The Rig Veda: An Anthology

Another important theme in the Rig Veda is the power of the word, particularly as embodied in sacred speech. In traditional oral cultures, the spoken word is the medium of communal and sacred knowledge. The Rig Veda emphasizes the verbal elements of ritual—its hymns acquire authority because they embody divinely inspired truth in uttered or chanted language. Speech is deified as a goddess in Hymn 10.125; as the power of incarnate truth, speech is identified with the gods and the ultimate creator; she extends throughout the world sustaining all creatures. Brihaspati, the lord of sacred speech and patron of poets, presides over speech, the material embodiment of truth (rta). In Hymn 10.71, the ancestral sages’ first uttered words name the objects of the universe and their interrelations according to their essential nature. Names express the true essence of the things named, and the invocation of a god by his name has the power to make the god manifest. The fabric of society and social relationships also originates in speech’s embodiment of truth: “When the wise ones fashioned speech with their thought […] then friends recognized their friendships. A good sign was placed on their speech” (61). The medium of social cohesion, speech mediates between mankind and the gods through sacred poetry composed and recited by priests. Such poetry, divinely inspired by Soma and other gods, has transformative power. The myth of Indra’s finding and liberating the cows in the Vala cave exemplifies the potency of sacred speech; he performs the feat by song, not physical might.

The poet-seers who compose and recite the hymns of the Rig Veda claim descent from ancestors who divined their knowledge of the gods and the origins of the universe through sacred inspiration. In Hymn 10.130, the first poets learn the forms and meters of praise-poetry from the gods, who sang sacred hymns as they wove the primal sacrifice of creation. This esoteric knowledge passes to later poets, who inherit the reins of the divine chariot Poetry from their predecessors. The poet imagines the original sacrifice, authoritatively laying claim to that knowledge and its poetic form(s).

As the intelligentsia of Vedic society, poet-priests are necessarily masters of knowledge and language. The divine truths they express are often obscure or paradoxical, resulting in the cryptic, evocative quality of much Vedic poetry. The highly figurative language of many hymns reveals the hidden connections linking the ritual, cosmic, and everyday realms. In poems such as “The Riddle of the Sacrifice” (1.164), speech has a mantic, enigmatic quality that exercises power through obscure, oracular pronouncements, cryptic images, and strange juxtapositions. The creativity of the poet-seer involves discovering hidden names and revealing obscure connections that lay bare the underlying axis of reality. In other poems, such as the hymn to Night (10.127), the author manipulates language to achieve a delicate lyricism and lucidity. In ritual, speaking the truth about the past deeds of the gods and the mysteries of creation makes the mythic past live in the present moment, consecrating the ceremony and its participants.

The religion of ancient Vedic society, like contemporary Hinduism, was polytheistic. Most of the hymns in the Rig Veda are dedicated to one or more gods: Indra, Soma, and Agni are the most prominent, followed by the Asvins, Varuna, Mitra, Vayu, and the Maruts. The large Vedic pantheon consists of several classes of deities, categorized (with some overlap) according to their different areas of action. Nature gods such as Earth, Sky, Surya (the sun), Night, and Dawn, personify natural forces or elements. Another class of deities presides over the social and legal affairs of mankind—Mitra, Varuna, and Aryaman (or, the Adityas) are the most prominent representatives of this group. A third class of gods are especially associated with ritual—Soma and Agni, physical substances as well as deities, are the main divinities of this department. A fourth class is particularly associated with fertility, procreation, and well-being—the Asvins and Surya, the sun’s daughter and archetypal bride, belong to this group. Still other gods correlate to specific functions: Tvastr is the divine artisan; Savitr, the impeller who starts and ends the workday; Brhaspati, the lord of speech; and Pusan, the charioteer and god of journeys. While the Rig Veda presents multiple cosmogonies in which several different gods assume the role of creator, the All-Maker and Prajapati are fundamentally creator gods. Aditi and Daksa, the feminine and masculine principles of creation, also fit into the creator group. Indra forms a class by himself due to the multiplicity of roles he plays in Vedic myth: warrior, creator, lover, champion of Soma. Many gods perform deeds that overlap those of other groups. Varuna, for instance, functions as the supreme creator in several hymns, while Tvastr is associated with fertility, shaping embryos in the womb.

The Rig Veda distinguishes between two groups of supernatural beings: the Devas, or gods, and the Asuras, or forces of evil with whom they are in conflict. The Asuras are associated with chaos, darkness, and obstruction; Vrtra, the demon Indra kills to free the waters, is a prime example. Several hymns of the Rig Veda are dedicated to the Devas using the collective term “All-Gods,” a catchall for the entire Vedic pantheon.

The collected hymns of the Rig Veda do not provide a comprehensive theology of the Vedic deities, and the amount of mythological material about individual gods varies greatly. The poems often allude to fragmentary details of otherwise unknown stories, with which the contemporary audience was undoubtedly familiar. Some gods, such as Visnu, feature in only one or two mythic narratives; others, like Indra and the Asvins, are involved in many. In the ritual context, many Vedic hymns invoke single gods, or groups of deities who attend the sacrifice harmoniously as a group. Rudra is the prime exception; envious of the offerings made to other deities, he is worshipped alone and not invited to the Soma sacrifice. A few hymns suggest a rivalry among the cults of specific gods: The Maruts and Indra contend for the sacrifice of Agastya (1.165, 1.170, 1.171), and the curious conversation between Indra, Indrani, and the monkey Vrsakapi (10.86) implies a significant change in how Indra was worshipped during the early Vedic period.