Varab a and Nrisim ha are the chief Vishnu ‘ ’ S stones . The word Murti is added to how that they are m aterial forms o f the ancient Lords ’ f s o Life . Here again Siva disputed Vishnu l supremacy . The o d Rishis knew of Siva only as the firm e s t and most elevated constituent o f Father Heaven through which the gods rose and Vishnu thrust his uplifted foot n ik (Utta a pada) in his Triv ram a . The origin o f the Ganges in the snows o f the central Himalayan granite pierced by intrusive basalt gave rise to the Puranic story o f her birth in the foot of Vish n u as well as in the head of Siva and her entan glement and disappearance in the hoary matted hair o f Siva in the snowy heavens . The later Brahmanas found that this granite , pure and white as the eternal ih snows which clothed it , was plutonic and tru sive o f , a symbol eternal persistence , as well e as steady and irresistibl force . They traced it to the lowest depths of the crust an d saw it

RIKS partly apparent above the soil to a height o f 8 ‘ d inches , and that this block is believe to be a Linga of the sv ay ambhu class pervaded by ’ their own nature by the essence of the deity . The central granites were in Ve dic times the D ava d y , the Father in whom the three kin s o f A V asus volcanoes dityas , Rudras and were born . The Father o f the three kinds of Vol canoes (Tribhu v an a) was recognised as their Lord or Isv ara when the true nature o f granite was discovered by o u r ancestors who migrated from Thibet into the Himalayan valleys . This worship o f representative stones was not m aterialism ! it was a help to human memory to remember and realise the great works the Lord had wrought in the far -o ff ages for the o f o n p rogress life earth , a progress which cul m in ate d in the implanting o f His own Divine mind in the frail human frame . Such worship w as co nsistent with and part of the highest ur idealism . O ancestors knew that the mind ‘ ’ - w as D aivam (go d born) . They knew that in his previous creations the Lord did not in s pire any living species with his inner mental e nergy . They knew that the mind was ‘ ’ Yad apfirvam y ak sham antah praj an am ‘ the new (previously unknown) burner within c reated beings , and that it was the light of lights (Jyo tisham jy o tih) that for the first t ime animated organ i c matter in the glacial period . Introspection and identification of S the individual Purusha , the Divine park in m an Pu ru sh o ttam a , with or the Supreme RIKS p ersonality of Vishnu who creates the living world and flows through creation till it is ah s orbed in his undifferentiated self has been the s u mm u m bo n u m of human existence as de c l are d with endless iteration from begi nning to e n d Th of Brahmanical literature . e worship o f stones is therefore a help to the recognition and recollection by grateful man of the mighty o f be lo w works the Lord , which prepared the e arth for his habitation and enj oym ent . This c hapter is part of my answer to my so n Thyaga raj an who bears the name and inherits the intelligence and sen se of duty of my late revered ‘ father and who asked me What is all this , ? father If lava , which , after all , is stone , is ’ e ? verything , what about mind and morality In the next chapter I will deal with morals a n d close the book . CHAPTER XV .

THE OMMA ME T C ND N S .

THE Riks describe the destruction of the great glaciers by the heavenly volcanoes , chiefly o f n th e Indra , the birth and forms Ag i in

- heaven , mid region and the snows , the descent o f Agni into the Prithivi o r longitudinal o f valleys , and the formation great earth born heroes round whom habitable horizons were created by destroying minor glaciers , sup pressing and breaking up moraines and erra tics , and battering down rocks and darkening

- rock walls . When by Apri (propitiatory) work and the resultant favour o f Agn i and the great gods , a great cone was firmly established amid peat -moss with subsidiary cones and naphtha V i ras reservoirs and vents (suris and p ) , then commenced the detailed work of preparing the fo r o f valley the propagation human , animal f in r and vegetable life . In a region o te m in able ups and downs , of endless ridges and fur -debris o f rows , of solid rock and rock all kinds , o f angular , rounded and slaty , in a wilderness o f erratics and stones , the creation level stretches and soil was a task beyond human Y u s an e a powers . The Sukla aj s is the Vaj a y Samhita o r the collection o f hymns dealing f a asan i with the growth o soil . V j is literally

RIKS

a n a th e earth . The object of y g is declared in very begin ning of the Sukla Y aj u s to be the ch a e d production o f Isha and Urj a . Water xg e o r - with S ma the essence of peat moss is Urja , while Isha is agricultural clay fertilised

(Vaj av at) by Go (lime) or Asva (felspathic silt) . GOp ati is the king - cone presiding over S o ma and the Go tra - Rishi is the cellular reservoir in which filtered S e ma is accumulated below o f the cone . The iridescent bubbles hydro carbon gas forming and bursting o n the sur face o f the cellular reservoir are aptly com pared to bees o n a honeycomb by the great

Kak shiv an born o f Dirgh atam as . When a y aj am an a (king-cone) animated by H o tar Agni is firmly established round Brahmans wh o feed m his fire with bitu en of all kinds , when with d the help of the gods chiefly In ra Mitra , V o r aruna and the Asvins , he has suppressed a am is subordinated other cones , jamis and j

(born of the same fissure or other fissures) , when he has cleared the valley o f rocks and debris glacial , the enemies of life , then com m e n ce s o f the growth soil , vegetation and Y animal life . In the Sukla aj u s the seasons are associated with Agni and not with the sun . The Ritus were produced by Agni ’ s volcanic e an ta l e sh o S i s heat (Agn r ss ) , and all the Agni between the heaven and earth are invoked to work harmoniously and establish the various seasons in their proper order . The six seasons mentioned in the Sukla - Y aj u s are the seasons e n the of Agni , and the H ma ta and Saisira ( RIKS seasons o f falling snow and chill frost ) are treat

ed as o n e season corresponding to winter . When the Saisira came and the sun went to down his lowest level , when many a glim

mering dawn never brightened into day , then was the need for V aisvan ara S fi ry a in the highest heaven to light the valleys below ,

and for special descents of Indra . Agni and

Brihaspati , to enable our ancestors to tide over

the winter , to melt the frozen waters and keep f up breath and motion in the world o life . The sixteenth chapter o f the Vaj asan ey a is appro p riate ly dedicated to the might o f Rudra and - a his all perv ding , omniform sons immediately o f following as it does the arrival the winter . All the characteristics o f Rudr a and his snow

children falling , fallen , hardened , compacted

and consolidated , moving and stationary , are detailed with a wealth o f detail which can b e realised only by a dweller in the Himalayan

heights . It goes without saying that S e m a o f was the great necessity life , and the Arctic explorer Peary had to include petroleum as well as alcohol ( S e ma and Sura) in the daily rations allotted to the members o f his latest Y expedition to the Pole . In the aj u s the dis tillatio n o f o an d , natural and artificial , S ma , the production o f its innumerable varieties out o f the raw mother cows are detailed with

bewildering circum stantiality . Distilled S e ma ‘ ’ i s D ak shin a n i o r g presentation Fire , the Ah avam y a being the lava o f the divine ’ volcanoes to be invoked and invited to come RIKS d Garh a at a own to help the yagua , and the p y , the small dome o f viscous lava round which the householder settled . V aisv an ara Agni is also the naphtha distilled in the A ditya cones o u t o f Savitar lava and is identical in substance ’ with Twashtar s Soma manufactured in the primary fissures by condensation o f flashing f bubbles (Riks) o methane and acetylene . S e ma is necessarily the king o f the Brahmans as Vipras are petroleum purified by distillation and the latter feed , purify and regulate the ’ king s b e n e fice n t activity as m an i shis . The - o f king cone is the king the Visas , the surface s oil and sub - soil he produces and fertilises -fl o ws with his ashes , mud and crumbling lava

flows . The agriculturist is the Vaisya and ’ not the trader who is a V an ik . When Agni s seasons became regular and they were able to o f a ricu l distil and lay up stores petroleum , g

- ture , cattle rearing and permanent settlements f . o r followed Arithmetic was , course , the fi st of sciences when a sense o f permanence and proprietary right arose . The raising of numer o u s o f l varieties grains and pulses , catt e , sheep and goats follows and in the XVIII Chapter are described the sources and elements o f settled life and civilisation . The maintenance o f a volcano in healthy condition chiefly by the o f o f aid the Asvins , the death a great king o f o u t o f cone , the production new volcanoes o f decaying ones , the wars volcano with volcano and the rearing of an imperial volcano by Asva

’ m dha follow . The Asva is a subterranean

’ m ah odara disease (drop sy) which was Varun a s j udgment o n short S ighted men for destroying his horse Soma and engu lfing his fertile base h D ru h a with barren treac erous sands ( s) .

Dropsy is the punishment fo r Dre ha . The Parthiva ‘ Emperor thus raisedand established by horse - sacrifice is crowned by the Brahmans and acclaimed by his subj ects . He surveys his kingdom from his imperial throne and pro claims I will look upon all my subj ects with friendly eyes . Let all my subjects look upon ’ a me with friendly eyes . The Brahman s pray Let this king rule long with the help o f the a r gods and Brahmans . Let a gre t wa rior be

! n born of him . May peace a d plenty reign h ’ over is kingdom . Then come the chapters in praise of the Lord as the subterran ean Purusha who raises the earth and rises through the globe encircling it with a belt of volcanic a Vi vak arm an he ds , eyes , and feet , as s , the r a chitect of high crested volcanoes , as Hiran a arbh a a o f o y g and Praj pati , the Lord Creati n , o f and as the sheen the Brahman , the vivifying source of organic species . The work of th e w S u m central Agni , the unkno n , is then m arised in three simple sublime and sono rous verses th e twe l ve th eighth , the eleventh and verses of the 33rd A dhy ay a :

‘ ! Ve nas tat p asy an n ihitam guha sad yatra vi vam bh avat k a . s y e nidam Tasm in n idam sancha vichaiti sarvam sa ’ otah pro taSch a vibh u h praj asu (Ve na saw that lowest cave where all existen ce is gathered into o n e nest. In Him o f A ll this All is absorbed , out Him this is ff ff di erentiated . He that di erentiates Himself

- is woven and cross woven into all born beings . ) e K e the V na , ama , or Desire I hav explained is ’ first-born of Vishnu s essence born of the con tact o f waters with the metallic carbides of his deepest seated magma . ‘ Par1ty a Bhutani p ari ty a l o kan p ari tya sarvab p radiso di sascha u p as thay a pratham a j am ritasy a atm an atm an am abhisam vivesaf . [Passing round the underground worlds n of the past , rou d the visible horizons in all t first direc ions , taking his station below the o f born Rita , with His (living) body He pene trate d (and vivifie d) His (dead) body . ] The first born of Rita i s the continental plateau which first rose out of the waters . This the Lord threw into tempest - tossed seas o f heavens an d earths . Pari Dy av a Prithivi Sadya itv a pari n s a pari disah pa ri svab . Ritasy a tantum vitatam v ichrity a tada i ’ pasy attadabh av at tadas t . (Wheeling rapidly round the heavens di and earths , round the horizons , rections and o u t - surface of the land , and opening the tan gled threads of Life , It saw , It became and It was . ) This represents the parallel flows along the strike o f the primary ranges and valleys and the cross flows over the face of the land . The tangled threads or lines o f life are the

- great primary fissure s or Janis . This being so , as the Lord created and widened out the lines of life and vivifie d His dead and crumbled bones with His living . body , as He interpenetrated the world of life with His energy and inspired the human frame with r Hi spa ks of s Divine mind , the very first verses f the . o b o of first Upanishads , the only Sam it an ishad p lays down , for observance in all the ages to come by man created in His image and endowed with His mind , the following two commandments : Isav asyam idam sarvam yat kincha jaga tyam j agat .

' Tena ty ak te n a bhu n j ithah ma gridh ah k asy a svid dhan am . Ku rvan n e v e ha karmani j ij ivishe t satam samah . E y am tvayi n an yathe to sti na k armm a ’ lipy ate nare . All that lives in this living world is the

Home of the Lord . Therefore enjoy (what is ‘ ’ your own) giving up (what does . not belong ’ ’ to you) Covet not anybody s wealth . That is the rule of conduct as between m an and man . Enjoy the fruits of your works and covet not the fruits of your brother’ s labour as the Lord is the common Father o f both . The second commandment is an absolute injunction against laziness and indifference to

Life . It is as follows Here in this world do in g wo rks you must wish to live a hundred years . This is the way n an d there is none besides . Acti g thus , your ’ actions will not soil your soul . prayer that o u r minds should always wish good and happiness to the living sons o f the Lord who gave us life and lives in all the

. Va asan e a world of life The j y ends . with the assurance o f the Rishi born o f the conviction ‘ o f practical realisation Yonder Purusha in ’

A I. ditya , He is The Jews and the Brahmans alike believed that the Lord to whom dread e o f noughts , a roplanes and engine s human war o n fashioned His weapons are as nothing , who reveals only an infinitesimal portion o f His w ho u power in the great volcanoes , can dry p o r the sea make it fly like a whipped cur , who ” can shake , shear and unsettle this crust from h pole to pole , they believed that this Almig ty Lord took count o f the good and evil that His children over the earth did and that He meted o u t destruction o r b e n e fice n ce on the day of His j udgment when He chose in His own time n to pronounce it . All the wealth and life o this globe is His and He expects us , His chil d o f dren , specially favoure with a spark His

Divinity , to observe His injunctions to work , to eat and enj oy without coveting the goods of o u r brethren , and to return to Him as pure as when He inspired us with mind and life o u t Through the earth , which is His body and

” o u r of which bodies were fashioned , He works

His miracles , rewards and punishments . The sins o f the fathers are visited on their childe rn because ‘ Prajam anu praj asy ase tatte m a rtyam ri 3 ! tam . RIKS

‘ Y o u are successively born in your m children . That , O mortal , is your im ortal ’ o f ity . This immortality is , course , not the immortality o f the Divine Purusha . I will end this chapter with the great prayer o f the Y aj u s which is appro priatly prefixed and ffi o f a xed to the sweetest the later Upanishads , the soul - soothing Ka th av allis which wind like lovely bright -fl o we re d creepers round the Isavasy a tree and in which the transmigration o f the e go is first taught by the great and dread guardian of the gates o f death . Saha n av av atu Saha nau bhun ak tu Saha Viry am k aravav ah ai Te j asvin av adhitam astu

Ma Vidvishavahai. ’ i n Om San t ssa tissan tih . ‘ Let Him protect us both . Let Him

feed us both . We will both energise har

m o n io u sly . May our studies brighten o u r in lli t e e n ce . g We shall never hate each other . ’ Om Peace , Peace , Peace . It is my fervent prayer to the Lord below that this prayer o f prayers based o n His c o m m an dm e n ts may be the prayer o f the human

race , whenever and wherever man meets man and that when He rises as Kalki in the near future He may look o n His human children with kindly and merciful eyes and deal o u t b e n e fice n ce n o t and destruction .